This is an in depth review of The Quarry, so sit back, relax and read. I'm also someone who's never played Until Dawn either, so this is my first experience with a Supermassive Games game. If you can't be bothered to read the paragraphs, there's a TLDR at the bottom!

The Quarry is what I love about a choices matter type game. Fast paced, and will make you question your morals and decision making, as some decisions can be fatal. For example, my dumbass got 4 characters killed, and one of those wasn't even intentional. I'll explain more about that as I get into this review.

My pros for the game include having lots of character development. I mostly got attatched to the main cast of The Quarry, eventhough general American highschool humour isn't really in my best interest. Another thing is the QTEs really keep you on your feet, but the only downside is there's a few times where I wouldn't even consider putting a QTE, like catching keys. The story is certainly gripping to start to finish, which leaves you wanting more and more. It all unravels and keeps you entertained for sure. The graphics are visually stunning, and everything looked super realistic which is such small praise in this day and age, but it doesn't hurt to compliment what's there. I will say, this could definitely be enjoyed singleplayer, but instead of playing the multiplayer mode, just get your friends in a discord call and stream it so you can discuss choices, which is what I did.

Now, here's the downsides. Number one, straight from the start, the music choices can be downright awful. The song that was playing right at the beginning just did not fit right, and there's a few occasions where me and my friends just said "What the hell is this song? Why is it here?". Another thing is well.. Some of the choices you make, don't even matter? For example, there's a choice you have to make where you can either shout or stay quiet and if you choose to stay quiet, the character just shouts anyway.. It's super dumb. The other choice is where a certain character says he doesn't want to go to the campfire with the other characters, yet decides to join them? Honestly, these were the only two choices that me and my friends spotted where it really made absolutely no sense, don't let this critique put you off the entire game because trust me, everything else matters. To add, the game does tend to freeze a lot. I was having to spam that pause button every single time the scene changed cause the screen would freeze, dialogue would be out of place and it wouldn't lip sync probably. This would also happen during an important mechanic where you have to hold your breath in order to stay hidden. This happened once and I failed the QTE because of it, but thankfully that was the only one I did fail. I will say, my PC is about 5 years old, so that's probably why it was messing up so much, but I have seen other people complain with newer systems, so it's hard to tell. Finally, I will say that don't expect to fully understand the story if any of the characters die. I had a few die on my first run, so I'm gonna have to do another to figure out some parts of the plot. It's not that bad of a negative, because there's plenty of opportunities to take up that you may have not done. I was going to do another run regardless if all the characters survived, but that can be a negative experience for people who are simply playing for plot points.


If you can't be bothered to read all of that, here's the TLDR:

Pros:
- Amazing graphics
- Great characters sprinked with a lot of development throughout the game
- Gripping and engaging story
- Good QTE usage, with some weird ones
- Can be enjoyed alone or with others

Cons:
- Constant freezing. Could be due to my 5 year old PC, though.
- Two choices don't matter. Potentially could be more, but that's what me and my friends picked up on.
- Weird music placement sometimes.
- Plot holes if characters don't survive.

My final thoughts are honestly, this is an amazing game and definitely one of the best choices matter games out there. I think a lot of people have set a high standard compared to Until Dawn, because I hear that game is spectacular, but again, from someone who's never experienced that, The Quarry is an absolutely superb game with just a few niggles from my part. I got this game for £25, and I think it's worth it for that price. I definitely don't think it's worth the full price tag, £25 is satisfactory for what it delivers.