We’ve been waiting for it for a long time but we finally got our hands on Remedy’s newest game; Quantum Break. The game was revealed years ago and we got excited about it when the very first second of gameplay we showed to the public. Now, the game is finally in our hands and we can’t be more pleased with how it’s shaping up. It looks like Quantum Break might just become the next big hit for Microsoft.
The Remedy syndrome
Remedy is one of the industry’ most respected teams that brought us masterpieces as Max Payne and Alan Wake in the past. This isn’t the place or time to discuss the team over at Remedy, but it’s clear to say that Quantum Break is another example of the Remedy magic. There’s just something about the studio that can be seen in all their titles, perhaps it’s the combination of great action with excellent story telling but whatever it is, it’s working. Quantum Break manages to combine the action and narrative once more, in the small pieces we’ve already seen of course.
The game starts off rather calm, with protagonist Jack Joyce, played by Shawn “X-Men Iceman” Ashmore being called to the science lab of Paul Serene (Aiden “Littlefinger” Gillen from Game of Thrones). Paul managed to create the thing everybody said was impossible to create, a working time machine.
Traveling through space and time has been a subject of dreams for many years but in the world of Quantum Break, it’s reality. Needless to say, things go wrong rather fast and time gets broken (yes, it’s possible). To make things even more interesting Jacke’s brother William (Dominic “Merry” Monaghan from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is mixed up in the action for some reason. We won’t spoil the story for you but from what we’ve already seen, it’s easy to say that this game offers one of the best narratives we ever encountered in a game.
Crucial junctions
The best part about the story is the ability to control it. After each act, you’ll switch from Jack to Paul and have to make an important decision. This is called a junction and will affect the way the story develops later on. We’ve seen a junction where Paul could decide to kill or spare a life. Whatever you decide is up to you but the game shows you what result your decision has to the story thanks to a small ‘trailer of the future’. It’s a very interesting concept and we can’t wait to discover the other junctions. Thanks to this system, we’re sure the game has a huge replay value since we’re already wondering how the future would look like if we picked the other possibility. Once you picked a junction, the game will jump to a live action video where you’ll learn more about the Monarch industry. Again, one of the more intriguing things about Quantum Break is this combination of game and live action but we haven’t seen enough to conclude if the story is really that good.
Impressive gameplay
That being said, when it comes to gameplay, we’re convinced that Quantum Break will stay enjoyable to the very end. We only played the first act of the game but it already introduced tons of fun gameplay elements. Jack learns about his powers step by step, it’s a great pace for the gamer as well since Jack has some impressive tricks up his sleeve.
The most fun one is by far the Time Bubble, making it impossible for the enemies to move away. The effect is temporary but if you fire some bullets in the time bubble it’s extremely satisfying to see time taking over again. There’s just no other game that can bring us the same kind of kill than this one. It’s extremely satisfying to hit an enemy with a full clip in one move. This ability is also used to solve smaller environmental puzzles that involve slowing down time.
Besides that, Jack also has some defensive tools like a Time Dodge (looks like a teleportation but more awesome) or a Time Shield (which looks more like Titan bubble of Destiny). I’m pretty sure the game will have more upgrades to Jack’s powers but these powers already made it clear that this isn’t your regular third person shooter. It’s not meant to be played hiding from cover to cover. You’ll need to use all your skills to confuse and eventually bring down your enemies one by one. It’s great to see how the AI reacts to the powers as well!
Hungry for more
From what we’ve seen and played, Quantum Break is really shaping up to be a unique game that you just need to play to believe. The story started off rather impressive and we’re sure the story will develop in the most interesting way possible. It’s great to have some freedom to decide where the story will take you and we can’t wait for more! When it comes to gameplay, we couldn’t get enough of it during our first missions. The combination of a third person shooter with the amazing time powers is something we could only dream of. It looks like Remedy is right on track to deliver another classic.
