Humdinger
Gold Member
Just finished playing through The Quarry, the spiritual successor to Until Dawn. I figured I'd share some impressions briefly. I picked it up for about $15 on sale recently. It took me about 13 hours to play through.
I picked it up because I enjoyed Until Dawn. I haven't played any of their intervening games (the Dark Pictures Anthology). However, what I realized while playing The Quarry is that Until Dawn was released in 2015, 9 years ago, and my tastes have changed a lot in 9 years.
I almost quit during the first hour because the dialog was so bad. Almost everyone spoke with the same annoying style - flippant and sarcastic, supposedly “witty,” but without the wit. The humor was awful. There were over a hundred lines that were supposed to be funny, and I only laughed once.
All the modern gender stereotypes were present. Most of the women talked tough and lead the group. They controlled the men and kept them in line. They shot better than the men, they fixed cars, they saved the day. Meanwhile, all the men – no exception - were either simpy, wimpy, or corrupt. The usual casual misandry.
I've also grown tired of cinematic games in the past few years. For someone tired of cinematic games, this was an odd choice, because it's almost nothing but movie. The gameplay consists of “push left stick forward, watch cutscene, push left stick forward some more, watch another cutscene.” Occasionally, you press X to investigate, or you choose between two options.
It had good production values. Graphics, acting, and motion capture were all good.
The story is fairly entertaining, in a shlocky sort of way. I enjoyed the chases and the gore. There is no real tension to the chases, though, because the only inputs required are simple QTEs with enormous time windows.
The story was full of more holes than Bonny and Clyde, but no one expects these stories to make sense. I do expect some emotional impact, though, and the story had none - mostly because I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. In fact, I enjoyed leading one to her doom (go ahead and open that trap door, I’m sure it’ll be fine).
All in all, the game fell flat for me. A game like this relies entirely on character, dialog, and story, and all of those were mediocre at best. I'd say it's a 5/10 (edit: make it 6/10). You might like it if you're a big fan of Until Dawn.
I picked it up because I enjoyed Until Dawn. I haven't played any of their intervening games (the Dark Pictures Anthology). However, what I realized while playing The Quarry is that Until Dawn was released in 2015, 9 years ago, and my tastes have changed a lot in 9 years.
I almost quit during the first hour because the dialog was so bad. Almost everyone spoke with the same annoying style - flippant and sarcastic, supposedly “witty,” but without the wit. The humor was awful. There were over a hundred lines that were supposed to be funny, and I only laughed once.
All the modern gender stereotypes were present. Most of the women talked tough and lead the group. They controlled the men and kept them in line. They shot better than the men, they fixed cars, they saved the day. Meanwhile, all the men – no exception - were either simpy, wimpy, or corrupt. The usual casual misandry.
I've also grown tired of cinematic games in the past few years. For someone tired of cinematic games, this was an odd choice, because it's almost nothing but movie. The gameplay consists of “push left stick forward, watch cutscene, push left stick forward some more, watch another cutscene.” Occasionally, you press X to investigate, or you choose between two options.
It had good production values. Graphics, acting, and motion capture were all good.
The story is fairly entertaining, in a shlocky sort of way. I enjoyed the chases and the gore. There is no real tension to the chases, though, because the only inputs required are simple QTEs with enormous time windows.
The story was full of more holes than Bonny and Clyde, but no one expects these stories to make sense. I do expect some emotional impact, though, and the story had none - mostly because I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. In fact, I enjoyed leading one to her doom (go ahead and open that trap door, I’m sure it’ll be fine).
All in all, the game fell flat for me. A game like this relies entirely on character, dialog, and story, and all of those were mediocre at best. I'd say it's a 5/10 (edit: make it 6/10). You might like it if you're a big fan of Until Dawn.
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