You’re playing a first-person shooter. It’s 3v3, 10 seconds left in the round, and both teams are rushing to touch the objective and score the winning point. You unload a clip into an opponent and put pressure on the left lane. Both your teammates charge the center. One gets dropped by a sniper. You take aim down your sights and blast his head off, only to then be flanked by a shotgun. Your teammate ignores your screams of the final enemy and confidently rushes the objective and, with 2 seconds left on the clock, takes a slug to the side of the head, losing you the game. How is it that you always seem to get stuck with a bunch of noobs? Well… what if I told you that each one of your teammates was you the entire time? You’re probably looking at your screen sideways right now. I was too. This is exactly what happens in Quantum League: an arena-based tactical shooter that will break your brain in all the right ways.
Story
Nimble Giant Entertainment has decided “It’s 2021. We should have time-machines right about now.” And they did just that. By utilizing Time-Looping technology, Quantum League has become the dominant weaponized extreme sport across the world. As a Quantum Athlete, you participate in Quake-Style matches where you are able to team up with yourself. Like any other sport, you’re shooting for the top of the leaderboards and the only way to get there is to master this time-looping arena and blast your way through the past, present, and future of anyone who gets in your way.
Gameplay & Mechanics
If you’ve ever played a Racing game then you’re probably familiar with time trials or “Ghost” Racers. Basically, you drive on a track competing only against the clock and, after you finish, the next time you compete on that track, your “Ghost” appears and copies exactly what you did last time. Nimble Giant Entertainment took that square, then shoved it into the triangle that is First-Person shooting. You, the player, compete in one of 3 modes in either 1v1 or 2v2 styled matches. In the first round, you go head-to-head against your opponent aiming to “desync” them and/or capture the strategic points across the map. Then, at the end of the round, everything rewinds to the very beginning of the match, and you do it all again. This time, however, your “Ghost” does EVERYTHING you did in the last round, and you must coordinate with your past self to continually dominate the objectives.
There’s so much to unpack just there, but the game gets even deeper than that. Say in round someone finds themselves on the wrong end of your shotgun and you savagely murder or “Desync” them. They still exist, like a spirit from Among Us, and can push the objective. While Desynced, they cannot affect anything around you, so standing on the objective does nothing. But, if in the second round, they decide to pick up a sniper and return the favor Before your previous self reintroduces them to the business end of your shotgun, then past them, since they never desynced, can still push the objective and score a point.
But wait, there’s more!
Along with all that that, there are health stations throughout the arena that not only heal you, but revive you from being desynced. So in round 1, being the pro-gamer that you are, You ran through a healing station after taking down your foe even though you were at full health, then fired like a madman at the air above the objective. So now, even though your “Ghost” took a bullet through the dome in round one, it still managed to revive itself by running your same route, and blasted anyone who thought they’d just slide onto that objective. That’s how you big-brain, baby!
Aesthetics & Sound
Quantum League is a gorgeous game with bright and beautiful colors wherever you look. The guns are pretty rough-looking if you’re a seasoned FPS enthusiast, but the artwork is good enough where you know the sniper is a sniper and the shotgun is a shotgun. Character models are well-drawn and have a lot of personality in their artstyle alone, which is always good in a hero-shooter. The arcady soundtrack pairs well with this aesthetic and gets you excited without encouraging a growing thirst for the souls of your opponents. At the end of a match, however, I did notice the sound quality of gunfire drops off while using the free cam as well as the bullet trails. I’d love to see a big laser show as the final replay while I watch my clones go into battle against my opponent’s.
Summary
I cannot recommend this game enough. If you’re a fan of arena-shooters, then you’ll love this nuanced twist to an already successful formula. With the different strategies and tactics available, there is a world of potential for shockingly satisfying moments, like blindfiring a sniper in round 1 and hitting a live opponent in round 2 with that stray bullet. I’ve had several rounds where I’d miss a shot against my round 1 target, only for my round 1 ghost to then hit the round 2 or 3 opponent. It feels good watching everything fall into place in the final 3v3 or 6v6, even if it’s all a happy accident. Pick up Quantum League. You just have to experience this.
9/10
Check Out the Quantum League Trailer:
Quantum League is available for PC at a 50% discount ($4.99 until April 22nd) via Steam.
Steam Review
As the (self-proclaimed) King of Casuals, I'm always seeking out new titles to play and experience across all platforms. Eventually, I have ambitions to take the many different styles of this medium to create titles that will wow the masses in fresh, innovative ways.
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