Video games have been trying to break into the barrier of photorealism since the start. Every developer wants to create the most immersive experience through the visuals, as it takes the graphics to get a gamer into trying a game out before he falls for the gameplay. Quantum Break has nearly perfected that art, and could possibly be a spoiler for what could be the future of video gaming - an experience that goes beyond the mechanics of shooting and platforming.
This game has the most strikingly detailed environments you can hope to find in this year (2016) and the best form of motion capture you've seen till date. The characters feel more than just that, they are all actors in a movie. It helps, when the entire story is broken up into parts which are playable, and which are non playable and can be watched as a part of an episodic series in between the acts. Switching between the two, the facial animations are so incredibly lifelike in the game, it feels like a part of the movie but shot with a different camera. You will realise from this, that the narrative of the game is what pushes it forward. The levels themselves don't feature any over the top events which change the narrative entirely (bar a few, only a few) but it is the cutscenes, and the episodes themselves which progress the story further. The narration is strong enough to have levels devoted to telling the story through the gameplay alone, without having bad guys to shoot at. All of this makes you totally invested in the story from the start, and you feel something is always progressing as you finish each level and each act. This game is a summer sci fi movie where you control the action set pieces and often times, which way the story will go.
Yes this RPG-like levels come once every often where you are faced with two choices, choosing either will move the story in that direction, including which episodes you see from there on. While not that important in terms of how you finish the story as a whole, it does affect your playthrough significantly. Since the story is so fleshed out in entertainment you might be even convinced to play it again, to see how the other decisions would have altered the story. This game deserves full marks for creating this movie-game hybrid which is heavy on the story, and its twists and turns, which is very important to back up the visuals which would have otherwise meant nothing if it did not have a story to go with it.
Something else it does uniquely is the way it handles time through both the story and the gameplay. You have powers to alter how time flows between you and your surroundings and that makes for some interesting gameplay as it encourages you to go head on into battle, improvising at each step with your powers to get an advantage over your enemies. But where it falls is the movement and gun control. Your character moves clumsily, a problem I have always faced in the Lara Croft games and that takes away from the realism of the game. The cover mechanism is automatic, and it doesn't help when you automatically stick your head up from behind a cover during a firefight and eat some bullets. Platforming here is weak but it is forgivable as the character you play as has no background in parkour anyway, and you obviously cannot expect every layman to play as Prince of Persia. But the weak movement controls get in the way and you might not fully get the best out of the game in this aspect. Guns are a few and you'll never be fully out of bullets as your primary handgun has infinite of it, something to do appreciate them for including. Maybe they were aware of the gunplay not being the strongest suit of the game.
I cannot help but deduct marks for weak shooting in a shooter primarily, but the presentation, narrative techniques deserve the highest praise. This game is just that, a look into a new type of games which are story driven, with enormous productions having popular actors doing their rounds playing the hero in a video game. It is not perfect, very far from it, but then again, front runners and pioneers rarely are.