I am error

There are very few games I would classify as awful. It took me a long time to get through Quantum Error. The game is chock full of questionable ideas and execution that it felt like it didn’t want me to play it. It reminds me of a game that sets out with lofty ambitions, and instead of scaling them back, it just moves forward trying to execute everything a big budget game would normally do and fails at nearly everything. From braindead AI to awkward design decisions, this game is a chore to play and I struggled every time I sat down to make progress.

The sci-fi horror vibes are the one thing this game nails. I loved the ideas and the music, but I could not for the life of me find it in me to care about this story. Players assume the role of Jacob. He is an ex-soldier turned firefighter who contains all the boilerplate traits of any character from a 2000s action game. The beginning of the game throws a 10-minute cut scene at players that makes absolutely little sense and feels like it is trying too hard to be cryptic and scary and just ends up being confusing.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PlayStation
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

This is a trend in this game as cut scenes are on the same level as something like Metal Gear without any comprehension. I watched most of them twice, and they still didn’t make much sense. There is an artifact and some creepy people in space. Man, it all just feels so forced and chaotic to the point I completely zoned out. This story has potential, but it goes so many places and doesn’t take the time to explain any of them.

Let’s start with what works here as it is a relatively short list. The Dual Sense integration is great. The firefighting portions of the game take advantage of Sony’s gimmicky controller with things like blowing into the microphone for CPR and rumbling to let you know a door is warm. These are neat things most developers do not take the time to implement. The music is also outstanding. It really gives off those creepy sci-fi vibes from movies like Event Horizon and sets the mood. This is where my praise for this game truly ends.

Starting with the AI in the game, it is practically non-existent. Stealth mechanics are useless as enemies can hear and see you through walls and doors. Swapping weapons or items is a chore as it is only done with a wheel that is slow as molasses. The shooting feels stiff and non-impactful. The movement speed is slow. Sprinting feels like normal walking and there is a stamina meter so you can’t even spam it.

This game is packed with awkward design decisions like this. Checkpoints are few and far between, meaning you can lose tons of progress upon death. Dying also resets everything including enemies and ammo pickups, which you have to press a button to pick up, this stuff drives me nuts. Almost like the game was proactively trying to irritate me as I played it. The map system is also static, meaning that in order to access it, I had to find a terminal. Saves are the same using the archaic method of save rooms. There is just nothing modern about the way this game handles its systems.

The enemy behavior is erratic at best. Sometimes enemies will take heed of you, while other times you can walk right past them. There are only a handful of enemy types and I think the zombie creatures had more awareness than the soldiers as they stood out in the open waiting on me to fumble with my weapon wheel to kill them. From top to bottom, playing this game is a chore.

The visuals have their moments with some interesting area design, but everything else feels cramped and drab. The corridors feel similar, making it easier to get lost. A constant map would have helped this immensely. The enemy designs are few and far between. The voice acting is middling at best, and as I mentioned the music is outstanding. The one bright spot in an otherwise dull presentation. The frame rate holds up fairly well and loading times are minimal, but the game takes away control so often in the early party that it felt like hidden loading screens in and of themselves.

Quantum Error feels like a game the team had passion about. There are good ideas here wrapped in a package that is executed poorly on all fronts. It doesn’t help that the developers decided to enrage fanboy wars on Twitter leading up to the release of the game. It put it in a spotlight the game wasn’t built to take. The price tag also hurts as this is a full-priced game in a budget game build. I could be a lot more forgiving if the sticker price was around $30, but at $60 I cannot recommend anyone lay down the funds for this one. It is disappointing in almost every aspect.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.