Local co-op in The Quarry will get true online multiplayer functionality soon

The Quarry is the Supermassive Games' latest offering in the interactive horror genre.

Like the developer's most acclaimed past title, Until Dawn, this game will follow a choice-driven narrative punctuated by its horror beats. Moreover, players can dial the active gameplay elements back further to tailor the experience to their preference.

Unlike Until Dawn, though, The Quarry will receive a true multiplayer mode with a future update. Supermassive Games announced this two weeks before the release via Twitter.

Contrary to what fans would expect, the pushback on the multiplayer functionalities was not due to a development hitch. The feature was already implemented in the release candidate by the time Supermassive Games posted this tweet.

The real reason was their need to relocate the servers from Kyiv (Ukraine) to Warsaw (Poland) due to the ongoing crisis.

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How will online multiplayer work in The Quarry?

The new title, on-brand with all of Supermassive Games' creations until now, can be broadly classified as an interactive adventure game. Set in the titular Hackett's Quarry, the rein given to users this time centers around nine characters.

Composed chiefly of teens who get entangled in the mysteries of Hackett's Quarry while attending summer camp, the narrative jumps between each protagonist at a rapid pace. Other than keeping things fresh, it opens up further avenues for long co-op sessions by letting one gamer steer the character development of one character.

Unlike Until Dawn, The Quarry was designed from the beginning with the express intent of online multiplayer. The former was a testament to the developers that there is a deep niche of small player groups who would prefer to enjoy the narrative as an interactive movie.

Besides introducing multiplayer elements from other Supermassive Games titles, The Quarry ships with an accessible movie mode.

The Movie Mode ties seamlessly into the accessibility options of the title, where character interaction can be automated via a simplified set of preferences. This even goes so far as to let users roleplay clumsy characters by failing quick-time events by default.

The local co-op naturally holds the advantage of letting gamers make an in-house distribution of character controls. As previously mentioned, having nine different camp counselors share the spotlight sets up an excellent premise for such an unprecedented width of local co-op interaction, at least as far as interactive drama goes.

Whether all of that will translate perfectly to its online co-op counterpart remains to be seen when it drops on July 8. Thus far, fans have confirmation of full integration for all movie mode features into a seamless online co-op environment. Gamers will get to vote on individual choices on-demand.

While the actual gameplay beats, i.e., the third-person exploration and interaction with in-world clues, will likely be up to the session host, the big narrative choice prompts ultimately characterize Supermassive Games' titles.

The Quarry is set up to be the most ambitious of its kind, marketed with its promised diversity of 186 endings.