Looking back, it’s actually a little surprising that Microsoft put so much faith in Remedy. When Quantum Break was first revealed alongside the Xbox One on that disastrous day back in April 2013 – the day the generation war was waged and wasted – Microsoft needed the ever-faithful second party studio to make good on its commitment to blending live-action television with high-octane gameplay, and it needed it quickly. But two release windows passed without note, Microsoft swiftly ditched its silver screen ambitions, and we’ve been left wondering whether Quantum Break would be crushed by the weight of its own ambition, frozen in time as a warning to those attempting to dictate to gamers what they supposedly want. But we’ve seen it in action and that thought couldn’t be further from the truth. Well, you know what they say, hindsight’s a bit of a bitch. With the 5 April launch date fast approaching, Quantum Break is hoping to prove itself as a bold storytelling experiment that’s quite unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.
THE ULTIMATE REMEDY EXPERIENCE
In an example of life imitating art, Remedy seems to work at a pace most might associate with a bullet-time shootout. While the studio just celebrated its twentieth anniversary, it has put out five games in that period – and seven of those years were spent pushing the perpetually-delayed Alan Wake out of the door. But there’s a reason Remedy likes to take its time, and that’s because it likes to take gambles. And Quantum Break is perhaps its riskiest venture yet; a time-amplified actionshooter that is without question one of the most complex undertakings in videogame history. This experimental release is attempting to effortlessly blend interactive gameplay and live-action drama to form a cohesive overarching narrative. It might have felt like time has been stuttering around the project, but when it does eventually land, it’s going to do it – as we’re certain both Max Payne and Alan Wake would appreciate – in style.
“Remedy is a relatively small developer with about 100 people working on Quantum Break, so we have to work smartly to be able to compete with the bigger studios out there,” considers Thomas Puha, Remedy’s communications director and one of the six developers that games™ spoke to as we attempted to uncover the mysteries behind the Xbox One’s most intriguing exclusive. We found it fascinating that Puha should mention trying to compete with other, larger studios… The likes of Naughty Dog, Gearbox and Insomniac are all studios with a similar legacy to that of Remedy’s own, though the American studios have been far more prolific in the same time period. It comes down to Remedy’s unwillingness to compromise on any aspect of its games – be it cinematic flair, scope, graphical fidelity or ambition – and that’s only made possible by “using tools and software that help us produce great results with a smaller team.”
Looking at the content-complete build of Quantum Break, you wouldn’t believe it has been created by such a small and fluid team; the results are rather impressive. The all-new proprietary Northlight Engine is allowing Remedy to deliver stunning 1080p visuals without compromising on a smooth 30 frames-per second, leading us to believe Quantum Break will be deliver the Xbox One’s much anticipated ‘Gears Of War’ moment, if you will. When it all comes together, the gameplay and third-person combat blends the style and flair of Max Payne with the frantic pace of Alan Wake; and, yes, the TV show element looks of a decent enough quality that it will likely put SyFy programming to shame. This all stems from a commitment to not only harness emerging technology – such as full-motion body capture and new techniques to squeeze more power out of the Xbox One in lieu of Kinect – but to stay true to the roots of the studio as it was first established back in 1995.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
There’s an interesting story behind the humble beginnings of Remedy. It’s the tale of a group of hacker kids stuck in Finland, building games to help remedy their own boredom. The groups “competed in the excellence of programmes consisting of coding tricks synced with music and beautiful graphics,” as Saku Lehtinen, Remedy’s franchise art director, recalls. It’s here where the founding members of the studio developed the skills and relentless determination that would later allow them to remedy our own boredom through the likes of Death Rally and Max Payne. It’s a great story, but it’s one Wikipedia can detail about as well as we can. What Wikipedia can’t do, however, is explain to you how Quantum Break’s grand transmedia experiment is going to work, the inspiration behind it and why it isn’t going to tank completely.
When we describe Quantum Break as one of the most complex undertakings in videogame history, that isn’t complete conjecture. At its core, Quantum Break is an intense, story-driven action game focused on spectacle and attention-arresting shootouts – it’s a Remedy game. But one where “the game focuses on the heroes, the in-game liveaction show focuses on what goes on in the enemy camp. inside Monarch Solutions,” as Puha says, and this where things begin to get really interesting.
“The Quantum Break live action show is unlike any other experience; we allow you to direct the experience by interacting with the narrative and choosing the shows direction using the game’s junction moments… the live action show you’re watching is directed by your choices” confirms narrative designer Greg Louden, hoping to quell any fears that a scripted show might remove the feeling of control and agency from the overall experience.
“We have multiple crossover locations in both the live action show and game experience, so the show will showcase one area and perspective, but in the game experience you can examine optional story-telling and look around the entire location providing even more control and agency for players” he says, adding. “All in all, on top of being an innovative triple-A action experience, players will also have agency through determining the direction of the live action show.”
If it wasn’t enough that Remedy is trying to merge two entertainment formats, it is also ensuring you have some degree of control over the way they merge, as well. As you are no doubt aware by now, the entire Quantum Break experience is framed around a failed time travel experiment at River Port University, this is where “the hero, Jack Joyce, is caught in the blast of the failed experiment and gains the power to manipulate time… he is fighting to stop the end of time, and time is literally running out,” creative director Sam Lake enthuses. While the face of Max Payne sure does love to go over that pitch, we understand why; the bones of Quantum Break were actually formed during the development of Alan Wake many years back, as Lake attempted to include a sciencefiction twist into the supernatural thriller.
So while you’ll spend the majority of your time running around as Joyce (played by Shawn Ashmore), attempting to both stop time from permanently freezing and fighting against friend-turned-enemy Paul Serene (played by Aidan Gillan), you will actually take control of Serene at certain moments in the game. “You’ll play an act of the game [and] at the end of each act you’ll get to play a Junction Moment with the story’s villain Paul Serene,” details Puha, hinting towards the time-bending abilities of the main adversary.
The live action scenes bring fresh insight and perspective into Remedy’s larger narrative. As Serene, you’ll be able to make choices that affect the direction of the story – these Junction Moments are the lead-in to one of the 20 minute episodes, with alternative scenes recorded to ensure your choices are appropriately reflected throughout the game. One such example sees Serene having the option to either execute a young woman that witnessed one of his evil deeds; kill her and protestors will show up later in the game to rally against Monarch, the time-sucking corporation formed by Serene during his time-hopping adventures. Opt to blackmail her on the other hand, and you might see a scene where Joyce interacts with the witness directly. They are small alterations, of course; the story of Quantum Break has a fixed and finite ending that all players will see, but the choices you make throughout are designed to bring more agency to the experience than we had previously anticipated.
LIVE ACTION ASPIRATIONS
As we mentioned before, the quality of the show is much higher than you might expect from what you’re expecting from a game/TV hybrid – bringing in Hollywood talent will do that to a project. Where Quantum Break really succeeds though, is in how it manages to bridge its two components. The actors in the show reprise their roles in the game, and Remedy has worked hard to ensure there is as little disparity between the two. This is one of Quantum Break’s most impressive achievements and could do wonders to restoring the Xbox One’s reputation in the power-struggle between it and the PlayStation 4.
“Shawn Ashmore and Aiden Gillen are both, as is the rest of our cast, excellent at what they do. We can get their performance into the game with almost no loss in the nuances of their performances which has taken a lot of effort. So it’s really their entire performance that is in the game, and of course all that goes to waste if our story and dialogue is not up to scratch,” comments Puha as we question the impact the actors have had on the project. “I think we are delivering our best work ever with Quantum Break. Having great, believable actors is really important and we’re thrilled with the cast we’ve been able to assemble working with our partners at Microsoft… these bigger names bring along more recognition which hopefully encourages people who are less into video games to be curious about what Quantum Break is about.”
“What our technology allows us to do is imbue our characters with the personality and presence the actors bring to them in a way that games traditionally have struggled with,” continues Mikko Rautalahti, the story team manager and writer at Remedy. “Not just in providing characters that look like the actors who portray them, but in translating their performances to the digital characters you interact with. It’s my hope that this is something the audience recognises and connects with. This is an area of game technology that’s constantly progressing by leaps and bounds, and it’s exciting to be where we are with it.
Speaking with the studio, it’s easy to understand why the team is so overjoyed with the results. The push for one-for-one likeness was born from a disappointment with Alan Wake’s final quality, and it’s clear fans of Remedy and cinematic action game alike will be thrilled by the final product. “I’ll be frank: the facial animation in Alan Wake wasn’t what we hoped for,” says Rautalahti. “As a company that places a lot of importance on story-telling and characters, we made it a special priority to improve on that front. It has been an intense learning process for us, but I think the results speak for themselves.”
When it comes down to it, Quantum Break is a massive risk for both Microsoft and Remedy. But the more we see of the title, the more its promise excites us for the future of videogames. While the four episodes of the show are entirely optional – they can be skipped and viewed at a later date or avoided entirely – the context they bring to the experience can’t be understated, nor can their ability to make the entire Quantum Break package feel more fresh and exciting than anything else on the near horizon.
And that’s exactly what Quantum Break needs. Despite the game being content-complete, Remedy is still yet to put the game in the hands of the players or press. Its action looks as bombastic as you’d expect, though it doesn’t seem to be as awe-inspiring as Max Payne’s bullet-time infused action or Alan Wake’s light and shadow dynamic. Jack Joyce has the ability to freeze and manipulate time, which consequently makes him look like a more capable protagonist than any of Remedy’s previous protagonists. At its core, Quantum Break seems to rely more on cover-shooting convention than we were perhaps anticipating as we viewed a hands-off demo.
The fun of the game itself will largely come down to how well Jack’s suite of powers are implemented into combat. Elements such as Time Stop forms a localised sphere of frozen time; letting Jack fire bullets into the void, holding them in stasis before they explode out at the collapsing bubble causing massive damage to anybody caught in the blast. Time Shield deflects bullets by halting time in front of Jack, while Time Rush lets you freeze a firefight and quickly dash between cover and enemies at mind-bending speeds. While each of these powers is controlled by a cooldown timer – not to mention be upgraded throughout the adventure through collectable Chronon sources – it still all feels a little over-powered. Some Monarch enemies are also able to manipulate time, and it’ll likely be these encounters that bring the action to life.
In fact, bringing this action to life has been a struggle for Remedy. The process of freezing environments and enemy routines has brought with it a wealth of development problems that – along with re-castings, re-shoots, and the removal of Beth Wilder as a playable protagonist – are the likely cause of the delays to Quantum Break over the years. “The enemies are essentially dealing with a time manipulating super hero who is able to navigate through the battlefield in a split second and freeze time at will. That poses a unique challenge for creating a believable AI behaviour for anyone who has to face Jack in combat,” game director Mikael Kasurinen says, describing what sounds like a torturous development cycle. “Using the time powers combined with environmental hazards and surroundings, stuttering in time can lead to a multitude of complicated and dynamic situations, and the enemies need to cope with all of that through animations, voice acting and tactics. You can imagine how complicated it gets when all this functionality needs to be orchestrated into a combat scenario,” he adds, “involving for instance a crashing train stuttering back and forth in time. Getting all these mechanics finally working well together was incredible rewarding, especially when the end result is such a unique and mind-bending experience.”
A unique and mind-bending experience, that’s really the best way to describe Quantum Break. When it launches in April, for better or worse, it’s going to be the ultimate Remedy game. The culmination of twenty years of standing out from the crowd as a studio; the result of will and determination of a small group of developers that want to push the medium forward while cementing its own brand of style and flair to the action genre. Quantum Break might not be the success Microsoft needs it to be, but that’s okay, because this shooter from Remedy is daring to be different in a time of copycat blandness. Success or failure, Quantum Break is going to be one of the most complex and bizarre experiences to ever grace videogames, and you have to respect it – and Remedy – for trying something new in the next generation.