"The Quarry" Review - *ch-ch-ch, meh-meh-meh*

Available for: Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Reviewed for: Microsoft Windows

As so often happens, dear reader, I find myself woefully behind on my writing as I start this review. However, sometimes being behind has its advantages. Time away from a title can often put it to the test of time, and whether or not the memory of it stands firm in the face of this test can speak volumes about the quality. See, when I was playing The Quarry, I thought it was quite good. Sure, the ending royally sucked and the story was beyond unbelievably nonsensical, but it was still a fun time with some good characters and a level of cinematographic consciousness that made the whole thing compelling, right? That was where I was at as my time with the game wrapped up, but now, a couple weeks to a month later? It's a bit of a different impression. While I certainly don't regret the time I spent with The Quarry, and while it's true that some of my early praise still stands, the fact of the matter is that I don't think I'll remember it beyond this year. So, let's get right to it.

The Quarry comes to us from developer Supermassive Games, the developers of the out-of-nowhere horror hit Until Dawn and a bunch of smaller horror anthology stories that nobody on the face of the earth cared about. The team's first full-length release since that early breakout hit, The Quarry had large shoes to fill as a self-proclaimed spiritual successor. I, like many other people, was blown away by Until Dawn. How well it captured the essence of 80's slasher films (without becoming a simple parody), the atmosphere, the well-done story, all of it came together to create a bolt of lightning that Supermassive has desperately been holding its bottle open for ever since. Like its predecessor, The Quarry places us in the many shoes of multiple 20-somethings that we're expected to believe are teenagers. Our cast of characters are counselors at Hackett's Quarry summer camp, and as the curtain rises on the stage, summer has come to a close, and with all the kids gone, all that's left to do is pack up and leave. But of course, things don't quite go to plan. But before we get into that, let's talk about our heroes. The first character we meet is Jacob, the douchebag bro character who unironically wears a backwards hat (and who I call Josh almost every time). He's just been dumped by his camp girlfriend, Emma (the popular, manipulative girl character with lips you could land a helicopter on), who insists that their relationship was just a summer fling. Not making things between them any better is Kaitlyn (our one asian character who is also the single most badass character in this game), who starts off the game relentlessly teasing Jacob about the breakup. Sitting quietly in the background at this point is Ryan, our black character who is really into paranormal podcasts. Loafing around instead of helping the others pack, we have Dylan (the snarky gay character, and my personal favorite cast member) and Nick (our Australian who is randomly here for some reason). Finally, we have Abby (the quiet, artsy one). Throughout the game, you'll play as each of these characters for brief stretches of time, but as I've already implied, you'll start out as Jacob. Now that the characters are out of the way, let's get into details about the story. It's stupid. Possibly the most stupid story I've ever seen. Why? Because there's no universe in which the story proper would have even begun in reality. See, Jacob really wants to spend one more night at camp because he believes that by doing so, he'll have the time to convince Emma that they should still be together. But alas, they're scheduled to head home that night, so he decides to sabotage their only car. That alone would've been stupid enough, but he actually asks Kaitlyn "hey, if I wanted to sabotage a car to keep it from starting, how could I do it?" and Kaitlyn gives him a couple options. Then, when it turns out that one of those options that she gave him happened to the car, she doesn't even stop to think that maybe he was responsible. So, not only did this quite intelligent character not pick up on Jacob's intentions after he asked that question following a long time complaining about "if I just had one more night," she doesn't realize that he took one of the suggestions she gave him...for how to sabotage a car...it's just so, so stupid! So, the camp leader comes out, notices the car isn't working, starts freaking out, and drives into town after giving the campers orders to stay inside the cabin, keep all the doors locked, and not let anybody in or out all night. Ryan, having a lot of respect for this camp leader, suggests that they do what they're told. But would you like to guess what the other characters decide to do? I'm sure you've already guessed, but in response to that suggestion, Jacob replies "we could do that.....ooooooor we could have a partaaaaaaaaay?!" I won't hold that bit of stupidity against the game, however, because it's pretty par for the course for 80's style horror stories like this, but it is a bit on the predictable side. So anyway, the characters don't do as they're told, they stay out during the night, and pretty soon, our heroes find themselves hunted by mysterious hillbillies and inhuman monsters alike. From there, we have our story. I'll say this, dear reader: if you're like me, you'll be intrigued by the story almost all the way through, and you'll keep on wanting to see what happens next, but the fact of the matter is that things never get any less stupid from here. Whether it's a character cracking a one-liner after he has his hand shot off with a shotgun, or some of the nonsensical plot twists that happen towards the end, this story just never lets off on the stupid. So it's compelling while you're in it, but boy does hindsight not treat it kindly. A lot of that is because of how terrible the last half-hour or so is. Entire characters come out of the clear blue alongside new contrivances, and it's just...so bad, but I can't go into detail without spoilers, so let's leave it at that. Another issue with the game's memorability, however, is the fact that it just isn't scary. Not even a little bit. I'm not gonna pretend that Until Dawn had me peeing my pants or anything, but it was scary and creepy enough to get the job done, and it doubled down on that with some incredibly unsettling revelations towards the end of the game. The Quarry, however? All the horror on display is predictable, nothing is truly unknown, and the who and what of the underlying mystery have no bite to them (pun not intended, for those who know). So not only does the game not startle you, it also won't creep you out in any meaningful way. If that sounds pretty damning, then you're correct...but once again, it's only damning in hindsight. See, while you're in the experience, you could be forgiven for not realizing you aren't gonna be scared.

The reason for that? Well, because of the game's various technical strengths! I realize I'm going out of my usual order by talking about the technical stuff before the gameplay, but I defy you to find me a smoother segue! If there's one thing that Supermassive knows how to do well, it's graphics and lighting. Every scene is simply drenched in the exact graphical trappings required to get the most out of the situation. One particular scene comes to mind as an example. In this scene, the vast majority of campers are hiding out in the locker room by the pool area of this summer camp. At this point, the monsters have already shown themselves, and one of our heroes, having recently been attacked by one, is teetering on the brink of death. There's a lot of uncertainty in this scene: What's going to happen to this character? What are these monsters? What comes next? These questions hang in the balance as we, playing as Abby, walk around this environment looking for ways to ease the victim's suffering for a little bit. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to summer camp, dear reader, but as an Eagle Scout, I've been out there when it gets dark. In most summer camps, you're lucky if you have even one light in a single bathroom on campus. All the activity happens during the daytime, and during the night, you're expected to wake up somebody else and go with them to the bathroom in abject darkness if you need it because of "the buddy system"...because if there's one thing organizations like the scouts love, it's pretending that not spending $2 on a lamp or two makes you more of a man...but I digress. All of this is to say that the locker room in question is dimly lit, to the point that I actually turned my brightness up because I thought I was missing something. But beyond the realism of the setting, this lighting choice also highlights that uncertainty I mentioned earlier. As you walk through the area trying to find helpful things, your friends whisper in the background in panicked breaths about what their next move might be. The whole ambiance sells the scene, and it's thanks to the game relying on its strengths that this is the case....

However....

As strong as the game is in the technical things that sell the horror and whatnot, the game is insanely weak in most other technical categories that were needed to sell the game as a whole. The BIG thing is the game's performance. It's been long enough that I don't remember if there were framerate drops within scenes, but even now, I remember that literally EVERY. SINGLE. SCENE begins with framerate drops AND audio/visual glitches so bad that I thought the game would crash. Literally every single one. It was so bad that I can't even remember if the game actually crashed at any point, because not a single transition from character-to-character went by where I didn't think a crash was imminent. Whatever atmosphere any given scene set up, it was a fraction of what it could've been, because every time the screen went black, I knew I was in for another full-body toss out of the experience. When you pair this with the fact that certain scenes might last for a minute maximum, that's a lot of immersion-breaking for a game that relies so heavily on its atmosphere. What's more, while the character models are, for the most part, as excellent as we've come to expect from Supermassive, there's just something wrong with the teeth and the mouths. It's as if both of these things are exaggerated just enough to break immersion, but not quite enough to be so bad it's good. So, all of this is to say that the technical side of The Quarry is a mixed bag, when it really needed to be anything but that.

So, with a stupid story, occasionally mindbogglingly bad writing, and inconsistent at best technical quality, what about gameplay? Surely there are no "but"s with that, right? Well....first things first: if you played Until Dawn or any of Supermassive's subsequent offerings, you'll largely know what to expect. That is to say: quicktime events and more quicktime events. So if you're ok with that, you'll largely be unsurprised. I, for one, am ok with that, so that's not really the issue here. The issue is that these quicktime events seemed....really easy this time. It's been long enough since I played Until Dawn that I don't remember if things ever got harder to execute as the game went on, but I'm sure it wasn't this easy all the way throughout. There are no segments where you have a split second to react in the middle of a jumpscare to keep a character alive, for instance. While this isn't a universally bad thing, in a game where so much takes away from the tension, the experience sorely needed one or two surprises to keep the player's heart rate up or keep them on their toes, at least. Beyond the standard quicktime event-affairs, this particular game also introduces segments where you have to manually aim a shotgun and decide whether or not to shoot, and if you decide to shoot, exactly when. And it's awful every time. Like, actually terrible. I can think of exactly one of these sections where the correct decision isn't to shoot, and in every other instance, whether or not you taking a shot is actually effective in any way seems to be completely random. You might, for instance, wait for a monster to get close before shooting them (because, you know, shotguns are best at a closer range), and the result of you aiming for the biggest part of the monster's body and waiting until they're in effective range is the blast grazes their shoulder, and whatever negative consequences come next are the result of you "hesitating to shoot." Given that the game gives you a brief lesson on muzzle and trigger discipline during the tutorial, you'd think this was a game built by people who understand guns, but that doesn't seem to be the case, and the result is that the logic in these segments feels nonsensical. I can think of no reason to simply replace the direct control with yet another quicktime event or decision labeled "shoot/don't shoot" or "aim for chest/aim for head" for all the good giving the player control actually does. So one of three things needed to happen here: 1) the developers needed to do their research, 2) there needed to be better tutorializing about distance/aim/shot effectiveness to communicate the logic the player needs to succeed in these sections, or 3) the whole thing needed to be replaced with standard qtes/decisions. Because none of those happened, the one new thing that The Quarry brings to the table actively detracts from the experience. 

Folks, as I conclude this review, I want to reiterate that while I was still playing The Quarry, I was having a good time. I enjoyed the characters well enough, I was consistently wanting to know what happened next, and I was fully immersed in the experience when the game's technical quality allowed me to be. So rest assured: I believe that if you play through this game, you'll enjoy it for what it is. However, I'd recommend getting it when it goes on sale. The fact of the matter is that at full price, I expect an experience that isn't going to sour in my memory, and unfortunately, The Quarry definitely has. So if you're a fan of horror games and don't mind waiting for a lower price tag, maybe give it a shot. If not, you're probably not going to miss anything to write home about if you let this one pass you by.

Let us review:

-STUPID story - 1.0

-Laughably bad writing - 1.0

-Immersion-breaking technical troubles - 1.0

-Weak gameplay - 0.3

The final score for The Quarry is...

6.7/10 - Decent

Ok job, Supermassive, ok job