In Quantum Break, Remedy’s interactive transmedia exclusive on Xbox One, the player will not only step into the shoes of the protagonists, but the antagonist as well.
Speaking with Game Informer, the studio’s writer and creative director Sam Lake, said Quantum Break is the team’s take on action movies featuring not only a tough adversary, but one who is also “really cool.”
“Think about Die Hard. The bad guy (Alan Rickman) comes close to stealing the show,” said Lake. “This is our interactive dynamic way of doing these scenes where in the action movie you see the bad guy planning and making his moves. You get to play Paul Serene during the junction moments and make these choices. We want to make even the bad guy a deep, complex character that you will see different sides of. You will understand why he’s doing what he’s doing.
“It really amounts to dynamic, player-created cliffhangers at the end of every act of the game.”
Jack and Beth are the protagonists, and during these “junction moments,” players will switch to playing the villain, Paul Serene, which are crucial to the project’s transmedia agenda.
“He has this time power that gives him the ability to see glimpses of different timelines and different futures,” Lake said. “At the end of each act of the game, you actually get to play him during these junction moments. You get to explore and discover these glimpses of different futures, and you get to make the choice. Which of these two futures that are presented will come to pass?
“This leads into the next episode of the show. Immediately the first scene of the show is affected by the choice you made. It’s very much alternate content depending on the choice you made. The idea is that it will feel relevant to the plot of the show. You’ll learn important things that you’ll need for the game.
“At the same time, the junction moment is just one gameplay scene, and the glimpses you see can be approached in two different ways. They are fragments. You are learning about certain things, but all options have both positive and negative from the bad guy’s perspective, but also from the heroes’ perspective.”
Lake said the junction points and gameplay not only “affect the tone of what will follow,” but will also unlock alternate content and player choices follow them throughout the rest of the game.
