The Quarry Review (PS5)

After Until Dawn, Supermassive Games managed to build up credit with the players. Unfortunately, the Dark Pictures Anthology eroded somewhat this positive perception, so the developers returned to the root of their first success: the 80’s corny horror movies full of jump scares. But just like it is almost impossible for lightning to hit twice the same sport, The Quarry struggles to reproduce the same immersive atmosphere. Read on to find out what ingredient is missing from this teenage, scented summer horror flick.

Being the fifth interactive horror novel, you could say that the developers had time and plenty of opportunity to figure out what movie elements work when it comes to video games. In The Quarry we are facing again a teenage story filled with mystery, suspense, potential victims, monsters, bonfire tales about the occult, a common yet scarry place and personalities that will annoy you to the point that you want to see them shredded to pieces. We also have relatively famous B-listers like Ted Raimi, David Arquette or Lance Henriksen. Yet the overall experience does not feel quite right.

The Quarry follows in the footsteps of Until Dawn, giving us a teenage horror story that switches between the protagonists you will control in a series of scenarios tied together in a predetermined order. You can influence how the story turns out and what paths will our heroes follow, but you cannot influence the order in which the events unfold. Besides the narrative choices you will have to make, the story is moved forward by the already well known QTEs that are supposed to confer dynamism to the game that is otherwise pretty much an interactive visual novel.

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The first problem of the game is that the interactive part is the most neglected from any production released so far by Supermassive Games. The QTEs feel primitive, either very easy or not very well integrated. Moreover, the freedom to explore feels limited compared to Until Dawn, and the stealth sections doesn’t really make you hold your breath. The Quarry feels much more like a movie rather than an adventure game. All the mechanics seem to be there just to determine whether a character survives or not.

Even if the game will not really challenge your neurons or your reflexes, it will definitely try your patience. Some of the narrative choices are unavoidable and no matter how much you explored and found out about the background story some cheap shots are inevitable. This fact is not fixed even by the new Death Rewind feature.

Available after you completed your first complete run, Death Rewind gives you three extra chances to save a character from the most tragic of fates. This demonstrates that the developers focused intentionally on players having to make multiple playthroughs. The problem is that the obtuse scenario does not encourage multiple runs.

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A playthrough of The Quarry lasts roughly 10 hours. The duration does not vary too much since there are no skippable parts throughout the game. You will have to sit through the same dialogues and clumsy choices through each run. After you finished the game chapter select becomes available but in a limited form.

Once you chose a chapter from where you want to restart your adventure you will not be able to do so until you finish your current run. This limitation has a daunting effect on your motivation to try to discover different paths your heroes can take.

Speaking of heroes, although the actors in The Quarry are just as talented as those in Until Dawn, the script does them no favors. Lance Henriksen has no real space to do any acting, while the teenagers seem to embody the most annoying stereotypes you can find in a summer flick.

The best performance and maybe the best written role is the one of a mysterious lady who can show you the future. Based on the tarot cards you can find hidden in every chapter, the character played by Grace Zabriskie can offer you a sneak peek into the challenges you will be faced in the next chapter.

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Beyond the tarot cards the collectibles play an important role in understanding the whole story. The fine details needed to have the whole puzzle figures out are hidden in clues and evidence you can find all around you. They tie in nicely with the narrative, but their discovery can become a pain in the butt.

The game is full of cutscenes that act as mini points of no return. If you trigger them before discovering a collectible, most of the time there is no way to go back to get a collectible. Another cheap decision made to encourage replay value is the fact that the collectibles do not carry over from one playthrough to another and there is no way to check on them from the main menu.   

Graphically the game is a mixed bag of treats. In some occasions it can look very detailed and the facial animation can be exquisite. But the overall experience is ruined by the camera that often fails to focus on the aforementioned faces, the eyelids of the characters that tend to be glued together, the uncanny hair and the unnatural water animations.

These issues are big enough to break the immersion and remind you that you are playing a game and not part of a movie. The voice acting is not spectacular and the soundtrack which kicks in only in some key moments is completely forgettable.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion