E3 2013: Quantum Break Gives You Control of Games and TV

Greed is good.

Splinter Cell creator and Far Cry 2 mastermind Clint Hocking coined an academic phrase that almost hurts to read: “Ludonarrative dissonance” is the inconsistency between player action and narrative intent.
Let’s unwrap that. Niko Bellic’s philosophical principles in Grand Theft Auto IV -- becoming a reformed man via the American Dream -- directly opposes the player’s freedom (to fall on a tired but relevant staple of the series) to murder a paid-for prostitute to get his cash back. What he stands for and what he does don’t align.
Quantum Break has an elegant solution to the problem of player control compromising the authored story: it embraces ludonarrative dissonance, giving players the power to change the story for advantageous gameplay reasons. The consequence of that, however, is that it has a significant and direct effect on the events of Quantum Break’s multiple stories.

Throughout Quantum Break, when dust has settled on its third-person shooter action sequences and interactive drama scenes, you’re presented with Junctions in Time. Remedy Creative Director and Quantum Break writer Sam Lake says these choices are “big, memorable moments” with ramifications that bleed into both the game and its connected television series.

Junction points aren’t momentous events decided by protagonists Jack and Beth, however. Instead, as the primary villain Paul Serene, players make major choices that affect Quantum Break’s heroes. Serene’s power to see branching futures in time give him the opportunity to pick how he’ll go about achieving his goals. So why wouldn’t you choose something that benefits Jack and paints Serene into a corner?

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There’s always an element of strategy when it comes to these choices.

“It’s much more based on dramatic preferences of the player,” Lake says. Because each of Serene’s Junction paths has positive and negative consequences for all sides, “there’s always an element of strategy when it comes to these choices. If you prefer a certain type of an enemy or kind of an action encounter, you can make these choices. It’s up to you.”
That, and Lake wants you to love Serene. “In a very good action movie,” he says, “the bad guy is always someone who comes close to stealing the whole show." Darth Vader. Hans Gruber. T-1000. These villains all want bad things for the Good Guys, but their motivations and character traits are so interesting you can’t help but hope they get a little too close to succeeding for comfort.

Serene, ideally, will be such a villain, and you’ll drive him in a direction that makes your story more memorable.
Lake emphasizes that choices in Quantum Break -- which feed into the numerous unlockable TV show episodes -- are not the choose-your-own-adventure type. In those sorts of stories, “one story gets easily watered down into many weaker ones. For us, this is one powerful story told many different ways.”
Remedy probably won’t limit it to just one story. “What you are getting is the first season of Quantum Break, the game and the show, in one package for you,” Lake says. Given the team’s affinity for television structure and presentation -- both in the game and in their literal creation of a related TV series -- expecting more seasons is a safe bet.
“This could be called the ultimate Remedy experience,” Lake says. Part of me worries about that.

Conceptually, Quantum Break is brilliant. I binge on TV series obsessively, so fusing an ongoing drama with a game I’m playing, all in one package, speaks to me. That said, the absence of any actual gameplay in its reveal terrifies me. Lake and the rest of Remedy are carefully considering how to balance the pace of this thing that’s tailor-made for me. He says the pace of consumption in playing games and taking in TV are comparable, but finding a way to make it work has been difficult.
Remedy is extremely proud of the interaction between Quantum Break the game and Quantum Break the TV show. Make a choice in the game, see the consequences in the show, learn information from the actors and apply that knowledge back into the interactive side. But what is the relationship between the game and player?
Yes, it will have combat, but how often will Quantum Break rip control away to tell me something, show off its glamorous facial animation technology, or throw me into a TV episode?
Appropriately, time will tell.
Remedy has never given me a reason to doubt its ability as a storyteller and a great developer. If I’m enjoying a television show, I won’t wish I were playing instead. I have faith, despite my anxiety, that the team understands what makes both mediums interesting.
I can’t wait to see how they marry them into a single experience, and how my greed in game affects the TV characters.

Quantum Break

Developed by: Remedy

Genre: Action

Release Date:

United States: Unreleased

Australia: Unreleased

UK: Unreleased

RP for Rating Pending

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