Quantum Break: An ultimate experience that spans time

This article is written by White Feather Night Tea Party Nan Joe

Preface:

Time is one of the hottest topics in human history, whether it is literary works or scientific research, you can see his shadow, and the field of games is certainly no exception. Today, I recommend one of the best titles: Quantum Break, a game released in 2016 by Finnish game company Remedy in collaboration with Microsoft.

《Quantum Break》

Remedy has always been known for its excellent narrative and plump human design, and has produced such a prestigious work as "Alan Wake". "Quantum Break" also inherits these advantages, and because of the uniqueness of its design, a large number of live-action shooting clips are embedded in the game, so it is ridiculed by the majority of players as "more like watching American dramas than playing games". Today, I will take you into the world described in "Quantum Break" to experience an extreme experience that spans time.

Remedy

Compared with the "interactive movie" game represented by the "Detroit" trilogy, this work is more like a "movie-like" game. Because there are very few "QTE mechanisms" in this work, and although there is also the influence of "choice" on the "ending", more experience is linear.

Riverport City

The game's story unfolds from the perspective of Jack Joyce, who arrives in Riverport at the invitation of his old friend Paul Serling, but is caught up in a conspiracy about "time". The following author will conduct a detailed review from the perspective of its plot design, gameplay, and screen effects, without any spoilers, please feel free to watch.

Experience a life of ups and downs in the long river of time

In the above, the author mentioned Remedy's narrative ability, and this work is naturally not inferior. Many science fiction novels, movies, and games describe "time," but Quantum Break is unique in that it strikes a delicate balance between movies and games.

First, let the player experience the plot while playing to make their own choices, and then add the corresponding 20-minute live-action short film after each act. After combining these, it cleverly uses the causal closed-loop principle of time, so that every foreshadowing and key clue prop has played its role.

At the same time, each character is more perfect, it seems to be exquisite, even some supporting characters have left a deep impression, I believe that people who have played it must not forget them.

Impressive supporting characters

Although the overall rhythm of the game is compact and the plot arrangement is also very reasonable, because it involves many theories about "time", and is interspersed with different characters and different time points, it is difficult to grasp the entire plot if it is only used as a "fast food" game to pursue rapid clearance.

If you want to read the plot of this game, you need to pay attention to the large amount of textual information in the game. This material may be computer files, it may be a diary, and it may even be different in different timelines (the game itself only supports Chinese Traditional, which is not very friendly to players who have some difficulty reading).

Notebook from the future

Because the game narrative starts from the perspective of memory, and the player does not know the relevant background and setting at the time of the week, the first act is also filled with a large amount of textual information, which can easily make the player feel confused. The author suggests that players can not pursue full collection and full understanding when playing during the week, but just experience the basic plot and understand what is probably happening. In the second week, the documents are collected in its entirety and carefully pondered their relevance to the plot in order to fully understand what kind of story the producers present, and to experience the unique narrative brought about by the "flow of time".

The game's description of the file

The time to complete Quantum Break is about 10 hours. Because there are different branches of the plot, each choice has a different impact on the development of the plot, and these choices are superimposed and then further affect the plot development, and even determine the film behind the scenes, in order to fully understand the plot and have a complete experience, it is necessary to carry out multi-week experience. Readers are advised to experience at least two weeks of the program.

Is it an "American drama" or a "game"?

As mentioned above, Quantum Break is more like watching an American drama than a game when it comes to experience. But that's not to deny that it has a certain gameplay. Because it is a game that describes "time", it is naturally indispensable to the setting of superpowers. Remedy has made common time gameplay such as "time backtracking", "multiple time and space", "dodging bullets", "time pause" and other common time gameplay in the game, and with a relatively large number of weapons to enhance the playing experience during the battle. It's really interesting in the early stages, but in the later stages, with frequent battles and high repetition of enemy designs, the frequent stacking is slightly boring.

Time Soldier in Quantum Break

Then there is the fact that as a TPS game, its shooting feel is poor, there is almost no feeling of firing, the hit feedback is also very bad, even if the effect of using the controller to experience is not very good. On the contrary, some decryption and parkour elements are very well done, and the "time" element is used wonderfully to design interesting puzzles and parkour processes.

Indescribable graphics and eye-catching special effects

The screen of "Quantum Break" is 720p, which should be good in theory, but it feels difficult to define whether it is good or bad. Its overall picture, modeling textures, and shadow effects are ok, but after careful observation, it feels that the details are very mushy and the picture quality is very low. When playing, because it does not pay too much attention to detail, and the frame rate is quite stable, it is generally acceptable.

Although there are some problems in terms of picture quality, Remedy does not have any compromises in terms of special effects and sound effects, which can be said to be quite excellent. The various special effects such as "Ripples of Time", "Jumping Needle Explosion", "Shuttle Effect", "Time Stop" and so on are very cool. Some of the big scenes are also portrayed very wonderfully, after the time is broken, the whole time has fallen into a stop, only the protagonist can act, portraying a sense of science fiction and stagnation. The same is true for sound effects, where the sound effect changes after various effects such as "ripples of time" are very subtle.

Play around with time

Epilogue:

"Quantum Break" is a work worth playing in all aspects, and the thinking about "time" is relatively good in various works, and some of its basic theories can even find prototypes in modern physics and various science fiction novels. Readers who like to watch American dramas and science fiction novels can start an experience. Because its plot is more complex, everyone's views are different, and to prevent spoilers from destroying the player's play experience, the author does not elaborate here, but readers who have an in-depth interpretation of this work are welcome to comment in the message area below.

Finally, I end with a favorite poem in "The Three-Body Problem", which is the ultimate romance that gives time and is also a unique romance for science fiction lovers.

I saw my love,

I flew to her side

I took out the gift for her

It was a small piece of solidified time

There are beautiful stripes on the time

It feels as soft to the touch as the mud of a shallow sea

She painted her time all over her body

Then pull me up and fly to the edge of existence

This is spiritual flight

The stars in our eyes are like ghosts

We are also like ghosts in the eyes of the stars