Quantum Error: What We Know About Teamkill Media's Cosmic Horror

Quantum Error

Quantum Error is a strange case: it was presented as one of the first games specifically designed for PS5, perhaps the first ever declared openly for the Sony console among the third party projects, yet a year and a half after its release. very little is known about the console. For this reason, let's try to put together everything we know about Quantum Error to get an overview of the characteristics of this title, which continues to be quite interesting, above all thanks to the particular atmosphere of "cosmic horror" that characterizes its contours, at least for what we have seen so far. In the meantime, from the first teaser trailer to today, several things have changed: the next gen consoles have now been out for more than a year, even if it cannot really be said that they are still widespread given the known problems of supplying stocks, while Quantum Error has gone from being an alleged PS5 exclusive to a cross-platform game, also coming to Xbox Series X | S.

This, on the other hand, further expands the pool of users interested in the game, which it can make it even more interesting, waiting to understand what the real scope of this project is. The team responsible is quite small and relatively new, having previously developed only Kings of Lorn: The Fall of Ebris, a dark fantasy action RPG that hasn't really convinced that much.

Also for these reasons, the mystery around Quantum Error is particularly dense, given that it immediately showed itself as a title with considerable aspirations but held back by rather limited means available for its development. What emerges is that the first presentation, carried out in a period so distant from its release, was probably a clever marketing operation to draw attention to a title that would have risked going unnoticed, given the size of the production, such as clearly confirmed by the subsequent opening of the fundraising campaign on GoFundMe to complete its development.

A story between reality, sci-fi and horror

Quantum Error, the setting is somewhat reminiscent of Dead Space , in some respects Perhaps the most defined elements of Quantum Error, for the moment, are the narrative ones, with history and setting that already seem very clear in the mind of the developers, probably deriving from a script already built before everything else. The cut and the style, on the other hand, appeared quite clear from the first presentation, with the desire to recover the "cosmic horror" style with those classic Lovecraftian veins mixed with science fiction that we appreciated so much in Dead Space. The comparison comes quite naturally, even if the story of Teamkill's game - at least as a premise - seems more rooted in reality than Isaac Clarke's space adventure. The protagonist of the story is Captain Jacob Thomas of the San Francisco Fire Brigade, therefore a character much closer to everyday life than we have seen in other horror titles, called to intervene urgently following an incident that occurred at Monad Quantum Research Facility, a scientific facility located 30 miles off the Californian coast.

What may have seemed like a normal rescue and recovery mission, however, turns into something far more complex and terrifying, once Thomas, the his partner Shane Costa and the airborne fire brigade team actually make it to the research platform, which apparently has been attacked by an unknown entity.

The protagonist of Quantum Error uses various tools The fact that the setting is suspended between reality and horror science fiction is a particularly fascinating element: a San Francisco firefighter who sees a standard rescue mission transform in a metaphysical nightmare it suffers a more violent and more empathetic impact than the distant adventures of a space engineer or the mission of special and highly trained soldiers. Thomas is clearly not a fool but, after all, he should be a normal man accustomed to everyday reality and his plunging into an abyss of horror, with the loss of all rational points of reference, can be experienced with greater transport. and empathy from the players. This at least until the latest gameplay videos shown, which have somewhat distorted the initial vision of the game by putting some doubts on its overall vision.

FPS or survival horror?

Quantum Error has the characteristics basic standard FPS Quantum Error is presented as a first person shooter, but based on what we have seen so far the definition can be debated, since it has also gone through considerable variations between one presentation trailer and another. The first videos, which focused mainly on atmospheres and settings, seemed closer to first-person survival horror or even to the immersive sim, with exploration and also differentiated and contextual interaction with various elements of the scenario through different instruments. Subsequent videos, however, such as the one presented during the Future Game Show in spring 2021, showed a clear shift towards action and pure shooter, with strong reminiscences of DOOM and even some fragments of the game with a third-person view that they seem to prefer the action shooter. An evolution of the genre can cast doubts on the coherence of the project, given that in the last gameplay the elements of pure horror, almost psychological, seem to take a decisive role in the background.

It is likely that Teamkill has really changed some aspects of the project in progress, because there is a clear difference between the first trailer and the last released that goes beyond the obvious technical evolution, investing the same concept behind the game. The horror remains, but it seems more linked to the presence of aberrant monsters and nightmare creatures, close to id Software's sci-fi / hell vision, rather than the almost Lovecraftian cosmic horror that emerged with some clarity in the first videos. Hatchets, circular saws and tools that appeared in the early stages of the game, with the protagonist still lowered in his role as a firefighter on a mission, subsequently leave room for gigantic and highly destructive weapons, even for battle vehicles ready to wreak havoc, in a decided and curious change of atmosphere that occurred rather suddenly.

Ambitions and risks

The protagonist of Quantum Error, at least initially, seems close to the idea of ​​a firefighter In fact, if you look at the first trailer of the announcement and the last with the gameplay at the Future Game Show it seems to look at two different games, if it were not for those initial phases, in the latter, in which we still see that prevalence of exploration and mixed interaction with scenarios. On the one hand, the game seems to be defined more clearly but on the other it also seems to betray the initial premises, abandoning the aura of horror based on exploration and mystery to embrace the action that is even a little caciarona in certain situations. It is likely that this way it will more easily meet success with a wider audience, but there is no doubt that those who were fascinated by the spikes of sci-fi and cosmic horror initially seen were disappointed by the latest appearances of Quantum Error. On the other hand, making a truly prosaic speech, it must also be said that there are so many first-person horror that a variant that points more decisively to pure action is not despicable.

A Faced with this uncertainty about the atmosphere and about some structural elements of the game, Teamkill Media instead seems decidedly convinced to take advantage of the opportunity to showcase the technical skills of the group, given that it intends to focus a lot on this project from this point of view .

In the most recent videos, Quantum Error also brings out some battle vehicles The announcement as a next gen game says a lot about the desire to be at the forefront, even if times are probably lengthening beyond forecasts initials, but also the choice to switch to Unreal Engine 5, with probable further postponement of the release, clearly demonstrates the decision to gain experience with the most recent development tools. The risk is that the technical difficulties of development multiply and that the times are lengthened so much that the project reaches completion beyond the maximum time frame and the lack of coherence that seems to emerge from the various presentations of Quantum Error can derive from design difficulties, however the he chosen setting continues to be of great interest and the game remains a special sight among indie titles on next gen consoles.

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