What Was The Plan Here?
186 Variations Of Unanswered Question Left At The End Of The Quarry
Tags: #InteractiveDrama #SurvivalHorror #Videogames #SupermassiveGames #TheQuarry #PlotHoles #UnnecessaryCharacters #Miscommunication #DoNotGoCamping #Supernatural #Spoilers
This article will contain spoilers for The Quarry by Supermassive Games.
The latest instalment by Supermassive Games follows a group of teenagers trying to survive a night in the woods while being hunted by a creature. In good old Supermassive fashion, the game isn’t short of options (albeit a lot of options seems a little redundant) which leaves room for replayability. Overall, was The Quarry a fun game? Yes. Is it fun to replay? Definitely; there are over 150 possible variations. But it did leave us with a lot of questions. Like – a lot of questions.
General Questions
How did the seven counsellors get to the camp?
Evidently, Kaitlyn, Emma, Abi, Ryan, Jacob, Dylan, and Nick were going to leave the camp together in someone’s old van. Why seven teenagers coming from apparently different corners of the US, and one from Australia even, were carpooling somewhere remains unanswered. Are they heading to a train station? An airport? Are they going to do a little detour to drop everyone off along the way? Whose van is it, anyways? If it’s one of the counsellors, why are they forced to drop the others off? If it’s the camp’s, where are they dropping off the van and who’s going to pick it up again to return later? Why didn’t they leave on the school bus with the camp children? What’s the plan here? Our best guess is: the counsellors needed to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. A case of Occam’s Razor – the most likely solution is the simplest one – the narrative designers didn’t think too hard about it.
Why are there so many underdeveloped and/or unnecessary characters?
For example, Abi doesn’t need to be a playable character, or in the game at all. Nick doesn’t need to be a playable character, or in the game at all. Emma, Jacob, Kaitlyn – don’t need to be in the game at all. Dylan, even, might not be necessary. You could even get around needing Max, though he does do some good work as a plot device. You certainly do not need all of Hacketts; there are seven of them too! With Eliza and Silas, that’s eighteen characters, and half of them are playable. There are not enough scenes to have all of these characters undergo development and/or growth or regression. If anything, the relationship between the characters matters very little, apart from Travis and Laura. If you could play the game as only Travis and Laura, we think it would be much better. Ryan contributes to the plot, so he can stay. But no one else needs to be playable. Leave the rest of the characters, they can be there, just don’t make them playable.
Why are all the problems of the Hackett family based on poor communication?
‘Family as the most important thing’ can be a great motivator. Keeping secrets buried is also a great motivator. When the two collide, like in The Quarry, is when things can get dicey. Why would Chris think yelling directions at a bunch of teenagers while he was speeding away in a truck was the best way to impart the severity of the situation? At that point, why not lock them all up in the lodge yourself? What’s a little light kidnapping in the grand scheme of things? Speaking of light kidnapping, why wouldn’t Travis tell Chris where his two missing counsellors ended up? Why bother keeping that a secret? Wouldn’t it be easier to cover up the missing teenagers if you had help from their employer? Travis could have solved a whole lot of his issues if only he had told Laura and Max about the White Wolf when they found out about the whole werewolf situation in the first place. Laura would have been able to go after Silas too rather than obsessively trying to hunt Chris. Why hide that information if they already believe in the existence of mythological creatures? In general, the Hacketts do a bad job of talking to one another and everyone else. Why was there no plan in place after three other people stumbled their way into the path of a werewolf? What are all the cages for, if not to lock up werewolves?
Why was the ending so unsatisfying and boring?
Branching narratives are difficult. We’ll give you that. But a lot of games do really well by forcing players onto one path. Maybe two. Or four. Over 150 is really pushing it. A lot are variations on a theme, these people are dead, those guys are infected, this path was unlocked, that hidden scene was discovered. Great. But seriously, 186 is a little extreme. And our best guess is that’s why there are no reunions at the end of the game. (There are some achievement-related scenes, but mostly, the counsellors don’t meet up again on screen to debrief in the morning.) What we do get, cop cars driving up to the camp lodge, raises more questions. Who called the cops? If it was a response to Ryan’s attempt to call 911, why did it take until sunrise for the cars to get there? If your playthrough ends with all of the counsellors dead, why would the Hacketts call the cops? Let’s not even get into the fact that you can skip the big showdown with Silas. Why is that an option? That raises questions about the Hag and why she’s in the woods. And why do we not know more about Silas? Wouldn’t knowing his backstory - who bit Silas, how was Silas cursed, where did the werewolf poem come from - make the decision to spare his life or end the Hackett’s curse more meaningful? Our best guess: too many ideas and not enough erasers.
Why have a tie-in podcast if you don’t prompt players to listen to in the game as a source for background info?
Die-hard fans may have caught the five tweets or the handful of Instagram stories about the podcast ahead of time but given the fleeting nature of social media, most players were probably not engaging with the podcast at all, either before or after they played the game. At least from the plenty of play-throughs we watched, people seemed to be rather confused about getting a random podcast when the credits rolled. If anything, this made the final podcast incredibly skip-able. If you want viewers to engage with content outside of the main game, maybe drop a hint or two into the player's faces when you’re about to start, like Life is Strange Two (Dontnod 2018), did with The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (Dontnod 2018). In an age of short attention spans, be more obvious. We are all for augmented reality tie-ins, but this could have been on the radio in the prologue? With Ryan? On the computer with Laura? Could the podcast have been slotted into the space between each episode, much like Until Dawn (Supermassive Games 2015) had a recap of previous decisions?
Why are there so many insta-deaths?
(Please note, this is based on one player’s choice, not a QTE fuck up, not during a chase sequence, but when players had the choice between two options, and one immediately lead to the death of a character. There are more, but here is a sampling.)
A few examples: Emma walks into the tree house and the player is prompted to either open a trapdoor or check a bag. Max is cured and walks to the island dock and the player is prompted, stay on the island or swim to the mainland. Jacob has run into a bear trap, as one does, and the player is prompted to pull his leg out or pry the trap open. These are untimed decisions. Some more examples: Abi has been thrown across the room by a rabid Nick and the player is given the option to shoot Nick before he transforms. Ryan is talking to a caged Jacob and the player is prompted to stop Laura from shooting werewolf Nick. When confronting Silas in the woods, Travis, Laura, and Ryan are all vulnerable should the player not shoot the White Wolf. These are timed choices. All of these decisions can result in the immediate death of a character. But we ask, why? Why not throw in some QTEs just for fun? Give the players some more buttons to push. Make the game a little bit more challenging. Variety in gameplay elements is good, but what narrative reasoning is behind these insta-deaths?
Why didn’t the counsellors sit in a boat after Laura tells us about the werewolf poem?
If the counsellors know that werewolves are aquaphobic, why didn’t all the counsellors, that didn’t contribute to the werewolf hunt, sit in a damn boat on the lake? Abi, Dylan, and Kaitlyn could have gotten into a boat rather than trying to fix the damn car in the middle of the night while a bunch of werewolves are after them. Just wait until the morning, when the werewolves are back in their human bodies; they can even help you at that stage. What was the plan here and why couldn’t any of the five people in this conversation come up with our suggestion that would have made much more sense? Just go and sit in Laura’s boat.
Character-Specific Questions
Where did Laura’s eyepatch come from?
Having a one-eyed Laura return in chapter seven after vanishing was great. And intriguing. But how come we never find out where this damn pirate eye patch came from? Just pop it in Travis’ office; let Travis give it to her; let her find it in an old halloween costume box, because why not have that randomly show up in an seemingly abandoned police station; show us how she makes it out of an old bedsheet. Whatever it is, just don’t give a random but very obvious outfit change without some explanation, or keep the original dirty bandages. Any of these options would have still made for a better explanation than no explanation at all.
Why is Max only playable for two seconds?
If you kill Chris, Max wakes up in a tree on the island. He puts on Laura’s clothes and wanders down to the water, where, should the player choose to swim across the lake, he is immediately attacked by werewolf Caleb. Why is this a part of the game? This is the only time Max is a playable character. Was this scene even necessary?
Is one more night really going to fix the terrible communication problems between Jacob and Emma?
Matters of the heart can be delicate, but sabotaging a vehicle so that you can spend one more night in the woods with your girlfriend, is not a healthy way to deal with a break up. Had Emma and Jacob sat down to have a serious conversation about their future, without jokes, without insults, the whole plot would fall apart. Emma is not innocent here either; scratching through ‘4 ever’ and writing ‘summer’ underneath is a bit unhealthy as well. Then using truth or dare to kiss Nick in front of Abi and Jacob, for what purpose? She might want to drive the break up home or make your summer fling jealous, but screwing with your ‘best’ friend’s feelings is maybe taking it a step too far. Then again, they are teenagers, so what do they know? We suppose we could cut them some slack, but Jacob did condemn his eight friends to a horror-filled night of death and dismemberment.
Why does Kaitlyn, as the best with a gun, have the most possible deaths?
Kaitlyn is the only (playbale) character who is trained to handle a gun. There is even an entire scene dedicated to letting the player know how skilled at marksmanship she actually is. So, given that they are fighting against mythical creatures that can (more or less) only be injured with a gun, how is it that Kaitlyn barely ends up using one, despite carrying one for half of the game? She also has the highest chance of being killed. Kaitlyn can literally die thirteen different ways, when the average (median) death opportunity for the remaining characters is two. Even if we just take the 9 playable counsellors into account, the average death opportunity is five. Why does Kaitlyn have more than twice the average? How does that make sense? Are we really scared of capable women?
Why is Abi the only one who cannot be turned into a werewolf?
Imagine: you play the satisfying route of getting everyone bitten just to then realise that Abi cannot actually turn into a werewolf and will not have to live with the curse if Silas remains alive. Turns out she was (probably) bitten by Kaylee – though this is never actually confirmed – and since Kaylee is a definite death, Abi will always be cured from the bite. Like, what was that about? Getting the audience hyped up to gather your very own werewolf squad only to realise that you cannot actually turn the whole camp counsellor gang into creatures of the moon. How disappointing. Given that there are way too many endings, why wasn’t this an option?
How does Dylan know to cut off his hand when he is bitten by the monster?
If you are bitten by the werewolf as Dylan, he screams at Ryan to cut off his hand. This is a call back to suggesting they cut off Nick’s leg, when it is oozing black pus. The thing is though, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. If this was optional dialogue, for example, after Ryan mentioning the hunter, bitten by Nick, shot his own finger off, then sure, Dylan suggesting they do the same is logical. However, he doesn’t know the hunter was even bitten, let alone shot off his finger. Nor is Dylan the die-hard Bizarre Yet Bonafide fan, listening to theories surrounding mythological creature survival tactics. So, what the hell, Dylan? Is that your go to solution for medical treatment? It sounds a little mediaeval. (The survival rates for surgery were not good back then, Dylan!)
Why is Nick in America?
An excellent question, seeing as he is the only character with a distinctly non-American regional accent. He is from Australia. Given, they don’t go into the counsellor's backgrounds. He could be an immigrant. He could be an exchange student, teaching the young campers about kangaroos. Whatever the story here, it sounds a tad bit random. We don’t need an explanation, but it is weird.
After kidnapping two teenagers, what exactly was Travis’s plan?
Travis went through the effort of kidnapping two teenagers, for what? He doesn’t tell them anything. He is ominous as fuck. Even after Laura and Max confront him about werewolves existing, he continues to keep secrets from them. Instead of just literally telling them that they should team up to hunt down and kill Silas as the OG wolf to heal every one of the Hacketts and Max, he leaves Laura and Max with the impression that Chris is the root cause of the lunar curse. Has he considered communicating effectively? Was he doing it for shits and giggles? Was this actually just his elaborate plan to get rid of his brother because he never quite liked him that much anyways? What was the plan here?
Why did Chris not leave a one day (or several days) gap between the end of camp and the full moon?
Imagine you have been cursed by a ghost, have werewolf kids you let run wild in the forest, and have a summer camp full of innocent younglings. Of course, the only logical schedule is to make sure everyone leaves the night of the full moon, a few hours before the werewolf transformation. Yes. It makes the most sense. Or does it….
Why does Jedediah allow his son to leave seven teenagers in the woods, only to end up stalking and trying to capture the same seven kids later in the night?
The Hacketts live in a big, creepy mansion near the camp. Instead of bringing the kids to their house to wait out the full moon in safety, he allows them to wander the woods, prompting him to hunt them? For their own good? With bear traps? They didn’t even make up some lie about hunting season and these ever present bears to keep the teens in the cabin. No. The plan was to stalk a bunch of teenagers and chain up any that get bitten by the roaming werewolves. How has this man made it so far in life with these amazing reasoning skills?
Why does Constance care so much about Kaylee but not Caleb, Chris, or Travis?
Our second scene with Constance involves a lot of shouting and screaming over the death of Kaylee, which is then immediately blamed on Travis. It was not Travis’ fault. (Well, it’s not not his fault; there could have been some better communication with Laura to prevent this outcome - see the question regarding Travis’ plan.) There’s no concern expressed for Caleb (still out in the woods, with now armed teenagers) and Chris, chained up in the attic when there were numerous, high end, open cages all over town. Nor does she seem concerned for Jedidiah or Bobby, who are running around with werewolves and armed teenagers. But no, Kaylee (the only character that cannot be saved) is the only child/grandchild Constance expresses fondness for. We get it, girl power, but also, really?
Why does Bobby randomly stab people and then complain when they yeet off with his knife that he left in them?
Listen, do we get that Bobby is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box? Yes. But does that justify the complete and utter lack of any form of cause-and-effect thinking skills, we recon no. Bobby as a whole is a big box of, wait what? Who is this? Little surprising that he wasn’t questioning where his finger went after he shot it off…
Why are Kaylee and Caleb not locked up in a cage during the full moon when there are counsellors staying on camp ground, especially after already slaughtering some random hikers?
We get that kids want their freedom and should be able to choose how they want to spend their free time. However, this family should have probably drawn the line at letting two werewolves run around after they killed two innocent hikers and leaving the Hacketts to bury the bodies – well, in one case, drown the body? And on top of that, they were allowed to roam freely despite camp counsellors being around? It was still daylight when the car broke down; surely they would have had enough time to get in touch with the siblings to tell them to get the hell into their cages for this particular full moon and not roam the dark forest for once. But nah, instead, let’s risk another seven to nine possible deaths for the sake of letting two teen werewolves go rampage in the wild because that’s what they prefer. Sounds like a great plan.
Why is Eliza putting all her trust in nine teenagers, but then also not really helping them at all with her useless tarot cards?
Eliza is a difficult woman to please. Unless you take out all of the Hacketts at the soonest opportunity, she will curse you, the player. She’s also pretty pissed when you don’t return any of her tarot cards. The tarot cards, though, are not very helpful. There are too many branches and too many possibilities to have 20-some cards give the player the advantage. You only need the Hierophant, and that’s just for backstory. But the question remains: after six years, Eliza thought a group of camp counsellors were going to take on three generations of this one family? Sure, others have heard Eliza whisper in their ears, according to Bizarre Yet Bonafide, but it seems no one else was entrusted with collecting these cards and getting revenge. There can’t be enough hours in the day for Eliza to haunt all those people otherwise.
What does Silas do when he’s not a werewolf?
Silas: wolf boy, orphan, living in the woods for six years? He did travel around the area (otherwise the Hacketts are particularly bad hunters), so where did he go? Why did he come back? How many other werewolves are there? Where did he come from? Who cursed him? So many questions about, arguably, the antagonist of this story. In the end, we are led to believe that the only solution is to murder Silas, a character that we have never interacted with and barely know, while the game tries to inject humanity into the wolf boy, to try and force a moral choice that just feels underdeveloped.
The Takeaways and Possible Better Story Options
A lot of conflict in this game could have been solved by one of these three options: first, have an actual plan before kidnapping teenagers; two, communicate effectively; three, don’t go camping. We get it, writing is difficult and branching narrative is especially challenging. Reducing some of the complexities in terms of the wealth of characters and number of playable characters may have made for a stronger story and better developed protagonists. The volume of branching did not leave room to start caring about anyone in this game and as such it detracted from the total value of playing. Whether or not a character was bitten or even died, didn’t really matter to the player, because there was no time to actually grow attached to anyone with the little screen time each person received. Nevertheless, it was fun to play even with the hell of a lot of questions unanswered.
Sources:
Supermassive Games (2022). Bizarre Yet Bonafide, podcast. https://open.spotify.com/show/1MsRkWbFIdmz7QTHcTermg?si=da92fbeb3fd74902
Image Credit:
2K [@2K] (2022). "Campers! #TheQuarry has a midnight rolling release on console, so some players already have access to the game. Please be kind to your fellow players and avoid spoiling the game for others in the first few hours. Some additional notes as you jump in! 1/3" 9 June, https://twitter.com/2K/status/1534943531827007491
Supermassive Games [@SuperMGames] (2022). "We've survived the first weekend of #TheQuarry However, not everyone was this lucky... Which counselors didn't make it out alive in your first playthrough?" 13 June, https://twitter.com/SuperMGames/status/1536333208874360833