If you made it out of The Quarry, then you’ll likely enjoy these other interactive games in 2024. Be warned, some are even more frightening.
The Quarry raised the bar when it came to interactive games and really blurred the line between gaming and cinema in some fun and terrifying ways. Essentially a playable movie, the game allowed the player to influence the actions – and fates – of several characters, helping them survive a massacre at a summer camp, or gleefully leading them to the slaughter.
While The Quarry was intended to be a game that’s replayed several times to see the various outcomes, we imagine fans of the teen slasher will soon want to turn their attention to games that offer a similar experience. Below, we’ve listed 8 games like The Quarry you should try in 2024. However, none are for the faint of heart.
Until Dawn
Until Dawn is first on the list – to the surprise of no one. Yet it has to be because Until Dawn was Supermassive Game’s first foray into the teen slasher horror genre. The game also proved how effective these stories could be as interactive movies/games. Like The Quarry, Until Dawn sees a group of teens stranded in a desolate location while some unseen threat begins picking them off one by one.
Once again, it’s up to the player to navigate through the story, and every action has a consequence. It’s possible to get every teen out alive, but it’s also possible for the sun to rise on a bloodbath. This is the classic cabin in the woods scenario, made even scarier because you’re not only watching it, you’re living it.
If you enjoyed The Quarry, then Until Dawn should be next on your list. It’s one of the free games included in the PSN Library too, so that’s a nice bonus to PS Plus subscribers. It’s also designed to be replayed multiple times to see various outcomes and character fates. Or to see what every death looks like – you sick puppy.
The Dark Pictures Anthology
Another from Supermassive Games here, and we’re cheating a bit because The Dark Pictures Anthology is actually several interactive horror games. In truth, we could have filled this list with them. Think of it a bit like American Horror Story, in that every chapter is a new tale, but with similar themes and bearing a stylistic resemblance to what’s come before.
Unlike The Quarry and Until Dawn, the DPA games aren’t teen slashers, but they are a similar type of experience. What’s fun about this series of games though is the horror is broader, you never quite know what way it’s going to go and what genres it will borrow from. There are currently three games available, Man of Medan (2019), Little Hope (2020), House of Ashes (2021), and the Devil in Me (2022)
The next chapter, Directive 8020 is likely coming in 2024, and another five games are reportedly in development for the series. Each is a little shorter than The Quarry but is still a full interactive horror game in its own right. What’s nice, is The Dark Pictures Anthology isn’t as well known as Until Dawn. So, many players who enjoyed it, and its spiritual successor (The Quarry), were pleasantly surprised to learn that there was more interactive spookiness from the same developers.
The Walking Dead (Telltale)
In many ways, Telltale’s The Walking Dead series sparked gaming’s obsession with interactive horror. While far from perfect, TWD games did a great job in showing what was possible and served as a template for developers like Supermassive and Quantic Dream to emulate in their own horror games.
The series ran for four main games where, like in The Quarry, the choices of the player impacted the narrative, such as who lives and who dies. Split-second decisions need to be made and there are some pretty heavy moral choices – many of which will stick with you well after the credits have rolled.
The games exist in the same continuity as The Walking Dead graphic novels rather than AMC’s TV adaptation. So there are some cameos from characters such as Glenn and Michone, but the games are largely their own entity, telling a unique and emotionally unsettling story that you’re able to influence.
Word to the wise, you’re not going to be able to save everyone.
Heavy Rain
We mentioned Quantic Dream above, this is another studio renowned for their interactive gaming adventures, but unlike Supermassive, they don’t focus exclusively on horror. Their first game, The Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit in the UK), was a creepy story about cults and bloody murders, and their next attempt, Heavy Rain, pushed the envelope further.
Serving as more of a True Detective style story, Heavy Rain follows various characters, each either affected by or in pursuit of the Origami Killer – a serial murderer who’s on the loose and is still stalking their victims. Naturally, there are some plot twists regardless of what you do, but most of the game’s major events can be influenced by the player.
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While Heavy Rain isn’t an interactive horror game in the way that The Quarry is, it’s certainly an experience you should check out if you’re starting to enjoy these scary game and movie hybrids.
Detroit: Become Human
Following on from Heavy Rain and the next Quantic Dream adventure, Beyond: Two Souls, is Detroit: Become Human, the latest interactive game from the company. While not a horror game, Detroit still includes some pretty scary ideas, especially when it comes to identity, human rights, and what counts as conscious life.
The game also came out at a time when Westworld and Humans were popular TV shows and shares similar themes with them. Basically, can AI/robots ever be considered living things? And how far does technology need to go until those who possess sentient thought can be considered ‘alive’ – even if they were manufactured?
It’s Quantic’s most refined game yet and is also available on the PSN Library for PS Plus subscribers. Those who enjoyed The Quarry may really dig this thought-provoking, and at times, creepy experience. However, there are no teens getting slashed to death here, but your actions can still have significant consequences over the narrative.
As Dusk Falls
As Dusk Falls is the first game released by Interior Night, some of which are Quantic Dream alumni. The game is like a playable Fargo, dealing with the hostage situation in a motel, as well as the build-up and aftermath of it over 30 years.
It’s a crime thriller that deals with the lives of two families, one which was held hostage in the motel and the other being the family that held them at gunpoint. Their fates and lives become intertwined after this, and once it’s all over the hunters can become the hunted, should the player decide to take the events that way.
However, it’s also possible to resolve things peacefully, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be drama, twists and turns along the way. While As Dusk Falls isn’t a horror game, it contains plenty of tense and scary moments, some of which will leave characters dead – or forever changed.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Vertigo is loosely based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name, a creepy crime thriller that the master of horror and suspense made in the 1950s. The game adaptation is a narrative adventure and has a lot in common with As Dusk Falls, Heavy Rain, and at points, The Quarry.
While not a traditional horror game, Vertigo is inspired by one of the greatest horror minds to ever live, Alfred Hitchcock, and the title pays tribute to him and the genre he helped define. The story involves murder, family feuds, and memory loss and is even reminiscent of a Stephen King novel at times.
A writer, Ed, struggles to piece his life back together after a car accident alters his perception of reality. Or is Ed just the victim of something – or someone – much more nefarious?
Pentiment
Stylistically, Pentiment looks nothing like the playable movies detailed above, but its gameplay is very similar. Pentiment is a chilling story set in sixteenth-century Bavaria and involves an artist called Andreas investigating a series of brutal murders. Every choice and action has a consequence and as Andreas gets closer to the truth, the more dangerous things become.
The game is a lot longer than other narrative adventures but is an incredibly well-written and rewarding journey. While many of the titles on this list mimic playable horror films, Pentiment feels a lot like a murder mystery/historical fiction novel – but one in which you shape the ending.