If they use them throughout the game as something other than a random interruption that we can't expect, then Quick Time Events work fine.
Do Quick Time Events Work?
- Thread starter Volodanti
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I like to think they work only in Impossible situations. IE. Movements or sequences where any player would have ZERO chance of pulling off a feat such as it with actual gameplay. God of war again prime example.
Press x real fast to run then a random two buttons to jump or dodge 5 feet, not acceptable. If used in a way to amp up cutscenes or highlight gfx, scenery or pure relentless violence or acrobatics, then yes. Other then that let me just play my game. The constant button or action reminders and on screen "hints" of most titles today feel like the devs are literally holding my hand from start to finish.
Press x real fast to run then a random two buttons to jump or dodge 5 feet, not acceptable. If used in a way to amp up cutscenes or highlight gfx, scenery or pure relentless violence or acrobatics, then yes. Other then that let me just play my game. The constant button or action reminders and on screen "hints" of most titles today feel like the devs are literally holding my hand from start to finish.
No, I do not think they work, at least not for me. I have never played a game and felt it was more fun because I had to do a quick time event. RE5 is a good example, I like the normal game play of RE5, but the press X not to die sequences just annoyed me. I would much rather just watch the cutscenes.
Now I see a lot of posts on GOW, and I imagine the quicktime events work just fine there, but that is why I don't like that game and don't play it. I know plenty of people the love GOW, so quick time events must work for a game like that, but they are not anything I personally find enjoyment in.
Now I see a lot of posts on GOW, and I imagine the quicktime events work just fine there, but that is why I don't like that game and don't play it. I know plenty of people the love GOW, so quick time events must work for a game like that, but they are not anything I personally find enjoyment in.
Quick Time Events can be used appropriately as long as they follow a few simple rules.
1. You need to know they're coming, all of a sudden seeing "Press X Not To Die" on the screen is a BAD thing when you aren't expecting it (I'm looking at you Uncharted!)
2. "Press X" should MEAN something. For example if X is normally jump, whenever X flashes on screen for a quick time event, it should be to Jump, Flip or perform some other feat of acrobatics you expect from the "X" Button. Random Buttons in QTE's are horrid and should be constantly avoided.
3. They shouldn't be "Press X Not To Die," or more accurately, failure should lead to an immediate restart of the scene, giving you another chance right away or should lead to loss of life, you know, like normal.
4. They should be properly integrated into the game, there's nothing wrong with the occasional uninteractive cutscene, and if your cutscenes are so long that the player is getting bored enough to ENJOY quick time events during them you need to rethink your storytelling strategy. When QTE's pop up, it should be to represent gameplay that would be too damn fiddly with the ordinary controls (ex. Jumping between vehicles during a car chase ala WET), or where using the ordinary controls would be more frustrating than fun (can't think of anything off the top of my head).
1. You need to know they're coming, all of a sudden seeing "Press X Not To Die" on the screen is a BAD thing when you aren't expecting it (I'm looking at you Uncharted!)
2. "Press X" should MEAN something. For example if X is normally jump, whenever X flashes on screen for a quick time event, it should be to Jump, Flip or perform some other feat of acrobatics you expect from the "X" Button. Random Buttons in QTE's are horrid and should be constantly avoided.
3. They shouldn't be "Press X Not To Die," or more accurately, failure should lead to an immediate restart of the scene, giving you another chance right away or should lead to loss of life, you know, like normal.
4. They should be properly integrated into the game, there's nothing wrong with the occasional uninteractive cutscene, and if your cutscenes are so long that the player is getting bored enough to ENJOY quick time events during them you need to rethink your storytelling strategy. When QTE's pop up, it should be to represent gameplay that would be too damn fiddly with the ordinary controls (ex. Jumping between vehicles during a car chase ala WET), or where using the ordinary controls would be more frustrating than fun (can't think of anything off the top of my head).
They work if they are a core part of gaming and not just a random occurrence that happens twice in a game, leaving you foaming at the mouth with no recent save or checkpoint. I also prefer a QTE to actually be challenging, as opposed to the old faithful "press X to not die" crap.
I'm sure that they work in some games in alot of the ways described by previous posts (Use the buttons to purform functions similar to their normal function, simply amplified, and to shorten gameplay but not have a huge disadvantge if you fail them.) However I don't enjoy them or, to be honest, the entiredty of most games that have them incorporated.
I personally didn't enjoy God of War at all, quick time events aside, and refuse to have it allowed in my house. I didn't enjoy the quick time events in, and I stopped playing, Starwars: Force Unleashed due to them appearing at the end of all the boss fights.
Personal preference however I feel that timing a dodge yourself useing a normal button to dive or jump(Prince of persia, Assassin's Creed & even Fable) is preferable to pressing a button at the exact second that it appears on the screen.
That's my, and obviously alot of other people's, opinion on the matter.
I personally didn't enjoy God of War at all, quick time events aside, and refuse to have it allowed in my house. I didn't enjoy the quick time events in, and I stopped playing, Starwars: Force Unleashed due to them appearing at the end of all the boss fights.
Personal preference however I feel that timing a dodge yourself useing a normal button to dive or jump(Prince of persia, Assassin's Creed & even Fable) is preferable to pressing a button at the exact second that it appears on the screen.
That's my, and obviously alot of other people's, opinion on the matter.
Yes, to a certain degree. In Force Unleashed, I was immensely pleased with the way the QTEs were used to insert immensely badass fight scenes (mostly boss finishers), while still letting you play, rather than totally take over.
However, like everything, QTE's can be done wrong, or to excess. Or both.
However, like everything, QTE's can be done wrong, or to excess. Or both.
No, I don't think so. A simple cutscene is better than a surprise-based mechanic that just makes sure you're paying attention to the cutscene. They don't ruin the game unless implemented poorly and frequently, but I still can't think of any situation where I'm happier to have hit a button to see a cutscene than I am to just see the cutscene in the first place.
For things like instant stealth kills, I'd prefer that they were a result of good tactics, not a reflex test.
Quick Time Events are an easy way to put a pass/fail chance on anything, especially complicated events that it's difficult to have a deep set of mechanics for. Its primary advantage over just making success random chance is that it immediately puts the blame on the player for failing or succeeding, not on the game. In doing that, it's an easy and inexpensive way to give players a sense of accomplishment and possibly make them more determined than frustrated if they fail.
For things like instant stealth kills, I'd prefer that they were a result of good tactics, not a reflex test.
Quick Time Events are an easy way to put a pass/fail chance on anything, especially complicated events that it's difficult to have a deep set of mechanics for. Its primary advantage over just making success random chance is that it immediately puts the blame on the player for failing or succeeding, not on the game. In doing that, it's an easy and inexpensive way to give players a sense of accomplishment and possibly make them more determined than frustrated if they fail.
I don't mind them when they are used correctly. I hate having to press a button 5-10 times everytime I want to open a door but I don't mind a QTE to finish off a boss God of War style.
The penalty for missing a button shouldn't be too steep either. I don't mind losing some health if I mess up but dying because of a QTE is just lame.
The penalty for missing a button shouldn't be too steep either. I don't mind losing some health if I mess up but dying because of a QTE is just lame.
My opinion is that Quicktime events WERE fine a few years ago, but have since become a refuge for the lazy. Rather than coming up with cool gameplay mechanics for whatever it is they want you to do, they throw in a quicktime cinematic, and to me that's just "meh". In many cases I have no doubts they COULD have made it more interactive, but to do so would have taken too much more effort and/or money that could otherwise be re-routed to buy everyone Pizza, Blow, and/or Hookers (apart, together, or in any order)... or basically the less they use of the dev budget the better, as far as I've heard game developers love to use the producer's budget for things other than developing the actual game.
Truthfully I think Yahtzee was just about right when he jumped on the hate-wagon for Quicktime events. There is increasingly becoming less excuse for them as for every example where you see a quicktime event, there is typically another game that has done something similar without using one.
I also suspect a lot of the problem is the fact that real game design is a dying art. Instead of developing their own engine/code, most game developers wind up liscencing an engine such as Unreal, GRAW, Havoc, etc... and thus a lot of their excuses tend to involve limitations of the engine, and then when the engine updates they talk about how "the new engine these other guys made will let us do things we wanted to but couldn't before..."
you hear it all the time.
See the thing is that game designers and programmers are supposed to bloody design a game, if there is something they want to do, they are supposed to program a way to do it. Not rely on an engine created by another programmer to do the bloody work for them, and if he hasn't, well then it's too difficult and they throw in a bloody quicktime event.
In the meantime we pay $60 a pop with no differentiation between whether or not were just buying Unreal (or whatever) with a new coat of paint and some tweaks, or something where the game designers put together their own engine and scratch with a lot more effort involved.
God Of War gets by for being "cool" with Quicktime events because it was the first game to do them, but after that it became a crutch rather than an innovation.
Truthfully I think Yahtzee was just about right when he jumped on the hate-wagon for Quicktime events. There is increasingly becoming less excuse for them as for every example where you see a quicktime event, there is typically another game that has done something similar without using one.
I also suspect a lot of the problem is the fact that real game design is a dying art. Instead of developing their own engine/code, most game developers wind up liscencing an engine such as Unreal, GRAW, Havoc, etc... and thus a lot of their excuses tend to involve limitations of the engine, and then when the engine updates they talk about how "the new engine these other guys made will let us do things we wanted to but couldn't before..."
you hear it all the time.
See the thing is that game designers and programmers are supposed to bloody design a game, if there is something they want to do, they are supposed to program a way to do it. Not rely on an engine created by another programmer to do the bloody work for them, and if he hasn't, well then it's too difficult and they throw in a bloody quicktime event.
In the meantime we pay $60 a pop with no differentiation between whether or not were just buying Unreal (or whatever) with a new coat of paint and some tweaks, or something where the game designers put together their own engine and scratch with a lot more effort involved.
God Of War gets by for being "cool" with Quicktime events because it was the first game to do them, but after that it became a crutch rather than an innovation.