Day 29 of 31 Days of Halloween
The Quarry marks Supermassive Games' return to the Until Dawn 'choose your own adventure' formula they created in 2015. Coincidentally, this also marks my return to Supermassive's games after my last experience with them being Until Dawn. It's not for lack of interest, as their Dark Pictures anthology is a similar gaming experiment I'm curious to experience, but there's something about their most recent outing that was gripping from first announcement. It certainly helps that like Until Dawn before it, The Quarry has a murderers' row of B-list celebrities and horror icons at the helm. From David Arquette to Brenda Song, this is chock-full of recognizable faces all contributing to the campy summer camp film aesthetic. Its this amalgamation of stars that helps sell the game's premise as an interactive horror film where your choices (mostly) matter. There are characters worth rooting for and ones worth rooting against and Supermassive is keenly aware that that is what makes a game like this fun. Dylan is a lovable jokester who I spent my entire playthrough ensuring would make it through the night, while Jacob (no relation) is a self-conscious prick (again, no relation) that I begrudgingly tried my best to save time after time. The constant threat of losing a character permanently is just as intoxicating as it was all in Until Dawn, but the best addition to this formula is the group of non-playable side characters whose fate also hangs in the balance. Each played brilliantly by horror veterans (especially Ted Raimi's character), its this group that brings an outside sense of life to the story and made me question my decisions on the late game choices even more. It's this moral grey area that makes the game so brilliant. Though the beats will largely stay the same, its those choices made in the final hours of the game that give it its bite. There are no heroes in this story of kill or be killed, just those who survive and those who aren't so lucky. This may disappointingly play in similar shades of horror to its predecessor, but it deftly removes the differentiation between black and white until all you're left with is the pale moonlight.
The Quarry marks Supermassive Games' return to the Until Dawn 'choose your own adventure' formula they created in 2015. Coincidentally, this also marks my return to Supermassive's games after my last experience with them being Until Dawn. It's not for lack of interest, as their Dark Pictures anthology is a similar gaming experiment I'm curious to experience, but there's something about their most recent outing that was gripping from first announcement. It certainly helps that like Until Dawn before it, The Quarry has a murderers' row of B-list celebrities and horror icons at the helm. From David Arquette to Brenda Song, this is chock-full of recognizable faces all contributing to the campy summer camp film aesthetic. Its this amalgamation of stars that helps sell the game's premise as an interactive horror film where your choices (mostly) matter. There are characters worth rooting for and ones worth rooting against and Supermassive is keenly aware that that is what makes a game like this fun. Dylan is a lovable jokester who I spent my entire playthrough ensuring would make it through the night, while Jacob (no relation) is a self-conscious prick (again, no relation) that I begrudgingly tried my best to save time after time. The constant threat of losing a character permanently is just as intoxicating as it was all in Until Dawn, but the best addition to this formula is the group of non-playable side characters whose fate also hangs in the balance. Each played brilliantly by horror veterans (especially Ted Raimi's character), its this group that brings an outside sense of life to the story and made me question my decisions on the late game choices even more. It's this moral grey area that makes the game so brilliant. Though the beats will largely stay the same, its those choices made in the final hours of the game that give it its bite. There are no heroes in this story of kill or be killed, just those who survive and those who aren't so lucky. This may disappointingly play in similar shades of horror to its predecessor, but it deftly removes the differentiation between black and white until all you're left with is the pale moonlight.