You can thrust yourself into danger to establish line of sight on an enemy and protect yourself with a shield while you open fire. It doesn't take long to develop a flow, to understand how to link one ability to the next by managing each move's cooldown timer. At the start of the game, you're imbued with the ability to manipulate time, which allows you to slow down combat, speed up Jack's movement, create shields that freeze bullets upon impact, or cast Time Blast bombs near unsuspecting enemies. Combat is the unequivocal star of the show here. Of course, Quantum Break is intended to be played rather than merely watched, but even if you skip its optional episodes, the best aspects of its gameplay are suppressed by frequent bouts of mundanity. From the goofy henchmen costumes with massive insignias to the repeated use of the same prop cars during a chase-from shot to shot-there are obvious flaws to contend with. There are a number of other, lesser-known actors who deliver great performances as well, which goes a long way to distract you from the show's shortcomings. Lance Reddick ( The Wire, John Wick) delivers a great performance as Martin Hatch, whose motivations are open to interpretation right up until the very end. Jack Joyce, the time-bending lead character played by Shawn Ashmore ( Fringe, X-Men), is one of a few characters played by well-known actors, and for the most part, each member's professional acting chops are put to good use. No one ever said having super powers was going to be easy. Now Playing: Quantum Break - Review Sorry, Jack. Quantum Break isn't the sort of experience that warrants a second playthrough, even though it confidently insists that it is.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Your choices can have an effect on facets of the show and game-characters interact in different ways, and some minor events play out differently-but by and large, this isn't your story to mold. But the disparate parts don't gel well together because your influence over some events creates expectations that fail to pan out in the bigger picture. Both aspects of Quantum Break offer things worth getting excited about: combat is often explosive and chaotic in just the right way, and the show does a decent job of establishing intrigue that fuels your investment in the story. There's no getting around it: blending a "TV show" and a game in one package is a risky move, and unfortunately, one that doesn't pay off here. The rest of the pitch is that-by making narrative decisions between chapters-you can influence the story, which involves time-travel, an evil corporation, and a bit of brotherly love. Between each of its five gameplay-based chapters, you have the opportunity to watch roughly 20-minute-long episodes, which are entirely optional but designed to offer insight into the antagonist's state of mind. It's one of the game's defining elements. Few games use live-action cutscenes as emphatically as Quantum Break.
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