Don't shoot me yet!

I know it's a technical mess and hard to even play properly anywhere AT ALL. I know it's 2 sides with game and tv show don't really merge very much at all, and kinda feel like having your burger and your fries served to you in 2 different restaurants. I know the acting varies wildly and the limitations of this ambitious idea show up very soon... I know the shooting is very limited and not deep or very interesting... I know the notes are too frequent and long to read and stuf.....

But dang, it's neat innit???? I played it on easy and I moved through the shooting arenas as fast as posible enjoying them only on the most basic of visual spectacle (which is great, you can see Control's shaders this early already).

After that, all we have left is the story, and it's a neat one! It never gets as weird as Alan Wake or Control, BUT it does get close and has a lot of cool moments, and its pace and engagement characters wise (to me) is miles better than control.

Only a simple skill tree for upgrades, linear story, no sidequest, no wasting any more time than necessary... these were all sins around the time the game came out, but now? It's a great time.

And I even enjoyed the kinda dumb tv show parts, which were CLEARLY sepparated from the game, focusing on different characters and barely taking your choices into account... but still a fun dumb action thriller!

All the VFX and actual story was in the game part tho, where that'd be cheaper to achieve, and it's those story focused barely interactive moments that got me quite hooked, the very few choices you make as the villain between 2 options were also compelling enough to make me sit there for a bit before choosing, and the best part...

Lance Reddick (RIP) is here, why did nobody told me??? I love Mr Hatch and it's a shame that the game doesn't even get to a real ending... It leaves half of the stuff unresolved, teasing a sequel that would never (will never, really) come. And without Lance I'm not sure I'd want it to anyway.

So a bit sad about it after all... but still, what a surprise! maybe it was thanks to the low low expectations I had from hating the 30 minutes I tried years ago, but I think I just enjoy remedy way more when they focus 75% on the supernatural story.

I love Remedy. In particular, I love their ability to tell compelling, mysterious, connective stories that suck you in due to their narrative threads and gloomy, out-of-the-box nature. For me, it has been the case with Max Payne. It has been the case with Alan Wake. And it, too, has been the case now, with Quantum Break.

This is likely a very divisive title due to its philosophy. I’m not sure there’s ever been a release that has attempted to mesh film and game aspects with such poignancy and ambition. And while ultimately QB isn’t able to reach the full potential of its vision, it has nevertheless laid interesting foundations for something that, since then, seems to be mostly dormant, perhaps due to its attached stigma and the perceived connection to the whole Xbox One/TV debacle. Its concept certainly won’t please everyone, but it did entertain me and it highlighted, at the very least, creative input. Every act involves a gameplay section, a choice section, and a film segment which is somewhat affected by your previous decisions. All of this is pushed upwards by impressive performances on both sides of the experience. RIP Lance Reddick, arguably the star of the show, but Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones’ Littlefinger), Dominic Monaghan (Merry in The Lord of the Rings), Courtney Hope and Patrick Heusinger also put in very strong showings.

All this talent gets deployed in order to present and well crafted, unusual, emotional, somewhat messy story, fleshed out by a ton of backstory and lore you can find scattered throughout, in line with most of Remedy’s narrative works. The delivery is at all times dressed in a full-on cinematic presentation, in and out of the game, with the best (awesome visual style) and worst (very heavy on the film grain) that comes with this style. Although here, another problem arises. I read it’s because of the way the game handles upscaling, but whatever it is, QB ultimately looks quite blurry from start to finish, to the point of affecting your overall impression of it. Some have called it an artistic choice. I don't buy it.

Atmospherically, although different in its thematic exploration, it is impossible to not to see the similarities with Alan Wake, in tone, in mood, even in colour palette. Coincidentally, QB offers several nods to that game in several different ways throughout the playthrough. The interconnectedness of Remedy's universe has been the subject of several video essays, and though some of those dots may sometimes feel flimsily connected, it is at least easy to discern a connective tonal thread across their games. The story that QB tells and that, to a degree, the player shapes, is quite good, although it only comes fully into its own at the end of Act 4, when it finally finds cohesion, purpose and emotional weight. The whole experience was actually a lot more prone to elicit feelings than I had anticipated, with a couple of visually impactful scenes to boot alongside a welcome amount of morally ambiguous moments. The ending felt underwhelming, at least to me, but the ride, in true Remedy fashion, more than made up for it.

The problem is that, also in true Remedy fashion, gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

I’m still to play Control, but I heard they've improved on the technical front, and that is yet another reason I'm excited to get to it. Because so far, in my book, Remedy also equals unremarkable gameplay at best, and QB is no exception. Movement feels very sluggish, platforming is dreadful, shooting is not great (and it also artificially increases combat challenge), the cover system is so-so, some of its mechanics are inconsistent (being unable to climb something you can in other situations, rewinding objects sometimes only works when you're on top of them, etc), controls are glitchy, and automatically reverting to the pistol at the start of every fight kinda sucks. All of this results in a technically disappointing experience, and the last boss battle, for example, is an absolute pain because of these issues. The thing that kept crossing my mind while playing was that it hardly felt there had been any gameplay evolution from Alan Wake (a game I love, but one that is technically frustrating) to this. A real shame. There is, however, a big exception to this, which is the powers. These are, simply put, awesome. All time manipulation abilities are original and feel mostly great to use, and the physics of it all are really cool. I also like that the game forces you to be strategic and make use of your abilities in tandem, which is why they all have their separate timer. These abilities are so integral to the experience that I'm not sure you could get by in the game resorting solely to gunplay without using them. But you shouldn't anyway, because they're really fun. I just wish the rest of the game's mechanics kept up with this particular one.

So this is the duality of Quantum Break. It's unmistakably ambitious, certainly to a fault. It’s a showcase for compelling storytelling and intricate narrative expression. And one exception aside, it's significantly held back by its technical limitations and lack of polish. In the end, and as is often the case, your feelings about it will come down to what you tend to gravitate towards in games. As far as I'm concerned, it definitely does enough to justify a playthrough, and I do hope a sequel is at least being considered. Hopefully, of course, one with better gameplay. 7.5/10

Other than a poor final boss fight, something Control also suffers from, I quite enjoyed Quantum Break. I think I enjoyed it more than Control. Combat felt great, with powers that felt a bit fresher than those in Control, even though I liked Jesse’s powers (try to convince me that she isn’t just an Adept from Mass Effect 😉). The game also feels tighter, with streamlined mechanics that feel focused and well honed and level design with appealing flow. Not that Control isn’t compelling in many ways, but Quantum Break probably deserves as much recognition. I guess the fact that Control reached a wider audience thanks to a larger install base helped.

Regardless I think people should give this a shot. The hybrid game and televisual approach is certainly an interesting project, even if not always successful as the show would greatly benefit from additional episodes, greater character development, and more time to draw additional plot elements out rather than rushing them. However, I am impressed with Remedy’s commitment to and use of FMV in compelling ways.

I’d also love to see a sequel to Quantum Break given the possibilities left open at the end. That seems unlikely due to several reasons/circumstances, so I might have to settle for the metatextual short DLC starring Shaun Ashmore that released for Alan Wake 2.

On the topic of more people hopefully playing this, I actually gave my brother my disc copy of Quantum Break (along with my Series X 😆) in the hopes he gives it a try. He’s not big on these types of games, but his partner is, so I’m hoping they give it a shot.

P.S. for those of you participating in the Alphabet challenge, this a great title if you’re hunting for something that starts with Q, especially since it’s relatively short, even with the four half-hour TV episodes.

Going through the Remedy library, I started to love the studio and admire them, and, finally, I've managed to play Quantum Break, which is basically the last game I was missing from them.

Despite basically never hearing talking about it, I was still very curious and had a nice feeling about the game, and I wasn't disappointed.

○

Let's start with the bad: bugs here and there make the experience a bit annoying (Alan Wake 2 is that you).

First of all, I've played in english with subtitles, and they are just partially displayed, like 80% of it. For example, the radios you find here and there do not have subtitles, nor the audio in the menu, the one related to each character that you have to manually play (besides, why hide them so much? I had to remember to go check for them).

Some cinematic has stutters, which is kind of annoying, especially when playing it on a Serie S. It does not happen that often as I first feared, but still annoying and can detract a little bit from the immersion.

Also, one time I wanted to restart from the checkpoint, due to lighting suddenly stopped working in the game (felt like someone turned the lights off but it was not meant to be) and the game decided to restart the level (no I didn't press restart level by mistake, which seems though very easy to do honestly).

○

The combat has its moments, but is mostly lacking. I can't really grasp what I feel it's missing, but for sure is not as good as the juicy combat of Control.

It's good enough to be ok for the duration of the game, and the visual effects in this game are so fucking nice that it's enough to just look at them, and there are indeed some cool moves/combos you can do, but mostly it feels not as dynamic as it should have maybe.
Every encounter does really feel the same, even though there are different scenarios and enemy types.

○

Talking about feedback related to your powers, I think they truly mastered this with Control, while in this game it's just partially working.

Sometimes a controller vibration should be done, other times a screen shake would have helped. For example, when you "absorb" the skill points, it feels like something is missing to really give you the feeling of getting that energy into you.

○

That said, wow the story of this game is so good! I love how they treated the time travel which works perfectly and it gave me that "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" feeling, where going forward you understand why some previous stuff happened, and most of the time you or a known character was actually involved through time travel.

I like the closed loop time travel logic honestly, it is easy to make it coherent and does give you a lot of opportunity to revisit the same scenes from different points of view with lots of mind blowing moments/discoveries.

It's not just that though, the characters are very compelling, I really felt attached to Beth and could relate with Jack. There is a particular scene where I got moved and could almost shed a tear, and I bet you know which one if you have played it.

The pacing of the story is so nice, the way you slowly discover more stuff and put the pieces together and how it keeps surprising you is honestly outstanding.

Also, even though a bit complex, everything can be understood clearly enough without having to look for explanations online, which does feel satisfying. It's intricate, but not convoluted, and it does make sense. There are a few times some character choices are not really the best, or that you feel like there was clearly a better way of behaving, but I think it can be overlooked.

○

One issue you could have is that the actual pacing of the game is very slowed down by the documents to read, which are basically mandatory to fully immerse in the story and lore.
There are a lot of them honestly and sometimes you have a room with 5-10 and long.

I didn't have issues honestly because I was craving for them, but my boyfriend, who was playing with me, got bored by having to wait for me to read and start to ramble about some new discovery.

○

I've talked so much and still haven't said a word about one of the features that make this game special: the live action TV series!

I loved it, I loved reaching the end of an act and having to watch for it, it was basically the best of my gaming/watching night but in just one experience.
The acting is good even though some actors are not as good as standard series have used us to, but still very enjoyable to watch and also the proper duration (which I think is around 20 minutes).

It's interesting how they decided to explain to you the other side of the story through the episodes and I think it worked quite well.
In the end, I could understand Paul's (the bad guy let's say) motivations, and honestly his idea to save time itself was not actually bad, and on the opposite Jack's (the protagonist) moves could have actually made things worse because it was more risky.

○

Quantum Break also gives you the ability to choose how the story should progress in a few spots. I've actually not tried the other options, but it felt like the choices I've made did have an effect on the story, in a way that made me wonder how some levels would have played out if I had picked the other option.

I guess it does not actually change much, I've a feeling they got smart with it, but it does feel like it matters, which is good anyway.

○

It's not all good even story side though, sadly. The ending feels rushed and is not satisfying, especially after how much it builds up with cool revelations throughout the whole game.

I would love to say it didn't impact my enjoyment and opinion of the game much, but it did sadly, because my expectations were so high. The game should have lasted an act more, even though shorter.

○

I want to add a theory about it: the game wants you to think that you actually changed the future, but in my opinion you didn't, and the events you wanted to prevent will still happen, just not when you thought they would.

It's clear they wanted to do a sequel, and who knows if Remedy will at some point.

○

I've not spent a word about stuff like the visual and the sound design, but the game shines even on those sides honestly.

Played on a Serie S, the resolution and framerate are sadly not increased, something that would have made it even better, since there is some ghosting effect and the image feels a bit blurry at times.

Nevertheless, the environment looks so cool, especially the interiors and even more the lab interiors, which to me felt like a PS5 level of detail, especially thanks to the great lighting. I'm really a sucker for Remedy's render and art direction I guess.

The visual effects of the time distortions and related powers are also so cool, fitting, and honestly iconic. It does help in setting the atmosphere and making everything real, in making you really feel the stasis and all of that. It gives them a soul in a way.

The way some scenes are animated in a sort of time lapse was awe inspiring, I was not expecting it and it felt very original and innovative. In a similar way, the sections where the level keeps moving back and forth in time are astonishing.
These things are what give Quantum Break gameplay a distinctive and memorable personality.

○

Sound design side is also very nice, but, as said above, it was not enough sometimes to make the actions really feel like they had weight, due to other kinds of feedback missing.

○

I'm shocked this game didn't get the attention it deserves, it does fit perfectly in Remedy library and the universe they are building, and it's so compelling.

I can understand it's not as action as you would maybe think when getting it, it's also very linear, which is not a bad thing honestly, but it might make it feel like it's lacking (even though it's not the case for me), and the platform/puzzle sections combined with the combat might not be enough, making it feels like the only interesting thing is the story.

I guess being a Microsoft exclusive at the time, when the XBOX was not having a good time, also didn't help.

That said, if you don't mind a game being more story driven and less focused on the action side, and you are into sci-fi, Quantum Break will very likely be an amazing ride!

I really wanted to like this game. Mainly because I liked Alan Wake, Remedy's previous big title. But there are just a couple things about Quantum Break.

Let's start with the good thing: the ideas. While Alan Wake (including the mini-sequel American Nightmares) did mix some live-action into the game, Quantum Break took it ot the next level. Having basically a TV mini-series inside a video game is incredibly ambitious. And it worked, kind of.

This isn't exactly a new concept, going at least as far back as Night Trap in the early 90s. But the game and live-action segments here are more separated. The main character isn't even in all the live-action bits. They're about the side characters. Which is nice to see to get the full story but they didn't really seem to mesh well.

On one side you have a video game with a superhuman protagonist who takes down a whole room of trained soldiers and then does it again three more times with ease. Then you have a live-action bit where one guy, who is supposed to be just as badass minus the superpowers, barely holds his own against like 3 dudes.

But the other big issue is really the controls for Quantum Break. Calling it a 3rd rate third-person shooter would be generous. Despite coming out in 2016, it plays like a platformer that came out in 2006. Which also made the final boss extremely difficult compared to the rest of the game. I'm not talking necessarily Pyramid Head levels of BS, but man, I probably died more to that final boss than the rest of the game combined.

Maybe if this had been tackled by a bigger studio the ideas could have been handled better. Because while all these presentation ideas were cool, the plot was your pretty standard time travel story. Using "time cannot be changed" rules (think Terminator, not Back to the Future). Overall, Quantum Break just overreached. It has a lot of neat ideas but tries to do too much, leaving them all feeling rather mediocre.

Quantum Break is very novel half game, half TV show hybrid that's interesting though not really memorable.

Visually really nice looking with really good special effects. Great cast of characters and a bit standard but interesting story.

At it's core it's a 3rd person shooter with special powers. It looks good, plays pretty good as well though there's not much variance there. You travel along a story which can have different outcomes though you get a very few prompts to actually select a varying path. From location to location the main game play loop is pretty much the same - you enter area, fight some baddies, do some exploration, do some climbing and repeat at the next area.

What's different about this game is pretty long cut-scenes. And by pretty long I mean over 20 minutes if not longer. While they're nicely done - you don't sit to play a game in order to watch a movie. And that's my main complaint about the game - it can't make up it's mind. I'd be happy to watch a series based on that - with that cast could have been a really cool show to watch. The game by itself is not bad either - but mixing the two - meh.

And that's I guess is my summary of the game. It would be better without either the game or the long cut scenes. The game play while fun is not really addictive and feels a bit repetitive. The cut scene takes you out of the gaming experience and doesn't help the game either.

If it's cheap - I'd recommend giving it a go but it's not going any of my top lists ever. Unless I make a longest cut-scenes list.

Quantum Break is flawed, but fun. My biggest issues are the wasted money and time on the TV show part of it, as the work on it could have gone into the game itself or simply saved money. I didn't want to watch a 23-28 min. episode between each act, so I skipped them. However, that cost me some understanding of the events of the game. Another issue I have is that there are so many e-mails, documents, etc. to find in the level that are also a long read that I merely found them to collect, not get an understanding of the story. The problem is that to understand the game and the events, you want/have to read these documents you find throughout the game. That requires you to stop every few minutes and spend 5-15 minutes to read a single document to gain an understanding of a character's motivations, actions, backstory, etc. So I missed a ton of information going on in the game as everything I need to read/watch to understand the story involves me stopping the game to take time and consume the information.

That aside, it's fun. I found it interesting enough with the little understanding of everything going on to finish the game, and collecting everything is fun too. I won't be replaying it, but for a game I've played on Game Pass, it is a good way to spend the week.

UPDATE: I didn't replay it per se, but I did go and get all of the achievements. It was not difficult to do.

I played the XBOX Game Pass Version

Well this game really had a potential to be a good game. Scenario is not 10/10 but kinda good for a game. The actors did a good job. They really put their effort and made a live action movie and i think its innovative and a different experience. The gameplay itself is not that bad to call it a "no gameplay just movie" game. The enemy is kinda boring tho, but it is understandable if you want to make your game science-fiction but no fantasy stuff. So this game could be "You really should try this game its a new experience". But no no no, Remedy had other ideas.

The problem is, this game techinacally suffers. Everything looks laggy and slow. I have rtx3060 and this game is from 2016( I bought my 950m laptop in 2017 and it wasnt a bad pc back then) but i felt like im playing via calculator. The most recent released game i played on my pc is Redfall and i had no problems while playing it even without turbo, but this game made me feel like my pc is gonna explode if i turn off turbo. And its not even the worst part. There is this problem in game which all in-game light sources goes nuts with sharp green,blue and purple colors and this can make your game unplayable. The solution ? No ***ing idea. I just restarted everytime i got that problem which is a lot.

The checkpoint system is also really bad. I never seen a game where the game not auto-saves between platform and fighting sequences which you get 5 cutscenes. It was the bridge part, where i fought this juggernaut and some dudes. After the fight i climbed the bridge (watched 4 cutscenes while climbing) and the platform sequence started. I couldnt make the jump in somewhere middle in the sequence and died. When i respawned i found myself like 2 mins before juggernaut fight. WOW now i have to kill bunch of guys and watch 5 UNSKIPPABLE cutscenes again. I say the cutscenes are unskippable because it is most of the time indeed. When you skip the cutscene and it leads you to a loading screen. I once skipped a cutscene, waited the loading screeen to complete only to see another cutscene. Also skipped and got another loading screen. Wonder what was that loading screen was loading

2/5 (3/10) /Good Story /Good Storytelling /Good Characters /Below-Average Gameplay /One of the worst games in technical terms

A TV/videogame hybrid with an interesting time travel plot marred by many many little issues that built to a whole thing.

The TV show is decent but more fun in practice than execution. The acting is mostly fine and I like the way it showed the world outside the game while intersecting with it. I wish it did it more. I also wish they got someone to direct who was more familiar with the action. Low budget or not the fights are bad, the car chases are bad! Otherwise, it looks like a 2000s FOX TV show that only lasts one season.

I am a big Remedy fan but this one controls so stiff and never feels good. The moves never gel like they usually do in Remedy games. The environments feel so sterile and lifeless. It is really buggy and I get caught in the geometry a lot, which is weird because the sets are so simple. The boss fights are unimaginative but also boring.

Anyway, this is playable and since I got it with Gamepass it was fine and I am glad I played it but I think if someone wanted to play it they should know it is an interesting failure.