I am of the Yahtzee School of Gaming Thought of QTE's

[Jacco]

(I pronounce them "cuties" because acronyms are against my religion).


If there was a gaming God, he would flood Gaming Earth, saving only those few precious games that don't have them on a Gaming Ark, so that gaming could start over anew with QTE's wiped from existence.


But seriously. QTE's are the bane of gaming existence. As far as I'm concerned, it's lazy mechanics added to already lazy gameplay. Though I hate them wherever they rear their disgusting heads, my most recent fury is aimed at the at RE6 ones. For instance, there's

Spoiler

a part where you fly a plane. So instead of actually making it awesome and letting you physically fly the plane,

they put three useless "PRESS X REPEATEDLY" QTE's in and then a video clip kicks in. I mean, literally useless ones. I don't think you can actually fail them. It's lazy. And it makes me not want to play the game anymore because to me is says "We didn't care about making this game an actual game." It pisses me off that I spent money to essentially have an interactive movie.

Granted, there are some games where they work because that's what the game is. Heavy Rain is a good example of that. But 99.9% of the time its just lazy game design and a cheap way to make the player die.

Anyone else feel this way? Or am I alone in thinking that?

(I know, I am never alone in anything. Ever.)

 

[Ando85]

I actually don't mind them. Kind of keeps you one your toes even during cut scenes. Also I liked the ones in the God of War games to add some interactivity to killing huge enemies. But, some games just implement them poorly. Heavy Rain handled them well, particularly the fact that the cuties actually did a somewhat good job of mimicking the movement that is going on screen. I enjoyed Resident Evil 6 for the most part, but I will admit the cuties were a bit excessive.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I like QTE's. I feel like it's a reasonably good compromise between cutscene and gameplay, allowing the player to preform feats and take actions that would be otherwise impossible in regular gameplay due to scope, basic game mechanics, and whatever else. I'll use Force Unleashed as an example, because people complained that mini-boss/boss fights ended with QTE instead of allowing them to end it purely in gameplay.

Using the same three hit combo fifty times to beat the boss isn't impressive, not visually or otherwise. But knocking them back into the air, catching them, crushing them into a small steel ball, and then tossing it out of a window into the cold vacuum of space. Well. That's a hell of a lot more awesome than just hitting it with your glow in the dark nerf bat until it finally topples over.

Edit: Sheep's posted prompted me to add this: This doesn't mean that my stance is 'QTE is always amazing 100% of the time and should be in every game ever'. It can be implemented poorly, like when facing Leon's final boss in Professional difficulty. There's no point in initiating the QTE with him because you have to press the button faster than the controller will register the presses in order to successfully complete it. Although that might actually be intentional, because the QTE does heavy damage to the boss, which allows you to save a great deal of ammo.

But anyway, the biggest QTE sin is what Sheep mentioned. When failing the QTE forces you to re-do a long section or portion of a battle over again. That shit is just frustrating.

 

[DementedSheep]

I like QTE's. I feel like it's a reasonably good compromise between cutscene and gameplay, allowing the player to preform feats and take actions that would be otherwise impossible in regular gameplay due to scope, basic game mechanics, and whatever else. I'll use Force Unleashed as an example, because people complained that mini-boss/boss fights ended with QTE instead of allowing them to end it purely in gameplay.

Using the same three hit combo fifty times to beat the boss isn't impressive, not visually or otherwise. But knocking them back into the air, catching them, crushing them into a small steel ball, and then tossing it out of a window into the cold vacuum of space. Well. That's a hell of a lot more awesome than just hitting it with your glow in the dark nerf bat until it finally topples over.

That^
It?s only really a problem for me if you have to watch long cut scenes repeatedly or do a really long repetitive boss fight every time you fail or its really out of the blue. Although I didn?t mind that when the Witcher 2 did that with Laredo?s mother. The ?SHIT!? reaction was very appropriate.

 

[Karoshi]

AC did the QTE both wrong and right. The wrong way is repeatedly pushing a button to reflect a blade from your throat. The right way is, when during a cut-scene you get the opportunity to hug Leonardo if you manage to hit X fast enough.

Usually though, a game is better off without QTE. It's a lazy way to implement cool animations.

 

[Kopikatsu]

AC did the QTE both wrong and right. The wrong way is repeatedly pushing a button to reflect a blade from your throat. The right way is, when during a cut-scene you get the opportunity to hug Leonardo if you manage to hit X fast enough.

Usually though, a game is better off without QTE. It's a lazy way to implement cool animations.

What makes you say that?

If anything, cutscenes are lazier because they needn't create multiple scenarios (Failing QTEs tends to give you an alternate scene, usually leading to your death but not always) nor do they require consistent button arrangements (Such as, games that have 'jump' tied to X will almost if not always have X be the button needed to jump for QTEs and such).

 

[lapan]

It really depends. If the entire game is based on them (Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit, Ninja Blade, Asuras Wrath) or if the series always used them (GoW) i can be okay with them. RE6 though was neither.

 

[skywolfblue]

It depends on if they're used properly or not.

Properly used QTE's are neat.

The QTE's in Vanquish for example were pretty closely tied to the actions your character performed (swirl the stick to twirl and dodge the missile)

The more simplistic "Mash A" in Dead Space 2 worked very well to convey a sense of "struggle". In a cutscene you don't have to worry about whether your character will survive, if you have to engage and actually have a stake in whether your character lives or dies that is neat.

On the other hand we have games like Force Unleashed 2 or Battlefield 3, where there is no consistency whatsoever, there's no warning beforehand, and they don't even make any sense.

 

[WoW Killer]

Context sensitivity is fine when it's done properly. QTEs are like the worst form of that. The typical "press X to not die" thing is obviously lazy design. If you're pressing arbitrary buttons for no other reason than having a prompt to do so on screen then that's unintuitive.

To do it properly you need the context sensitivity to be a regular part of your standard controls. In other words, you shouldn't be having different control systems in game and in cut-scenes.

 

[Pink Gregory]

It really depends. If the entire game is based on them (Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit, Ninja Blade, Asuras Wrath) or if the series always used them (GoW) i can be okay with them. RE6 though was neither.

The problem I had with Fahrenheit (although I enjoyed it on the whole) was that the QTEs actually obscured what was going on on-screen, and were all a glorified game of Simon Says rather than anything contextual.

 

[hazabaza1]

You do know that Yahtzee says that so long as they're used often and as an integral part of gameplay then they're okay, right?
Stuff like Asura's Wrath.

 

[Joccaren]

Depends. Sometimes they're done poorly, sometimes they're done well. I remember in BF3, there was a Co-op mission where you had to disarm the bomb. Disarming the bomb was a series of quick time events where you had to input the correct chain of buttons in a fast enough time. I liked that. Rather than sitting there for the 10-20 seconds whilst my guy disarmed the bomb, and my friend had all the fun, I actually got to do something.
That rat QTE, and others like it, are it done wrong. There's no point to it. Its arbitrary. Its just there to interrupt gameplay for no real reason, and there are other ways to do this.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

If you ask me downloadable content and the concept of the 'trilogy' is what is murdering gaming. QTEs were annoying when they were in RE4, these days they're just naive.

Naive? So... QTEs have an unwarranted sense of optimism due to inexperience?

Apart from that bit, I agree with this post. Infinite pointless sequels instead of new IP. Ugh. Not too bothered about DLC though; I generally ignore it.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

I'm OK with QTE's (My avatar should tell you that) but only if they are used well.

In something like God of War or Asura's Wrath QTE's are a part of the core gameplay so when they turn up in the game it doesn't surprise the player and the button presses (for the most part) match whatever it is you're doing in the cutscene whether it be pressing circle to punch shit, moving the left analogue stick to stop staring at a women's cleavage or triangle to block an attack. Even if you do fail the QTE's all it tends to cost you is a little bit of health and makes you start the small sequence again or continue on as normal.

However in something like Resident Evil 5 or Uncharted: Drakes Fortune the QTE's are used sparingly and unexpectedly and naturally these are the ones that instantly kill you and put a bit more emphasis on the "Quick" part of QTE's. Mercifully these games don't force you to slog through long and difficult battles if you fail and just send you back to the beginning of the sequence but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is still poorly done.

 

[Ninjat_126]

The more simplistic "Mash A" in Dead Space 2 worked very well to convey a sense of "struggle". In a cutscene you don't have to worry about whether your character will survive, if you have to engage and actually have a stake in whether your character lives or dies that is neat.

I do love struggle mechanics. Melee combat from Uncharted 2 springs to mind, as does Resident Evil 4's method of escaping grabs. That said, its a pretty easy mechanic to abuse.

As for QTEs in cutscenes? Nope. Bayonetta screwed me over enough times with those.

 

[Daveman]

Strictly it's just like timing in fighting games... I just wish they didn't make a button flash up. If you need to quickly jump, hit A. If you need to smash your sword through somebody's skull, hit triangle. Whatever. Just don't flash a ridiculous button up on my screen.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Mass Effect 2 is probably my favorite game that has QTE's in it.