Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break looks to be nothing short of a system-seller for the Xbox One, and accompanied by a new gameplay demo at today’s Xbox Gamescom presentation, the developer has announced when you’ll get your hands on the fruits of its labor: Quantum Break arrives next April alongside its live-action show.
“The number one killer is time,” protagonist Jack Joyce (played by actor Shawn Ashmore — Animorphs, X-Men) says as the camera zooms in on a firefight between Joyce and a number of heavily armed guards at an industrial facility. As we’ve seen in past Quantum Break demonstrations, Joyce’s ability to slow down time enables him to flank enemies and take out several targets without leaving himself open to danger. However, the latest demonstration also shows off Jack’s ability to “bubble” enemies next to a car, firing at its engine and killing everyone inside.
Some of Jack’s powers appear to be more abstract. A quick time-manipulating attack sends shards of … something (time itself?) killing every guard in his path, without Jack firing a shot. As shown in a demo from last year, there are other enemies — presumably working for antagonist Paul Serene — who are also able to manipulate time; during a “skipping” event that leaves time completely frozen, these enemies are still able to attack, but a few melee moves and well-placed bullets takes care of them.
A quick shot from the end of the demonstration shows off a boxing gym converted into a lab used to construct a time machine before the demonstration abruptly ends. Of course, this is just one half of the Quantum Break experience: a live-action show is also in development, focusing on the villains, and Ashmore teases that another story “is told from multiple perspectives.” What that means is left purposely unclear, but we’ll find out when Quantum Break launches for Xbox One on April 5, 2016. Its cast list includes a few big names like Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, The Wire), Lance Reddick (The Wire, Fringe), and Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings, Lost).
