I am so ready to play The Quarry

Announced earlier this year, The Quarry is the next game from developer Supermassive Games - the studio behind Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology. The studio is known for its campy horror games that involve playing as multiple characters and making decisions that heavily impact the narratives. The Quarry expands upon those mechanics and looks to be an even more in-depth and engaging horror experience. 

I have always loved narrative-driven games that offer the player choices. The first game in that style I recall playing is Heavy Rain, followed by Telltale’s The Walking Dead. My husband and I played Until Dawn right when it came out and pre-ordered The Dark Pictures Anthology as soon as it was announced. I love cheesy horror movies and these games are like cheesy horror movies that you can control and actively participate in. 

While Until Dawn was an exclusively single-player experience, The Dark Pictures Anthology introduced local and online multiplayer options. The Quarry will also offer those multiplayer options: Couch co-op, where you can play with up to seven friends and pass the controller, or online multiplayer, where you can essentially take over an online player’s controller and make decisions for their playthrough. The Quarry will also add two additional modes: Movie mode and Director’s Chair mode. Movie mode is exactly what it sounds like - turn off the quick-time event (QTE) options and other video game-y things and let the game play itself. You can also choose a style for Movie mode - for example, everybody lives or everybody dies. Director’s Chair mode will allow the player to make four important decisions for each of the nine playable characters before the “movie” begins, so essentially you get to direct the “movie.” Or, as usual, you can play the whole game by yourself. You will no doubt want to play the game multiple times, as the game’s director, Will Byles, confirmed that the game has 186 unique endings!

After completing the game once, you will be given the option to play the game with Death Rewind mode enabled; this is yet another new feature which will essentially grant you three “lives” so you can go back and change a decision you made in order to avoid a character death. This is a great addition, I feel, and it’s something I would’ve loved to see in Until Dawn. I’ll never forget the time I missed ONE QTE and ended up killing a character I really liked. I think limiting it to three “do-overs” provides a nice balance; after all, if you could “rewind” every time you messed up, your decisions would all feel weightless. Note: If you purchase the Deluxe Edition of the game, you will get access to the Death Rewind mode right away.

As someone who plays video games fairly often, sometimes I want to share my gaming experiences with the people in my life who don’t play games. The Quarry is going to be one of those games where I can play with even my mom, who I don’t think has played a video game since 1985. This game is very accessible, allowing you to customize almost everything in the controls. And, as stated above, you can let the game just play itself if you don’t feel like being an active participant. I feel that the Movie and Director’s Chair modes will be excellent for multiple playthroughs. I can totally see myself putting on Movie mode while I am washing the dishes or putting stickers down in my planner. 

The Quarry is scheduled to release June 10 for PS4/5, Xbox Series X|S/One, and PC via Steam. Please note that the online multiplayer functionality will not work across console generations (i.e. a Xbox One player wouldn’t be able to play online with a Xbox Series X|S player, etc).