Until Dawn arrived in 2015, bringing the narrative adventure genre of QTE and decisions -made popular in recent years by Quantic Dream- to the slasher, introducing elements of terror and with a very clear idea: any decision you make can mean that a character lives or dies. 7 years later The Quarry has arrived, a game that we could call Until Dawn 2 and no one would notice any difference is that the title published by 2K is more than just a spiritual successor. If you want to know why, keep reading our analysis of The Quarry for Xbox Series X.
The Quarry is a tribute to the slasher that fans of the horror genre like so much because it brings to the video game everything that we like to see on the big screen, also giving us the possibility of guiding the characters ourselves and facing our decisions. The new Supermassive Games game does not seek to captivate us with its story, narrate something new or create a cult movement among its fans, it seeks to entertain and keep us glued to the controls during its 9-hour duration in which we will have to make do with the decisions that we make. let’s take
Survive until dawn
Before I commented that The Quarry could easily be Until Dawn 2 and that is that if the English studio had continued under the protection of PlayStation, this would surely have been the title of the game. The motives? The development of its history is the same, the gameplay, the collectibles and its contribution are identical. Is that bad? Not at all, but you’re hardly going to like The Quarry if Until Dawn didn’t seem like much to you back in the day. Secondly, If the deliveries of The Dark Pictures Anthology disappointed you, I can give you the good news that they bear little or nothing resemblance to what The Quarry offers.
Will Byles, who directed Until Dawn, shows his hand in The Quarry, moving it away from the short, predictable and unengaging experiences that The Dark Pictures Anthology offers. In The Quarry we once again have a story told at a good pace, with a beginning that already gets us fully into what we can expect in Hackett’s Quarry, highlighting the great performance of Ted Raimi in the role of the Sheriff of the area, a character that will baffle us at all times.
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Once the introduction is over, we will begin the main plot of the game, which consists of 10 episodes, in which we will control the young monitors of the Hackett’s Quarry camp. Obviously the game will spend some time getting to know each one of them, their motivations and their relationships with the other monitors, although – yes – without doing it in such a deep and detailed way as in Until Dawn where we could see quite graphically the affinities and even the feelings of each character. Despite simplifying that aspect, we can also get into a good mess if another colleague dislikes us, so we must take it into account.
After the introductory episodes, which do a great job of getting to know the characters, we’ll start to see and feel things, to soak up the strange happenings of Hackett’s Quarry and figure out what might be going on. If we have already played Until Dawn or have certain boards in terms of horror movies, the truth is that we will see many twists coming, but that will not stop us from having fun with what is to come.
The butterfly Effect
I can tell you little more about the story, but what I can do is tell you about the possibilities that open up as we progress through the game. The Quarry has a multitude of endings thanks to the options it presents to the player at all times and how the characters get along. From the get-go, the way we get through QTEs and our decisions will impact the way the plot unfoldswhere each character is located, whether or not they are wearing certain equipment, or whether it is easier for them to die.
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All this is built little by little while we make decisions following our instinct -sometimes the most obvious being the best option, although the game makes sure that there is no “good” or “bad” option, simply that in one you need to do more actions than the other, so you are more likely to miss and lose a character. Even so, you will always have that feeling of “maybe if I had done this I would have been better”, compelling reason to replay the game and see what could have happened.
One of the novelties introduced by The Quarry is a second chance once a character dies. This “flashback” has only 3 uses available and can mean going back only to the last decision made or going back several episodes, since the decision that sentenced our character was made a long time ago and we can no longer save him (something strange, but what can happen). If we decide to use this extra life we will have a new option to make that decision and see how the plot unfolds. If we don’t want to use life and we face that character losing life, we also have the option of ignoring this mechanic, of course.
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As known mechanics, the totems from Until Dawn return, only now in the form of tarot cards that we must show to a peculiar lady who takes up the figure of the psychologist in Until Dawn or The Curator from The Dark Pictures Anthology. This tarot reader will read us the cards that we bring her and will allow us to select one of them at the end of each episode to show us a vision of a possible future.
For the rest, playably it is in game that we have already seen many times: in the scenes that are not cinematic we can move our character in a limited space (both environments with a fixed camera and others with a camera over the shoulder) to discover clues or find cards, as well as interacting with characters to return to the main game loop that focuses on making decisions and overcoming QTE.
familiar faces of slasher
The Quarry is a pure and simple tribute to the horror genre and the choice of its cast also makes that clear: David Arquette (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scream saga), Ted Raimi (Evil Dead saga, Candyman), Linda Shaye (Nightmare on Elm Street, Insidious saga, Ouija, Dead End) are exactly the older characters that appear in the game and who inherit the aesthetic of the strange adults that appear in horror movies. On the other hand, among the actors on the monitors we find familiar faces and that we associate with roles very different from those that we will find in The Quarry such as Ariel Winter (Modern Family), Brenda Song (Hotel, sweet hotel: The adventures of Zack and Cody) or Justice Smith (Pokémon: Detective Pikachu).
Accompanying the great choice of actors we have an aesthetic that despite being based on 2021 evokes that eighties style at all times with the graphic elements of the interface and the soundtrack, even with some filters that we can add to the image to take this aspect even further.
At a graphic level we find the artistic decision to use the two horizontal bars that change the aspect ratio of the game to about 21:9 that sacrifice much of the screen to give greater immersion. Personally, it doesn’t bother me, although I understand that there are players who I push back. Otherwise, the use of Unreal Engine 4 is a marvel in which Supermassive recreates itself at all times, with close-up shots of the characters’ faces where we can see one of the most detailed results I can remember. The lighting and the way in which it influences the settings and characters at all times is also a great point in favor, both technically and narratively. The performance, in this case, is around 60 frames per second that vary a bit and are not entirely stable.
Finally, It is worth highlighting the work in dubbing into Spanish, which more than meets the bill with veteran voices in the industry and good performances. Even so, it should be noted that there is no option to play it in the original version, something that I have personally missed since in this style of games I also want to enjoy the original performances. Since actors are included who lend voice and face to their performances, why limit the options? Luckily it is something that can be fixed in a patch.
Analysis of The Quarry: An entertaining and tense adventure
The Quarry allows us to play its story alone, in a local cooperative (in a few days also online) or in the form of a movie where the cinematics take place without us managing the characters. While I haven’t seen a big jump from Until Dawn, what I’ve found with The Quarry is a very entertaining title that has given me everything I ask of a game of its kind: scares, gore, clichés and seeing my decisions have an impact.
If you are a fan of the horror genre both in games and in movies (or series), The Quarry will surely be your summer surprise. The different routes and decisions that we can make also help us to want to replay it, either alone or in company.
Last update on 2022-06-20. Prices and availability may differ from those published. SomosXbox may receive a commission from your purchases. More information.