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Quantum Break |OT| We'll Be Right Back After This Commercial Break

farisr

Member
yeah the time rush - but that wastes my rushing so I can't rush to guys and melee them.
Honestly by the end of the game, maybe about 1/10 of my time rush uses were for melee. The rest were to get a better position/angle or sometimes run away/hide from the enemy to regain health. As for those enemies with the chronon shield, they won't always have it active, what I do for those moments is time rush or go directly into a timestop as soon as they bring down their shields and unload a bunch of clips into the time bubble. Two timestop's worth usually bring those bullet sponge guys down.
 

Alx

Member
Just finished the game, hard mode all the way through. Very interesting experience, now to test a few variations ; from what I understood from the "time knife" script reading video, the choices can be inter-dependent, so you could have up to 16 different variations of the story ?

Btw plot spoiler :
Paul Serene was right.
 
Just finished the game, hard mode all the way through. Very interesting experience, now to test a few variations ; from what I understood from the "time knife" script reading video, the choices can be inter-dependent, so you could have up to 16 different variations of the story ?

Btw plot spoiler :
Paul Serene was right.

Little finger has a plan
 

gfxtwin

Member
Completed this on PC last week. I love the art direction of this game so much, just wish it wasn't so short. I think I finished it in two or three sittings. Love the idea of weaving in a cinematic game with an actual TV show to break up chapters. The sci-fi concept sure ain't gonna dethrone The Matrix any time soon (a college student genius invents a time machine in 1999 all on his own...such a genius that he doesn't realize how much a time machine could fuck shit up in reality. Seems legit) and the idea of "fracturing" time never made sense to me and seemed like that concept was just an excuse to use the glorious time-manipulation powers, but I was really invested in the characters in both the show and game. I can't believe they got two prominent actors from the wire and one from Lost to star in a legit entertaining TV show. Not all the characters were interesting, but the central ones were, especially Charlie who you hate at the beginning but have more complicated feelings towards as the show continues.

I hope more games attempt a presentation like this. Imagine how cool it would be if the next Alan Wake were structured like QB, or the next Naughty Dog franchise or Mortal Kombat or Hideo Kojima game. And games with a focus on multiplayer, like Battlefield and COD could have new life breathed into their campaigns instead of cutting them out completely. Ideally the writing and overall concept would be more engaging than QB's, but the live action show segments really made me care about the characters in a way I didn't expect.
 

SlickVic

Member
yeah the time rush - but that wastes my rushing so I can't rush to guys and melee them.

Well the boss won't use the time bomb until the entire wave of enemies is cleared, so as long as you're pacing out your time rush to use it when there's at least a few enemies still left, you should be good. When you're down to just one enemy left in the wave, I would be very conservative with using time rush since you're going to need it for the time bomb.

One major caveat with using melee in that final boss battle is if you get into an unlucky situation where you're locked into the melee finishing animation while one of those red mini-bombs goes off at the same exact time and you're standing right on top of it, you will get one hit killed. This happened to me at least twice.

Sometimes you can use it to your advantage as enemies caught in those red mini-bombs can potentially get OHK as well, but I wasn't able to figure out a way to lure them into those sites without taking damage myself. What makes it a bad boss battle to me is it seems avoiding one hit kill encounters comes down more to luck than exhibiting any skill.
 

shandy706

Member
So I watched the live stream of Angry Joe "playing" the game and just as I thought. They were literally making up some things to attack and complain about.

There's a section where they complain and fuss and bash the game for invisible walls and being forced to use certain powers. It's a "puzzle", the simplest in the game. I just went to that spot and went right through the spot with completely different powers on my first, second, and a fancy 3rd try.

Figures.

Them smacking into a fence and screwing up the timing and taking 5 tries to figure out an elementary puzzle is hilarious.

lol, me? I would imagine that includes paused time.

That's a lot of pause time, haha.
 

nib95

Banned
Second play through (still on hard) has definitely been less enjoyable for me, mostly because I've forced myself to no longer use the Carbine Rifle, and instead experiment with a more diverse range of weapons which has forced me to bring myself in closer, inadvertently showing up more of the mobility flaws.

Against the medium heavies, the starting pistol I find is still more effective than most other weapons, especially at any sort of range. The assault rifles and SMG's have too much recoil and are weaker at even medium range, even if coupled with a time stop. Comparatively with the pistol a chain of well timed headshots against the bigger brutes, is often far more effective.

Also whilst the shotgun is super effective against regular grunts, against the medium heavies it becomes a liability, especially if your time shield runs out or you're not directly aiming at their backpack. They will riddle you with bullets as you run away, even if time running/dashing, and if you get stuck behind a random object, things can go South fairly quickly.

Expanding on that, I think the thing that really prevents the combat from being truly special, is the mobility, collision and animation redundancies. Jack is just not nimble enough, and the animations and collision avoidance simply can't keep up with the momentum of the combat. The game desperately needs some of the fluidity from games like Uncharted, Gears, Assassin's Creed etc, where you can easily hop or slide over walls, obstacles etc mid run, without it slowing your flow as much, or things feeling cumbersome and cluttered. I think I've got stuck in front of things like walls, cars, boxes, and other random objects, more times in QB, than with any third person shooter I've played in recent years, which given that the powers promote mobility and open combat, shouldn't be the case.

If with QB2 Remedy can add in hip fire, better cover systems, blind fire and above all, more fluid animations, an improved camera and better character object avoidance, I think the combat would be elevated to a whole new level, more so because the foundation is already excellent and highly satisfying despite these drawbacks.

Also, on top of some sort of Horde or Survival type mode, I think the game needs a harder difficulty. Hard isn't quite hard enough, especially as the hardest setting in the game.
 

shandy706

Member
Also, on top of some sort of Horde or Survival type mode, I think the game needs a harder difficulty. Hard isn't quite hard enough, especially as the hardest setting in the game.

I second this. Needs an extra mode and a NG+

Also, I don't like the "heavy" handgun. It sucks on Hard, lol. The default or rapid fire are excellent though.
 
If with QB2 Remedy can add in hip fire, better cover systems, blind fire and above all, more fluid animations, an improved camera and better character object avoidance, I think the combat would be elevated to a whole new level, more so because the foundation is already excellent and highly satisfying despite these drawbacks.

Also, on top of some sort of Horde or Survival type mode, I think the game needs a harder difficulty. Hard isn't quite hard enough, especially as the hardest setting in the game.

They don't need a better cover system, it should be there to generate health and provide basic cover, they shouldn't be expanding on it. Hip fire would help for the shotgun.

Agree on Horde/Survival, and a harder difficulty but harder difficulty only if they fix the boss fight
 

nib95

Banned
They don't need a better cover system, it should be there to generate health and provide basic cover, they shouldn't be expanding on it. Hip fire would help for the shotgun.

Agree on Horde/Survival, and a harder difficulty but harder difficulty only if they fix the boss fight

I would personally prefer a better cover system with more of the basics. If it existed, I'd still generously use my time powers and mostly rely on time shield, but for those moments where my time shield and/or dash/run were charging, or there were cars, ramps or other things blocking my escape route or making it less viable, it would just make more sense to run and slide over or behind a piece of cover, and dash from cover to cover till you're in the green, to more effectively escape or buy time to charge up.

I get that would make the game easier, but improving AI and reworking encounters accordingly, to balance things out again could solve that. Point is, the more options and freedom you have, the better. That way it's not the mechanics or a lack of a feature that's holding you back, just your imagination, strategy and skill level.
 

Chitown B

Member
Well the boss won't use the time bomb until the entire wave of enemies is cleared, so as long as you're pacing out your time rush to use it when there's at least a few enemies still left, you should be good. When you're down to just one enemy left in the wave, I would be very conservative with using time rush since you're going to need it for the time bomb.

One major caveat with using melee in that final boss battle is if you get into an unlucky situation where you're locked into the melee finishing animation while one of those red mini-bombs goes off at the same exact time and you're standing right on top of it, you will get one hit killed. This happened to me at least twice.

Sometimes you can use it to your advantage as enemies caught in those red mini-bombs can potentially get OHK as well, but I wasn't able to figure out a way to lure them into those sites without taking damage myself. What makes it a bad boss battle to me is it seems avoiding one hit kill encounters comes down more to luck than exhibiting any skill.

I wasn't initially trying to melee but then everyone said they beat it by just melee'ing everyone. So I tried that.

The thing I find ridiculous is the bombs don't have a very distinctive sound compared to all the other time dashing going on, and since they don't seem to have a big area of light surrounding them - if you're not looking in their direction you may not even know they are there. After the initial bomb, no other bombs do that camera shifting to show them. Half the time I just blow up without realizing one was next to me.
 

Chitown B

Member
I just shot the last guy.

I withstood the huge blast. I thought that was it. I stepped out to shoot him and there was a huge delayed blast that apparently I didn't know about. DEAD. That took me 1.5 hours.
 

Chitown B

Member
I recommend turning down the music all the way when trying the last boss fight on Hard. Makes it so you can actually hear most of the bombs and sound effects.
 

aravuus

Member
Just got to act 4, part 2 and fuck yes there's SO MUCH TO READ lol

I know people tend to be a bit averse to this sort of story-telling, and I can see why - a lot of these documents, emails and such are in completely random places, which I'm sure breaks the immersion for some. But I fucking love this stuff. I mean, of course it'd be NICE if the locations made more sense, but it's really a non-issue for me.
 

Alx

Member
I suppose that without the HUD you can't see your powers charging level ? How do you know which ones are available ?
I admit that I spent a lot of time using powers without checking if they were charged, but it lead to many deaths where I was desperately hammering the button of an empty shield ability. :p
 

derFeef

Member
I suppose that without the HUD you can't see your powers charging level ? How do you know which ones are available ?
I admit that I spent a lot of time using powers without checking if they were charged, but it lead to many deaths where I was desperately hammering the button of an empty shield ability. :p

Honestly I never looked at the HUD during my whole playthrough on hard, worked pretty good except for a few instances where I needed time shield and it was not available yet.
Also I think time shield should have been a real SHIELD and not a bubble which makes you immobile. More tactics! They could have thrown the heal on top of the activation. But I guess it does not make sense for the powers at all.
 

Alx

Member
Now that I think about it, I didn't really care about the HUD for the powers with multiple charges, like shield, stop and dash, since there was usually at least one left. Blast and rush was a different story though, because they took a long time to charge and were quickly depleted. Even then I did have some issues with rush, with the effect shutting off just before I reach an opponent and trigger the melee attack.
 

derFeef

Member
I hated Rush. I ran up to enemies and the prompt did not pop up most of the time. I had enough juice left as well, frustrating sometimes. I think Dash and Shield were my top 2 powers, even though I thought I would use time stop more, but I found the dash>aim slowmo a lot more reliable.
 

Alx

Member
I think rush was fun and very effective against smaller opponents, but yes the execution was sometimes flawed. Also I never managed to do a multiple melee, as the upgrade suggested I could do. It could have been great to teleport from one enemy to another.
I agree dash + focus + shotgun was the most reliable and rewarding strategy. Time stop is fine too, but you get tired of shooting into a bubble, and it doesn't let you aim for weak points.
 

SenjutsuSage

Halo TV Series Promoter - Live from: Reach
I want to preface by saying that before playing Quantum Break -which I finished just this afternoon- that I started and played through to completion Alan Wake and both DLCs included with AW. Why? Wanted to play AW first and see if they were any similarities between both titles.

Initial thoughts and impressions of QB:

Gameplay

Although repetitive, the "enter area and clear the baddies" gameplay loop was solid and the controls felt fluid and responsive. Controlling Jack Joyce was never a chore. The platforming segments were few but we're a nice way to change up the pacing of the game -which I thought was horrible, but more on that later- and do something else besides shoot badies.

The time abilities/powers were cool to use but some felt more powerful than others and I ended using 3-4 as opposed to the entire arsenal.

Visuals/Presentation

I played on X1, and I thought it looked great on my TV. I read a DF article where they stated the game was using tech not unlike Alan Wake in which the game is actually running at 720p but to the user looks higher res. I'm not tech savvy when it comes to this stuff but I thought the game was very very pretty.

The lighting was awesome, some textures looked fuzzy when you would pan the camera around fast and I did notice some screen tearing when I got off an elevator once but all in all I thought the game was a looker.

The UI used for seeing your collectibles and upgrading your abilities was easy to maneuver and understand and reminded me of Battlefront's UI for some odd reason.

Narrative/Story

The gameplay was solid but nothing revolutionary; this game kept me hooked and playing for 2 straight days because of its narrative. Jack Joyce, Paul Serene, Martin Hatch, Liam Burke, Fiona Miller, Sofia Amaral and Beth Wilder etc. were all believable and genuine characters.

I commend Remedy for doing something different with the four 20-25 min live action pieces at the end of each act which was guided by your decisions at the junction points. Some of the acting was cringe worthy,
Serene choking Amaral was just bad acting imo
but overall it kept me engaged and kept me coming back for more. Liked that it gave us a the viewpoint of the "enemies" and it served to humanize some of them. Even Paul Serene, which I thought was awesome because then to me he wasn't stock bad guy, he became nuanced, troubled guy who's fighting for something he believes in.

Oddly, one of the narrative devices that I loved but hated at the same time were the collectibles. The emails were lengthy and full of exposition which brought these characters to life
(Time Knife by Bruce Livingston was hilarious)
but I think that littering important bits of the story in collectibles was unacceptable for 2 reasons

Reason 1 being that if a player decided to not seek these narrative collectibles he/she would be devoid of these awesome characters interacting with one another and the story wouldn't seem as fully realized as it is.

Reason 2 is the it totally takes you outta the game. It immerses you into the narrative knee deep, but to the detriment of the game experience. Shoot dudes, read for 3 minutes, shoot some more dudes, ok now read, ok now watch.

The game had horrible pacing.

Spoiler bits

Really liked how Remedy built up the shifters as these menacing enemies not to be toyed with but it never did pay off. The boss fight was disappointing which I figured it would be and I hoped Serene would fight like Joyce did but better seeing as he has had his abilities for far longer.

I thought Dr. Kim -being a shifter and all- would be an adversary the game would put Joyce against.

The game left me with more questions than answers and hopefully some DLC or a sequel will answer some of my questions.

For how long has Hatch been a shifter and how can he control it and be in regular form when there aren't any stutters?

What happened to Dr.Kim? who although never was formally seen, I felt was fully realized through the collectibles.

Beth Wilder's story was fucking horseshit and I felt like she got hosed. The actress -Courtney Hope- did a spot on job of portraying to the viewer how going to the end of time and waiting 11 years for Jack took a toll not just physically but on her psyche as well. Wilder look defeated and it was horrible to see how pre-Amaral fuck over she was fully of energy and purpose and now she just looked beat.

Wilder and Serene were probably my favorite characters. Paul Serene to me wasn't a bad guy, he too wanted to save the world. The only difference being that he wanted the Chronon Field Regulator for his lifeboat protocol in order to save the world after the end of time and Joyce wanted the CFR in order to stop the final stutter that would end time.

Serene had given in to the fact that the end would happen and that to me made him a nuanced, even grounded character.

Closing thoughts

Quantum Break was a highly enjoyable game and like a good book I was fully engrossed and bought into the world Remedy had created. The gameplay was nothing game changing but the live action scenes were different enough to make the genre feel fresh.

Awesome job Remedy.


Serene also noted, if you read the right optional story material in game, that jacks progression with his powers was far faster and more adept than anything he ever demonstrated.
 

TheKeyPit

Banned
For the sequel, listen Remedy:
Make a Time Shield that moves with the player by holding the B button.
When Time Rushing to an enemy and holding RB let that Time Blast hit the enemy hard and launch him into the air or stagger heavy enemies.
Use mini stutters for a stealth section.
 

Trup1aya

Member
For the sequel, listen Remedy:
Make a Time Shield that moves with the player by holding the B button.
When Time Rushing to an enemy and holding RB let that Time Blast hit the enemy hard and launch him into the air or stagger heavy enemies.
Use mini stutters for a stealth section.

I hope to god we get a sequel... We'll likely be waiting atleast 7 years though... :(
 

Chitown B

Member
Just got to act 4, part 2 and fuck yes there's SO MUCH TO READ lol

I know people tend to be a bit averse to this sort of story-telling, and I can see why - a lot of these documents, emails and such are in completely random places, which I'm sure breaks the immersion for some. But I fucking love this stuff. I mean, of course it'd be NICE if the locations made more sense, but it's really a non-issue for me.

I would have liked it more if opening something to read it paused any dialog that was going on. I kept opening things and then having to listen to dialog plus my own internal dialog plus trying to read what I opened. It could have been more elegant.
 

Alx

Member
For the sequel, listen Remedy:
Make a Time Shield that moves with the player by holding the B button.
When Time Rushing to an enemy and holding RB let that Time Blast hit the enemy hard and launch him into the air or stagger heavy enemies.
Use mini stutters for a stealth section.

Yes, and maybe more stealth all around. It was actually a bit jarring that Jack's only solution for everything was to kill everybody in the room, when he had abilities that could let him sneak through.
I'm actually more fond of action games in general, but I think there is more potential for puzzle and stealth here. Although the shooting is fun, so I would miss it if it went away.

Also two things :
- no one-shot kill, ever.
- on checkpoints before a difficult boss, avoid repeating the cutscene, obviously, but if you can't at least make sure the first seconds are silent. Hearing the same sentence again and again was turning me crazy.
 
I imagine a DLC plan like they did for Alan Wake.

More so- Act 5 and 6 announced at e3. There are so many questions unanswered by the time you end the game. It's awesome but at the same time painful. Cause i want MOAR. :((

I dont think they will do a Sequel just yet. If they do it will revolve around
2021 during the END OF TIME.
 
Can't state enough how much I'm loving this game .

Just did
the tanker / bridge crash scene
. Really don't want it to end , and love the time stutters / effects so much . Something surreal about seeing a bird stuck in mid air or hearing people sloooowwwllllyyy talk when you get near them.

At least I know I have a few different choices to go back and replay. Bring on dlc remedy please :)
 

aravuus

Member
Final act is glitching the fuck out

What a nice way to end the journey

e: well, it's been stuck in a loading screen for the past minute so I guess I'm not, in fact, ending the journey right now

shm
 

Chitown B

Member
Yes, and maybe more stealth all around. It was actually a bit jarring that Jack's only solution for everything was to kill everybody in the room, when he had abilities that could let him sneak through.
I'm actually more fond of action games in general, but I think there is more potential for puzzle and stealth here. Although the shooting is fun, so I would miss it if it went away.

Also two things :
- no one-shot kill, ever.
- on checkpoints before a difficult boss, avoid repeating the cutscene, obviously, but if you can't at least make sure the first seconds are silent. Hearing the same sentence again and again was turning me crazy.

Yeah me too. However usually when this happened it was so you didn't get stuck on a section without being able to choose different weapons beforehand if something wasn't working - i.e. the last boss fight.
 

aravuus

Member
And I'm finished. Loved it! Hated it!

Well, maybe hate is a bit strong, but frankly actually playing wasn't fun. The powers were cool and easy and fun to use, but moving and aiming was so bad I cannot believe some of the more positive comments I've seen regarding the gunplay. I dunno. Maybe it's the framerate. I spent a lot of time doing something completely different, though, so this actually isn't that big a complaint. Maybe 20-25% of my time with the game was spent fighting.

That's pretty much the only negative though, otherwise I loved it! Aside from the obvious IQ problems, the game looks and sounds fucking amazing. I particularly loved the lighting and all the hazy reflections and shadows and whatnot. Fucking awesome to look at. Story, while pretty predictable to someone who's watched/read a lot of time travel stories already, was very good, really enjoyed all the characters.
Could have done without the cliffhanger, but I guess we gotta bait for them DLCs/sequel.
I fucking LOVED the detailed world, spent a stupid amount of hours just reading shit and looking at notes, stickers, really just objects around the world. There was a lot of fun stuff to see everywhere.

But yeah, overall a great experience. If the DLC and/or sequel ever happen, I'll be sure to check them out

How much do the different junction choices affect the game? Are the bigger story changes restricted to the TV show stuff, or is the whole story affected?

e: oh and yeah, the final boss was stuuuupiiiid.
 
EDIT: I'm having the same problem I did before where every time I aim down sights it defaults to looking over my left shoulder. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

RE-EDIT: Might be connected to which weapons I'm carrying. It seemed to default to the left after I picked up the burst fire pistol, so I picked up the default pistol during a firefight and it's gone back to aiming over the right shoulder. I think the first time I had the problem was after changing weapons too iirc.


It's nothing to do with changing weapons, the game just dictates what shoulder depending on where the character is. It pretty annoying and the support in the remedy forums pretty much always reply with "well look into that in the future" when it's brought up.
Suck man. Giving me a headache.
 

CloudWolf

Member
Finished the game, I liked it. It's not the best thing ever, but I really enjoyed it for what it was. I didn't like the final boss fight though, just like everyone. The thing is that once you know what you have to do it's stupid easy to avoid those red zones, but the attack that Paul uses against you is never explained which makes it frustratingly hard. I surprisingly ended up loving the live action 'TV' show, didn't expect that.
I kinda felt bad for Burke when I had to fight him :(

Oh, and I'll take that Alan Wake live action show now, Remedy.
 

Bsigg12

Member
I really enjoyed the game. It was just difficult enough on Hard and I actually liked the story more than I expected to. Well done Remedy! I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel.
 

Montresor

Member
The final battle is the biggest load of bullshit I've seen in a game before. FUCK. I'm playing on normal and getting irritated. I don't envy my hard playthrough.

What the HELL are these red things killing me? Fucking red bombs? I put 10 or so hours into this game and never saw these red bombs before and now out of nowhere there are these red bombs killing me off-screen with no warning?

They don't look like bombs. They don't sound like bombs. Just RANDOMLY some sections of the level will become red and if I'm in that diameter then I'm dead?

Up to this point I had purely glowing impressions. I.E. game of the gen. Pretty much had absolutely no complaints. But this final battle is terrible.
 

Bsigg12

Member
The final battle is the biggest load of bullshit I've seen in a game before. FUCK. I'm playing on normal and getting irritated. I don't envy my hard playthrough.

What the HELL are these red things killing me? Fucking red bombs? I put 10 or so hours into this game and never saw these red bombs before and now out of nowhere there are these red bombs killing me off-screen with no warning?

They don't look like bombs. They don't sound like bombs. Just RANDOMLY some sections of the level will become red and if I'm in that diameter then I'm dead?

Up to this point I had purely glowing impressions. I.E. game of the gen. Pretty much had absolutely no complaints. But this final battle is terrible.


They're Paul's version of your time blast. Just keep moving and use the hold LB to escape everything
 

Alienous

Member
Also, not one
combat section in an area that's mid-stutter destroyed, like the tanker/bridge
.

It's convenient chest high cover all the way through. That was disappointing.
 

Trup1aya

Member
The final battle is the biggest load of bullshit I've seen in a game before. FUCK. I'm playing on normal and getting irritated. I don't envy my hard playthrough.

What the HELL are these red things killing me? Fucking red bombs? I put 10 or so hours into this game and never saw these red bombs before and now out of nowhere there are these red bombs killing me off-screen with no warning?

They don't look like bombs. They don't sound like bombs. Just RANDOMLY some sections of the level will become red and if I'm in that diameter then I'm dead?

Up to this point I had purely glowing impressions. I.E. game of the gen. Pretty much had absolutely no complaints. But this final battle is terrible.

Lol, he's doing a time blast
 

dt2

Banned
The final battle is the biggest load of bullshit I've seen in a game before. FUCK. I'm playing on normal and getting irritated. I don't envy my hard playthrough.

What the HELL are these red things killing me? Fucking red bombs? I put 10 or so hours into this game and never saw these red bombs before and now out of nowhere there are these red bombs killing me off-screen with no warning?

They don't look like bombs. They don't sound like bombs. Just RANDOMLY some sections of the level will become red and if I'm in that diameter then I'm dead?

Up to this point I had purely glowing impressions. I.E. game of the gen. Pretty much had absolutely no complaints. But this final battle is terrible.

It's pretty easy once you understand the pattern. Whenever you see red just keep dashing. He places them where you're at every now and then. After you defeat the wave of enemies he'll place a few more at your current location. Just dash to the other side of the building as these have more range. Keep doing that (you only have to get him down twice) and he's done. I died 4 times on normal because I was just learning but I replayed on hard and easily beat him without dying.
 

Munki

Member
I've seen a couple of folks post their total playtime + total deaths . Can't seem to find where I can see that info, anyone care to enlighten me?
 
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