Everyone slept on Quantum Break, but you don’t have to
I don’t particularly blame anyone for missing Remedy Entertainment’s 2016 TV show/action game hybrid Quantum Break. There were, frankly, a dozen reasons to be perplexed by it — like the fact that it was a TV show/action game hybrid, or that it was inextricably tied up in Microsoft’s failed effort to make the Xbox One an all-in-one entertainment platform.
When Quantum Break was released, Remedy wasn’t the story; the Xbox One was. Microsoft positioned every new exclusive as a potential system seller that would rival Sony’s first-party stable, and most critics evaluated it on that basis. That’s not to say no one was wise to Remedy’s sly, referential style — the game has its origins in Remedy’s first attempt at an Alan Wake sequel, and there’s a full-on teaser trailer called “Return” you can watch right in the first level. (One that has more than a passing resemblance to the Alan Wake 2 that did finally arrive last month.) Remedy creative director Sam Lake has long been uncommonly open about his studio’s ambitions, mentioning plans for a connected universe long before Remedy fully realized one with 2019’s Control.
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Quantum Break didn’t have the benefit of a fully formed Remedy Connected Universe, and it was a strange exclusive on a console that was still finding its feet, and that never really took off in the way Microsoft envisioned. Considering all of this, the kind of game Quantum Break turned out to be is woefully underappreciated. It’s a fascinating entry in Remedy’s oeuvre, a critical stepping stone on which the studio figured out how to do everything it would be praised for in Control three years later.
This is clearest in its approach to action. As a story about time travel gone wrong, Quantum Break imbues
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