Supermassive Studios' new horror game, Quarry Horror, is the spiritual sequel to Until Dawn, with a 10-hour flow and little connection to black albums. This game replicates the successful model of "Until Dawn" and has a strong classic youth horror style. Like Until Dawn, the game's storyline is winding and winding, with a kaleidoscopic direction leading to 186 different endings. In the 3 hours of experiencing the first three chapters of the game, I kept wondering, where did the fun and freshness that "Until Dawn" bring to the players when it first came from? Quarry Horror may not have given the same novelty, but it captivated me with a cinematic and unbeatable overall atmosphere of horror movies.
Quarry Horror also comes from stitching up bloody horror classics. The summer camp setting of Friday 13, the confrontation between teenagers and monsters in Cabin in the Woods, and the feeling of Screaming. At the same time, the echo of the banjo in "Riptide Four Warriors" will also be heard in the woods. My live-action experiences include bloody scenes of sudden encounters, heartfelt moments between characters, and some jumping fears. However, the game does not overemphasize the main idea, but encourages players to smile in the face of flesh and blood. Look at the cast and you'll see what Supermassive Studios is all about, bringing in thriller actors like David Arquette in Scream and Ted Remy in Ghostbusters to give you a humble welcome to Hackett Quarry Summer Camp.
After a tense, creepy prologue, the first chapter of Quarry Horror begins on the last day of summer camp. The children all went home, except for the camp leaders and Mr. Hackett (Aquiat). In the hours that follow, players take turns maneuvering the nine team leaders in preparation for the final night feast before heading home. What episodes happen at this point? There is no doubt that there are many interludes. I'm not going to spoil it here, but rest assured, the crisis in Quarry Horror is overwhelming. I witnessed eerie paranormal phenomena, encountered some sort of roaring beast, and a creature that I didn't know how to describe, and just at the end of the game, it suddenly popped out. Of course, the most dangerous game is inevitable: fighting with people. After all, it's hunting season...
It's hard to ignore the amazing cinematic mirroring when playing Quarry Horror, which is undoubtedly a great improvement in graphics and art compared to "Until Dawn". By using the historic, Renaissance chiaroscuro technique, the light and dark areas are contrasted, so that the heavily shaded areas show unexpected surprises. That's exactly what you'll see in horror movies, from ancient classics like Dr. Carrigalry's Cabin to modern films like The Joker Returns in 2017. This technique is used to the fullest in the game's prologue: a terrifying policeman played by Remy suddenly appears in the darkness, startling two young men and women in the warm light.
However, not only the light efficiency has been technically improved. Improvements in the operation of the camera make "Quarry Horror" one of Supermassive's most cinematic works. The tight, claustrophobic framing enhances tension and complements the high-profile, detailed facial animation captured by Digital Domain, which once portrayed the Marvel movie character Thanos. Not only is this a substantial improvement after Until Dawn, it's one of the most powerful facial animations I've seen in video games. They really give life to the characters... Then let them fall to their deaths instantly at the player's choice, and that's it. However, if you don't first understand these nine manipulative characters, then the death of the character will not be able to show its true meaning. That's what the first two chapters of the game focus on: developing connections between camp leaders, especially between players and them.
In the protagonist group, you can find the classic character combination of youth horror films. Jacob is a sports youth with a burst of self-confidence; Emma is extroverted and romantic; and Dylan is an eccentric with an anxious personality. Sometimes their behavior is funny, but to be honest, that's exactly what Supermassive aims to create a witty ode to fear through ridicule and vivid black humor. The performances of the game are also very exciting, ranging from award-winning stars to newcomers to the first show, which is fascinating. Young and famous actors include Justis Smith, who starred in "Detective Pikachu," Ariel Winter in Modern Family, and Brenda Song, who stood out in my mind, as Caitlin, the actual leader of the charismatic, witty squad.
In such a game, it is very important to create all the actionable characters. But even if the player doesn't get along well with the characters, then they can get fun by killing them to their liking. Although none of the choices I made in the early part of the game resulted in the death of any of the characters, game director Will Byles assured me that there was more to come. Indeed, "choice" is the theme of this game. Players can use their ingenuity to get all nine characters out of Hackett's Quarry alive. But with all due respect, what fun is there to talk about? In the game, there's a great narrative, which is a radio show hosted in the game by emily and Murph characters from the CollegeHumor team. Depending on the player's ending, the corresponding storyline will also be played at the end of Quarry Horror.
For players familiar with Until Dawn, there are no surprises in the experience of this game. During the quest to gather clues, dialogue and answers that require the player to choose are inserted from time to time, which is both subtly and obviously changes the course of the story. Sometimes QTE pops up when the plot is tense, and these events are more like another way of choosing than a quiz that examines the speed of reaction. Maybe you'll deliberately let someone crash headlong into a tree just to see how it goes. The game, of course, reacts to this choice.
Maybe there are no bad decisions in the game, only a moment that makes the player feel the most liked, or the decision that is most beneficial to the story. By far, the best designs are those that don't seem like a big deal, but that can lead to someone's death in a few hours. For example, I chose to climb down a ladder early in the game, and nothing important happened except to be told that the ladder was about to fall off the wall. I apologize in advance for those who were accidentally killed by my actions.
This time, in addition to improvements in choice-based storytelling and film performances, Supermassive used additional means to try to create an accessible experience for Quarry Horror. Here's an example of this: QTE now simply shakes the handle stick without pressing a button. This way, players unfamiliar with the gamepad don't have to scramble to find the right keys. Each game mechanics is complemented by 1950s-style animation tutorials, and the voice acting also reveals a strong retro atmosphere.
In the special case of a battle, the aiming does not have to be very precise, and the game replaces the small crosshair with a flashlight. For players who don't want to deal with any combat encounters at all, they can turn it off completely in the settings and let the game play progress automatically. This mode also applies to other parts of the game, including QTE events as well as in-game exploration. All of these different game mechanics can be set to on or off at the beginning of the game, adjusting accordingly to the player's own preferences and abilities.
In fact, if the player wants to throw the controller aside and only watch the action play, the game also has a "movie mode" to choose from. In fact, the player can pre-determine the behavior of each of the 9 characters at the beginning of the game before starting to watch the plot unfold. Will the characters act cautiously, or will they be overconfident? Will you treat people with courtesy, or will you look at them coldly? The possibilities are endless, and we'll be detailing these mechanisms in our IGN First column at the end of this month.
After three hours of playing Quarry Horror, all my expectations for the until Dawn sequel were met. In terms of game mechanics, the system hasn't changed much in the seven years since Rami Marek first scared everyone in his previous game. The game is still an "interactive film", which Supermassive Studios takes for granted. For decades, people's love of horror movies has been there for all to see, and this "frequent and tough decisions" gameplay, simple but effective, is very suitable for this genre. Players sometimes press a key button every few minutes, but each choice makes a lot of sense. It's still hard to know what impact our choices will have, whether it's an immediate impact or something that will happen in six hours. It is this slowly established sense of tension, and the sudden release of pleasure, that makes a great horror movie and a harbinger of the future of the Quarry Horror model.
This article is compiled from IGN US related content, the original author Simon Cardy, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.