Supermassive has returned with their latest horror adventure in The Quarry. Taking up much of the same storied formula, The Quarry follows a group of teenagers who are in charge of a summer camp. After an impromptu extended stay the group encounter a number of dangers including a monstrous threat.

The Quarry is a 2022 interactive horror game, it is developed by Supermassive and published by 2K Games. It is currently available on PC, Playstation, and Xbox consoles.

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for The Quarry’s story and minimal spoilers for additional endings may be present within this review. 

Time to kill some kids again in Supermassive’s latest The Quarry.

As we take a break from Supermassive’s Dark Pictures Anthology the developer decided to make a completely unrelated project in The Quarry. Not to be confused with the film of the same name, this title follows a group of teenage camp counselors on one last Summer job before they graduate high school and head off to college. Unbeknownst to them the camp has been made the victim of a curse brought on by the infamous Hackett family who are locals that hold a ton of wealth and power within the area. Now the group must fight for survival in an ever increasingly dangerous situation.

The Quarry features some familiar faces for it’s sizable cast.

THE GOOD: The story begins with young teenage couple Laura Kearney & Max Brinly on their way to Hackett’s Quarry to start their Summer jobs as cam counselors. A strange creature hops across the road causing them to crash and temporarily immobilizes their vehicle. Following an investigation of the area local police sheriff Travis Hackett questions the two before helping them fix their vehicle and sending them on their way with directions to the Quarry and a near by motel recommending they rest for the night. Curious about the current state of the Quarry the duo take a detour against Hackett’s advice and head to his family’s Quarry. Upon gaining access to the cabin they’re ambushed by the same creature from before. Max is seemingly killed during the attack & Laura is sedated by an angry Travis who stops the creature. Two months later the remaining group of counselors see the kids off before making plans to stay an extra night at the Quarry against the wishes of owner Chris Hackett. As the night goes on the group is stalked by two hunters and a pack of the same creature from two months prior.

Without spoiling too much of it the story for The Quarry is a fun monster filled game of hide and seek. Most of the time characters will be spending time running and taking safety from the threat at hand with very little opportunity for scripted combat sequences. There’s near fully explorable game areas and it’s not completely linear. In fact the devs kind of make it a point to consider your options as you play with the alternate routes and paths you can choose. Some of these paths and subsequent choices can lead to instant death for the current player character. If you’d like to genuinely watch the game’s story play out rather than play yourself there’s a movie mode for you to enjoy.

Experience goofy and horrific teenage hijinks in The Quarry.

As you play you’ll unlock clues to the game’s story and the curse plaguing the Hacketts. These are often used to flesh out the world building and history of the Hackett family and the surrounding area. The more clues you have also have an effect on the potential ending you can unlock. In addition to the clues you can find tarot cards left behind by the ghost of fortune teller Eliza Vorez. Tarot cards will allow players future sight of sorts that clues them in on an action or series of actions that may lead to a character death. Almost like a get out of jail free card to make it a bit easier to understand.

Outside of the gameplay The Quarry features a stacked cast of talent voicing these roles including but not limited to Brenda Song, David Arquette, Evan Evagora, and Ariel Winter just to name a few. All of the cast performed unexpectedly well for voice roles and did well with the emotional depth of their characters even with the cheesy dialogue and such. Ordinarily at this point I’d name some key performances but it feels rather unnecessary here as everyone was in equal footing with each other.

As is tradition with Supermassive titles The Quarry has a number of endings including one that keeps every character alive.

THE BAD: The Quarry wants you to explore it’s rather sizable world and for the most part it’s successful in doing so. However there are some weird liberties they take with the limitations they take with player control. Like I felt that Until Dawn & Dark Pictures allowed the player a bit more freedom to do things. Whereas when playing The Quarry it often just seems like the only thing I can really do is walk around for a bit and interact with stuff. And when you consider the clues and tarot cards I can’t help but feel like there was so much more that could have been done with the level of immersion currently given.

The Quarry has a new twist on a classic monster:

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The Quarry may not have a connection to Supermassive’s previous efforts from a story or universe perspective, but it’s very much within the developer’s wheelhouse. Though it’s a tad weaker in player choice in comparison the minor weaknesses are far outweighed by a strong script, excellent acting performances, and a rather solid horror story that’s a bit low on scares.