Until Dawn was a game made perfectly for me—I love the engrossing nature of SuperMassive’s teen, horror-comedy, B-movie, limited-gameplay stories, and I remember falling in love with those characters only to witness their brutal deaths. Since Until Dawn, I have avoided the Dark Pictures Anthology because of poor reviews, but I knew from the moment The Quarry was announced that I’d pick it up Week 1.
I am so incredibly pleased to say that The Quarry is a return-to-form for the developer, with another twisty horror mystery overflowing with character and charm. I think this game does so many things right, showing what the team learned from Until Dawn! For starters, this game feels much less like there is one main character that the player is supposed to identify with—I honestly wanted every single character to make it through the night (or to die at exactly the right moment) in a way that I didn’t feel with Until Dawn. Second, this game is gorgeous, with eery lighting and high-fidelity character models that feel less wooden than the character rigs in Until Dawn. Third, this game changed some of the worst QTE moments from their first outing so that everything feels fair, and character deaths always feel like they occur because of player fault. Finally, I think this is a better, more consistent story from beginning to end; I feared that the game showed its hand a bit too early, but the continuing plot developments kept me invested and the environments in which the game placed me were always incredibly interesting. I loved that I was able to make several decisions based on my emotional reactions to the characters and what I honestly wanted to do at each moment in the game, rather than just trying to game the system for the sake of killing or saving a certain character.
With all this praise, I do need to share a few problems I had with this game, and most of them are directly related to some of the strengths I addressed above. While the story here is better front to back than the story in Until Dawn, I never felt the same level of mystery as I did in the first 3-4 chapters of that game. I think this game would benefit from more obfuscation in the early chapters, as character motivations are a bit too transparent or easily guessable from too early on. Second, the breathing mini game seems kind of pointless—I never once felt like I was at any risk of losing the mini-game, and the game never even raised the interesting question of what would happen if I ran out of breath. Finally, what in the world was going on with the visuals when a character was wet???
I never expected to love The Quarry as much as I did, and I honestly didn’t expect Supermassive to re-capture the heart of their breakout hit, but this game has won me over and has made me far more interested in replaying it soon than prior games of its kind.
I am so incredibly pleased to say that The Quarry is a return-to-form for the developer, with another twisty horror mystery overflowing with character and charm. I think this game does so many things right, showing what the team learned from Until Dawn! For starters, this game feels much less like there is one main character that the player is supposed to identify with—I honestly wanted every single character to make it through the night (or to die at exactly the right moment) in a way that I didn’t feel with Until Dawn. Second, this game is gorgeous, with eery lighting and high-fidelity character models that feel less wooden than the character rigs in Until Dawn. Third, this game changed some of the worst QTE moments from their first outing so that everything feels fair, and character deaths always feel like they occur because of player fault. Finally, I think this is a better, more consistent story from beginning to end; I feared that the game showed its hand a bit too early, but the continuing plot developments kept me invested and the environments in which the game placed me were always incredibly interesting. I loved that I was able to make several decisions based on my emotional reactions to the characters and what I honestly wanted to do at each moment in the game, rather than just trying to game the system for the sake of killing or saving a certain character.
With all this praise, I do need to share a few problems I had with this game, and most of them are directly related to some of the strengths I addressed above. While the story here is better front to back than the story in Until Dawn, I never felt the same level of mystery as I did in the first 3-4 chapters of that game. I think this game would benefit from more obfuscation in the early chapters, as character motivations are a bit too transparent or easily guessable from too early on. Second, the breathing mini game seems kind of pointless—I never once felt like I was at any risk of losing the mini-game, and the game never even raised the interesting question of what would happen if I ran out of breath. Finally, what in the world was going on with the visuals when a character was wet???
I never expected to love The Quarry as much as I did, and I honestly didn’t expect Supermassive to re-capture the heart of their breakout hit, but this game has won me over and has made me far more interested in replaying it soon than prior games of its kind.