Supermassive Games' 2015 hit Until Dawn was a refreshing take on the survival horror genre. It added levels of interactivity to the B movie-like plot, with player choice having a potentially significant impact on who lived and who died with a complex and not always predictable system. Until Dawn was tense, intriguing, and embraced the tropes of its genre in the best ways. Now the studio is following up with The Quarry, a spiritual successor to the developer's previous title, which will also feature a cast of characters that players must keep alive through the night as they face a number of unknown perils.
While The Quarry features some similar aspects to Until Dawn – teenagers in a creepy and remote location, player choice dictating their fates, and sinister forces seeking to harm them – the upcoming game will also be adding some elements of its own to freshen up the gameplay. Alongside the game's branching storyline, players will be able to make use of the Death Rewind system, which could have a large impact on how they play and experience The Quarry.
Explaining The Death Rewind System
The Quarry is an 80s movie-inspired horror game that centers on nine teenage camp counselors as they attempt to survive the night at the Hackett's Quarry in the remote forests of Upstate New York. It's set at the end of summer when the group of teens has the place all to themselves after the camp's kids and other supervising adults have left for the season. But their night of freedom soon turns into a night of horror as they're stalked by a malevolent creature intent on killing off the teenagers one by one.
Players will control each of the nine teens as they attempt to help them survive the night, making life-and-death decisions as they go that could lead to any one of the characters failing to make it to the end of the story. The choices players make will not only affect their fates but also their relationships and their character development as well. Needless to say, one wrong move could seriously affect how the narrative plays out and could even cut a playthrough short. That's why The Quarry has implemented a new Death Rewind system, which will let players go back to key moments in time and potentially avoid a character death.
Once players have come to the end of their first playthrough, or if they've purchased the Deluxe Edition of The Quarry, they will unlock the Death Rewind function. This will essentially give the player three chances, or 'lives', that they can use if a character dies to rewind back to the fateful decision and make a new choice. This could have massive impacts on the story of The Quarry, as player decisions will completely shape the narrative and could change the ending significantly.
Death Rewind's Impact On The Quarry
Just like Until Dawn, players are making vital decisions whether they know it or not. Choosing what action to take or dialogue option to choose could mean someone lives and someone else dies, and this adds to the tension of the entire experience. While the Death Rewind system removes this anxiety slightly from The Quarry as players can essentially save characters they've accidentally killed, it does offer some other intriguing outcomes. With apparently around 200 endings for The Quarry, it provides fans with a quicker and easier way to experience multiple sides to the same story without constantly having to start again.
The Death Rewind feature also lets players experience more of the game's scenes and storylines, although this is by no means infinite as they only have three chances to change things. But the system lets them experiment with the narrative more and even take some risks with their decision-making if they know they have a safety net of sorts. The Quarry's Death Rewind function also encourages multiple playthroughs of the roughly ten-hour game as players will no doubt want to see how the variety of different choices plays out, as well as all the potential fates of The Quarry's cast of characters.
The Quarry launches June 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.