Quantum Break - Xbox One

Quantum Break is a third-person action game with cover-shooter mechanics. The game's protagonist is Jack Joyce, and it begins in media res at the fictional Riverport University in the north-eastern United States. He is there with his gifted brother William Joyce, who works as a physicist at the university. They are experimenting with time travel, and right at the start of the game it turns out the experiments have gone wrong. They also cause stutters that disrupt the flow of time in the everyday environment. Jack must flee the facility with his brother as soldiers arrive and try to cover up the disaster. His brother is soon kidnapped, and Jack, with the help of a woman named Beth Wilder whom he meets early on, searches for a way to find him again. Jack and Paul Serene, who is introduced later, both gain different time-manipulation abilities through the experiments. They are initially best friends, but their powers drive them in different directions. Unlike Jack, Paul has a premonition and can foresee the future. He wants to get rid of Jack and Beth so he can exploit the powers alone.

The game consists of five major acts, in which the player controls the protagonist, Joyce. Between these five acts there are four episodes in which the game follows the antagonist, Serene. These are presented as four episodes of a live-action TV series, each around 20 minutes long. They are watched, not played, but there are interactive parts. At the start of an episode there are "junctions" where important decisions can be made that influence what happens next and lead to a branching story. Likewise, certain discoveries and decisions in the acts influence the story in minor ways through "quantum ripples", so the TV episodes don't form a fixed, identical sequence for every player.

In the acts, Joyce has to shoot his way through the levels. The opposition consists mainly of soldiers working for Monarch Solutions, a company founded by Serene, who hunt Joyce on his behalf. He can carry up to three different firearms, such as pistols, shotguns and machine guns, each with its own ammo type. However, ammo is limited, which encourages players to use the many time-manipulation abilities or shoot explosive elements in the environment to take out enemies quickly. Weapons can also be picked up from killed enemies. Taking cover happens seamlessly when near a cover point, simply by moving, and moving out of cover works the same way, without using an extra key or button. From cover, it's possible to shoot around or over it and quickly pop back in.

Gradually, various time-centred abilities become available. These focus mainly on defence and improved mobility and don't turn the main character into a superhero who is no longer vulnerable. In the later parts of the game, enemies appear who also have time powers or who are much harder to take out, such as snipers. Joyce starts with Time Dodge, to move a few metres quickly. Others include Time Vision as a radar pulse to detect enemies through walls and highlight objects in different colours, keep targets in view, find glowing chronon sources, and locate places where time can be rewound. Time Stop sends out a wave that briefly stops enemies and bullets caught within it. Time Shield creates a temporary shield around Joyce that deflects bullets and damages nearby enemies. Time Blast and Time Rush are offensive moves. "Blast" sends out a ball of energy that damages enemies and knocks them back, while "Rush" propels Joyce forward quickly as an enhanced version of "Time Dodge" and offers the chance for a melee attack. Except for Shield, all of these can be used while moving, and each has its own cooldown timer, so many of them can be used one after another as a combination of movement and attacks. The abilities can be upgraded throughout the game by collecting chronon particles at chronon sources.

Not all parts of the gameplay revolve around shooting. There are also time stutters that function as puzzle sequences. These sequences resemble mazes in which everything is frozen in time. During this time, an ability can be used to revert parts of the environment to an earlier state, creating a path forward, as a kind of environment-based puzzle-solving. There are also many collectibles to find within the acts, such as documents, computers and media, which provide further pieces of the story.

There is cross-save functionality between the two platforms.

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