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Why Games Suck When They Try to be Movies

Why Games Suck When They Try to be Movies

It should be clear that story-heavy games like Quantum Break are still games, and not movies. Just as a choose-your-own-adventure book is still a book and not a game, the two genres relate but are still quite distinguishable from the other. However, Quantum Break is not the happy balance of film and game as I had hoped. The new game succeeds at crossing the line into film by both removing the autonomy of the player entirely and railroading the player so much that they might as well not be there at all.

A video game should focus on the autonomy of the player. Quantum Break does this fairly well during combat, as having time warp powers is damn fun in a combat situation. I was reminiscing about Bioshock: Infinite the whole way and enjoyed it quite a bit. However, what Infinite does and Quantum Break doesn’t is focus on improving the player’s skills as the game and story progresses. In Quantum Break , the player is immediately imbued with amazing super powers and has no means whatsoever to refine them throughout the game. Instead, the focus of Quantum Break is on the story.

With live-action cut scenes and talented actors, the story-heavy side of Quantum Break makes an okay movie. Unlike Infinite , Quantum Break tells its story through these cutscenes and conversations between the main characters. For a video game, this feels like a big mistake. The story of a video game should be told through a happy balance of gameplay and cutscenes. The cutscenes should not be to the focus so much that the player loses all control over the game itself and the gameplay is some sort of weird side activity.

The only real difference between some video games and movies is that games are interactive. In a movie, the audience cannot choose the direction of the plot. Quantum Break ‘s live-action episodes cross the line into movie rather than game. They are too long to be considered cinematic cutscenes, and allow the player no autonomy whatsoever. I found this to be particularly frustrating, jarring me out of the game completely. Never mind that the episodes themselves were purposely lengthy to the point of boring; even with the player’s ability to choose how Paul Serene handles situations, the level of interactivity doesn’t cut it.

Why Games Suck When They Try to be Movies

Though Quantum Break does just fine in its combat, the rest of the game tilts heavily into movie territory. The autonomy of the player in minimized to the point of nonexistence. The story itself is propelled not through gameplay, but through cutscenes and (admittedly wonderful) acting. Each cutscene and episode within the game runs for far too long and it is inevitable that the player becomes bored. With the combination of railroaded gameplay and exhaustingly long cut scenes, Quantum Break forgets that it’s a game and tries mostly to be a movie – and not even a good one.

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