Quantum Break interview: Sam Lake on storytelling, sci-fi blockbusters, and why it’s ‘the ultimate Remedy game’

Summer blockbuster season has just got off to an early start with the arrival of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, currently underwhelming audiences across the world.

But for those who’ve already survived DC’s slug-fest, chortled their way through Deadpool, and are now waiting feverishly for Captain America: Civil War, there’s a brand new superhero to root for: Jack Joyce.

He might not wear a mask or a cape, but the leading character of Remedy Entertainment’s new sci-fi action game Quantum Break is, in essence, a comic book hero.

“He’s kind of an everyman, who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a science experiment dealing with time travel which goes horribly wrong. When do they ever go right?” smiles Sam Lake, the game’s Creative Director.

“He’s blasted with these energies, and from that he gets super powers – powers to manipulate time in different ways.”

While Joyce isn’t your usual caped crusader, he’s portrayed by someone who’s more than familiar with the concept of powers: Shawn Ashmore, best known as Iceman from the X-Men films.

“It was wonderful to be able to get him,” Lake says, also praising fellow cast members Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger from Game of Thrones), Lance Reddick (Lieutenant Daniels from The Wire), and Dominic Monaghan (of Lord of the Rings and Lost fame).

“The wonderful thing about [the cast] has been that we were hesitant in the beginning, feeling that these guys were really, really high-class talent – will they take this video game job as seriously as movies and television? And the answer is yes.

“[Shawn] was there early on, brainstorming with us, creating the character of Jack into something that he felt comfortable with.”

One thing that might have attracted such talent on board is the way that Quantum Break merges entertainment mediums: it’s half video game, half live-action TV show, with large segments of gameplay interspersed with world-expanding 20 minute episodes.

“Whereas in the game you play the hero of the experience, the live action show is about the bad guys – you get a point of view into the story from their angle,” Lake reveals.

“It’s very much in the style of a modern television series, where characters are often very flawed – almost bad guys. This is our take on that.”

It’s an interesting, experimental decision – and one that throws up plenty of questions at a time when video games are proving increasingly capable of telling complex and emotional stories, like BAFTA nominees Life Is Strange and Her Story.

Is Remedy’s decision to combine TV and gaming a shining example of how much story a ‘video game’ can now contain, or does it reflect an acknowledgement that games are for gameplay, and TV is for storytelling?

“Every medium has its strengths,” Lake says, adding that the content of the gaming segments and the live-action episodes operate on different scales.

“On the game side you can do huge memorable moments. Then again, what a TV show does best is human drama, and having the show there, it’s possible to bring a larger ensemble cast into the mix and just make sure that we have that side represented as well.”

While many recent examples of story-driven games have been surprisingly small-scale and personal, Quantum Break's thrilling, time-twisting plot is confident and pulse-pounding.

As Lake pitches it, it’s “a Hollywood summer blockbuster sci-fi action spectacle” – a pop culture melting pot that takes nods from classics like Spider-Man, Back to the Future and The Terminator, as well as recent cinema knock-outs like Looper and Interstellar.

All in all, it makes for ‘the ultimate Remedy game’.