If time is an egg, then that egg is fucked: Let's Play Quantum Break

The PR approach definitely strikes me as the option that Paul Serene is likely to take. Even if Amy shares Monarch’s secrets with Jack and the public at large, it should be fairly easy to discredit them. Besides, it’s easier to fight a small, rag-tag group headed up by a chronon-enabled soldier than a large rioting mob who has that same chronon-enabled soldier fighting with them.

Thanks for voting everyone! Here are the results:
PR: 76% (98)
Hardline: 23% (30)
Total responses: 128

Paul Serene chooses the PR approach, which leads us into the fifth and final part of Act 1, ‘Monarch Solutions’, the first episode of the live-action television series.

October 9th, 2016, 6:19am
When tasked with finding Jack’s missing transport, Liam Burke starts to discover the truth behind Monarch’s long-term plans.

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I’m surprised with how well done that was. It’s actually more put together and better acted than a lot of TV shows I’ve seen. I’m also surprised with just how good the ripples look in live action. I was really worried that it would look fake and cheesy but no. I’m really looking forward to more of this, and kind of wish they could have done a full TV show.

I guess then it couldn’t have branching paths then.

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The only bit that I thought looked a bit fake was the bird, there’s something about it that looks a bit… cartoonish, or photoshopped.

Other than that, I agree, they did a great job implementing the time anomaly effects in the live-action. They even included the occasional distortion shockwaves being emitted from groups of people, that I pointed out back in part 2.

In fact, they actually improve on the game’s stutter effects, by having that running boy and the schoolbus (and the bird) juddering back and forth. In the game, some moving objects oscillate back and forth during a stutter, such as the debris during the time machine accident, and later we’ll see cars and trains that are looping in time. But for some reason PEOPLE are always completely frozen in the game’s stutters. So it was cool to see that boy and the schoolbus caught in a split-second timeloop, rather than rock-solid frozen.

I have mixed feelings about the branching paths. There are cool differences between the versions of the live-action episodes, but for the sake of efficiency / cost-effectiveness those differences rarely carry over to the next episode. Choosing Hardline or PR changes several things in the first episode, and has a bunch of consequences throughout the rest of the game… but makes no difference to any scenes in episode 2.

There is an exception though, the choice you make at junction 3 affects scenes in both episodes 3 and 4, and the choice you make at junction 4 causes even more variations for that particular live-action plotline. I guess they couldn’t afford do that sort of thing for the choices at junctions 1 and 2 as well, as that would be a hell of a lot of work to produce alternate scenes that might only be seen by a fraction of players.

I’d have loved it if Liam stayed loyal to Monarch in one of the timelines. It would make sense if choosing Hardline (killing innocent people) would turn him against Monarch, but in the PR timeline he’d still on board. Would be a hell of a selling-point - “your first choice of the game determines whether a major character will be Jack’s ally or Jack’s enemy!” But that would mean producing two radically different versions of the show, as it would alter the events of episodes 2, 3 and 4. That would practically double it’s cost!

I guess a more affordable alternative would be if the show course-corrected and still had Liam turn against Monarch, but not till episode 2, and for different reasons.

A lot of it does come down to budget. Really, none of this had to be a TV show. The fact that it is already makes it unique and oddly refreshing. You bring in a bunch of actors for a video game and then actually let them be actors? Good job on that part.

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Bonus video showing off the unlockable content for Act 1.

This includes the first two reports from the Quantum Ripple Causality Research Subdivision, and the first audio diaries for Jack Joyce, Beth Wilder and Paul Serene.

Collectibles
Quantum Ripples & Transcripts of Diaries

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October 9th, 2016, 6:57am
After his capture, Jack regains consciousness at the old Riverport industrial area, which is now run by Monarch Solutions.

Collectibles
Narrative Objects and Intel Items for Act 2 Part 1

The first “heavy” weapon in the game, each blast from the Semi-Auto Shotgun fires a random spread of 8 pellets. Each pellet is about as powerful as a shot from the Pistol or Assault Rifle. This makes it the ideal weapon for time dodging into enemies and blasting them at close range. Unfortunately, like most videogame shotguns, it has poor accuracy. Most of the pellets will miss if the enemy is more than a couple of metres away, making it useless at any kind of distance.

This weapon has a rather misleading name, as it isn’t actually “semi-auto”. It is a pump-action weapon with a slow rate-of-fire of about one shot per second. It is based on the Kel-Tec KSG, a modern pump-action shotgun that features two side-by-side tube magazines under the barrel. The real KSG can hold 14 rounds (7 in each tube), while the in-game shotgun only holds 5 shots and 5 in reserve.

This is one of the best guns in the game. Its damage-per-bullet is weaker than every other weapon, but it has decent accuracy, and absolutely no recoil or kick whatsoever. This means that at close or medium range Jack can safely hold down the trigger and fire a continuous stream of low-powered bullets, and every bullet will hit his target. It has the same fast rate-of-fire as the standard SMG, but it has an even larger 48-round magazine, and the fastest reload time of any gun. This amazing weapon is not carried by any enemies, so you have to find it lying around. Unfortunately that means dead enemies won’t drop ammo for it, but it comes with a huge supply of reserve ammo, and you can refill it if you can find an ammo backpack.

The Advanced SMG’s design is based on the Magpul PDR, which is actually an assault rifle rather than a submachine gun. The Magpul PDR (Personal Defense Rifle) was a prototype bullpup-style carbine that was designed to use assault rifle bullets while being as compact and lightweight as a submachine gun. It never went into production, so it appears Remedy decided that most gamers wouldn’t notice if they repurposed its futuristic design and changed it into a small-calibre, high-capacity submachine gun.



Jack can ‘charge up’ his chronon energy and direct it into a grenade-like explosion. This destructive time anomaly does more than simply freeze time - it disrupts causality and causes the timelines of local molecules to become unsynchronised. This results in violent collisions and contradictions on a microscopic scale, with catastrophic macro-scale consequences. Normal enemies caught within the temporal eruption will be instantly killed, while Heavy Troopers will lose about half their health.

Time Blast is activated by pressing and holding the button that is normally used for Time Stop. This causes a rippling distortion field to appear wherever you are aiming. The time anomaly won’t detonate until you release the button, giving you a chance to adjust your aim. This is useful for targeting distant enemies, as you can move the ripple effect around until you have it in exactly the right spot. The downside is that enemies will notice the distortion field and realise they are under attack.

Time Blast is very useful for taking down snipers or other enemies on upper levels shooting from afar. The first upgrade increases the blast radius, allowing it to eliminate several enemies in a single attack.

Unlike other abilities, Time Blast uses up its entire power meter when activated. There is a 2 second delay before the power meter starts to regenerate, and then it takes 30 seconds for the meter to refill.

The second upgrade for Time Blast, ‘Reduced Cooldown’, is supposed to shorten the time it takes for Time Blast to charge and allow you to use it more often. However the ability seems to be bugged on both console and PC, as it seemingly does nothing.



Standard security guards dressed for day-to-day operations. They wear grey trousers, a navy blue shirt, and a grey sleeveless jacket (bodywarmer / gilet) printed with a huge yellow Monarch symbol on the chest, as well as a number of smaller Monarch Solutions logos and symbols. Some also wear Monarch baseball caps, but others have no headgear.

Light Troopers are normally armed with Pistols, although a few use Heavy Pistols. They have no body armour and can be killed by just three bullets from a Pistol or Assault Rifle, or four SMG shots. Their lack of head protection means they’ll be killed by a headshot from almost any weapon. (The one exception is the Advanced SMG.)

Concept art shows that their bodywarmers were originally orange with white Monarch symbols. Although this was changed in the final game, it would appear that Microsoft used this early design when dressing staff for a promotional event, as the orange Monarch Solutions Bodywarmer is listed on Microsoft’s store for Ad Hoc Event Merchandise.


A specialised variant of the SWAT Trooper, equipped with Semi-Auto Shotguns and lightweight tactical gear. They wear grey trousers, a sleeveless navy blue shirt, and advanced body armour that is less cumbersome than SWAT Trooper gear but provides just as much protection. They lack helmets, instead opting for just a balaclava and a set of protective goggles. Their belt equipment includes a couple of smoke grenades and a trauma kit.

Shotgunners are more aggressive than other enemies, and they will try to rush you and use their shotguns at close range. When Shotgunners arrive in a combat situation they will sometimes set off smoke grenades to cover their entrance, making it more difficult to pick them off at a distance. Although their body armour is just as effective as those worn by standard SWAT troopers, their minimal head protection means that they can be killed by a single headshot from most weapons.


These enemies wear heavy suits of reinforced body armour that protects all parts of the body, making them extremely resilient against both bullets and explosions. The outfit appears to be a bulked-up version of the SWAT Trooper uniform, and it somewhat resembles the bomb suits used by EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) teams.

Heavy Troopers are usually armed with Semi-Auto Shotguns, although some have powerful Light Machine Guns. They move slowly due to their cumbersome armour, but they are bullet sponges who will fearlessly stride through your gunfire. It takes two full Assault Rifle magazines to kill one, and that’s assuming that every shot hits its target. Explosive barrels do a minimal amount of damage to them, it would take seven barrels explosions to kill them. A Time Blast will take off half their health.

Time Stop is useful for holding them in place and for boosting the damage of your bullets, while Time Shield allows you to safely blast away at them and be protected from their attacks. Their helmets allow them to survive several headshots from most guns, but powerful weapons such as the Heavy Pistol can kill them in three headshots.

Some guides refer to this enemy type as ‘Safeguards’. It would appear that this is based on a part of the game in which a couple of Heavy Troopers are referred to as being members of ‘Safeguard Squad’, however this squad also includes some other types of trooper. It is likely that Safeguard is just a squad name, rather than a proper name of this particular type of enemy.

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I finished watching your gf play FEAR earlier today and was lamenting that this hadn’t updated in a while. I am just going to go ahead and take full credit due to psychic influence or something like that.

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I was thinking about the thread too a few days ago, so somehow I must have made you think about it, which then made YET update the LP.

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it is interesting how the graffiti in the beginning has the same time fragmenting effect depicted.

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A few days ago I was looking for something to watch and thought of YET’s YouTube channel, which I had never looked at before that, so this checks out!

Edit;
“I’m not sure when Beth put an earpiece in our pocket”
Probably when she was interrupted while undoing our handcuffs.

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@Thesaya and @White_Coke I’m pleased to announce that I’m back into the full swing of producing Quantum Break videos, and also my gf and I are planning on doing another FEAR stream soon. (We had a big interruption due to moving house.)

Which begs the question, is the graffiti artist familiar with temporal anomalies? Or an artistic flourish by one of the game’s environmental artists?

There’s also a lot of ‘normal’ graffitti in this game, it looks really genuine.

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I’ve heard of game devs hiring graffiti artists to design authentic looking graffiti for their games.

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Yay, I am glad and looking forward to both the stream and this LP! ^^

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October 9th, 2016, 7:19am
Jack is making his way towards the drydocks, where he plans to confront Paul Serene - his former best friend, now his worst enemy.

Collectibles
Narrative Objects for the first half of Act 2 Part 2

This futuristic-looking handgun fires 3-round bursts of low-powered bullets, about as powerful as SMG rounds. It has a large 18-round magazine, allowing for 6 bursts per reload, and like the other pistols it has unlimited reserve ammunition. It’s design appears to be based on Robocop’s “Auto 9”, which was a Beretta 93R machine pistol that was modified to look larger and more high-tech. It also showed up in Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, which I’ve also LP’d.

The Burst Fire Pistol is decent for close-combat, as Jack can score 3 headshots in a single burst, enough to kill any standard enemy. However it is tricky to use against opponents that are more than a few metres away. Although the first shot of each burst is quite accurate, the aim kicks up over the course of the burst, causing the second and third bullets to go higher. This effect is worsened by the fact that the first bullet may cause an enemy to double-over, making him a shorter target and increasing the likelihood that the subsequent two bullets will miss. Also, Jack doesn’t automatically re-adjust his aim between bursts, so getting subsequent bursts on-target requires manually compensating for the kick.

The name “Carbine Rifle” implies that this is some kind of compact assault rifle, but it is actually a semi-automatic sniper rifle. It has a reflex sight rather than a scope, so there’s no option for Jack to zoom in on distant targets. Monarch snipers will take aim at Jack using a red laser, but there’s no option for Jack to activate the Carbine Rifle’s laser sight. Despite this, Jack has no difficulty firing it with perfect accuracy and a good rate-of-fire.

It is even more powerful than the Heavy Pistol - killing standard enemies with just two or three body shots - and it has far less kick. Headshots are instantly lethal to most enemies, and do massive amounts of damage to tougher opponents such as Heavy Troopers. It is also great for destroying the weak points of high-tech enemies. It counts as a “heavy” weapon, so it is not possible to carry both a Carbine Rifle and a shotgun. The Carbine Rifle has a decent magazine-size of 10 rounds per reload, but Jack can only carry one spare magazine, giving him a total of 20 shots. Using this weapon carelessly will cause Jack to quickly run out of ammo, so it is a better idea to use sharpshooting tactics.

The Carbine Rifle’s design is mostly based on the DSR-1, a bullpup sniper rifle that is actually bolt-action rather than semi-automatic. The Carbine Rifle’s barrel looks like it may be based on the DSR-1’s larger ‘anti-materiel’ variant, the DSR-50. A real-world DSR-1 (or DSR-50) is normally fitted with telescopic sights rather than reflex sights, as it is a specialised sniper rifle. (Perhaps Remedy called it the Carbine Rifle to suggest that it was a smaller variant of a full-sized sniper rifle, intended for use at medium range rather than long distance.) The DSR-1 has an unusual two-magazine layout: there is a spare magazine holder in front of the trigger-guard, but since it is a ‘bullpup’ weapon, the rifle is actually fed by a magazine at the rear of the weapon, where the rifle’s action (mechanism) is located. The in-game Carbine Rifle lacks the rear magazine, and instead Jack loads the gun using the forward magazine holder, despite the fact that a real DSR-1 has no mechanism there.

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Okay. So clearly there was a hot librarian looking scientist. We learn that Bruce is married to his job. This means that he would easily recognize his boss in a disguise. The men come in and kill the scientist lady, and then during the fight Paul Marine disguises himself to try and get at Bruce.
Clearly the reason he didn’t notice until after the kiss was because he was so distracted from the fight. All I can say is, I can’t believe they decided to make Quantum Break when Time Knife is clearly the superior story. I can’t wait to see what happens at this wedding.

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Jack encounters Monarch troops that can move during a time stutter, and that have abilities similar to his own. He then enters the epicentre of Ground Zero: Will’s old workshop.

Collectibles
Narrative Objects for the second half of Act 2 Part 2

Jack’s status as a living chronon generator allows him to use any weapon during a time stutter, but Monarch Striker units do not have that same ability. Therefore Monarch developed this ‘stutterproof’ weapon. The Tactical SMG is a precision weapon that fires accurate 3-round bursts, and it does not kick up as you fire. (Unlike the Burst Fire Pistol, which has quite a bit of kick with every burst.) Holding the trigger down will continuously fire 3-round bursts one after another, with a negligible reduction in accuracy. Its bullets are similar in power to the standard SMG, but the brief delay between bursts means that the Tactical SMG’s rate-of-fire is effectively far slower, causing it to have a rather low damage-per-second. Therefore the Tactical SMG can best be summed up as ‘precise but weak’. It also has a small magazine size of 24 bullets (enough for 8 bursts), and Jack can only carry a total of 96 bullets.

The main body of the Tactical SMG is based on the real-life Kriss Vector submachine gun, but with the addition of a special attachment that extends a Striker’s personal chronon field around the gun. Concept art shows more intricate designs for the stutterproof weapon modification, but in the actual game the electronic devices have been hidden away inside a plastic casing, with only a chronon radiation warning symbol hinting at its function. Curiously, Technicians are able to fire Burst Fire Pistols during stutters, despite the Burst Fire Pistol not having any similar stutterproofing attachment. (Perhaps pistols are small enough to be enveloped by the personal chronon field without any modifications.)



The first type of ‘stutterproof’ enemy encountered in the game. Stutterproof troops are equipped with a ‘chronon harness’ on their back that generates an artificial chronon particle field, allowing them remain active during a time stutter. This also makes them immune to Time Stop, in fact their stutterproofing will immediately collapse Time Stop bubbles. Although the chronon field is the source of their abilities, it is also their Achilles Heel. Enemies equipped with chronon technology freeze in stutters when the device on their back is destroyed. This may actually be a non-lethal option, as destroying a trooper’s chronon harness should leave him alive and well once the stutter collapses, assuming he isn’t killed by the device exploding. Destroying 15 chronon harnesses gets you the ‘Break All Their Toys’ achievement.

Strikers are Monarch’s elite chronon tech units. They are armed with Tactical SMGs and wear white hazmat suits that protect against chronon radiation. Their suits and helmets are also armoured for combat operations, making them almost twice as resilient as a SWAT Trooper. As an added extra, Strikers can rush across the battlefield in the blink of an eye. They move too fast to see but leave streaks of orange energy in their wake, similar to Star Trek ‘warp trails’, or the yellow lightning left by The Flash.

This ability is made possible by four bulky ‘prongs’ that surround the central core of a Striker’s chronon harness. These are additional field projection units that allow the Striker to manipulate his relationship to his personal Meyer-Joyce envelope, giving him the ability to cross short distances in quick bursts. A Striker’s belt includes a number of devices such as a processor and battery for controlling and powering the chronon technology. Similar to Jack’s own Time Dodge and Time Rush powers, a Striker’s superspeed even works during a stutter, as the Striker can fold deeper into the stutter and briefly inhabit a smaller subdividing moment within a larger one.

Strikers cannot fire their weapons while they are zipping around the place, so they have to return to normal time to shoot. However if you stay in one spot for too long they may try to Time Rush into you and perform a melee attack. Fortunately it is easy to avoid this attack, simply by moving while the Striker is warping towards you, and even if it does connect it does not do a significant amount of damage.

It takes ten shots from a Pistol or Assault Rifle to defeat a Striker’s body armour, and Strikers will often use their ability to warp away the moment they start taking damage, making weaker rapid-fire weapons pretty ineffective. While headshots are more effective, it can takes 3 or 4 headshots to kill a Striker with most weapons. Strikers do have a special vulnerability to shotguns, however; a single close-range blast to the chest can kill a Striker, even though the total damage from 8 shotgun pellets should not sufficient. Also, the chronon harness on a Striker’s back is not well-armoured. Shooting it doesn’t do as much damage as a headshot, but it is more effective than a body shot, and the bulky chronon field projectors are quite a large target. A powerful weapon such as the Carbine Rifle can pierce a Striker’s helmet or destroy his chronon tech with one carefully-placed shot.

According to an email from Martin Hatch to Clarice Ogawa, the men chosen to become Strikers need to meet strict physical requirements, have ‘a certain moral flexibility’, and ‘the kind of killer instinct you have to be born with, cultivated to a fine degree’. They also need to have the intelligence and skills to handle the complex technical aspects of operating the technology.


Monarch operatives wearing yellow environment suits to protect against radiation exposure when working on Monarch’s chronon technology. The chronon harness on the back of the suit allows them to stay active during a stutter, or to operate in an area with time anomalies such as Ground Zero. It does not grant them any other special abilities, however, as it lacks a Striker suit’s additional field projectors. A Technician’s hazmat suit is not armoured, so they have the same health as Light Troopers and can be killed by just 3 Pistol or Assault Rifle bullets, or 4 SMG shots. Headshots are instantly fatal. They also have an additional weakness on their back, as a Technician can be frozen in a time stutter by destroying his fragile chronon harness.

Technicians are armed with Burst Fire Pistols, which are not particularly dangerous. Of more significance, however, is that they carry chronon grenades that will temporarily cancel Jack’s powers. These ‘portable chronon suppression devices’ drain your energy and completely empty the meters for all time powers. Getting caught in the blast of one of these grenades while fighting with a large group of enemies can be disastrous.

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So the time egg is now cracking and resealing it self for only another crack to appear. Yay for butchered metaphors.

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October 9th, 2016, 8:13am
Jack and Beth Wilder arrive at the Bradbury Swimming Hall, where William has hidden something important.

Collectibles
Narrative Objects for Act 2 Part 3

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So it definitely feels like we’re going to be doing some other time travel. I remember when we first met up with Beth it seemed like she had met us before. And now it’s clear that Will had met her before. My big guess is that the countermeasure is actually stolen by Beth herself. But she just hasn’t done it yet in her perception of time.

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