Mysterious events unfold at summer camp Hacketts Quarry, where nine counselors face a final night of peril, with threats lurking around every corner. Supernatural creatures roam the forest, the eccentric Hackett family presents its own dangers, and other unforeseen surprises await. Player choices directly influence the narrative’s outcome, determining who lives and who dies. Welcome to The Quarry.
The Quarry delivers exceptional visual fidelity. The developers have invested considerable effort in replicating the likenesses of the actors within the game, achieving results comparable to, and in some instances exceeding, those of Detroit: Become Human. The script, musical score, and sound design exhibit a quality akin to a well-produced Hollywood thriller, imbuing the experience with a cinematic feel rather than a purely game-centric one.
However, The Quarry remains a game, and its core mechanics, consistent with previous titles from Supermassive Games (The Dark Pictures, Until Dawn), largely revolve around Quick Time Events (QTEs). These sequences require rapid and accurate controller inputs in response to on-screen prompts to ensure survival. Dialogue choices also play a crucial role, influencing relationships with other characters and shaping the narrative path.
Players are frequently confronted with choices determining the fate of characters. These decisions are often time-sensitive, demanding quick judgment. While QTEs may not appeal to all, the game diversifies its mechanics by incorporating free-roaming exploration in specific sections and introducing combat sequences later in the game.
The Quarry’s foundation as an interactive horror film is transparent, evidenced by the inclusion of a dedicated movie mode. This mode offers pre-set scenarios, such as a playthrough where all characters perish, one where all survive, or a customizable experience with adjustable parameters. However, the mode lacks rewind functionality, necessitating a complete viewing from start to finish for each scenario.
Testing The Quarry on Xbox One X revealed occasional performance issues, including lag and synchronization problems, which detracted from the immersive experience. A patch addressing these issues on Series S/X is available, and impressions will be provided subsequently. Additionally, the game’s dark environments sometimes presented visibility challenges, requiring brightness adjustments that, even at maximum, did not fully resolve the issue in certain areas.
The presence of Swedish subtitles and on-screen text proved somewhat distracting. While the spoken dialogue remained in English, the forced Swedish localization at the game’s outset, without an in-game option to change it, was problematic. Attempting to modify the console’s language settings resulted in game crashes. The issues with translations and reference errors were a source of irritation.
In conclusion, The Quarry is a recommendable title. It is a well-crafted horror experience that pushes genre boundaries, albeit with a few noted imperfections.
2K Games provided a review copy for this assessment. The provision of materials does not influence our editorial evaluations.
