Time travel is one of the biggest tropes in all of science fiction; countless movies, comics, shows and novels are based around the subject. But gaming’s left time travel alone for the most part; you’d be hard pressed to find many games about the topic, let alone good games. Luckily, the upcoming Microsoft exclusive Quantum Break is set to fix that.
Quantum Break is about a time travel experiment gone wrong, as the experiment creates a fracture in time that is leading to the end of time as we know it. It’s up to our protagonist, Jack Joyce, to try and fix time as well as battle an evil company who also has their own plans on how to fix the fracture.
That’s some pretty heavy stuff and the story doesn’t disappoint. The story is split up between Jack’s adventures which are told in-game and a separate television series that shows the events of the game go beyond just Jack. It makes for an incredibly interesting and deep story telling experience, that I’ve never seen in gaming before. The cast which includes Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) as Jack Joyce and Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones) as the game’s main villain, Paul Serene, brings great performances that help the game out immensely.
While Quantum Break could’ve easily rode on the coat tails of it’s story like The Last of Us or any of Telltales’s games, the gameplay is a ton of fun. Early on in the game Jack receives time based super powers, these powers make Quantum Break much more than your average third person shooter. There are several powers in the game that include freezing enemies in their tracks, forming a shield that will protect you from enemy gunfire and a dodge that quickly gets you away from enemies. You’ll have to learn how to use these powers effectively to stay alive, as the game is designed around these powers and enemies will overrun you if you treat Quantum Break as if it were Gears of War.
Quantum Break is a breath of fresh air from all of the free roam and multiplayer oriented AAA games that we’ve been getting for the past couple years. To get my full opinion on Quantum Break make sure to come back tomorrow as my review hits TiCGN at midnight!
Quantum Break is coming out on Xbox One and Windows 10 on April 5.
