Quantum Theory Demo Impressions

Greetings everyone.  I meant to get this post out last week, but I had guests in town and ended up being too busy.  Just a quick gaming side note: I was able to complete the Halo: Reach campaign last night, and can safely say that I enjoyed it a lot.  I guess I understand some of the Halo haters out there (considering I was one before I'd ever tried the game), but I don't see how anyone can keep this game out of their XBOX 360 collection.  Alright, on to Quantum Theory.

I actually find the concept of Tecmo's third-person shooter quite interesting.  It's basically a Gears of War clone set in a post-war world where few humans remain.  The main character, Syd, is part of a militia looking to singlehandedly eliminate any threats to the dwindling human race.  He arrives at what he believes to be the center of the evil and meets a mysterious woman who arrives at the same location.  The two decide to work together to find answers in  the evil, known as the 'Living Tower'.  The idea of the tower "being alive" is what separates this game from other concepts.  Instead of playing through areas where cover locations are pre-determined, the 'Living Tower' changes cover locations during battle, forcing both you and your enemies to adapt on the run.  The concept is very creative, unfortunately the stale execution and lackluster sensory aspects of the game wore on me quickly.

I'd consider myself in the minority, but I really don't mind "game clones", as long as they're executed well.  If someone wants to make really good first-or-third person shooter clones (think clones of CoD, Halo, GoW, Doom, etc), I wouldn't even consider holding the fact that the game is a clone against it.  What frustrates me is when someone attempts to clone a game and leaves out some of its better aspects.  In Quantum Theory's case, I was almost immediately annoyed by the player movement and control layout.  While Gears of War characters are well-known for their bulk, their movements are programmed to be almost perfectly proportionate.  In QT's case, everything feels slow and disjointed, particularly when trying to fire your weapon on the run.  In the case of controls, the slight changes made to the Gears of War control formula hinder the game instead of helping it.  It might have been an attempt to give the game more of its own identity, but that identity is further lost in the unresponsive and awkward control layout.

The graphics in the game are decent, and while certainly not on par with a game like Gears of War, I would consider them acceptable from the short time I spent with the demo.  The same can be said for the music and sound, though I can see the robotic voice of the "Living Tower" becoming old rather quickly.

Unless I see something new that I've missed, this game is a easy avoid for me.  Between my demo experience and early reviews being less than positive, and I haven't seen anything yet that would change my mind.  With so many great shooting games out there (including some major upcoming releases), I think you can feel safe in passing on this game.  For those interesting in finding out more about the title, I've included the trailer below:

More Quantum Theory - (PlayStation 3) Videos