Quantum Break

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.

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

The fictional Riverpoint University in the United States is conducting research into the possibility of time travel. During one of the experiments, an accident occurs, causing a series of inexplicable oddities as the world around us begins to slowly and gradually disintegrate. In addition, three scientists: Jack Joyce, Beth Wilder and Paul Serene, are endowed with supernatural abilities that allow them to control space-time. While the two of them strongly believe in the possibility of fixing the world, Serene, convinced of the inevitability of the impending catastrophe, tries to use the damaged spacetime and Jack's abilities to fulfill his own goals.

The story of Quantum Break is very similar to the television series. The events depicted in the game are supported by live movie scenes with real actors. While the game follows the actions of good heroes like Jack and Beth, the movie scenes focus exclusively on the game's main villain Paul Serene and his company Monarch. Thanks to this way of narration, we learn many aspects of the same story, shown from two different points of view during the game. In addition, both in the game and in the movie scenes, we, the players, have to make important decisions that will be reflected in the subsequent flow of the game.

Quantum Break is, first of all, a dynamic third-person action game where, besides shooting, the important thing is to pass the next levels and use your abilities not only to fight, but also to repair the world. This aspect of the gameplay is significantly diversified thanks to the constant change of our environment after the damage of space-time, numerous anomalies in which objects, structures or buildings disappear or crumble before our eyes. This means that during the game we don't just follow the predetermined path and sometimes we may have to look for alternative solutions and paths to the destination.

Traveling and fighting in an ever-changing environment is accelerated thanks to supernatural abilities resulting from the failed scientific experiment. During the game, for example, we can speed up or slow down the passage of time, or create a special protective shield around Jack. While each of the abilities in question are important to use together constantly during the fight against various enemies and obstacles, the key to success is to use them judiciously in battles, as your powers need a certain amount of time to regenerate. The whole process requires not only great skill, but also the ability to tactically plan your movement.

Quantum Break's graphics are of high quality for its time. They were also developed using an engine called Northlight, which allows for realistic rendering of facial expressions. In addition, the authors took care not to distract us with an overly complex interface during the game. The interface is extremely minimalistic, with only a few icons indicating the powers available. Quantum Break also features more or less well-known actors from the world of cinema. The cast includes Shawn Ashmore, Aidan Gillen and Dominic Monaghan. Quantum Break offers 13 hours of gameplay.

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.

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