Review of the game Quantum Break. Everything has its time

Before you leave Quantum Break seemed to be the next evolutionary step in the company’s creativity Remedy. Manipulation mechanics looked like an evolution of ideas over time Bullet-Time from Max Payne, and the plot of the project hinted at working on mistakes Alan Wake, adjusted for the fantastic setting. The icing on the cake, with all this, seemed to be the statement that a new game will go along with the series of the same name, and promises to blur the line between interactive entertainment and cinema. It’s difficult to say for sure whether the famous Finnish team succeeded or not, but let’s talk about everything in order.

To bookmarks

Influence of H.G. Wells

This time Remedy turned their attention to fantastic stories about time travel and the paradoxes that arise as a result of them. You can immediately feel that the authors were inspired by films in the spirit "Time loop", or novels in the style "The End of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov And "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells.

The story begins quite harmlessly: the hero of the game is Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore), returns to his hometown Riverport. The first thing he does is go to meet his old friend - Paul Cyrin (Aidan Gillen), who is the scientific director of the company’s most important project Monarch. The project turns out to be a time machine developed by the brother of the main character - Will Joyce (Dominic Monaghan). Paul, not really thinking about the consequences, decides to start the car in order to demonstrate the technology of the future to his old friend. And, as in the classics, everything goes awry.

While Paul talks admiringly about the machine, forcing our ward to participate in the experiment, the player involuntarily begins to have concerns about the outcome of what is happening. Another confirmation that the user instantly falls into the world of the game and the narrative of the story.

At this moment, goosebumps begin to run through the body, the moment with time travel is so vividly and naturally played out.

The plot, as you can see, is not striking in its originality, in fact, like the plot itself. It is simple and predictable to the point of banality, stuffed with various clichés, and its ending is mixed and ambiguous, almost like the same Alan Wake.

In contrast to the plot, an important component of the game is the presentation of the gameplay. Believe me, the game has something to show! In addition to the quality dialogue and cinematic scenes, as well as the TV series, which we will talk about a little later, the game has stunning environments. Each object, each part of the location carries within itself not only a piece of the atmosphere, but also the history of the game. And the developers are not shy about focusing on this, using one of the most effective narrative elements inherent in many works about time paradoxes, namely: periodically time in the game freezes, and the player is given the opportunity to wander around what is happening, look at the world from the outside, evaluate what is happening around chaos. At such moments, what is shown on the screen is truly mesmerizing. This is an amazing, incomparable, frightening and at the same time fascinating action, making you think for a moment about the significance of time in our lives. Today, it’s hard for me to remember at least one other game that could show such a level of production and artistic design.

It’s very difficult to convey the whole atmosphere of stopped time through a screenshot, but for the first time such a scene is seriously mesmerizing.

Also, the game has a damn cool storytelling style: it is all divided into several chapters, each of which begins and ends like a full-fledged series. We could already see something similar in Alan Wake. But here the authors went further and at the end of each act they give us the opportunity to make a moral choice. It does not particularly affect the course of the story, but it can significantly embellish or, conversely, darken the ending. For example, it is the player’s choice that determines which characters will reach the finale, and this will also directly affect some elements of the series.

Periodically, they provide the opportunity to be in the shoes of the main antagonist and understand his motives, this makes the story even more dramatic and ambiguous. Which completely eliminates the division into black and white in the game.

Smart borrowing

And yet, from games Remedy We expect not only a well-developed story, but also equally high-quality gameplay, which the game demonstrates. Firstly, the corporate style of the famous Finns is immediately recognizable; the project feels like the studio’s past games. At the same time, the developers are not afraid to borrow ideas from their colleagues: movements, animation and tactile components seem to have been taken from Naughty Dog, and the main character’s abilities refer us to such projects as: Time Shift, F.E.A.R. or Singularity.

Time slowdown in games won’t surprise anyone; we’ve already seen this in a huge number of different projects. But in the dynamics of the project, such a feature seems more spectacular.

Speaking of abilities: as we remember from the beginning of the story, the first launch of the time machine was unsuccessful, which affected our hero. Now he has several talents that allow him to influence time: slow it down, precisely manipulate it, put up a shield, place opponents in a temporary cocoon, use special vision or create an explosion. And, as I already noted, we have seen similar things in one form or another in other projects, but here, again, presentation is important. Remedy surprise again - they manage not to put all abilities at the forefront of the mechanics, thereby giving us, first of all, a classic purebred third-person action game, and thanks to the abilities of the main character, gradually increasing the complexity and variety of game situations.

After throwing a temporary bubble, it makes sense to shoot there a couple of times, since the kinetic energy from the bullet at the moment the bubble dissipates will create a small explosion, instantly destroying the enemy inside.

In terms of artistic design of abilities, the time explosion, in my opinion, turned out to be the most effective and beautiful.

With each skill mastered, the rules of the game change. If at the beginning Jack only has the ability to slow down time, and his opponents are ordinary operatives Monarch, then by the end of the game, when the character masters the entire set of skills, the dynamics and complexity grow exponentially. Situations quickly begin to replace one another, opponents of various types and uniforms enter the arena, time either slows down or stops, forcing us to adapt to the situation and correctly juggle our arsenal of skills. Adds special spice A.I. opponents, they act very competently: they surround the player, use cover and do not shy away from using grenades, which prevents you from simply sitting in cover and forces you to be in constant motion. From this, the project, in terms of dynamics and the number of possible micro-situations, begins to resemble a slasher film in the manner of some Devil May Cry. The author of this text experienced something similar when he discovered a wonderful and, well, crazy project Vanquish.

The generator on the enemy's back allows him to move as fast as the main character. Therefore, moments of meeting such soldiers turn into quantum cat and mouse.

If the soldiers from the previous slide are able to pose a small challenge, then these guys will spoil your nerves a lot.

To prevent the player from getting tired of constant shootings, the developers give a break by asking us to solve a simple puzzle using Jack’s abilities. A small research element has also been added - tons of notes, posters, videos, as well as various interactive elements are scattered here and there throughout the levels. For example, at the very beginning of the game, we can immediately follow Paul to the time machine, or we can rustle through his entire office, listen to several lectures, read a couple of notes - thereby immersing ourselves even more in the story being told. At such moments, the game shows even greater depth of plot development. After all, the writers worked on all these notes no less than on the main story. It’s as if you are being sucked into a pool, surrounded by more and more details. The information comes together like a jigsaw puzzle, creating a greater connection to this fictional world and its characters.

One of the very emotional moments awaits us in Will’s workshop, for the direction and presentation of which I want to stand up and award Remedy with sincere admiration, with whistles, applause and shouts of “Bravo!”

Revolutionary Combination

Only the lazy have not heard of one of the main features of the project, namely the film component. Both the developers themselves and the entire advertising company as a whole talked about it constantly. It is worth noting that the series itself, as well as its value for the game’s plot, turned out to be really worthwhile. Firstly, it shows the story from the antagonists' side and allows you to look at what is happening from a slightly different perspective. Secondly, the series demonstrates the consequences of our choices in the game, both significant and not so significant. This creates another nice hook for immersion. Thirdly, the series breaks up the time well and creates a pause of 20-30 minutes between the passages of acts, which not only gives a break from the constant action, but also immerses us even more in the history of the project.

No doubt he plays great Aidan Gillen, he made a great villain, and his signature grin Lord Balesh from "Game of Thrones", makes you fall in love with the character and empathize with his fate.

Dominic Monaghan coped well with the role of an eccentric scientist and brother of the main character. It’s a pity that we mostly see his face in small inserts from video diaries; in the series he didn’t get any screen time at all.

Of course, speaking about the role of the series, one cannot fail to note the work of the people responsible for it. As an addition to the game, the series boasts very good direction and camera work. This is where the full scope of the budget is felt Microsoft. The fact is that the authors of the film part made not just an addition to the game, but, in fact, a separate work, doing everything at such a decent level that the series can be safely watched in isolation from the game. Although, most likely, you risk not understanding anything. The screenwriters should also be applauded for their ability to tell such a complete and exciting story by combining two different media. There are no words, only one admiration!

Lance Reddick He turned out to be a truly frightening and mysterious character, in whom you completely suspect something unclean.

They didn't tighten it up a bit

But what’s interesting is that if you watch the series in contrast with the game, a slight embarrassment arises. It shows us pure Hollywood: powerful special effects, great action, huge crowd, epic story. But when the moment of switching to cinematic inserts occurs, the story takes on the appearance of intimacy, the pathos and scope immediately disappear somewhere, leaving us with the feeling of a mediocre television series. On the one hand, this is good, because there is an opportunity to take a break from Hollywood and focus on the script and the acting, on the other hand, such jumps greatly disrupt the pace of the story, which, at least a little, is nevertheless confusing and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.

The famous moment of the ship colliding with the bridge, which was shown in almost all game trailers...

...and its consequences. You can’t even dream about moments like this in the series.

A similar contrast works in reverse side. The fact is that main character Almost nothing is revealed during the course of the series. Most of his time is spent in the game, where he crushes operatives without regret Monarch in batches, without really talking about themselves or their lives. Yes, from the plot we learn that he had a difficult life, that he lost his parents early and that his brother raised him. But how did this affect the fact that he masterfully manages to wield weapons and hand-to-hand combat, and also, without hesitation, kill tons of people? – we can only think about it. Of course, one could attribute these elements to gaming conventions, but it doesn’t work. Indeed, within the framework of the series we are shown that opponents Joyce not soulless idiots, but people with their own aspirations, desires, emotions and ideology. They are afraid of the main character, see him as a threat and perceive him as a killer and a psychopath who has gone crazy due to a failed experiment. And it is at this moment that all the script work begins to crumble, because the player begins to catch himself thinking that the actions of the antagonists are more justified than the behavior of our ward.

And it’s not to say that Shawn Ashmore a bad actor, it’s just that his talent, as if on purpose, was not allowed to reveal itself to its fullest.

The loop has closed

For the rest: oh Quantum Break I just want to give positive feedback. It's a great game with a great story, even if it does have a few hiccups and no clear ending. It’s impossible to call it revolutionary, but at the same time, you can’t call it “ordinary” either. Still, this is real and correct AAA-project for single playthrough, of which there are fewer and fewer on the market.

***

Good game from great developers, which, with the right approach, could start selling the console from Microsoft. As for themselves Remedy, then they once again managed to outdo themselves and give us another high-quality project. However, in the future, companies should flirt less with cinema and delve deeper into the elaboration of the plot, learning to put the right end to it, otherwise they risk going down in history as the authors of excellent projects, but unfinished works.

Write

Since no happy owners Xbox One, nor were there any happier Windows Store users among us; Quantum Break twice safely escaped the editorial clutches. We had to be content with footage that demonstrated impressive action, crazy manipulations with time and the cunning Sam Lake, who promised that everything would be cool. You can definitely trust him, right?

Now that the game has been released for the third time, on the most accessible platform in existence, we are personally convinced that it is impossible.

However, as long as the interactivity of the action is kept at a minimum level, everything seems to be in order. The prologue tells how flawless models are almost famous actors accidentally refract time, learn to control it and are sincerely surprised that Aidan Gillen has again taken the role of the villain. This is presented in a fairly standard way, but the plot, which turns the world into an unstable and twitchy jumble of events, throws up at least one intrigue - how it will be played.

Spoiler: absolutely the same as always. Immediately after a short introductory part, they dump a mountain of weapons on us and start the show “Good afternoon, I’m a boring shooter.” Get ready, the performance will be long and monotonous.

The action part is not exactly something you plan to find fault with in Remedy's work, but the studio seems to be getting worse with it. Quantum Break is not trying to be revolutionary, but simply accumulates what has already been invented in a dubious combination of shooting and superpowers. The first one is completely devoid of the addictiveness of its colleagues in the genre due to its overly modest and flat arsenal. Among a dozen faded machine guns, rifles and shotguns, only pistols do not resemble plastic crafts from "Children's World" - they give the right sensations, and are often no less useful than their larger counterparts. With endless ammo.

As for the hero’s skills, their whole essence lies in mockery of time. It can be slowed down, partially stopped, exploded (because because) and something else, trying to diversify the process. This probably works partly: there are quite a lot of abilities so that skirmishes periodically differ from each other - but this does not have a colossal impact on the principles of combat. And all the superpowers have already appeared in one way or another in all sorts of “remembers” and “timeshifts,” so there is no lasting enthusiasm for them.

In addition, the game is too actively pushing for their use, systematically reducing the effectiveness of firearms as an independent measure. Without a couple of tempo bubbles, it is almost impossible to fight off someone, which is why you have to run away like a superhero and wait for your abilities to be restored more often than to move forward. Imagine if in Max Payne, after each bullet-time run, you had to hide behind boxes for 15-20 seconds. Something tells us that action games aren't made that way.

Considering the importance of combat shelters, it was a strange decision to entrust interaction with them to a ward carcass. She decides for herself when to stick to the walls and when to show suicidal tendencies, straightening up to her full height, and her choice often differs from yours. A special button, in the old fashioned way, would come in very handy here, as well as the functions of crouching, sprinting and hitting with a butt, which for some reason the game does not have.

Management in principle, however, is not friendly. When moving the character and aiming, you constantly feel the viscosity and unresponsiveness characteristic of low frame rates. However, even at a stable 60 frames per second, aiming at an enemy's head or making a dash in the desired direction can sometimes be problematic. And before another reproach is sounded towards the long-suffering consoles, Quantum Break is played with a gamepad just as unsightly and ragged.

The only good reason to endure all this is entertainment, merciless and overflowing. During shootouts, the same impressive action movie from the trailers is constantly happening on the screen, dotted with a ton of sparks, explosions, futuristic trails, buzzing and ringing as if you were in an Imax on an expensive blockbuster. The people who worked on the visual and sound design of Quantum Break created a style that is much more vibrant and vibrant than the game deserves.

The last defeated enemy is always shown from the signature “McSpain” angle.

But the shootouts also end sooner or later, giving way to forced and dreary research. The most striking example is when the direct route is blatantly blocked, the protagonist’s companions crowd around him and say something like “ah-ah, the game is too short, go do something unreasonably long.” Usually, moving forward involves finding a way around it, solving an annoyingly simple "hold the Q" puzzle in the process, and returning to your starting point on the other side. In other words, make a completely empty and meaningless detour.

It is, of course, common practice in the industry to lock the main entrance and have a mini-adventure on a side track. But Quantum Break, excuse me, is not The Last of Us, but Remedy in this way only blatantly stretches out time due to unnecessary movements. Sometimes there isn’t even a puzzle there.

When it finally comes time to pay attention to the plot, it turns out that Quantum Break is an ordinary science fiction movie that you sit down to watch with friends, but halfway through you push it to the corner of the screen and keep it in the background for some Quake Live. What is happening definitely has the makings of a good story with excellent production, but it develops exclusively in a series of banal and predictable episodes. The game's script relies on the fact that you have never seen films about time loops, alternative universes, the butterfly effect and the fight against evil corporations. If all this is familiar to you, he plays the most grandiose trick with time - he makes it drag on for an excruciatingly long time.

Another problem with storytelling is that it is dispersed into several forms at once. We are talking, of course, about serial inserts. No one is forcing you to watch them, but to understand the full picture in total you need to sit through about two hours of “movie”, filmed in the manner of frankly cheap TV shows with a sci-fi slant. Quantum Break is not a game that benefits from half-hour breaks after each act. Like any blockbuster, it is better to swallow it right away, without stopping or thinking, and the series only disrupts the natural pace.

For a similar reason, I don’t want to engage in additional study of locations that are littered from top to bottom with materials on the topic. They are full of interesting and, more annoyingly, important information for the plot - but the volume of local waste paper sharply contradicts the fast rhythm of the game. For reading emails in several screens and deciphering schemes on half a wall, there is simply no time to be distracted, because everything around calls for movement.

And as soon as you lose sight of one diary or neglect to watch the series, the thread of the plot breaks off. Out of nowhere, characters that everyone knows except you begin to appear, things that were never discussed before are mentioned in conversations, and everyone behaves in such a way that you feel like a complete fool.

So why couldn't all the key facts be included in the main outline? The story here is not nearly as deep and large-scale as it wants to seem, and it is easy to present it in the traditional format of game videos, which in their current form have no independent weight at all. Apparently, the pretentiousness of the presentation is more important for developers. Or maybe they were simply trying to give significance to the study of the world - in any other case, the need for such would have completely disappeared.

Well, if you don’t take into account the search for experience points to purchase upgrades, which, alas, are boring as hell. You can only make the flashes brighter, the deceleration slower, and the cooldown of abilities faster. There is no need to expect any ingenuity in improvements; it only exacerbates the monotony of the gameplay, which does not change until the final credits.

It’s not like Alan Wake or, again, Max Payne indulged in constant updating of the used chips. Far from it, these were games of the same idea, but in both the implementation of the root concepts was powerful enough to withstand the weight of an entire playthrough. Quantum Break is based on interesting idea, brought to life in a primitive and unoriginal way.

I don't recommend it

How long has it been since you played an unusual, interesting single-player game? What a game for Lately immersed you in the virtual world for several hours? AAA single-player games have been stagnant for a couple of years and nothing can really surprise you. And then Remedy Entertainment, led by Sam Lake, who participated in the development of the Max Payne series and even gave the appearance of the main character Max, pours a bucket of cold water in the form of Quantum Break. Quantum Break was announced along with the Xbox One and was supposed to be exclusive to the Microsoft console. On April 5, 2016, in addition to Xbox, the game was released on Windows 10, and now almost six months later on Steam.

TIME IS POWER.

Time Rift from Remedy Entertainment

It all starts with our main character Jack Joyce returning to his hometown of Riverport at the invitation of his old friend Paul Cyrin. Paul heads the physics department at a local university and is working on a project with Jack's brother, William Joyce, but they have disagreements, and he needs Jack to convince his partner.

There is an unknown “hedgehog” in the middle.

Paul reveals a huge time machine, and strangely enough they start testing it. And after an unauthorized launch, a temporary rift occurs.

Time begins to hiss.

At the same time, the university building is stormed by the special forces of the Monarch Solutions corporation, Paul disappears in the time machine, and the Joyce brothers try to get out of the university building.

We save Wil first from the special forces, and then from temporary rifts.

People and the environment freeze in space, and this does not affect only Jack, since he and Paul were struck by chron particles during the accident, which endowed him with the ability to control time. The special forces manage to recapture William, and he is taken away along with the rest of the witnesses. The main character tries to free his brother, after which Paul Cyrin, older by 17 years, appears, who, as it turns out, runs Monarch Solutions, and kills William.

The narrative proceeds by alternating game acts for the main character and for the antagonist Paul, for the latter we are allowed to assume important decisions on behalf of Monarch Solutions Corporation. Between the game acts there are inserts of an incredible series, the development of events in which directly depends on the decisions you make in the game. In addition, there are a lot of details scattered throughout the game world, after studying which you understand the motivation of even minor characters.

In addition to the plot confrontation between Jack and Paul, Monarch is weaving its own intrigues inside.

Star cast

The actors starred in episodes of the in-game TV series and served as the faces and models for the game's characters.

Scenery

I don't remember where I saw such a detailed environment as in Quantum Break. If you walk through the university park, flower beds, paths, lanterns - everything is worked out to the smallest detail.

Lobby of the Faculty of Physics.

Once inside the university itself, you will see lecture halls and libraries designed in the style of architecture Ancient Greece. Look in detail at the periodic table of elements; there’s really not a word about Mendeleev on it:(. In the corridors you’ll see portraits and busts of scientists.

Have you ever walked through a lecture hall at a classical university?

Temporary fading and artifacts have been worked out to perfection. There will be scenes in the game that will make you open your mouth and forget that you have it open, and I certainly won't show you those scenes here.

A frozen world.

Quantum Break is a shooter!

In addition to incredible temporary and university beauties, you will have to fight off Monarch Solutions special forces.

After the headshots, an epic cutscene is shown.

Jack has a number of abilities to stop time and speed himself up accordingly.

Stop time at one point and shoot bullets there, and then wait for the object to defrost.

Shooting has some minor flaws, like weird mouse interaction and poor responsiveness. But it worries you for the first 5 minutes, after which you easily get used to it.

Still haven't purchased Quantum Break?

Let me tell you this, Quantum Break is the only single player game in the last two years that is fun to play. I've already forgotten what an interesting single-player game is. Quantum Break breaks the mold with a completely new approach to storytelling and gameplay. You might have a tense shootout and then watch an episode of a TV series that shows you the consequences of your actions. And the plot twists surprise you with each new act over time. At the same time, Quantum Break costs only 699 rubles on Steam. This is a ridiculous price for such an amazing game and a sinister black man.

Comments:

As part of the Mobile World Congress 2019 exhibition, the Global Mobile Awards ceremony was held, where...

New information was found in the database of the Chinese telecommunications equipment certification center TENAA...

Samsung has released the first update for its newly launched flagship Galaxy S10+, which...

What can we expect from the people who gave us a masterpiece series? Max Payne and enveloping with its atmosphere Alan Wake? Perhaps only the best, and this is exactly what is in our review Quantum Break!

Quantum Break- one of those games that you are not afraid of at all when you sit down to play, because you know perfectly well that Remedy they know their stuff. This confidence that the game is about to captivate you is worth a lot, and that’s why this project in absentia, many began to consider it a success. An excellent game by default, but is it a masterpiece? Perhaps this is the main question that we will try to answer.

First of all, I would like to note one of the most important features of the game - its “cinema” quality in the good sense of the word. Yes, the graphics here are excellent, and the shooter gameplay is executed very well, but the first impression you get from the screensavers is the feeling of watching a movie or a very high-quality series. When the series “Monarch” begins, shown between acts, it is absolutely impossible to tear yourself away from the screen. Well-chosen actors, first-class direction and, of course, the plot, all this takes the game to a whole new level, unattainable for similar projects.

This is an elusive feeling that is difficult to even describe, let alone masterfully convey, as the guys from Remedy, goes a long way toward covering up the somewhat simple script that takes us into the environs of the fictional Rivenport University. There, in a typical American setting, mysterious research takes place, the consequences of which become the starting point of the entire action.

The main character, named Jack Joyce, and several other people are given the ability to influence time in different ways. Specifically, Jack can change the flow of time over small periods of space. There, at the very beginning, we see the main villain Paul Sirin - the owner of a large corporation, who has an advantage of a different nature - the gift of foresight. Other characters also have a variety of unusual skills, but we will not “spoiler” them, we will only note that all the time you will watch how the world around you is changing due to an ever-expanding time paradox.

Actually, approximate goal The game consists precisely in defeating a person who cannot lose, since he sees several time lines at once, and almost all of the plot issues arise from this. This is a purely “serial” idea that allows you to build many alternative lines and develop them independently. Even if there is an end to one, no one bothers you to jump to a completely different one. In this sense, the game is somewhat similar to Alan Wake, since there were similar dynamics (each mission is a separate series). And besides, very realistic graphics with incredible similarity between the game actors and their real-life counterparts. Dominic Monaghan was especially successful, “playing” the brother of the main character, who is kidnapped in the first half of the game, after which he has to be rescued.

But the gameplay here, on the contrary, turned out to be quite non-trivial and, well, very much like a kind of “console” Max Payne. Most The player will have to shoot a lot and shoot with opponents for a long time. And it would be an ordinary third-person shooter if it didn’t have superpowers.

As noted earlier, the main character can slow down time, but only in certain areas of space. As the game progresses, you will use this constantly, because even a couple of adversaries can cause inconvenience: they kill in Quantum Break pretty quickly. We saw two or three opponents, threw a slowing sphere at them and shot them while they were barely moving in the “jelly”. And if there are many opponents, and they have already opened crossfire, then it is best to place this very sphere right next to you in order to leave the danger zone before the lead inflicts injuries incompatible with life.

However, we cannot say that the core mechanics turned out to be outstanding, because in many ways they are extremely simplified. Even Max Payne 2, released in 2003, was played at about the same level.

Quantum Break is a game that positions itself primarily as a beautiful and interesting story, while the shooting here, although done very well, is clearly not revolutionary. At first, the surprising mechanics of time dilation quickly become boring, and then the gameplay turns into a high-speed race from one cutscene to another. It's good that there are enough of them here! After all, this is the main charm of the game! Excellent cut scenes and a superb series between acts will not make you regret spending money on the game. The ability to go through the game with different plot branches adds spice and replayability to the game. It is the latter that more than compensates for the lack of multiplayer, which it must be said that lately the vast majority of projects have it only for show. Quantum Break- this is the modern standard for how to make cinematic games. It is with him that all future projects will now be compared until a new king of the movie game appears, and this will not happen very soon!

Game rating: 9.0

Name: QuantumBreak
Genre: Action
Developer: Remedy
Publisher: Microsoft
Release date: April 5, 2016
Platform: RS /XboxOne
Game website: http://www.quantumbreak.com

Microsoft has received an incredible amount of well-deserved criticism over the past few years. The unsuccessful start of its gaming console, strange decisions in the field of promotion and use of gaming devices and services, the lack of interesting exclusives and layoffs of employees from its internal talented studios.

The latest news from the gaming giant's camp has turned loyal Xbox One users against it after the head of the gaming department, Phil Spencer, said that many games developed exclusively for Xbox will be released on PC. Among others is Quantum Break, a third-person shooter about time manipulation from the creators of the Max Payne duology.

For us, players on the home platform, this news turned out to be pleasant, even despite the note that these games will be released exclusively on Windows 10. The cheerful music, however, did not play for long: the long-awaited release of Quantum Break happened, which is nothing but a slap in the face It’s impossible to perceive.

The game, which was released a little earlier this month, was slightly more than completely inoperable at launch, and subsequent patches had virtually no effect on the performance of Quantum Break.

Everything went wrong almost from the very beginning: the price of the game in the CIS region is the same as in the rest of the world - $60, for which you get a port from a console with disgusting optimization, terrible graphics and a ton of technical problems.

The PC version of Quantum Break is literally painful to look at: for the picture to be similar to what the owners of the console version see, you will need a computer with the most best characteristics, who will be able to handle running the game at maximum settings. Otherwise, if you set the settings to “high”, “medium” or “low”, Quantum Break will look like something straight out of 2006 with muddy textures, terrible lighting and ripples all over the screen. The closest analogy would probably be the following: turn on, say, the second part of Call of Duty, display the picture on a large TV and sit back.

Looking at this, you want to turn off the game as soon as possible and never return to it. A separate joke is to play with anti-aliasing turned on, when the entire screen is covered with hundreds of black artifacts that either disappear or reappear at intervals of one second: wonderful playing conditions for people with diseases of the nervous system.

Sorry that we immediately started with the problematic part, which we traditionally leave at the end of the material: this case is so outstanding, so unacceptable and outrageous in 2016, that it’s impossible not to start with it. With its complete inaction, Microsoft has turned one of the best tools for promoting its new operating system V another proof It’s clearly not worth rushing to change the time-tested “seven” to a “ten”.

Perhaps this could be the end of this text, but duty requires me to tell you more about the game. If you were able to overcome all the technical adversities, launch the game and come to terms with the terrible picture, then a really good shooter with dynamic gameplay and interesting story. Which makes it really annoying.

A controversial statement, but it seems that Remedy has never let its players down in everything related to the gameplay itself. This time her new game turned out very good (again, if the player persistently can ignore everything technical problems or even sit down to play on Xbox One).

Before us is a story about a time machine and an incident with it, which gave the two main acting persons the ability to manipulate time to your advantage. To reveal the plot, Remedy invited several prominent Hollywood actors, such as Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger from Game of Thrones), Shawn Ashmore (Bobby from X-Men) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry from The Lord of the Rings). The solution is remarkable: the actors do exactly what they play, do not skimp on emotions and wonderfully convey the atmosphere of what is happening on the screen. In addition, between chapters, the player is literally shown a series: live filming with live actors about twenty minutes long.

The story itself cannot be said to be incredibly innovative and interesting: both the game and the series suffer from cliches and references, but the situation is greatly saved by the excellent performances of the actors involved.

The shootouts also match the plot: the main character is able to manipulate time, but not in the way we imagine - he cannot completely freeze time, take away everyone’s weapons and run off into the sunset. And what would be the point of the game then?.. On the contrary, all the abilities only add dynamics to the game: you can freeze time only in a small area, you can also make a small explosion (in fact, it’s instead of grenades), create a shield for bullets, quickly jump from one point to another and so on.

Due to this, the shootouts turn out to be fast, bright and colorful (if the computer can handle it, ha ha...). At first, dealing with opponents is quite simple, since they are not ready to fight with you and your skills, but the situation changes very quickly, soldiers with special equipment, which greatly complicate your time manipulation. The move on Remedy's part is quite banal, but the game only benefits from it.

So it turns out that Remedy has released a wonderful single-player shooter, with expensive special effects and highly paid actors, which would come in handy given the failure of the last Call of Duty. But due to Microsoft’s completely unsuccessful policy in this area, few will be able to play Quantum Break on PC, and only a few will be able to enjoy it. Bravo, Microsoft!

P.S. The ratings in the table are given exclusively for the PC version of the game in the state in which it is present on the market, without regard to the potential hidden in the game and its “playability” onXboxOne.

System requirements:

Minimum:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 @ 2.70 GHz or AMD FX-6300
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon R7 260x
• Video memory capacity: 2 GB
• RAM: 8 GB

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit version)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4690 @ 3.9 GHz or AMD equivalent
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390
• Video memory capacity: 4 GB
• RAM: 16 GB
• Free storage space: 68 GB