It’s been seven years since Until Dawn, Supermassive Games’ breakthrough horror play, which came after a few years of making LittleBigPlanet DLC. It was far better than anyone bet on, including Sony and Supermassive themselves. We embraced the horror movie schlock it had to offer, and a recognizable cast with just a touch of over-acting, some gory deaths, and a few surprises kept things fresh. It proved difficult to follow-up, though Supermassive’s own commitment to playing with new technologies and ideas – VR, group voting games – were to blame more than a lack of ability.
The Quarry has been sold as a spiritual successor to Until Dawn. The chronological follow-up, The Dark Pictures Anthology, has a different tone, with very different stories. Other developers haven’t picked up the Until Dawn ball and ran with it, likely fearing the combination of required high-quality graphics and animation, expensive mo-cap from at least somewhat-known actors, combined with horror gameplay some find off-putting and a lack of straight action to appeal to a wide audience. These are, simply, not cheap games to make, and not ones that are going to get their cash back easily.
