Time travel has long been a dream of humanity. Having the ability to go forward in time to know what’s coming, or go back in time to fix something that has already happened has a strong allure. Can we really alter time, though, or is time fixed, and anything we do in an attempt to alter it ultimately futile?
Quantum Break is one of the most ambitious video games of the past few years. Coupling a third-person shooter with a live-action video series, developer Remedy Entertainment created a world rich in story and development. Unfortunately, that world just doesn’t feel quite right.
Players will take on the role of Jack Joyce, whose only notable trait seems to be that he’s the brother of a famous physicist. Joyce also happens to be childhood pals with Paul Serene, also a top physicist and businessman. At the beginning of the game, Serene invites Joyce to a research facility on a college campus to witness a time-travelling experiment for the first time.
Things go awry during the experiment, creating a rift in time itself, and Joyce must race to fix everything before time collapses, bringing the universe to a halt.
In terms of storytelling, Quantum Break sets itself up to fail. Time travel stories require an incredibly tight script, especially when multiple trips through time are happening. When even a basic script like Back to the Future has been overanalyzed to see if it makes “sense,” anything more complex is immeasurably more difficult.
Somehow, Quantum Break manages to succeed with flying colors in telling this story. This is largely thanks to the knockout performances by all of the actors involved, especially Aiden Gillen as Serene and Lance Reddick as his sidekick, Hatch. Regardless of whether Quantum Break is in a game segment or a video segment, the actors all provide enough believability to keep any plot hiccups moving along.
The four video segments, each found after the first four chapters, are especially intriguing. Quantum Break is broken up into five acts, with segments asking players to make major decisions at the end of the first four. These obviously affect the story, but there are also much smaller ways to add slight modifications. Anything from turning off the lights in one scene or looking at a chalk board in another could add or change scenes slightly. The coolest aspect was seeing your actions in-game play out during the live-action segments.
With so much emphasis on storytelling and incorporating videos, it seems there was a lack of focus on gameplay. Many aspects of Quantum Break’s time-bending combat feel fresh and unique, which makes it all the more painful that basic gameplay mechanics don’t feel fleshed out enough.
Basic gameplay revolves around third-person shooting, with players having an array of time-based abilities to use. These range from a speed boost to get around and confuse enemies, to a time stop which acts as a shield to ward off incoming bullets, to a time warp that can kill multiple enemies in an area. These powers all feature cooldowns so players cannot spam them too much.
These powers feel strong and unique, but the gunplay doesn’t. There are a handful of different weapons throughout Quantum Break, and they all feel very similar. None of the SMGs or assault rifles were that interesting, and the other guns - like a shotgun, machine gun or carbine rifle - didn’t add enough to really change the game. There are no special or one-off weapons to find, so you’re stuck with the same bland guns from beginning to end.
The cover system is also pretty terrible. Quantum Break uses an automatic cover system, so Joyce will drop down into a crouch when he is around boxes or other cover. This mostly works out as expected, but many times I’ll find Joyce has decided to stand up for one reason or another, and is exposed enough to get gunned down by enemies, or just doesn’t drop into cover at all. When games like The Division really nail third-person gun combat and maneuvers, Quantum Break feels left behind.
There are a few platforming/puzzle segments to break up the pace a little, but these usually left me confused or angry. Due to time crumbling, these moments were typically more scripted than others. This means you’ll be working towards one goal, only to have things quickly change in a short cutscene. You’ll often find yourself wondering where to go next, or even what to do next.
Quantum Break also never really feels like it nails consistent difficulty. There are basic enemies, more advanced enemies, and two kinds of heavy enemies. The basic, advanced, and one type of heavy all take the same strategy: pump them full of lead until they fall over. The second heavy type is the only enemy that really requires any strategy to kill.
Towards the end, encounters go from a few enemies, to more enemies, to even more enemies. When it’s just a handful of enemies, encounters feel tense and exciting. With more enemies, it feels chaotic and uncontrolled. Unfortunately, Quantum Break’s approach to difficulty means “throw more enemies in the room,” so end-game battles are a flurry of confusion and blasting away until you kill the last baddie.
Ultimately, Quantum Break feels like it would simply work best as a TV show instead of a video game. The story is compelling, the acting is superb, and the footage looks great. Having the ability to change how the story plays out based on choices made is also incorporated nicely. The real downsides to Quantum Break all lie in the gameplay and lackluster mechanics.
With a runtime of under 12 hours (and assuming that at least an hour and a half of that was devoted to watching the videos) Quantum Break doesn’t quite offer enough to recommend getting right away. This is definitely a game that can be beaten over a weekend, so if you really are intrigued, give it a rental first.
So what do you think? Do you agree with these thoughts on Quantum Break? Do you have thoughts of your own? Let us know in the comments section below.
