The Quarry

The Quarry is an interactive horror drama from Supermassive Games, the creators of Until Dawn, which brings the studio's proven formula to the big screen with nine playable teenagers stranded on the last night at a summer camp. The player makes choices through branching dialogues and quick quick-time events, where every decision and even a minute's delay in pressing a button can send a member of the group to their death — the game offers dozens of different endings depending on who survives. The structure resembles an episodic horror series with transitions reminiscent of comments from an experienced narrator, who occasionally deals out tarot cards hinting at future events and suggests what kind of horror awaits the player in the next chapter.

On PlayStation 5, the game benefits from photorealistic actor models captured via performance capture, and the cast includes several well-known Hollywood faces, lending the story a cinematic level of acting. The atmosphere is enhanced by dense music and the sound backdrop of a forest where something unnatural is awakening under the full moon, and the game skillfully alternates quiet dread with bursts of action. An optional local multiplayer mode for multiple players on one TV allows players to take turns making decisions, turning the game into a form of social entertainment similar to a board game, where players take turns arguing over each subsequent decision.

Contemporary reception was largely positive, with critics praising the production values and the experience of playing with friends, though some noted excessive similarity to the studio's previous titles. For genre fans, it offers a comfortable entry point thanks to accessible controls and the option to follow the story more like an interactive film than a demanding game. To this day it functions primarily as an entertaining experience for one evening with friends, where the tension of decision-making is heightened by a group of people gathered around one couch, arguing about who to sacrifice next and who to save instead.

Why play it: For a group of friends looking for a thrilling evening on one couch — an accessible interactive horror that works more like a film you watch together than a demanding game.