The Quarry

I walked into The Quarry expecting a lighter version of Until Dawn and came out having genuinely debated whether to burn one of my three Death Rewind retries on a character I actually grew to like. That shift from passive spectator to sweating over a decision I made three chapters ago is exactly what Supermassive Games does best, and this is probably their most polished execution of it. The setup is pure camp-horror classicism. Nine counselors get stranded overnight at Hackett's Quarry Summer Camp after the last day of summer, and things go badly in ways that are first funny, then tense, then occasionally genuinely unsettling. The cast is stacked with recognizable faces including Ariel Winter, Justice Smith, David Arquette, Lance Henriksen, and Lin Shaye, and the facial animation and motion capture are legitimately impressive throughout. The writing leans hard into slasher stereotypes, which is either a feature or a bug depending on how you feel about tropey horror. A few characters are written to be insufferable on purpose, which works for the tone, even if it occasionally pushes them past entertaining into grating. On the gameplay side, this sits firmly in the interactive-movie lane alongside Telltale and Quantic Dream titles. You explore environments, collect Tarot cards for vague premonitions of upcoming deaths, hunt for clues and artifacts scattered around the camp, and handle quick-time events that range from aiming a shot at a werewolf to holding your breath in a hiding spot until exactly the right moment. The QTEs are adjustable all the way down to off, and Movie Mode lets the whole thing play out automatically with outcome toggles you set ahead of time. That accessibility-first approach is genuinely appreciated, and it makes the game a strong couch co-op pick. Up to eight players can pass a single controller around in local play, each controlling a different counselor, which turns a solo horror game into something closer to a group activity night. There is also an online Wolf Pack mode where a host plays and up to seven friends vote on key decisions. Where it stumbles a bit: the second half loses momentum and the conclusion feels more abrupt than the slow-burn first act earns. Pacing issues in later chapters are a recurring complaint from players, and a few branching paths feel less consequential than the game implies. The Death Rewind feature, which lets you reverse a character death up to three times per playthrough, only unlocks after your first completion, so your initial run carries real stakes regardless of how prepared you feel. The brightness and visual settings on PC have drawn some criticism too, with the image running dark and cinematic black bars locked on by default. That said, for a single playthrough of around nine to ten hours, the experience holds together. Supermassive claims 186 distinct endings, and unlike most games that make similar marketing claims, the branching here is meaningful enough that a second run with different choices produces notably different outcomes. It is more thriller than pure horror, more fun in a room with other people than alone in the dark, and more impressive as a technical showcase than as a tense scare machine. Know what you are signing up for and it delivers.

Alex · Scout Team

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