There's a pretty solid game hiding somewhere when the game isn't making you watch the story unfold (in game or in the TV episodes), sit through load screens, and repeat stretches of content due to poor checkpoint placements. It's too bad since the base gameplay itself feels pretty solid.
Things came to a head for me in the last boss fight which was not only one of the most poorly designed bosses I've encountered in any game but it also placed its checkpoint before a cutscene. I have no patience for this kind of thing in a game that released this recently. Keep it.
Things came to a head for me in the last boss fight which was not only one of the most poorly designed bosses I've encountered in any game but it also placed its checkpoint before a cutscene. I have no patience for this kind of thing in a game that released this recently. Keep it.
I was completely sucked in. Binged it.
In preparation for Alan Wake 2, I decided to catch up on the Remedy Games I’ve not yet played, which is… all of them except Alan Wake and American Nightmare. I’ll try to fit in Max Payne 1 and 2 but we’ll see how the schedule is looking come October!
[MINOR SPOILERS FOR ALAN WAKE TOWARDS THE END]
Took a little bit of tweaking to get the game running at 4K on PC (game is locked to 1080p otherwise) but overall it was a pretty smooth experience from start to finish.
Quantum Break leans into heavy sci-fi, a departure from Alan Wake’s horror – although the game includes a healthy amount of references to Alan Wake, especially in Act One (which were appreciated). Every time I saw something I recognized from Alan Wake I started giggling and kicking my feet like a schoolgirl. It’s harmless fun. The game eventually carves out its own style and tone as it continues.
I can definitely see the through-line from Alan Wake to this. The moments where you’re trapped inside a “stutter,” (stopped time) and platforming across debris reminded me of the Alan Wake DLC, but realized in context and not just through reality-bending eldritch magic.
The shooting is good… for the most part. Jack Joyce’s time powers are fun to play around with – though not as robust or tactical as some players might like. I played on the hardest difficulty and even then I thought the game was too easy. There’s not a huge roster of enemies, either. The only way the game evens the playing field, so to speak, is by having enemies that can neutralize, or aren’t affected by, Jack’s powers. At first, I thought this was a clever way to mix things up; then, as more enemy types were introduced, I think that illusion fell flat.
Designing difficulty probably isn’t easy. I don’t envy the people who decide how much damage each bullet does, or how many bullets an enemy takes before they’re dead, but this game’s hardest difficulty felt very weird to me. Enemies are spongy, but they also don’t deal substantial damage – so they kinda need to be extra durable to be challenging by default. Then, there’s the actual tanky enemies which aren’t annoying until the Juggernaut variants appear, which can only be damaged from behind – you can’t freeze them, so you have to either dash or dodge behind them, and hit their weak point in “focus time” (QB’s equivalent of bullet time) to do any real damage. This wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t have to do it 4-5 times, waiting for my time powers to recharge between attacks. Juggernauts aren’t common, but their presence in an arena was always more eye-rolling than frustrating.
Then, there’s the snipers, which are definitely the most annoying enemies. Every other enemy at least feels balanced around a minutes-long firefight, whereas snipers are just the Jackal snipers from Halo 2 on Legendary – once you see that laser beam from across the map, if you’re not behind cover in 0.5 seconds, you’re DONE. One bullet means instadeath. Never felt fun fighting these guys but, again, they’re not very common so it was never a dealbreaker.
The final boss is also kinda silly, amounting to two waves of enemies while being hounded by the game’s antagonist, Paul Serene. Paul can hit you with an instakill blast from anywhere on the playing field, but as long as you use your dash ability once you see him charging a shot, you’ll survive.
Quantum Break also allows players to make decisions during key moments known as “junctions” between levels; however, you don’t make decisions as Jack. You actually take control of Paul Serene. I thought this was a really cool inversion of the idea of “choices matter,” because you’re not picking choices for yourself here, you’re picking choices that the villain makes instead. Because the player has more information available to them than Paul does, sometimes you’ll ask yourself, “Should I make a smart decision because I want Paul to be more threatening?” or “Should I make a dumb decision because I want to have an upper hand against him later?” Ultimately I don’t think these choices matter much in the end, but it’s such an interesting concept that I’d like to see it explored more elsewhere.
One of the game’s main selling points, and one that I’ve been dancing around until now, is the live action segments. Remedy is no stranger to live action. Alan Wake had “Night Springs,” mini Twilight Zone-esque vignettes which were unobtrusive and diegetic short films, serving to establish tone more than do any actual worldbuilding. These were fun! Quantum Break double-triple-quadruples down on the live action bits to the point where 2-3 hours of the game are just watching the show Quantum Break.
YMMV on this. The first two episodes were boring to me, although the latter half of the series wasn’t bad; quality is noticeably choppy (in more ways than one, more on this later) and some characters literally go nowhere. If they’re not dead by the final cutscene, you’d at least think they’d get proper sendoffs – they don’t. Almost every major player in the series is left behind unceremoniously, their fates ambiguous.
There are genuine moments of pathos and a good amount of “Oh shit!” moments but I think a lot of people will find these segments serviceable at best and unnecessary at worst. Lance Reddick hard carries the live action series to an absurd degree. Although many actors feel like they’re phoning it in half the time, Reddick’s steadfast presence and intimidating delivery almost elevates the series to match its lofty ambitions… almost.
Even now, I think most people can agree that Quantum Break was nothing if not a failed experiment. I still have to respect Remedy for having the chutzpah to put a gosh darn movie in their story-driven third-person shooter game. You don’t see Naughty Dog doing that, man! They keep their games and their HBO prestige series separate!
Quantum Break the TV series is only thwarted by two things: its interplay with in-game events, and your internet connection.
Almost all of the series is inconsequential. You can safely ignore it, but you’ll miss 90% of Lance Reddick, which is extremely unfortunate.
Secondly, and more importantly, however, is the fact that you aren’t watching Quantum Break the TV series – you’re streaming it inside the game. Depending on your internet, the quality of the show may be awful. My internet can be pretty spotty, so the entire first episode looked genuinely bad; bad compression, bad artifacting, you get the idea. There were some times when the show would pause to buffer. There were even some times where playback stopped and the game only gave me the option to “skip” or “replay” (this option should’ve been called “resume,” the wording of “replay” is misleading).
Still, I can’t really think of any other workaround that doesn’t involve streaming. Even including 2-3 hours of 1080p video in a video game is enough to tack on a lot of extra GBs. Streaming makes sense, but it’s not ideal, either.
Additionally, if at some point Remedy decides to sunset the servers for these live action bits, you'll probably be left to find them on YouTube between missions. Not great.
The game wraps everything up a little quicker than I’d’ve liked. This feels better than Alan Wake’s ultra-ambiguous non-ending, but also leaves the door open for any potential sequels. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a second Quantum Break! It’s a very endearing game. It’s got that Remedy special sauce and for some people that’s all it needs to be. Warrants at least one revisit someday down the line.
[MINOR SPOILERS FOR ALAN WAKE TOWARDS THE END]
Took a little bit of tweaking to get the game running at 4K on PC (game is locked to 1080p otherwise) but overall it was a pretty smooth experience from start to finish.
Quantum Break leans into heavy sci-fi, a departure from Alan Wake’s horror – although the game includes a healthy amount of references to Alan Wake, especially in Act One (which were appreciated). Every time I saw something I recognized from Alan Wake I started giggling and kicking my feet like a schoolgirl. It’s harmless fun. The game eventually carves out its own style and tone as it continues.
I can definitely see the through-line from Alan Wake to this. The moments where you’re trapped inside a “stutter,” (stopped time) and platforming across debris reminded me of the Alan Wake DLC, but realized in context and not just through reality-bending eldritch magic.
The shooting is good… for the most part. Jack Joyce’s time powers are fun to play around with – though not as robust or tactical as some players might like. I played on the hardest difficulty and even then I thought the game was too easy. There’s not a huge roster of enemies, either. The only way the game evens the playing field, so to speak, is by having enemies that can neutralize, or aren’t affected by, Jack’s powers. At first, I thought this was a clever way to mix things up; then, as more enemy types were introduced, I think that illusion fell flat.
Designing difficulty probably isn’t easy. I don’t envy the people who decide how much damage each bullet does, or how many bullets an enemy takes before they’re dead, but this game’s hardest difficulty felt very weird to me. Enemies are spongy, but they also don’t deal substantial damage – so they kinda need to be extra durable to be challenging by default. Then, there’s the actual tanky enemies which aren’t annoying until the Juggernaut variants appear, which can only be damaged from behind – you can’t freeze them, so you have to either dash or dodge behind them, and hit their weak point in “focus time” (QB’s equivalent of bullet time) to do any real damage. This wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t have to do it 4-5 times, waiting for my time powers to recharge between attacks. Juggernauts aren’t common, but their presence in an arena was always more eye-rolling than frustrating.
Then, there’s the snipers, which are definitely the most annoying enemies. Every other enemy at least feels balanced around a minutes-long firefight, whereas snipers are just the Jackal snipers from Halo 2 on Legendary – once you see that laser beam from across the map, if you’re not behind cover in 0.5 seconds, you’re DONE. One bullet means instadeath. Never felt fun fighting these guys but, again, they’re not very common so it was never a dealbreaker.
The final boss is also kinda silly, amounting to two waves of enemies while being hounded by the game’s antagonist, Paul Serene. Paul can hit you with an instakill blast from anywhere on the playing field, but as long as you use your dash ability once you see him charging a shot, you’ll survive.
Quantum Break also allows players to make decisions during key moments known as “junctions” between levels; however, you don’t make decisions as Jack. You actually take control of Paul Serene. I thought this was a really cool inversion of the idea of “choices matter,” because you’re not picking choices for yourself here, you’re picking choices that the villain makes instead. Because the player has more information available to them than Paul does, sometimes you’ll ask yourself, “Should I make a smart decision because I want Paul to be more threatening?” or “Should I make a dumb decision because I want to have an upper hand against him later?” Ultimately I don’t think these choices matter much in the end, but it’s such an interesting concept that I’d like to see it explored more elsewhere.
One of the game’s main selling points, and one that I’ve been dancing around until now, is the live action segments. Remedy is no stranger to live action. Alan Wake had “Night Springs,” mini Twilight Zone-esque vignettes which were unobtrusive and diegetic short films, serving to establish tone more than do any actual worldbuilding. These were fun! Quantum Break double-triple-quadruples down on the live action bits to the point where 2-3 hours of the game are just watching the show Quantum Break.
YMMV on this. The first two episodes were boring to me, although the latter half of the series wasn’t bad; quality is noticeably choppy (in more ways than one, more on this later) and some characters literally go nowhere. If they’re not dead by the final cutscene, you’d at least think they’d get proper sendoffs – they don’t. Almost every major player in the series is left behind unceremoniously, their fates ambiguous.
There are genuine moments of pathos and a good amount of “Oh shit!” moments but I think a lot of people will find these segments serviceable at best and unnecessary at worst. Lance Reddick hard carries the live action series to an absurd degree. Although many actors feel like they’re phoning it in half the time, Reddick’s steadfast presence and intimidating delivery almost elevates the series to match its lofty ambitions… almost.
Even now, I think most people can agree that Quantum Break was nothing if not a failed experiment. I still have to respect Remedy for having the chutzpah to put a gosh darn movie in their story-driven third-person shooter game. You don’t see Naughty Dog doing that, man! They keep their games and their HBO prestige series separate!
Quantum Break the TV series is only thwarted by two things: its interplay with in-game events, and your internet connection.
Almost all of the series is inconsequential. You can safely ignore it, but you’ll miss 90% of Lance Reddick, which is extremely unfortunate.
Secondly, and more importantly, however, is the fact that you aren’t watching Quantum Break the TV series – you’re streaming it inside the game. Depending on your internet, the quality of the show may be awful. My internet can be pretty spotty, so the entire first episode looked genuinely bad; bad compression, bad artifacting, you get the idea. There were some times when the show would pause to buffer. There were even some times where playback stopped and the game only gave me the option to “skip” or “replay” (this option should’ve been called “resume,” the wording of “replay” is misleading).
Still, I can’t really think of any other workaround that doesn’t involve streaming. Even including 2-3 hours of 1080p video in a video game is enough to tack on a lot of extra GBs. Streaming makes sense, but it’s not ideal, either.
Additionally, if at some point Remedy decides to sunset the servers for these live action bits, you'll probably be left to find them on YouTube between missions. Not great.
The game wraps everything up a little quicker than I’d’ve liked. This feels better than Alan Wake’s ultra-ambiguous non-ending, but also leaves the door open for any potential sequels. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a second Quantum Break! It’s a very endearing game. It’s got that Remedy special sauce and for some people that’s all it needs to be. Warrants at least one revisit someday down the line.
Your exceptional qualities are obvious.
It is very cool, i don't mean the game
Pelijuego mal
A ver por donde empezar... Este juego parece hecho en una época donde Microsoft quería tener sus propios pelijuegos y se vino arriba hasta produciendo una serie que va entre los actos del juego.
La historia bien y de hecho no solo es que tenga que ver con el tiempo sino que estos aspectos están muy bien hilados.
Los personajes ya tal.
Y bueno toda la cantidad de notas como coleccionables que no me he leído igual están bien, o no. Osea no me iba a leer yo todos esos mails cuando tampoco me interesaba tanto lmao.
Ahora lo que es lo jugable es de los "pelijuegos" más cansinos con los que me he topado. Ya no es solo que a pesar de durarme menos de 6 horas (sin contar la serie) una buena cantidad de ellas te las vas a pasar moviendo el joystick hacia arriba o pulsando W es que cuando se acaban esas secciones no sé si es mejor.
El protagonista tiene superpoderes que están relacionados con el tiempo. Como por ejemplo un dash, un escudo que para balas y una explosión. No quiero exagerar pero el tiempo bala de Max Payne 1 me parecía más interesante, sobre todo porque no creo que estén implementados muy bien.
Por poner un ejemplo tenemos la habilidad de para el tiempo de personas y objetos. Esto se traduce a un poder parecido al de estasis de Mass Effect, solo que es muchísimo más impreciso, múltiples veces quiero parar un enemigo y resulta que le doy atrás del enemigo, parando una pared no vaya a ser que se mueva. Lo mejor que aprendí para contrastarlo fue a disparar al suelo de los enemigos pero francamente me parece una puta mierda.
Luego tenemos el poder del dash que casi parece un teletransporte y fue aquí cuando pensé que el juego estaba haciendo algo interesante, ya que el personaje tiene un botón de salto incorporado y pensé que en momentos fuera de combate servivría para ciertos puzles plataformeros. Haciendo saltos con dash para cubrir distancias. Incluso en combate imaginaba que al parecer casi un teletransporte podría servir para ponerse en la cara de enemigos que están tras una cobertura directamente, o quizás algún mapa tendría plataformas y puedo ir saltando entre ellas.
El dash no funciona cuando saltas, no salta ningún parapeto o cobertura y si hay un vacío entre las distancias que quieres cubrir te caes en el borde.
No quisiera parecer melodramático, pero es que creo que el personaje Tracer de Overwatch es más interesante que todo lo que intenta hacer este juego. Y manda huevos que en el año de nuestro señor 2024 tenga que utilizar Overwatch de comparativa como el ejemplo bueno.
Relacionado con lo del salto quería comentar lo estúpido que me parece tener secciones donde tengo que ir saltando las secciones amarillas en lo que avanzan la trama. No es divertido, no es interesante. Y sinceramente no voy a criticar Uncharted por popularizar estas secciones porque en ese juego funcionaban, es un juego de aventuras y Nathan es un aventurero. No es culpa suya que en un juego que trata de viajes en el tiempo y superpoderes relacionados con el tiempo no se les ocurra nada mejor entre tiroteos que pulsar el botón de salto en secciones lineales.
Pero bueno el juego al menos tiene buena variedad de enemigos. Al principio tenemos básicos, luego unos oponentes con casco para que no nos los podamos matar de un solo tiro en la cabeza. Luego tenemos enemigos que tienen el mejor tipo de habilidad. Quitarte los poderes.
Lo bueno es que aún a malas tenemos las mecánicas de tiro, donde podemos llevar una pistola y un par de armas extra. La combinación de poderes y armas es en lo que se basa la jugabilidad. Esto es algo que pensé era un buen combo, estar apuntando a un punto en concreto para hacer un dash en otra dirección. O utilizar el poder de aceleración e ir disparando desde la cadera
No puedes disparar desde la cadera (sin apuntar) y no puedes usar algunos poderes como el dash cuando estás apuntando porque Remedy odia la fluidez y una jugabilidad que no dé asco.
Quizás la peor mecánica del juego (y mira que ya es decir) es que el putísimo juego tiene una visión detective. Sí, le das a un botoncito y el mapa sale en negro los enemigos en rojito y la munición y armas en azulito. Mi problema no es que exista (que ya es durillo) es que es NECESARIO usarlo en ciertas secciones.
Hay veces que toca rebobinar el tiempo de unos objetos para acceder a algún lado, lo típico, guay, increíble, buen uso de lo que trata el juego. Pero por alguna putísima razón decidieron que solo puedes interactuar con estos puntos cuando usas la habilidad de detective. Mención especial a uno de los primeros momentos donde pensaba que estaba haciendo algo mal y tuve que reescalar una sección porque fui tan manco de no usar la visión, culpa mía. Todo esto mientras un NPC compañero no paraba de decir YOU HAVE TO GET TO X THROUGH OTHER WAY, porque claro el juego asume (con razón) que tengo problemas y necesito indicaciones obvias. Ah y cierto momento en el Acto IV donde estaba confundido de si había algo que me había saltado porque claro, no lo había usado y es que como vOY A SABER QUE TENGO QUE INTERACTUAR CON UN OBJETO SI NO UTILIZO EL MODO DE VISIÓN DONDE NO SE VE UNA PUTA MIERDA EL PUTO JUEGO PERDÓN POR MI RETRASO.
Pues eso. No entiendo la obsesión de meter juegos donde tanto de la trama está bien pero se ve capado por todo el apartado jugable que intentan forzar o mal implementar. Lo que tenemos al final es un juego que como juego no da lo suficiente y una peli que a pesar de no estar mal no me parece suficiente. Supongo que nuevamente no puedo hacer otra cosa que lamentarme de mi gusto insuperable por darme cuenta que las Visual Novels son la verdad, si alguien quiere contar una historia pero no tiene clara la jugabilidad ése es el camino. Darme pura historia sin vaselina con toda la creatividad posible tanto narrativa como artística.
No esta mierda
A ver por donde empezar... Este juego parece hecho en una época donde Microsoft quería tener sus propios pelijuegos y se vino arriba hasta produciendo una serie que va entre los actos del juego.
La historia bien y de hecho no solo es que tenga que ver con el tiempo sino que estos aspectos están muy bien hilados.
Los personajes ya tal.
Y bueno toda la cantidad de notas como coleccionables que no me he leído igual están bien, o no. Osea no me iba a leer yo todos esos mails cuando tampoco me interesaba tanto lmao.
Ahora lo que es lo jugable es de los "pelijuegos" más cansinos con los que me he topado. Ya no es solo que a pesar de durarme menos de 6 horas (sin contar la serie) una buena cantidad de ellas te las vas a pasar moviendo el joystick hacia arriba o pulsando W es que cuando se acaban esas secciones no sé si es mejor.
El protagonista tiene superpoderes que están relacionados con el tiempo. Como por ejemplo un dash, un escudo que para balas y una explosión. No quiero exagerar pero el tiempo bala de Max Payne 1 me parecía más interesante, sobre todo porque no creo que estén implementados muy bien.
Por poner un ejemplo tenemos la habilidad de para el tiempo de personas y objetos. Esto se traduce a un poder parecido al de estasis de Mass Effect, solo que es muchísimo más impreciso, múltiples veces quiero parar un enemigo y resulta que le doy atrás del enemigo, parando una pared no vaya a ser que se mueva. Lo mejor que aprendí para contrastarlo fue a disparar al suelo de los enemigos pero francamente me parece una puta mierda.
Luego tenemos el poder del dash que casi parece un teletransporte y fue aquí cuando pensé que el juego estaba haciendo algo interesante, ya que el personaje tiene un botón de salto incorporado y pensé que en momentos fuera de combate servivría para ciertos puzles plataformeros. Haciendo saltos con dash para cubrir distancias. Incluso en combate imaginaba que al parecer casi un teletransporte podría servir para ponerse en la cara de enemigos que están tras una cobertura directamente, o quizás algún mapa tendría plataformas y puedo ir saltando entre ellas.
El dash no funciona cuando saltas, no salta ningún parapeto o cobertura y si hay un vacío entre las distancias que quieres cubrir te caes en el borde.
No quisiera parecer melodramático, pero es que creo que el personaje Tracer de Overwatch es más interesante que todo lo que intenta hacer este juego. Y manda huevos que en el año de nuestro señor 2024 tenga que utilizar Overwatch de comparativa como el ejemplo bueno.
Relacionado con lo del salto quería comentar lo estúpido que me parece tener secciones donde tengo que ir saltando las secciones amarillas en lo que avanzan la trama. No es divertido, no es interesante. Y sinceramente no voy a criticar Uncharted por popularizar estas secciones porque en ese juego funcionaban, es un juego de aventuras y Nathan es un aventurero. No es culpa suya que en un juego que trata de viajes en el tiempo y superpoderes relacionados con el tiempo no se les ocurra nada mejor entre tiroteos que pulsar el botón de salto en secciones lineales.
Pero bueno el juego al menos tiene buena variedad de enemigos. Al principio tenemos básicos, luego unos oponentes con casco para que no nos los podamos matar de un solo tiro en la cabeza. Luego tenemos enemigos que tienen el mejor tipo de habilidad. Quitarte los poderes.
Lo bueno es que aún a malas tenemos las mecánicas de tiro, donde podemos llevar una pistola y un par de armas extra. La combinación de poderes y armas es en lo que se basa la jugabilidad. Esto es algo que pensé era un buen combo, estar apuntando a un punto en concreto para hacer un dash en otra dirección. O utilizar el poder de aceleración e ir disparando desde la cadera
No puedes disparar desde la cadera (sin apuntar) y no puedes usar algunos poderes como el dash cuando estás apuntando porque Remedy odia la fluidez y una jugabilidad que no dé asco.
Quizás la peor mecánica del juego (y mira que ya es decir) es que el putísimo juego tiene una visión detective. Sí, le das a un botoncito y el mapa sale en negro los enemigos en rojito y la munición y armas en azulito. Mi problema no es que exista (que ya es durillo) es que es NECESARIO usarlo en ciertas secciones.
Hay veces que toca rebobinar el tiempo de unos objetos para acceder a algún lado, lo típico, guay, increíble, buen uso de lo que trata el juego. Pero por alguna putísima razón decidieron que solo puedes interactuar con estos puntos cuando usas la habilidad de detective. Mención especial a uno de los primeros momentos donde pensaba que estaba haciendo algo mal y tuve que reescalar una sección porque fui tan manco de no usar la visión, culpa mía. Todo esto mientras un NPC compañero no paraba de decir YOU HAVE TO GET TO X THROUGH OTHER WAY, porque claro el juego asume (con razón) que tengo problemas y necesito indicaciones obvias. Ah y cierto momento en el Acto IV donde estaba confundido de si había algo que me había saltado porque claro, no lo había usado y es que como vOY A SABER QUE TENGO QUE INTERACTUAR CON UN OBJETO SI NO UTILIZO EL MODO DE VISIÓN DONDE NO SE VE UNA PUTA MIERDA EL PUTO JUEGO PERDÓN POR MI RETRASO.
Pues eso. No entiendo la obsesión de meter juegos donde tanto de la trama está bien pero se ve capado por todo el apartado jugable que intentan forzar o mal implementar. Lo que tenemos al final es un juego que como juego no da lo suficiente y una peli que a pesar de no estar mal no me parece suficiente. Supongo que nuevamente no puedo hacer otra cosa que lamentarme de mi gusto insuperable por darme cuenta que las Visual Novels son la verdad, si alguien quiere contar una historia pero no tiene clara la jugabilidad ése es el camino. Darme pura historia sin vaselina con toda la creatividad posible tanto narrativa como artística.
No esta mierda
QB isn't without flaws. The entire game is very slow, from the story to the gameplay, and to the fact that to get the whole picture you need to watch videos with no speed playback options. There are quite a few moments where you might just want to jump into action but the game uses everything save for direct force to get you to slow down, which I felt was annoying. Difficulty wise, the game is a joke, but that's pretty intentional, I believe. You are a time-wielding demigod, and the game does its best to get that across with its sound design and visuals, similar to Control. However, the more bullet spongy enemies late game tend to take away that feeling once you know that three mags won't take them down.
In terms of story, I was surprised at how competently written it was. This being time travel we're dealing with, there was restraint and logic used accordingly to tie up threads as needed. The characters were more hit or miss. Some of the voice lines at times just felt off, but at other times they felt completely believable. Other times, it was up to you whether a character made a decision that made sense for them, but whatever choice you made, the consequences rippled down nonetheless.
Play it if you really like the idea of time powers, but don't expect anything ground shaking. Also, if you're having trouble with the final fight, don't be afraid to turn the difficulty down. That fight can be some real BS.
In terms of story, I was surprised at how competently written it was. This being time travel we're dealing with, there was restraint and logic used accordingly to tie up threads as needed. The characters were more hit or miss. Some of the voice lines at times just felt off, but at other times they felt completely believable. Other times, it was up to you whether a character made a decision that made sense for them, but whatever choice you made, the consequences rippled down nonetheless.
Play it if you really like the idea of time powers, but don't expect anything ground shaking. Also, if you're having trouble with the final fight, don't be afraid to turn the difficulty down. That fight can be some real BS.
This one really hurts, and I mean that. I was pleasantly surprised when I began this game by the quality of its writing. It's genuinely very impressive, and the premise is very interesting. I would've loved to see where the plot was going.
However, I literally could not. This is possibly the most broken game I have ever played (and I played Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 day 1). This isn't just glitchy, it is progress haltingly broken. The amount of times levels would entirely break, with things not spawning, level triggers not going off, collision with terrain completely breaking, and being killed for reasons I cannot see or understand. It happened constantly, but the worst thing is that every single time it happened, something about my save would corrupt. Numerous times I was booted back to the very beginning of the level, because something near the end would break and I would insta-die to nothing. I suffered through this far beyond where I would for anything else, because I really wanted to keep playing and to see where the plot went, but there's only so many set backs I can endure.
The game feel is quite terrible. The movement is clunky and the gunplay feels strange. I had attributed this strange feeling to Jack Joyce, the character you play, being relatively unfamiliar with firearms, but that fact can only excuse so much.
Graphically, the game is quite nice, albeit bogged down by massive amounts of motions blur, and also a 30fps cap. This isn't something I normally complain about, but there's something about games from this era that are so close to looking like they do in 2024, but technically just missing the mark. The graphics and animations are great, but the system can't cope with it well enough. At least, that's my unknowledgeable stance on the matter. See also 'Ryse: Son of Rome' and ' The Order 1866' for more of what I mean.
The strongest part of this game to me was, very ironically, the TV episodes that you are sometimes obliged to watch. I can't say it's the greatest show ever produced, but it sure beats playing the game; the story can shine without the game bogging it down. I'd a mind to watch the rest of this game on YouTube, from the perspective of someone who presumably didn't have so many game breaking issues, but ultimately I'll probably just move on. I will lament what could've been though, it really saddens me that something so promising was attached to a game this badly made.
However, I literally could not. This is possibly the most broken game I have ever played (and I played Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 day 1). This isn't just glitchy, it is progress haltingly broken. The amount of times levels would entirely break, with things not spawning, level triggers not going off, collision with terrain completely breaking, and being killed for reasons I cannot see or understand. It happened constantly, but the worst thing is that every single time it happened, something about my save would corrupt. Numerous times I was booted back to the very beginning of the level, because something near the end would break and I would insta-die to nothing. I suffered through this far beyond where I would for anything else, because I really wanted to keep playing and to see where the plot went, but there's only so many set backs I can endure.
The game feel is quite terrible. The movement is clunky and the gunplay feels strange. I had attributed this strange feeling to Jack Joyce, the character you play, being relatively unfamiliar with firearms, but that fact can only excuse so much.
Graphically, the game is quite nice, albeit bogged down by massive amounts of motions blur, and also a 30fps cap. This isn't something I normally complain about, but there's something about games from this era that are so close to looking like they do in 2024, but technically just missing the mark. The graphics and animations are great, but the system can't cope with it well enough. At least, that's my unknowledgeable stance on the matter. See also 'Ryse: Son of Rome' and ' The Order 1866' for more of what I mean.
The strongest part of this game to me was, very ironically, the TV episodes that you are sometimes obliged to watch. I can't say it's the greatest show ever produced, but it sure beats playing the game; the story can shine without the game bogging it down. I'd a mind to watch the rest of this game on YouTube, from the perspective of someone who presumably didn't have so many game breaking issues, but ultimately I'll probably just move on. I will lament what could've been though, it really saddens me that something so promising was attached to a game this badly made.
Control and Alan Wake 2 are in my top 5 of all time so I love Remedy and while I respect the ambition here, the gameplay was lacking quite a bit for me.
really fun shooter with a super cool story with shitloads of cool spectacle.
Only gripes is that the reading can feel a little overwhelming if you go after everything you see in the levels and sometimes you can go a bit too fast for the game to keep up with. Had multiple occasions where a character was saying two lines at once and the subtitles shat themselves.
PC port isn't very good too. Very jank and constantly locks itself to 30fps for some animations and it feels very jerky to play at times.
The default upscaling option that you kind of need on if you want consistent performance makes the game look super blurry and washed out too.
That aside, pretty great game with a cool ass story. Too bad it ends with a teaser for a sequel...
WE WILL GET A SEQUEL SOMEDAY.
Only gripes is that the reading can feel a little overwhelming if you go after everything you see in the levels and sometimes you can go a bit too fast for the game to keep up with. Had multiple occasions where a character was saying two lines at once and the subtitles shat themselves.
PC port isn't very good too. Very jank and constantly locks itself to 30fps for some animations and it feels very jerky to play at times.
The default upscaling option that you kind of need on if you want consistent performance makes the game look super blurry and washed out too.
That aside, pretty great game with a cool ass story. Too bad it ends with a teaser for a sequel...
WE WILL GET A SEQUEL SOMEDAY.
Pretty cool next step in Remedy's evolution for combining live action and gameplay. A lot of the time abilities made combat a fun time to go through, and the time stutter set pieces had a lot of potential for some really cool platforming.
Big gripe is the story being a bit too generic for my liking especially after coming from the Alan Wake games. There's also way too much stuff to read to get the full context of the story, especially a lot of it being walls of text that I brushed my eyes over.
Big gripe is the story being a bit too generic for my liking especially after coming from the Alan Wake games. There's also way too much stuff to read to get the full context of the story, especially a lot of it being walls of text that I brushed my eyes over.
Been a huge fan of Remedy since the Max Payne games and even more so after Alan Wake, which just spoke to me in a way nothing else has since. So I don't really know why it took me so long to get to Quantum Break, but it was time (no pun intended), especially after they've released Control and established a connected universe between their games with Control's AWE DLC that crosses over with Alan Wake.
With that said, I really enjoyed Quantum Break, but it didn't capture me the same way Max Payne or Alan Wake did. It's a very intriguing time travel story with a lot of science behind it and some clever twists and mechanics, but the main protagonist played by Shawn Ashmore felt a little flat to me, especially in comparison to Remedy's last two leading protagonists. But despite Shawn Ashmore's weak presence, Quantum Break still manages a well rounded cast of characters whose stories you'll follow in various ways.
Remedy is well known for their use of transmedia to tell their stories. Max Payne had comic book panels with live actors and Alan Wake heavily featured live action productions that can be viewed through television screens. With Quantum Break, Remedy goes full circle with full blown television episodes between each act that tells a contrasting tale to the one that unfolds in gameplay, but inevitably intertwine on several occasions. The production on these episodes are actually quite impressive and further fleshes out the antagonists and world of Quantum Break.
Being a story about time travel and timelines and whatnot, there are several times throughout the story where you can make a decision that will alter key events in the story, including the television episodes. Having played through both routes, I honestly can't say that much was really changed in any major way outside of two gameplay sequences late in the game, files, and an entire character who you'll interact with for some time in the game who will be replaced depending on your choices. The same can be said for the TV episodes which play out largely the same except for a key scene here and there as well as certain character fates.
Remedy is no stranger to third-person action games and you can sort see the influence of both Max Payne and Alan Wake here. There's so much happening visually with time being broken and objects just shifting and freaking out constantly that I couldn't help but be reminded of Alan Wake's possessed items sequences. Bullet time was also one of Remedy's biggest innovations in Max Payne that it once again, just feels like Remedy coming full circle with its various time abilities that encourage you to mix it up during shoot outs rather than hide behind cover.
There is however one unfortunate problem I came across a few times, and that's how the game runs, even on Series X. Quantum Break is a very visually stunning game that holds up to some the best in more recent times and was developed for the original Xbox One. Despite having been optimized for the One X, and even running on the Series X, the game stutters during certain cutscenes which was noticeable from the very start of the game. I had the game crash a couple of times and very oddly, when trying to skip one very specific cutscene, the game would load forever until it froze and it kept happening without fail, so I just never skipped that scene during my two playthroughs. I even had an entire gameplay sequence just completely go nuts over and over again until I restarted the game.
Overall, Quantum Break isn't a very long game, but it's very well paced and never does the same thing for too long. The story is engaging enough to stick with from beginning to end and the TV portion can actually suck you into it like an actual TV series, which is good enough for me to endure its various technical hiccups that mostly just require a simple reset to fix and the game is never grueling enough to feel like you're being set ways back by doing so.
With that said, I really enjoyed Quantum Break, but it didn't capture me the same way Max Payne or Alan Wake did. It's a very intriguing time travel story with a lot of science behind it and some clever twists and mechanics, but the main protagonist played by Shawn Ashmore felt a little flat to me, especially in comparison to Remedy's last two leading protagonists. But despite Shawn Ashmore's weak presence, Quantum Break still manages a well rounded cast of characters whose stories you'll follow in various ways.
Remedy is well known for their use of transmedia to tell their stories. Max Payne had comic book panels with live actors and Alan Wake heavily featured live action productions that can be viewed through television screens. With Quantum Break, Remedy goes full circle with full blown television episodes between each act that tells a contrasting tale to the one that unfolds in gameplay, but inevitably intertwine on several occasions. The production on these episodes are actually quite impressive and further fleshes out the antagonists and world of Quantum Break.
Being a story about time travel and timelines and whatnot, there are several times throughout the story where you can make a decision that will alter key events in the story, including the television episodes. Having played through both routes, I honestly can't say that much was really changed in any major way outside of two gameplay sequences late in the game, files, and an entire character who you'll interact with for some time in the game who will be replaced depending on your choices. The same can be said for the TV episodes which play out largely the same except for a key scene here and there as well as certain character fates.
Remedy is no stranger to third-person action games and you can sort see the influence of both Max Payne and Alan Wake here. There's so much happening visually with time being broken and objects just shifting and freaking out constantly that I couldn't help but be reminded of Alan Wake's possessed items sequences. Bullet time was also one of Remedy's biggest innovations in Max Payne that it once again, just feels like Remedy coming full circle with its various time abilities that encourage you to mix it up during shoot outs rather than hide behind cover.
There is however one unfortunate problem I came across a few times, and that's how the game runs, even on Series X. Quantum Break is a very visually stunning game that holds up to some the best in more recent times and was developed for the original Xbox One. Despite having been optimized for the One X, and even running on the Series X, the game stutters during certain cutscenes which was noticeable from the very start of the game. I had the game crash a couple of times and very oddly, when trying to skip one very specific cutscene, the game would load forever until it froze and it kept happening without fail, so I just never skipped that scene during my two playthroughs. I even had an entire gameplay sequence just completely go nuts over and over again until I restarted the game.
Overall, Quantum Break isn't a very long game, but it's very well paced and never does the same thing for too long. The story is engaging enough to stick with from beginning to end and the TV portion can actually suck you into it like an actual TV series, which is good enough for me to endure its various technical hiccups that mostly just require a simple reset to fix and the game is never grueling enough to feel like you're being set ways back by doing so.
If Alan Wake had bigger budget and less direction, also fuck that ending.
Eu fui de coração pra Quantum Break, eu realmente queria curtir principalmente por querer conhecer mais da Remedy depois de curtir Alan Wake e o que joguei de Max Payne, mas não deu, foi um game que eu tava pedindo pra acabar logo, eu tava cansado do jogo e nem sei exatamente o porque, o combate não é ruim, tem mecânicas legais e os gráficos são bonitos com vários atores, mas eu só não consegui me importar com nada, como a história que essa ideia de misturar com série era interessante mas eu não tinha interesse de assistir então ficou tudo meio confuso obviamente e eu simplesmente só queria seguir, eu tinha até parado no meio mas resolvi ir até o final e só consegui porque coloquei música e podcast pra conseguir me entreter, além disso aconteceu vários glitches, bugs e no final o áudio ficou todo cagado. Recomendo você testar, talvez curta e se tiver com boa vontade assistir a série é a forma ideal de curtir a ideia do jogo que não acabou servindo pra mim.
"I'll come back for you"
I still greatly admire and respect Sam Lake & Remedy's ambitious multi media experiment, race against time, 12 monkeys/primer inspired blockbuster adventure. Even if it falls short of those ambitions with the cheaply made CW live action episodes that feel more like homework and a chore to work through then substantial. A story that almost try's too hard to be convoluted but feels too stuffed with countless files, emails and collectibles that tie into the web series that amount to really nothing and almost wished I got just a couple of shorter cutscenes in there place just to learn more about important character motivations and goals and not hit the brakes between each act to watch a subpar web series. Despite in all of its story woes and weirdly placed moments where interactivity is taken away the gameplay is a blast even if it borders on surface level with stagnant AI that even on the hardest difficulty didn't make for much of a challenge. The narrative hits a couple of fun satisfying payoffs and concepts that make up for a lot of its paper thin characters, and boring worldbuilding. In the end Quantum Break mostly is a mixed bag of fun campy action thrills, middling cheaply written sci-fi melodrama, a weird web series, and beautifully impressive visuals that never really amount to any of Remedy's highest points or into an expierence I love or hate but find rather puzzling and inconclusive.
Sidenote: PC Gamepass/MS store version has a broken graphical glitch you should avoid this version as theres no fix.
I still greatly admire and respect Sam Lake & Remedy's ambitious multi media experiment, race against time, 12 monkeys/primer inspired blockbuster adventure. Even if it falls short of those ambitions with the cheaply made CW live action episodes that feel more like homework and a chore to work through then substantial. A story that almost try's too hard to be convoluted but feels too stuffed with countless files, emails and collectibles that tie into the web series that amount to really nothing and almost wished I got just a couple of shorter cutscenes in there place just to learn more about important character motivations and goals and not hit the brakes between each act to watch a subpar web series. Despite in all of its story woes and weirdly placed moments where interactivity is taken away the gameplay is a blast even if it borders on surface level with stagnant AI that even on the hardest difficulty didn't make for much of a challenge. The narrative hits a couple of fun satisfying payoffs and concepts that make up for a lot of its paper thin characters, and boring worldbuilding. In the end Quantum Break mostly is a mixed bag of fun campy action thrills, middling cheaply written sci-fi melodrama, a weird web series, and beautifully impressive visuals that never really amount to any of Remedy's highest points or into an expierence I love or hate but find rather puzzling and inconclusive.
Sidenote: PC Gamepass/MS store version has a broken graphical glitch you should avoid this version as theres no fix.
Quantum Break é um jogo com foco na narrativa sobre viagem no tempo. Já começo aqui avisando que se você não curte jogos que colocam a história acima de todo resto, esse jogo não é pra você. Quantum Break tem uma história muito boa, que infelizmente é só enriquecida e mais bem encaixada se você ler os coletáveis que tem no jogo (que não são poucos). A gameplay é maravilhosa e as habilidades que você consegue controlando o tempo são extremamente divertidas, mas elas são tão fortes que o jogo no difícil (que é a dificuldade que eu recomendo jogar) acaba sendo bem tranquilo. Os gráficos são lindos e os efeitos/partículas são impressionantes e únicos. O fator replay do jogo é MUITO fraco, já que a relação entre narrativa/combate nesse jogo não são nada bem cadenciado, acaba se tornando um saco ter que fazer o 100% do game, zerar duas vezes até vai, mas aí você já não vai ter mais saco nenhum pra uma próxima, aí então mora mais um problema no jogo, as decisões que você toma no game não mudam nada no resultado final, mudam algumas rotas aqui e acontecimentos de personagens secundários ali, mas nada que realmente mude drasticamente. Se você curt uem jogo com uma boa história e totalmente cinematográfico (já que tem episódios de uma série inseridas no jogo e com base nas decisões que você toma, que é um ponto positivo por sinal) este game é pra você, caso contrário apenas teste em alguma oportunidade e se gostar, vai fundo.
Quantum Break is pretty enjoyable, but it falls just short of being great. The mixed media was neat, I guess, but I can't help but wonder if the TV show had such a high budget that it negatively impacted the rest of the game. It could just be my ignorance showing, but it's food for thought. At the time of this game's release, Alan Wake had already been out for a while, and is a more solid product from Remedy than Quantum Break is, in my opinion. That being said, the combat abilities are SO COOL and really make gunfights a blast. I only wish there were more combat sections in this game. Actually, I wish there were more good gameplay sections in general, as most of this game comprises of cutscenes, janky platforming, walking around (very slowly), and a TV show. The story was compelling and the revelations you get as the game progresses really keep you engaged, but man, I don't really feel like I PLAYED very much in my time with this game. I played Quantum Break twice for achievements and it was really cool to see how different choices you make during certain Junction points affected the story. I suggest tackling this one on hard difficulty just so you get the most out of combat.
Severely underrated! A great take on time travel with some great and bold ideas from Remedy and Sam Lake. The technical issues and performance (and some questionable acting at times), does dampen the experience a bit. All in all though another great game from Remedy!
R.I.P Lance Reddick
R.I.P Lance Reddick
Tim Breaker
Well, this was a weird experience. At its core, there are three elements to the game. First is the third-person shooter element where you use the powers of time to zip around the area, freezing enemies as you stack bullets into a satisfying collective shot. Second is the episodic nature with a single dilemma at the end of each, with a little preview of the consequences of each choice before making it. The third is the live-action TV show, where the content is based on how you chose to get through the previous dilemma while making a few minor tweaks if you got all the collectables in that section. While the live-action part is quite cool, seeing the character being played by their actual actors, they go on for far too long. So much so that there were times I had to remind myself that I was playing a game.
A great twist on the normal 3rd person shooter format which continues to propel remedy up as one of my favourite developers.
This games gameplay is so fun and really carries the narrative in this case. The story is very interesting mind you and I think the idea of paring it with a live action series was very unique. I was surprised to see a lot of faces that i recognised most notably Aiden Gillen, Dominic Monaghan and the late great Lance Reddick who all give very good performances.
In terms of a protagonist Jack Joyce is your stereotypical action hero who unfortunately falls under that "Never used a gun before but has no problem gunning his way through hundreds of people" schtick.
The gameplay though is where it's at. The time manipulating abilities make combat sections so fun to play through and make this game so much more enjoyable. The gun combat is pretty good but the enemies are total bullet sponges with unarmoured enemies taking 20 AR bullets to the chest before going down.
The story is very short only consisting of 5 acts with 3 parts each, very easy to blast through and does have some replay value with the different choices which can be made at the end of each act. The overall narrative about time collapsing is very interesting but one complaint I have is that it pushes too much of the narrative onto finable emails/audio logs, and these are normally very long and can completely kill the pacing if you were to stop and read them all. Also i found that characters would appear and disappear throughout the story but im not sure if that was just down to the path i took with the choices. I think they push too much of the story onto optional content and that can leave it very confusing at times. I would recommend for the gameplay alone with the decent story as a nice bonus
This games gameplay is so fun and really carries the narrative in this case. The story is very interesting mind you and I think the idea of paring it with a live action series was very unique. I was surprised to see a lot of faces that i recognised most notably Aiden Gillen, Dominic Monaghan and the late great Lance Reddick who all give very good performances.
In terms of a protagonist Jack Joyce is your stereotypical action hero who unfortunately falls under that "Never used a gun before but has no problem gunning his way through hundreds of people" schtick.
The gameplay though is where it's at. The time manipulating abilities make combat sections so fun to play through and make this game so much more enjoyable. The gun combat is pretty good but the enemies are total bullet sponges with unarmoured enemies taking 20 AR bullets to the chest before going down.
The story is very short only consisting of 5 acts with 3 parts each, very easy to blast through and does have some replay value with the different choices which can be made at the end of each act. The overall narrative about time collapsing is very interesting but one complaint I have is that it pushes too much of the narrative onto finable emails/audio logs, and these are normally very long and can completely kill the pacing if you were to stop and read them all. Also i found that characters would appear and disappear throughout the story but im not sure if that was just down to the path i took with the choices. I think they push too much of the story onto optional content and that can leave it very confusing at times. I would recommend for the gameplay alone with the decent story as a nice bonus
Eu pensei muito sobre Quantum Break, e talvez a frase que melhor resuma sua proposta seja:
Nós não podemos mudar os eventos do passado, mas podemos garantir que exista um futuro.
À título de contextualização, minha aventura começou com a vontade de fazer companhia à um grande amigo em sua jornada de passear pelo jogos da Remedy. Fizemos questão de adentrar em entrevistas, documentários, artigos e conferências com a carinha do carismático Sam Lake.
Sendo o terceiro título do diretor com o qual tenho contato, temos percebido em nossas discussões um padrão colossal de importância nos elementos narrativos e estruturas de roteiro. O alto impacto que Sam Lake proporciona advém de uma escrita incrível, além de uma paixão inegável por músicas dos mais diferentes estilos.
Além disso, diversas influências de quadrinhos, livros, séries e filmes noir, de horror, terror, suspense policial, thriller psicológico, ficção científica e drama se tornam salientes na roteirização de suas obras, mas Quantum Break acerta diferente. Direi o porque a seguir.
Sendo um jogo de 2016, e escolhendo um tema que já estava relativamente saturado no meio audiovisual, a aventura de Jack Joyce tinha tudo para dar errado.
Mexer com viagem no tempo é como mexer em um vespeiro, principalmente quando a abordagem abraça os picos da ficção científica atrelados em conceitos de física quântica. Pior do que isso, dado o histórico do finlandês de estar para a escrita na décima arte assim como Kojima está para o cinema, a incontável quantidade de logs, e-mails e conteúdos narrativos poderiam ser uma encheção infindável de linguiça metafísica, o que não foi o caso.
A construção do micro-mundo da cidade portuária de Riverport é envolvente do começo ao final, e mesmo com o plano de fundo do "salvador loiro dos olhos azuis" inserido abruptamente no contexto de grandes poderes e grandes responsabilidades, Sam Lake transforma Quantum Break em uma homenagem de ponta aos materiais de perseguição policial — e incrivelmente não imperialista — com uma história que poderia ter sido facilmente escrita por Christopher Nolan, ressalto, em um de seus bons filmes.
Ao passo que a preocupação em estabelecer Jack Joyce como um herói não-blasé era inevitável, fui totalmente surpreendido pelas tramas que compõem presente, passado e futuro do que conhecemos como tempo. A sensação inevitável de urgência, as reviravoltas e os desfechos de cada personagem são pontos extremamente fortes no jogo, assim como diversas escolhas criativas que merecem elogios. Algumas delas são os pontos de ruptura, a sensação ininterrupta de correr contra uma ameaça iminente, a presença das bifurcações e os efeitos das nossas escolhas. É tudo tão forte, que eu realmente me questionei como seria ter o poder de controlar o tempo em mãos, e se eu estaria pronto para enfrentar as consequências dessa possibilidade.
Não bastasse o apontado, ainda temos a presença de uma transmídia dentro da própria mídia original que funciona como uma surpresa gratificante. Entendo Lake nesse momento, pois seria um tremendo desperdício não agraciar o mundo com as atuações não-interativas do elenco de peso contratado em Quantum Break.
O único ponto falho, para mim, é a jogabilidade, que infelizmente acabou se repetindo aqui e acolá nas minhas últimas experiências com a Remedy. Sinceramente, achei que fosse dar uma nota muito menor por conta disso, mas é necessário levar em consideração que os desenvolvedores entregaram um experiência que, mesmo com defeitos, se manteve fiel do início ao fim em sua primeira tentativa de lançar um título no motor gráfico Northlight. Testemunhas dizem que Control correu após a caminhada perversa da gameplay de Quantum Break (e espero realmente que seja esse o caso).
Diante dos pontos elencados, a aventura de Jack Joyce ficará marcada para sempre como uma das boas experiências que pude experimentar, e espero honestamente continuar me surpreendendo com as escolhas criativas da Remedy no futuro.
Nós não podemos mudar os eventos do passado, mas podemos garantir que exista um futuro.
À título de contextualização, minha aventura começou com a vontade de fazer companhia à um grande amigo em sua jornada de passear pelo jogos da Remedy. Fizemos questão de adentrar em entrevistas, documentários, artigos e conferências com a carinha do carismático Sam Lake.
Sendo o terceiro título do diretor com o qual tenho contato, temos percebido em nossas discussões um padrão colossal de importância nos elementos narrativos e estruturas de roteiro. O alto impacto que Sam Lake proporciona advém de uma escrita incrível, além de uma paixão inegável por músicas dos mais diferentes estilos.
Além disso, diversas influências de quadrinhos, livros, séries e filmes noir, de horror, terror, suspense policial, thriller psicológico, ficção científica e drama se tornam salientes na roteirização de suas obras, mas Quantum Break acerta diferente. Direi o porque a seguir.
Sendo um jogo de 2016, e escolhendo um tema que já estava relativamente saturado no meio audiovisual, a aventura de Jack Joyce tinha tudo para dar errado.
Mexer com viagem no tempo é como mexer em um vespeiro, principalmente quando a abordagem abraça os picos da ficção científica atrelados em conceitos de física quântica. Pior do que isso, dado o histórico do finlandês de estar para a escrita na décima arte assim como Kojima está para o cinema, a incontável quantidade de logs, e-mails e conteúdos narrativos poderiam ser uma encheção infindável de linguiça metafísica, o que não foi o caso.
A construção do micro-mundo da cidade portuária de Riverport é envolvente do começo ao final, e mesmo com o plano de fundo do "salvador loiro dos olhos azuis" inserido abruptamente no contexto de grandes poderes e grandes responsabilidades, Sam Lake transforma Quantum Break em uma homenagem de ponta aos materiais de perseguição policial — e incrivelmente não imperialista — com uma história que poderia ter sido facilmente escrita por Christopher Nolan, ressalto, em um de seus bons filmes.
Ao passo que a preocupação em estabelecer Jack Joyce como um herói não-blasé era inevitável, fui totalmente surpreendido pelas tramas que compõem presente, passado e futuro do que conhecemos como tempo. A sensação inevitável de urgência, as reviravoltas e os desfechos de cada personagem são pontos extremamente fortes no jogo, assim como diversas escolhas criativas que merecem elogios. Algumas delas são os pontos de ruptura, a sensação ininterrupta de correr contra uma ameaça iminente, a presença das bifurcações e os efeitos das nossas escolhas. É tudo tão forte, que eu realmente me questionei como seria ter o poder de controlar o tempo em mãos, e se eu estaria pronto para enfrentar as consequências dessa possibilidade.
Não bastasse o apontado, ainda temos a presença de uma transmídia dentro da própria mídia original que funciona como uma surpresa gratificante. Entendo Lake nesse momento, pois seria um tremendo desperdício não agraciar o mundo com as atuações não-interativas do elenco de peso contratado em Quantum Break.
O único ponto falho, para mim, é a jogabilidade, que infelizmente acabou se repetindo aqui e acolá nas minhas últimas experiências com a Remedy. Sinceramente, achei que fosse dar uma nota muito menor por conta disso, mas é necessário levar em consideração que os desenvolvedores entregaram um experiência que, mesmo com defeitos, se manteve fiel do início ao fim em sua primeira tentativa de lançar um título no motor gráfico Northlight. Testemunhas dizem que Control correu após a caminhada perversa da gameplay de Quantum Break (e espero realmente que seja esse o caso).
Diante dos pontos elencados, a aventura de Jack Joyce ficará marcada para sempre como uma das boas experiências que pude experimentar, e espero honestamente continuar me surpreendendo com as escolhas criativas da Remedy no futuro.
The definition of "I only played this because it was on Game Pass".
Had a much better time with this compared to Alan Wake. The gameplay's fun, the story's engaging (even if it fizzles out by the end), and the performances are good. The execution of the live action stuff wasn't great, but I still admire it greatly and I wish more games did this type of stuff (I believe Telltale was going to start doing it before they went under). I still think Control is the best game in this "trilogy," but I had a pretty good time with this. I don't understand the hate it gets at all.
Remedy writing one of the best time-travel stories in not just video games, but fiction overall more than makes up for the generic gameplay. Also may not be enjoyable for those who have to pay attention to something without touching a button for more than 20 minutes.
Good game.. or movie or whatever this is. But it's good. The acting is a bit cheesy tho.
Great game that sadly has an anticlimactic sequel-bait ending we'll never see play out
7,1/10
Cool semi-series, semi-game, but the story is weak. Gameplay is ok.
Cool semi-series, semi-game, but the story is weak. Gameplay is ok.
Quantum Break is a decent game, but it has some major issues. First of all, the story isn't the best, and you have to literally watch a show within the game. I'm talking 20-25 minute episodes. The story does get interesting at times, but also boring and cliché at other times. The game looks very good though. That's definitely a positive, but it runs terribly. I have a high end card from 2023, but the game keeps stuttering like crazy, even though it originally ran on a 900p/30fps Xbox One console. It makes no sense why the game runs this bad on PC. For the stuttering alone, I have to give it a negative review. Might be worth it on a deep sale, however.
Playing Quantum Break right off the heels of Alan Wake 2 and a replay of Control is a very interesting thing. Add to that the fact that I had no idea this game existed at all prior to looking up Remedy's catalog lately, and it did make for a pleasant surprise.
This game really feels like a stepping stone for future Remedy games. Many of its faults have been adressed in future games. For instance, jampacking all the narrative pickups in cramped corners just completely kills the flow of the game. In Alan Wake 2, there's way less flavor text of the sort, and it's trickled through the environment at a much more pleasing pace. Improvement.
The same could be said about the FMV episodes. They are an interesting experiment which has some merit, but always cut the gameplay when I just felt like shooting bad guys. Once again, it was handled so much more seamlessly in Alan Wake 2.
The best things about the game are absolutely the time stutter sequences. They have that signature Remedy vision about them of creating something wholly unique in a game that is such a pleasure to experience.
And so, the game kind of works. It's also got a decent story with mostly generic and unremarkable characters, but hey, its functional. From my perspective, it was more of an fun experiment to play this to see the process of Remedy maturing into a new form storytelling and game design.
The studio still has stuff to improve on the Alan Wake 2 formula, but if we compare the progress made between that and Quantum Break, we can estimate that we have some truly fantastic games to look forward to in the future.
This game really feels like a stepping stone for future Remedy games. Many of its faults have been adressed in future games. For instance, jampacking all the narrative pickups in cramped corners just completely kills the flow of the game. In Alan Wake 2, there's way less flavor text of the sort, and it's trickled through the environment at a much more pleasing pace. Improvement.
The same could be said about the FMV episodes. They are an interesting experiment which has some merit, but always cut the gameplay when I just felt like shooting bad guys. Once again, it was handled so much more seamlessly in Alan Wake 2.
The best things about the game are absolutely the time stutter sequences. They have that signature Remedy vision about them of creating something wholly unique in a game that is such a pleasure to experience.
And so, the game kind of works. It's also got a decent story with mostly generic and unremarkable characters, but hey, its functional. From my perspective, it was more of an fun experiment to play this to see the process of Remedy maturing into a new form storytelling and game design.
The studio still has stuff to improve on the Alan Wake 2 formula, but if we compare the progress made between that and Quantum Break, we can estimate that we have some truly fantastic games to look forward to in the future.