Xbox fans have always had to hear how the PlayStation has better story driven games like The Last of Us and Heavy Rain, and quite frankly the Xbox never really had anything that could go up against them until now. Enter Quantum Break, great gameplay coupled with a gripping story that will have you coming back for more.
Quantum Break puts you in the shoes of Jack Joyce after a science experiment gone wrong that left him with the ability to manipulate time. He must uncover the dark secret behind the Monarch Corporation and its hidden agenda in order to save the world before time ends. What is unique about Quantum Break’s Narrative is that after each act you come to a junction where you must choose one of two options which affects the remainder of the game, the entire story changes based on your decision after each act. What’s even more unique is that the narrative is continued through a live action TV series with an episode after each act that changes depending on the choices you have made in the game.
While I feel this is a brilliant way to go about the storytelling, Microsoft made one massive blunder by not including the episodes in the game. Regardless of whether you buy the game physically or online you need to either stream each episode or download the 75GB episode pack. This is where the game’s biggest problem comes in, at least for those of us living in India. 45GB for the base game plus another 75GB of download or stream data for the episodes will ruin anyone’s FUP, making enjoying the game an expensive proposition. I couldn’t stream the episode without stuttering on a 100mbps connection which leads me to believe most gamers will have to download them to have any chance of enjoying them. While the live action TV series is amazing I feel including additional discs with the episodes would have been the way to go as this current method will encourage most people to just skip the episodes, which I feel will hurt the overall Quantum Break experience.
In terms of gameplay the third person view makes for some awkward manoeuvring and camera angles more often than I’d like but the time manipulation gameplay more than makes up for it with some amazing abilities giving you tons of ways to approach the game. From creating a time shield to capturing enemies in time bubbles and dashing across while you slow down time, the abilities in Quantum Break and their visual effects make it an amazing experience. 2016’s games have been accused of dropping visual fidelity for performance but Quantum Break looks pretty amazing given I played it on the console with cutscenes and character models made extremely well.
Quantum Break is the game the Xbox One has been waiting for, whether or not it is enough to bridge the massive gap in sales is anyone’s best guess but as a game it is one hell of an experience. Users will no doubt find it inconvenient to watch the episodes of the TV series, but trust me when I say it only makes the game better; I just wish Microsoft had gone about it in a better way. Despite its issues Quantum Break is a must have.
