As an interactive game that combines player agency with the atmospheric experience of movies, Supermassive Games’ The Quarry is a perfect blend of game-movie storytelling that fans of horror games would love. To take it up another notch, Geek Culture and 2K Games joined forces to bring about an exclusive screening of The Quarry for 100 fans at The Projector, to celebrate the launch of the game.
The event kicked off with a five-minute viewing party of the game’s cinematic prologue, after which the audience, comprising invited guests as well as winners of our giveaway, sat through a host of cinematic-styled trailers of the game in a theatre atmosphere. Even with the lights off, the atmosphere was electric, likely due to excitement, impending fear, or a mixture of both.
And there’s no shame in feeling the terror, as attendees weren’t only subjected to jump scares and spooky sightings, but also to the fate of the game’s characters. That’s a heavy responsibility to bear, and with nine teenagers trapped in the thick of danger, the pressure to make the right choices can be crippling.
The branching choice system wouldn’t work without an understanding of the characters, however. After the prologue screening, event emcee Bobby Tonelli then took to the stage to introduce each character, their respective voice actors, and other relevant story details.
A trivia session followed thereafter, in which note-taking (mentally or otherwise) and attention to detail were rewarded. Three participants who answered the questions correctly walked away with a free limited-edition game tee shirt each — the perfect set-up for the calm before the storm.
The next segment was when the fun began. Over the course of one-hour of gameplay, attendees had to witness their decisions unfold on the silver screen, and live through the consequences of them. It was quite the interactive affair, with them shouting out their responses and making witty commentary during certain segments of the screening. Here’s a peek at how it all went down:
Game options: Take the shortcut or stick to the road?
Audience, chanting out loud: “Shortcut, shortcut, shortcut!“
See, lively.
After moments of great tension and close shaves, we are sad to announce that REDACTED (no names!) met his/her demise by the hands of our audience. You murderers.
This round of gameplay was just one version of the story though, as The Quarry boasts a total of 186 different possible endings, with each character potentially dying in 10 to 12 different ways. Hoo boy.
With the tarot card system being a special feature in the game, the 2K folks turned reel to real, when they recreated the system for the audience. In a surprise turn of events, eight random audience members for this The Quarry screening were invited up on stage to pick a tarot card each and participate in a Truth or Dare session.
Now, the moment of truth (hah) — these cards were actually labelled with various dares or truth questions.
The options included “Do your best impression of a werewolf howl (Dare),” “Do your best moonwalk (Dare),” and “Kiss, Marry, Kill: Vampire, Werewolf, Zombie (Truth),” most of which incited enthusiastic hoots, roaring cheers, and excitement from the rest of the attendees.
For their show of good sport, all eight participants received a free copy of The Quarry, a limited-edition game tee shirt, and a voucher for The Projector — on top of the goodies in the welcome pack collected at the reception area, including a random tarot card (chosen by the attendees themselves) designed specially for The Quarry game.
To round things up, there was a lucky draw for the individuals who drew a particular tarot card: the High Priestess. Of the list, two of them were rewarded with a The Projector gift card and a free copy of the game each.
The whole theatre then came together for a group shot to mark the end of The Quarry exclusive screening and a thrilling fright night. TGIF indeed!
The Quarry is available now on Steam for S$84.90. If you’d like to know more, check out our The Quarry review.
Or check out our full playthrough below:
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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