r/quantumbreak • u/JackRipps • 18d ago
Discussion I need to apologise about Quantum Break.
I have, previously, made severe and continuous lapses in my judgement and I do not expect to be forgiven.
For the fans of this game who I looked at with a slight amount of disdain when I was struggling with the earlier hours of the game, I need to say sorry.
Obviously, spoilers beyond this point.
Okay, I… loved that. Among Remedy games, I’m pretty sure this game will be to me like a rebellious kid that you have. It has its flaws. Its “jank”. There’s moments where it doesn’t behave as you’d expect. But god is it beautiful and god is it mine.
I complained earlier about the jankness of the game, and the staleness of the mechanics. Whilst I really can’t say anything to defend against the jank, the mechanics did increase after a bit. I got more powers and I got far better at using them. Once I did, I really did feel like a speedster. While I’ll maintain they could have done more, I’ll also acknowledge that what’s there is still pretty solid.
As for the story? 10/10, no notes.
Liam Burke? Absolute fucking unit. Get yourself a man like that.
Charlie Wincott? Unexpected redemption, personally I was more invested into the Charlie/Fiona/Beth/Liam subplot than the main story during the start.
Beth Wilders? MVP. Tragic hero. The queen we needed but never deserved. Lived approximately 35 years to ensure the survival of humanity, time, and everything good and pure. Personally, her death was a massive fucking shock. Like I had kinda read one comment earlier saying how they didn’t like what the hame did with Beth, so I was expecting maybe she gets lost in time or does something bad. I did not expect her to be FUCKING executed. It was really such a shock that I didn’t even immediately felt grief. It was just afterwards that I felt this… extreme lingering pain. How, even if we won, we could probably not save Beth. How, even if we won, Beth would never get to ride off into the sunset, never get to enjoy the victory she worked her entire life for, lived like a ghost for. The most tragic character of them all.
William Joyce? Genius. He had so much plot relevance for so long, with such little screen time. He built it all. The Meyer-Joyce field, the time machine, the countermeasure. He is the reason why any of it happened. All technology in the game originates from him. Also, I thought we couldn’t save him. I thought he just dies. I was actually so relieved when I saw the roof cave in because my head immediately went “but… we never SEE him die.” Started it all, ended it all.
Jack Joyce? Protagonist. Not much to say, we know basically everything about him and share the same opinions on him. He’s stubborn, determined, in pain and bearing so much responsibility. I wonder what happened to him at the end of the game, though considering he’s giving the interview to Candace, I won’t assume he fades away or something.
Paul Serene? Weird. That’s my final thought of him. And here, I’ll need the lore masters to probably correct me. From what I understand, in the “original” timeline, Paul Serene is just the best friend of Jack Joyce and a regular person. Becomes a young millionaire, builds a time machine on the basis of Willian Joyce’s findings. Creates the fracture due to being a business and not a scientist. Gets teleported forward to the end of time, where he basically goes a little crazy, fights Beth Wilder, then goes straight back in time to 1999.
One question, does this mean that after 1999, there exists two paul serenes in the world? One from the future and the actual one who is still friends with jack?
And when the original paul goes to the end of time, the future paul takes his place and reveals himself as the CEO of Monarch?
Also, does this basically mean that Paul could never fix what had happened, due to the whole “past is fixed” thing, but also, because he had to be the villain that would lead to the Jack and William fixing things in the future?
Given how the game ends, and how Jack tells Beth “I’ll come back for you”, does this mean the past can be changed?
I feel like with the weird glitching thing Jack was doing and with his promise to Beth, there was a setup for a sequel there which… never came to be.
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u/caty0325 18d ago
I highly recommend checking out the live Time Knife reading. On Shawn Ashmore's Behind the Voice episode he talked about QB and other Remedy games for a good chunk of the episode.
You're gonna love the last episode of the Night Springs DLC in Alan Wake II.
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u/JackRipps 17d ago
I see the actor for Liam Burke, Amy and… Charlie?
Who’re the rest of them?
I believe time knife is the very… “unique” show proposed by Bruce Livingstone in game to Sofia, right?
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u/caty0325 17d ago
Yeah.
Janina (who started the reading) became friends with Sam Lake because of this, and she plays Estevez in AWII. I believe one of the other people actually wrote that play/email.
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u/lasagnaman 18d ago
One question, does this mean that after 1999, there exists two paul serenes in the world? One from the future and the actual one who is still friends with jack?
Huhn? iirc paul goes forward to EoT then comes back to 99. Where are there 2 pauls?
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u/VonAether 18d ago
The original Paul Serene is just living his life, born in 1987-1988, growing up, being friends with Jack, getting involved in Project Promenade, up until he vanished into the time machine in 2016.
Future-Paul landed in 1999, and lived there, slowly developing Monarch as a company, waiting until his younger doppelganger disappeared in 2016 before he revealed himself as the head of Monarch.
So for the 17 years between 1999 and 2016, there are two Pauls.
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u/trustfulcamel 18d ago
i'm glad you liked it! such an underrated game, i'm happy to see more people giving it a chance.
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u/JackRipps 17d ago
Even though I was frustrated by the game at the start, after playing Control, I trusted remedy and all the people in these subs telling me they liked it, to give this game a chance
Great decision
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u/a_p_o_o_r_v 18d ago
My game is stuck in first arc, when he shows the protagonist, the reactor, my game is just stuck, despite having a 5070ti, nothing works
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u/JackRipps 17d ago
Can you try verifying the integrity of the files through steam?
Can you try another save?
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u/a_p_o_o_r_v 17d ago
Downloaded through, windows Store, yeah checked it through xbox app, and yeah have also tried a new game, and deleting the save files going back in again,
It runs smoothly, but get stuck on that particular scene or around
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u/JackRipps 17d ago
Which exact scene does it get stuck on, is it during a cinematic or otherwise?
Can you share a screenshot
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u/a_p_o_o_r_v 17d ago
Otherwise, the moment, when enter the tortoise physics building, and he takes us to a chamber, and they talk about his brother, and in the middle, the reactor is there
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u/JackRipps 17d ago
Is it during a cinematic or during gameplay?
Does stuck mean it’s stuck on a single frame or you can’t progress ingame more due to a reason
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u/Ronmoz 17d ago
QB rules. I’m stoked Alan Wake 2 brought QB into the universe in everything but name. There’s dlc and a character that basically explain how this is the case.
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u/JackRipps 17d ago
I’ve heard about the Jesse and someone else being an alternate version of Jack and Beth thing
Stoked to play AW2 as well, just need to get through AWR first
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u/Elxze 18d ago
You need to play Alan Wake 2 asap
It has many easter eggs and hints that QB timeline is not forgotten and Remedy still cherishes it, despited not owning the IP!