The Quarry Is Summer Camp Horror: The Video Game
Teens delivering cringe dialogue is back and so good.
The kids aren't safe at this camp.
The Quarry from Supermassive Games is an upcoming horror adventure game from the team that made Until Dawn, a legendary (and pioneering) horror game that put players in the shoes of teenagers trying to avoid a serial killer. It's essentially the video game version of the horror film Friday the 13th.
This time around, Supermassive isn't beating around the bush. You play as a group of teenage camp counselors at a sleepaway camp next to a lake -- an obvious homage to the 1980 classic slasher. As expected, things get weird. Someone, or something, is watching them.
The characters in the latest game are the typical teenage sort found in horror movies, and like in Until Dawn, you won't necessarily miss them when they get knocked off.
The cast is packed with horror movie archetypes. Kaitlyn (Brenda Song) is the de facto leader. She takes charge of the counselors when they're goofing around. Abi (Ariel Winter) is the shy one of the bunch, who has a crush on Nick (Evan Evagora) who's also on the quiet side himself. Jacob (Zach Tinker) is the "bro" of the group, who's going out with Emma (Halston Sage) even though she wants to have a bit more "fun" with other guys. Ryan (Justice Smith) is the laid-back dude who seems like he's just finished smoking weed, while Dylan (Miles Robbins) is the one who shares in the gossip and drama among the counselors.
Like Until Dawn, The Quarry plays from the perspective of multiple characters. The choices players make in certain situations often filter down the line, leading to multiple split narratives. There are key, important decisions that send players down these paths.
The writing is bad, but it's deliberately bad. To imitate the schlocky dialogue of the horror movies it's paying homage to, The Quarry has a very distinct style. The teenage characters speak like a middle-aged man's idea of how teenagers speak -- the base standard for slasher movies
Will Abi kiss Nick?
Quicktime action sequences -- which have players pushing specific buttons during cut-scenes -- are ever-present, like they were in Supermassive's previous games. But The Quarry adds gunplay elements, leading to tense sections where players have to shoot accurately to rescue fellow counselors. As always with these games, actions have consequences. If you miss, this will impact the story further down the line.
With The Quarry, slasher fans are being given exactly what they want: Tense moments of watching annoying people being bumped off. Horror game fans in need of a fix will have some fun with it.
The Quarry is scheduled to be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles on June 10 for $60.