Creator of the “Until Dawn” games and the Dark Pictures anthology saga, the Supermassive Games studio has just delivered “The Quarry”. A game of massacre that continues to dig the horror vein with talent.
In a house lost at the bottom of a mountain, 8 friends will quickly discover that they are not alone and try to stay alive… until dawn. Taken by fear as the tensions within the group continue to increase, the player had to make many decisions that were often synonymous with life or death. Such was the pitch of the game Until Dawnreleased in late August 2015 on PS4.
Conceived and designed as a true tribute to slasher (with the passage of the actors all the same nice, like Rami Malek Where Hayden Panettiere), Until Dawn offered an experience halfway between cinema and video games. And the result turned out to be really exciting.
After some not entirely convincing productions (The Inpatient notably, which took place before the events of the game Until Dawn), the development studio Supermassive Games has done it again with The Dark Pictures. A horror anthology in several episodes including the first part, Man of Medanwas released in August 2019.
Enriched since by two episodes (and a 4th to come, The Devil in Me, due out this year), this anthology, although not devoid of qualities, blows hot and cold. The fault in particular with a weak level of writing.
If we take the trouble to recontextualize a little, it is because The Quarry correct the shot. With this new game, surprisingly published by 2K, not really accustomed to this kind of production, Supermassive’s new game hits the mark and can claim to follow in the footsteps ofUntil Dawneven if it does not quite succeed.
If you missed the start…
As the sun sets on the last day of their summer camp, nine Hackett’s Squarry camp counselors decide to throw a little party. A beautiful campfire, in a magnificent setting, on the edge of a lake, in the middle of the forest. An environment as superb and wild as it is isolated: of course, mobile phones do not pass in the area…
After a “truth or dare” rekindling badly extinguished fires and jealousies, the group disperses… And will soon live a nightmare night. Early petty banter and upset flirtations give way to life-and-death decisions. Because, there, outside, all around, an evil lurks that will strain the nerves and damage (or not) the relationships between the characters. The goal ? Trying to keep this little world alive until dawn…
Check out the trailer…
Thought as a beautiful tribute to Summer Camp Horror Moviesthis subgenre of films widely swept up in the 80s by titles like Carnage and in which season 9 ofAmerican Horror Story anchored (firmly) its history, The Quarry is already illustrated with headliners of Hollywood talents; a hallmark of the studio’s productions from the start.
We thus find David Arquettedecidedly still subscribed to horror franchises; Justice Smith (Jurassic World); Lance Henriksen and his face more weathered than ever; Lin Shaye; Halston Sage; or Ted Raimi in the guise of a sleazy cop, who is none other than the brother of Sam Raimi. Visually, the result is often very convincing; sometimes even impressive. But alas also, we do not escape from time to time the syndrome of Uncanny Valley.
Still, the character animations have made some progress; they are now less rigid and stiff as stakes. Appreciable when you wander through the environments in search of clues.
A solid narrative that takes time to unfold
Throughout its 10 chapters and a little over ten hours of play, the time to make a first run, The Quarry deploys compelling writing; superior to the opuses of Dark Pictures Anthology. Often evolving in pairs, the characters are not always the slapping heads one might have feared.
If they obviously do not always avoid clichés, it is often to better twist them precisely, not hesitating to challenge each other according to well-felt replies. This is all the more significant since their respective character traits also have an impact, depending on the choices made by the players, on the course of certain situations, which are sometimes tense to burst.
And, in the face of adversity, it is better to play collective rather than personal. Currency “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”written by the philosopher Nietzsche in 1888 in Twilight of the idols, although repeated like a mantra throughout the game, unity is strength. You will therefore be advised to avoid alienating the relationships between the characters as much as possible.
Supermassive Games
We also salute the studio for having eased quite a bit on the Jump Scare, which abusively dotted the latest productions. If they obviously remain present, like any good self-respecting horror film, they remain here distilled in dribs and drabs. The result proves to be very effective, precisely because it increases the peaks of tension encountered, especially during the sequences where the character must not make noise in order not to be spotted, under penalty of certain death.
Return before death
If it can be avoided, death is an integral part of the experience of the game. Often very gore, it is however less punitive and radical than in its original model, Until Dawn. The studio has indeed integrated the possibility of a “return before death”: if one of your characters dies, it is possible to go back, sometimes even quite upstream of an unfortunate choice or a QTE missed.
Fortunately, the process is not at will, since we have only three times the possibility of doing it during the whole game. In the same vein, it is possible to generously configure the reaction times in the situations tense and the QTEs. We advise you to leave the default settings. After all, a small spike in stress triggered by a short reaction time is also the salt of the game…
Claiming more than ever its cinematographic dimension, The Quarry precisely integrates three cinema modes, baptized “everyone survives”, “everyone dies”, and finally “director’s chair”. If the first two modes are clear enough not to have to explain them, the 3rd is very friendly and clever.
Supermassive Games
You can determine yourself in advance the behavior of all the characters that are under your control. To show benevolence or not in the dialogue, to accentuate the antagonism of one of them; demonstrate vigilance, recklessness or negligence during the exploration phases. While in battle, he or she will show composure, restlessness, or doubt.
Once all the parameters have been chosen, all you have to do is settle into an armchair (or the sofa, as you prefer) and watch the story unfold before your eyes. It goes without saying that we will not recommend that you launch one of these cinema modes before having finished the story for the first time!
In the radius of the reserves, because there are some, we will put a damper on the VF of the game, already. If it is not dishonorable, it remains clearly less immersive than the VO; the fault also with a recurring problem of lip synchronization, which breaks the immersion several times. Shame. The Quarry does not avoid certain inconsistencies and false connections either, but nothing dramatic either.
Benefiting from a welcome Replay Value, thrilled by a story that follows each other with relish, The Quarry is hands down Supermassive’s best game since Until Dawn. Highly recommended therefore!