In a time when explosive multiplayer games are all the hype, the story-driven games are taking a bit of a back seat. That’s not to say they don’t exist, but more often than not, the single-player is more of a bonus feature and quite often lacks a compelling story. Lately though, I’ve noticed more and more interactive narratives coming out, filling the void for gamers passionate about the story and less concerned about the gameplay.

Supermassive Games and 2K have given us access to the early preview of their all-new teen-horror narrative, The Quarry, and I was surprisingly captivated with the hour of gameplay I was treated to. Taking place at Hackett’s Quarry Summer Camp, we follow a small group of camp counsellors as they spend their last night together, reminiscing on summer romances and creating all sorts of the usual teen drama.

As an interactive narrative, you, as the gamer, will find yourself making choices for the characters as the story progresses, but you’ll also find yourself getting the chance to interrupt the story with other characters. Perhaps that question in Truth or Dare was a little bit too personal, so maybe they shouldn’t be expected to answer it. If the hour-long preview is anything to go by, you’ll have plenty of choices to make, and ample opportunities to interrupt the story.

It’s not all about making choices and interrupting though, there is a bit more to the gameplay. Like other interactive stories, there will be times when you will directly control the character of that particular scene, moving them around the Summer Camp or taking pot-shots at some bottles for target practice. You’ll also take part in Quick-Time Events, having to quickly and correctly react to what you see on screen, as well as button bursts, which is described as “similar to button mashing,” though I didn’t notice any difference.

The result of all these choices and how successful the Quick-Time Events or Button Bursts are will be how the story progresses, and this will ultimately lead to several different endings. Your choices will directly influence character relationships and consequences as the story comes to an end. On-screen prompts will let you know how favourable your choices were with certain characters, and game-changing moments are flagged by visual and audio cues.

The Quarry features a cast of well-known celebrities, Including Ariel Winter from Modern Family, David Arquette from the Scream franchise, and Lin Shaye from A Nightmare on Elm Street, and it’s not just their voices, but their digital likeness as well, right down to their mannerisms. It was interesting watching Ariel Winter standing awkwardly to the side as Abi, one of the younger people in the group, everything from her awkward stance to her uncertain eyes shifting around nervously, it was all meticulously recreated as a game character.

In the short hour I had, I witnessed everything you’d expect to see in a teen horror film from the nineties.

The scene opened with several members of the group gathering firewood for a campfire, while others collected food and what I can only assume to be alcoholic beverages. There are even early conspiracies about surveillance cameras and blatant misuse of a firearm that some of the less responsible in the group managed to find while exploring areas otherwise off-limits to campers. This quickly moved to the tutorial for using the shotgun before the scene closed and reopened at a campfire, and what better thing to do while a group of teenagers are sitting around bored than play a game of truth or dare.

Of course, some members of the group take things too far, and several of our camp counsellors leave the gathering. This is when things start to take a turn for our group and the player is given control of young Abi as she wanders aimlessly alone in the forest. As far as horror movies go, this is the perfect setup, and she soon finds herself lost, stalked by an unknown assailant.

Meanwhile, Jacob, the cockiest of the group, finds himself sitting alone at the camp pier, now completely aware that his love interest, Emma, isn’t really into him and it was only a summer camp fling. With his ego bruised and battered, Emma finds him there and reminds him that they both agreed this was only temporary, before jumping into the lake together for one last time. Their romantic rendezvous is abruptly interrupted by Abi screaming, and Jacob runs to the rescue, leaving Emma alone in the dark.

When we finally see Abi again, she is covered in scratches and begging her fellow campers to go and save her camp crush, Nick. Picking up the shotgun, Ryan enters the forest to try and locate Nick, and when he does, he’s covered in blood and barely able to stand on his own two feet, and this is where my time with The Quarry ended…

I never thought I’d say this about a teen-horror story, but The Quarry kept me glued to the screen for the hour I was allowed to play. In such a short amount of time, I had developed connections with some of the characters and genuinely cared for their well-being. It’s coming to all major platforms on June 10th, 2022, and as much as I never really enjoyed this style of gameplay, I’m very keen to jump back in when it releases.

Written by: MKAU Gaming