It’s an experiment in cross-media production, but is Quantum Break really the game to convince us that the blending of videogame and live-action show is a route worth investigating?
There’s a lot riding on Quantum Break’s success, with both the publisher and developer desperate to see it reach a wide audience – albeit for different reasons. Microsoft is keen to add it to its presently limited Xbox One ‘system seller’ catalogue, while remedy surely understands the risk of the cross-medium approach.
You see, Quantum Break is not ‘just’ a game. It’s also a live-action series, these two halves coming together to create what is hopefully a successful hybrid of entertainment formats. Unlike the disaster that mostly befell Defiance, however, the live-action component here is provided on the disc – so you can consume everything at your own pace, rather than have to wait for the tv schedule to meet your own.
The structure, then, sees you play a section of the game, then watch an episode of the show, followed by more of the game. Repeat until finished. At end of each gameplay portion you are asked to make what is described as a ‘difficult’ decision, the outcome of which is revealed when you watch the show – meaning that you might view different events than your friends. What you see in the show then goes on to inform the next game sequence and so you might play out different events than your friends.
Trying to tie together two forms that are so different demands an extremely deft touch, requiring not only expert design but also an incredible understanding of how both games and live-action work. One is a passive medium, the other is interactive. They are not natural bedfellows. Relying even more heavily on longer passive story scenes doesn’t immediately lead us to believe that Quantum Break represents a maturation in videogames’ ability to ‘do’ narrative. It’s up to remedy to prove us wrong.
What does seem like a genuine maturation is the technology driving Quantum Break, the visual impact of the game in motion being a joy to behold. This impressive aesthetic is thanks primarily to the rips in time that drive the plot forwards and wreak havoc across the fictional US city of Riverport.
These breakdowns in time are not consistent, some objects more dramatically affected by them than others, meaning one car might be frozen in time while another is being violently thrown in and out of it, moving forwards and backwards unpredictably and at dangerous speeds. It’s an impressive spectacle.
Protagonist Jack Joyce is aware of these time ripples, while most other people have no idea that they even exist. This allows him to walk around in real time within them, being careful to avoid their dangers and take advantage of the new paths they open up. That violently moving car, for example, creates an obstacle requiring platform-like timing skills to navigate past.
Indeed, platforming seems to represent a significant amount of Quantum Break’s interactive elements. In a recent demo we watched a cargo ship collide with a suspension bridge that had not been properly raised to let it pass underneath, time stopping as these two megastructures destroyed each other. As bits of disintegrating girder and hull become paused in mid-air, Jack must work quickly to clamber over the debris before time switches back to normal and turns him into a casualty of the collision.
Watching him move, shimmy and duck under these dangers reminds us very much of the Uncharted series, albeit with a more overt sci-fi edge. It’ll be interesting to see whether this approach is expanded upon as you go deeper into the game, or whether it’s simply used as a means to impart some form of interaction on to these blockbuster moments.
The other major gameplay element is combat, with Jack able to use limited time-distorting abilities to his advantage. A localised suspension of time seems to be the most effective of these, with single enemies able to be paused for a short while. You can use this as a means of crowd control, suspending those targets you’ve deemed most threatening while taking out the simple grunts. Once the playing field has been evened, you can concentrate on the tougher enemy in isolation.
Despite the ability to warp time, sticking behind cover and practising your aim with a gun is the best way to deal with aggressors. Those combat moments we’ve seen so far have taken place in areas featuring plenty of concrete pillars, crates and lowwalls that are handy for protecting yourself in much the same way as something like Gears of War, although with far less of the ‘dude bro’ attitude. One handy technique seems to be using time control when moving between cover points, leaving your foes firing at one car, while you flank and kill them from behind another.
Certain elite enemy types also experience these time disruptions, producing situations in which you must think about the danger both they and the environment present in unison. While inside time ripples Jack can use additional powers to directly harm his foes, including throwing large objects such as cars straight into their face. Whether or not this ability is limited to specific items placed deliberately for bespoke purposes in the world, or can be achieved with anything, is not yet known. Hopefully there will be at least a small degree of choice when it comes to you deciding how best to use the power.
It is choice, as a wider concept, that will determine Quantum Break’s relevance as an experiment in crossmedia production. The wider idea here sounds great on paper, but its success will all come down to how well it’s presented and how in control of events players actually feel. Providing choices that seem and become worthwhile is key to generating positive sensations of inclusion, as anything else will simply make us feel as though we’re a passive spectator... especially during those live action scenes.
FORMAT: Xbox One
PUBLISHER: Microsoft
DEVELOPER: Remedy Entertainment
RELEASED: Spring 2015
ONLINE: No