Most people believe that time is a river that always flows in one direction. But I have seen the true face of time and I can assure you that they are wrong.
Prince Dastan. Prince of Persia game series
Wonderful 2016. Then it came out incredibly productive for many cool games, so much so that even some worthy AAA titles remained in the shadows 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 3 years later and I can confidently say that this is one of the best games of the past decade. Although at the release, and during development, players had questions about the game, 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 PC, and in the wretched Windows Store, the 5k price tag and poor optimization at the start scared off gamers, but those who were able to play remained with good impressions of the game.
A little background
Having finished work on Alan Wake, the Finns from the studio Remedy Entertainment were finally able to start developing a game that, according to Sam Lake, will help the studio reach a new level. The game’s designs were taken from Alan Wake’s potential sequel. The game was developed using the studio’s own engine Northlight, which allowed for precise facial motion capture and stunning graphics. And in 2013, simultaneously with the announcement of the Xbox One console, they announced a game that would be released exclusively on it, the name was catchy – Quantum Break (Russian). Quantum Rift), and the genre was an action shooter from a third person, with elements of cover and the ability to use time manipulation abilities.
The plot of the game was science fiction, with time jumps, paradoxes of reality and a whole glossary of physical terms. Specialists from CERN, the European organization for nuclear research and physical phenomena, were even invited for this purpose. Despite such narrowly focused concepts and definitions, the game explains everything as clearly as possible and, most importantly, interestingly, the dialogues are diluted with quite good humor, and the characters have quite heartwarming stories. Those who have watched such films as Edge of Tomorrow, Interstellar, Back to the Future, Groundhog Day and read Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity will enjoy the game’s plot.
And the leading roles were played by quite popular Hollywood actors Shawn Ashmore, Dominic Monaghan, Aidan Gillen and the late Lance Reddick. Plus, to all this, a separate series was filmed with live actors, it narrated the plot from the perspective of the antagonists of the game, and also told about the lives of minor characters who appeared or were heard in the game itself, this revealed the plot more, but even without it, the players did not miss anything important, rather a pleasant bonus. Combined with beautifully 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 an interrogation in the office of Monarch Solutions, a certain Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore), talks about previously occurring events. October 2016. Jack arrives at Riverport University to meet Paul Cyrin (Aidan Gillen), his childhood best friend and now the scientific director of one of the Monarch projects. This project turns out to be a time machine, which was invented by Jack’s brother, scientist William Joyce (Dominic Monaghan).
It is worth noting right away that just a few years ago an incredible discovery occurred: scientists were able to discover the Meyer-Joyce fields, which could ensure the stability of the space-time continuum, and also proved the existence of chronon particles, sort of “carriers” of time, which fills all of our space. One of the main scientists who worked on these particles was Will Joyce, as Paul himself tells us, and in his presentation.
All research work related to chronons and financing was carried out by the research corporation Monarch Solutions, which in the shortest possible time took a leading position in the world market and inexplicably gained enormous power and authority. And now he wants to build his new branch on the site of Riverport University. The director of this company is Martin Hatch (Lance Reddick).
Paul asks Jack for help, he wants https://deltin7sportcasino.co.uk/games/ to test the time machine in order to avoid problems with financing and convince Will to continue working on it, because he abandoned this idea due to recent events. Paul decides to try the machine on himself, simultaneously explaining the concept of time travel, entering the time machine and transporting himself 2 minutes into the past, the second Paul comes out, there are two of them, but the first must re-enter the machine in order to complete the cycle, and the second ended up in place, in the present, before entering the machine. This is all a big time loop, the events of which close at the end.
Everything goes as usual until Will unexpectedly appears, he says that the experiment needs to be stopped and “time is running out”. According to the law of the genre, everything does not go according to plan, the machine breaks down and as a result a powerful explosion of particles occurs, the so-called Rift has occurred, Paul tries to get out by going through the time machine, and Jack gains the ability to manipulate time and use chronon particles.
Racing against time
The flow of time is disrupted, so-called “freezes” appear, and each time they become stronger and longer, until the “End of Time” comes and the world finally freezes. Will and Jack want to prevent the coming end of the world, and at the same time talking about what they knew about the upcoming events of time and developed appropriate measures to prevent the Break. However, he doesn’t have time to tell everything right away, since he is killed…Paul Cyrin, who was also exposed to chronon radiation and received the ability to look into the future, although his condition is in a critical situation due to the long use of chronological abilities. It turns out that he is the founder of the company Monarch Solutions, having traveled in a time machine to the future, Sirin saw the “End of Time” and decides to return to the past to prepare, being confident that nothing will save the world. This explains the company’s meteoric rise and why there has been such diligent study of chronons over the years. He is launching the development of the “Ark” protocol, which will help people survive the time stop.
Paul causes the library to explode, causing debris to fall on Will and kill him. Jack does not appreciate Paul’s desire to save the world in such radical ways and now decides to stop both him and the Rift. Beth Wilder (Courtney Hope), who also knew about everything that was happening and declares that she knows what to do, comes to his aid. And the only way to prevent the end of time is to find a special Counterweight device 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 going through the cycle of their other “selves”. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Bullets. Explosions. Chronons.
Throughout the game, Jack’s main goal is to find the Counterbalance and search for answers in the past. He is helped only by Beth and some characters who appear depending on the choice made by the player. Most of the time Jack is on his own, there are constant freezes and crowds of armed enemies who are trying to destroy him.
The combat system is based not only on shooting, but also on the active use of abilities: freezing, dome shield, explosive flow, dash and sprint in stylish slow-mo. At first glance, the set seems banal and unimpressive, but what matters is not what we have, but how it is implemented. And everything here is implemented competently and interestingly, the enemies don’t let you just sit in cover and use grenades in every possible way, go around from the side and also sit in cover, which is why the game constantly encourages the player to act quickly, clearly and aggressively, froze one enemy, jerked towards the second, planted a shot and took cover behind a shield.
And all these shootouts are seasoned with cool special effects, destructible objects (the physics in the game is simply top notch) and beautiful level design. As you progress, the enemies also become stronger, juggernauts, soldiers who can “turn off” the hero’s abilities, make time-lapses, etc. d. And all of them are protected from freezing thanks to special overalls. At the right moment, the game gives us a break from skirmishes and allows us to explore the area. You can read documents, correspondence of employees, find chronon particles with which you can improve your abilities, listen to local radio, TV news and more (meaning references to Alan Wake), and when researching, you can use time rewind and see elements of some events or to get through obstacles.
At certain points in the game, you will be given a choice of how the plot narrative will be built, two options for the development of events are given, and the choice determines which of the characters will reach the ending of the game, although the ending itself will remain unchanged. Moreover, we will make decisions for Paul. From this side, we will be given a better idea of his motives, although they will not reveal them completely. Meanwhile, his right hand Martin Hatch conducts his operations regarding Operation Ark, he has personal reasons, and he himself is an interesting and mysterious person.
The surrounding world of the game also plays an important role in the narrative and concept of plot. For example, as you progress, you will come across various graffiti depicting key events of the game, some of which we had not yet imagined. The characters continually notice various things that, in their opinion, are out of place, be it a parked car or a Coke can.
As we move further through the plot, some things seem to become clear, but the game again throws in new questions and plot twists, making the plot play with bright colors again.
Paradox of paradox
Realizing that Paul will not give up on his plan, Jack tries to find a Counterweight with Beth. In parallel with this, Paul is increasingly showing instability in his chronological abilities, which worsens his condition and most of the affairs are transferred to his right hand – Martin Hatch, who has his own plans for the Ark and carries out operations that undermine all the plans of his boss. Having found another time machine that Will built on the site of the old swimming pool complex, the heroes try to return to 2010 to prevent the kidnapping of the Counterbalance. Having previously kidnapped Doctor Sofia Emeral, the only one who knows how to “treat” Cyrin’s chronosyndrome and who knows how to use a time machine. But everything again doesn’t go according to plan and Beth, instead of 2010, is thrown into 2021 – the End of Time according to Paul’s calculations. Afterwards, she returned with Paul to 1999, and it was she who told Will about the upcoming events and convinced him to create a Counterweight. She also finds a child version of herself and gives her a notebook with instructions and future events.
An attempt to obtain the Counterweight turns out to be a failure and the device is taken by Paul and kills Beth. Before this, in the fight, she accidentally drops the Counterweight, as a result of which the Epicenter is formed, the place where chronon particles were discovered and their research began. Jack is shocked that Paul had the device all this time, but he did not dare to activate it. Returning to 2016, Jack fights to take the device, but not knowing how to use it, decides to go back a day and save Will. We again go through the same path as at the beginning of the game and observe events from the outside, all those places that we visited at the beginning and were perplexed by what was happening, all this leads to the thought “so where is this!». And after that, the thought will not leave you that the same you about 10 minutes ago is running after you, going the same way.
Jack and Will use the time machine again and are transported a day into the future, where they have a meeting with Paul, which turns out to be the “ultimate” for the latter. Already betrayed by his supporters and losing control of his abilities, Cyrin decides to put his plan into action. A battle ensues, during which Jack kills Paul and Will closes the rift. Afterwards, Jack is interviewed in “Monarch” and at the end Martin asks Jack what, but intends to do next, a fork appears and the hero gains the ability to peer into the future like Cyrin, which gives a hint of a continuation, which we, alas, have not seen for 7 years.
Temporary sediment
What conclusions can be drawn regarding the plot of this game?? It’s twisted, complex, and most importantly, fun! Seriously, I have never experienced such ecstasy, and here you can see many borrowings not only from scientific books, but also from some films (personally, for some reason the concept reminded me of the Terminator and the Matrix). But all this is presented by the scriptwriters with their own vision, which is why you can perceive and interpret what you see in your own way.
Personally, I was interested in the moment at the end, because after eliminating the rift, Jack’s abilities remain with him and are even enhanced. It is important to note that after the Rift, the entire world could be considered a temporary anomaly, and Jack only had “immunity” to it, which allowed him to avoid freezing and use chronological abilities. As a result, the heroes did not prevent the End of Time, but only followed the “scenario” flow of time.
And Lance Reddick’s character, Martin Hatch, also leaves many questions: who he really is or what, why did he need to betray Cyrin and what will he offer Jack in the future?. However, these are just my speculations, everyone’s perception is different, you may have a different explanation.
The game doesn’t get boring in terms of gameplay either, all the events and skirmishes are enough until the very end credits, the duration is about 6-7 hours, depending on the level of difficulty and the time spent exploring the locations.
Conclusion
If for some reason you have not played this masterpiece, I highly recommend playing it. You will receive a lot of vivid emotions, which will not subside in you even after and will give you food for thought. If you are already familiar with this game, I suggest you replay it. Suddenly you missed something.
