The Quarry - Before You Buy

The Quarry (PC, PS5, PS4 Xbox Series X/S/One) is the latest playable horror adventure from the creators of Until Dawn. How is it? Let's talk.

[adamstrangelove]

I still don't get how these guys haven't made a Final Destination game yet. They are the PERFECT developers to do it

[rsmith]

Until dawn was the all time favorite 2 am game with my roommates in college. Having a crew of hammered dudes get half the characters killed in an hour was hilarious

[juliana.]

The fact that until dawn came out years ago and everyone still talks about it shows the impact of a great game for a game company I love everything these guys have to offer even if my standards are kinda high in my opinion nothing will beat until dawn but I’m always happy to play a new game from them this one has me excited and the next dark pictures of course

[evakasai]

i personally really loved how fast and "out of nowhere" the until dawn QTE's were. quite a few times where i was like "oh crap, my character couldve died.." and it really made me feel immersed with the danger and how even if i was a split second later i couldve lost them

[BigMac]

Wasn’t too huge on Dark Pictures, though House of Ashes was an improvement on the previous two. Absolutely loved Until Dawn, and if I’m getting more like that I’m all for it

[paranoyd]

What I really like about games like this are their replay value. You can make different decisions that drastically alter how it plays out. Watching someone else do a playthrough is okay, but understand that the decision-making changes how the story plays out a LOT.

[zachsheets]

Only into chapter 4 right now, I'm loving the location and characters. But I agree the qte's are EXTREMELY easy. I mean in until dawn it was pretty easy to miss a few. I haven't even come close to missing them here. You seriously have enough tim to hit a wrong button and then readjust and hit the right one before the time runs out. I do like that hold breath mechanic though. But overall I love this genre of game and am having a lot of fun. I hope they fix facial animations in future patches though. The blonde girl has the strangest lip movements and it's so jarring.

[DylanCisGoodMe]

I appreciate the simplified QTEs from an accessibility standpoint but I wish there was an option for more complex ones. Seems less engaging than what the genre usually brings. Still excited to play it though.

[superskills]

So in other words, this is exactly what we've been looking for? Say no more.

Thanks Jake.

[VictorRobotov]

Absolutely love this channel, but I must admit to not having seen too many of this series. The “Before You Buy” videos. But they’re pretty good. I’m use to other channels often dumping on everything and being highly negative. Great job, Jake and Gameranx.

[antaeusrexx]

Was on the fence for awhile with this one. This review just made me sure I wanna buy it now. Thanks Jake!

[cryzzn]

the fact that steam remote play allows me to play with my friend on the other side of the country seamlessly has made me like the games significantly more. nothing is more fun than watching your friend deliberate over life ending choices when you know whats gonna happen. gonna play through it with him overnight cant wait

[paradsecar]

I went back and played Until Dawn recently and they have really come a long way since then with the facial animations.

[Aristowi]

I really enjoyed Until Dawn, I'm sure I'll enjoy this one. These games are very narrative focused and I won't expect any action gameplaywise, they're more like a Telltale game in that regard and they really nail that formula. For an action kind of experience I think Alan Wake was one of the best games out there, it has moments when you are just walking around discovering the lore and the characters with strong narrative and artistic direction combined with good old shooting combat with a unique twist.

[gnaget]

gameranx is the best gaming channel on Youtube.
Very detailed and on point.
Thank you Jake, Falcon, Video editor, everyone who works there.

[kileeduea]

Hope to see more games like this style(until dawn) more in the future, it's type of games i feel more

[lilyhero]

I loved the Quarry. I'm a huge fan of branching story games, campy 80's horror, and Until Dawn is one of my top games of all time. However, since I got into a lot of these types of games young, I usually didn't get to actually play them until years after I'd first discovered them (lack of money and my mother's unwillingness to get me a console). Meaning I'd already memorized the ins and outs of all the possible choices you could make. Getting to play the Quarry blind... oh man, did I have a blast.

The characters were fun and while they played into certain tropes, I didn't find them one dimensional or unlikable. I actually thought they were pretty fleshed out and I'm attached to all of them... well. Almost all. There was one character who was taken out of the plot pretty early on, and wasn't particularly distinct before that, so I didn't walk away attached to them at all. Which wasn't the case for any of the Until Dawn characters who made it past the prologue. But aside from that one character, I thought everyone was great. I either really liked or really hated them. I was surprised with how endeared I was to a certain very minor antagonist LMAO.

On the horror end of things, I wasn't super freaked out by much of anything. There were some tense scenes for sure, but I think the only time my heart genuinely skipped a beat was when an motion sensor light turned on at one point. Reminds me of how the Until Dawn moment that always got me the most was that like... wild animal jumping out of the cabinet at Chris. Lmao. The designs for the monsters were cool, but I wish they were a little more distinct, if that makes sense? Like they don't really look at all like the cultural idea of the monsters they're supposed to be, and I get that they want to be distinct, but I feel like they leaned a little too far away from convention here. Still, that's a minor nitpick, and I think that overall they were pretty good. (Also, since I know some people read fast, I'm adding here that the paragraph after the next one has some minor spoilers about allocation of playtime.)

I agree the pacing was good, although there was one chapter that felt a little unbalanced and like it dragged in places. Still, when you're on a second playthrough and know where to find things/about how much longer you're gonna be in the segment, it's not nearly as bad. I also wish that the playtime was distributed a little differently? Once again, there are some spoilers in the next paragraph, since I have no idea how to say this without spoiling. You've been warned.

I wish Ryan gave Kaitlyn like. A tiny bit of his playtime. According to achievements, Kaitlyn is supposed to be the final girl to Ryan's final boy, but I feel like Kaitlyn got the least playtime in the first two chapters of exposition, and then Ryan got significantly more playtime than her in the final chapters. Just... a tiny evening of the scales would be nice. Additionally, I wish Abigail took a bit more of an active role in things? She was much more of a reactive character throughout the game, and I feel like she didn't really have to be? Whereas with Nick and Max I got why, for plot reasons, they didn't do too much, Abi absolutely could have done more. But overall, distribution was good.

Overall, I think I was the target audience for this game, and I absolutely loved it. 10/10, already one of my favorite games of all time. I can't say whether it surpasses Until Dawn in my rankings, since that game is drenched in nostalgia for me, and this one has the shiny coating of novelty, but I will say that I'm glad I got to enjoy them both. Definitely recommend this one for fans of UD who liked it for the campy horror tropiness or the goofy dialogue (if those things bothered you, maybe just watch a let's play, lmao), or for people who enjoy stuff like that in general.

[conormurphy]

For me this is definitely gonna be a “watch a let’s play” game. I don’t think there’s actually enough “game” for me to bother playing it by myself without having a third party’s input.

[elimorris]

oh my god this game looks breathtaking
I don't think I ever saw facials expressions so accurate to real life in a game
even down to some micro expressions

[ChrisChaos]

Getting to know the characters is the best part!! You start to develop an attachment to certain characters and want them to survive!