What is so bad about quick time events?

[Sirch.Cajnos]

i honestly don't get it, and don't go quoting Yahtzee either i have an excellent memory and have seen every ZP, i want actual reasons explaining why QTEs deserve such hate. Personally i think that they give you some control over how awesome your character is like the QTEs from God of War or the Force Unleashed, they also give you more reason to pay attention in cutscenes, which i do anyway but that's beside the point

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Theres a difference between the QTEs in God of War and QTEs in general.
The major difference: most occur randomly during cinematics so its difficult to get passed on the first try.

 

[PureChaos]

the QTE in Force Unleashed were good because they were at certain intervals (i.e during the end of a boss battle) but when they just appear out of no-where randomlly it becomes trial and error rather than actual skill. i don't hate them like Yahtzee does but there are better ways of doing things

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Let's see if I can word this properly.

It always feels like a half-assed move from the developers to make the player feel more involved in a cutscene, which comes off as artificial and, quite frankly, annoying.

Bayonetta is especially guilty of this.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I mainly hate them because they've been over done and they usually have one major problem with them. Be it small text that you can't really notice at first glance (Take SAW for example) or they're too quick and cause instant death because you didn't push a button fast enough. God of War and the Force Unleashed give you a chance of survival if you fail, the ones in Cutscenes do not.

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Because in a QTE, you're trying to watch a cutscene. If you really want to see what's going on in that cutscene, you'll likely miss the QTE and die. If you watch for the QTE, you'll miss most of the action in the cutscene and that's no good.

Wait, I just came up with a solution! Why not, instead of a full-blown cutscene, we do like a comic-panel thing? Like, a black screen with a button on it. Press the button, and a comic-panel-esque thing comes up with your character punching/shooting/whatever-ing the bad guy?

 

[Sirch.Cajnos]

Let's see if I can word this properly.

It always feels like a half-assed move from the developers to make the player feel more involved in a cutscene, which comes off as artificial and, quite frankly, annoying.

Bayonetta is especially guilty of this.

that's very true, i didn't especially like that about Bayonetta

 

[SyphonX]

There was only one game that ever used QTE appropriately, and it was essentially the game that invented it. Yes, I'm talking about Shenmue, and Shenmue was a great game. The whole game was QTE, but it worked very well.

Now, all games use the "Surprise QTE!" during cutscenes or random moments. The first boulder in Resident Evil 4, as an example. These don't really bother me, but they don't add too much either. They do, in a way, add to the tension of the game, but it's an artificial tension.

You're not "more scared", you're just uncomfortable from there on out. Like the difference between being spooked and having a neck cramp for being nerved-up for no reason at all.

The random QTEs that we see in games now are actually not that different from sudden instant-death encounters. We've been getting killed instantly for decades, from crashing boulders, to monstrosities hanging out of ventilation ducts. The former is just a different way of doing it. Silly illusion really.

 

[Dragonforce525]

I hate them because game developers seemed to use them as a replacement for boss battles and actual levels, I don't mind when they use them on mid tier enemies, but when an entire boss battle or a section a level becomes a long QTE/cutscene, well in my opinion it just comes off as lazy.

 

[Alakaizer]

I've got my own Which Games Do QTEs Right [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.217755-Which-Games-Do-QTEs-Right] thread, and in spite of the entries people submitted, my list remains at those four.

When I learn how to play a game, I learn which action goes with which button, and get to the point where it would take me longer to describe which buttons I'm using to do what than to simply do it. QTEs are arbitrary halts in the action, breaking my concentration, "testing my reflexes", and re-mapping my controller in ways that don't make sense.

I've never played any of the God of War games, but I'm fairly certain I'd get really bored watching the same finishing moves over and over. I'd just want to slice and dice my way through legions of baddies without breaking a sweat. If I want to watch something cool, I'll watch the Mythbusters blow something up, or laugh myself hoarse with LRR.

Overall, they just never seem worth it.

 

[migo]

A lot of the time they just surprise you, so it becomes an issue of memorising when they'll crop up. It's tedious, sometimes they even make a little sense, like in Tomb Raider Underworld where you flick away spiders, and you get a warning by hearing the clicking, but it's still damn tedious. Also, they're often a substitute for cinematics. I play a game when I want to control what happens, a quick time event is a pre-scripted event that I don't get to control really, but the game makes it seem like I have a certain bit of control. It's similar to my ire for adventure game puzzles - I can't come up with my own solution, I'm forced to use the one the game developer thought of, and they just figured they'd tell me what buttons to press as we go.

 

[Traumaward313]

I agree with OP. I generally feel like they allow the character to move and do things in ways that just cant be made to do by us. Although the random insta-death ones that pop up for no reason and dont really make the character do anything are annoying.

Apart from that i'd say there is alot of bandwagon jumping going on and as OP said, don't go quoting Yahtzee for lack of free thought.

 

[Wardnath]

They're bad because Yahtzee said so.

amidoinitrite?

 

[Meggiepants]

They are annoying. Why make it so I can't see my cut scene? I understand you want me to make some finishing moves, but make me do them before you go to the awesome "gutting of the Gods" scene. That way I'll actually get to see it instead of trying to concentrate on the four corners of my screen to figure out which button to press to proceed with the fucking story!

Also, they make replaying a boss much more tedious if you have to wait for this long sequence to play out every time you try and fail.

I haven't played a game yet that had QTEs that I didn't prefer watching someone else do them so I could see what was happening.

 

[Traumaward313]

Haha you damn instigator, you!

 

[khaimera]

Because I can't enjoy awesome cutscenes when I have to keep my eyes peeled for button presses. I'd rather just enjoy the coolness, then half assed play it.

 

[socialtangent]

QTE's are fine when used in moderation. I don't mind when the game has you perform a QTE to finish off a boss or a particularly tough enemy, but when a developer randomly and sporadically throws QTE's in for the sake of having them, that's when it gets annoying.