Quantum Break: More like Quantum Broke m i rite?

I've been following this for a while. It's... had a bumpy ride. Originally, this was supposed to be a flagship part of Microsoft's new entertainment studio, Xbox Entertainment Studios. There was going to be an accompanying television series that would tie in pretty closely with the game itself, but have kind of a separate story, IIRC.

Here's the original reveal:

And here's the E3 2013 trailer:

None of that choice stuff is going to be anywhere near this game. There was supposed to be this whole "TIME IS BROKEN YOUR CHOICES MATTER TO HOW THE STORY UNFOLDS!" After a LOT of delays, and Microsoft completely shutting down and closing out Xbox Entertainment Studios, I think they took some of the original TV content and basically rewrote the game around that, or maybe vice versa. Anyway, the result is that there is now just a game with the TV episodic content mixed in as you play. Hence, why the main character was replaced with Shawn Ashmore, who was original in the TV standalone project, as I understand it.

What happened to all that TIME IS THE FIRE IN WHICH WE BURN stuff? Not much, apparently. The game is basically a generic cover shooter with some time powers, a la Max Payne. I've seen videos that show some pretty bad animations and other issues. It kind of feels like Microsoft is pushing this out the door more or less to get it over with. The game, in theory, still has a branching story line, but there's nothing revolutionary there.

The only part of this whole thing that makes it remotely palatable to me is that Remedy is a pretty cool studio, and they did the original Max Payne and invented the bullet time stuff that Max Payne had. Alan Wake was another good game, IMHO. It wasn't wildly popular, I don't think, but like Max Payne it had some unique gameplay mechanics. Enemies were part of this Evil Darkness and when you shined a flashlight on the enemies, you could kill them with you handgun. The problem, of course, is that you can only shine your flashlight in a single direction, and the enemies are much faster and dangerous in the dark. It really created a real sense of suspense and terror that I haven't experienced in any other video game, really. Or any mass media, tbh.

So, if Quantum Break is ANY good at all, it will be due to Remedy's talent. Otherwise, this game has the stink of corporate meddling and ineptitude all over it.

Anyway, that's a lot of words. The bottom line, for me, is that I think this could be a fun little game to pick up and play through once it's on sale for $15 on Steam. $60 is sure to be a rip-off, though.