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At the beginning of the week, actor Shawn Ashmore, who plays the protagonist Jack Joyce in Quantum Break informed on social networks about his desire to return to the project, than seriously stirred up fans of the 2016 Remedy exclusive on the Xbox platform. We decided to dive into this project again and understand its strengths and weaknesses, understand why the game failed and only after some time came to the attention of the players.
Doc, where did you get it?!
“Probably, guys, you haven’t matured yet. But your kids will love it.”
No time travel project is complete without generating back to the future thoughts. Despite the dramatic differences in the underlying principles of the game and the movie, this famous quote best describes the current state of Quantum Break.
We will not beat around the bush and immediately tell you about the problems noted on the release. And let’s start with the most important thing – failed optimization. To the surprise of today’s gamers (cough cough) Remedy failed to cope with a huge number of technical flaws.
We do not underestimate the significance of such an event in any way, however, as the releases of recent years show, over a fairly long period of time, nothing hasn’t changed. Many studios are not ready to shift deadlines for fixing bugs due to a significant increase in the cost of development, so they provide players with raw projects and, after release, get rid of bugs with patches for the product that users already have in their hands.
By the way, we recall that Quantum Break was an experimental development of the studio, so many aspects were created by Remedy employees for the first time. Unfortunately, it was not possible to issue a technically ideal solution corresponding to the scale and ambitions of the project. These nuances, combined with the weak hardware of the Xbox One, did not allow the studio to realize the original idea.
Users also criticized the viscous development of the plot with transitions from fast dynamic battles to calm scenes with the possibility of exploring the world around them, and in addition threw negative statements in favor of a complex and “indistinct” combat system. Let’s just leave it here without comment…
Finished Quantum Break and a weak port on the PC, which could not get rid of the “features” of the original. Hence the presence of a large number of errors and the title “Breakthrough of the Year” lost in Microsoft’s dreams. And the presence of the exclusivity of the platform immediately swept away in the direction of the Sonyboys. Step by step, the project was quickly forgotten, not paying attention to trailers, gameplay videos and really good ideas.
And now a “gun”?
“In the darkness of the unknown, where time stops, the only way to survive is to escape into the future”
We started with mistakes and we will continue with them. At the moment, on Xbox Series X, even without 60 FPS with the lack of smooth animations of the level of modern projects, Quantum Break looks decent. And we say this firsthand! Surprisingly, the patient turned out to be more alive than all the living. Feelings from the technical side of Quantum Break are quite tolerable. No major bugs were noticed. Even without patches for current platforms, you sincerely enjoy the process happening on the screen. We can’t imagine what Remedy did, maybe it’s our eyes that are so blurry, but with such a state, you definitely shouldn’t scold the game.
Progress over the years has run far ahead, so it is very difficult to evaluate the visual, especially after the appearance Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, The Last of Us: Part 2 and other mastodons of the industry in terms of image detailing, however, we consider it our duty to note that the developers of Quantum Break can be proud of the high-quality “image” without a second thought. The special effects, particles, drawing of objects and other effects and details turned out to be incredible. And this in 2016? We are transported to visit the Water Rabbit and, of course, we notice some nuances, but we are amazed at such a scope. Wow!
We will not talk about the plot in detail, you never know who else has not managed to pick up spoilers … But we will not miss the opportunity to poke a finger at this adventure – such a journey through time is worthy of the attention of players without any embellishment. Unusual plot twists should not be expected, but the scriptwriters still provided a fascinating and not hackneyed story.
Surprisingly, “combat” provides the player with the desired effect of time management. There are plenty of skills for this – we stop bullets like Neo from the Matrix, accelerate from side to side and slow down individual opponents. Together with dynamic skirmishes, “good” fights are obtained, especially at a high level of difficulty, in order to avoid casual.
Separately, we note that Remedy and Microsoft were not at all lazy and transferred famous actors to the virtual world. The previously mentioned Sean Ashmore (X-Men), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones), Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings), Lance Reddick (John Wick) and other artists of big cinema were noted in Quantum Break. In addition, between acts, gamers can watch specially filmed episodes of the series, excerpts that allow you to dive deeper into the story and take a break over popcorn after a dynamic fight and a long game fragment.
The developers released them as a short season with a total duration of two hours, but it makes no sense to watch them separately without playing. There are also non-linear fragments that slightly affect further events and give an emotional coloring to what is happening. Now such chips will not surprise anyone, but this by no means removes all the advantages of Quantum Break.
Perhaps Quantum Break was slightly ahead of its time, or vice versa, it came out too early. Even after a full-fledged passage of the game, there is no feeling of innuendo and flaws in the product. The game looks good after seven years, the only complaint may be the lack of smoothness in animations and stable 60 FPS, however some modern releases are already trying to wean consolers from this blessing …
We will not get ahead of ourselves, but we sincerely hope for the return of the franchise on current platforms. In addition, the latest development of Control from Remedy turned out to be quite playable, with addictive gameplay and an unusual storyline. Still, the games of Sam Lake manage to sink into the soul. We cannot fail to note the incredible ability of the studio to immerse the gamer in the process. Sticky, and only!
We will be glad to know the opinion of readers, especially those who managed to get acquainted with Quantum Break at the release, and still remember their impressions. Dare! Comments are open as always, ladies and gentlemen.
