Quantum Break

Fantastically well crafted with stunning graphics and visual elements 'Quantum Break' is a joy to play. There's downsides such as poor enemies and to an extent minimal control information but on the whole the mechanics of the gameplay are pretty solid. An Xbox one exclusive grande this isn't enough of a 'killer app' to justify the purchase of the system but it's worth taking some form of interest in with a brilliant story which always seems to feel grounded despite dealing with a relatively high concept subject matter. Relying fairly heavily on the choices made as Paul Serene (Aidan Gillen) the unfolding story is told in such minute yet astounding detail and is seriously impressive as you change the world that being created through a rather sin mole mechanic of Option A or Option B, seeming a gimmick they truly do have impact and can alter how you play and what's available to the gameplay function as opposed to a merely cosmetic image. On the whole greatly detailed and entertaining I highly recommend watching a play through or picking it up yourself

Remedy's Max Payne games are still a high point for the genre and they have been on a slight decline ever since. Quantum Break is better than Alan Wake's: American Nightmare but they again put production values over everything else. I would have preferred less motion blur during the calmer segments and a reduced grain filer but the audiovisual quality of the game can't be denied. The same goes for most of the set-pieces but the game reuses a lot of locations and thus feels a bit "small". The shooting and enemy variety could have been better as i was just going through the motions despite finishing the game on hard. The game ultimately stands and fall with the narrative / presentation and it is as expensive as it is forgettable. I had fun following along but predicted every plot point and don't expect to remember much, despite the high amount of flavor text. The branching paths have no real effect on the game and the packed in 4 TV episodes left me cold for the most part. The .hack series did the same trick over a decade ago with the slightly forgettable companion OVAs but these at least had production values. I can 100% recommend the game for the spectacle of it all but hope for less formula and tighter gameplay for the developer's next offering. 7,5/10

Before playing this game, I've never played anything quite like it. In this game, you experience reality as it's fragmenting. Using your characters abilities, you're able to use this fragmented world to your advantage, with some really spectacular action scenes. The game is so cinematic; so damn cinematic in fact that after every act, you get to watch a live-action episode based off the decisions you've made. So unique in that aspect, as before, I've never seen this episode feature in a game. It makes the story even more engaging, and shows this story from multiple angles. In all, this was a very memorable single player campaign. Felt like I was playing an interactive miniseries; that's how cinematic it was. Definitely give it a try if engaging single player games are your thing, and if you dig stories dealing with quantum reality and time distortion.

EDIT: I played this game a couple years ago with an understanding that this was probably was of the coolest and unique games I've played at the time and coming out of it thinking I just experienced one of my new favorite games. Fast-forward to 2022, I seen it was on gamepass, and with certain achievements I have yet to get, and me not remembering most of the story, I decided to replay this quantum mind****. First things first, the gameplay is still super cool and easy to master. Playing on hard, I felt like it wasn't ever too hard, but that may because I kept up on my upgrades. I loved time sprinting around unsuspecting fools and getting 3 headshots in quick succession, or breaking time around them and blasting 30 gunshots into the back of a heavy soldiers' head.

The story is one of the best aspects of the game, making truly one of the most cinematic games I've ever played. Plus all of the hidden stuff in the game adds to the immersion. After each act, you get to make a decision that shapes the rest of the game, for better or for worse.

Experiencing the TV episodes after each act was again refreshing, choosing the decisions I haven't chose before. This playthrough, I made the PR choices which made Serene and Monarch blame all of the "terrorist" acts on Jack Joyce. There's even cool things you can find in-game called "quantum ripples" that add small Easter eggs to the episodes that was sometimes kinda funny. Coming back to the side stuff, there's some that are really funny, specifically the Timestabber screenplay.

In all, the game was loads of fun once again. This time around though, I ended up completing the game 100%. Clocked in at 38 hours, (this includes my first playthrough back in 2017 and my 2022 playthrough) the game isn't super long, but finding all of the secret stuff like chronons might be a challenge.

You can tell how hard the developers were working to make this an intensely story rich game. A lot of effort was put into the look, sound, level design and lots of top notch voice acting. I have never seen a game with a tv show embedded in it like this one.

BUT....

Where Alan Wake succeeds I feel like this game fails. They took the same cludgy controls from Alan Wake and copied them into this game. I found myself at times trying to keep my character from getting to close to an edge and falling or not quite being able to jump up to a ledge because I was slightly misaligned to it. Where I could overlook this in Alan Wake for some reason I couldn't in this game, maybe because it was like Alan Wake was your first chance learn from those mistakes.

Don't get me wrong, Alan Wake is one of my all time favorite games and this one is definitely on my to replay again down the road. I just wish the game mechanics matched the ambition of the storytelling.

I love time traveling stories. I love time traveling narratives that actually work with the genre for tension building, expectations, mystery, wonder, and character development. Quantum Break has that by the boat load. The actual question of whether or not time traveling itself could ever be free of a 'closed-loop' is something I found intoxicating in the minute discussions of predestination and free will.

This game is all about focusing on using the mechanics, presentation, and even the audio design for the sake of the narrative. A great cast of characters with damn good writing and motivations only cement the painful contemplations of what time travel and "the end of time" mean for each and every single one of them.

The very fact that you can influence the story arc in particularly meaningful ways for the world and characters is something absolutely fantastic and MUST be commended for the hard working people at Remedy. The cast is a wonderfully diverse and strongly acted group of characters who really make the ensemble dynamic work. Shawn Ashmore, Courtney Hope, Aidan Gillen, Dominic Monaghan, Lance Reddick, and everyone in the production is fantastic and memorable. There are so many pieces of character, lore, and world building alongside such attention to detail that I can't help but be impressed and amazed by the developers work.

As a narrative guy, I applaud Remedy for making a game that really pushes great narrative storytelling in video games, and wanted to express that feeling.