Bad mechanics or bad implementation?

[bombadilillo]

In another thread about bad mechanics, a complain thread really I got thinking. Posted this.




All these complaints are valid, but from poor execution rather then an inherent poor mechanic.

QTE. Res Evil 4 did them perfect. Only a couple different possibilities, if failed the cutscene came back to is a second later. No GoW BS whole bossfight to be redone with random QTE. F that.

Escort mission. Again Res evil 4 did this great. Partner stayed with you, ducked under your fire. This is my most hated mechanic and that game did it great.

Health regen. I personally dont like this and think Far Cry 2 had the best health system to date. But regen works with context. Great in halo with a scifi shield, immersion breaking in Cod with supposed realism. While we're at it, fuck that red jelly.

I guess the point is, don't hate the mechanic, hate the failed implementation. I bet every one has a game where it worked fine it. Or almost every one, has to be an exception.




Obviously that is all imo and you might think all QTE's can go die in a hole. But what do you think?

Post a mechanic you normally hate, but also a game where it was done well. Theres got to be a good example of a karma system out there and a game with sensible story driven fetch quests. Or if you really think there is a mechanic with no hope at all maybe someone can offer a suggestion.

 

[Zhukov]

All QTEs can die in a hole.

Why yes, I would like to elabotate on that. See, QTEs are born when a developer wants to include an action in their game, but for whatever reason cannot implement it into gameplay properly. So they make it happen in a cutscene. But then they remember that they are game developers, not movie directors. So halfway through the cutscene they make us press a button, 'cause that's what games are all about, right?

It's not proper gameplay, because I can only make one possible input. And it has no worth as a cutscene since I can't sit back and enjoy it because I'm too busy staring at the one part of the screen where the button prompts come up.

Resident Evil's QTEs are as bad as anyone's. You're watching a cutscene, rolling your eyes at the embarrassingly bad dialogue and trying to convince yourself that it's being ironic when BAM! PRESS X TO NOT DIE! So you grope for the controller and press it half a second too late, then the damn scene rewinds in all its unskippable glory and you have to watch that garbage again, but this time with your finger tensely poised over the X button.

Fuck that.

...

As for the other two, I've never really had a problem with escort missions or regenerating health. And I agree that Far Cry 2 had an awesome health system.

 

[Monkestful]

The Iron Sight.

Often tacked on because that's the thing to do nowadays, but games like the Rainbow Six series have made that mechanic into a strategic element of gameplay, one that you can't do without but must use carefully. Having that mechanic makes the tactical games (like the first few Rainbows before regen health) into even more immersive experiences because damn it, I AM a commando who can be killed in like two shots and can't regrow bullet wounds.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yet again QTE are not good, never ever good, they are the copout of a lazy ass developer that doesn't want to make complex gameplay, it's just a cutscene with confirmation requests.
I know alot of people are new to gaming and take it as a golden standard, but believe me it is the laziest way to make a game.

 

[DEAD34345]

The QTE in REs evil 4 rewound 2 seconds to the qte again, NOT the rest of the cutscene...which was the same input so if you failed twice you are just a moron. Thats the way to do it. Whet you described is not whats in the game.

Sounds just as annoying and pointless to me...

So it's just a cutscene that keeps looping the same 2 seconds of footage until you press the right button to not die? Why not just make it a cutscene? What does the button-press add?

OT: Random encounters and Red Dead. That game was less of a game to me and more of a western movie world simulation, and randomly encountering people on the road to help/kill only added to that and made the world feel more alive.

Addition: Plus there's the fact that you could just ride straight past them if you wanted to, a feature sorely lacking in most games with random encounters...

 

[Zhukov]

The QTE in REs evil 4 rewound 2 seconds to the qte again, NOT the rest of the cutscene...which was the same input so if you failed twice you are just a moron. Thats the way to do it. Whet you described is not whats in the game.

Huh? How is that not what I described?

You fail a QTE, the scene rewinds and you do it again.

Stupid and pointless. And the fact that it only rewinds a few seconds and gives you the same input prompt shows that the developers realised how stupid and pointless it was. So why they went and included it anyway is beyond me.

 

[DustyDrB]

I can't think of a single instance of a QTE where the game wouldn't have been better without it. Either its an annoying "Press X rapidly" or an annoying "ignore the action on screen and play Simon instead" bit. This is one of the few universals in all of life: You can always do better than a QTE.

My biggest peeve: If you have a lot of platforming in your game, then you damn well better let me control the camera. God of War pissed me off with this. Dodge could have easily been mapped differently.