Quantum Break

Quantum Break
File:Quantum Break cover.jpg Promotional cover of Quantum Break
Developer(s)	Remedy Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Studios
Director(s)	Sam Lake Mikael Kasurinen
Producer(s)	Miloš Jeřábek
Designer(s)	Kyle Rowley
Programmer(s)	Otto Kivling
Artist(s)	Janne Pulkkinen
Writer(s)	Tyler Burton Smith Mikko Rautalahti
Composer(s)	Petri Alanko John Kaefer
Platforms	Microsoft Windows Xbox One
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Quantum Break is an action-adventure science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios, The game was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One on 5 April 2016. Directed by Sam Lake and Mikael Kasurinen, the game features Jack Joyce, the main protagonist, trying to stop Paul Serene, a close friend and Monarch Solutions CEO, from enforcing the End of Time after a failed time-machine experiment, which gives Jack time manipulation powers.

Quantum Break is mostly a third-person shooter, but includes elements of a platform game in less action-oriented segments, and "junction points" that interact with the game's outcome, much like a gamebook, with episodes of an integrated live-action television show, featuring the actual actors of the characters, interacting with the player's choices, displaying the outcome of the choices made.

Upon release, the Xbox One version received positive reviews; critics praised the game's dramatic yet thrilling story and campaign, visuals, action sequences, characterization, and time manipulation features, but criticized the functionality of the time powers. The PC version received mixed reviews for its technical deficiencies.

Gameplay

Quantum Break is an action-adventure third-person shooter where players play as Jack Joyce, the main protagonist with time manipulation powers in a world where time stutters, making everything freeze except Joyce. Players can use a variety of firearms, as well as their time-manipulating powers to defeat enemies in the game. Joyce can stop time temporarily, allowing him to escape from attacks or freeze enemies, unleash a "Time Blast", which is an offensive projectile, and reverse the direction of bullets. He can also interact with the environments, creating environmental effects that would harm hostile characters. He can also utilize his "Time Rush" ability, which allows him to spawn right next to an enemy to perform an immediate melee takedown. Alternatively, he can speed up the time as well and swap between covers to diversify attention from unaware enemies. As for defensive abilities, Joyce can protect himself from attacks by deploying a "Time Shield", which can deflect bullets, performing "Time Dodge", which allows him to dash quickly to evade from attacks or simply hiding behind cover.

There are also less action-oriented segments in the game, where players have to solve environmental puzzles while progressing through the game like a 3D platformer. With time stuttering and collapsing, objects may get trapped in a time loop. This causes them to become environmental hazards and enter an unstable state which is constantly shifting, and hence creates dangerous situations for players, such as the objects repeatedly smashing into a platform. These objects become obstacles that block the player's way, and can be overcome by slowing down or stopping time, so that Joyce can escape from these objects and progress without getting hurt. Joyce can also call help by reviving frozen non-playable characters.

The gameplay is split into acts. After playing through an act of the game as Jack Joyce, players take control of Paul Serene for a pivotal concurrent decision that impacts the plot, before an episode of the digital show will play. In the game, the video game portion will tell the story of the protagonists while the show will tell the story of the antagonists. Players can make choices as the antagonist in the beginning of each episode of the TV show, also known as "the junction points". These decisions would influence the state of the game.

Synopsis

Overview

Quantum Break is set at and around Riverport, where, due to miscalculations by Paul Serene, a time travel experiment goes wrong. Doused in chronon radiation, the material that makes time travel possible, protagonist Jack Joyce and antagonist Paul Serene are granted time-based abilities; for example, both can freeze time and move at higher speeds, whilst a higher dose of chronons means Serene can see into the future to decide which choices to make in the present. Additionally, the collapse of the machine damages the structure of time, causing a "fracture" that means it sporadically freezes for all without time-travel abilities or the correct equipment. Joyce and his ally, Beth Wilder are pursued by Monarch Solutions, a corporation founded by Serene.

Additionally, the rules of the arc enforce that time cannot be changed through traveller actions as per Novikov self-consistency principle; Paul Serene gives an example of remembering finding a dead vagrant along with Jack Joyce, and heads to the location of his death, only to startle him and accidentally cause the fall that killed him. Additionally, another enforced rule is that travellers can only move between machines located in different times using the relevant core: as such, it is impossible for the characters to travel back before the first power-up of the core, nor would they be able to travel between different time machines as the cores would be different.

Plot

See also: List of Quantum Break episodes

Agreeing to help his best-friend Paul Serene with a demonstration, Jack Joyce learns Paul has been expanding on the physics work of his estranged brother, William, and built a time machine that works using "chronon particles". Paul activates the machine, only for it to jam shut and break as William appears. Will demands Jack and Paul stop their actions, else "time will break". The machine becomes unstable and douses Jack and Paul in chronon radiation that give them time-based powers. After Monarch Solutions soldiers appear, and steal the time machine's core, Jack and Will meet an older Paul Serene. Claiming to have seen the end of time, Paul refuses Will's suggestions of fixing the fracture, claiming time cannot be changed. Paul has the building detonated, causing Will to seemingly be killed by falling debris. Jack is knocked unconscious and captured by Monarch.

Escaping Monarch during a stutter, Jack rescues either Nick or Amy, who agrees to help Jack. Working off a clue with Beth Wilder, a friend of Will's working as double agent inside Monarch, Jack heads to the abandoned Bradbury Swimming Pool to find that Will built his own time machine and a counter-measure to fix the fracture, called the Chronon Field Regulator (CFR), but the time machine is inoperable. Beth suggests they kidnap Dr. Sofia Amaral, Paul's head of chronon research. Learning she will be attending a Monarch gala, Jack surrenders to Monarch, and learns that Paul was accidentally sent to the end of time in the future, only escaping by traveling in Will's machine back to its first activation in 1999. Escaping through the Monarch labs Jack and Beth pull Amaral out of the path of a hacked drone before it explodes. Beth escapes by sea with Amaral while Jack steals Serene's car.

Serene, revealed to be dying from "chronon syndrome", lashes out at Hatch as Amaral was the only one capable of administering his treatment. Now paranoid, Serene places all of his trust in either Amaral, or trusts Hatch, who claims that Amaral left with Jack willingly. Serene recognizes Beth from security footage— she was also at the end of time, and attempted to kill Serene.

Taking Amaral to the Bradbury Pool, Jack and Beth force her to help repair the time machine. With Will's documents noting the CFR disappeared in 2010, Jack and Beth plot to head to 2010 and steal it, closing a causal loop. Beth steps into the machine as Amaral sabotages the computer and alerts Monarch. Leaving Amaral with Nick/Amy, Jack heads to 2010 and finds Beth, much older and disturbed. Beth explains Amaral sent her to the end of time, where she met the younger Serene. Failing to kill Paul, Beth followed him back to the first activation in 1999 and stopped him from murdering Will. After directing Will to create the CFR, Beth waited eleven years for Jack to arrive in 2010.

Beth and Paul reach Will's workshop and find the CFR, but Serene corners Beth and shoots her when she refuses to co-operate. The CFR is accidentally activated, causing a chronon burst; the exposure throws Jack back to 2016, and causes Serene's chronon syndrome. Beth shuts off the CFR, but is executed by Serene while Jack can only watch through time.

Increasingly paranoid and ill, Serene is informed that, despite his lab being destroyed by Hatch, one damaged treatment has been recovered. Paul either decides to take it and buy time for himself and his plan, or succumb to paranoia and illness. As stutters become near constant, Jack fights through the Monarch HQ with the guidance of Fiona Miller or Charlie Wincott. Reaching Serene's lab, Jack finds either Liam Burke, who is intent on stopping him, or Wincott. Acquiring the CFR, Jack learns Serene was using it to power a "lifeboat", a small bunker where researchers could devise a solution to the end of time while protected from it. Unable to work the CFR, Jack uses Monarch's time machine (equipped with the stolen university core) to travel back to its first activation: the night of Will's death.

Rushing through the university, Jack narrowly rescues Will from the falling debris. Will warns Jack he cannot simply repair the fracture then and there, as it would erase key future events and risk a time paradox. Passing a frozen Beth during a stutter, Jack reaches to unfreeze her, but hesitates and leaves. Reaching the Bradbury Pool, Jack and Will travel forward in time, only to find Serene and Monarch waiting for them. Serene is intent on either retrieving the CFR or destroying it. Jack fights Serene, killing him. Hooking the CFR into his time machine, Will asks Jack to jumpstart it with chronon energy, only for the radiation to revive Serene as a shifter. Before Paul can attack, the CFR activates and blasts the area with chronons, fixing the tear and vaporizing Paul. As Will examines the CFR, burnt out from the blast, Jack has a vision of his future self traveling to the end of time, and begins exhibiting symptoms of chronon syndrome.

In a flash forward, Jack is shown approaching the frozen Beth back at the University, whispering he'll come back for her. An epilogue shows Jack leaving his interview and is approached by Hatch, who explains everything was simply blamed on Serene, and offers Jack a place at the renewed Monarch; Jack is shown seeing a split pathway similarly to Paul, ending before he makes a decision.

Cast

The game's cast of actors was revealed at the Gamescom of 2015.

• Shawn Ashmore as Jack Joyce, the primary protagonist and player character.
• Dominic Monaghan as William Joyce, Jack's estranged brother and physicist.
• Courtney Hope as Beth Wilder, a Monarch double agent whom Will trusts and Jack befriends.
• Aidan Gillen as Paul Serene, Jack's former best-friend, the plot's primary antagonist, and the mastermind behind Monarch Solutions.
• Lance Reddick as Martin Hatch, Serene's second-in-command who acts as the CEO and face of Monarch.
• Jacqueline Pinol as Sofia Amaral, one of Serene's advisors who acts as his doctor.
• Marshall Allman as Charlie Wincott, Monarch's head of surveillance and central character to the episodes.
• Patrick Heusinger as Liam Burke, one of Monarch's lead security staff, central character to the episodes, and recurring game character.
• Mimi Michaels as Fiona Miller, a Monarch employee and close friend of Charlie Wincott, and central character to the episodes.
• Amelia Rose Blaire as Amy Ferrero, the lead protester who, depending on Serene's actions, is either a supporting character or is killed following the first act.
• Sean Durrie as Nick Marsters, the taxi driver from the introduction. Should Ferraro die due to Serene's choices, Nick fills her supporting role in the story.
• Brooke Nevin as Emily Burke, Liam Burke's pregnant wife and a recurring show character.
• Jeannie Bolet as Clarice Ogawa, one of Serene's advisors and part narrator of the plot. Bolet lent her likeness to the character, who was voiced by Jules de Jongh.
• Matt Orlando as Brenner

Development

Quantum Break was revealed with a teaser trailer during the Xbox One reveal event on 21 May 2013. While developing the game, developers Remedy Entertainment consulted a scientist lecturer who had worked at CERN who taught them how to write the plot in such a way that it adhered to current theoretical physics. The game was initially scheduled for release in 2014 but was subsequently delayed until 2015. It was further delayed to 2016 so as to make the final product more "polished" while not clashing with other Microsoft exclusives scheduled to be released in late 2015. Remedy has created a brand new engine to power Quantum Break called the "Northlight Engine". The game was released on 5 April 2016.

In February 2016, it was announced that Quantum Break would be released on PC exclusively for Windows 10 via Windows Store and would require DirectX 12.

On 21 February 2016, Remedy confirmed that the game had been declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for duplication and release.

Soundtrack

Petri Alanko returned to compose the soundtrack, using artificial instruments such as Roland synthesizers. Similarly, the game saw an official release of its soundtrack, as well as the appearance of some licensed tracks at the end of levels. John Kaefer composed the live-action segments of the game.

Quantum Break - Original Game Soundtrack
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Meeting an Old Friend"	2:35
2.	"Campus"	2:26
3.	"Suite for Time and Machines"	6:23
4.	"Don't Stand In My Way"	1:43
5.	"Remote Warning"	2:56
6.	"Disappearance"	4:37
7.	"Dodging Bullets"	3:29
8.	"Still Waters (Run Cold and Deep)"	3:14
9.	"You See Me in My Dreams"	2:48
10.	"Beth"	3:30
11.	"I Kept Waiting"	2:42
12.	"Goodbye... Again"	2:45
13.	"Damaged, Together"	2:55
14.	"Doubt, Despair, Hope"	2:33
15.	"A Whisper"	4:36

Digital series

A Quantum Break live-action series that is included in the game was produced by Lifeboat Productions and Microsoft. The pitch is that "The game is about the heroes and the show is about the villains". Remedy has stated that "how you play the game impacts the show, and the show informs how you play the game." At the end of each game episode the players are presented with a choice, that affects the events in both the game and the show. The cast for the TV series includes Shawn Ashmore, Aidan Gillen and Courtney Hope who play the three main characters Jack Joyce, Paul Serene and Beth Wilder respectively. The series consists of four episodes, that are about 22 minutes each. In order for players to get the whole story of the game, players are encouraged to watch the series.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 8.5/10 EGM 7.5/10 Game Informer 8.5/10 Game Revolution GameSpot 6/10 GamesRadar Giant Bomb IGN 8/10 PC Gamer (US) 70/100 Polygon 8.5/10 VideoGamer.com 8/10

Quantum Break received positive reviews on Xbox One, but mixed reviews on PC, according to aggregating review website Metacritic. Tristan Oglivie of IGN stated that "Quantum Break is an artistically distinct shooter, with a compelling and malleable plot and excellent performances from its main players in both their digital and live-action forms. While I wish more thought had gone into maintaining the thrill of discovering its time-twisting powers from start to finish, it ultimately didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying Quantum Break's 10-hour campaign, two times over." Mike Fahey of Kotaku described the game's heavy-handed product placement as off-putting, and as making it an "extended play advertisement for Microsoft products".

Quantum Break was the best-selling retail game in its first week of release in the UK, outselling competitor Dirt Rally by 139 sales. It was also the best-selling original property released by Microsoft since the release of Xbox One, outselling games like Sunset Overdrive, Ori and the Blind Forest and Ryse: Son of Rome.

The PC version was poorly received due to numerous performance and stability issues most especially on Nvidia GPUs, along with restrictions imposed by the Universal Windows Platform keeping users from resorting to third-party workarounds.

External links

• Quantum Break at IMDb