Now with the Playstation V event good and covered, (I know that's not how they stylise it but I want to and until I get a 'cease and desist' I'll do as I please!) I might as well start trying to catch my lead on these gaming shows by covering the next large one which aired over a month and a half ago; the Future Games Show. (That's what they call the PC-centric show in order to try and not be exclusionary) Now I'll straight up and admit that this wasn't a games show that I went out of my way to watch but I have a somewhat decent reason for that; my PC is only barely capable of running high tier games. For me to ogle at the biggest and best coming to the PC world is the equivalent of window shopping at a Lamborghini dealership; the view may be nice but in the end I'm just stoking my own inequities. Be that as it may, I have taken the time to cherry pick some titles that did tickle my interest and look them over after the fact to give my opinion because... (Look, I'm going to level with you. I have no idea what to do in these blogs so I just throw in anything I feel like. Until someone tells me to stop I'm going to literally analyse every single new game I see. Okay?)
With that out of the way; 'Quantum Error'. Now if that's a name that doesn't scream 'cool sci-fi premise' then I rightly don't know what does. (although, that just might be because I'm immediately reminded of the classic Sci-fi show 'Quantum Leap' which doesn't get nearly as much credit nowadays as it deserves. Good show.) In a strange and completely unexpected cross over, turns out that this initial trailer for the game was actually shot on a PS5, so I'm kinda still covering that console which is so far out of my price range it's crazy. (How unexpected.) As it so happens this isn't the kind of game that looks like it has any philosophical questions or even mind-bending scenarios; far from it, the whole thing just looks like a straight forward horror-action game. (Which they brand as 'Cosmic-Horror' apparently. Sounds like an 80's dance trend to me.)
In fact, according to the officially synopsis the name of this game is actually starkly literal. The story is about a 'Quantum research facility' (Whatever that means) which comes into some distress after it is attacked by 'unknown entities'. (That's a pretty big 'error' if ever I'm heard of one. 'Don't get attacked by entities', Quantum research 101) Despite the rather spacey vibe this trailer gives off, and the fact that the team describe their own game as a 'cosmic-horror', the facility in question is actually just out to sea from San Francisco. Which means that once the place is engulfed in flames it's only fair that the authorities dispatch their very own Fire marshals and that is exactly the shoes that the player steps into. (Which perfectly slots into my mind another game from a long time ago called 'Hydrophobia'. Who remembers that game? Nobody. Okay...) This premise pretty much begs for some interesting mechanics with fire to come into play, like maybe some systems that dictate how it spreads and the way the player can utilise that against their enemies. (Otherwise you might as well just make the player a passing good Samaritan, no, he must be a fire fighter for a reason!)
Straight away the first impression I got whilst watching this game is that this is a single player, and consequently probably a lot less hardcore, GTFO. We see lingering shots in this trailer of a bevy of dark rooms bubbling with pseudo-scientific ambient clutter and packed with various horror monster staples, like Zombies, bigger zombies and black gunk that's sure to turn out being some sort of extra-dimensional essence leaking into our realm and threatening existence, or something. Okay I'll be completely honest, what I've seen in terms of the design and concept has been frighteningly generic so far, which actually is what kills the GTFO comparison the quickest. (That game had serious eldritch abominations.) I understand the desire to play things close to the chest but I feel as though the folks over at Teamkill Media might have thrown something a little more unique and weird our way to hook attention. I release that the intent is to get into more details fairly soon but they still need to woo me out the gate otherwise why the hell would I ever agree to a second date?
Perhaps knocking on the premise could be seen as a little unfair right now, I'll take that. There's undoubtedly some promise to the idea of some unknown cosmic entity having taken over an island on our precious earth to disastrous consequences; that's pretty bad ass honestly. What's bugging me a lot more (And recognise that this is based purely on a briefly cut together trailer and thus might have no bearing on the final release) it's that the first person combat looks very weak and almost utterly devoid of impact. As an observer, I can see the gunfire and bullets hit but the recoil and connection of the bullet seem almost non-existent, to the point where this looks like the type of gunplay you'd get out of a Source Engine mod. (Yes, I know that Half Life was popular back in the day, but you'd be crazy not to see how dated it is now.)
Now my criticisms have a very understandable retort; this is an indie game. There's no studio of several teams all grinding away to nail the perfect amount of weapon sway, and nor do they have an extensive library of past framework to copy and past from in order to make their game quicker. (>cough< Ubisoft >cough<) But irregardless I do wonder if a game that seems to lean the majority of it's weight on the action elements, as the protagonist isn't vulnerable enough for this to be and out-and-out horror, can sail by on mechanics that look, frankly, weak. Perhaps efforts would have been best spent going another direction with the gameplay, such as towards melee combat, (Not that melee is any easier to nail but there's less of an accepted standard of where that quality bar should hit, you could be more versatile without the drawbacks being too evident.) but I suppose the whole project is too far gone now. I just worry because the gameplay I saw didn't look too exciting to play.
When it comes to the department of visuals, however, my biggest compliant is with the design direction; the textures and environments themselves look crisp. In the reveal trailer there are some pleasing lingering shots of the player exploring the dark abandoned halls of the facility with nothing but a flashlight and here the atmosphere seems to shine. The walls and ceilings all pop in that pleasing next-gen fashion, the light looks absolutely great, if only we could see these hall inhabited by more interesting creatures, then we'd have something worth talking about. (And with a concept as broad as they have I'm sure that there are some cool monsters they're holding back on, I just don't think they should hold them back much longer.)
So I think it's safe to say that my initial impressions of 'Quantum Error' aren't exactly glowing, in that I already know I'm going to forget this game exists the second I delete my tabs. Right now the most noteworthy thing I can see is the fact that it's the first totally indie game I've seen running on a PS5; and it shows off that the power of that console can really benefit everyone, even smaller teams. There is a very good possibility that I'm far off base with my first read of this title and I want to make that abundantly clear, but until I see evidence to the contrary this is a title I'm just going to have to say I'm not interested in. Perhaps you see potential where I don't, but I'll leave that side of the conversation to your direction and foresight.
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