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Kotaku: Unfortunately, Quantum Break Looks a Bit Rubbish

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C

chadskin

Member
For two years, we’ve wondered what Quantum Break actually is. Having seen it, I’m now worried that Quantum Break is a bland-looking shooter interrupted with 20-minute episodes of bad television at the end of every chapter. It should be so much better.
Click to expand...
Quantum Break the game is sometimes a shooting gallery, sometimes a platformer, both augmented by your time powers. You can briefly stop time, speed yourself up and dash between cover, surround yourself in a bubble shield of slow time, and throw a time ball that makes things explode. (Remedy has not yet explained why time makes things explode, or how it can be a ball.)
Click to expand...
The presenter running the demo showed off a gunfight against some hired goons. He was making use of all the powers at his disposal, dashing up to enemies and hitting them with fancy melee attacks, pausing time and flanking to shoot the goons in their rear, and making people inexplicably explode with time balls. But it wasn’t exciting to watch. None of these powers are new. They look nice in Quantum Break, but they don’t feel original like Max Payne’s Bullet Time did when Remedy first attempted time manipulation 14 years ago.

Unlike with Bullet Time, there are enemies in Quantum Break who wear special suits that protect them from your time powers. Their presence will complicate skirmishes, but you just have to dash up them and shoot them with a shotgun. Again, special enemies who specifically counter your abilities is nothing new.
Click to expand...
Quantum Break’s other half is the television series that splits up the game’s chapters. At the end of each chapter is something called a ‘Junction Point’. There, control switches to Paul, the villain. You’re given a choice to make and your decision is reflected in the following episode.
Click to expand...
While an interesting idea, it seems out of place in Quantum Break. The programme seems to interrupt the game rather than thread into it. In Max Payne and Alan Wake, television series were part of the world and informed the fiction but they didn’t insist on taking up 20 minutes of your time. You could walk by the television screening episodes of Lords and Ladies and Captain Baseball Bat Boy in Max Payne. In Quantum Break you have to just put the controller down and watch.

What you’re watching doesn’t seem too good, either. Despite having actors like Aidan Gillen and Lance Reddick from The Wire and Dominic Monaghan from Lord of the Rings, the performances in the scenes we were shown were, like the gunplay, dull. It didn’t help that the script was all clichés.
Click to expand...
I really wanted Quantum Break to excite me, but the demo left me disappointed. What would save it? If the series and the game were tightly integrated, the gunplay were lively and satisfying, and that the platforming was pretty much cut from the finished game. There’s still time.
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http://kotaku.com/unfortunately-quantum-break-looks-a-bit-rubbish-1723074024

So far, I've chalked up my somewhat mixed feelings to rubbish marketing rather than the game being rubbish but Kotaku's latest impressions don't exactly instill me with confidence.
 
K

KodaRuss

Member
I thought it looked pretty good from the new videos? But I havent watched a lot of the new footage.

It seems like a cool concept. Another game in microsofts lineup that might make me buy an Xbox One soon.
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
I've always thought this and The Order looked like solid, if nothing special, third person shooters with a couple of unique hooks. Time manipulation in this, super graphics in The Order. Neither really appeal to me, I'm not the target market I guess. This does look better in the gameplay stakes though.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Saw the gameplay vids and they looked decent enough. In what world is this game rubbish?

SomedayTheFire said:
I've always thought this and The Order looked like solid, if nothing special, third person shooters with a couple of unique hooks. Time management in this, super graphics in The Order. Neither really appeal to me, I'm not the target market I guess. This does look better in the gameplay stakes though.
Click to expand...
On its face this game involves more complex systems than anything in The Order. It's not a good comparison beyond sharing the genre of cinematic TPS.
 
S

Skele7on

Banned
Opinions can change, but seems all a bit too dramatic for me.

I would like to actually see more of this game than the OHH COOL SHOOTING.

Gimme some Alan Wake style detective stuff to do as well...
 
B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
dex3108 said:
Re-posting from other thread ;D

Few days ago

Kotaku UK: Remedy's Quantum Break Footage Looks Excellent

Today

Kotaku: Unfortunately, Quantum Break Looks a Bit Rubbish

Same guy posted those.

So is it good or is it bad? :D
Click to expand...
The chronology for those that are confused by time and dates:

Writer sees Microsoft Gamescom presentation and think it looks excellent. Writes article saying it looks excellent.
Writer gets invited to behind closed doors presentation and thinks it looks pants/rubbish. Writes article saying it looks pants/rubbish.
 
O

oti

Banned
JMizzlin said:
'Looks a bit rubbish'
'I'm a bit worried about the Halo 5 campaign'

I'm a bit worried that Kotaku is a bit shit.
Click to expand...

image.php


I have no horse in this race, I just want the games to turn out good
 
K

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Some of the complaints in the article are the complaints I had about Alan Wake, the combat wasn't especially satisfying for instance, in addition to it becoming very repetitive after a few hours of playing. I'm a huge fan of the Max Payne series though, so I'm hoping they can clean up some of these issues and make it a more interesting, engaging experience.
 
G

Gaz_RB

Member
Kotaku really seems to want to push innovation rather than just doing things that have already been done well.
Nothing wrong with that opinion.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
Every console needs a boring TPS with competent third person shooting interrupted by cutscenes all the time. PS4 had the Order, Xbone will have Quantum Break.
 
G

glaurung

Member
Whereas Kotaku is an example of turd journalism, Quantum Break does seem like a more expensive Singularity/Timeshift manifestation.

At this rate, do not want. The TV series thing is almost guaranteed to be complete shit.
ViewtifulJC said:
Every console needs a boring TPS with competent third person shooting interrupted by cutscenes all the time. PS4 had the Order, Xbone will have Quantum Break.
Click to expand...
At least The Order had a cool setting. QB looks so generic it acts like Ambien.
 
B

backflip10019

Member
All the shit that he mentions in this article as "rubbish" sound really interesting to me. The time mechanics really haven't been used to this extent in the past, Max Payne included.
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Saw the gameplay vids and they looked decent enough. In what world is this game rubbish?


On its face this game involves more complex systems than anything in The Order. It's not a good comparison beyond sharing the genre of cinematic TPS.
Click to expand...

I kind of mentioned that in the last line of my post, but are they truly not scripted? I haven't seen any of the newest material released. Just old stuff where it looked very unspectacular but better than The Order. I mean it's obviously a disingenuous comparison post release for The Order, considering we now know it's limitations. But we do not as yet know the limitations of QB. It does, however look better in gameplay as I mentioned in that post.

I mean it was my own idea to group them together, exclusive TPS with unique hooks. I realise they aren't wholly close as games, but they're on the same plane of existence within this generation, if you get me?
 
C

chadskin

Member
Skele7on said:
Opinions can change, but seems all a bit too dramatic for me.

I would like to actually see more of this game than the OHH COOL SHOOTING.

Gimme some Alan Wake style detective stuff to do as well...
Click to expand...

A Remedy dev had this to say a couple of days ago in another thread:

Kyle Rowley said:
We've got a mix of combat, story and adventuring - with some areas bleeding into one another. I'd say we sit in-between Max Payne and Alan Wake. We'd like players to discover secondary narrative components (world and character building for example) via a bit of exploration, but the levels aren't as vast as Alan Wake.

The two demos we've shown (GC 2014 and GC 2015) give a good indication of pacing / gameplay variety.
Click to expand...
 
K

komplanen

Member
And all the angry Xbox fans rush in on Kotaku to give them hell in the battlefield of online comment sections. All according to Kotaku.
 
K

KieranD

Banned
This site is always releasing articles that bash MS nothing new here. Surprised we have not seen articles bashing Forza 6 yet.
 
H

Henkka

Banned
"Nothing new" doesn't really translate to "rubbish" to me, tbh. It's a flashy, Uncharted-style TPS, of course it won't be that revolutionary. That said, I don't remember any other TPS with time mechanics.

The TV seriies is kinda weird though. I don't understand it's purpose other than being a massive money sink.
 
M

Magic Mushroom

Member
Zeouterlimits said:
Did you actually read the articles?
1) Based on press conference trailers
2) Based on longer in person demo, which the press often get separately, where they see a more significant chunk of the game.
Click to expand...

I saw the extended demo at GC, but the action scene they showed was basically the same scene form the press conference.
It's not like the combat in the extended demo was drastically different, in fact it was pretty much the same combat.

I found it very hard to judge the combat of the game based on the demo, extended or not. It was short and probably played on God Mode or whatever.
This is not The Order though, combat spaces are more open and you can mix up different powers.

It all boils down to how they balance the powers, how good the AI is and how dynamic the combat is as a result.
 
S

Spaghetti

Member
i like the idea of quantum break, but since alan wake i think remedy have been succeeding in premise but not execution.

then again, american nightmare was a big improvement in the actual game mechanics of alan wake.

third person shooters are kind of running their course though. i understand if people are feeling a bit fatigued by them, because i know i am.
 
T

timlot

Banned
Shooting, ducking, running, fighting, are pretty much what most action games are. Hard to fault a game for having those basic attributes.
 
F

Freedom = $1.05

Banned
I've never really come to a Remedy game for its gameplay. Their games have somewhat competent gameplay that is wrapped around excellent atmosphere and fun writing.

So nothing here sounds outlandish given their pedigree.
 
J

jacobeid

Banned
I don't really disagree. I keep wondering why people are so hyped about this game, but then again I really didn't enjoy Alan Wake either time that I played it.
 
B

BaronMonstro

Member
Remedy haven't let me down yet, and everything we've seen so far looks great, so I still have high hopes. But I'm not one to believe everything has to be innovative or whatever, a good but safe game can just be a good game.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
backflip10019 said:
All the shit that he mentions in this article as "rubbish" sound really interesting to me. The time mechanics really haven't been used to this extent in the past, Max Payne included.
Click to expand...

Time manipulation mechanics are in a zillion games. Timeshift you could slow, stop, and rewind time at will. Dishonored has time manipulation mechanics. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time had time manipulation mechanics. A million games all have varying degrees of time manipulation mechanics, although I'm sure not precisely in the same form and lay out as Quantum Break.

What I do dislike is how so much of the weight of the article's opinion relies on how novel something is. Why do I care if the time manipulation mechanics have been done before? That tells me absolutely nothing about whether I will like them or not. What is the developer's approach to time manipulation? Does it improve or detract from gameplay? What are some suggestions you'd have for fixing the state it is currently in? How would you integrally link the series and gamer part to make them more compelling for the player?
 
D

dex3108

Member
danowat said:
That's journalism for you.
Click to expand...

Zeouterlimits said:
Did you actually read the articles?
1) Based on press conference trailers
2) Based on longer in person demo, which the press often get separately, where they see a more significant chunk of the game.
Click to expand...

ANDS said:
Did you even read either of those two articles that you linked, or were you just trying to give "proof" of "Loltaku. . .?"
Click to expand...

Hyunashi said:
Please read the context of the articles. Jeez.
Click to expand...

benny_a said:
The chronology for those that are confused by time and dates:

Writer sees Microsoft Gamescom presentation and think it looks excellent. Writes article saying it looks excellent.
Writer gets invited to behind closed doors presentation and thinks it looks pants/rubbish. Writes article saying it looks pants/rubbish.
Click to expand...

MS Conference demo was also shooting enemies and using powers and that part was also not that good (and he said similar thing for behind closed doors demo). Only impressive part in MS Conference demo was time laps inside building. So in my opinion what i saw on MS Conference and what he described in second article is not that different but headlines are 180 from each other. That is main issue i have.
 
F

Final Verdict

Member
Ehhh I would disagree...
Hardly anything is truly new now days, but that doesn't make it rubbish. Of the mechanics are well executed, then it should be fine.

As for the show, I have not seen a whole episode like he did, so I hope it isn't bad like he says...then again, if it is not interesting, I will just skip it.
 
C

Chopper

Member
I was chatting to someone this weekend who has worked on the game for a couple of years, but recently moved elsewhere. He said, and I quote, "It's gonna be a bit shit".
 
Teletraan1

Teletraan1

Banned
danowat said:
That's journalism for you.
Click to expand...

This is forum posting for you. Is anyone actually reading the articles or just knee jerking because they are "attacking" these games that have been put on an exclusive pedestal. There is nothing wrong with a first look at a conference impressing but you get to see the game a bit more in depth and it is not as impressive. Since you don't play the sizzle reel and actually play it in depth I think it is valid.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Fair enough, maybe the combat scenarios he was shown were not all that and the acting in the TV episodes were meh to him.

"I really wanted Quantum Break to excite me, but the demo left me disappointed. What would save it? If the series and the game were tightly integrated, the gunplay were lively and satisfying, and that the platforming was pretty much cut from the finished game. There’s still time."

I don't think they'll cut the platforming sections. They have shown pretty easy sections so far, so I can understand the want to not have them.

dex3108 said:
Re-posting from other thread ;D

Few days ago

Kotaku UK: Remedy's Quantum Break Footage Looks Excellent

Today

Kotaku: Unfortunately, Quantum Break Looks a Bit Rubbish

Same guy posted those.

So is it good or is it bad? :D
Click to expand...

I...wait wut

Opinions change and all that (even though he hasn't had hand-on for either time) but damn what a quick whiplash!
 
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