cmdonovann (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cmdonovann) wrote2023-09-26 09:07 pm
cmdonovann) wrote2023-09-26 09:07 pm
Entry tags:
Quantum Break Manifesto: Why This Apparently Mediocre Game From 2016 Is Worth Your Time
This was originally posted to ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fanifesto here.
First things first. Quantum Break: What The Hell Is It?
Well, it's a video game. If you've heard of Alan Wake (2013) or Control (2019), you're already familiar with Remedy Entertainment. They also made Quantum Break, and while it's not the same genre of weird as their other, more popular titles, it's got some weirdness going for it that I really enjoy.
So what's the appeal? To me, it's the combo of characters who are all flawed in various ways, a focus on relationships and interactions between those characters, and the epic drama of closed loop time travel wherein nothing can be changed and no tragedy can be prevented because everything that's going to happen has, for all intents and purposes, already happened.
I've already written a couple of posts on Dreamwidth about Quantum Break, so you can always check those out if you want a straight-up elevator pitch for why this game is good. But right now, I wanna talk about why this game is worth your time. I wanna talk about the parts of it that I've invested my time into. Fair warning, I'm gonna say some spoiler-y things in here.
In case you don't want to go look at Wikipedia (or my other posts), here's a quick summary of the game's inciting action and plot. The game's protagonist, Jack Joyce, returns to his hometown for the first time in several years after fleeing a strained relationship with his physicist older brother William. Why's he back in town? His best friend (and soon-to-be antagonist), Paul Serene, has asked for his help with an urgent "project." The project turns out to be a time machine, based on the earlier work of Jack's brother Will, and Paul needs to prove that the machine works ASAP or else the project will lose its funding. Jack agrees to help Paul test it, and in the process, the machine malfunctions and explodes, creating a fracture in the fabric of time that, if left unfixed, will eventually lead to the breakdown of time entirely and cause the end of the world. Paul, after some other fucked up shit happens, has his own ideas about how to deal with this. Jack disagrees. Herein lies the plot: with Paul on one side of the conflict and Jack on the other, both doing what they think is best in order to prevent the end of time itself.
So why is it worth your time to actually play Quantum Break? After all, if the story always ends the same way because of how its time travel mechanics work, can't you just watch one playthrough and be done with it?
Hm, yes and no. If you've played any other Remedy games, you know about their penchant for hiding fun and interesting story information in strange places. In Alan Wake, you can find missing story pages that give you more information about the story. In Control, you can find all kinds of internal communications and documents from the FBC that give you information about the world and the people in it. Some of this information is directly relevant to the story, and some of it is just flavor, but it's still fun!
Quantum Break has tons of stuff like this. While exploring the game, you'll find things like posters, books, letters, emails, files, and the like. Some of these are just flavor, like the event posters you'll find outside Riverport University at the beginning of the game. Some are easter eggs, like the Night Springs videos that allude to the Alan Wake sequel which was still early in development at the time of Quantum Break's release. Still others are purely for fun, like the email from one Monarch employee to another, ranting about a screenplay called "Time Knife" that he's written. And others, of course, provide actual story information and background for characters and their motivations. There's a letter that you can completely skip over near the end of the game (and many people do!) which explains the motivations of a main antagonist. There are journals and emails from the protagonist's brother that explain what happened when he first tested his time machine. There's a poster for a bad emo band that the protagonist and antagonist were in together in their twenties! And most playthroughs don't show all of these. They're absolutely worth your time.
Then, there's the junctions. After each act of gameplay as the protagonist, you get a chance to briefly play as the antagonist and reach a "junction" where you make a choice that affects the story. There are four junctions, and thus, four places where the story can potentially diverge (before, of course, ending in the same place regardless; this is closed loop time travel, after all). This means that theoretically, there's something like 16 different sets of events that you can see depending on what you do. There are certain characters who live or die, or who die in one way versus another; there are changes in dialogue, changes in just how bad certain characters can get. I've been meaning to document all the diverging timelines for years, but haven't had the chance yet, so you'll just have to try them yourself.
All of this means that no matter what characters you latch onto like a baby duckling, there's choices you can make and information you can find to dive deeper into those characters and see everything they have to offer. Do you love the antagonist? You can make him make all the right choices and try his damndest to do what's right; you can also make him make all the wrong choices and grin and kick your feet around like a schoolgirl as he gets worse and worse and descends into paranoia and madness. Do you like the protagonist? You're in luck, there's all kinds of dumb shit you can find out about him (see above: his terrible emo band poster) as you play, especially if you make different choices so that he meets and works with different people. Watching how he bounces off of one character versus another is very interesting.
So! If you've been looking at my other Quantum Break posts and thinking "wow, I think I'd like to play that game, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth my time and/or money yet" then here's your excuse! There's so much to dig into in this game, and while Let's Plays and walkthroughs are great, they're not quite a replacement for playing it yourself, if you can!
In short: Quantum Break is a good game! You should play it!
fanifesto here.First things first. Quantum Break: What The Hell Is It?
Well, it's a video game. If you've heard of Alan Wake (2013) or Control (2019), you're already familiar with Remedy Entertainment. They also made Quantum Break, and while it's not the same genre of weird as their other, more popular titles, it's got some weirdness going for it that I really enjoy.
So what's the appeal? To me, it's the combo of characters who are all flawed in various ways, a focus on relationships and interactions between those characters, and the epic drama of closed loop time travel wherein nothing can be changed and no tragedy can be prevented because everything that's going to happen has, for all intents and purposes, already happened.
I've already written a couple of posts on Dreamwidth about Quantum Break, so you can always check those out if you want a straight-up elevator pitch for why this game is good. But right now, I wanna talk about why this game is worth your time. I wanna talk about the parts of it that I've invested my time into. Fair warning, I'm gonna say some spoiler-y things in here.
In case you don't want to go look at Wikipedia (or my other posts), here's a quick summary of the game's inciting action and plot. The game's protagonist, Jack Joyce, returns to his hometown for the first time in several years after fleeing a strained relationship with his physicist older brother William. Why's he back in town? His best friend (and soon-to-be antagonist), Paul Serene, has asked for his help with an urgent "project." The project turns out to be a time machine, based on the earlier work of Jack's brother Will, and Paul needs to prove that the machine works ASAP or else the project will lose its funding. Jack agrees to help Paul test it, and in the process, the machine malfunctions and explodes, creating a fracture in the fabric of time that, if left unfixed, will eventually lead to the breakdown of time entirely and cause the end of the world. Paul, after some other fucked up shit happens, has his own ideas about how to deal with this. Jack disagrees. Herein lies the plot: with Paul on one side of the conflict and Jack on the other, both doing what they think is best in order to prevent the end of time itself.
So why is it worth your time to actually play Quantum Break? After all, if the story always ends the same way because of how its time travel mechanics work, can't you just watch one playthrough and be done with it?
Hm, yes and no. If you've played any other Remedy games, you know about their penchant for hiding fun and interesting story information in strange places. In Alan Wake, you can find missing story pages that give you more information about the story. In Control, you can find all kinds of internal communications and documents from the FBC that give you information about the world and the people in it. Some of this information is directly relevant to the story, and some of it is just flavor, but it's still fun!
Quantum Break has tons of stuff like this. While exploring the game, you'll find things like posters, books, letters, emails, files, and the like. Some of these are just flavor, like the event posters you'll find outside Riverport University at the beginning of the game. Some are easter eggs, like the Night Springs videos that allude to the Alan Wake sequel which was still early in development at the time of Quantum Break's release. Still others are purely for fun, like the email from one Monarch employee to another, ranting about a screenplay called "Time Knife" that he's written. And others, of course, provide actual story information and background for characters and their motivations. There's a letter that you can completely skip over near the end of the game (and many people do!) which explains the motivations of a main antagonist. There are journals and emails from the protagonist's brother that explain what happened when he first tested his time machine. There's a poster for a bad emo band that the protagonist and antagonist were in together in their twenties! And most playthroughs don't show all of these. They're absolutely worth your time.
Then, there's the junctions. After each act of gameplay as the protagonist, you get a chance to briefly play as the antagonist and reach a "junction" where you make a choice that affects the story. There are four junctions, and thus, four places where the story can potentially diverge (before, of course, ending in the same place regardless; this is closed loop time travel, after all). This means that theoretically, there's something like 16 different sets of events that you can see depending on what you do. There are certain characters who live or die, or who die in one way versus another; there are changes in dialogue, changes in just how bad certain characters can get. I've been meaning to document all the diverging timelines for years, but haven't had the chance yet, so you'll just have to try them yourself.
All of this means that no matter what characters you latch onto like a baby duckling, there's choices you can make and information you can find to dive deeper into those characters and see everything they have to offer. Do you love the antagonist? You can make him make all the right choices and try his damndest to do what's right; you can also make him make all the wrong choices and grin and kick your feet around like a schoolgirl as he gets worse and worse and descends into paranoia and madness. Do you like the protagonist? You're in luck, there's all kinds of dumb shit you can find out about him (see above: his terrible emo band poster) as you play, especially if you make different choices so that he meets and works with different people. Watching how he bounces off of one character versus another is very interesting.
So! If you've been looking at my other Quantum Break posts and thinking "wow, I think I'd like to play that game, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth my time and/or money yet" then here's your excuse! There's so much to dig into in this game, and while Let's Plays and walkthroughs are great, they're not quite a replacement for playing it yourself, if you can!
In short: Quantum Break is a good game! You should play it!