Happyninja42 said:
1. I don't like being forced to accomplish the task in a certain way.
Well, every game does this to some degree. Either by every resolution being some form of "kill X because that's how you win" to "We didn't code into the game letting you redirecting the water flow of the city sewer system to wash away your enemies, so you can't do that. We only gave you 3 things to do. Punch them, shoot them, or blast them, so do that." Well what if I don't want to do that? Maybe I want to get them caught up in some legal issues by blackmailing them, and removing them as a threat that way? Sorry, game doesn't let you accomplish that, but I don't see anyone griping about this restriction.
The thing is, QTEs are overly restrictive. It isn't just that we don't have absolute freedom. There is only one way to finish the section, and furthermore, you're rarely ever given a fair chance on it. Two of the biggest flaws in gameplay that you can make is overly restricting potential solutions and not giving the player a fair chance outside of failing and remembering what needs to be done.
To give a comparison, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was an incredibly linear game. Every section had one way to progress: Overcome platforming puzzles, defeat enemies, and/or solve various more traditional puzzles. However, regardless of being rather restrictive, the player still had plenty of ways to interact with the systems. It wasn't boiled down to "hit X to not die" every time you got into combat. You were allowed to use various combinations of powers and skills to overcome the enemies. Traditional puzzles gave you enough freedom to actually try and fail at various things, with dozens of ways to get to the final solution amidst those trials and errors. Even the platforming, which was the most restrictive section, at least occasionally gave some freedom. But most of all, all of these things, even in their most restrictive ways, were always fair. The player could see what needed to be done and had ample time to figure out a solution even before being forced into performing any action.
Now, let's look at QTEs. You are always given one and only one way to overcome the challenge before being forced to start all over. You can't fail and try something new later. You can fail and retry to hit the right button, or hope you guess it right the next time. You also are often not given a fair chance, as the timing is often random and you don't know what button to press until it comes up on the screen for a couple seconds.
And bear in mind, QTEs aren't the only thing that receive this kind of hate. If you make any game overly restrictive, even if it doesn't have a single QTE, then it'll receive criticism. Furthermore, a game whose challenge is based on being unfair will also receive proper criticism. The fact that QTEs, as a mechanic, have both of these flaws at their core in most games that have them, they are obviously not going to be the most loved mechanic.
2. It takes me out of the game flow.
Really? Odd, cause generally, given how cinematic the QTE's usually are, like an upclose and personal knife grappling scene, or some epic power struggle with one of the gods of Olympus, it's always felt way more dramatic and engaging to me.
Yes, if I have to re-watch a cutscene or restart a section because of making a "mistake" that was due to bad game design, it does mess up the flow of play. I don't care if I die because I made a mistake. It's time to get back and try something new. Having to restart because I failed to guess which button to push at the right time isn't a natural progression of tense, enjoyable challenge. It's just an unfair way to trip the player up.
Hell, two of the most classic games from decades past, were a continuous QTE story. Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. People LOVED those games, and yet I've never heard anyone gripe about those games.
We've come a long way since Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Classic games weren't without flaws, and we shouldn't keep making those flaws over and over again once we've discovered a vastly superior way of doing things.
In a sense, QTE's are an updated form of Simon Says, an incredibly popular game that's been around for decades, and hell, all the DDR games are basically QTE's too. You are forced along a predetermined sequence of inputs, and yet those games are popular.
And here comes the point where I can actually talk about how they can work:
1. The player needs to know that they are coming, either through initiating the sequence themselves (ex. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones) or because it is the core of the gameplay and the player is looking for it (ex. DDR).
2. The player needs to have ample chance. Maybe DDR has changed since I last played it, but when I did, the player could see the "button" they needed to "press" well in advance to when it needed to be pressed, reducing it to the timing of the press and careful observation, not random guesswork. The same thing can be said of games like The Two Thrones and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, where the QTEs weren't so much "hit random button now!" but were reduced to being able to use any adequate button (ex. the attack button) and were based more on timing the clearly projected button press rather than having to quickly hit a randomly selected button.
3. No instant fail states! Failing QTEs very often leads to the death of the player, such as in Resident Evil 4. If a person fails, they need to have an ample chance to recover. This also means that you can't destroy their health bar without a way of recovering it. Once again, DDR doesn't automatically go "You Lose!" when you miss a step. Instead, it just harms your final score. Same thing with The Two Thrones, you may lose a little health, but you were able to quickly jump back into the action and try fighting. Mark of the Ninja also did a great job of making it harm your stealth while still giving you a chance to get away.
4. If you must have instant fail state QTEs based on random button presses, please give us a chance to turn the atrocities off! If I remember correctly, this is how The Witcher 2 handled its QTEs.
5. Realize that they aren't the most interactive way to do a lot of stuff. So no, gameplay built solely around it is generally not a good idea (ex. Quantic Dream's games), unless it's just a casual game to enjoy competing with friends (ex. DDR).
6. Realize that cutscenes can be an enjoyable way to wind down after a challenging boss. We beat the boss. I want to relax and enjoy a well-made cutscene as a reward, not have to stay on top of things in case a QTE decides to ruin an otherwise enjoyable cutscene.
So, in the end, I don't think QTEs are inherently bad, but I do think most games have done a horrible job of implementing them up until this point.
Edit: Fixed a couple errors.
