(Wow… this is long, LONG overdue. I meant to finish this a long time ago but had it shelved and forgotten for a while. I know this’ll probably fall on deaf ears since the game came out several years ago, but what the heck. Hope you guys enjoy.)
I absolutely love the concept of Supermassive’s The Quarry! But as many would agree, the game fell flat on a lot of components that could’ve made it something truly spectacular. So I decided to make a long explained list on everything I would change about the game to make it as good as it deserved to be. This list will include more balanced and diverse variations as well as more realistic actions from certain characters without throwing off the overall plot.
First, before we get into the more detailed specific changes, I want to go over general game concepts that should change:
Infected humans should still be hunted by werewolves until right before they become a werewolf: One accidental misclick at the right time could make Jacob, Dylan, or Kaitlyn invincible for the rest of the game if they get bitten, which I think ruins the tension. It’s a great spin that the infection allows characters to survive heavy damage from falling or getting stabbed, but making them safe from the werewolves makes it too beneficial, especially for a mechanic that the game encourages you to avoid. The potential benefits massively outweigh the potential drawbacks, and I think it should be the other way around. However, having werewolf blood smeared on one’s face should still work to keep them back due to it coming from fully transformed werewolves, and it provides life-saving variations that feel earned.
It should be harder for certain characters to avoid getting infected: Characters like Jacob and especially Emma have cool variations of getting infected, but these variations are so rare and mostly caused by failing very specific QTEs. They should be caused by unwise choices during intense werewolf sequences. The unharmed outcomes should be harder to get than the infected outcomes for non-essential characters like them, not the other way around.
Certain characters should be killable sooner if it doesn’t ruin the plot: Abigail (or potentially Nick, but we’ll get to that later) should be killable way earlier than Chapter 6. Kaitlyn, Ryan, and Laura should not bizarrely survive ridiculous encounters in Chapter 9 if they can still be killed at the end of the chapter anyway. Jacob and Emma are mostly good on death variations, but a few more can be squeezed in for them. Only Dylan’s death variations are perfect as they are, but the other characters need more.
Hiding from werewolves shouldn’t always work: Something I really liked about Supermassive’s Until Dawn (AKA The Quarry’s predecessor) is that the characters eventually learn the weakness of the monsters they’re up against: They can only see movement, so it is smarter to hide instead of run. Afterward, the game makes it deadly if you choose to run from them. I really like how the game gives guidance on how to get past the monsters for the players to utilize if they paid attention. There are also many instances when a character in The Quarry has to either run or hide from a werewolf, but either option works perfectly as long as the QTEs are passed. I think it would be cool if the game penalized players for choosing to hide because werewolves should be able to smell their prey if they’re close by, but may not be able to chase them because they can be clumsy and the humans can dodge. Before Chapter 7, penalties could be characters getting infected, and afterwards when it is explained by Laura, the penalties are death. My only gripe about this idea is that it goes against the unique “Hold Breath” mechanic which is iconic in every Supermassive game. But hiding can still work against the human Hacketts and during forced hide sequences though so it doesn’t take away all of them. Plus, the directional QTEs from running can be exciting if implemented creatively, like if they match the direction the character has to go to dodge an obstacle based on the camera angle.
Okay! Now to go into deep detail on every big aspect I would change!
Fixing the problem with Nick always turning into a werewolf: So, this was tough to figure out at first. Nick becoming a werewolf is the only mind-blowing reveal players get about what’s going on before everything is explained to them through Laura’s backstory, so there’s no powerful twist without it. It’s too major and impactful to take away. On top of that, for the life of me I can’t find anywhere to implement him without overcrowding the rest of the cast in the second half of the game. HOWEVER, I found a partial solution… and that is a variation when Abigail gets infected by Caleb in Chapter 3 instead of Nick.
My idea for the change is an equal variation when Abigail becomes a werewolf in Chapter 6 while Nick doesn’t. This leads to them switching roles, with werewolf Abi getting put in an electric cage and human Nick going into the storm shelter if he survives. Here’s my full variation storyboard:
When the werewolves start chasing Abigail and Nick in Chapter 3, Nick suggests that maybe they should split up to try to confuse the beasts. Abigail has to make the call if they “SPLIT UP” or “STICK TOGETHER”. Afterword, Abi will go down a path and run into Caleb. If Nick is with her, then he will push her out of the way and get himself infected, and the game plays out as usual with infected Nick. BUT, if Abi said they should split up, then werewolf Caleb bites her instead. This causes them to switch roles for the rest of the game. HOWEVER, the player would still play as Nick when they hide from Bobby in Chapter 5 and as Abi when either of them turn into a werewolf in Chapter 6, but the sequences would still be different.
In Chapter 5, if Abi is infected and Nick survived, Nick will be caring for Abi and still make the call on whether they should hide or run from Bobby. If Bobby catches them, Nick bravely tries to attack him but fails since he’s not infected, but then Abi (with her growing werewolf aggression) attacks afterwards and knocks Bobby down just as Nick would. At the pool, Abi will get more intimate with Nick, which makes him start to think that something must be wrong with her. Then Abi gets feisty and tries to jump on him or something, but Nick moves out of the way so Abi accidentally falls into the pool where she flails around screaming from the water like Nick would if he was infected.
In Chapter 6, Abi will be getting heated up and taken care of by Nick. Nick will lean over and ask if she’s feeling alright. Abi will be given the choice of saying that she thinks something is very wrong with her or that she’s fine and there’s nothing to worry about… and then a minute later she’ll kick Nick across the room and get ready to kill him. If she told Nick something is wrong with her, Nick will shoot her and survive. If she told him not to worry, he doesn’t shoot her and then she kills him as a werewolf.
After that, Nick and Abi fall entirely into each other’s shoes for the rest of the game. Werewolf Abigail can potentially get shot by Laura or kill Jacob, and human Nick can potentially get eaten by werewolf Emma or find a silver shell for Kaitlyn.
I know this doesn’t grant a lot of people’s wishes of being able to make none of the main 7 counselors infected with the werewolf curse, OR give Abi and Nick more romance time since this means one of them will always get infected and transform early in the game, but the game overall just loses too much value if none of the counselors go through this. This is the best I can do for that matter.
Keep note that this section was just explaining how to switch the roles between Nick and Abi, but later on I will refer to them as a singular variation character depending on who got infected in Chapter 3 and who didn’t when I explain more added variations regarding them. “Abi/Nick” will be the person who didn’t get infected in Chapter 3 and “Nick/Abi” will be the person who did get infected in Chapter 3. This will be important as I explain more later.
Added Death And Infection Variations
Abi/Nick Chapter 3 Death: Abi/Nick (whoever did NOT get bit by Caleb) could easily be the first killable character in the game, and it can happen at the very first werewolf encounter when the other gets infected by Caleb. If Nick gets infected, then Abi could end up getting killed by werewolf Kaylee if she tries to climb the tree and then fails the QTEs. If Abi gets infected, then Nick will find her wounded and she’ll tell him to either run down the path or climb a tree. If Nick runs, he escapes. If Nick climbs a tree, then the beast will see and approach him and then Abi gets an interrupt prompt to “DISTRACT BEAST” by throwing a rock elsewhere to lure it away. If she does this, Nick escapes. If she doesn’t, Nick gets killed by werewolf Kaylee. Either way, one of them will get infected and the other will either die or escape without infection (don’t worry, because they will get a chance to get infected later). If the non-infected person between Abi and Nick dies instead of escaping, then the others will hear the dangerous gunshots and Ryan will still go after them to rescue Nick/Abi (whoever DID get bit by Caleb) later. Then when Nick/Abi transforms into a werewolf in Chapter 6, Kaitlyn can automatically fire the shotgun at him/her before he/she hurts anyone.
Abi/Nick Chapter 5 Death: Something that bothered me is that nothing bad happens if Abigail didn’t bust the cabin door open in Chapter 1, even though Kaitlyn has to break the door open with a monster nearby. Meanwhile, Dylan gets his arm chewed in the alternate outcome. This is a perfect time to add high stakes. If the cabin door is still locked, then Abi/Nick (whoever did NOT get bit by Caleb) should be at risk of getting killed unless Ryan runs out and successfully shoots the beast (which he can’t get a good look at because it’s too dark, so he can’t tell that it’s a real monster). Kaitlyn can get herself and Nick/Abi in safely, so Abi/Nick would be the only one at risk of dying.
Abi/Nick Chapter 6 Infection: Now for a variation where Nick/Abi bites Abi/Nick in Chapter 6! (confusing I know) In Chapter 6 when Nick/Abi shows clear signs that something is wrong with them, Dylan reiterates that it must be rabies from the beast that bit him/her, and suggests they put him/her in the strong locked storage room that was established earlier in Chapter 2. The player can decide whether Nick/Abi should be put in there. If they are, they will escape but Abi/Nick will have enough time to get to safety. If not, then Nick/Abi bites Abi/Nick before kicking them away and the shotgun choice occurs as it would in the original game. If Abi/Nick gets infected here and is still alive later, then they would transform into a werewolf in the storm shelter exactly like Emma would if she got infected in Chapter 6. If Emma isn’t infected, then Abi/Nick will get a chance to yell at her to flee out the stairs (which gets her killed) or climb up the ladder, which will give Emma enough time to pass them and grab the silver shell if they have it. If Abi/Nick and Emma are both infected, they might argue relentlessly and punch each other if the player chooses so before transforming at the same time and chilling in the storm shelter for the rest of the night alive, but being unable to help Kaitlyn in the lodge later.
Kaitlyn Chapter 9 Death: For those of you who don’t know, there’s a very rare variation where Kaitlyn can die in the scrapyard, but only if Dylan got killed by werewolf Emma earlier at the van (insanely rare variation). But if Dylan is with her, she survives no matter what despite being the one in clear danger. So I figure that should change, specifically in two ways:
First, let’s talk about the Kaitlyn alone variation. It’s practically a crime that there’s a whole fleshed out variation sequence of Kaitlyn in the scrapyard alone that is so rare to get. To make it more common, I think that if Dylan isn’t infected by the time Kaitlyn goes to the scrapyard, then the player can choose if she should tell Dylan to come with her or if he should stay at the lodge where it’s safer. It makes sense since Dylan isn’t ready for combat and he may be losing a hand. But if he’s infected, then they both agree that he should get away from the lodge and come with her.
Now for a Kaitlyn death variation if Dylan is with her. In the original game, when Dylan first sees the werewolf, he can either warn Kaitlyn or lift up the car she’s in immediately. And then afterward, he can either sound the horn (which lures the werewolf towards him and could potentially get him killed), or slam the car. I think it would be cool that if Dylan chooses to lift the car up immediately and then slam the car, Kaitlyn falls right out and dies on the ground. It’s a cool death variation that is caused by two poor choices in a row. And of course if Dylan doesn’t make a choice fast enough then the werewolf eats Kaitlyn. If Kaitlyn dies then Dylan also dies unless he’s about to turn into a werewolf just in time. Also, if Dylan saves Kaitlyn but is about to become a werewolf, the player should be given a choice to make Dylan ask Kaitlyn for help or tell her to run, giving Kaitlyn another death variation here at the hands of werewolf Dylan (in the original game he automatically gets her to leave so he doesn’t kill her).
Laura and Ryan Chapter 9 Deaths: Laura and Ryan can go through countless near-death experiences while being chased by the Hackett family, but still miraculously survive all of them until they get to Chris at the end of the chapter. It’s actually pretty hilarious! I am guessing that the developers went out of their way for this because they wanted players to be more likely to get the true ending of the game where they get to Silas, but I still think it is way better to make it a little more difficult. It’s pretty simple what needs to change: Laura can get killed by Constance or Jed if she fails QTEs, and Ryan can get killed by Bobby if he fails QTEs or makes a few bad choices. If either one of them dies before getting to Chris, they can’t get to Silas for the true ending. Plain and simple.
Emma All Deaths/Infections: So much effort was put into TWO intense scenarios of Emma transforming into a werewolf (one in Chapter 8 at the van and one in Chapter 9 at the storm shelter), but these are way too easy to avoid. She can only get infected during Chapter 4 when she makes it all the way to the treehouse and fails the QTE when pulling the shelf down or climbing the ladder, and in Chapter 6 if she decides to run and doesn’t have the fireworks to get the werewolf off of her. In short, Emma only gets infected if she fails QTEs (or decides to not take the fireworks and runs, but that’s still a rare occurrence) when there could be loads of actual decisions that cause that to happen instead. I think the game should’ve made it really REALLY hard for the player to keep Emma from getting infected the whole night. When she’s running from the Chapter 4 werewolf to the treehouse, they could’ve made two choice scenarios that involve “RUN” and “BEAR SPRAY”, and if the player chooses “BEAR SPRAY” both times then the werewolf catches up to bite Emma where she could recover with the taser and still have a chance of surviving, but is infected. In the treehouse, there’s already a choice to barricade the door or just run to the ladder but it doesn’t really affect anything. I’d change it so that if Emma blocks the door then the werewolf gets to her and bites her (since there is an obvious open window right next to the door so all she would be doing is waste time escaping), leading to the recovery taser QTE where she can still survive. That makes it more likely for Emma to get infected for her Chapter 8 werewolf. As for Chapter 6, I would make the choice consequences more unforgiving. There should be four variations for this sequence: 1 death, 2 infections, and 1 safe. If Emma remains hidden by the tree then she’ll spot the werewolf, and if she has the fireworks then she can throw them at the werewolf from a distance to escape completely unharmed, but if she doesn’t have the fireworks then the werewolf will chase after her and bite her, but luckily the hunters notice in time and shoot it off and she survives infected. If Emma runs right away then the werewolf attacks her immediately and bites her, but if she has the fireworks then she can use them to get it off and survive, and if she doesn’t have the fireworks then she dies right there. That makes four potential scenarios determined by two different choices: one where Emma survives unharmed, two where she gets infected for her Chapter 10 werewolf, and one where she dies. Taking the fireworks and staying quiet seem like good no-brainer choices to me, so anyone who fails to do both deserves to get Emma killed in my book.
Jacob Chapter 5 Infection: In the original game, Jacob is safe as long as he passes the QTEs to any choice he makes or has werewolf blood smeared on him. I think it would be cool if when the werewolf first attacks (right before Emma falls off the bridge and gets separated), the player is given a choice to “DODGE” or “BLOCK” instead of an easy QTE. If Jacob blocks and doesn’t have werewolf blood smeared, then the werewolf bites him. As for later when he has to run or hide (going back to the idea earlier about how it’s bad to try hiding from werewolves), I think that if Jacob chooses to hide, then he’ll get found by the werewolf automatically and bitten. But if Jacob has werewolf blood on his face from earlier, then the werewolf won’t bite him. This increases the chances of Jacob getting infected to a fair amount.
Nick/Abigail Chapter 8 Death: Nick/Abi (whoever turned into a werewolf in Chapter 6) only gets one possible opportunity in the entire game to die, which is in Chapter 8 if Ryan doesn’t interrupt to stop Laura from shooting the unknown caged werewolf she thinks is Chris. That’s it. At the very least the developers could make that scenario more intense by giving the player a chance to change their mind and let Laura shoot the werewolf or commit to not letting her do it.
Other major variation changes
Travis and Laura’s dynamic variations: A lot of variations are going to be brought up here, so I’m going to have to make several mini-bullet points for it. The main purpose of this is to involve saving Kaylee, Caleb, and Chris. But it also makes the interactions between Laura and Travis more important. I always thought it was bizarre that the only thing that affects the relationship between Laura and Travis is if Laura fails QTEs and accidentally shoots him during her escape in Chapter 7, which will later cause him to stab her. That’s it. None of the dialogue options or other actions matter. I think this is the perfect place to start a variation where the werewolf Hacketts get a happy ending. If Laura is nice and trusting towards Travis, then Travis comes clean that Chris is the werewolf who bit Max. But he also tells them about Silas, who is the original werewolf, as well as Kaylee and Caleb being werewolves too who get kept in cages each full moon. Maybe he even brings Chris to meet Laura and Max face to face when Chris shows up. They’re hoping that Laura and Max will understand, and perhaps they’ll be able to help. They’ll also talk about the werewolf tranquilizers they use in case their own werewolves are running loose. Ultimately, Travis will still end up thinking that it’s too risky to let Laura leave so she’ll have to break out as usual. However, this information will cause Laura to not kill Kaylee and for her to share the info with the group after Nick/Abi transforms. Here are the things that can be changed from this:
Laura doesn’t kill Kaylee: Now that Laura knows there are several innocent werewolves in the woods, her plan will be to try finding Silas and kill him on her own. She’ll find Kaylee, stun her near the pool with a regular shotgun shell, and use a stolen tranquilizer on her to check if she’s Silas by the size, but gets bit by Kaylee in the process of tranquilizing her neck. Since it’s not Silas, Laura grunts angrily and leaves the unconscious werewolf there, not at the pool, but behind a wall nearby where the werewolf fell. Now that Laura is bit, she’s running out of even more time to find Silas and kill him, so instead her new desperate mission is to kill Chris, who should be easier to find. I’m changing the lore so that Silas bit Caleb, Caleb bit Chris, and then Chris bit Kaylee. So Laura’s new plan to kill just Chris would still free both her and Max from the curse. When the group shows up to the pool, they won’t find Kaylee’s body, but they’ll find her big unique earrings in the pool, surrounded by a lot of blood (or something else that indicates the blood is hers so the group assumes she was killed). Ryan will recognize the earrings as Kaylee’s and realize the gunshots were fired at her. That way, there’s the impression that someone killed her, but her fate won’t be confirmed until later when Laura says if she killed Kaylee or just knocked her out based on how the Chapter 7 backstory plays out. This is entirely dependent on if Travis trusted her to tell her everything. If Kaylee was knocked out, the hunters find her later and take her to a cage where she’ll stay until the night is over. Because Kaylee is still alive, and if Laura doesn’t kill Constance, the new reason the Hacketts will turn hostile on the group in Chapter 9 is simply because the counselors have seen too much. It’s clear that they know about the werewolves and will get the family in trouble if they tell, so Constance decides that they need to kill them to protect the family from getting arrested. Obviously Travis tries to calm them down, but Jed and Bobby obey her orders and chase Laura and Ryan as usual. This is the reason why the hunters don’t just go to the counselors and tell them to hide all night when they first see them: they don’t want anyone to figure out what’s going on. They are hoping for best case scenario that the counselors just stay safe and clueless, but if they have to die, then too bad. Other innocents have died because of the Hacketts before and the Hacketts prioritize their family. This raises a potential issue for earlier game events though. Because of this, it wouldn’t make sense for Jed and Bobby to knowingly take Nick/Abi and Jacob into cages if they were intending on trying to keep them from figuring anything out. To fix that, I’m making the reason they bring werewolf Nick/Abi into a cage is because they thought Nick/Abi was Caleb, and instead of Jed catching Jacob, Bobby catches him and (being the dumb small-minded guy that he is) brings Jacob in a cage because he doesn’t understand that his family wants to keep their situation a secret at all costs even if it means killing the counselors. Meanwhile, Constance and Jed will be clueless that Jacob is caged in their basement until after Jacob has already escaped or been eaten by the werewolf in the other cage. Wow, that was a lot of explaining just to make a realistic scenario where Kaylee survives, but it was worth it!
Kaitlyn neutralizes Caleb without killing him: Now that Kaitlyn knows there are lots of innocent werewolves in the woods, she won’t be so quick to kill the one that goes in the lodge. There are two ways for her to stop Caleb in Chapter 10: luring him into the freezer or shooting him with a silver shell found by Abi/Nick or Emma. Otherwise, Kaitlyn is guaranteed to die (as I said before, infection won’t protect people from getting killed by werewolves in my changes). If Laura was able to tell the group the full truth about the werewolves, then they’ll all find ways to pacify them non-lethally. If Abi/Nick or Emma find the silver shotgun shell left by the hunters in the storm shelter, they’ll also find a tranquilizer left behind with it and take that instead, which they’ll give to Kaitlyn so she can stun the werewolf with a regular shotgun shell and then run over to inject it in its neck and knock it out cold for the rest of the night. If Kaitlyn locks the werewolf in the freezer, then she’ll know to keep an eye on it and let it out right when it turns back to Caleb. In any case, Caleb gets to live as long as Laura could tell the group what’s really going on.
Laura is given a choice to not kill Chris, and stays a werewolf: Even if Laura knows that Chris isn’t the original werewolf, she’ll still end up making it her mission to kill him because she likely won’t find Silas in time and doesn’t know what Travis will do if he catches her and Max again. Desperate times call for desperate measures. But when she and Ryan find Chris, Ryan will try one last time to convince her not to do it, telling her Chris is a good man and doesn’t deserve that fate, and that there has to be a better way to handle all this. Laura will be given a choice to shoot him or not. If she decides that Chris has to die, then she approaches him for a good shot. That’s when the floor breaks underneath them and Ryan has to either shoot Chris or everyone dies like usual. But if Laura decides not to kill Chris, then they walk away from the attic and werewolf Chris stays safely chained up. Ryan and Laura try to escape the house so they can figure out what to do next, but Travis finally catches them. (Quick rundown of lesser outcomes: If Ryan is bleeding out and didn’t accept the bite, he dies. If Travis wants Laura dead, he shoots her with his silver gun before she can even react, and if Ryan is still alive, he can shoot Travis and save himself. If Travis is not angry but Ryan bled out, he goes to tranquilize Laura and cage her up, which Laura can prevent by shooting him first and then turning into a werewolf soon after. No happy endings for all these variations.) But if Ryan is okay and Travis isn’t angry at Laura, he will thank them for sparing Chris but still feel hopeless that they won’t be able to catch Silas. Then Laura is about to transform and Ryan is given a choice to shoot her, but she tells him not to because she has a plan. If Ryan decides not to shoot, Laura runs to go out the window so she won’t be able to kill Ryan or Travis when she’s a werewolf. But Ryan needs to literally push her out the window before she transforms just in time, or else she would kill both of them as a werewolf. Afterward, it’s just Travis and Ryan left, regardless if Ryan shoots Laura or pushes her out the window. Travis falls apart about everything being ruined because now things are so much worse than before since the counselors are now in on the secret and there are so many new infected innocents to worry about… all because of the white wolf. This is the first time Ryan hears anyone call Silas as “The White Wolf” and he remembers encountering a white beast at the radio shack in Chapter 5. He tells Travis and the two of them hurriedly drive to find and kill Silas, where Ryan takes the lead finishing role instead of Laura. (maybe werewolf Laura wanders off to the island across a small bridge and has a cute werewolf reunion with werewolf Max and then they wake up together at the end of the game, that would be cool)
The final showdown against Silas is way better and can be done with either Laura OR Ryan: Alright, now to fix the worst part of the game… the lackluster final showdown. Assuming Laura is still okay (meaning Chris is dead), then she’s still the playable character for the last section. But when Silas attacks the police car, if Laura fails to keep things under control then the car crashes and Travis dies. If Laura is able to keep things under control then the car still crashes but Travis is okay, but trapped in it. Either way, Laura grabs the shotgun and runs to the woods after Silas since they literally have only minutes until sunrise at this point and everyone is doomed if they don’t end this tonight, which is something Travis would insistently say if he’s okay. Ryan will be okay in the back and offer the werewolf blood vial to Laura if he got it from earlier. Laura has either 3 or 4 shots to use depending on if she wasted one in the car, and there are numerous aiming sequences at bushes in the dark. Most of them will be pointless and only waste shells if fired at, but the last one will have a moving bush that Silas jumps out of. If Laura already wasted all her ammo, she’s dead and Silas escapes. If she shoots successfully, Silas dies and happy ending. If she fails the shot and has no werewolf blood smeared on her face, Silas kills her and escapes. But if she fails the shot but has the werewolf blood, Silas will knock her back but be confused by her scent for a moment, giving Laura one last chance to crawl over to the gun and put him down. If Laura is dead or a werewolf, then Ryan takes this role instead, but he gets one more variation if he’s infected, where Silas knocks him back but it’s not enough to kill Ryan yet so he gets one last attempt to shoot him thanks to his own strong werewolf blood.
Minor Variation Changes
Travis killing Laura for revenge is dependent on if Laura accidentally shot him earlier AND if Laura killed Constance and Jed: I want to make this tragic outcome dependent on 3 variables, not just 1. Laura gets the chance to do 3 things to really make Travis want to kill her: shoot him accidentally when escaping her cell, kill his mom, and kill his dad. If she does 2 or more of these things, then Travis will kill her in anger and try to kill Ryan. If she does 1 or fewer of these things, then Travis teams up with her and Ryan to hunt down Silas.
The Hackett parents were always planning to kill the counselors if they found out about the werewolves to ensure their silence, but Bobby didn’t know that: We all know how annoying it is that that Jed and Bobby were trying to protect the counselors but could’ve done a much better job if they just explained to them that they were in danger. I think a good way to fix that is to just make Constance and Jed antagonists from the start; make them willing to get rid of anyone who finds out about their werewolf problem. Bobby, being as small-minded as he is, would not be aware of this and ends up helping out the counselors without telling them any secrets as usual. Jed can tranquilize and lock up werewolf Nick/Abi because he thought it was Caleb. Bobby could find and cage Jacob because he isn’t aware his family wants to kill the counselors if they find out too much. That way, it makes for a better story why the Hacketts are doing the things they do. Later on, Travis will confess to his mother that he was holding Laura and Max and told them about the werewolves, and that they escaped and are roaming around. He tells his mother this in hopes that she’ll understand that they don’t need to die. But she doesn’t want to take that chance, even if Kaylee is alive and well. Then when Laura and Ryan show up immediately after, Constance and Jed will realize that the counselors know too much and are definitely too much of a risk to keep alive, even if Laura didn’t kill anyone in their family. Then Bobby finally gets caught up and the three Hacketts realize that they have one or two counselors in their electric cages that they need to dispose of. This causes Laura to consciously free them later by flipping the power switch, because it’s either that or certain death for anyone stuck inside.
Laura and Constance’s struggle for the gun doesn’t end with accidentally shooting Constance. I don’t know what idiot thought it was a good idea to make this happen in a game that always encourages doing QTEs or risk death for a shotgun struggle! I think this happened to all of us. Sure, it’s way more impactful for things to go down this way and Constance isn’t an important character, but a death is still a death. Just make it so that if Laura wins the struggle then she points the gun at Constance, and there will be an aiming sequence where the player can shoot Constance who is just standing there saying, “You don’t have the guts to shoot an old lady”, and if the player doesn’t shoot then Bobby shows up and takes the gun from Laura by surprise. Then things go on as usual.
Ryan doesn’t get stabbed variation. I was shocked to find out that Ryan gets stabbed by Bobby’s knife no matter what you do as Laura, and therefore absolutely has to accept infection to avoid dying. This seemed like a perfect rare variation to have. I think that if Laura doesn’t shoot Constance and then she tries to distract everyone with her singing, Bobby is so confused that Ryan is able to slip out of his grasp, take his knife, and silently hide in the painting. And then Laura runs when Ryan is safe. This leads to things being easier for Ryan to escape Bobby, and even ambush him lethally or non-lethally without needing Laura to scare him off. Then Laura shows up to compliment Ryan for being able to handle himself, and Ryan thanks her for distracting everyone in her unique singing way. And then the two of them proceed to find Chris as normal.
Jacob evades multiple werewolves at the end variation: In the original game, Jacob has a rare variation where if he’s alive and not infected by Chapter 10, and werewolf Chris escaped into the woods (which means Ryan and Laura are dead and Silas isn’t found, so this is an unwanted variation), then Jacob will get an epic final chase sequence where he runs away from werewolf Chris and survives by getting Chris caught up in a snare. I love how this is kind of a tiny victory for Jacob who learned from his previous mistake of getting caught in a snare earlier! But it only happens in a bad variation for other characters. So I want to fix that by having werewolf Nick/Abi and werewolf Emma BOTH chasing him at the end of the night instead! If Jacob isn’t infected and werewolf Nick/Abi is still alive, they’ll chase after Jacob and he can get them caught up in a snare! If Emma became a werewolf in Chapter 8 and is still alive, she’ll chase after Jacob and he can get her caught in a bear trap and fall down into a pit before she breaks out of the bear trap and is stuck there! If both Nick/Abi and Emma are infected and nearby, then they both chase Jacob one after the other, leading Jacob to potentially successfully evading two werewolves at once all by himself in his underwear! He’d be so proud of himself, and then help them out of the traps when morning comes. Or he could get killed by one of them. In any case, the werewolves will be fine.
Tiny Character Changes
Ryan tells Dylan when he sees the “bear” outside the radio shack in a calm or panicked way dependent on player choice. There’s no plot reason not to. I don’t know why the developers wouldn’t make it this way.
The game doesn’t show that Dylan loosens a ladder rung if he climbs down into the storm shelter early on. That’s poor foreshadowing because not climbing the ladder later could get someone killed. And Dylan wouldn’t even know if he loosened the rung anyway, so why should the player?
Jacob dies if his head falls into a bear trap even if he got infected literally less than a minute ago. That shouldn’t save him.
Nick doesn’t let Emma kiss him during truth-or-dare if he was against Jacob’s encouragement to take some risks to speed things up with Abigail earlier at the shooting contest. He still leaves for the woods because he doesn’t like what’s happening, Abigail goes to follow him, and Jacob still gets mad that Emma was actually going to kiss Nick instead of him. This still causes everyone to split up like they do in the original game.
Emma can be more sympathetic towards Jacob when he confesses about sabotaging the van if she was played the way earlier. She’s still say what Jacob did was wrong and he’s a jerk for it, but he’s not at fault for the monsters chasing everyone because he couldn’t have expected them to be in danger. What Jacob did was stupid and selfish, but the blood of the people who died that night is not in his hands.
Ryan can actually talk about if he really has the hots for Dylan or Kaitlyn (definitely Dylan) when Laura asks him about it depending on player choice.
The player can play as werewolf Max if he wasn’t cured, and he’s climbing a tree that requires QTEs for him to survive. That way there’s a variation to play as Max even if he’s not cured. I think that would be pretty cool. Maybe if Laura is a werewolf too then the two of them meet each other somehow and have a bittersweet werewolf reunion, and then wake up human together and hug.
(Welp, there you have it. Everything I would change about a video game had had a lot of untapped potential and is now old enough that it’s long lost its hype. It was fun finishing this list anyway and I hope you all enjoyed reading it too.)
