Quantum Break Is a Shooter With Brains

[asdasdads Prince]

There really aren’t very many games about time travel. Sure, there are a lot of games that feature time travel as a tool or plot device, but there aren’t many that explore its implications, attempt to dissect the nature of it or highlight the science on which it might be based. That’s odd, because time travel is a fascinating subject that’s rich in theoretical conundrums, like “If I travel back in time to re-eat the delicious sandwich I just had for lunch, will I feel hungry or full before I tuck in for a second time?”

Happily, Remedy Entertainment, creators of the under-appreciated Alan Wake and the over-the-top neo-noir Max Payne and its sequel, is rectifying this (sans sandwich conundrum) with its upcoming third-person story-shooter, Quantum Break. Of course, the elephant-sized DeLorean in the room is Remedy’s introduction of several, 22-minute live-action episodes threaded throughout the course of the game. We’ll get to those later but suffice to say that they work better than you might expect, for the most part at least.

The same can be said for the pseudo-science behind Quantum Break’s time travel and time-manipul-ation powers. The idea is this: Paul Serene, played by Aiden “Littlefinger” Gillen, has created a device that is capable of generating a localised black hole. The gravity well of this black hole is such that when you move within a certain proximity to it, time and space become one and the same and so to move through physical space is to also move through time. The circular chamber built around this black hole generator enables someone to traverse it clockwise or anti-clockwise, which is the equivalent of travelling forward or backwards in time. To demonstrate this to long-term friend and Quantum Break’s protagonist, Jack Joyce (Sean “X-Men” Ashmore), Serene programs the machine to take him two minutes back in time, but just before he enters the chamber, his fu-ture self from two minutes hence, steps out of the machine having already used it to travel back in time by two minutes.

This, and another early reveal concerning the shady Monarch Solutions, is exactly the kind of time travel scenario that’s just complicated enough that it seems like it could kind of make some plausible sense if your brain would just stop hurting long enough to be able to figure it out. Indeed, Remedy consulted with a former CERN scientist to ensure that the basis for its time travelling exploits adheres to current thinking in the field of theoretical physics, which seems to have helped the opening couple of hours of Quantum Break feel smart, rather than hokey.

The same can be said of the combat heavy parts of Quantum Break too, which kick off soon after the story-focused first act depicts the inevitable moment when things start to go a bit wrong. Clearly, nothing good comes of messing with black holes and so now time is officially broken, although that does also mean that both Paul Serene and Jack Joyce have been granted time-manipul-ation powers and, for reasons to be explored, the two old friends are soon set against one another.

Playing as Joyce, your powers are unveiled in quick succession and include the vanilla Time Vision, which highlights enemies and pick-ups and looks all too similar to Assassin’s Creed’s Eagle Vision; Time Dodge has Joyce dashing short distances and triggering a slow-motion bullet-time-style aim; and Time Stop, which freezes enemies caught within its radius in addition to temporarily stopping the path of your own bullets, allowing you to stack several shots atop one another so that when time unfreezes enemies are hit with magnified force.

The layout of many of the environments suggests Quantum Break should be played as a cover-based shooter, but in reality cover need only be utilised intermittently, when you’re low on health. Outside of this time, it’s all dashing to and from enemies, freezing time to stack damage and creating a stasis shield to give yourself some breathing room while the cool-down timers of your powers recharge.

Combat is empowering – you’re effectively a superhero after all – but throughout the first four acts of the game you rarely feel overpowered, as groups of enemies work together to take you down. Furthermore, enemies who have some time-based abilities of their own are hinted at for later on in the game and so you’re encouraged to make canny use of your powers in combination with one another to get up close to enemies, rather than become over reliant on sticking to cover and taking pot-shots from afar. Combat in the opening hours of the game is entertaining and will hopefully have the potential to become increasingly engaging as the game progresses and you level up Joyce’s powers. There’s also some light puzzling sections that revolve around time manipul-ation, although these feel more contrived in the way they ask you to suspend your disbelief that some objects are susceptible to your powers while the vast majority are not.

“While the overarching narrative is fixed, the path between essential story points varies significantly"

Like Joyce, Paul Serene has also been granted time powers, but his include the ability to glimpse outlines of events that will take place in the fu-ture. It’s this ability that fuels Quantum Break’s Junction Points - moments throughout the story where you’ll have to make a choice that will affect both the live-action show and fu-ture game play options - and provides the key to how game and live-action show intersect. At the end of the first chapter of game play, you briefly take control of Paul Serene and have to make a choice on how to deal with events concerning Monarch Solutions, which essentially comes down to whether to take a hard-line against public detractors of Monarch Solutions or instead try to win them over with a charm offensive and slick PR campaign.

Unlike many such choice and consequence moments in games, here you get to see the overarching effects of your choices thanks to Serene’s ability to glimpse the [CENSORED]ure. It’s an interesting dynamic that effectively sees you role-playing two different characters as you consider how Paul Serene might be thinking versus what effect your choice is likely to have on Jack Joyce.

The choice you make with Serene at this first junction, choosing either “Hardline” or “PR” paths, directly affects the fate of certain characters in the show who can then become important NPCs later in the game or be missing from it entirely. Remedy describes the split between game and show as the former telling the story of Jack Joyce, while the latter shows events from the perspective of inside Monarch Solutions. Having replayed the Junction Point to view the outcome of both choices and how they affect both show and game, it’s apparent that while the overarching narrative remains fixed, the path taken in between the essential story points can vary significantly.

The show itself looks to have been produced to a reasonable standard and wisely focuses on the strength of acting from familiar faces, Aiden Gillen, Sean Ashmore, Lance Reddick and a strong cast of supporting characters, rather than being too ambitious with the special effects. While one or two of its characters seem ready to lapse into predictable cliché at any moment, the first episode is generally well written and played with the premise in interesting enough ways to want to see more. Crucially, it doesn’t feel like the whole thing is just a live action cut scene and nor is there a jarring disconnect between the show and the digital representation of the actors, thanks in large part to the voice and performance capture working in conjunction with Remedy’s own animators.

Quantum Break represents a bold step for Remedy Entertainment and a high profile console exclusive for Microsoft. Having spent several hours playing and re-playing the opening four acts of the game, exploring its time manipul-ation powers and collecting pieces of its optional storytelling items, I’m certainly more encouraged than I had expected to be. The show offers an interesting take on the trans-media experience, which has not been very well represented in the past, and looks like it could be capable of some smart uses of its central themes. It may have suffered numerous delays during its development but Quantum Break could yet turn out to be worth the long wait.

Trailer (1:40):