Video Game Blog 033: A Playable Horror Movie

Welcome back to the Video Game section of the SoraRabbit Hole! As promised, I am releasing way more content this year, starting with a slew of video game posts. (Six is a slew, right?) I am releasing these over the course of one week to discuss games I have started off the year playing. The first game was a Christmas gift from my wife. Today’s was also a Christmas gift, this one from one of my brothers, an interactive horror game called The Quarry.

Loading screen. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The Quarry was released in 2022 by Supermassive Games for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBox One, XBox Series X/S, and Windows. I played the PlayStation 5 version for this post. This game was made by the same team that made Until Dawn, an excellent interactive game I played multiple times in a row years ago. Supermassive has also released several games in the Dark Pictures Anthology, a set of thematically similar, stand-alone games. The Quarry is not a part of this, but the gameplay is similar from what I can see. (Guess I know what I’m checking out next!)

As always, expect some spoilers. I’m not going to ruin the twists in the plot… there are several of them and they are rather well-done. But there will be some spoilerly stuff to follow. Also content that may not be suitable for the sensitive or easily spooked. (I have possibly my most gory screenshot hiding somewhere below, so use caution.)

Menu. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

Similar to Until Dawn and the games from Telltale, the gameplay is mostly focused on branching story paths driven by dialogue choices and quick-time events. The game does not time the dialogue choices, but there is a very narrow window for the various QTEs.

I love collectibles. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

There are also a lot of collectibles in the game. The first type is clues. Clues are little items that are lit up in the environment that you can interact with that give pieces of the backstory. Certain clues link to other clues, but I didn’t find many linking clues.

Evidence is surprisingly important. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The next type of collectible is evidence. These are found similarly to clues, but are kept in their own menu category. Evidence impacts the ending, but I won’t give away how.

Yay Tarot. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The third type of collectible are Tarot cards. These were the most interesting to me. Tarot cards are found in specific spots where the camera angle changes and you have a chance to pick them up with the X button. Note that if the character who would find these cards is dead, you cannot get them in that playthrough. These also impact the game, but in a different way.

Spoooky. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

After each chapter you meet with a mysterious woman for Tarot readings. The cards you’ve been picking up are hers and they hint at potential futures. These hints indicate choices and missteps you can make to impact your characters and possibly result in their deaths. She will only read one card per chapter, so it’s impossible to get all the hints in one playthrough. The cards you find or don’t find impact her attitude towards you, and one of the cards gives a huge chunk of the plot. I won’t give away more than that.

We know all about rabbit holes here. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

Another category in the menu is paths. These are different categories of story paths you are following, depending on your choices. At various times in the game, the words “Path Updated” will flash on the screen. At those times you can check in here to see the impact of your choices and get an idea of the character’s story arcs that you have guided. Not every path will appear in every game, depending on your choices. (I missed one entirely on both playthroughs!) Each one is represented by a video tape cover to follow the theme of this being a classic 70’s or 80s horror movie.

Ah, human interaction. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

A major game mechanic is choices. Much like in Telltale games, you have many places where you choose between two dialog options or actions. Unlike Telltale, most of these are not timed. Some do have a timer that runs out when you window of opportunity ends, like choosing to kiss someone or interrupt them. Most of these choices just effect dialog between the characters either directly after the choice or later in the game. Some of the choices, though, are more… serious.

I decided to run. Screw Nick. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

Some of your choices determine if a character will live or die. These can be the most devastating ones, as they directly change the game from that point on. If you lose a character, long segments of the game (their playable portions) may be excised from your playthrough and any collectibles they may have found are lost. Likewise, any plot that may have played out during their portions are also gone. In this way, it’s only possible to see all the plot of the game through multiple playthroughs. (Unless you’re really good at choosing or just plain lucky.)

Pretty. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

As mentioned, there are quick time events throughout the game. These vary, and they’re generally timed. You have to select a direction on the control stick to avoid accidents, there are times you have to hold your breath to avoid detection, and most difficult of all, there are times you have to fire a shotgun. The aiming in this game is a little wonky and the window of opportunity to hit your target is very narrow— especially towards the end of the game. Firing at the right (or wrong) time can save or lose a life, so it’s a very serious part of the game. It didn’t help that I kept forgetting which button actually fired the shotgun. That really wrecked my first run.

This was the first choice that made me nervous. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

As I said, the effects of your path choices are laid out for you in the menu. These, of course, change depending on which choice you made. You can also see the choices in one path impacting another path. Also in keeping with the theme, the paths are displayed as scenes on a video tape. (If you don’t know what video tapes are, please don’t ask me. You’ll make me feel old.)

There really is a lot of death in this game. They built in do-overs. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

After completing the game for the first time (or purchasing the DLC) you unlock the Death Rewind feature. This gives you three lives, three chances to rewind the game to possibly prevent a death your choices have caused. I only used this feature once on my second playthrough when I missed a tricky shot. I missed it again after rewinding, so I just let the death stick.

The DLC doesn’t add much to the game, so I skipped it. There are 80’s or 50’s themed costumes for the characters, themed visual filters, and early unlock of the Death Rewind.

The game also has a Movie Mode if you just want to experience the story without playing. You set the personalities of the characters and sit back to watch the story play out.

She has a potty mouth in this. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

This game had a surprising number of familiar actors in it. Ted Raimi, David Arquette, the kid from Detective Pikachu. (Yes, I know he has a name but to me he’s the kid from Detective Pikachu.) Grace Zabriskie, who played Sarah Palmer on Twin Peaks as the Tarot lady. Ethan Suplee, who played Earl’s brother Randy on My Name Is Earl. There are many other actors, but some I was unfamiliar with.

Also appearing is the delightful Lin Shaye, who plays Elise in the Insidious series. (She plays a seemingly evil character in this and I was horrified when I accidentally shot her in the face. It’s gruesome.)

The CGI work varied from character to character. Ethan didn’t look much like himself. Most of the counselors were alright. Raimi, Zabriskie, and Shaye’s character models were amazing. You could tell extra care went into their designs.

FRANK! (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The name I was happiest to see on the cast was Lance Henriksen. I know most people know him as Bishop from Alien, but every time I see him I think “Frank!” Yeah, I’m a big Millennium fan and still hold out hopes it will be revived. His model work was dead on and almost looked live action.

A new challenger approaches! (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The game is arranged in chapters, each followed by an interlude with the Tarot lady. Yes, she does have a name in the game, but no I won’t give it away. There are ten chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue that sums up who lived, who died, and some more surprises I won’t spoil.

I had to brighten this way up. I need a new way to get screenshots. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The plot, in brief, involves a group of young adults just finishing a summer as counselors at a camp called Hackett’s Quarry. (Two of them, however, never made it there.) Due to the interference of one of the counselors, they have to spend one more night at the empty camp. Conflict comes in the form of the evasive camp owner with a secret, a shady cop, two redneck hunters covered in blood, shadowy monsters, and their own hormone-fueled drama.

That’s all of the story I will give you. It’s better to let it unfold as you’re playing. (In fact, I just realized I have to censor a couple of my screenshots to keep from spoiling important details.)

I totally had a chance to shoot him but I didn’t wanna. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

Cocoa watched me play and gave suggestions. (She said it was like watching a horror movie.) I did reasonably well on my first playthrough. I took my time exploring to try and find collectibles. (Although I missed a lot of the Tarot cards.) I tried to play it safe and chose the options I felt the characters would choose. I avoided conflict when possible, tried to make everyone get along, and did my best to help everyone survive the night.

Three of the nine counselors survived.

Oh no! Elise! (Credit: Supermassive Games)

So yeah, I didn’t do so well, especially at the end. I went through 3/4 of the game thinking I was doing great and then it all started to fall apart fast. Part of the reason was bad choices, one puzzle I messed up, and then I forgot the gun trigger was R2 and not L2. Oops. At the end of it nearly everyone had died, including my two favorite characters, Kaitlyn and Dylan. They actually died within minutes of each other. It was sad.

There is a trophy/achievement for making it through the game with all the counselors alive, and one for everyone dying. Both would take a lot of work and planning to pull off.

It didn’t discourage me to end up with poor results. It drove me to play through a second time, following the notes I’d taken to try and do better. Or I would say that if I hadn’t decided to be an utter shit for the second run.

Yeah, I get that a lot. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

My second playthrough I dubbed the “asshole run”. I chose every negative option, pissed everyone off when possible, and played as recklessly as I could. I shot whoever it let me shoot, ruined relationships, and went dark with things. It was great. And it ended up as bad as I expected.

Yay! (Credit: Supermassive Games)

I accidentally killed one counselor early on in Chapter 4 by firing the shotgun blindly into the woods. (Who would have thought that would turn out wrong?) It was awesome and unexpected.

Oh, and a quote from me while looking up the controls to make sure I didn’t biff the gun parts: “What the fuck? There’s a WALK FASTER button?“ I was legit mad that the game didn’t tell me. This is crucial info— everyone moves at a snail’s pace in this game and it drove me crazy.

On the second run I was actually on course to get all the Tarot cards but I missed two of them due to the… untimely… deaths of two counselors. One I mentioned before with the er, hunting accident. The other one got herself eaten through very little fault of my own. (Have I mentioned the shooting in this game sucks?) That’s the time I tried to use Death Rewind and failed again.

Ultimately four people survived, so technically I did better the second time. (Well two more survived in some fashion. I won’t explain. It’s not positive.) I also found most of the evidence, and a few clues I’d missed on the first run. But hey, Kaitlyn survived this time, so yay for that.

Horrible, horrible water. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

And so, in abbreviated form, that is The Quarry! All in all, it was a fun game, but it did have its downsides. We’ll start with the cons. As mentioned before, some of the characters models were spot-on, but not all of the CGI work was good. Some of it was wonky and sub-par. Especially the way the mouths moved. Characters walk robotically, move stiffly. There was a distinct uncanny valley quality with some of the characters.

Worst of all were the effects that involved blood and water. (The screenshot above gives an example.) I know water is notoriously hard to do in CGI but this was ridiculous and laughable. The characters didn’t move properly in the water and it splashed unnaturally, seeming like a separate layer to the rest. The blood looked a lot like the water and splashed everywhere with a blatant disregard to physics. You would think a horror game would take more time getting blood right. Every time water or blood appeared I was taken out of the experience and just cracked up laughing. (Of course, maybe I’m just being overly critical. I sure can’t do CGI work.)

Another weird graphical quirk involved Emma’s phone. Whenever she was filming herself for her followers, we would get “camera-vision” but it was not a mirror image, like a normal phone would be. What they did instead was overlay her model with a “phone border”. You could see her shoulder, hair, ear, and things like that extending the edge of this border, which would be impossible if she was filming herself and we were seeing the image in her screen.

And while talking about phones, one thing I couldn’t help but take note of was where the hell did Emma keep her phone while she was swimming in the lake in her underwear? And it must be extremely waterproof to have survived two swims like that. She gets out of the water and is on the island with her phone— dry and in perfect working order. (Little details, but they break the immersion.)

Another con is the unskippable dialogue. I mean, it makes sense with the choices impacting the gameplay, but it cuts down on wanting to start a new run since you have to sit through a long prologue and several stretches of the same dialogue. I also would have mentioned the slow walking here (in my notes I wonder how the kids could make it to their late teens without learning how to run… even a light jog would have been nice.) but as I mentioned in my second run I learned holding down the L1 button actually does speed up your walking pace noticeably. That helped. Lordy that slow walking was driving me nuts.

Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed this game and fully intend to revisit it later in the year. (Once I have the time to sit through all that unskippable dialog.)

This was a cool shot. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

Pros: I loved the story and concept of the game. The pacing is good, especially near the end of the game when everything goes to hell. The lighting, voicework, and staging all work well to gradually increase the tension. Especially during those long walks through the shadowy woods with occasional cuts to Monster-Vision. Although I liked Kaitlyn and Dylan the best, the characters were all well thought-out and layered. Even the “bad guys”. Cocoa questioned some of their motivations and silly dialog, but it didn’t bother me… not only are they young, this is also an homage to the classic horror movies of yesteryear. (How many of the counselors in Friday the 13th made better choices?)

And that’s really where The Quarry shines. The game pays tribute to those late-night junk food films without going overboard or making it into parody. They could play movie mode up on a big screen and it would still be entertaining. Making it playable and having your decisions decide the fate of the characters just makes it better. The game was made all the more fun by having Cocoa watch me play and give suggestions here and there. (The media I get to share with her are always that much better.) This is a good group game, and there actually is an online aspect to it where players can vote for the decisions.

She was a good choice for this role. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

The Quarry is a clever, entertaining, and challenging game with lots of replay value. (There are 186 possible ending combinations, which I find impressive.) Of course, to replay you have to sit through hours of dialogue you’ve seen before, so maybe space out those replays. I’m going to. Next time I’m going to take everything I learned and try to keep everyone alive. We’ll see if I can do that. Then I’ll probably do a “everybody dies” run. (Let me know if you want an update either in a separate post or the Year End Review.)

I still love Until Dawn, but I see this as a marked improvement to its predecessor. It’s still a little rough in places— especially some of the graphical areas— there is still room for improvement, but it’s a great game nonetheless. If you’re a horror fan or miss Telltale’s choice-driven games, I highly recommend giving this one a try.

I loved these cartoony tutorials. (Credit: Supermassive Games)

Thank you for reading my review of The Quarry! Video Game week continues tomorrow with a familiar topic! Hope to see you then.

Hehehe. (Credit: Supermassive Games)