I have been a big fan of Supermassive Games since I played Until Dawn in 2019. Supermassive Games is known for creating interactive, immersive, horror games that rely on significant decisions within each chapter. I like how the games are scary without it being unplayable. There are certain horror games that I cannot play because there are too many jump scares and I find that any game Supermassive Games creates, it’s the perfect line of scary without needing to cover my eyes all the time. The Quarry was a blast to play the week before Halloween.

The Quarry begins at Hackett’s Quarry, a summer camp in the woods. As the seven counselors are preparing to leave camp for the summer, Jacob (played by Zach Tinker) sabotages the truck, so he can have another shot with Emma (played by Halston Sage). The counselors are warned by Chris Hackett (played by David Arquette) to stay indoors for the night. Of course, the teens ignore Chris’s advice and throw a bonfire to celebrate the end of the summer. Besides Jacob and Emma, there’s Abigail (played by Ariel Winter) and Nick (played by Evan Evagora) who have this “will they” or “won’t they” attraction to each other. The other three counselors: Dylan Lenivy (played by Miles Robbins), Kaitlyn Ka (played by Brenda Song), and Ryan Erzahler (Justice Smith) initiate a group of truth or dare which helps progress the story by separating several of the camp counselors from each other. As the chapters progress, it’s clear that there’s something hunting the group of counselors and something sinister is happening at Hackett’s Quarry.

I loved the setting of The Quarry. Nothing feels more like a slasher film than having it take place at a summer camp. The campgrounds were huge and there were so many areas that were explored throughout the game. There’s a portion of the game where Emma is separated from the group and she’s running on top of this water tower overlooking the island with the camp. There are several scenes where Abigail was in the woods by herself and there were noises that could be heard no matter where she wandered to. Horror video games rely on the setting to create the ultimate gaming experience and The Quarry did just that.

As far as the characters, Abigail was my favorite. She was the artsy one of the group and I liked her and Nick’s romance. Out of all the characters, they were the two that I was trying my best not to kill. I also enjoyed playing Ryan as he becomes incredibly important in the later chapters. He’s one of the characters that get to the final showdown between the survivors and the killers. While I found a few favorite characters in The Quarry, it doesn’t really matter if the characters are likable or not. In any Supermassive game, if you like the characters, you’re more likely to want them to survive, but if you end up hating everyone, you end up having a fun time trying to find ways to kill them off. There’s something for everyone in this genre of games.

Another highlight of The Quarry is the amount of replayability. There are several trophies or achievements that are unlocked based on character choices or how many characters survive in the end. There’s one trophy where all the characters are killed and another where all the characters live. There’s a secret achievement where one female character survives and the rest do not. In my first playthrough, I ended up having four of the counselors who survived and killed three of them which is actually pretty good for me. In Until Dawn, I killed everyone in my first playthrough. Oops. I could see myself replaying The Quarry next year for Halloween and trying to unlock a new trophy and see a few cutscenes that I didn’t get to witness my first time through.

The Quarry was the perfect game to play leading into Halloween. I ended up turning off all the lights in the downstairs living room and turned up the volume while playing through the game. I am still a big fan of Supermassive Games and if anything, I feel more inspired to go back and buy their other games and play through those as well. The Quarry may be the best game I played in 2022.