The Quarry
Developer Supermassive Games
Publisher 2K Games
Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release Out now
Within the first few moments of The Quarry you’re confronted by the scariest thing you could possibly encounter in the woods at night: an unsupervised American cop. What follows is an uneasy conversation as the police officer asks you a series of strange questions, orders you out of the car, and insists you stay overnight at a dodgy motel up the road. It’s surprising, really, that this exchange should be more terrifying than the supernatural encounter that takes place directly before it. Yet character interactions such as this are where The Quarry is at its best. With snappy dialogue and believable personalities, these scenes are absorbing to watch, investing you in Supermassive’s cast while demonstrating the developer’s keen understanding that a good horror story needs some proper stakes.
The Quarry’s set in an off-season American summer camp, and Supermassive isn’t shy about hiding its influences. One in-game menu, for example, uses videonasty-style cover art to represent character paths. Partly inspired by the kind of slasher movies that caused a moral panic in ’80s Britain, in The Quarry genre tropes are cooked up into a wonderfully corny horror story, then modern-day teenagers are thrown into the pot. The opening sequence, in which Ariana Grande blasts out from a car lost in the woods, immediately makes it clear what this is: schlock horror with a contemporary twist.