Quantum Break released last week and I managed to finish it in two days. In a word, I would describe Quantum Break as disappointing. I had really high hopes for this game because of the quirky horror fun that permeated Remedy’s previous game, Alan Wake. It is incredibly depressing that this game isn’t better.
As just a side note, I want it noted that the formatting of Quantum Break isn’t what is bad. Everyone was skeptical when Remedy announced that the game would be half 3rd person shooter and half live action T.V. show. However that aspect of Quantum Break succeeds at least in a basic form. The way I would describe it is, there is room for a really good story to be told in this weird combination of two mediums. However, Quantum Break is not that story.
Story is the first major place where Quantum Break fails. The story follows Jack Joyce, played by Shawn Ashmore of X-Men fame, as he and his friend and brother finish a time travel experiment. At the last moment, the experiment went wrong and it gave Jack Joyce and his friend from childhood, Paul Serene (Aiden Gillen, Game of Thrones) time super powers. This event also sends Paul Serene forward in time and he sees an apocalyptic event that causes him to go back in time to 1999 so he can try to prepare for the coming apocalypse. What follows is a confusing mess of a story. There are several plot threads that go unexplained, even the most interesting moments only happen within the last hour and a half of the game. This aspect is what disappoints me most about Quantum Break because Alan Wake had such an interesting and passionately written story.
Gameplay is another aspect where Quantum Break comes in subpar. The gameplay isn’t terrible, there is some really interesting ideas there but they are just poorly implemented. All the time powers that you can use in combat are cool, but their coolness runs out after the 3rd hour of having all the powers.
Quantum Break was an astounding disappointment. I really hope that the eventual Alan Wake sequel doesn’t suffer from the failings of this game.
This writer can be reached via Twitter: @EthanNathe26.
For more from this blog, read Checkpoint: Dark Souls 3 Release Mess.