Quantum Break: The Future Of Gaming?

This week Remedy’s newest game, the much hyped, long gestating and equally long awaited Quantum Break hits shelves worldwide. This is a game coming with a considerable buzz and rightly so, given the potentially ground-breaking fusion of live action TV and action gameplay, all woven into a singular narrative. It has been said that Quantum Break might just be one of the first true ‘Next Gen’ games as it most certainly dares to try something new.

Deep in the very DNA of Quantum Break is the markers from Remedy’s most famous properties, Max Payne, and Alan Wake. While the former certainly brings the Matrix style gunplay, it’s the latter game and its approach to storytelling that has ultimately influenced what Quantum Break has become.

From the moment it was first announced in 2005 (the eventual release took another 5 years, reaching players in 2010 with some substantial changes to what was promised), Alan Wake had the look of something rather special, not just in graphics that still look fantastic today, but in the story it decided to tell.

As a character the parallels between Wake and horror writer Stephen King are obvious, the game itself carries many of King’s nightmarish tropes, from the small town USA setting to the monsters lurking in both the darkness and within ourselves.

What Alan Wake did as a game, that more have done since but at the time was less common, was to create a world, linear and free from real choices on the player’s part. But it was also so rich in environment and stuffed full of plot and character that it truly felt like a film brought to live, one in which we inhabit and control.

With Quantum Break, Remedy have taken this one step further. Not just content with the in-game TV show that Alan and the player can watch, now the TV show is integrated into the game itself, a vital part of the story. And now the player is also granted choices within the game, allowing them to not just alter the events of the game but of the live action TV show as well. This is something new and could be a huge development in the interactivity of how we play games and their associated media.

Remedy’s storytelling in Alan Wake and Quantum Break is different, but they use it to wrap around fairly standard third person shooters, and that makes their games all the more interesting.

Quantum Break is available now on Xbox One and Windows. Alan Wake is also available on the Xbox Store as part of their new backward compatibility system and works really well. It’s an older game and that shows in places but it is well worth picking up if you are thinking of trying Quantum Break.