Quantum Break Review - An Ambitious But Ultimately Exhausting Experience
There's a real heart to what Remedy have created here; a labour of love in everything from the copious uses of in-world terminology thrown around regardless of your ability to keep up, to the real-world set design that you can tell a team of creatives had an absolute blast decking out every last inch of. Even extras are done up in costumes retrofitted with logos and symbology to remind you of the game's fiction, and every part of the TV show comes together surprisingly well, its drama being replete with car chases, hand-to-hand action sequences and hefty amounts of character expansion. Seriously, if Quantum Break launched on Netflix, it'd be a solid, if campy, The Blacklist-style action thriller, complete with Lance Reddick.
It must be said though, this additional stuff being designed to 'fill in the blanks' as it were, focusses on characters that are mostly ancillary to the overall experience, and without getting spoilery, it's a real shame that once the live-action and game worlds collide in the fifth act, certain people I'd grown attached to weren't dealt with in a satisfying manner. In fact, I'd make the case that the two most interesting characters in the entirety of Quantum Break's narrative play second fiddle to the cast that's heading up the marketing materials.
As you might have guessed by me focussing on what works outside of the game, the biggest problem comes in matching this level of quality when you're in control, as there's a degree of confidence in the narrative delivery behind the camera that just doesn't come through when things go digital. For a start, dialogue is badly delivered across the board, save for Lance Reddick's Martin Hatch, and 'hero' Jack Joyce (which you never buy for a second that Ashmore is a gun-toting badass) is a total blank slate, but not in the way you can project yourself onto; more that other characters refer to him as having purpose, intent and a reputation, yet we know or see nothing of the sort.
It wasn't until a second playthrough I discovered you can find a collectible that hints at his backstory, but if you miss that - and it is easy to miss - you'll go the entire game wondering why he can handle himself with a gun, why he's not remotely phased by freakin' time travel and why after certain cataclysmic events, he's not losing his mind just a teeny tiny bit. Next to him is Monaghan's William Joyce, and boy have you not heard an English actor fudge up an American accent so hilariously in quite some time. You have to hand it to the guy for trying his best 'neurotic-scientist-who-didn't-want-any-of-this-to-happen' shtick, but he sounds like Mordin Solus doing his best Boston detective impersonation after drunkenly watching a season of The Wire.
The gunplay though? Remedy's bread n' butter that eventually took a backseat to Alan Wake's increasingly scripted walking sequences is back again. Taking out enemies is snappy, responsive and favours more than a little auto-assist targeting on its default setting. For the most part it's phenomenal... the handful of times you get to take part, that is.
Next up, how Remedy combined what they learned from Max Payne and Alan Wake to form one of the best-playing third-person shooters in years. There's just not enough of it...