Quantum Break - Part 1 (Xbox One)
This review is the first of two parts for Quantum Break. This one will serve as a bit of a precursor, discussing the story and the controls. The second one will go in depth with the rest of the areas I discuss in my reviews. So without any further delay, here is part one.
The joysticks control your character's movement (left) and the camera (right). You can also click the right thumbstick to choose the orientation of your character to either the left or right side of the screen. Up on the D-pad will highlight where your current objective, while the left, down, and right buttons will switch between your weapons. Right trigger fires your weapon, and left trigger let's you zoom. You can zoom even when you're not in combat, to look closer at a person who's talking or any object you wish.
Left bumper controls your time dodge (tapping it and while holding a direction with the left joystick) and sprinting (holding the bumper). Right bumper allows you to throw out a time stop. Aiming this at an enemy will freeze them momentarily, allowing for quicker elimination. A is your jump button, and X reloads your gun and interacts with things in the world. Y activates your time vision, this will highlight enemies, time echos, ammo caches and explosives that are within range. Lastly, B brings up a time shield that will protect you and absorb any bullets shot into it, or if you are close enough to an enemy, you can push them back with this shield too.
The controls for this game are a lot of fun, very immersive, and easy to learn and use. So far, this is a pretty fun game. The combat is fun and the time powers are a blast to use, but I will get into that more in the rest of the review next week. I hope this has been a good sneak peek at the game and I hope you'll come back and check out the rest of the review when it gets posted. Thanks for checking it out!
The Story
The story begins in an interrogation room where the main character, Jack Joyce, is being interviewed about his part in the event that happened. In a flashback, Jack is invited to Riverport University by his best friend, Paul Serene, for a project that Paul has been working on with Jack's brother, Will. The project involved the two trying to manipulate particles to be able to travel through time. Will began having doubts about the project so Paul called in Jack because he trusted him enough to assist with the final stages. The first attempt of traveling backwards in time (by a couple of minutes) is successful, so Paul wants to attempt to go forward. Before they can initiate it, Will bursts into the lab with a gun, warning them that it's dangerous and to stop it while Paul tries to convince Jack not to listen and that it's safe. Torn between his brother and his best friend, he is distracted as the machine begins to malfunction. He attempts to save Paul who is trapped in the machine when a ripple pulses out, affecting Jack and freezing time around him. He unfreezes Will and together they try to make it off the campus. Will reveals that what's happening is a fracture in time, and says that he knew the experiment would go wrong and years ago had developed a fail safe just in case. Before they can get off campus, they are confronted by Paul and the people he is working with, Monarch Solutions. He tells Will that it doesn't have to end like this and doesn't want him to fulfill his plan before finally killing him before Jack. After, Jack is kidnapped but ends up escaping with the assistance of his time powers he developed while being close to the machine trying to save Paul. Now, on his own, Jack must hunt down Paul and the rest of Monarch Solutions to try and fix the fracture before it completely destroys time.The Controls
Quantum Break is a third-person shooter with a control scheme to fit the bill, especially with the added in time powers.The joysticks control your character's movement (left) and the camera (right). You can also click the right thumbstick to choose the orientation of your character to either the left or right side of the screen. Up on the D-pad will highlight where your current objective, while the left, down, and right buttons will switch between your weapons. Right trigger fires your weapon, and left trigger let's you zoom. You can zoom even when you're not in combat, to look closer at a person who's talking or any object you wish.
Left bumper controls your time dodge (tapping it and while holding a direction with the left joystick) and sprinting (holding the bumper). Right bumper allows you to throw out a time stop. Aiming this at an enemy will freeze them momentarily, allowing for quicker elimination. A is your jump button, and X reloads your gun and interacts with things in the world. Y activates your time vision, this will highlight enemies, time echos, ammo caches and explosives that are within range. Lastly, B brings up a time shield that will protect you and absorb any bullets shot into it, or if you are close enough to an enemy, you can push them back with this shield too.
The controls for this game are a lot of fun, very immersive, and easy to learn and use. So far, this is a pretty fun game. The combat is fun and the time powers are a blast to use, but I will get into that more in the rest of the review next week. I hope this has been a good sneak peek at the game and I hope you'll come back and check out the rest of the review when it gets posted. Thanks for checking it out!
