Quantum Break belongs to a genre that many people find irritating or even downright awful, that being the extremely linear action shooter. People sometimes say games like this bleed over into the category of walking simulator. While I understand all the complaints about how restrictive making a game like this can be, I still love a well made one. And if Quantum Break is nothing else, it is REALLY well made. The graphics, the cinematography, acting, sound design, all of it is so polished it makes the presentation of many other games look downright weak. I think the limitations that Remedy had to work within to make this game so linear allowed them to focus on getting every little detail right. The graphics are a perfect example of this, specifically the lighting and faces. The lighting is mind blowing, realistic in a way most games could only dream of looking. I understand from reading online that a lot of it is baked, but it still looks incredible. And the faces are the best I've ever seen in a video game period. They are highly detailed, yes, but it's the animation and performance capture that makes them really come to life. And they do this while avoiding the uncanny valley that games like LA Noire fall into. Looking at Remedy's latest game, Control, these elements are still great but somehow don't look as good as in Quantum Break, a much older game. I think that has to do with the fact the Control is much more open and gives the player real control (pardon the pun) over the world and interactions. While Quantum Break brings that perfect presentation and ludicrous level of detail that Remedy is known for, it's not perfect. The story doesn't feel as important when so much of it is out of your control. The Junctions provide an illusion of being able to control the story's direction, but that's all it is: an illusion. And the PC port is nothing short of atrocious. NO FOV slider, the game wouldn't actually display at my screen's resolution without config file tweaking, horrible motion blur that you can't get rid of, and the game is basically unplayable on anything other than a supercomputer unless you use the upscaling option that renders the game at 2/3 resolution and makes all of Remedy's careful detail blurry. Plus, while the Steam version supports ultrawide, only a select few of the cutscenes are displayed in 21:9, even though they are all in-engine and could easily be shown that way (you can see the black bars fade in and out seemingly at random during some cutscenes). There's a lot to love here, but while the story is deep, the gameplay is shallow, and we won't get to see this game in it's full glory until we all have dual 4080ti cards installed.

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.

Definitely Remedy's weakest game in terms of the bit where you play it. Shooting and movement are fiddly, which the game is mostly aware of as they don't really put it to the test until the final boss fight - but damn, that fight is really annoying. I'm still glad I played it though simply because of its ambition. The TV series in it isn't great (though as usual Lance Reddick lifts the whole thing) but come on, it's a miniseries in a game! The time effects are extremely impressive at times, too. It stretched my PC a lot but it's pretty clear why when you see some of the things they have going on in the realtime part of the game.

Great, fun experience of a game with a pretty entertaining story and a solid cast. I felt lost as much as one would with a time travel story. I'm assuming that a huge chunk of the world-building was through the collectible intel and stuff, but that was a bit too much and the long, winding ones from random characters I found myself just collecting but skipping past.

The episodes were what initially turned me off from this when I first tried this a couple of years ago, but I regret that now that I picked this up again. At first, I thought I would have preferred to play those scenes out in game format, much like how we played as Serene in the Junction chapters, but during the second episode, I realized that it was enjoyable as is. There's nothing quite like witnessing the thrill of a twist in an uninterrupted episodic format (as long as it didn't stop to buffer, which it did for me in later parts, damn ISP).

But yeah, all in all a fun game. But WTF is that final battle, gods I have not cursed at a boss fight that much in so long.

I've been taking it easy with games lately since I am burned out but I managed to complete Quantum Break last night. A game I have been interested in a few months now. Very good game.

I really overall dig the time traveling and time manipulation story for this the fact it's based on hard science such as quantum physics to create its own science called chronon particles to make its concept of time shattering and freezing in certain points feel more believable. I honestly thought Quantum Break was lacking in actual time traveling at first but near the end, everything came together super nicely while making its plot complex while still inheriting the basic laws of physics and how time worked in the past.

The world-building and amount of text are pretty impressive as well, considering I only spent like 15 hours in the game. With these text files scattered around the levels. You get insight into characters' histories, further in-depth explanations of physics, what is going on in the town from other people's perspectives, even fun stuff like an awfully cliche play based on cheesy sci fi tropes etc. It made the world more alive and I live for detailed worlds, so big plus for me.

What stood out for me is the decision-making that affects the story. Although there are only a few choices and it doesn't change too much of the overall story. The decisions you can make as the main antagonist give you a greater sense of immersion, control and perspective of him. It encourages replay value as well to see how the choices can affect the story. Between that and other triggers during the game, there are about 40 variations for the live-action TV show, so that's a lot of airing they have to do!

Speaking of that, what's especially cool is the TV series going alongside with the game. While I don't think the episodes being live action super necessary, I still think it's a super cool concept I've never seen in a game and it puts characters that are barely in the main game at all in the spotlight. I think the TV show as a standalone is pretty eh since the characters are weak and sorta unlikeable at times and feel like a generic gritty action show. And I'm not really a fan of Liam tbh since the whole super soldier thing just felt unbelievable (even if there's a reason why he could fight well). Yea for a game that lets the main character, Jack have time powers. Liam having a similar body count with no powers felt ridiculous. But even then, I appreciate the TV show for adding on insight to its world and I still think how the actors perfectly mirror its game model counterparts is super cool.

The gameplay is fun, tight, solid thrid person shooting action. While the standard mechanics are plain with your typical arsenal of guns and shooter mechanics like covering. The time manipulation powers help make the combat stand out a lot such as time dodge to quickly avoid enemy gunfire or a time sheld that will reflect enemy gunfire and let you heal for a few seconds. These abilities will help you maintain the upper hand with the waves of enemies. Although they lack variety, it's still a consistent experience.

If I have one complaint, is the game have a case of serious ludonarrative dissonance. Maybe because I don't really play a lot of shooters these days but it kinda bothers me how the main protagonist, Jack supposes to be this seemingly normal and likable enough guy that basically wipes out an entire army in one day and he is basically psychologically unaffected. Quantum Break being a game is a double edge sword. I feel like the detailed world-building is something they could only pull off as a game but I also felt like there were countless waves of enemies just to pad out the game and give some kind of active content to interact with. It's just a bit off-putting and unbelievable that Jack is unaffected by all this death and it's barely talked about but that might be just me being overly sensitive to how death is treated in media as of late haha.

A few unbelievable character moments and iffy writing for the TV show aside. Quantum Break is a really good game that does both gameplay and story well and I thought the idea of mixing live action with a game with decision making was a unique way to present a story. Highly recommend it to anyone that likes sci-fi, especially time-traveling stories.

Remedy Entertainment is one of my favorite developers. You may know them from little games like Max Payne and Alan Wake. These were both fantastic third-person shooters with great characters and an interesting story. It’s been a while since we have seen anything from them, and Quantum Break was quite ambitious with big-name actors, live-action cutscenes, and just an overall large budget.

The game starts off with you playing as Jack Joyce who is the brother of William Joyce, who gets stuck in a fight against Monarch Solutions to save the universe. Sounds pretty cliche, but the time-bending gameplay and story have some merits. Paul Serene, the antagonist of the game, steals a time travel device from William Joyce and uses it for profit. The game does this whole start at the end, then work your way back to the beginning sort of story and filling in gaps on the way. I really wanted to like the story here as the acting is top-notch and the live action cut scenes are fantastic, but it’s so convoluted and there are so many things that aren’t explored.

One such thing is the end of time. It’s referenced frequently that the end of time is caused by the fracture from the time machine, but we never see it. Seeing the end of time would have been fascinating if just for a little while. On top of this, the 5 different choices you make in the story don’t affect the outcome of the story which makes it feel pointless. After each chapter, there is a junction in which you play as Paul and have to make a choice. Then you get a 15-minute live-action cutscene which is the best parts of the entire game.

The gameplay itself has time stopping and bending abilities with Jack Time Rushing enemies to fly by them, using Time Blasts for AOE effects, shields, and various other abilities. You will use them all throughout the game but it feels forced. The guns feel fun to shoot, but it’s all so generic and boring. The same four enemies repeat, and to make you use your powers they throw in enemies that are immune to your powers and ones that you need to use your powers to get past their armor. They don’t show up often, but when it does it slows down the gameplay and makes it drag.

I did use different weapons for different situations, but I had no choice as the game can be so difficult at times you need to use these weapons or powers by default and not by choice. You can upgrade your powers to make them more useful, but they require hidden upgrade points which are really hard to find (I only found 5 through my whole playthrough) so it defeats the purpose of having an upgrade system if the points to use it are hidden. The action and storytelling are also poorly paced with entire chapters of just pressing buttons, walking around, and climbing things. Then you would get an hour of non-stop shooting. Then the final boss took me 3 hours to beat as it’s so incredibly difficult and requires you to use all your powers beyond what the game will allow. You can only turn so fast, move so quick, and shoot so much with Time Bombs going off behind you and enemies zipping around shooting you. It’s overwhelming and clearly breaks the system set in place.

I really wanted to love this game, but it’s entertaining at best and very forgettable. The game looks fantastic with amazing character models and animations, but the PC version suffers severe performance issues as it’s poorly optimized. The art style, however, is rather dull with nothing but sterile gray hallways, generic buildings, and nothing that really stands out. Outside of the Nissan and Microsoft product placements and the yellow accenting throughout the entire game.

Remedy really could have done more here, but most people will find it either too boring or too hard to care much. It’s an entertaining weekend playthrough but nothing more.

If there was ever a game that exemplifies style over substance, for me its this game. It has insane level visuals and class, but if they only spent half that time on story, narration, combat, this could have been a stellar game. It had all the promise of a cool sci-fi game with a very cool story, but doesn't deliver at all. Overall its a completely skippable game, maybe play 1 act to experience the visuals. Normally I abandon low scoring games but this game I did finish, as it was always pulling me back with its visuals, and bearable story.

🎮 Platform: Xbox
⌚ Time to finish - 12.5h
🏆Trophy completion - 66% - not too hard, i don't recommend it unless you LOVED the game. The game has a fair bit of collectibles that are easy to get to with chapter select. It has a set of combat trophies that aren't too hard to grind. The last level on hard is pretty hard, you will definitely have to try it at least 5-10 times, especially with a controller which isn't my forte to aim with. Game can be played once on hard and cleaned up on easy.

🤬Difficulty - I played on hard. The game even on hard difficulty is not hard (you will die for sure) if you are familiar with shooters. The last level on hard I would rate it to be maybe ultra-hard. this is mainly because its poorly designed. the boss pretty much once shots you with grenades and the grenade cues pretty much mix into the environment or the rumble of shooting and its very very easy to miss and instantly die.

🌄Graphics – Insane level graphics and style! Super unique looking game. Unfortunately it could not save this game. Some of the best facial and motion capture I have seen in any game.

🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Its fine. The typical adrenaline pumping music in firefights. I loved the gun sounds!

📚 Main Story / Characters – I didn't like any of the characters or the story or the story telling and narration. I commend them for mixing extremely well directed and shot live action + mo cap cut scenes. The insane production quality and really good acting is what kept me going. Time travel stories are hard to do and its even harder to do in a video game. The story is very simple, but told in such a convoluted way, and the conclusion of the story is lame. The game also intersperses, the protagonist interviewing someone, with his own thoughts, and with radio chatter, and self talk. Its absolutely confusing who is saying what and why. Some characters in the live action video never show up in the game. Its very hard to follow their journey through time and events. Really just a gigantic mess.

The game has these things called stutters, meaning the game play just pauses and only your character can move, sometimes he can use his powers sometimes he cant.... They never do a good job explaining when they happen and don't and most of the time you are basically left feeling they use it more a story device to make the combat harder and move the story along or slow it down.

🤺 Combat – no variety. Its either shotgun or semi-automatic with some time powers thrown in. Sometimes the enemies and snipers are sooooo far away, there is no way to close distance apart from running and wishing to god you don't die in 2 hits. it got boring very quick. it reminded me of Uncharted 1 combat minus the special powers. Could give us some grenades, sniper rifles, at least? opponents use them!

The guns are extremely inaccurate!

🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – typical collect athon. Apart from reading those notes you collect, and unlocking things to upgrade your powers which does help in hard mode, I didn't find any reason to go out of my way. Can be beaten on hard without any upgrades which is pretty much how my char was.

🚗 Movement/Physics – fine.

📣 Voice acting – Amazing performances!

🥇 Best thing about the game - The visuals and style of the game. Never seen anything like it!

👎 Worst thing about the game - Apart from visuals nothing redeeming for me about the game.

[ if you liked the review throw me a like! ❤️ ]

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.

i like this game more than you might think by its score - it had all of the hallmark crazy-ness of a Remedy story, a unique delivery method for telling that story (part game, part low-budget TV show?), and some beautiful graphics. the combat/gameplay is fine, some of the time-based powers seem cool but you could cut and paste them into a non-time themed story and they'd be largely unchanged. the characters are cool and it's only slightly immersion breaking that they are largely modeled after their real-life voice actors. the story choices it offers are largely superficial, it would have been cool if there were more substantial consequences to some of those choices. but all in all, i enjoyed the experience!

Great, fun experience of a game with a pretty entertaining story and a solid cast. I felt lost as much as one would with a time travel story. I'm assuming that a huge chunk of the world-building was through the collectible intel and stuff, but that was a bit too much and the long, winding ones from random characters I found myself just collecting but skipping past.

The episodes were what initially turned me off from this when I first tried this a couple of years ago, but I regret that now that I picked this up again. At first, I thought I would have preferred to play those scenes out in game format, much like how we played as Serene in the Junction chapters, but during the second episode, I realized that it was enjoyable as is. There's nothing quite like witnessing the thrill of a twist in an uninterrupted episodic format (as long as it didn't stop to buffer, which it did for me in later parts, damn ISP).

But yeah, all in all a fun game. But WTF is that final battle, gods I have not cursed at a boss fight that much in so long.