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It's been years in the making, but Remedy's Quantum Break is finally ready. The Finnish team's love of slow-motion will seemingly never die - and it finds a good home this time in a time-bending action title that focuses on moving in and out of time while shooting your way through a character-driven narrative. Within minutes of starting the game it becomes evident that Quantum Break is one of the most impressive looking titles on Xbox One. In a move that exudes confidence, the press has been given access to the game for weeks now - something of a rarity these days - and that has given us plenty of time to fully appreciate just what's on offer. It's not surprising that a lot of controversy has formed around the resolution of the game but as the fervour around this issue dies down, hopefully the wider range of its technical ambition can come into focus.To start with, Quantum Break is built on Remedy's Northlight engine, a DX12 deferred renderer designed to deliver a seamless experience across large, detailed environments filled with advanced lighting and effects work. The core technology was born from the work carried out for Alan Wake and in fact, the current version of Northlight still shares elements with Remedy's previous game.
While no longer set in the great outdoors, it's still fully capable of delivering a genuine open world - with technology leveraged here to minimise loading. The heavy use of volumetric light shafts also returns in full force alongside the benefits you'd expect in a deferred renderer such as a high volume of dynamic lights. In the move to a next-generation platform, Remedy has pushed for real-time global illumination, physically-based materials, a huge range of unique special effects, and one of the most immersive soundscapes we've heard to date.
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