The Quarry

“

It’s late summer in the remote forests of upstate New York, and the teen counselors of Hackett’s Quarry have the camp to themselves for one final night. That means no kids, no adults, and no rules. In this thrilling cinematic tale, you control the fates of all nine camp counselors as their party plans unravel into an unpredictable night of horror. With life-or-death decisions around every turn, the choices you make will determine how the story unfolds.

”

The Quarry is an interactive drama survival horror adventure game developed by Supermassive Games and published by 2K Games. It was released on June 10, 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox XS.

It is the spiritual successor to popular 2015 horror title Until Dawn and a cousin of the horror title series The Dark Pictures Anthology.

Plot[]

Prologue[]

On June 24-25, 2021, Laura and Max, new counselors at Hackett's Quarry summer camp, drive down the route to camp one night before its opening to check things out. Trying to avoid hitting an unknown creature that suddenly appeared on the road, the two turn off the route and crash into the woods. They are found by the local county sheriff, Travis, who becomes suspicious of their situation. Upon learning that the couple is going to Hackett's Quarry, Travis orders Laura and Max to spend the night at a motel nearby, but the two, distrusting the sheriff because of his strange behavior, drive to the camp anyway.

Arriving at the camp, Laura and Max find it completely empty. As they are about to leave, Laura notices someone in a closed bunker. Thinking the person inside needs help, the pair break into the bunker when Max is attacked by an unknown creature. Laura tries to escape, but she is sedated by Travis, who then shoots the monster.

Present Day[]

Two months later, on August 22, Hackett's Quarry closes. With all the campers gone, counselors Ryan, Kaitlyn, Dylan, Emma, Jacob, Abigail, and Nick are preparing to leave as well. However, they find that the van doesn't work as Jacob secretly sabotaged the engine to spend another night with Emma, who is his summer fling. Camp owner Chris Hackett leaves in a hurry, warning the counselors to spend the night in the lodge and not to go outside under any circumstances. The group ignores the request and instead decides to have a bonfire party to celebrate the last night at camp. However, during a game of Truth or Dare, when Emma is dared to kiss Jacob or Nick, Abi's crush, she chooses the latter, prompting Jacob and Abigail to storm off. Emma goes after Jacob and Nick goes after Abigail while Kaitlyn, Dylan and Ryan stay by the fire.

Nick finds Abigail in the woods when the two are attacked by an unknown creature that bites Nick. Leaving him and the girls at the lodge to recover, Ryan and Dylan head to the radio cabin to broadcast their distress, following the power outage at the lodge. However, the group at the lodge is soon ambushed by hunter Bobby, prompting the trio to follow the boys. The counselors hear gunshots in the pool house where they discover the body of Kaylee Hackett, Chris's daughter who supposedly left the camp with her brother Caleb a long time ago. Nick's condition begins to worsen and culminates in him turning into a monster and escaping into the woods, possibly killing Abigail beforehand. Immediately afterwards, the group runs into a woman who turns out to be Laura.

Emma finds Jacob in the boathouse and tries to cheer him up by suggesting to spend one last night together swimming in the lake. Their moment gets interrupted when Jacob hears Abigail's screams and runs into the woods to help her, leaving Emma alone. She swims to an island in the middle of the lake and reaches the treehouse, where she is attacked by a monster who possibly kills her. Escaping from the island, Emma reunites with Jacob only to be separated once again as they are chased by another monster. While Emma successfully makes it to the lodge and hides in the van, Jacob ends up captured by another hunter Jedediah.

Laura explains to the group what happened to her and Max two months ago. The two were imprisoned by Travis, who turns out to be Chris' brother. They also learn that the Hackett family has been fighting a curse for years which turns Chris and his children Caleb and Kaylee into werewolves, and that Max was also cursed following an attack in the bunker. A couple of hours before the game, the pair manage to escape and now Laura tries to kill Chris to cure Max since the curse can be revoked only by killing the infecting werewolf under a full moon. She then explains that she left Max on the island (revealing that he is the werewolf who attacked Emma) and finding him still uncured, realized that she killed the wrong werewolf, who turned out to be Kaylee.

Laura sets out to find Chris, with Ryan deciding to accompany her. The two head toward the Hackett residence (where they also find and free Jacob), where they confront Jedediah, his wife Constance, and Bobby, who are revealed to be Chris' and Travis' parents and brother respectively. During the fight, the werewolf Chris appears, attacking his family and Laura and Ryan, who gets the opportunity to shoot Chris. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn, Dylan and Abigail return to the lodge and are reunited with Emma. While the girls hide in the bunker, Kaitlyn and Dylan go to a scrapyard to find a working car when they are attacked by a werewolf Caleb, who possibly kills Dylan/Kaitlyn. When their plan fails, the two return to the lodge where they once again are ambushed by Caleb. A chase ensues in which the protagonists manage to defeat the werewolf.

If Ryan, Laura, and Travis survive the fight, Travis may reveal to them that to end the curse permanently, they must kill its progenitor Silas - the son of the fortune teller Eliza, who has been guiding the player using tarot cards. As they approach the forest, Travis explains the curse of the Hackett family: six years ago, in 2015, their family visited a freak show called "Harum Scarum". Caleb and Kaylee tried to free Silas, but ended up burning down the whole sideshow and killing everyone, including Eliza. Silas bit Caleb, who in turn passed the curse onto Chris and Kaylee. Finding the ruins of the show as Silas' lair, the trio encounters the werewolf and shoots him, ending the curse for good.

As the day breaks, the police arrive at the camp, finding all the survivors and the dead. In a post-credits scene, an episode of the paranormal podcast"Bizarre Yet Bonafide" plays, in which hosts Grace and Anton discuss the events at Hackett's Quarry, examining the evidence the player has collected.

Gameplay[]

The Quarry is a cinematic game played from a third-person perspective in which the player controls nine teenagers as they try to survive a night at Hackett's Quarry summer camp. Throughout the game, players will have to make difficult decisions with different consequences, such as changing the relationships between the characters or their deaths. The most important decisions that significantly affect the course of the game are recorded and updated as the game progresses. Due to the game's branching storyline, it has 186 different endings, affected by the status of the protagonists and several supporting characters.

The Quarry has a strict auto-save system which prevents players from returning to an earlier point in the game if they regret their choices. However, after the first playthrough, the player unlocks "Death Rewind", which allows the player to undo three protagonist deaths in each subsequent playthrough. The main gameplay is focused on exploration, quick-time events and discovering clues, as well as evidence, which determine the public's perception of events that occurred at Hackett's Quarry.

The game features local and online multiplayer. In local multiplayer, players take turns to control different characters, while in the online mode, seven other participating players can vote in key decisions. The game also features a movie mode in which the player can set personality traits of the protagonists that affect their behavior in the game, and then let the story play out.

Downloadable Content[]

The Quarry: Deluxe Edition[]

In addition to the game, the deluxe edition features instant access to Death Rewind, "Gorefest" scenario for Movie Mode, a set of 80s-themed outfits, and a pack of visual filters replicating a different era and style of horror movies.

Character Outfits[]

Costume sets that allow the player to dress the protagonists in outfits made in the style of different eras.

The ‘80s Throwback Character Outfits DLC came with the Deluxe Edition, being available in July 8, 2022 and allowed to dress the protagonists in 80's-themed outfits.
The ‘50s Throwback Character Outfits DLC was released in October 24, 2022 and allows to dress the protagonists in 50's-themed outfits.

Cast[]

The Quarry follows nine camp counselors of Hackett's Quarry, with all of them can be controlled. The playable characters are young adults, who on the last day of summer camp decide to have one big party to celebrate this event before returning home and moving on with their normal lives.

Protagonists[]

Supporting Characters[]

Development[]

The Quarry was officially announced on March 18th 2022 with an announcement trailer on 2K Games official channel^[1]. It was initially planned to be a Stadia exclusive, but ultimately did not release on the platform due to Google cancelling its plans for first-party titles in February 2021.

The game is heavily inspired by teen slasher and monster films, and adheres to established horror movie tropes more firmly than The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive's other horror franchise. Creative director Will Byles added that while the game is set in modern times, the setting has a very 80s vibe, citing movies including Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th as major sources of inspiration. Supermassive was also influenced by films such as Evil Dead, The Thing, The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Deliverance.

The team wanted the game to feature horror movie tropes from different eras, and Byles went on to compare the game to a horror theme park. While the game pays homage to various horror films, the team learnt from their experience making Until Dawn, allowing the team to build up players' fear through creating tension rather than relying heavily on jump scares.

While Until Dawn was designed to be a solo experience, the team found that players like to play in small groups, and acknowledged that the game was popular for people to simply watch. Therefore, The Quarry introduced a Movie mode, expanding the multiplayer options introduced in previous Supermassive games in order to appeal to people who would simply like to watch the story. The accessibility options were also designed to cater to more casual gamers who may not be experienced in playing games. When compared to The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Quarry was designed for a broader audience and had a smaller focus on gameplay.

PC System requirements[]

Minimum:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 or AMD FX-8350
RAM: 8 GB
OS: Windows 10 64bit (version 20H2 or newer) / Windows 11
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon RX 470
Dedicated Video RAM: 3 GB
Free Disk Space: 50 GB

Recommended:

CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K or AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
RAM: 16 GB
OS: Windows 10 64bit (version 20H2 or newer) / Windows 11
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700
Dedicated Video RAM: 6 GB
Free Disk Space: 50 GB

Trivia[]

Since the announcement of The Quarry and until the game's release, Supermassive Games ran a real podcast, "Bizarre Yet Bonafide" which expanded on the game's lore.
The Quarry has the shortest development period of all Supermassive's titles, being announced in March and released in June.

References[]

↑ The Quarry Announcement

[1] The Quarry Announcement

[1]