Quantum Break: One Year Later

Quantum Break has been out for a year now and I thought it would be great to reflect upon this stellar game that got more flack than it should have. The game released April 5, 2016 and I had it prior to review from Microsoft which was great. This was Remedy's first release on the Xbox One hardware after perhaps too many years of development and multiple changes. It was also one of early Windows 10 titles, suffering some issues there and also headed to Steam later on as well.

The game takes a different approach to displaying its narrative by offering smaller changes that tweak entire dynamics of the story and the inclusion of TV segments. Some disliked this aspect, but I personally loved getting a nice break in the gameplay to develop side characters that are usually just left alone in most games. It added to the story and was definitely some unique that should have gotten some praise for trying something new. Hopefully this sort of idea isn't neglected in the future as a combination between video and gameplay has some potential.



The plot of the game is focused around a core group of friends and their manipulation of time travel. The world itself has many issues due to the complications they cause and the group becomes fractured. Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore) is the great protagonist that gains time powers and is trying to fix his timeline at any cost. On the other side of things is Paul Serene (Aidan Gillen) the head of Monarch and one that attempts to use time for his own benefit. It's actually got quite a star cast for a game capturing their personalities exactly into the experience and this was great.

The gameplay is based on shooting mixed with the manipulation of time and the environment. You can do all sorts of fancy moves as you blow by enemies and tackle any issues that arise. It's very smooth as well and incredibly neat to tweak the world around you with time abilities. The graphics were amazing for the game having a very realistic setting with lots of extreme details. It was surreal seeing it all get adjusted when you jumped into a quick break in time or froze it all to blast bullets along. There was also a heavy focus towards cinematics and the entire point was to mimic that TV/Movie style which is somewhat Remedy's thing like with the amazing Alan Wake.

I would definitely suggest checking out Quantum Break and even playing it multiple times so that you can see all the branching stories. Its neat how the world would change based on those key breaks after each Act and I definitely loved this title. It's got a strong story as Remedy is known for and I'd love to see this revisited with a sequel of some sort. I know like with Alan Wake that it might be set aside for ever, but there's always a chance. If you do go to play it, do watch the TV episodes as it does help make the characters matter more and that does improve the experience of Quantum Break.

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