A Quick Time Event By Any Other Name

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

A Quick Time Event By Any Other Name

Quick time events may not be as common anymore, but game developers are replacing them with something equally annoying.

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[Falterfire]

Curious what Yahtzee thinks about the Renegade/Paragon interrupts in Mass Effect since they're a quicktime events that don't lose you the game if you miss them. I definitely agree with hatred of Quicktime Events in any form though. If the game wants to show me something cool I'm fine with sitting there and watching it, but either give me full control or don't force me to press buttons. Compromise is really just annoying.

 

[Petromir]

The ecape sequences are something of a catch 22, the solution isn't easily apparent, no-linear versions tend to lack any sense of excitement or peril, rarely do I feel like there's any need to leave the building (ME games and many RPGs also suffer from this lack of urgency, there's rarely any in game reason to ignore side quests for the supposedly time critical main quest) and when they do they've generally put in lashings of mechanics that in practice make them little different from a more scripted sequence, the scripted ones at least leave the illusion of control and are better at giving the urgency and excitement.

There are even examples of QTEs done well, a few of those in mass effects cutscenes that gave you the option to have a paragon/renagde action fitted the sequences quite well.

The escape sequences in Tomb Raider could have been fixed by allowing a few extra routes, some of which are gained through a mistake in the main route. In short their biggest crime is being a hard pass or fail, at very least critical success, success and fail options need to be had.

 

[zinho73]

One thing that I find funny is that games like the souls series do everything Yahtzee preaches, but he doesn't like to play them.

 

[Falseprophet]

I actually liked Tomb Raider, but I agree the QTEs and linear escape sequences were the worst part of the game. On PC, they were so frustrating I had to plug in a gamepad just to get past some of them. And if the whole idea is to showcase fancy cinematic cutscenes, well I'm not really paying attention to the artists' hard work if I'm busy staring at button prompts, am I? A pox on all of them.

It's not as bad with optional QTEs during combat, like God of War or Tomb Raider's dodge counters, where getting the timing right takes down the enemy faster but you're not required to use it. But the mandatory QTEs in boss fights are still horrible.

Curious what Yahtzee thinks about the Renegade/Paragon interrupts in Mass Effect since they're a quicktime events that don't lose you the game if you miss them. I definitely agree with hatred of Quicktime Events in any form though. If the game wants to show me something cool I'm fine with sitting there and watching it, but either give me full control or don't force me to press buttons. Compromise is really just annoying.

Yeah, I agree: either show me a pretty movie and let me relax for a minute, or give me control. No half-assing.

As for Mass Effects interrupts: they're pretty cool, if only they'd incorporated them in some way other than their stupid moral choice system. At least interrupts come up during interactive conversations.

 

[snave]

Wow, that's actually a good point with regard to the Share button. Yahtzee might have actually sold me on the idea if it does prove to force developers out of their comfort zones.

 

[Username Redacted]

Curious what Yahtzee thinks about the Renegade/Paragon interrupts in Mass Effect since they're a quicktime events that don't lose you the game if you miss them. I definitely agree with hatred of Quicktime Events in any form though. If the game wants to show me something cool I'm fine with sitting there and watching it, but either give me full control or don't force me to press buttons. Compromise is really just annoying.

I wouldn't quit lump those in the same boat as your standard QTEs. Mostly because they don't cause a game over if you fuck up and also because they usually pop up during dialogue options that the player initiated so there is, unlike with most games, so degree of choice in deciding whether or not to participate in the QTE.

 

[Legion]

I agree.

Tomb Raider is one of my favourite games in the last couple of years, but the amount of events such as the ones mentioned in the article, started to get too much nearer the end. It got to the point where I was rolling my eyes in a "Here we go again" kind of way.

Used sparingly, I think they work fairly well, but to excess, as is normally the case, it takes away from the experience. It actually makes it feel more like an interactive video than games such as The Walking Dead do.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Yea, the "new" QTEs are just as annoying as the old. It was one thing in the 80's (Dragons Lair, Space Ace, Cliffhanger) but they can do so much more now (like the VATS system from Fallout 3: cinematic & fun)...they just don't.
But there are plenty of gamers who like Heavy Rain so I'm guessing that it doesn't matter to some. It also means that some gamers are actually looking for their games to be movies. Really pretentious boring movies apparently but as long as theres a market for that, there's going to be "games" for it.
Every medium gets dumbed down by trends that catch on. I'm just glad I rent now; at least I'm not buying games that look good but are the gaming equivalent of cliffs notes. What bothers me now is when a game that would otherwise be good has QTEs interlaced through it.

 

[rasputin0009]

Obviously, this is about God of War's QTE's. And as a big fan of the series, I completely fucking agree. I know I'm going to get passed the QTE, why do you put that shit in there? To babysit my attention span? In Ascension, I felt it was more grating than the other games. Probably because they put them in every fucking thing. Like in the "platforming". I know you want Kratos to get around your most detailed set piece in the most camera awesome manner, Santa Monica, but why must you interrupt my state of awe with a fucking button press?

I think the best way to do the QTE's would be the ability to press any button when the game slow mo pauses, and each button does a different action. As in alternative endings to a boss battle. And alternative ways to appreciate the set pieces. Then maybe QTE's can be justified. But for now, fuck you Santa Monica for interrupting my game.

 

[angel85]

you know, your mention of the "running away" sequence reminds me of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. The scenes where the Dahaka would find the prince forcing him to flee down a relatively linear hallway to a save room are very similar in base description. However in POP2 despite the linear nature of these chase sequences at the very least the controls all remain the same and you STILL have to figure out how to get past the various obstacles, there's more to it than "push forward." So if the sequences from Tomb Raider were more like those Dahaka chase sequences would it have been an improvement or would it not have made much difference?

 

[nodlimax]

I feel the same way. That is one reason why I hated Max Payne 3 for example. It's more like a movie than a game...

I want games like Half Life 2 again in which you practically never or barely lose control over your character. You can watch certain sequences in a game, ignore them or approach them from different angles. I like freedom as a player. I like to have multiple options to reach my goals and I like to brag when I solved something in a pretty unusual way...

 

[Atmos Duality]

Pandering of superficial "action porn" or graphical bling is nothing new in gaming.
The logical predecessor to QTEs and actions sequences were the old FMV games.

If you just felt a shudder of disgust from reading "FMV", good. You understand my feelings on QTEs implicitly.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

I have to admit that the Walking Dead quick time events completely made me rethink my position on QTEs in general (right as the game was sucking my emotional soul out through my eyeballs).

Granted WD may get a pass because as a traditional-style point-and-click adventure game. QTEs were the only way that action was expressed. That said, in a game that has more robust action controls available to it (such as the new Tomb Raider), it's ABSOLUTELY a cop-out for TR to resort to QTEs.

Also the Walking Dead convention of using QQQQQQQQQQQ... for exertion of strength did a great job of establishing the points in the game where extreme effort was necessary to succeed, or more poignantly, when even extreme efforts fail.

We may be getting to the point where Full Motion Video is what is wearing out its welcome. Sure if you need a cut-scene that the game engine really cannot handle due to spectacular special effects or (preferably) Serkis-level acting, then yeah, engage the FMV, but make it a cut-scene that we can watch or skip and otherwise doesn't require teenage reflexes.

But if you want the player involved, give her full access to regular game-motion, and let her hail-Mary her way out by meticulous effort...or not. (This is where Sands of Time really shined.) I think I'm with Yahtzee regarding the Max Payne shoot-dodges: if you can fail for reals, success is all that much sweeter.

238U

 

[Turner Shanks]

When I think of how good gameplay can look like a cutscene I tend to think of Bayonetta, the combat gives you a lot of freedom (with those stupid "boss bash" QTEs sadly, but they were pretty sparse during the actual fights) and as a result a player can find fights looking very stylish. A friend of mine that usually doesn't like watching others play would always sit and watch me play Bayonetta saying "It's like watching a dynamic cutscene that changes every time."

I'm honestly not sure if this effect is more attributed to Bayonetta being made that way or to the fact I play games in whatever way seems more cinematic and flashy instead of going for the 'win' however.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I believe I remember when the QTE's yahtzee mentioned in the column were new and fresh. I think the old Tomb Raider games had sequences where you slide down steep hills a lot, with the "go-there-before-something-offscreen-kills-you" mechanic in place. Now, with game technology more complex, programming them is more complicated, so they're just sticking with what worked before.
Wait, Resident Evil 4 had a bunch of QTE's, and Yahtzee claimed that game as the best of the series.

 

[CharrHearted]

I believe I remember when the QTE's yahtzee mentioned in the column were new and fresh. I think the old Tomb Raider games had sequences where you slide down steep hills a lot, with the "go-there-before-something-offscreen-kills-you" mechanic in place. Now, with game technology more complex, programming them is more complicated, so they're just sticking with what worked before.
Wait, Resident Evil 4 had a bunch of QTE's, and Yahtzee claimed that game as the best of the series.

Does anyone actually listen to yahtzee's opinion as fact anymore?

I thought what he said wasn't suppose to be taken seriously?

Since y'know, he gives off more holes in his theories and is usually incorrect on some bases.

 

[Balkan]

So I was playing Bioshock Infinite. There was a lock that needed 5 lockpicks in order to be picked, but sadly I had only 4. Disappointed, I was just about to click the "Show Big Glowing Arrow Thing" button when suddenly Elizabeth pointed me a lockpick that I missed while looting the area, I picked up the lockpick and unlocked the door full with all sorts of goodies like cotton candy, apple pies and fuel for my hand inplanted flametrower. There were a lot of "Hey there's a lockpick over there" moment after that, but the first one was great, that was the first moment that made Elizabeth feel like a parthner to me.
Cool moments like that make the characters feel alive, Lara Croft's girlfriend,Sam(I had to really think hard to remember her name) never felt likable in the same way, not even after all her audio diaries and lenghty cutscenes.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

The last game I played with a lot of quicktime events was Resident Evil 6. I didn't really mind the "regular" quicktime events. What I really hated however were the "escape sequences". Bad camera, bad controls and an at times unforgiving difficulty makes for a pretty frustrating gaming experience.