Quantum Theory
1 Part Gears, Nine Parts Crap
Posted October 8, 2010
Developed in house by Japanese publisher Tecmo, Quantum Theory is a third person shooter that has a frightening number of similarities to the design and gameplay style of the Gears of War series. The narrative puts the player in control of Syd, a steroid injected pile of muscles that’s fighting to save the human race from alien material. Sound familiar? Syd is taking on what the developers call “Living Towers” that are polluting the environment and making the planet uninhabitable for humanity. Syd has the help of a female warrior by the name of Felina and they must work together to halt the progress of the Living Towers. The presentation can be very confusing at times and there’s not much of a conclusion to the storyline. I’m guessing that Tecmo thought this game would spawn a sequel or perhaps a series.
As stated previously, if you played Gears, you will be right at home at first. You stay in third person view of Syd and move him between cover spots while taking out the enemies with a barrage of bullets. Also like Gears, the control scheme is nearly identical. You can dive and roll out of the way, sprint to new locations and reload your weapons on the fly. Idiotically, the developers didn’t put enough cover areas in the game to even matter, thus you are forced into a terrible run and gun stance through 80 to 90 percent of the campaign. Either you are sprinting away from enemy fire or rolling around on the ground like a buffoon attempting to roll your way to safety. If only they included a jump button, then you could bunny hop your way back into the days of Quake.
One unique element to the gameplay is the ability to throw Felina at enemies to stun them or slice them in half with her sharp blade. It’s not useful most of the time, but can occasionally help sway the battle in your favor. Felina is also a decent AI partner, holding her own on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the developer didn’t understand balance on the enemy AI side, specifically spawn rates. Rather than feeling like a natural flow of enemy movement in the progression of the game, it’s the older style of spawning that creates waves immediately after killing the last wave. This would be easier to handle if Syd could hit the broadside of a barn when shooting while running or the invisible walls in the game weren’t eating up all my ammunition.
Finding someone to play this game with over Xbox Live is painful. Not only are people avoiding the title (for very good reason), the various deathmatch modes don’t bring anything new to the table. The single match that I was able to get into was laggy (perhaps due to overseas players) and didn’t last very long. There are online leaderboards that you can compete on, but it’s almost impossible to find a match. Unlike Gears, there’s no co-op component to the game. The achievement set puts all the difficulty based campaign achievements into the secret category and the multiplayer based achievements are immediately visible. I have no idea how anyone is supposed to complete the set without anyone playing online.
Quantum Theory isn’t simply a terrible game; it’s a warped version of Gears that tramples on everything that made it one of the most popular shooters on the Xbox 360. I have no idea why anyone at Team Tachyon would think that the North American audience would eat this up. For a new IP, it’s hard enough to gain a solid following, even with excellent gameplay. Quantum Theory is a poorly constructed shooter with a confusing, poorly paced narrative that won’t attract anyone to play it on the 360 or Playstation 3. Leave this one on the rental shelf to collect piles of dust as it’s not even worth demoing.
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As stated previously, if you played Gears, you will be right at home at first. You stay in third person view of Syd and move him between cover spots while taking out the enemies with a barrage of bullets. Also like Gears, the control scheme is nearly identical. You can dive and roll out of the way, sprint to new locations and reload your weapons on the fly. Idiotically, the developers didn’t put enough cover areas in the game to even matter, thus you are forced into a terrible run and gun stance through 80 to 90 percent of the campaign. Either you are sprinting away from enemy fire or rolling around on the ground like a buffoon attempting to roll your way to safety. If only they included a jump button, then you could bunny hop your way back into the days of Quake.
One unique element to the gameplay is the ability to throw Felina at enemies to stun them or slice them in half with her sharp blade. It’s not useful most of the time, but can occasionally help sway the battle in your favor. Felina is also a decent AI partner, holding her own on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the developer didn’t understand balance on the enemy AI side, specifically spawn rates. Rather than feeling like a natural flow of enemy movement in the progression of the game, it’s the older style of spawning that creates waves immediately after killing the last wave. This would be easier to handle if Syd could hit the broadside of a barn when shooting while running or the invisible walls in the game weren’t eating up all my ammunition.
Finding someone to play this game with over Xbox Live is painful. Not only are people avoiding the title (for very good reason), the various deathmatch modes don’t bring anything new to the table. The single match that I was able to get into was laggy (perhaps due to overseas players) and didn’t last very long. There are online leaderboards that you can compete on, but it’s almost impossible to find a match. Unlike Gears, there’s no co-op component to the game. The achievement set puts all the difficulty based campaign achievements into the secret category and the multiplayer based achievements are immediately visible. I have no idea how anyone is supposed to complete the set without anyone playing online.
Graphics
- What group of level designers would want to have their name anywhere near the credits on this game?! It’s hideous; namely lacking in texture detail and feels like something that was didn’t have several rounds of revisions (a lack of project management). Particle effects are nowhere to be found, something that might be helpful if you are blowing up structures. The camera loves to wander all over the place and often points to some supposed dramatic moment that’s behind the wall you are staring at. Characters aren’t animated very well, mostly missing the fluidity that we see in all recent releases. The boss designs are really the only bright spot of the graphic engine, mostly due to their size and reach.
Audio
- The voiceovers are absolutely terrible and drag the narrative down into the muck. The lead character isn’t even a good replication of Marcus Fenix, if that’s what they were going for, and the one-liners are extremely obnoxious by the end of the game. The music is slightly better, but lacks the action-adventure feel or even highlighting the most tension filled moments of the game. The sound effects are pretty standard for a shooter; nothing stands out as fantastic.
Conclusion
Quantum Theory isn’t simply a terrible game; it’s a warped version of Gears that tramples on everything that made it one of the most popular shooters on the Xbox 360. I have no idea why anyone at Team Tachyon would think that the North American audience would eat this up. For a new IP, it’s hard enough to gain a solid following, even with excellent gameplay. Quantum Theory is a poorly constructed shooter with a confusing, poorly paced narrative that won’t attract anyone to play it on the 360 or Playstation 3. Leave this one on the rental shelf to collect piles of dust as it’s not even worth demoing.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum