While the story is the focus here, I'm wholly divided by it. Last month I was able to play a segment of the game and was excited to determine how each character played into the mystery and merely what the mystery was. I think that mystery wraps up nicely ultimately – there's nothing I was unclear on because the credits rolled – but I'd felt like I'd seen this story so often before. That's not to state it is a bad story, I enjoyed the journey i had to spend on, but given Supermassive's pedigree, I can't help but feel they'd played it safe. I found beauty within the simplicity of Until Dawn seven years back, but in time since that time, a lot has happened within the genre. Even in the wake of Supermassive's own Dark Pictures games, The Quarry feels almost pedestrian.
The most remarkable part of the Quarry that no other medium can ever accurately reproduce is how choices affect how the story plays out. When i stated earlier, seemingly innocuous products that you use throughout the story may have instant consequences or latent ones later in the game. Deciding to enter a cabin to obtain your belongings early on from pure laziness might imply that same door won't lock later on. Choosing to defend yourself in a fight (instead of run) might call at your character screw up and die or result in a chain of events to obtain another character killed.
The products that you use aren't ever visually documented in ways as easy as games like Detroit: Become Human made it happen, but I'd argue that is because the consequences are so a lot more multi-faceted. A pleasant touch is that, at any point, you are able to pause and browse each one of the “paths” you've chosen. They're styled as old-school VHS horror films, even though they do not demonstrate the road you didn't take, they are doing give some clues as to how all of your choices may have interacted with each other.
There were a lot of moments in The Quarry where I'd have this moment of realisation. This mental backtracking is where I realise how my actions have affected the result I'd come to. None of them ever feel unfair or unwarranted. Still, hindsight is always 20/20, therefore it is perhaps I'm overcompensating for my own biases.
The main collectible within the Quarry is Tarot cards. After each chapter, you'll be able to give them to Eliza. She's a lot of money teller played by Grace Zabriskie, who plays a similar role towards the psychiatrist from Until Dawn or the Curator from Dark Pictures. You can give her a tarot cards on each visit, as well as in exchange, she'll provide you with a short vision of the future. You'll see a little piece of vision play out that'll show you a personality potentially dying inside a future chapter. Of course, armed with this information, you can try to prevent it, although the right way to do this isn't always the most obvious one.
I talked previously about how I felt that The Quarry was playing it a little too safe, and i believe that way, particularly with the quick-time events. They've been grossly oversimplified within the Quarry (compared to Until Dawn and Dark Pictures). Many of them involve either moving the stick in a direction, mashing A, or holding A. There's no mix-up towards the buttons you have to press. Just putting these words to paper, I realise some might prefer that, but it meant that I almost knew what was coming whenever a more tense sequence started playing.
This is really a shame because the accessibility options that The Quarry provides do a congrats at adjusting the knowledge to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy it. The difficulty and timing from the quick-time events along with other facets of the sport could be adjusted to make sure that those people who are naturally slower to react can continue to benefit from the game properly. I can appreciate this move towards accessibility, but at the same time it seems like, as a result, many of the challenge evaporates.
The breadth of multiplayer options returns from previous Supermassive games and, as always, is a welcome addition. Couch co-op is really a blast and enables you to add as many characters as you would like to every player in the room along with you. As i will continue to savor this mode, it seems like each character includes a different quantity of screentime so some players might naturally be left playing less. I'm not sure what the perfect solution is – but even a percentage indicator to point just how much each character appears within the script, or something like that, would do wonders. In my session, I discovered myself selecting two characters who got probably the most runtime, so it felt like I had been playing for most of times.
Other methods to go through the story will also be appreciated. Movie Mode allows players to just watch the storyline engage in as film but choose whether everyone dies or lives. There's another third option here – where one can adjust the person personality of every character and just watch things play out too. This mode is a nice touch for individuals who need to see how things might engage in without investing in a full playthrough, but it would be a lot better if (like a movie) we'd methods to fast-forward it.
Of course, there is an online mode coming too, so if your current situation prevents you from catching up with your mates physically, hold on until that functionality is patched in sometime next month.
So is The Quarry scary? I'm hesitant to let them know. While I derided Little Hope for incessantly throwing jump scares in the player, I adored House of Ashes for its restraint and the way it built tension. The Quarry doesn't really do either – it feels a lot more like a mysterious thriller with a psychotic third act rather than a full-blown horror experience. That said, some incredibly Gorey (and notably tense) sequences play out here, therefore it is not necessarily for that squeamish. Stylistically, I enjoy the way the creatures in this game “appear,” though I won't say much more so they won't hand out. Same with it scary? Not outwardly, however it sure is tense.
As a whole, the entire cast turns in a decent performance. There have been a lot of standouts here that I couldn't possibly list all of them, though my favourite was easily Lin Shaye as Constance. She plays so against type here it felt a shame doing relegated to so little screentime in the big general scheme of things. I get it – this can be a big cast – but so many of the older celebrities especially were pretty much glorified cameos who turned up and then disappeared for a while. Particularly, David Arquette is simply playing a slightly savvier version of Dewey from Scream. However, this can be intentional given that a really similar tune plays when he's on-screen within the Quarry as when he's on-screen in Scream.
It doesn't have to be said either. The Quarry is a stunning game and easily the very best searching from the Supermassive catalogue. So many times, I'd stop and be shocked that I was watching a game rather than a film. Several characters, especially Laura, possess some facial animations that cross the uncanny valley a bit all too often. Still, on the whole, The Quarry is immaculately presented.
