Tecmo Koei isn’t really known for appealing to western (or American to those of you not in the know) gamers. Their reputation is with more Japanese flavor with games like Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Ninja Gaiden (there were a few more games with “Warriors” in the name but I think you see the pattern).

Quantum Theory is their attempt at the burly blood-and-guts American’s have to come to love from their video games nowadays. Does Quatum Theory deliver? Clickety-click on the link to find out.

 Sadly, the story is the only thing that kept me trudging along through Quantum Theory. It’s the only original piece this game really has. All of the other things used in the game are just repeated, overly used copied mechanics from other games. For most of Quantum Theory, I thought I was playing the cheaper version of Gears of War.

In the game, you play as the character Syd. The story or anything involving Syd doesn’t explode from the get-go, but happens more as this very slow, methodical IV drip over the course of the game. You don’t really get to know anything about Syd (or his counterpart who I’ll get to in a moment) until later on, but even then it’s more just one-liners and annoying dialogue for most of the game. Syd wants to destroy the tower, but he runs across the female character Filena, who lives there and wants to see it preserved. Apparently the tower has been overrun by this dark element called the “diablosis” and it’s infecting everything around it, sending out sentries and enemies to take over the world around the tower. These are the enemies that you fight. Does this make any sense right now? Do you even care?

The gameplay of Quantum Theory is that of an empty carcass. The simple things work, but there are so many other simple things that don’t. I was constantly plagued by inconsistent and sporadic save points, glitchy button pressing notifications, and other things that just flat out annoyed me. Quantum Theory at it’s heart is a run and gun, attach to cover game that takes after Gears of War. In Quantum Theory though, you can still get shot through that solid piece of rock. Yeah, retarded. This leads to you dying and your character glitching through that cover and dropping your gun.

The enemies that you defeat don’t even explode into a huge bloodbath for our enjoyment, but instead look as though this huge friggin’ monster just sneezed itself into green snot and disappeared. What about catering to Western gamers? I want some blood.

As frustrating as the game is, there are some cool moments in Quantum Theory. Most of them consist of the beautiful pre-rendered cut scenes in between the gameplay. Now, if I am sitting here telling you that the best part of the game is the pre-rendered cut scenes and the story, you know it’s not that great of a game to actually play. Now I might get down on all of the bad things about Quantum Theory, but there is some good to be had. Running and gunning from cover to cover works, but when it’s done you’ll notice Syd (the Marcus Fenix wannabe) looks like an idiot doing it. He is hunched over like an old man running for a Country Kitchen buffet. His movements are overly done and stiff. Wait, was that positive? I don’t know. Anyway, moving on.

Quantum Theory is a broken carcass shell of a game (Yeah, I know I already used that). The story of the tower is quite interesting, but the gameplay and overly done “layout cut scenes” grow tiring before each little battle. The combo system with Filena is cool and all, but it really just adds yet another cut scene for you to watch as she slices up a big monster.

All in all it’s hard to sit through this game. I had to, so there’s no telling who would want to buy this and do this for fun? My ultimate suggestion is to go out and buy Gears of War and Gears of War 2 for about the same price (if not cheaper) than Quantum Theory and have a better gaming experience. Believe me, you’ll thank me later.