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It’s not just prestige television series that should be treated “like a 10-hour movie.” Over the years, video games have sought to become more cinematic by focusing as much on narrative as they do on interactivity. This often doesn’t work – if the story doesn’t, long cutscenes (which, incidentally, also known as cinematics) interrupting actual gameplay can be more difficult than immersive. Some purists would even argue that the medium undermines itself by trying to imitate the other. Movies are for watching, videos are for playing games and the two will never meet.
Of course, there are exceptions, with “The Quarry” being the most recent game—and, in some cases, one of the most notable—to blur the line between passive and active entertainment. Developed by Supermassive Games and released on Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S by 2K Games, it is essentially a choice-your-own-adventure slasher flick in which the player has almost complete control. It happens who lives, who dies and how the whole story goes. The game is the spiritual successor to 2015’s “Till Dawn”, also created by Supermassive, which functions in the same way, but was not as refined in its branching paths.
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Those paths begin with a prologue. By the time you see Laura (Siobhan Williams) and Max (Skyler Gisondo) drive through the night for several minutes before actually doing anything, you’ll have learned some important information: Both are on their way to Hackett’s Quarry, upstate. A summer camp in New York, where he will spend the next few months as a camp counselor. If you’ve seen literally any horror movie, you already know where it’s going. Here’s what makes this game different, though: Every time you play “The Quarry,” the extended cutscenes refer to the key moments in which you make decisions that resonate long after those choices. Huh. The development team is said to have written over 1,000 pages and 186 possible endings, all of which depend entirely on the player’s preference.
At least on the screen, those choices are made by a cast anchored by horror mainstages: David Arquette, Lynn Shay, Lance Henriksen, Ted Raimi, and Grace Zabriskie, to name a few, all of whom, in addition to them, have made the motion- Capture performance provided. The Voice to say that David Arquette’s character is, in fact, sounds like an understatement that seems like David Arquette would be an understatement, which is exactly the point—relying on familiar faces may also be the game’s most obvious attempt to make it feel like an interactive movie. Is. Some options are time-sensitive, giving you just a few seconds to decide whether to keep running from danger or find a hiding place and hold your breath until it is safe to exhale.
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While it may seem counterintuitive, there isn’t a total overlap between those who love horror movies and those who love horror games. The reason for this goes beyond some people in the former camp simply not playing any video games, because the survival-horror genre tends to be overly stressful. You don’t have the option of keeping your eyes on your eyes and preparing yourself to take the next leap while playing the “Resident Evil” game – you really have to take control of the situation and progress through the story. When a dreaming teenager dies at the hands of Freddie Krueger, it is forever extinguished; When one of the prisoners running the asylum in “Outlast” kills you, you’ll have to go back to the last checkpoint and try again. There’s also the question of duration: “The Witch” is over in 93 minutes, but “Alien: Isolation” will stress you out for a full 20 hours.
If you fall into that camp, “The Quarry” may still be for you. It has a movie mode that allows you to choose a few presets—for example, whether each character survives, or even each character dies—and just watch the chaos you’ve ever seen on the controller. Build without lifting. You might want anyway, as the PlayStation’s DualSense controller’s haptic feedback adds to the immersion: the way it rumbles or flashes different colors in your hands lets you know you’re in trouble. Huh. If you’re not content to see your masterpiece on your own, there’s even an online mode in which up to seven friends can view and vote on your every choice – not that you, The brilliant writer you are is bound by his input.
For all that, “The Quarry” isn’t actively scary most of the time. This isn’t necessarily a critique, as the game is often so engrossed on a technical level that you’re likely to be so impressed by its visuals that whatever you can or can’t open on the other side of the door. “The Quarry” feels incredible in the way that some of the games before it have, especially when one of three optional filters—indie horror, ’80s horror, and classic horror—are applied. The first of these adds film grain, the second makes everything look like it was shot on video and the last is just black and white. Although film grain is usually the way to go, the VHS aesthetic works best here, adding an extra layer of unreal to the proceedings while serving up the story’s throwback vibe.
By the time it ends, it can be hard to feel that causality was exaggerated. If you were wondering whether a small choice—for example, taking the scenic route back to the lodge instead of the straight path—would create a butterfly effect that locks into a character’s fate hours later, you may be disappointed. can. Whether or not a person survives the night usually comes down to a single action that occurs immediately before their potential death, such as deciding to open a door to the roof of the cabin rather than its comparatively safe Explore the interior. Even so, “The Quarry” still manages to feel life-or-death, even if it doesn’t—it’s not until the credits roll that you realize that you’re often yours. were less in danger than thought.
This is also a sign of panic. We love horror movies because they raise our pulse and tempt us to look away from the screen, even when we are completely safe on the other side of it. “The Quarry” understands it as well as any real horror film, and uses its insider knowledge of the genre to compelling effect. And unlike the movies it’s modeled on, it allows you to start right away for an entirely different experience – it makes you not only a participant but a director, and from “Bride of Frankenstein” What doesn’t a fan of everything up to “The Shining” want to be just that?
‘The Mine’
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