СЭМ ЛЕЙК, БЛЯТЬ, А КОГДА БУДЕТ СИКВЕЛ?

Remedy постепенно становятся моими любимыми разработчиками благодаря их уникальному подходу к созданию игр. Их проекты отличаются кинематографичностью, с жестким акцентом на историю и персонажей, при этом с однообразным геймплеем (что, вероятно, будет исправлено в будущих играх, судя по отзывам о Alan Wake 2) и впечатляющим визуалом, и ещё немалым количеством достоинств. Они стремительно пытаются стереть грань между кино и играми, каждый раз пытаясь переплюнуть себя, даря необычное игровое кинцо. И в Quantum Break они решили расширить границы, сделав частично и сериал, и игру.

В основе сюжета легла научная фантастика о путешествиях во времени, и игра очень внимательно относится к различным феноменам из мира квантовой физики, создавая интересный и уникальный концепт путешествия во времени, и на первый взгляд может показаться, что подобного мы видели миллион раз, но если углубиться в происходящее, можно заметить очень много необычных подходов к сценарию и детальной проработкой событий, которые создают интересное поле для исследования временных парадоксов.

Кроме того, здесь, в лучших традициях крепко написанного сценария, центральной темой являются не только вопросы о квантовой физики и времени, а идеология двух играбельных персонажей, которые сталкиваются друг с другом, представляют диаметрально противоположные точки зрения о том, как управлять судьбой и чужими жизнями, отчего каждый для себя может по-разному трактовать поднятые темы. Но, к сожалению, на геймплей тут подзабили настолько, что его отодвинули далеко на третий план, и вроде играть было не скучно, но из-за небольшого набора оружия, врагов и повторяющихся драчек казалось, что Quantum Break не предназначен для прохождения, а скорее для просмотра.

И отдельно скажу, что ещё меня сильно удивил движок Northlight, который был создан специально для этой игры и для игры 2016 года он просто недосягаем. Благодаря ему удалось создать впечатляющие эффекты, физику и дать игроку возможность управлять временем, хоть и в обрезанном виде, создавая сложные и детализированные сцены

um 8 sólido. ótimo jogo e uma das melhores histórias de viagem no tempo em jogos, a ideia do jogo é bem criativa e basicamente tudo encaixa bem perfeitinho. é de se esperar que jogar esse jogo depois de Control e Alan Wake 2 dê a impressão de que ele é bem inferior mas ao invés disso prefiro dizer que ele é um protótipo criativo, que começa sim no primeiro Alan Wake mas é nesse que começam a aparecer os primeiros detalhes ala Remedy no jogo. a lore é boa porém acho que parte do conteúdo é jogado apenas em gigantescos textos algo que deixa o jogo um pouco chato (caso claro você queira saber da história), isso de ter uma série no meio achei inovador mas ao mesmo tempo tem 2 problemas: 1. que é a quebra de momento, geralmente você está numa empolgação em fim de capítulo e tem que assistir 25 minutos de uma série sobre outro personagem que existe no universo. 2. (spoiler) apesar da série ser super bem feita ela tem uns problemas de roteiro e uma ideias um tanto quanto estranhas, fora o fato do liam burke (o que tem mais destaque nos episódios da série) parecer um super humano quando quase sempre está sem proteção e provavelmente ferido, pra no fim bem, boa parte disso ser jogado fora do nada. Cliff hanger do final foi do caralho e novamente a história aqui destoa muito do resto, de longe a melhor coisa. a gameplay, assim como os outros jogos da Remedy peca demais, tem seus momentos ainda mais no final mas fica chato, se não fosse o jogo durar pouco provavelmente eu iria coringar, são poucos inimigos, armas genéricas e uma gameplay extremamente repetitiva. Ótimo jogo, tirando a gameplay e alguns detalhes. RECOMENDADO FORTEMENTE. que pena que não deve ter continuação, o jogo deixa no final um gostinho de quero mais.

DO NOT PLAY THE GAME PASS VERSION, IT DOESN'T WORK

Although the gameplay tended to fall a bit flat, and even at sometimes felt like sort of an afterthought, I genuinely had a great time with this game.

The combination of third person shooter and TV show wasn't something I thought I would enjoy but every actor involved brought their absolute A game, especially the late and great Lance Reddick. As always Remedy delivered with the world-building and story, and the different branching path choices literally made me stop and think about what I would do vs what Paul would do. Although it falls out of the Remedy connected universe of Alan Wake and Control, I could easily see how this game could be incorporated into the CU.

This game genuinely got me excited for Control and AW2 because now I can see what Remedy is able to do with a modern engine. Only 2 more games to go in the Remedy Rampage, Control and AW2.

Let's start with the good bits:

+ There is a very distinct Remedy touch to the world - it's a little bit sarcastic, a little bit wacky (very faint in this game), and it's got all the hallmark elements of a Sam Lake production - the live action, the actors, the episodic construction, the music and the twisting storyline.

+ The gameplay loop is a surprisingly simple one (coming from AW2, it felt a bit boring) - you shoot dudes and then do some simple environmental puzzles. Regardless, it never felt too frustrating, or pointless.

Cons:

- The game really suffers from its game-TV show duality, which feels disjointed and pulls you out of the game. Where, in AW2, the live action sequences were meticulously interspersed between the narrative, and each felt unique and unpredictable, here it's just a very structured, very methodical B-roll action movie, spat out in your face after every act of the game, in insane 30-minute lengths. Even worse, you can't download the videos, so you better hope to God that Microsoft servers aren't thinking of taking a break right when you want to watch the videos. Thankfully, the story presented in the "tv show" is not very consequential, and is just more garnish. Also, it's really not that interesting. Woah, the main selling point of the game is that my decisions make a difference in a LIVE ACTION TV SHOW? Like come on, you just make a few different scenes and suddenly it's a genius invention?

- The game's storyline is surprisingly simple. Yeah, you got the crazy elements - a time machine, literal fracture and end of time, all of that jazz, but where Alan Wake retains a constant mystery, and slowly nurtures the player by feeding him/her bitesized pieces of lore, Quantum Break basically explains the entire framework behind the time problem in maybe first fourty minutes, and the story never really develops from there. The rest is just generic character drama, and it's not so much about the time, but about the characters and their desires.

- I didn't feel like the game allowed most of its main star actors to really flesh their characters out. The only exception is the perfect Aidan Gillen, and maybe, to some extent, William. The main character is a generic dude character with very little in terms of uniqueness, and the others all look like they jumped out of a literal B-grade action movie that plays on some 6th-8th channel on TV, at 10pm weekdays.

- Finally, and this is really where I snapped and decided to shelve the game, is the game's atrocious save system. Unless the game has a gameplay reason to restrict manual saving (e.g., presenting actual challenge, impossibility due to live action) or anything else, then it at least, at the very least, present a way to save the game at set locations (like what AW2 does - not ideal, but it makes for a challenging world, and gives you a clear indication of pacing). Here, the game saves...whenever? There's no manual saving, and some of the save spots are incredibly moronic. There's one bit where you have to cross a bridge jumping platform-to-platform, and I missed once, which brought me about 10 minutes back in the storyline - forcing me to fight through a miniboss battle, watch a cutscene, and walk the entire bridge across just to arrive at the place where I fell. After it happened the second time, I gave up. If the game doesn't respect my time, I sure ain't going to respect its time. Fuck this.

Overall, it's a mostly decent experience, but it could do without the tv show.

Remedy has to stop giving all their "good stories but half-baked gameplay" IPs to Microsoft because this game is just begging for an Alan Wake 2-tier sequel. There are a few moments where the otherwise standard (but very well-written) time travel plot veers ever so briefly into rad as hell territory, but those aspects of the narrative never get their proper moment in the sun and are largely left for us to speculate about. I would love to see what Sam Lake and his merry band of madlads cook up with those concepts now that the foundation of this world has been firmly established, but alas, Quantum Break is likely locked up in the Recycle Bin alongside Internet Explorer for the foreseeable future. Ah well, at least we've got legally distinct Tim(e) Breaker and Warlin Door now.

I'd give this a solid "check it out" even if I can only muster to rate it "good", because there's a wonderful sense of ambition on display here. Like, love it or hate it, you're not gonna find another game that plays full, live-action TV show episodes with dynamic content based on decisions you made in the gameplay segments in between its narrative chapters. Most people would call that very concept absurd just due to simple logistics, but Remedy will not be dissuaded by such mundane troubles. Sure, the episodes are shot like the digital display ads you might find in a dentist's office between fillings, but goddamn I'll give them props for going for it all the same.

Of course, it helps that Lance Reddick brings his best to every scene he's in, because that's just how he rolls. Rest in peace, man - gone too soon for real.

remedy doesn't disappoint, but even they can hit mid sometimes.

not a bad game at all, in fact the combat is super fun, i don't know if i didn't explored as much but it felt a bit lacking in that cheeky remedy style that they have throughout the game ( i didn't find sam lake), the cast is rather interesting and i like the plot twists they throw on you, there isn't a character that i didn't grow to like by the end of the game.

still, plot taking too long to get steam, the game being optimized by ducktaping and prayer and the cutscenes having to reach for a streaming service in order to play (why..) prevent me from loving it as much as i love the other remedy games, but thats not to say i dislike it, on the contrary, i wish other mid games i played were as fun and plot whack as this one, it just doesn't get to a alan wake level

Just some awesome high-concept sci-fi action. Remedy has quickly become one of my all-time favorite studios. The games they make might not always land flawlessly, but they are constantly putting out stuff that feels fresh and high effort. These guys are always doing something outside the box.

Quantum Break really worked for me. My main, and pretty much only, gripe with it is the TV show aspect. It’s such a weird decision, and as I stated these come with the Remedy territory, that doesn´t really work. It simply is extremely less interesting and compelling when compared to the “game” section of this game. It feels and looks like cheap TV, the things that happen in it have no real impact on the game, and the game itself has no real impact on it, even though the game constantly tries to tell you that it actually does. These 4 episodes add up to about an hour of fleshing out very minor characters that barely show up in the game. It doesn't help that these handful of characters are extremely paper thin, and their respective performances are, as I said before, straight out of a cheap TV show.

These episodes are to be endured rather than enjoyed. I also find it extremely bizarre that the game, at least on PC, streams these episodes from some Microsoft server that will one day be inevitably shut down. There’s no option on steam to download these episodes, and if you play offline, you simply aren’t able to watch them. This adds to the idea that these poorly executed, extra-long, live action cutscenes, are just non-essential filler that could simply not be there at all without impacting the overall player experience.

I do believe that the whole “live action interludes that are affected by in-game decisions” concept could work if more budget and care went into it. And if they were actually developed in a way that complements the gameplay sections instead of as an addon that feels more like an afterthought.
At least the game itself, removed from the “TV show”, is a banger. The story is pure dumb fun sci-fi, with just the right amount of science mumbo jumbo, compelling characters, interesting macguffins and awesome set pieces. I didn’t really care for the “decisions” you can take in between acts, but it ties well into the whole time-travel/multiverse concept that the narrative goes for. Overall, great writing, great performances from a well-known cast, pretty much perfect pacing, I had a blast with it.

Graphically it’s a spectacular game. It looks gorgeous and way ahead of its time, especially the facial animations of the main cast. But it’s the overall visual design that really stands out here. Every location feels like a real space instead of a combat arena, populated with little dumb things everywhere to really sell them as real. The whole visual language they developed for the fractures and “time powers” is simply gorgeous looking and adds a lot of punch to the action. Great architecture and lighting too.

The gameplay is so much fun that it’s kind of a pity that combat encounters feel so short and few and far between. It feels as kinetic and engaging to move around and shoot as it did in Max Payne. Some of the powers available here are clear callbacks to the bullet time shooting present in those games. Everything here pushes you to zoom around the arena, evading baddies and just wrecking them. A blast to play through, I just wished there were more combat opportunities in it.

One other very minor gripe. While it is very much improved here, and there’s a little puzzle aspect to it, Remedy should really cool it with the platforming sections. Not their forte.
Great game brought down a peg because of the terrible “TV show” addon. Honestly, I’d say to skip them altogether when playing if the first couple of minutes don’t grab you, because the game is very much worth seeing through.

Truly wanted to love this but just didn't land. Didn't mind a chunk of the game being live-action cutscenes (it's still quite a fun concept that has potential) but the story wasn't interesting enough for me. The moment to moment gameplay during combat starts of quite fun and you can really see the origins of what Remedy went for with Control here - but because you get doled out abilities so quickly, it gets a little repetitive and doesn't really provide much challenge until the very end (at least on normal difficulty).

In fact the hardest part of Quantum Break is actually progressing through the game. Playing on Xbox Series S, the game crashed 4 separate times and required me to play through almost the entirety of Acts 2 and 3 not once, not twice but three times. And it was hard to maintain enthusiasm during that time, constantly thinking any non-in-universe stutter was a precursor to my own personal groundhog day.

Technical issues, a busted checkpoint system and an uninteresting combat/upgrade system.

The visuals were pretty cool, especially in the stutter segments, but that is ONLY when the game isn't breaking under it's own tech limitations due to lack of patching. Cutscenes and scripted in-game cinematic moments shifting from 120 to 30 fps were jarring. Tv episodes wouldn't load so had to watch on YT.

I commend the team at Remedy for continuously breaking boundaries with the medium of games and blending it with television and radio.

However, this did not hit for me.