The Quarry is a game developed by Supermassive Games where, like their other games, choices matter. And this is heavily emphasized in the other games. But not so much in The Quarry. The gameplay starts off with a couple of camp counselors heading to camp early. At the start there are a couple of minor decisions to start you off lightly; Do you want to look at the map or the pamphlet? Snoop through your boyfriend’s phone or don’t. Which gave me the first impression of a lot of choices are not going to matter as much. Which was not the case. The snooping choice, for example, doesn’t have an immediate effect but it will give you a different scene towards the end. When there are other choices that have immediate effect. A common choice found throughout the game is whether to run or hide. You will have to do one of two mini-games. Both consist of doing quick time events (QTE’s), for running at a quicker pace and hiding at a calmer pace. Sometimes one leads to the other so you will eventually have to hide then run at some points or vice versa.

 

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As for graphics for the game, I always like to see real voice actors as the model of the character in the game as well. There is a character named Ryan funnily enough and he quickly became my favorite character (for no given reason at all) played by Justice Smith who was recently seen in a newer horror film called I Saw the TV Glow. It looked exactly like him and had a lot of his actual body language in the game, so props to the animators for that one. Another amazing character to see was Kaitlyn, played by Brenda Song who I know from Suite Life of Zack & Cody & Suite Life on Deck. Speaking of characters, it was great to see in The Quarry that every character played a role. Within the menus of the game there is a tab named “Paths” here you will find a collection of VHS tapes each with telling titles. After completing the game certain paths will be completed and this also just tracks your progress throughout the game. I just thought it was a nice touch to see that every character was tied to multiple paths, I am also talking about non-playable characters (NPC’s) that you meet throughout the game. To go along with the VHS tapes, the game itself also turns on a VHS filter whenever you pick a choice, so it gives you the illusion that someone is putting in a new path VHS, it is always about the smaller details for me!

 

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Speaking of little things there are so many smaller details that I found throughout the game. One is a very simple yet elegant touch. What I’m talking about is tarot cards. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve been seeing a lot of tarot card refences recently. Part of it could be that in almost every Dungeon & Dragons campaign I’ve been to, the deck of many things has been referenced. If you’re familiar with the deck of many things, or tarot cards in general, then it should be known that the cards provide a sense of symbolism to the world. When talking about “The Tower” card, it usually is in reference to a tall dungeon that is extremely difficult and holds something important at the top. Or to reference one of the secret tarot cards in game, “The Hierophant” is usually depicts a priest and symbolizes tradition or guidance. However, in The Quarry the card shows a priest with a white wolf head. After getting to a certain point in the game one will realize this card will guide you to the answer to how it all started. And it quite literally does show you how this all started. After each chapter in the game depending on the number of cards you’ve found throughout that chapter, the seer an old woman who is seen talking to you and helping you piece the story together in reference to the tarot cards. If you collect more than one card, then the seer gives you a choice of what card you want to be read. When a card is chosen the seer shows you a scene that could or could not happen. However, when you show her “The Hierophant” card she doesn’t let you choose. Instead, she gets angry and cuts to a scene of her where you experience the beginning of The White Wolf.

 

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Part of the reason why the replay-ability is so rich is mainly because of that fact. There are so many choices and so many paths the change the outcome of all sorts of scenes. Some obviously do affect the ending, but one of the smaller parts of the ending is seeing the outcome of each character.  And this isn’t just referring to the main cast but also to the other NPC’s you meet. Some of the characters you don’t ever get to meet but are just reference and then later found. Another major part of the character specific endings is seeing whether they are dead or alive. However, there is another outcome, and that’s to be infected. After playing the game over at least 3 times I realized that every counselor could get infected and still live. After looking through the achievements and realizing all the possible outcomes I had to try them all. Which I did. My first ever play through I managed to save everyone and not get a single person infected. On my second playthrough I still wasn’t planning on getting everyone infected, instead I tried to get the true ending. Which you need only a couple people to get infected, including my main man, Ryan. In fact, Ryan is the key to the true ending. To explain more about why Ryan is my favorite character, he not only has my name, but he also has all my similar interests, mainly podcasts. Speaking of podcasts, this is the other main key point to getting the true ending. The main podcasts Ryan listens to and talks about is “Bizarre Yet Bonafide” which is a true crime and mystery podcast. Which can be found throughout the game and is referenced many times. When playing as Laura after escaping the cells later in the game. One can find and listen to part of an episode of the podcast. An episode that has been referenced too many times throughout the game, “The Hag of Hackett’s Quarry”, as an avid podcast listener it was nice to see this little touch of bringing more awareness to podcast and riding that wave.

 

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Before I get into my overall impression of the game, I have one final point that needs to be touched upon. If it hasn’t been obvious, I’m a sucker for charm. And when a game fully immerses you in the game with a compelling story, and nice little additions here and there. You must be thinking, what else can this guy talk about. And that’s the stellar soundtrack. Each character has their own personality and quirks, but when some characters are doing something badass or are in an action scene. They each get their own music. Now unfortunately a lot of this can’t be noticed in the base game because in the DLC’s they added to the game all contained different skins for the characters, as well as an alternate soundtrack. And this isn’t saying the base game’s soundtrack is bad, heck no. If anything, it’s amazing that the base game soundtrack is stellar and the one we must pay for is more than worth it.

 

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Now to get to my final thoughts of the game overall. I think this game is a must play. Especially if you are already a big fan of the other Supermassive developed games, or just a fan of horror itself. Then I am disappointed that yet haven’t played this yet. Hot take, but thit might beat Until Dawn. However, if you are not a fan of horror or are looking for a game with a lot of action, this has it. It’s just the only difference is, instead of yourself being in those situations and doing all these sick moves. You are more of a director in the game, telling your cast what to do. So, if you always wondered what it would be like to be a director it might look a lot like this. Including the blood, especially if you’re Tarantino… If you have got the time and money go check out The Quarry.