The Quarry is considered to be the spiritual successor to 2015s Until Dawn from Supermassive Games, who are also the developers of The Dark Pictures Anthology. If you’re familiar with Supermassive’s format, then you’ll pretty much know what to expect here. Think of The Quarry as an interactive movie with the fate of its nine dumbass teenagers in your hands.

The Quarry takes place on Camp Hackett, and it’s the end of summer camp. You decide the fate of the camp’s nine teenagers that were supposed to be on their way home. However, as fate would have it, they now have to spend one more night at summer camp. Under any other circumstances, this wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately for these teenagers, something terrible is lurking in the shadows and a living nightmare has come to life.

The Quarry has an incredible amount of replayability and during its ten chapters, any number of outcomes are possible depending on the choices that you make. This of course can result in a wide variety of endings. In fact, Supermassive Games claim that The Quarry has an impressive 186 endings. Sure, it’s unlikely that any of us will experience all those outcomes, but it gives you an indication of how much a playthrough can differ from another.

the quarry

Credit: Supermassive Games

Overall, a single playthrough should last around 10 hours, although there are collectibles to find for those that enjoy a treasure hunt. However, unlike other games, discovering these treasures can be to your benefit. Some treasures can offer you clues and the history of Hackett’s Quarry. Others can even be used as evidence that may help the teenagers at the end of the story. If you find Tarot cards, they can give you a glimpse into the future courtesy of a very suspicious fortune teller. So, it’s certainly remaining eagle-eyed in what is a linear game in terms of exploration.

In terms of gameplay, unless you didn’t already know, The Quarry is very QTE heavy. That’s not a knock on the game, after all, it’s by design as with the other titles from Supermassive Games. I would say that The Quarry is a little less QTE-heavy than other games from the developers. The game is also a little more forgiving in terms of how much time you have to react. However, if you want to make the game more challenging, there are a variety of accessibility options at your disposal. So regardless of your skill level or play-style or disability, hopefully, you can find settings that suit your needs.

the quarry

Credit: Supermassive Games

When used right, QTEs can offer an extra layer of immersion. It can pressure you into making a split-second decision that can ultimately change the course of your story. It’s interesting to see how your decisions will play out, perhaps more so knowing that you’ve made a wrong decision. That being said, even decisions that you thought were good, can sometimes come back to bite you in the ass. In my opinion, Supermassive Games is one of the few developers that can get QTEs done right.

Unfortunately, as much as I appreciate Supermassive Games’ implementation of QTEs and immersive storytelling, there are a few issues that have carried over from previous games. For example, it still feels clunk to move the characters about and more often than not, with an instant change of a camera angle, you can sometimes find yourself walking in the wrong direction. This can be even more frustrating when you’ve unintentionally walked into an area that triggers a cut-scene to progress the story with no backsies.

However, if you know what you’re letting yourself into with The Quarry, those issues shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment of the game all that much. Its story may also be a little too much on the slow burn, but in my opinion, which helps to build up tension and character development. Speaking of characters, all the teenagers in The Quarry irritated me in one way or another. I’d say that there was only one character I kind of liked, but they also ended up being the first character I accidentally killed off first.

the quarry

Credit: Supermassive Games

In most other games, having such an unlikeable cast of characters would be a negative. However, in The Quarry, it just makes any gruesome death more enjoyable. The visuals of The Quarry are also some of the best you’ll see in a modern video game. Sure, some facial animations may look a little odd, but overall, this is quite a visually stunning game.

Furthermore, as with previous titles from Supermassive, they’ve brought in some star power. The Quarry features the likes of Lance Henriksen, Justice Smith, David Arquette, and Lin Shaye to name but a few. Whether you love or hate them, each of the characters is portrayed wonderfully by the respective actors.

It’s also worth mentioning that The Quarry features multiplayer modes. In local multiplayer, players can pass the controller to decide the fate of characters while online requires players to vote on decisions. Unfortunately, I was unable to test the online multiplayer at the time of writing this review, due to it being delayed as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The online multiplayer is expected to arrive by July 8th, 2022.

Upon completion of The Quarry, you will also unlock the Movie mode. In this mode, you make a few decisions before you begin and when you’ve decided on a few factors, you can sit back and watch the game like it’s an actual movie. There is also a rewind mode which allows you to save certain characters from death, however, the rewind can only be used three times during a single playthrough.

The Quarry might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the chances are, if you decided to spend your money on this game, you’ll know what you’re letting yourself in for. Despite its flaws, I had an absolute blast during my first playthrough of The Quarry and I can’t wait to jump back in to see how other decisions can alter the fate of its cast of characters. If you’re a fan of classic horror movies where dumb teenagers get killed in gruesome ways, you’ll have an absolute bloodbath of a time with The Quarry.