Quantum Break Review – a captivating time-travelling story

Time travel is a difficult theme for writers, also those in the movie industry. You can pretty much count all the good movies and series that utilize this idea on the fingers of one hand; the number of productions that have backfired is much longer. Everyone knows the great trilogy Back to the Future directed by Robert Zemicks; 12 Monkeys by Terry Williams was absolutely brilliant, much like Les Visiteurs by Jean-Marie Poire. Some of you might have had a hard time watching Timecop or The Time Machine and a myriad of other cinematographic “masterpieces”, let alone such plot idiocies as Superman making the clock go backwards by reversing the Earth’s rotation in order to save Lois Lane. Bending the laws of physics should be at least remotely based on some logic and respect for the audience’s intelligence. Video games’ writers can feel more comfortable since the suspension of disbelief in the industry has always been applied freely; games have other tools to fight with for the approval of players: game mechanics, technology, and a bunch of other features. Logic doesn’t count for much here, and so you can engage in a time travel by means of a portable toilet, as was the case in the brilliantly written, and otherwise magnificent Day of the Tentacle... All right, the Doctor as well as Bill and Ted travel in a phone box, but let’s just leave it at that. The goal of this lengthy introduction was to convince you that time travel is a hard and unforgiving theme. Not everyone has the wits of the creators of Groundhog Day. The Finnish single-player-interactive-fiction specialists at Remedy studio have also decided to take the bull by the horns. Quantum Break, contrary to contemporary practices, features a rather complicated story with pretty good mechanics, and absolutely no trace of a multiplayer. And that’s something we all love.

Quantum Break is a story-driven game, and it’s best to learn the plot on your own, so I won’t be divulging any details. It should suffice to say that we are dealing with time traveling here, and it’s the most important part of the game, influencing not only the storyline, but the core mechanics as well – combat included. The production from Remedy can take a seat among those successful productions I mentioned in the introduction. The plot is not only well-implemented and coherent – it’s also logical, contains a couple of twists, and – most importantly – it doesn’t get boring. The last conclusion, however, took some time to arrive at. The game intertwines periods of intense action with moments of calm exploration occasionally seasoned by a simple logic puzzle based on the protagonist’s powers. During the subsequent hours of gameplay I would become increasingly immersed in the game, but it wasn’t due to the events gathering pace. The plot itself becomes really captivating at some point – numerous cut-scenes rendered in real time are a real treat. It’s something that the fifth part of Metal Gear Solid was missing.

The protagonist played by Shawn Ashmore.

The storyline of Quantum Break is accompanied by a four-episode series, which can be watched in between the five acts of the game. The idea aroused some controversy from the beginning, but judging by Remedy’s previous achievements in approaching their games in this particular way (chief example being Alan Wake) I had hoped that the devs knew what they were doing. The end result didn’t really convince me – the 20-minutes episodes are streamed, so you must be online the whole time, but that’s not the worst part. The videos would often need to buffer, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t my network’s fault. It wouldn’t be that surprising if it turns out after the launch that the servers are overpopulated and getting through an episode is a real ordeal. Microsoft seems to have taken such circumstances into consideration, since the whole series can be downloaded into your console’s hard drive. But here awaits another bump in the road, as there’s 75 GB worth of action here. Since most XOnes have a HDD of 500GB, it may turn out a problem for some.

You must empty a couple of clips into heavily armored foes.

The way the story unfolds in the series depends on the decision the player makes at the end of each chapter. It can have one of two different conclusions, and in order to get to know all of the game’s secrets, it has to be finished twice – not only for the sake of achievements, but chiefly for the fact that making different decisions alters the gameplay. Those aren’t some huge changes to the general shape of the game – rather nuances, changing the situation of the protagonist. I do enjoy such mechanics in games, but my opinion about the series itself remains ambivalent. However, the idea of shifting the focus onto the supporting characters and the events that happen in the background of the game’s story rather than the main plot works really well.

The game’s story is based on the concept of time travel in machines such as this one.

Unfortunately, acting isn’t one of the series’ assets. Despite hiring a high-profile cast including Aidan Gillen and Lance Reddrick, only the latter really shines. The rest – not so much. The main actors of the game, namely Shawn Ashmore and Dominic Monaghan, make very brief appearances during the series – their main focus is voice-over and facial motion capture. And I have to admit at this point that voice acting in this game is truly brilliant; it’s the best part of the actors’ performance. You can notice that the budget of the series wasn’t exorbitant – apart from one car chase, the props are quite terrible, and towards the end, in one of the most important locations, simply ludicrous. Another drawback is somewhat inconsistent behavior of some characters – depicted as cowards throughout most of the game, they suddenly decide to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Bottom line is that the game would be better off without the series, focusing on telling the story via computer-generated characters.

Time starts to break – the whole world, with the exception of the protagonist and enemies equipped with the right devices, stops.

Jack, the central figure of the story, acquires supernatural powers during a certain event, which give him an edge on the battlefield. One allows him to trap enemies in a time bubble, rendering them motionless; another creates a protective shield; a different one makes it possible to jump in time (a little bit like Corvo’s blink in Dishonored) behind enemies’ backs. Those powers can be developed during the game, which helps a lot during the gunfights with armored foes in the last two acts. In fact, Jack sometimes seems overpowered. I think it was done on purpose to facilitate spectacular and dynamic combat. The protagonist automatically switches cover, and the basic assumption of combat is to quickly scramble between the enemies and eliminate them without having to constantly take cover. Approaching the end, the game will encourage a more cautious approach, same as in the case of choosing the highest difficulty. The shooting should cater to the tastes of those who found Alan Wake’s “flashlight mechanics” monotonous. Remedy drew the right conclusions and proposed more thought-out solutions. Basically, the only negative aspect of it is the fact that you sometimes need to empty a couple of clips into your enemies to take them down, which brings to mind another recent release: Tom Clancy’s The Division, as well as other MMOs.

Product placement has just entered a whole new level – the only car in the world is Nissan, the only mobile devices available are those by Microsoft.

The game has issues with collision. I was stuck a couple of times between some objects and couldn’t get out. Time manipulation has a negative impact on some elements of the environment: when the time goes nuts, so does the game world, sometimes, and the character walks or stands above the ground. The visuals on Xbox didn’t come out untouched either; it’s clearly visible that the game runs in 720p; object’s geometry is often filled right before the player’s eyes. In exchange, we got a pretty stable game in which the animation doesn’t stutter.

The character takes cover automatically.

In spite of some annoying mistakes and the series that fails to fulfill some of the expectations, Quantum Break is a welcome refreshment. Excellent story and great performance of the main characters are the key ingredients, supported by a broad background introduced by piles of notes we stumble upon throughout the game. Shooting comes second here, but it was also implemented in an attractive manner. The splendid story will keep you engaged and entertained for at least two playthroughs. If you grew tired of mainstream productions – sandboxes and multiplayers of all kinds – the title by Remedy is just the thing for you.