Quantum Break: Release date, gameplay and everything else you need to know

In Quantum Break, time is broken, and it's up to you, as Jack Joyce, to fix it. Using his singular ability to stop time, and a generous application of ammunition, you'll fight back the foot soldiers of Monarch Solutions, a corporation trying to track you down.

What exactly is Quantum Break? And when can I play it?

Quantum Break is a third-person shooter. Jack Joyce gains the power to manipulate time when a time travel experiment goes wrong, and he'll use his newfound abilities to fight the soldiers that are hunting him.

The game will be released on April 5, 2016, and it's exclusive to the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. If you preorder the digital version of the game for the Xbox One, you'll get the Windows 10 version for free.

Wait, what about the PlayStation 4?

This is a pretty ambitious game, and the developers at Remedy Entertainment have received a lot of help from Microsoft to see their dream brought to life. That's a polite way of saying there is likely no chance we'll ever see this coming from platform that isn't owned by Microsoft -- on the PC, it isn't even coming to Steam. You'll need to head to the Windows app store or get an Xbox One if you want to play.

So are we talking about bullet time? Like, from 'The Matrix'?

Sort of? I mean, this is the studio that brought us Max Payne; freezing time to dodge bullets is a defining aspect of that series' gameplay. But the action here revolves around being able to stop time for a few seconds at a time, ducking past enemies who are pursuing you, or running right up to them and punching them in the face. It seems kind of unfair.

I dunno, this seems kind of gimmicky to me.

I thought so, too. But then those stutters come into play; a stutter is basically time pausing, involuntarily. The world freezes around you but lets Jack and specific enemies move freely. Jack can also use his powers to pull people and objects out of stutters -- a

And it's not all gunplay: time will occasionally break down in the middle of precarious situations, so you might suddenly find yourself scooting on and around exploding debris that's frozen in time, trying to get from one place to the next.

OK, I'm convinced. But isn't there some kind of live-action bit, too?

Yup. The game is split into sections, and after every section an episode of a live-action miniseries will play. You'll play as Jack Joyce, but you'll watch the "bad guys" in the episodes of this miniseries, and you can make choices that'll ultimately affect Jack when you play. This is kind of a wild step here, and I'm eager to see how it actually plays out.