When will these youngsters learn that spending a night at summer camp alone without any adult supervision is a sign that some of you kids may die halfway through, with the chance of being sacrificed by the main protagonist for them to live by the end?

That is one of the few tidbits of info that The Quarry leaves around as a reminder that any of the playable characters are that playthrough’s main character and it doesn’t have to be the likable one.

So what does Supermassive Games bring to the campfire tonight? An intriguing but messy game that could surprise people.

Presentation

The look and feel of The Quarry, if I could pinpoint its era of horror-slasher movies style, is more like the Netflix line of movies like Fear Street or The Babysitter with some added campy stuff like the original Friday The 13th, which makes it rather interesting to see the modern and classic horror style combined in a sort of modern take of this genre. 

The game itself looks pretty good, with great emphasis on the character’s mocap and faces being the highlight here, but it does feel like Supermassive is also stepping onto the Uncanny Valley at some of the character’s expressions and even the overall surrounding on the campsite doesn’t look as sharp at times when compared to the cast, with some texture pop-in and cinematic slowdowns during the start of a chapter sometimes.

And while the music does add some tension during the more scary moments, its song selection does feel out of place sometimes, like an example of this is the song that plays after the prologue that feels weird in context but I get it does set the tone of the whole game.

Gameplay

On paper, it feels like a continuation of their Dark Pictures Anthology and their successful game, Until Dawn. The controls, movement, and even QTEs feel more or less the same as before. There are some good additions to the accessibility options which might suit those who need a bit of a helping hand within these games.  

There’s also some combat that you can do as well, perhaps lifted from House of Ashes, where you can point your weapon flashlight at the enemy and your character will shoot depending on where it is, a good way to balance your accuracy during intense action.

But an addition that may make or break a player’s immersion in this game is perhaps the addition of Death Rewinds, a Deluxe Edition feature where if you accidentally lose your favorite camp counselor, using this will make you tread back to the point where they died, which could be a chapter before or the worst-case scenario, at a point that’s way behind from where you are, losing a ton of progress as a result.

I didn’t have any issues (because for me, they are dead for the whole game, no reruns lol) but there will be an upcoming fix for this if you don’t want to replay a whole chunk of the game once again, but for now, let them just die after making a choice or mistake, and perhaps wait for the dev team to fix it before trying your luck with saving your fave.

Content

For all it’s worth, The Quarry is as meaty as its original predecessor, with an expected runtime of around the 10 hours, which doesn’t include the times where I want to quick save/ load to see the outcome. And the good news is that you can kinda kill the whole cast when the hunting season arc begins if you’re into for some speedrunning the cast’s death ala the Friday The 13th movies.

Personal Enjoyment

I do feel that The Quarry is more in line with the “play with friends or viewers” type of game because while the story itself is rather shallow in nature when playing alone, especially when the game brings out the tween jokes and you don’t have anyone to bounce that cringe towards. 

Like, summer camp, teenagers and a mysterious quarry isn’t exactly new territory when it comes to horror experiences but it could have made it campier as they have shown within the tutorial slides, but alas its young adult cast does see where the demographic of this game is going for and I kinda understand it.

Still, it is a pretty good action-adventure game for those wanting more after the current Dark Anthology releases.

Verdict

Supermassive Game’s newest horror entry doesn’t really deliver a summer camp slasher game that they might plan for, but for those wanting to play more interactive adventure games, you could have a look and see if this one is your liking. It has its moments, but they need to iron out the remaining kinks first. Then perhaps it might be a sleeper classic.

Played on PC, Review copy provided by 2K Asia.