This game is looking to integrate real-life content into its narrative arch

In the everlasting console war between Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, each company has experimented with a mixture of hardware, from touch screens and three-dimensional displays to gestural recognition cameras, and software ranging from Blu-ray compatibility to Netflix integrations in the hopes of dominating a dynamic and constantly fluctuating market. As graphics and processing power enable gaming to take on a more cinematic and interactive form, its clear that the medium has developed quite well as a result of the rivalry between the big three enterprises. Yet, for the majority of gamers, the choice console doesn’t pertain to whether they explore worlds via stylus or joy pad; its the games themselves that motivate players to purchase the platform.

With this in mind, Sony has made moves to enter the indie gaming space, offering titles from lesser-known developers at marginal costs in exchange for a chance to win fame and fortune within the PlayStation community. Microsoft, on the other hand, preferred to stick with a more conservative approach, offering its lineup of exclusives such as its best-selling Halo and Gears of War series in the hopes of striking a chord with its loyal fan base. And while the disputes over who has been, is, and will be winning this competition have endured for as long as the companies themselves, its clear that moving forward the games with the most depth and enthrallment will go on to turn the most profit.

Developing team Remedy’s Quantum Break is shaping up to be one such title by looking to redefine the traditional structure of narratives told within the gaming world. Available for PC and Xbox One, what makes this video game special is the fact that after you finish an act (of which there are five total), a 20-minute episode starts rolling featuring the characters played by their real-life voice actors. As such, the game adopts the feeling popularized by the Uncharted series of ‘playing a movie,’ by weaving together the interactivity of playing a videogame with the thrill of watching a flick.

Doubly as exciting, the game can unfold in multiple different ways, meaning the decisions you make throughout have an impact on how the story progresses and eventually ends. At the end of each act, you’ll be presented with a junction point for which you’ll be responsible for coming to a decision; as such, the game branches out into numerous scenarios depending on the route you chose to take. Across the span of Quantum Break, expect to see up to 40 different shorts and episodes woven into the game.

The plot of this third-person shooter kicks off with one Jack Joyce, who discovers his ability to control time after a time-travel experiment gone wrong at Riverport University. It turns out however that Jack isn’t the only one with this unique ability, and he soon teams up with like-powered Beth Wilder to fight against villain Paul Serene (who too has the same ability) and his Monarch Security forces in a battle to save an increasingly decaying future before time literally runs out in the East Coast town of Riverport.

“As time breaks down, impossible, split second moments of destruction turn into epic stages of time powered action. The actions Joyce and Wilder make shape the narrative as it unfolds,” reads the game’s Wikia page. “…how you play the game impacts the show, and the show informs how you play the game.”

In developing the game over the course of five years, the writers and developers spoke with physicists to ensure that the game’s explanation of bending time rang true in the eyes of modern physics, both from a classical and quantum perspective.

“We had discussions and brainstorming sessions as well, around the Higgs field, the Higgs boson and how that relates to the idea of gravity; how, in theory, there could be a similar field and particle that is tied to time. From that we got our idea for chronofields and chronoparticles, which are based on the scientist in the story, called Meyer-Joyce fields and particles,” says Sam Lake, Quantum Break’s director and writer.

Above all else, Quantum Break offers a fresh perspective on interactive narratives because it took the extra steps to make its story real. If you can imagine ‘playing’ your favorite action movie with a sci-fi spin, that’s exactly what this game is. Some are even saying that the game is the Xbox One’s ‘first true system seller.‘

Quantum Break