Quantum Break. Or how to break time and brain.

Most people believe that time is a river that always flows in one direction. But I saw the true face of time, and I can assure you that they are mistaken.

Prince Dastan. Prince of Persia Games series

Great 2016. He then came out incredibly fruitful in many cool games, so much so that even some worthy AAA Taytla remained in the shade and did not receive due attention. Among them was Quantum Break, a new brainchild from the authors of Max Payne and Alan Wake . I played it only after 3 years and I can confidently say that this is one of the best games of the past decade. Although the release, and during the development of the players, had questions for the game, but the main root of the problems was the marketing and production company from the outside Microsoft. The release of the declared exclusive for the console on the PC, and in the worship of Windows Store, the price tag 5k and the weak optimization at the start was scared away by gamers, the same who was able to play with good impressions of the game.

A little backstory

Having finished work on Alan Wake, Finns from the studio Remedy Entertainment Finally, they were able to begin the development of a game, which, according to Sam Lake, will help the studio to reach a new level. The achievements for the game were taken from the potential sequel Alan Waika. A game was developed on the studio engine Northlight, which allowed exactly the capture of the face movement and give out an amazing graphics. And in 2013, simultaneously with the announcement of the Xbox One console, they announced the game that will be exclusively on it, the name was catchy – Quantum Break (Rus. Quantum break), and the genre was a third-person action-player, with shelter elements and the ability to use the ability to manipulate time.

The plot of the game represented science fiction, with time jumps, paradoxes of reality and a whole glossary of physical terms. For this, specialists from CERN were even invited – the European organization for nuclear research and physical phenomena. Despite such narrowly focused concepts and definitions, the game explains everything as clearly and most importantly, the dialogs are diluted with quite good humor, and the characters are completely mental stories. Those who watched films such as the line of the future, Interstellar, back to the future, Surka’s day and read the “End of Eternity” by Isaac Azimov, the game will like the game.

And the main roles were played by the very popular Hollywood actors Sean Eshmore, Dominic Monagan, Aidan Gillen and the now deceased Lance Reddik. Plus, a separate series with living actors was shot, he narrated the plot on behalf of the antagonists of the game, and also knew about the life of secondary characters who appeared or sounded in the game itself, it revealed the plot anymore, but even without it the players did not miss an important, rather a pleasant bonus. In Sovokup with perfectly staged scenes, the line between the game and the series is almost erased.

The beginning of the end

Time is the perfect killer.

Jack Joyce

So the game starts with interrogation in the office of Monarch Solutions, someone Jack Joyce (Sean Eshmore), talks about previous events. October 2016. Jack, comes to the University of Riverport to meet with Paul Sayrin (Aidan Gillen) – his best friend of childhood, and now the scientific director of one of the Monarch project. This project turns out to be a time machine that was invented by Jack’s brother, a scientific William Joyce (Dominic Monagan).

It is worth noting at once that an incredible discovery occurred only a few years ago: scientists were able to discover the fields of Meyer-Joyce, which could ensure the stability of the spatio-temporal continuum, and also proved the existence of particles of chronons, sort of “carriers” of time, which is filled with all our space. One of the main scientists who worked on these particles was Will Joyce, which the floor itself is in charge of, and his presentation.

All work on the study related to chronons and financing was engaged in the research corporation Monarch Solutions, which in the shortest possible time took leading positions in the world market and inexplicably gained great power and authority. And now he wants to build his new branch on the site of the University of Riverport. The director of this company is Martin Hatch (Lance Reddik).

Paul asks Jack, he wants to experience https://bombasticcasino.co.uk/login/ a time machine in order to avoid financing problems and convince Will to continue work on it, because he refused this venture with recent events. Paul decides to try out the car on itself, simultaneously explaining the concept of time travel, entering the car of time and transferring itself to 2 minutes to the past, the second floor comes out, there are two of them, but the first should enter the car again in order to complete the cycle, and the second was in the present before entering the car. All this is a large temporary loop, the events of which are closed at the end.

Everything goes on as usual until Will suddenly appears, he says that it is necessary to stop the experiment and “time at the end”. According to the law of the genre, everything does not go according to plan, the car breaks and as a result there is a powerful explosion of particles, the so -called break has happened, the floor tries to get out through the time machine, and Jack receives the ability to manipulate and use chronons particles.

Rashed over time

The course of time is broken, the so -called “freezes” appear and each time they are more and more and longer, until the “end of time” comes and the world will finally depend. Will and Jack want to prevent the coming end of the world, and at the same time telling about what he knew about future events of time and to prevent fault was developing appropriate measures. However, he does not have time to tell you right away, since he kills him … Paul Sirin, who was also irradiated with chronons and received the ability to look into the future, although his condition is in a critical situation due to the long use of the chronicle. It turns out that he is the founder of the Monarch Solutions, having moved in the time of time to the future, Syrin saw the “end of time” and decides to return to the past to prepare, being sure that nothing will save the world. This is explained by the very rapid take -off of the company and why for many years there was such a hard study of chronons. He launches the “Ark” protocol that will help people survive the time stop.

Paul arranges an explosion of the library, from which fragments fall on Will and he dies. Jack, does not evaluate the desire of the floor to save the world in such radical ways and now decides to stop both it and the break. Bet Wilder (Courtney Hope) comes to the rescue of him, who also knew about everything that was happening and declares that he knows what to do what to do. And the only way to prevent the end of time, to find a special device counterweight that can stabilize the movement of chronons. It turns out that the events taking place have already happened in the future and at the moment the characters are taking a cycle of their other "I". However, we will not run ahead.

Bullets. Explosions. Chronons.

Throughout the game for Jack, the main goal is to search for a counterweight and search for answers in the past. Only Bet help him and some characters who appear depending on which choice was made by the player. Most of the time Jack himself, still, constant hangs and crowds of armed enemies who strive to destroy him.

The combat system is based not only on shooting, but also for the active use of abilities: freezing, a shield, an explosive flow, a jerk and a sprint in a stylish slush-m. At first glance, the set seems to be banal, generally and not impressive, but it is important not what we have, but how it is realized. And everything is implemented here competently and interestingly, enemies do not just allow to sit out in shelter and use grenades in every possible way, go around from the side and also sit in shelter, which is why the game constantly encourages the player to act quickly, clearly and aggressively, froze one enemy, jerkily approached the second, planted a shot and covered behind the shield.

And all these shootings are seasoned with steep special effects, the destruction of objects (physics in the game is simply at the highest level) and a beautiful level of levels. As you pass, the enemies also become stronger, the jaggernauts, soldiers are able to “turn off” the hero’s abilities, make chronosurcases, etc. D. And they are all protected from "freezing" thanks to specialcubinesons. At the right time, the game gives a rest from the crossings and provides us with the study of the area. You can read the documents, correspondence of employees, find the particles of chronons with which you can improve your abilities, listen to the local radio, television news and not only (referring to the references to Alan Wake), even when researching, you can use the elements of some events or to go through obstacles.

At certain points of the game, you will be given the choice of how the story story will be built, two options for developing are given and it depends on which of the characters will be obtained to the final of the game, although the finale itself will remain unchanged. And we will make decisions for the floor. From this side we will be given better to find out his motives, although they will not be revealed completely. Meanwhile, his right hand Martin Hatch conducts his operations about the Operation Operation, he has personal reasons, and the personality itself is interesting and mysterious.

Another important role in the story and concept of the plot is also played by the world around the world. For example, in the course of the passage, various graffiti will be found on which key events of the game are depicted, we have not yet guessed about some. Heroes every now and then noticed various things that in their opinion are not in their place, whether it is a parked car or a cola bank.

Passing further in the plot, some things seem to become clear, but the game again slips new questions and plot twists, which is why the plot again plays bright colors.

Paradox Paradox

Understanding that the floor does not depart from his plan, Jack is trying to find a counterweight along with Bet. In parallel, this is increasingly manifested by the instability of the chronicle that worsens his condition and most of the affairs are transmitted by his right hand – Martin Hatch, who has his own plans for the “Ark” and conducts operations undermining all plans of his boss. Finding another time machine that Will built on the site of the old basical complex, the heroes are trying to return to 2010 to prevent the kidnapping of the counterweight. Previously, kidnapping Dr. Sofia Emeral, the only one who knows how to “treat” Syrin chrono and who will catch how to use the time machine. But everything again goes not according to plan and Beth instead of 2010, throws in 2021 – the end of time according to the calculations of the floor. After she returned with Paul in 1999, and it was she who told Will about future events and convinced him to create a counterweight. And also finds a children’s version of itself and gives it a notebook with the instructions and events of the future.

An attempt to get a counterweight turns into a failure and the device takes the floor and kills Bet. Before that, in the battle, she accidentally drops the counterweight, as a result of which the epicenter is formed, the place where the particles of chronons were discovered and their research began. Jack is shocked by the fact that all this time the device was at the floor, but he did not dare to activate it. Returning in 2016, Jack takes the device with a battle, but not knowing how to use it decides to return a day ago and save Will. We again go the same path as at the beginning of the game and observe the events from the side, all those places that we visited at the beginning and were perplexed from what was happening, all this leads to the idea “so from where it is where this!". And after that, you will not leave the idea that you are running the same you are about 10 minutes ago, making the same path.

Jack and Will again use the time machine and are transferred for a day to the future, where they have a meeting with Paul, which is for the last “final”. Being already devoted by his supporters and losing control of his abilities, Sirin decides to embody his plan into action. The battle is tied, during which Jack kills Paul, and Will closes. After Jack, they take an interview at Monarch and at the end Martin asks Jack what, but he intends to do further, the fork appears and the hero has the ability to peer into the future like Sayrin, which gives a hint of continuation, which we have not seen for 7 years now.

Temporary sediment

What conclusions can be drawn regarding the plot of this game? He is twisted, complex and most importantly fascinating! Seriously, I have never received such ecstasy, but here you can notice many borrowings not only from scientific books, but also from some films (for some reason, the concept reminded me of the terminator and the matrix). But all this is presented by the scriptwriters with their vision, why you can perceive and interpret what you see in your own.

Personally, I was interested in the moment in the end, because after eliminating the fault of Jack’s abilities, they remain with him and even intensify. It is important to note that after the fault, the whole world could be considered as a temporary anomaly, and Jack only had an “immunity” to it that allowed him to avoid hanging and using chronosalisms. As a result, the heroes did not prevent the end of time, but only followed the “scenario” course of time.

Yes, and the character of Lance Reddik – Martin Hatch, also leaves a lot of questions: who is he really or what, why did he need to betray Sayrin and what he would offer Jack in the future. However, this is just my speculation, perception of everyone is different, you may have a different explanation.

According to gameplay, the game also does not get bored with, all the events and renections are enough until the final credits, a duration of about 6-7 hours, depending on the level of complexity and time spent on the study of locations.

Conclusion

If for some reason you did not play this masterpiece, I strongly recommend that you play. You will get a lot of bright emotions that will not subside after you and give food for thought. And so I know this game, I propose to replay. Suddenly you missed something.