I originally played this on Xbox One when it first released and just finished it again on PC in the tail end of 2022. During the early days of the Xbox One, Microsoft had this weird obsession with watching TV on your gaming console, and in my opinion that is the biggest detriment to this game.
The graphics and the overall visual presentation are absolutely phenomenal, even in 2022 (4K, 60fps). The audio in the game is also excellent. Everything from the sound effects and voice acting, to the banging soundtrack. Speaking of voice acting, the cast of characters in this game are played by some very recognizable Hollywood actors and actresses. They did a great job with the motion capture as well with top notch facial animations.
The combat in this game is pretty good and fun. It can become a bit repetitive but the game is on the short side, so the repetition doesn't get enough time to become tedious. Unfortunately the gameplay takes a backseat to what feels like countless hours of walking around, reading documents, listening to audio tapes, and watching cutscenes.
There are 5 acts in this game, each taking about 1-2 hours to complete on normal difficulty. After each act you are forced to watch a full TV episode of a Quantum Break tv show. Yes, you have to stop and watch TV after every 1-2 hours of gameplay... That is incredibly annoying, frustrating, immersion breaking, and pace breaking. Especially on repeat playthroughs.
Thankfully you can skip these TV episodes, but you will miss out on a big chunk of the story. After the 2nd Act, I got confused about what was going on and I lost interest. Side note, I personally tend to struggle to keep up with time travel, parallel universe, multi-dimension type of storylines in video games and movies. But if that is your cup of tea, then I think you will find the story in this game interesting.
Overall, this was an ambitious project, which unfortunately didn't hit the mark and has not aged very well with its structure. It has fun gameplay moments, an interesting story (for those who can keep up), but the overall experience is pretty frustrating and underwhelming.
The graphics and the overall visual presentation are absolutely phenomenal, even in 2022 (4K, 60fps). The audio in the game is also excellent. Everything from the sound effects and voice acting, to the banging soundtrack. Speaking of voice acting, the cast of characters in this game are played by some very recognizable Hollywood actors and actresses. They did a great job with the motion capture as well with top notch facial animations.
The combat in this game is pretty good and fun. It can become a bit repetitive but the game is on the short side, so the repetition doesn't get enough time to become tedious. Unfortunately the gameplay takes a backseat to what feels like countless hours of walking around, reading documents, listening to audio tapes, and watching cutscenes.
There are 5 acts in this game, each taking about 1-2 hours to complete on normal difficulty. After each act you are forced to watch a full TV episode of a Quantum Break tv show. Yes, you have to stop and watch TV after every 1-2 hours of gameplay... That is incredibly annoying, frustrating, immersion breaking, and pace breaking. Especially on repeat playthroughs.
Thankfully you can skip these TV episodes, but you will miss out on a big chunk of the story. After the 2nd Act, I got confused about what was going on and I lost interest. Side note, I personally tend to struggle to keep up with time travel, parallel universe, multi-dimension type of storylines in video games and movies. But if that is your cup of tea, then I think you will find the story in this game interesting.
Overall, this was an ambitious project, which unfortunately didn't hit the mark and has not aged very well with its structure. It has fun gameplay moments, an interesting story (for those who can keep up), but the overall experience is pretty frustrating and underwhelming.