Quantum Error: The Review

Quantum Error: The Review

Score: 4 out of 10

Overview: "Quantum Error shows a lot of promise, nailing the horror of it all, but a mixed bag of characters and the lack of clarity in both story and gameplay ends up making this a cosmic mess."

The Positives

• Quantum Error shines in the horror department, being extremely successful in crafting a tense and stress filled atmosphere that really brings the best of what the game has to offer;
• We have to praise the game's tutorial level which succeeds in introducing "pretty much" all the tools available in the game in a simple and effective way;
• The visual identity of the game is really strong. The directing is top notch and honestly a big positive factor during the cutscenes;
• In terms of gameplay, the game shines in the more scripted and linear segments, truly showing what this team is able to create by making tense and honestly horrific (in the best way) moments worth coming back to;
• The story, which has the hard task of introducing us to this world while telling a cohesive story, somewhat succeeds in that matter. Despite a slow and honestly rough Act 1, the story really starts to shine from Act 2 onwards;
• Even though the characters aren't a strong point in Quantum Error's favour, Jacob (our Main Character) does end up being a bright spot in this category. This character does show me that TeamKill Media knows how to make these characters shine, it might just need another game to do so;
• The game embraces the power of the PS5, giving us a handful of features only capable on this type of hardware. The instant loading, the haptic feedback and (surprisingly) even the "blow in the mic" mechanic, used in a CPR mechanic that is one of the better aspects of the game, which we personally hadn't seen used much since Astro's Playroom;
• The game does leave us with excitement for what comes next in this franchise, succeeding in creating a world worth coming back to. Without mentioning anything from Act 3, the story does nail the landing, finally giving us the clarity needed to embrace the story.

The Negatives

• The game FULLY embraces the tactic of not holding the players hand at all, which despite being an interesting concept, ends up turning some segments into an extremely confusing gameplay experience;
• While trying to take the story into a more mysterious and dark direction, the game does end up hurting itself, mainly in the first portion of the game, where the vagueness of it all ends up giving, yet again, a mostly confusing experience;
• In terms of gameplay, the more "vague" and open ended areas end up dragging and repeating themselves. We also believe the "respawn" points are in some cases placed in areas surrounded by some enemies, removing the "safety" aspect of a respawn location;
• Even after most of the story is over, we still felt like we didn't know much about any of our characters personalities. They end up being a pretty big flaw, which ends up bringing the story down a notch;
• Overall, the gameplay loop isn't fun because of shaky animations; weakly implemented hit boxes; extreme difficulty, even in lower difficulties; and a lack of assistance throughout the game. We get that the point of the game is to leave the player stranded and figure stuff out on his own. However, we feel like some sort of help and guidance should be given, not leaving the player completely in the dark.

The Bugs and Issues

• The main "weapon" and "tools" menu very frequently doesn't respond to the input given by the player, either showing a blank weapon/tool wheel or simply not showing nothing at all;
• The enemies hit boxes seem to be either not placed correctly or simply broken as in multiple occasions hits that were 100% hitting the enemies would create 0 effect on the foe;
• We also have to mention some weird visual glitches throughout the cutscenes and animations;
• Aim Assist, which is very prominently shown in the menus, either is broken or has very little effect. We tried using the option both on and off and honestly we didn't notice a huge difference. We hope a future update does either make it more "viable" or simply removes it.
• In the latter stages of the review, we did face a couple hard crashes during some late game sequences.