June 10th, 2022 marks the release of Supermassive Games' new interactive survival horror game The Quarry, the spiritual successor to 2015's Until Dawn. With a more immersive design, the interactive drama allows players to determine several different outcomes of the game by making deliberate choices and taking specific actions, putting the full onus on the players to make the best decisions possible.
Story-wise, The Quarry follows nine teenagers at Hacker's Quarry in New York who must survive a night of abject slaughter. Ardent horror gamers looking for a similar type of interactive horror survival drama that allows them to drive the narrative themselves are in the right place.
Until Dawn
Since The Quarry is billed as the spiritual successor to Supermassive Games' mega-popular Until Dawn, it makes sense to start with the beloved trailblazer. The interactive horror drama follows eight people stuck at Blackwood Mountain where they are systematically stalked and slashed by a killer with a flamethrower until they are rescued at dawn, playing to the cinematic sensibilities of horror movies from the 1980s.
Just like The Quarry, Until Dawn prioritizes players' ability to control the narratives through its game-changing Butterfly Effect system, determining various outcomes of the game by making strategic decisions, culling clues, collecting hints, solving puzzles, etc. The result genuinely makes players feel like they are part of the story that has harrowing high-stakes consequences.
The Inpatient
Also created by Supermassive Games, The Inpatient is billed as a prequel to the events depicted in Until Dawn. While the perspective shifts from the third person to the first person, the game is more of a psychological survival experience that requires a player to control Jefferson Bragg, an amnesiac stuck at the Blackwood Sanitorium following a collapsed mine shaft in 1952.
With the outcome of the game completely determined by a player's decisions and course of actions, The Inpatient goes the extra immersive mile by offering a PS4 VR version that offers a frightful, fully-engaged experience. Vivid, unsettling, and atmospheric, The Inpatient is a must-play for Until Dawn and The Quarry fans.
Man Of Medan
After realizing what a great thing they had in Until Dawn, Supermassive Games upped the interactive ante four years later with The Dark Pictures Anthology, an expressly cinematic line of immersive horror survival games. All are recommended, beginning with the first entry, Man of Medan. The plot concerns four college students marooned on a haunted ghost ship, where they must follow their heads and hearts to survive.
Improving the interactive Until Dawn game engine, and adding a cool "Movie Night" multiplayer mode that allows up to five friends to control a player one player at a time, Man of Medan's social component really sets the immersive experience apart.
Little Hope
The second entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Little Hope refers to the name of a haunted fog-drenched Massachusetts town where a foursome of students find themselves trapped in following a bus crash. When deadly demons emerge from the mist with ill intent, the players must choose the right dialogue options in order to influence the most optimal survival outcome. As such, the game feels like a genuine horror movie.
With a deliberately unfinished story, players are tasked with finishing the narrative on their own, with multiple endings available depending on which line of action they take. The immersive quick-time events have dire consequences for making a poor decision, putting even greater pressure on players to think first and act judiciously.
House Of Ashes
The third and arguably most terrifying entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes follows Rachel King, a CIA operative who gets trapped in an Akkadian with three other Americans during the Iraq War in 2003. When a skein of blood-parched vampires emerges from the shadows, the characters must survive by any means necessary.
With more polished camera mechanics that allow for greater immersion, smoother graphics, improved multiplayer mode, and a more efficient choose-and-consequence system, House of Ashes proves Supermassive Games is the number one brand in interactive dramatic survival horror experiences.
Telltale's The Walking Dead
Another excellent choose-your-own-adventure survival horror game that adheres to the third-person perspective is the best zombie survival horror games around. Set during a zombie apocalypse in Georgia, players control Lee Everett, a professor out to rescue a young girl named Clementine and reunite her with her missing parents. Character development is key, with one wrong decision leading to death.
Far ahead of its time, the cinematic camera angles and harrowing balance of grisly violence and emotionally captivating interactions between Lee and Clementine are second to none, resulting in the first season winning multiple Game of the Year awards for 2012.
The Evil Within 2
Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami knows a thing or two about viscerally frightening survival horror games, with The Evil Within 2 making a perfect companion piece to The Quarry. The plot concerns Sebastian Castellanos, a detective who plunges into an underworld known as The Union to find his missing daughter, Lily.
With Casual, Survival, and Nightmare modes, Makami has delivered a sadistically sinister immersive experience. One of the things that set the game apart for the better is its new crafting system that allows players to bolster their arsenal by using resources to make new items. Unpredictable, cerebrally challenging, and downright scarier than most, the game is not to be missed.
Vampyr
One of the most engaging survival horror RPGs in recent memory, Vampyr fuses macabre atmospherics with a giant moral decision for the player to make that will directly affect the outcome of the story. Players control Jonathan Reid, a doctor in 1918 London who awakes to find he's become a vampire.
Torn between his insatiable bloodlust and his Hippocratic duties as a doctor, Jonathan must make huge in-game choices that will alter his destiny forever, including killing his own sister Mary. Hailed for its rich characterizations, the central conflict that forces players to make key decisions, and its deeply unnerving environment full of freaky locations, Vampyr's moral imperative is second to none.
Heavy Rain
Another enthralling interactive horror survival game that proved to be ahead of the curve includes Heavy Rain, published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2010. The premise involves four main characters who out to identify the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who drowns his prey in voluminous rainfall.
By interacting with the environment, performing quick-time events, exploring branching storylines, and more, players get to experience a realistic experience with dire consequences for making a single false move. The impeccable detail of the animation, the emotional heft of the decision-making, and the unparalleled suspense make Heavy Rain one of the most absorbing games of its ilk.
Hidden Agenda
The final Supermassive Games title to make the grade includes Hidden Agenda, another hyper-interactive experience that focuses more on the psychological than the physical. Players steer homicide detective Becky Marney and D.A. Felicity Graves, who are out to catch a serial killer known as The Trapper. Aside from the engaging quick-time events that determine the outcome of the story, it's the online multiplayer PlayLink mode that really stands out.
Much like Until Dawn, Hidden Agenda was written by venerated horror scribe Larry Fessenden, who knows a thing or two about conjuring genuine tension, suspense, and terror. The competitive mode pits online players against each other, receiving Hidden Agendas that add an extra layer of immersion and interactivity.
