Quantum Break is a terrific well written, thought provoking time traveling adventure that despite its flaws is worth a playthrough.
Quantum Break visually is impressive. There are many effects that work well. I have a low-end GPU and it performed well, mostly a locked 30 FPS with some odd frame rate dips to near 60 FPS but it was mostly a stable 30 FPS. It had barely any slow down at all that I could see. The cut scenes look terrific as well. Everything is very fluid and the environments look nice. Is it the best looking game on PC right now? No, but it does look nice and everything is well detailed.
The sound design is great too. It has terrific voice acting and everything is well acted. In a story based game that is important and I felt they nailed it perfectly.
The story is very well written, thought to provoke and left me wanting to keep playing. It had excellent pacing and for some reason, it’s broken down into acts and each act has a short 20-27 minute Netflix-style tv show episode to go with it. They’re not bad but it seems like an odd design choice. I did enjoy them but it would’ve been nice to have more in-game moments instead of this odd choice. It’s an interesting experiment and they can be skipped but I recommend to watch them. They do add a bit of context. I first skipped them until I got half way through the game and I felt they do help expand on the story.
There are also these moments where you can control the main antagonist and make a quick decision that expands on future events in the game. It was a very interesting design choice and I must say, I liked it.
The gameplay is both good and frustrating. The combat is fast and fluid. It does feel like a cover based game and 90% of the time the protagonist does take cover when he’s against it but it would’ve been better with an actually dedicated cover button. The gunplay is fun if somewhat challenging. What kind of makes the game not as fun as it could be is that it felt a little rushed in certain areas. The platforming and ‘scaling’ sections feel rushed. It’s hard to say what can be grabbed and it felt like it could’ve used more work. Thankfully these sections are over with quickly but it does kill the immersion.
The other issue I have is the final battle. It’s a two-tier rush battle and it’s frustrating, considering the villain can kill you with one hit and it’s not exactly clear what you have to do. Eventually, I got too frustrated and just switched the difficulty down to easy just to finish the game. Otherwise, than that, the challenge is mostly ‘fair’ except for that which will frustrate those who are not accustomed to it. It felt out of place and it even teased a boss fight that never happened a section before that occurred.
All and all it does have some flaws but it’s a good game and one everyone should experience. I beat it in about 10 hours so I felt it was a fair value for the price.
Graphics: 9/10
Sound:10/10
Story:8/10
Gameplay:6/10
Final Score: 7/10