While not Remedy's best work, falling short in some aspects, Quantum Break is uniquely interesting in many ways and has a lot of greatness within. All culminate in what I believe is an excellent game. NameBrand
I'm surprised it took me so long to play this one. I did hear some middling things about Quantum Break and that did deter me, but after my run-through of Control, I knew I had to give Remedy's previous game a go, and I'm really glad that I did. Quantum Break is quite the game.
I think you have to know what you're getting into or you're going to be disappointed. You have to know upfront that there are "TV Show" segments where you will be watching upwards of 30 minutes of REAL TV, with REAL Actors, shot on a REAL camera. This will happen four times per playthrough. What happens in these episodes directly correlates to a choice you make in the game. I LOVED these parts of "the game" for what they were and thought they were excellent at continuing the world-building and expanding the characters.
I think also the gunplay becomes one note pretty quickly. My best guess for why this happens is because you unlock many of your superpowers at the beginning of the game. This is great for letting you live the power fantasy, but because of this, you're left with maybe 6 or so hours of skirmishes that feel vastly the same. The time powers are SUPER cool, and the upgrades to them you earn along the way feel pretty rad. But they aren't quite enough to save it from the small enemy variety, and shallow pool of available weapons. Combat is still fun, but it certainly feels the same throughout. Well, fun until you're playing on hard mode and have to deal with the snipers one-shotting you, but beyond that, great time.
The thing that really holds Quantum Break together is the narrative and the plot. It's interesting almost right from the jump and it just sucks you in. I practically played nothing but this game after it got its hooks in me. It's kind of cringeworthy at times with its lame techno-babble about "time-science" but there's definitely some weird campy enjoyable charm in the midst of it all. Despite this, you certainly don't have to be invested enough to read the countless number of emails and notes scattered across the game, though they do give good insights into the intentions and motivations of the characters. But being just curious enough about the overarching plot will make you want to keep playing.
I do wish your choices mattered a little bit more and that they had greater effects on the story at large instead of being little immediate ripples, but they actually in a strange way, made the plot a bit unpredictable. It wasn't easy to see how it would come together and in that way was fun to experience.
That said though, I don't quite have the motivation to jump back in and experience the other choices that I didn't make. I may return for these after a little time has passed just because I'm really quite curious, but looking at it right after I beat it... I'm just not feeling like it. Which, is a little bit of a shame right? To have whole sections of this game unseen and unplayed. It's those little missteps in the minutia of the gameplay that make me hesitant you know? If it was just a little more polished or different, maybe I'd be right back in playing more...
Overall though, I thought this was a fantastic game. It's got that Remedy charm pulsing throughout. It's a bit raw in places, but I think it's all worth it to experience some of the awesome set pieces, and some of the incredible world-building, in this bizarre TV show, video game combo. If you're like me, waiting for Alan Wake 2 to release on Steam... This is not a bad way to spend your time, especially as a fan of Remedy games. One last aside: Quantum Break walked so that future Remedy games could run. You'll see that in every corner of this game, that DNA that courses throughout Control and (from what I've heard) Alan Wake 2, and it's beautiful and interesting to just experience a studio's history in a way like this. Give it a chance.
I'm surprised it took me so long to play this one. I did hear some middling things about Quantum Break and that did deter me, but after my run-through of Control, I knew I had to give Remedy's previous game a go, and I'm really glad that I did. Quantum Break is quite the game.
I think you have to know what you're getting into or you're going to be disappointed. You have to know upfront that there are "TV Show" segments where you will be watching upwards of 30 minutes of REAL TV, with REAL Actors, shot on a REAL camera. This will happen four times per playthrough. What happens in these episodes directly correlates to a choice you make in the game. I LOVED these parts of "the game" for what they were and thought they were excellent at continuing the world-building and expanding the characters.
I think also the gunplay becomes one note pretty quickly. My best guess for why this happens is because you unlock many of your superpowers at the beginning of the game. This is great for letting you live the power fantasy, but because of this, you're left with maybe 6 or so hours of skirmishes that feel vastly the same. The time powers are SUPER cool, and the upgrades to them you earn along the way feel pretty rad. But they aren't quite enough to save it from the small enemy variety, and shallow pool of available weapons. Combat is still fun, but it certainly feels the same throughout. Well, fun until you're playing on hard mode and have to deal with the snipers one-shotting you, but beyond that, great time.
The thing that really holds Quantum Break together is the narrative and the plot. It's interesting almost right from the jump and it just sucks you in. I practically played nothing but this game after it got its hooks in me. It's kind of cringeworthy at times with its lame techno-babble about "time-science" but there's definitely some weird campy enjoyable charm in the midst of it all. Despite this, you certainly don't have to be invested enough to read the countless number of emails and notes scattered across the game, though they do give good insights into the intentions and motivations of the characters. But being just curious enough about the overarching plot will make you want to keep playing.
I do wish your choices mattered a little bit more and that they had greater effects on the story at large instead of being little immediate ripples, but they actually in a strange way, made the plot a bit unpredictable. It wasn't easy to see how it would come together and in that way was fun to experience.
That said though, I don't quite have the motivation to jump back in and experience the other choices that I didn't make. I may return for these after a little time has passed just because I'm really quite curious, but looking at it right after I beat it... I'm just not feeling like it. Which, is a little bit of a shame right? To have whole sections of this game unseen and unplayed. It's those little missteps in the minutia of the gameplay that make me hesitant you know? If it was just a little more polished or different, maybe I'd be right back in playing more...
Overall though, I thought this was a fantastic game. It's got that Remedy charm pulsing throughout. It's a bit raw in places, but I think it's all worth it to experience some of the awesome set pieces, and some of the incredible world-building, in this bizarre TV show, video game combo. If you're like me, waiting for Alan Wake 2 to release on Steam... This is not a bad way to spend your time, especially as a fan of Remedy games. One last aside: Quantum Break walked so that future Remedy games could run. You'll see that in every corner of this game, that DNA that courses throughout Control and (from what I've heard) Alan Wake 2, and it's beautiful and interesting to just experience a studio's history in a way like this. Give it a chance.