Night Springs: Time Breaker

[Elrodeus]

So I guess I'm going to be that fan that posts about this. I just finished playing the new Alan Wake 2 DLC on my Xbox and the Time Breaker episode is literally a sequel to Quantum Break in every way I could imagine. Somehow Remedy just keeps managing to exceed my expectations and I'm just not sure how they are so good at it. Surely no one will continue to deny that Quantum Break is part of the "Remedyverse". The entire episode was not only a fanservice loveletter to anyone that's been following along but almost a climactic peak in the multiverse story so far.

With that said, SPOILERS AHEAD

There be SPOILERS.

If you love Quantum Break I'd highly suggest you play Alan Wake 2 and so you can experience it all for yourself. It really is a wink and a nod to any fans of the game and the experience of... just understanding what the Remedy team is playing with is fun and puts a smile on my face.


My thoughts may be a bit scattered as I have literally just wrapped up the game and I have already even gone back and rewatched Warlin Door's opening lines because of how absurdly dense they are. I feel like I'll have to discuss them in a later edit of this post. Anyway here we go:

This whole game is the most meta thing I've ever experienced in my life in any medium (theatre, game, comic book, novel etc) ever. Even me just saying that is likely an understatement. After Warlin Door opens with a very Twilight Zone style pondering discussion of multiple realities and what if scenarios, the game literally opens to a scene of Shawn Ashmore as Shawn Ashmore discussing his time travel hero character with Sam Lake who is literally playing himself in the game.

My man, Sam Lake is literally standing there with what I can only describe as the most contagiously hilarious ♥♥♥♥-eating grin of a smile on his face with a cup of coffee in his hand and a jingle dance in his step as he pitches his plans of what he'd like to do with the character I'm about to play in this videogame that I purchased. This can be interpreted so many ways I can't even begin, but I hope his meta admittance to making a new "Time Breaker" video game is actually true even if it sort of mainly is just obviously talking about this DLC episode itself. Anyway, here's a sort of direct transcript of the scene.

Shawn: You wanted to talk? It's awesome to be doing this with you again, Sam.

Sam Lake: Shawn, it's so good to have you back. We've been dreaming about this for so long, and now finally, we are making "Time Breaker", the videogame. It's happening!

Shawn: Yea, and FMV as well. It's so cool.

Sam Lake: Of course, that was part of the previous game as well.

Shawn: I'd like to talk about my character, get deeper into the lore.

Sam Lake: Hey! I could talk about this for day! He's a multiversal agent. Who goes by many names as there are many versions of him. Breaker, Branch, others. He is searching for his lost love, while his ruthless nemesis, Door, the Master of Many Worlds is murdering versions of him across parallel realities. He must track down and stop Door.

Shawn: That's so cool.

Sam Lake: You've done cool superhero roles in the past. Long-term, the Agent will grow into the ultimate, iconic superhero.

Shawn: That's awesome. So the Vortext and the gadget... sorry, I keep forgetting its name, so many acronyms here, but it helps me travel through realities?

(This is an obvious reference to the "CFR" Chronon Field Regulator that causes the Quantum Break in the game but you'll notice the further into this experience they swap out many names interchangeably for example the Federal Bureau of Control in this DLC is called the REC Ripple Effect Company)

Sam Lake: Acronyms are cool, right? (Yes they are Sam I agree. Keep cooking my dude.) Like tiny mysteries! You power up your PRS - Polyhedron Reality Shifter - with a SEN - Shifter Energy Node - to activate a Lumivista TV and ride the vortex between realities. It's all REC - Ripple Effect Corporation - tech. And you have a gun and a TBS - Time Breaker Solidifier - to defend yourself.

Shawn: Ha. Right. Yeah. You clearly have your own vision of the multiverse. (The Remedyverse as we fans have been calling it lol.)

Sam Lake: The right vision. The truth! It's all out there. That's where these ideas and inspirations come from. They seep through. Somewhere, this here, us talking is part of the videogame, and another version of you is playing it. Somewhere, your character, the Agent, is real, and he could appear here through a portal any time now.

Shawn: Right. Yea, yeah, right, Sam. Haha. You are a maniac, man. Totally! Okay, so what do we shoot next?

Sam Lake: We need to set up for the next scene. Where your nemesis pulls you into a parallel reality. You can go to your Green Room, chill out, learn the lines. I left the latest draft of the screenplay for you there. See you in a bit.

Shawn: Cool. Great.

Sam Lake: See you in a bit.

Shawn then goes to his room only to see a version of himself dead in the room and carrying with him the Time Breaker Solidifier. Jesse (Beth Wilder) walks into the room super casually and laments like it's expected "Oh so he got another one of you. Too late again." but when Shawn responds by saying that this is all a prank Jesse's tone changes and blurts out, "You mean you're not Branch?" she curses then tries to quickly warn Shawn by saying that he's in grave danger but before she could get any further Shawn is pulled through space time by Warlin Door. He becomes aware in a forest with long hair and a crazy long beard and the rest of the game begins.

Some crazy things happen and I could discuss this for hours but here are a few key take-aways that I thought were awesome to see:

When you traverse into the realm where the "pale words on black" become reality you can travel to Beth/Jesse but the realm admits that here her name is Lisa and she's not aware of the multiverse. I chose the option to tell her that I "came back for her" like he promises in Quantum Break. She smiles and apparently takes it as a pickup line.

The game let's you sort of live out your "happy" life time with her for an indistinguishable amount of time (which makes sense because time has no meaning in this realm of "pale words on black") but eventually Lisa begins to have dreams of the multiverse and a great danger. When she tells you this you can come clean and tell her the truth about the multiverse and she immediately believes you. Upon catching her up on what's happening with him and Door she gets a little angry that you've essentially allowed yourself to be sidetracked by her and she leaves you presumably to return to her "own destiny" in the multiverse of Control. She leaves you with a spiral necklace. You can then conjure a door, hang the spiral necklace on it and walk through to meet the Master of Worlds.

And this is where the sort of climax and ending of the episode comes to. In a sort of ASCI style art cinematic you walk through the door only to find Alan Wake. Not Warlin Door. Alan Wake is the Master of Worlds. This actually re-contextualizes the entire story of course. But at the same time we're not sure how true any of this can be. When Warlin Door was speaking with Alan Wake in the Alan Wake 2 game Door warns Alan that when the time comes he better, "play his part" and it seems obvious to me that this gaming experience is exactly that: Alan Wake playing his part for Warlin Door. He's aiding him as far as I can tell and I'm not sure to what end anymore.

I still believe that Martin Hatch/Warlin Door is trying to help Jack Joyce/Tim Breaker somehow but it's hard to see the "truth" in the game no matter how much Sam admits that it "seeps through" like his coffee. There's definitely a narrative of Door trying to uncover this "chosen one" version of Tim Breaker but we still don't know what reason beyond what we knew in Quantum Break: Hatch/Door is wanting to ascend Tim to full Shifter status like him. But according to this episode if he joins Door he becomes a Time Breaker and is corrupted. I can admit if Door is willingly playing the villain he's doing an awesome job at it either way.

I'm just really down for the ride. I'm excited to see what Remedy will do next for these characters. I'm sure I'm going to replay this episode of Night Springs again many times as there appeared to be a few different things that can unfold especially in the "pale words on black" realm. And the realm where the place is a desert filled with the CFR's littering the landscape was both so symbolic and awesome. I just really love the whole experience. It's fun.

Also If you played it and experienced this sort of sequel to Quantum Break let me know of your thoughts here. Did you get all geek happy like me?

[CongenialCar8]

I played the DLC in episodic order, not knowing what to expect from each episode. I was really excited to see a version of Jesse and Tim together because I figured that would be the closest thing we'll ever get to them reuniting post Quantum Break in episode 2. But when I started playing episode 3 and started realizing what was happening, I locked in. My gf watched me play it and was entertained of course. But the connections and references to Quantum Break were blowing my mind throughout the experience. Even playing through the Alan Wake main game, I always figured Mr. Door and Martin Hatch were suppose to be the same guy (looking up the fan theories also confirmed my suspicion, it also saddened me because then I learned why the actor was replaced, new actor is really good and glad they chose him but still a crappy circumstance to learn about) and thought it was a way to legally incorporate Quantum Break into the Remedy Universe. Then when we got to the comic book panel and they teased us about "coming back for me?" I lost it. I literally had to stop what I was doing and just explain the significance of that line emotionally and contextually to the games. Then the last part before getting to the adventure text game. The whole time I was fighting and making my way through the act, I kept wondering if this is suppose to be "the end of time."
Now after playing that DLC, I actually sat down and decided to replay Quantum Break for the first time in years. I needed the refreshers because now I realize how more connected Alan Wake, Control, and Quantum Break really are. I just think it's crazy how all three protagonist never can get the person they are searching/fighting for.

[MetalDestroyer]

Dang it. I'm not the only one who has the idea to replay Quantum Breks years after it initial release, just because of the new DLC of Alan Wake. The only reason that DLC push me to redo Quantum Break was because of Mr Door.

I need answer regarding him and how he is related or not to Martin Hatch.

And I just notice all easter egg from Alan Wake in Quantum Wake. I'm wondering if Max Payne 1 / 2 could be connected to this RemedyVerse since Max Payne and Alex Casey has the same face. XD

[Elrodeus]

Originally posted by MetalDestroyer:

I'm wondering if Max Payne 1 / 2 could be connected to this RemedyVerse since Max Payne and Alex Casey has the same face. XD

They are connected but the ties are limited since Rockstar currently owns the rights to Max Payne. Remedy is in a similar situation with MP that they are with Quantum Break.

I really hope that when Remedy remakes Max Payne 1 and 2 they add some more connections to it, especially after we got all those clear Max Payne references with Casey in the dark place with Alan in Alan Wake 2.

One of the connections I like to point out though is the pink flamingo from Max Payne. There's a recurring TV show (it's been years so my memory is a little cloudy) about a guy going crazy and hearing the voice of the pink flamingo in his head. The pink flamingo is shown in Control as an object of power and is locked in one of the cells next to a TV.

I've since played Time Breaker a 2nd time and I've let my thoughts on it stew a bit. I'll be updating and cleaning up my original post soon with some more observations, but seeing Remedy tie in the Quantum Break story so succinctly and... well... blatantly as far as I'm concerned, was a huge moment for me as Quantum Break is my favorite IP they've made since Max Payne.

Either way, I'd love to see more of Shawn/Jack Joyce/Tim Breaker in the future and I hope his story continues to cross paths with Beth/Jesse/Lisa etc.

What plans does Door have for our Time Breaker? We know he's Door's disciple, but what is he wanting to get him to accomplish?

[[NRG] Michal]

That third episode of Night Springs DLC is probably my favorite part of the entire Alan Wake 2. I was hoping for a wink and a nod of some sort but I did not expect a full-on sequel to QB.

Here's hoping Remedy can extract Quantum Break from Microsoft like they did with Alan Wake and bring our boy home.

And RIP Lance Reddick. Props to David Harewood, he's awesome, but we all know Door should have been Lance's part.