If you are a hardcore fan of choice based narrative adventures, you probably have already played The Quarry or planning on playing it no matter what I say. For those of you who are not sure about it though, I wouldn't recommend this. It is exciting, there are some twists in the story and some performances are genuinely good; but your choices doesn't matter much, there is too much backtracking and the pacing is clearly broken. Go play House of Ashes if you haven't, otherwise replay your favorites. The Quarry is not worth your time.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
Supermassive's Worst Game?!
I like the Supermassive Games catalogue as much as the next guy. Well, actually I like it a lot MORE than the next guy. Until Dawn was a masterpiece and one of the best games of 2015 and Man of Medan was a solid entry into the choice based narrative games genre. However, 2020's Little Hope turned out to be a terrible disappointment thanks to the game not telling it's core concept very well and resulting in an unfair bloodbath at the end.
I skipped House of Ashes originally because The Quarry came to PS Plus earlier, I have currently finished it with my best bud and that is just an incredible game but unfortunately we are talking about The Quarry today. A not so incredible game. Anyway anyway, let's start with the story.
And actually not be able to start with the story because spoilers. Credit where credit is due, Supermassive managed to hide the core story of the game in the trailers and there are some massive twists here. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that the story is about 7 counselors' last night in Hackett's Quarry Summer Camp and trying to survive, somethings. Or maybe someones? Who knows?
The story here, is weak. Yes, there are some massive twists but compared to all the other 4 Supermassive titles; this is a very static story and you can't change too much in it. Also, the pacing is abysmal.
As per usual, the game starts off with an "exciting" prologue where basically none of your choices matters. Right after that, it starts to introduce the characters. We have 7 different counselors and because of that huge number, we get around 2 or 3 hours of light hearted teenage comedy show.
Things picks up after the first 3 chapters and Chapters 4,5 and 6 delivers the high octane action stuff that can make or break your characters. However, Chapter 7 is basically the WORST thing about the game. As a storytelling tool, Chapter 7 is very clever but it is very slow and you mostly watch stuff. Chapter 7 will definitely kill many people's replays if not their first run as well.
And 8,9,10? Well, they also fail to capture your attention back. So, the story is mediocre and the pacing is terrible. What about the characters? Well while there are 7 of them, most of them are not used well.
Ariel Winter, Halston Sage, Zach Tinker and especially Evan Evagora fans; do NOT play this game for these actors and actresses. Evagora is the one with the least amount of screen time and before you say that, yes. I saved him and he still has a very small screen time.
Winter, Sage and Tinker all has at least 1 very cool scene but all of these characters basically goes to the background in the final 4 chapters of the game. Then who are the big characters you might ask. I would say the trio of Justice Smith, Miles Robbins and Brenda Song. They also have a weird love triangle and they are the best characters in the game for sure.
Smith and Song especially delivers some great performances while Robbins usually sticks around with both of these characters and manages to be a good balance point. From the unplayable characters; Lin Shaye, Lance Henriksen and Ethan Suplee has very very small screen times. David Arquette also has a small role but he does leave an impression.
Ted Raimi on the other hand, wow! The Raimi family is full of incredibly talented people, for sure! He is the one good thing that makes Chapter 7 okay and he also delivers whenever he appears on screen. He is great.
Two final shoutouts, Skyler Gisondo doesn't do much but Siobhan Williams; she is the star of this game in my opinion and I will continue following her work. Great performance.
The big part of the review is completed, because this game was a narrative focused one. So let's get through the gameplay quickly. In The Quarry(similar to other games in the genre) you will explore locations, make choices and engage in Quick Time Events.
Exploring locations is usually the most exciting part for me because that's when you actually get to play the game. Unfortunately, The Quarry fails big time here because you will do a lot of backtracking. Almost all locations are used twice with some being used 3 or 4 times.
Exploring the same places over and over again kills the excitement and finding different things while doing all this exploring is also just absurd. As always exploring will mostly result in you getting collectibles or tarot cards that will give you visions of the future.
Also as always though, these scenes from the future fails to create an impact on your playthrough because they are too short and too hard to understand until you actually come to that particular scene.
Making choices is the thing you will do the most. However, both the dialogue choices and action scene choices doesn't change much. And to be perfectly honest, it feels like dialogues changes more compared to what you do in action. Of course, one of your choices can lead your character to death but trust me, characters' survival doesn't mean much.
In fact, it almost seems like Supermassive thought that most people would kill a character in a specific scene and so even if you save them in that particular scene, that character's screen time gets significantly cut. Which is why many characters are basically non existent at the third act whether or not you have saved them.
Finally, the QTE's. They are terribly easy in this game. You don't need to press the face buttons at all, most of the QTE's are done by moving the right stick to one of the four directions and there is a very big window of achieving this. There are also parts where you need to mash X and there are some places where you will need to hold your breath.
These hold your breath moments are like a joke because all you have to do is hold X until the red part of your screen disappears. No challenge, no tension and not much room for failure. QTE's are really easy in this game.
One new interesting idea however are the Interruptions. From time to time, there will be an interesting action you can do. A timer will start and if you press X you will do it. This might be something like searching a bag or climbing a tree to escape from the thing or person chasing you.
There are definitely parts where Supermassive used this system cleverly and they were definitely my favorite new addition. So; the gameplay is mostly the same but QTE's are much more easier, choices doesn't matter at all and exploration disappoints due to the overused locations.
Technically, is the game good? Not so much. It's 4K 30 and there is no other graphical mode if I know correctly. Lighting is good but the textures looks old. Faces are expressive and detailed but character models are terrible and feels like they are out of PS3 era. For example, Justice Smith's character has two wired headphones coming out of the top of his shirt, dangling.
Or should I say, they should dangle. But they stay solidly even if the character runs or jumps. Did he glue them to his t-shirt? I would like an explanation. Unfortunately, The Quarry definitely doesn't look like a next gen game. It runs smoothly but that's all.
If you are a hardcore fan of choice based narrative adventures, you probably have already played The Quarry or planning on playing it no matter what I say. For those of you who are not sure about it though, I wouldn't recommend this. It is exciting, there are some twists in the story and some performances are genuinely good; but your choices doesn't matter much, there is too much backtracking and the pacing is clearly broken. Go play House of Ashes if you haven't, otherwise replay your favorites. The Quarry is not worth your time.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
Supermassive's Worst Game?!
I like the Supermassive Games catalogue as much as the next guy. Well, actually I like it a lot MORE than the next guy. Until Dawn was a masterpiece and one of the best games of 2015 and Man of Medan was a solid entry into the choice based narrative games genre. However, 2020's Little Hope turned out to be a terrible disappointment thanks to the game not telling it's core concept very well and resulting in an unfair bloodbath at the end.
I skipped House of Ashes originally because The Quarry came to PS Plus earlier, I have currently finished it with my best bud and that is just an incredible game but unfortunately we are talking about The Quarry today. A not so incredible game. Anyway anyway, let's start with the story.
And actually not be able to start with the story because spoilers. Credit where credit is due, Supermassive managed to hide the core story of the game in the trailers and there are some massive twists here. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that the story is about 7 counselors' last night in Hackett's Quarry Summer Camp and trying to survive, somethings. Or maybe someones? Who knows?
The story here, is weak. Yes, there are some massive twists but compared to all the other 4 Supermassive titles; this is a very static story and you can't change too much in it. Also, the pacing is abysmal.
As per usual, the game starts off with an "exciting" prologue where basically none of your choices matters. Right after that, it starts to introduce the characters. We have 7 different counselors and because of that huge number, we get around 2 or 3 hours of light hearted teenage comedy show.
Things picks up after the first 3 chapters and Chapters 4,5 and 6 delivers the high octane action stuff that can make or break your characters. However, Chapter 7 is basically the WORST thing about the game. As a storytelling tool, Chapter 7 is very clever but it is very slow and you mostly watch stuff. Chapter 7 will definitely kill many people's replays if not their first run as well.
And 8,9,10? Well, they also fail to capture your attention back. So, the story is mediocre and the pacing is terrible. What about the characters? Well while there are 7 of them, most of them are not used well.
Ariel Winter, Halston Sage, Zach Tinker and especially Evan Evagora fans; do NOT play this game for these actors and actresses. Evagora is the one with the least amount of screen time and before you say that, yes. I saved him and he still has a very small screen time.
Winter, Sage and Tinker all has at least 1 very cool scene but all of these characters basically goes to the background in the final 4 chapters of the game. Then who are the big characters you might ask. I would say the trio of Justice Smith, Miles Robbins and Brenda Song. They also have a weird love triangle and they are the best characters in the game for sure.
Smith and Song especially delivers some great performances while Robbins usually sticks around with both of these characters and manages to be a good balance point. From the unplayable characters; Lin Shaye, Lance Henriksen and Ethan Suplee has very very small screen times. David Arquette also has a small role but he does leave an impression.
Ted Raimi on the other hand, wow! The Raimi family is full of incredibly talented people, for sure! He is the one good thing that makes Chapter 7 okay and he also delivers whenever he appears on screen. He is great.
Two final shoutouts, Skyler Gisondo doesn't do much but Siobhan Williams; she is the star of this game in my opinion and I will continue following her work. Great performance.
The big part of the review is completed, because this game was a narrative focused one. So let's get through the gameplay quickly. In The Quarry(similar to other games in the genre) you will explore locations, make choices and engage in Quick Time Events.
Exploring locations is usually the most exciting part for me because that's when you actually get to play the game. Unfortunately, The Quarry fails big time here because you will do a lot of backtracking. Almost all locations are used twice with some being used 3 or 4 times.
Exploring the same places over and over again kills the excitement and finding different things while doing all this exploring is also just absurd. As always exploring will mostly result in you getting collectibles or tarot cards that will give you visions of the future.
Also as always though, these scenes from the future fails to create an impact on your playthrough because they are too short and too hard to understand until you actually come to that particular scene.
Making choices is the thing you will do the most. However, both the dialogue choices and action scene choices doesn't change much. And to be perfectly honest, it feels like dialogues changes more compared to what you do in action. Of course, one of your choices can lead your character to death but trust me, characters' survival doesn't mean much.
In fact, it almost seems like Supermassive thought that most people would kill a character in a specific scene and so even if you save them in that particular scene, that character's screen time gets significantly cut. Which is why many characters are basically non existent at the third act whether or not you have saved them.
Finally, the QTE's. They are terribly easy in this game. You don't need to press the face buttons at all, most of the QTE's are done by moving the right stick to one of the four directions and there is a very big window of achieving this. There are also parts where you need to mash X and there are some places where you will need to hold your breath.
These hold your breath moments are like a joke because all you have to do is hold X until the red part of your screen disappears. No challenge, no tension and not much room for failure. QTE's are really easy in this game.
One new interesting idea however are the Interruptions. From time to time, there will be an interesting action you can do. A timer will start and if you press X you will do it. This might be something like searching a bag or climbing a tree to escape from the thing or person chasing you.
There are definitely parts where Supermassive used this system cleverly and they were definitely my favorite new addition. So; the gameplay is mostly the same but QTE's are much more easier, choices doesn't matter at all and exploration disappoints due to the overused locations.
Technically, is the game good? Not so much. It's 4K 30 and there is no other graphical mode if I know correctly. Lighting is good but the textures looks old. Faces are expressive and detailed but character models are terrible and feels like they are out of PS3 era. For example, Justice Smith's character has two wired headphones coming out of the top of his shirt, dangling.
Or should I say, they should dangle. But they stay solidly even if the character runs or jumps. Did he glue them to his t-shirt? I would like an explanation. Unfortunately, The Quarry definitely doesn't look like a next gen game. It runs smoothly but that's all.
If you are a hardcore fan of choice based narrative adventures, you probably have already played The Quarry or planning on playing it no matter what I say. For those of you who are not sure about it though, I wouldn't recommend this. It is exciting, there are some twists in the story and some performances are genuinely good; but your choices doesn't matter much, there is too much backtracking and the pacing is clearly broken. Go play House of Ashes if you haven't, otherwise replay your favorites. The Quarry is not worth your time.