Yesterday in Sydney, Remedy’s Thomas Puha sat down with Stevivor to discuss Quantum Break‘s choice-riddled Junction points and live-action television episodes.
“On a high level, the game is about the heroes and the show is about the villains,” Puha began. “We tell the story from both sides and we decided to use live-action as the medium to tell the story of the villains.
“A Junction is a short-level sequence where you actually control Paul Serene, the villain of the story. You get to talk to Paul’s cronies, including Martin Hatch, played by Lance Reddick, to get their perspective on how things are going. Paul has the ability to see into the future, which is all explained in the story. A Junction gives you two choices; you make a choice, and then you get to watch a live-action episode, which is around 20-22 minutes.”
In the game’s first act, the incident that gives both Joyce and Serene their powers is observed by many spectators. The first Junction forces you to decide if you’ll simply eliminate those eyewitnesses or instead use your company’s massive resources to put a positive PR spin on the event. Either choice will trigger its corresponding live-action episode.
“They’re an optional part of the story,” Puha said. “They can be skipped. You can keep playing and the game still makes sense, but you get a lot more story and detail from watching both. From day one, Sam [Lake] and the other designers have thought of this as one single package.”
Decisions lead to branching paths, but the very story-focused Remedy ties everything back together ahead of the game’s climax.
“There are four episodes in total; when you see the last episode, you still play an entire act of the game. You have two main choices at each Junction, and in total, there are 40 variations. I’m saying ‘varations’ as the changes can be subtle.”
When Puha says subtle, he means it.
“Emails can change, people who are on the radio shows change, TV broadcasts, computers – they all change,” he explained. “Even the way Monarch reacts to you changes.”
The variations can also be bigger.
“You can have significant impact with a decision at a Junction,” Puha asserted. “But, there is one ending only. We’ve been very clear about that.
“There will be differences in the way you get to the ending.”
You’ll be able to follow your own path when Quantum Break hits the Xbox One and Windows PC in April.
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