Quantum Break

The combat in this game is actually enjoyable, it's also incredibly easy, you have powers that control time. Guns are an accessory, it's about the powers, I mean the main character controls time. How very Max Payne of you, Remedy. The gameplay loop is exploration, combat, narrative decision, live action cutscene, and repeat. The characters are well written, well captured in-game, and the live action cutscenes are of much higher budget than a lot of content anywhere these days. The graphics and effects still look good 10 years after release. I've talked all positives so far, so why am I not recommending this game? 1. This is a problem with every game that has time travel, and it is that the story doesn't make any sense at all. The dialogue in the beginning is especially jarring, expecting that phrases like "the end of time" is supposed to bring gravity to the situation. Well, what does that really mean "the end of time"? That time stops and break every law of the known universe? 2. The live action cutscenes are between 20-25 minutes each, and there's 4 of them. That is a full feature length film. They break up the game for too long and players just lose agency and quit the game until the next session or just go away and do something else. 3. The producers have hired some famous faces, and so cutscenes are done with these famous faces, you have the actor for Iceman Bobby Drake from X2 who you control most of the game, they hired Little Finger from Game of Thrones as the main villain, and they brought in the always excellent Lance Reddick as the side villain. But that's the problem, because the live action cutscenes have become the game, the game feels like the completely secondary experience. The people who made this game really wanted to make this a HBO mini-series. The biggest criticism of this game is that this game is trying so hard to be what it is not, a TV show. Games are an art form unlike anything else because of the interactivity, and people who make games should always design the game in a way where the story is told through player interaction. This game failed spectacularly at this.