#i wish they'd just taken a few more months to release this game ngl

[insertlovelyperson]

I know we all talk a lot about missed opportunities in The Quarry. If you could make three specific changes (new paths, relationship tweaks, game mechanics, whatever, added or adjusted dialogue, whatever) to make it a better game and narrative, what would they be?

There’s soooo much other than what I said in my last post,  (I know you said top three 😩 but I hold all these equal):

1- Nick’s infection status being determinant.  Dude really drew the short stick in terms of screen time (maybe not the shortest but pretty close) because he’s taken out of the story so soon. I would really have liked to have the infection in chapter 3 alternate  between Abi and Nick depending on your choices. Like maybe when they’re talking in the woods and they hear the werewolf, you are given the option as Abi to either ‘run’ or ‘don’t move’ (with maybe a bit of dialogue before to muddy the choices “Is it a bear? Does that mean we should play dead?”), and if you ‘run,’ Abi gets infected instead of Nick. I would also just like… more of the counselors to turn in general?? The only ones that don’t are Abi, Ryan, and Kaitlyn… but I really wished we’d gotten that.

2- Have all the counselors act ‘negatively’ while they’re turning. We obviously get this with Nick (+Emma and Jacob to an extent), but I wish the game fully capitalized on the opportunity to make the other counselors a little more ‘wolfy’ when they’re turning. Particularly Dylan, Laura, and Kaitlyn. First of all: it would’ve been cool if Laura’s infection status was determinate so the game could provide some contrast to how she acts when she’s turning verses when she isn’t. Maybe when she’s not infected, she doesn’t get the opportunity to choke out Jedidiah, and she has noticeably less hostile dialogue options (compared to the ones she could potentially get while not infected). With Dylan—if infected at the radio hut—he gets ‘bitter’ and ‘aggressive’ dialogue options on his way to the scrapyard with Kaitlyn. As is already in the game: the two of them are talking about Ryan. He’s literally conversing with the other leg of the game’s love triangle (who the player may have chosen to kiss instead of him), and he’s lamenting about the fact Ryan ran off with another girl around an hour ago. I don’t know—it just feels like a missed opportunity to not have the dialogue between the two change depending on infection status (while still keeping everything in his ‘exploding’ scene in the crane the same). With Kaitlyn… it’s a little harder because she can literally only get infected in the last rung of the game. Maybe make her dialogue a little more snappish toward Dylan, and give her more reckless choices when fighting Caleb (more opportunities to initiate combat without the silver shell).

3- The final confrontation with Silas should’ve been in the lodge. They should’ve had a way to get Laura, Ryan, and possibly Travis (they should’ve also provided an opportunity to kill him in Hackett House without killing Ryan or Laura) back to the lodge. And depending on the infection status of the surviving counselors, the fight with Silas is either helped or hindered. Were Dylan and Kaitlyn infected? Cool, now you’ve got Silas plus two other werewolves to deal with—and you might not want to kill these ones. Did they lock Caleb in the fridge instead of killing him? Awesome, now a werewolf Nick (and possibly Jacob) are also trying to kill you! I think they could also provide an opportunity to make the time of infection matter. For example: I think Dylan canonically takes the longest to turn after he’s bit (it’s like… 4 hours?). If you have him infected in the crane rather than the radio hut, maybe that makes the fight a little easier because you can use him as a ‘human shield’ (that sounds awful lol). Or maybe the game provides an opportunity for Kaitlyn and Dylan to get infected by Caleb before locking him in the freezer, and now you’ve got two human shields. And of course, the rest of the uninfected counselors get an opportunity to reconvene at the lodge before the fight starts, perhaps paying homage to the final scene in Until Dawn? Perhaps?? 

Honorable mentions:

Have Max able to survive his swim to shore

Kaitlyn going with Laura to Hackett house

All of the counselors are able to turn by the end of the game

Laura and Max reunion (without killing Ryan)

Actual payoff to the Kaitlyn/Ryan/Dylan love triangle

More Abi and Emma (just… in general. They kinda become a side characters in the second half of the game—wish they had more to do while Kaitlyn and Dylan are in the scrapyard—would be cool to see a route that has the both of them taking on Caleb assuming the game then provides the ability to kill off both Kaitlyn and Dylan in the scrapyard)

Have a way to have Kaitlyn choose between taking Dylan or Emma to the scrapyard with her

Let Kaitlyn choose whether or not she takes Abi to the scrapyard if Dylan is killed by a werewolf Emma

More angst from Ryan after killing Chris. It’s kinda built up to be this big emotional thing and then he’s completely fine after.

Let Jacob tag along through the Hackett house with Ryan and Laura

Chase scene out of the scrapyard playing as Kaitlyn if Dylan turns inside the crane 

An actual ending. Fuck that podcast. Should've gone the Until Dawn route but instead of the police interviews, it's a trial. And at the end, you find out if they were found guilty or not (or if everyone's dead, then you get the podcast. As punishment.)

#the quarry #i wish they'd just taken a few more months to release this game ngl #i don't blame the writers #i think if given more time they absolutely would've polished this game more #but i will always lament what could've been