Last week Microsoft and Remedy have sent us the final version of Quantum Break so you can thoroughly test: while the full review will come the April 1, there is now allowed to furnish our first impressions on Act 1 (5) of the game; also take the opportunity to show you some pictures taken using the screenshot of Xbox One.

Start by saying, carefully avoiding any spoilers, that history was more surprising than expected: as we already knew, a failed experiment with a kind of time machine has features both the protagonist, Jack Joyce, the villain, Paul Serene time control powers they will use one to save the world and the other for his interests and his company the Monarch Solutions. This is however only the exterior façade of a much deeper history, especially as regards Paul Serene but also Jack's brother, William, the original creator of the time machine that caused the entire crisis. You will begin to get a better idea of this already in the first few minutes of play, when will the incident itself; the guys at Remedy are nonetheless as great storytellers, not just for the plot in general but also because of the many details, scattered around in the form of documents and recordings, which allow you to get a clearer idea of what's going on.

The story is particularly compelling, thanks to the excellent graphics that made both the environments that the characters are realistic and highly detailed environments: all, and especially in the cut-scenes in-engine characters present a detail and expressiveness of the faces among the best seen so far. All materials are extremely convincing, the lighting system is able to offer a dynamic range of light and shadow extremely realistic and the textures appear sharp picture quality, with posters and signs legible and defined even in smaller lettering. Not everything is perfect, in fact to obtain a similar spectacular graphics are optimizations such as texture pop-in, so it can happen every now and then to see the texture in low resolution be replaced by their high definition versions, but there is no doubt as in general Quantum Break offers a real feast for the eyes.

But the true spectacle of the game comes during the fighting: here the graphics engine, and above all the physical one, give the best of themselves giving rise to extremely dynamic and spectacular scenes. The environments, especially those indoors, are dotted with destructible objects, whether you are moving on the basis of a realistic physics, so for example during a shootout inside a library you will see books fall off the shelves and fly from all sides, wooden planks, pieces of concrete and plaster coming off jumping from the walls and so on, leaving at the end of the clash an area devastated as this library :

To all this add also the many special effects data by the use of temporal powers: scie temporal bubbles, kinetic, slow motion, sparks flying from all sides ... all of this combined with distruggibilità and physicality of the scenarios, creates incredibly spectacular scenes that do not mention also to drop a frame even in the most chaotic. Here is an example of Visual effects data by the use of powers (not recorded by me):

I mean, already the Act 1 Quantum Break appears as particularly beautiful to behold: but so is to play? I would say so. In this first episode of the game you dominate almost all temporal powers of Jack, and have a wide choice of options in combat: temporal bubbles to block enemies and detonate with our bullets, a shield deflecting that knocks enemies in slow-motion allowing us to shoot them down in mid-air, one shot for escape from grenades and that allows us to activate some kind of bullet-time. We then find the Temporal Vision, which allows us to highlight a few seconds explosive items, enemies and other secrets in the exploratory stages, so as to have a more accurate awareness of our surroundings.  And there is also a varied set of weapons, from handguns to assault rifles to machine guns, collectible from enemies and environment allowing us to better decide how to fight. The cover system is functional and "automatic": just come closer to a cover because Jack Crouch automatically, as well as just moving it back to standard mode. But stand firm behind a cover is never a good idea, because the enemies embrace tactics of encirclement coming to flush us out also keep us continually in motion by launching grenades: the fighting is always very lively and dynamic.

I conclude these first impressions with a hint to the turning points and to the TV series: at the end of each Act, there is a short scene, called turning point, where we check Paul Serene and we must make an important decision. For example, in the first Act, I had to choose whether to use the "hard line" or the "media coverage" (I won't reveal more) to a witness uncomfortable, and for every choice it was possible to have a preview of the consequences. After taking the choice, both the scene from the TV show that some of the scenes and information in Act 2 were about a choice made, then clicking the other option elements would change. This actually delivers some replay value to the title.

After every turning point then there is an episode of the TV series, 20 minutes long. This was a great surprise because from what we've seen so far, I thought these episodes were simple dialogues between the main characters and I was afraid they might be a bit tame, instead the episode of the Act 1 is action-packed and even a thrilling car chase. Would look like TV series in its own right, with great characters and great Italian dubbing. Also thanks to the great variety of environments and characters, these episodes make the plot much more profound and complex, in a manner that simple cut-scenes of a video game they hardly do. A really good idea.

A hint finally took on the duration of Act 1: about two and a half hours to complete the three parts that compose it, finding 100% of collectibles for each part and included watching the first episode of the TV series.

I leave you now with images of the game, which I warn you anyway not be drawn directly from the console but caught with the Game DVR and then streamed to your PC where I captured to save them to disk. So although the quality of play, color reduction and compression effects caused by streaming from PC Xbox One. Good vision!