I thought Quantum Break would be a interesting title that did interesting things with its premise and the opportunities raised by stopping time could play into the design of the gameplay. How Quantum Break exists in its final package is that Quantum Break is a good game not a great game.
Quantum Break follows Jack Joyce who after being invited to Riverport University by his old friend Paul Serene, who has built up on work started by Jack’s brother, Will Joyce, who has been working on time travel and to use the time machine for the first time. This initial start up goes well but shortly after this test, Will turns up to the lab and demands that the time machine is shut down or time will unravel as this occurs the time machine becomes unstable and breaks, which gifts Jack time based powers. As this occurs, the lab is stormed by soldiers employed by Monarch Solutions, as time begins to unravel.
This premise sets up Quantum Break to do interesting things as through player having access to time based powers should be able to do interesting things with the concept. However, the design of the gameplay limits what Quantum Break can be. This is because the core gameplay loop of Quantum Break is a pretty standard third person action game much like the Gears and Uncharted series. Despite the opportunities raised by having access to time based powers, the game doesn’t do enough with them. Jack can use these powers to locate enemies or objects in the environment, slow or pause time, create a time blast, and create a bubble shield and a dash ability. These abilities don’t really augment the gameplay loop or take it to a higher level but does give it a few nice little flourishes here and there, which can be upgraded through collecting “chronon sources” which are spread throught the levels.
Alongside the combat, Quantum Break requires the player to do platforming to advance through the levels. This platforming requires the player to either reverse or slow time to manipulate the environment correctly. For example the player is required to use the time slow ability to stop malfunctioning doors from opening and closing rapidly to enable player to pass through them safely. Another example is through the use of reversing time, the player can use a crate being moved by a crane to get to higher ground. Nothing ground breaking but time is used in nice little ways here and there to change how the player gets around the level.
The unwillingness to do interesting things with its premise beyond using “time fractures” being used to pause time to make environments where time is frozen for everyone apart from Joyce and some Monarch soldiers does make combat or platforming more interesting to look at but not more exciting expect for one sequence in the first act of the fourth chapter, which I won’t spoil as it is the one time where Remedy really uses the game’s concept and the time fractures to their full potential.
Outside of the combat and the platforming the player is able to find objectives in the environment which gives extra details on characters, motivations and events and the world in which Quantum Break takes place. The player can also find objects which impact the live action episodes in small little ways. Oh yes at the end of chapter, there are 22-25 episodes which explore events which are taking place at the same time as events in the game and two do affect each other.
These episodes feel like your classic mid budget American cable sci-fi TV series, which is neither a good or bad thing, it just ensures that these TV episodes are at best fine and perfectly serviceable. It is a bit odd experience for a game to come to a screeching halt to enable the player to watch a TV show for 20 minutes and does at time come off a bit as Kojima-lite as while he deep down wants to make films as seen by the incredibly long cutscenes throughout the Metal Gear Solid series and has doubled down so with Death Stranding. Remedy having made their own tv series which is then spliced within the main body of the game, did require the necessitated hiring film and tv actors for the main roles in the games as they need to be both good at voice acting and traditional acting. This is well cast as the cast including Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) , Aidan Gillen (Queer as Folk, Peaky Blinders), Lance Reddick (John Wick, Destiny), Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings) and Courtney Hope (Control) do a good job in both the voice acting and the live action parts of their respective roles. Its shame therefore that Quantum Break rather ending on a high, it rushes to wrap up the story so quickly when I felt that it was heading to a big conclusion which dealt with the stakes which had been raised through the preceding eight or so hours.
However, despite all the negatives and misgivings I have highlighted or mentioned, Quantum Break ticks all the boxes needed for it to be a good game rather than a great game. Despite the generic nature of the gameplay and not really seizing the full potential of the premise, Quantum Break was a enjoyable experience but not one which has to played but it is a decent time at its core.