This review contains spoilers
The Quarry is inspiring and depressing.
Inspiring in the same that many schlocky B-horrors (or indeed Hollywood thrillers) are - You don't have to make a masterpiece for people to enjoy themselves and become devoted fans. On the other hand, it must be somewhat depressing to be one of the hundreds of people who worked on this game and watch as its narrative slowly unwinds itself from the spool in the later chapters.
Here is the main reason that I fell so far on the wrong side of this story. There is almost zero tension. The game wanted me to disobey the hunters the entire game, even when in the earliest chapters we had already established that they are the characters who know the most and clearly have the best intentions for the counsellors. An early encounter with Jacob proved this as they slapped werewolf blood on his face and set him on his way. And still the game insists that we shouldn't trust them and constantly wants to make decisions that endangered both the hunters and the counsellors just because they 'be kinda sussy tho'.
And what is my reward for not listening and not trusting the games invisible hands? I don't get to save Silas. I either have to give in and shoot the boy in the back or watch as my favourite characters are slain. There was no twist ending (unless the hunters wanting to kill werewolves and not humans was supposed to be a shocker) and there is no payoff. Just kill the defenceless wolf in a random ditch.
Furthermore, Chapter 7 was an exercise in how NOT to do a flashback sequence, with it being overly long and full of exposition I would have rather just figured out on my own. Thankfully, I had figured out Chris's secret before the world's most blasé plot reveal.
The Quarry does not trust the player's intelligence and repeats obvious facts several times, turning the lodge into an armoury of chekov's guns until the biggest and most obvious one is fired straight into the chest of the nearest werewolf/counsellor.
Inspiring in the same that many schlocky B-horrors (or indeed Hollywood thrillers) are - You don't have to make a masterpiece for people to enjoy themselves and become devoted fans. On the other hand, it must be somewhat depressing to be one of the hundreds of people who worked on this game and watch as its narrative slowly unwinds itself from the spool in the later chapters.
Here is the main reason that I fell so far on the wrong side of this story. There is almost zero tension. The game wanted me to disobey the hunters the entire game, even when in the earliest chapters we had already established that they are the characters who know the most and clearly have the best intentions for the counsellors. An early encounter with Jacob proved this as they slapped werewolf blood on his face and set him on his way. And still the game insists that we shouldn't trust them and constantly wants to make decisions that endangered both the hunters and the counsellors just because they 'be kinda sussy tho'.
And what is my reward for not listening and not trusting the games invisible hands? I don't get to save Silas. I either have to give in and shoot the boy in the back or watch as my favourite characters are slain. There was no twist ending (unless the hunters wanting to kill werewolves and not humans was supposed to be a shocker) and there is no payoff. Just kill the defenceless wolf in a random ditch.
Furthermore, Chapter 7 was an exercise in how NOT to do a flashback sequence, with it being overly long and full of exposition I would have rather just figured out on my own. Thankfully, I had figured out Chris's secret before the world's most blasé plot reveal.
The Quarry does not trust the player's intelligence and repeats obvious facts several times, turning the lodge into an armoury of chekov's guns until the biggest and most obvious one is fired straight into the chest of the nearest werewolf/counsellor.