Even years after my last school break, as soon as June arrives, everything seems to go slower, smoother. The day stretches out to late, cheerful sunsets like I did when I was a kid at camp. But I have come to realize that these hot months no longer mark the idyllic moment of childhood when it is okay to lower your guard. Mosquitoes hover over their lazy targets until they land for a long, bloody drink. No one will come and hit you and protect you, especially not in the interactive horror drama The Quarry, the new summer successor to Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn.
The Quarry makes you play from the alternate point of view of nine camp counselors as they are pushed into a long night of danger, gore and paranoia on their last night at Hackett’s Quarry summer camp. Standard teen stuff, really, but with deadly bets.
Players must guide the characters to safety (or not) by completing quick events and making divided decisions, avoiding or giving ideas that adults in the game and real-life horror icons, including Travis Hackett (Ted Raimi of The Evil Dead), Chris Hackett (Scream’s David Arquette) and fortune teller Eliza (Grace Zabriskie of Twin Peaks) sink to their heads.
It’s a lot for a normal kid in the camp to do, especially when you’re already dealing with more urgent things, like wondering if the kid in the misunderstood dreams of your camp likes you. But you shouldn’t suffer alone, so I’ve put together these 10 tips to inform you of your first play of The Quarry in a sort of goal-setting mentoring act. Get a cold compress for insect bites.
Play your way
Playing The Quarry without modification involves 10 hours of history and choose your own adventure paths that determine which of the final 186 (!) You will receive. The rest of this guide assumes that you’re playing in standard single player mode, but if you prefer not to play alone or under too much stress, the horror game offers some options.
It’s easy to stream with a “play mode” that removes any instance of Ariana Grande and other copyrighted music, so you can play with the bloodshot eyes of the Twitch audience glued to your screen. If you prefer to have only your eyes glued to the screen, you can also activate the game’s movie mode that turns The Quarry into a 10-hour monster puree.
Movie mode has its own set of options: you can choose between an ending where everyone lives, an ending where everyone dies, a “gore fest” or click on Director’s Chair to adapt the personality of each director to your preferred qualities. This will affect the choices they make in the film, for its success or harm. Sit back and relax while your personalized characters die a slow death.
But if you and a friend would like to personally hand over the counselors to their slow death, you can take advantage of The Quarry’s sofa co-op. Choosing this game option allows groups to assign a counselor to each player and pass the controller when the game changes to that counselor’s point of view, which could help each character become a true individual. not a mere byproduct of your clumsy quick answers.
Get ready for it to get dark
Literally. I played this game completely next to a large window without curtains.
Opening the window and letting in the nice summer breeze made for a good 4D gaming experience, but keep in mind that The Quarry has a lot of black environments. The glare of my window, though certainly avant-garde and 4D, made walking and finding relevant clues very difficult. Please note if you are playing on a device with a delicate sheen or if you are in a bright room.
Stop and touch the bloodstains
From time to time, not being able to see my surroundings was frustrating because 90% of the actual gameplay of The Quarry is coupled and grabbing stuff.
The game successfully encourages you to find things, as many things as you can. Throughout the game, in any room or miserable state in which your body finds itself, you will look for clues that explain the horrible carnival fire that hit the Hackett quarry a few years ago, the ghost that haunts the winding forest and the sad The history of the Hackett family and their summer camp of decades.
You’ll also be looking for evidence of the fast-paced, grunting monsters that keep destroying your friends so that the police don’t wonder why everyone but you has died. You can pick it up yourself by taking pictures on your characters’ cell phones, or find it crumpled and hidden somewhere in the dangerous camps. If you rush through seemingly empty surroundings, you may be missing out on clues to help you and your counselors gather their sudden strange night. Take your time, explore every nook and cranny, and if you’re asked to keep looking or keep going, it’s probably a good idea to keep looking. Just make sure you’re exploring new nooks and crannies – the quarry quickly becomes a walking simulator if you don’t.
In this note, understand the art of the fast-paced event
As a walking simulator, though smeared with crushed guts and a scattered brain, The Quarry can be slow at times. When you’re not walking, you’re watching an extended cut scene, and it’s easy to get lost in what you see and forget that you’re actually part of it.
I found it helpful to keep both hands in an active position on the controller. That way, when suddenly a quick event arose and literally meant life or death for my favorite counselor, I was ready to act and save them.
It’s hot summer of killers. (Screenshot: Supermassive Games)
Every second counts
In addition to fast-paced events, which often include quick physical actions such as jumping over a problem, dodging a prey, or grabbing something yourself, The Quarry also requires you to make sudden emotional and reactionary judgments.
This was difficult for me, because I am a big baby and I wanted to keep all my counselors alive, happy and in love, if possible. But the game asks you: Do you want to shoot your friend? Press A. Should you kiss your love interest in the creepy foggy forests or pass the time? It depends on you.
A fast-paced bar tells you how much time you have left to make your decisions, but if you don’t, you could get hurt. There was a case where choosing between running and hiding was too much for my delicate heart and I hesitated, which led to the capture of my counselor. Boohoo, but it’s a warning story. You should never follow an indication of reaction and you should not be pressured to make immediate decisions that you are not sure about. But at least make a choice.
The game also allows you to control them. The biggest emotional decisions that significantly affect one or more characters will be tracked in the “paths” category of the game menu. When you make a decision to start or change the path, the game will flash “chosen path” or “updated path”, respectively. When you see it, go to the paths menu and see which path has an exclamation mark. Clicking on it reveals more information about the story you started, the decisions you made to continue it, and gives you a rough idea of where it’s going.
When choosing between dialogue options, the game will also tell you explicitly how the other characters feel about what you said, whether they don’t trust you, or whether they feel supported by you. These indicators will also help you decide if you like where your story is going or if it’s time to change course.
Shit shit …
From time to time, you should silence the shit, especially when an enemy is about to enter your hiding place and open your throat.
Not being detected in The Quarry will activate a “hold your breath” mechanic and you’ll have to hold a shutter button until the danger passes. This is again indicated by an exhausting color bar, as well as a red mist on the screen and the loud sound of your counselor’s heartbeat.
Once the fog and sound go out, you can release the button and let your counselor breathe. It may seem safer to wait until the color bar timer runs out completely, but at this point, your counselor will run out of breath and let out a big sigh, letting your assailant find them easily. I learned this in an unfortunate way.
… But only if you want
Alternatively, breathe as hard as you want. There are 186 endings, and yours can be as macabre as you want. If you want to kill a character or just see where a “wrong” decision leads you, do it, sick.
There is no better time to spend hormones than when you are on the verge of death. (Screenshot: Supermassive Games)
Looking to the future
A more mystical element of The Quarry is finding the 22 cards of the Major Arcana, the trump cards of a tarot deck that deal with broad themes and changes. This is another good reason to thoroughly search for a room before moving on to the next task.
Finding tarot cards will allow you to put something on the table when you have a meeting with the inscrutable fortune teller Eliza, which happens at the end of the ten chapters of The Quarry.
Eliza will read the letters to you and ask if you want to see one of the future predictions on her glass ball. Accepting it will allow you to briefly witness a possible outcome of an emotional decision that you will find in the next chapter, another useful way to check if your story is progressing as you expected.
Review the past
If you’ve made a mistake and aren’t happy with what you see, players with the Deluxe edition of The Quarry can take advantage of the useful Death Rewind feature in their first game. If you don’t have the deluxe edition, you’ll be able to access this feature in later games.
Death Rewind offers you three opportunities to reverse death. It is available anytime a director dies, as long as you still have a …