7/23/2023 0 Comments Quantum break tv series![]() It’s only in the handful of moments when the world freezes-time “stutters,” Jack able to move while everyone and everything else remains motionless-that Quantum Break exploits the design potential of its sci-fi conceits. ![]() As Jack, the player spends much of her time shooting through groups of enemy soldiers across a series of competent, but unexceptional gun battles. Though initially off-putting, the game’s eagerness to explain the pseudo-science behind its various super devices, and the straight face with which it approaches the dramatic potential of time loops, becomes endearing. Just as Max Payne and Alan Wake couched themselves in crime and paranormal thriller conventions, Remedy’s latest owes a profound debt to the twisting plotlines and fantastic technology of the time travel genre. That a brief summary of Quantum Break ’s plot is necessarily convoluted should provide some idea of how the game itself unfolds. In attempting to avert this catastrophe, Jack is opposed by former friend Paul Serene ( Game of Thrones ’ Aidan Gillen), the founder of Monarch Solutions, a mega corporation with a vested interest in the shape the oncoming apocalypse will take. The accident that gives Jack his powers also sets the end of the world into motion-a calamity dubbed The End of Time in which everything in existence simply stops. ![]() His exposure to time-manipulating “chronon particles” gives Jack the ability to freeze the world around him, speed from place to place, and create pockets in space where nothing moves. After his brother’s time machine malfunctions, Jack finds himself imbued with superpowers. Quantum Break is not so much a tribute to pulp sci-fi-it’s an embodiment. Multi-colored ribbons of exploded fireworks hang suspended in mid-air The player expects more of these as the game goes on, but, instead, Remedy largely forgoes the constraints of these short videos for something bigger: live-action, full-length episodes of its very own science-fiction drama series. Though the plot starts with Jack rushing to meet his brother for the demonstration of a revolutionary new technology, time can still be taken to stand around in front of a set and watch a video. In Quantum Break, Remedy’s most recent work, the player can guide protagonist Jack Joyce (portrayed by X-Men actor Shawn Ashmore) to a TV within the first few minutes of the game. The in-game televisions are a loving acknowledgement of the stories the developer enjoys and a clear signal to the audience that the story they’re watching is an intentional send-up of established genres. Both games are played straight-they intentionally lean into the campier side of their inspirations without ever attempting to mock them. While Alan Wake is a Stephen King thriller filtered through the lens of Twin Peaks and The Twilight Zone. As such, Max Payne is a blend of Hong Kong cinema gunplay and conspiracy-laden noir. These TV shows are worth mentioning as a reminder that Remedy has never been shy about recognizing its influences. ![]() Alan Wake sticks to a Twilight Zone -inspired anthology series called Night Springs. In Max Payne, these include soapy melodrama Lords and Ladies and the paranoiac, Lynch-riffing Address Unknown. In Remedy Entertainment’s Max Payne (2001) and Alan Wake (2010), the player can approach television sets and watch short, surprisingly detailed videos.
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