THE QUARRY (PS4)

 

I am a fan of interactive storytelling. I went to work for Quantic Dream because of that after all (although it didn´t go well at all). Still, I think there is a lot of space for new experiences and innovation on that genre

Similar to Until Dawn - another Supermassive game - The Quarry takes you to another teenage slasher experience, this time I assume inspired by Friday 13th. You take control alternatively of different summer camp counselors in their last night before going back to their lives, and all the horrible things that happen to them

The game follows the same patterns that other previous games of the company, and largely works. It is interesting how graphic fidelity is important for the genre, it gives you that "movie feeling" that makes it not only authentic, but also gore is more impactful. I replayed some scenes and it´s insane the amount of branching there is, depending on the smallest decisions you make

On the minus side it's not particularly friendly with collectible hunting, you essentially have to replay the whole game if you missed some. House of Ashes - another Supermassive game - didn´t link them to a specific savegame. Pity

Anyway, a nice experience either if you like storytelling, slashers or solid games. I was gonna also say 80s nostalgia but I'm not sure now: There are VHS tapes, old cars and weapons, but also modern mobile phones. Maybe they made a mix of references, like Control?

BLADE RUNNER Enhanced edition (PS4)

Flashback to 1999. I am working at Dinamic multimedia as a beta tester. One of the (not so many) perks was to get free games. The company not only produced but also distributed for others, so actually you could get a decent amount of titles. One of them was Bladerunner, the videogame. However, the graphic adventure bubble had exploded some years earlier, and at that point they´ve become a niche segment. I didn´t care for the game, and forgot it on a shelf

Fastforward to 2018. During those years the game gained some sort of cult status (it might be the first adventure with different endings according to your decisions). Then I read some news about Bladerunner getting a console version. I now identify as a neo-noir aficionado in all its variations (movies, TV, videogames), I am sometimes taken by nostalgia and definitively a Bladerunner fan, so I started tracking this enhanced edition project via internet

Another fastforward, this time to 2022. Apparently the project was problematic, the team lost the original data and had to reverse-engineer everything, took longer than expected and so on. But eventually they released it, so I got myself a digital copy

Well, it´s definitively a half-cooked game. It is plagued by bugs - sometimes minor, but also many majors - and overall it doesn´t feel like the new features (graphic improvements in particular) add much to the experience. Menus and controls are still very much 90s and mouse-based, and the game has the typical issues of old-school graphic adventures: Pixel searching and lack of leading, meaning you are often forced to re-visit all locations and re-talk to all NPCs to find what is the next step you´re missing

On the plus side, if you either like Bladerunner or neo-noir in general it still retains the charm of playing in that Sci-Fi setting, it´s a brand new story (takes place simultaneously with the events of the 1982 movie) and if you use an online walkthrough as a support tool it can be reasonably entertaining

So in summary, only for real fans either of Bladerunner of the genre. But if you are, it´s pretty much a must

KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO (PS4)

I heard about Kentucky Route Zero (KRZ) from videogame outlets, presented as an indie darling. It was praised by its storytelling and general uniqueness. At some point it was on sale in the PS4 store and I said to myself "why not?", without knowing much of the premise or gameplay

Now, having finished it, I have mixed feelings. On one side I like the constant paradigm changes: Controlling different characters, bespoke cameras per situation, no discernable plot as a whole but instead a compilation of mini-stories, the weirdness of most of the scenes much like David Lynch's askew vision... It is good there are games like this in the market, that try to do something different. Well done

On the other hand, I didn´t have fun playing. The game relies A LOT on text, and not really interesting. I suspect the creators wanted to provide everyday dialogues to convey authenticity. They probably achieve that, but paying the price of being terribly boring. It´s like a 12 hour David Lynch movie, minus the interesting events

It´s a relatively easy platinum trophy, so I went for it. But overall I don´t think it´s a game for all audiences. You need to be on a specific niche segment to enjoy it: You´re looking for fresh videogame blood, you enjoy stylized basic art and you REALLY like reading. If that´s the case KRZ is your game. Otherwise check some gameplay videos before purchasing, just to be sure