I’m always willing to give a newer developer a shot so long as the premise of the title is enough to catch my attention. In Quantum Error‘s case, it’s Teamkill Media’s team of four brothers that are taking the reigns. The premise? Firefighting, horror, space, and first-person shooter gameplay. This hodgepodge of tropes somehow has enough to work in tandem with for the project to see its release digitally this November with physical copies on the way, despite a canceled PlayStation 4 version. How did the 4 Jones brothers do in this ambitious horror game just in time for Halloween?

Quantum Error sees you take control of newly-appointed Fire Captain Jacob Thomas, who immediately finds out he’s in over his head. You’re immersed in a tutorial of both first-person or third-person (via the touchpad) shooting, as well as firefighting simulation gameplay, in that order. I wasn’t impressed with the lackadaisical FPS intro, but found the latter bit of gameplay quite intriguing and seamless. Checking doors for heat and prying them open, both utilizing DualSense haptics, was a nice touch. Doing so used the problem-solving part of my brain that releases rewarding endorphins upon success.

It’s a shame, then, that everything else in Quantum Error is painstakingly poor in quality. The cutscenes are an absolute mess, the character models are limp and expressionless in contrast with the competent voice acting, the framerate jumps from 30 to sub-10, and there’s pop-in and textures loading in during every new shot. The models aren’t exactly bursting with life within the game, either. Enemies are frigid when focused on you, whereas your fellow firefighters can spawn in front of you if they’re not blindly following you with nothing to offer the dire situation.

Immersion is simply not possible in Quantum Error with these issues, which is why it shocked me that the team funded a motion-capture suit for the title if it went to such a middling use. Tutorials cannot be accessed in the pause menu, so if you miss something, you’ll have to close and re-open the game as there’s no “reload checkpoint” out of combat. Such troubling mistakes make the game feel like work while you get your bearings.

I can’t really piece together the story of Quantum Error because there are three jarring time jumps in the first hour of the game. While I liked how some of the camera angles and horror foreshadowing came about, these pros got weighed down by not knowing what was going on at any juncture.

Showing such brief glimpses into characters makes it infeasible to care about these people without even a minuscule background before massive plot points take place. It’s a shame because the potential is there, it’s just squandered by such a baffling pace that really put a damper on my experience before things picked up.

I would say Quantum Error needed more time in the tank, but it’s already felt the burden of a prolonged development as it was originally set for a 2021 release and canned a previous-gen release. It’s unfinished, too ambitious, and is likely to miss the mark for those who are excited about it. If there’s any saving grace, the team has made their budget back in pre-orders, so the planned trilogy may see the light of day. If it does, I hope Teamkill takes note of its shortcomings and improves in its future releases.

A PS5 review copy of Quantum Error was provided by Teamkill Media for this review.

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Quantum Error

59.99

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Firefighting Gameplay is Engaging
• Great Music/Sound Design
• Cool Alien Designs

Cons

• Abysmal Cutscenes
• Rough Graphics
• Pop-in, Frame Drops, Other Bugs
• Non-cohesive Story