Thief Ditches Quick Time Events After Negative Feedback

[Cognimancer]

Thief Ditches Quick Time Events After Negative Feedback

Thief seems to have learned that a master thief carries only the most necessary tools - and quick time events aren't necessary.

Eidos Montreal took a few liberties with its reboot of the Thief series of stealth games. One might say they were modernizing the franchise, if one were the developer's PR manager, but fans have been doubting that these "features" would enrich the stealth experience at all. Last month the developers decided to get rid of the experience system [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128774-Thief-Cuts-Experience-System] (which would have encouraged combat over stealth), and now there's another counterintuitive mechanic on the chopping block: quick time events.

In a Q&A session on Eidos Montreal's community site, one fan asked how the developers planned to implement quick time events in a way that didn't break immersion. "Easy," answered Eidos Montreal's Valerie Bourdeau, "we're not implementing them. To begin with, there were very few instances of QTEs in the game; in fact there was only one in that whole hour-long E3 demo. However, given the strong reactions it evoked in the press and the community, it was an easy decision to do away with them entirely. So we're not doing it. No quick time."

This is second mechanic the developers have eliminated in as many months, and though there isn't much time to meddle before Thief's February release, I don't think anyone will miss the QTEs. Though if you're truly heartbroken, feel free to press random buttons during cutscenes - it'll achieve roughly the same effect.

Source: Eidos Montreal [http://community.eidosmontreal.com/blogs/Take-5-QA-5]

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[synobal]

Why I quit playing Tomb Raider, too many Quick times.

Maybe if they take their time, and don't rush the game they can put out something decent but the fact they've had to rely on fan feedback for so much of this worries me. How do you sit down to make a thief game and encourage combat, kills etc and then add quick time events which no one likes.

I don't think anyone has ever sat down and said "man I can't wait to get to the quick time events" They are just bad bad bad bad.

 

[ThreeName]

Dear God, they heard us.

THEY HEARD US EVERYONE, IT'S WORKING

 

[Eiv]

QTE's haven't worked since Shenmue II, the only game ever to get them right.

 

[CriticalMiss]

How do you sit down to make a thief game and encourage combat, kills etc and then add quick time events which no one likes.

Simple:

Step 1: Sit down to make a new IP, something fresh and original.
Step 2: Realise that is too hard and copy something else that was successful instead.
Step 3: Slap on the name of an existing franchise which hasn't had a game in a few years.
Step 4: Collect your billions of dollars.

 

[Reed Spacer]

Whoever it was that orginally created the quicktime event and thought it was in any way a good idea needs to be punched in the face.

With a fork.

 

[AldUK]

They are slowly coming around, but I am still wary because they were so far off the mark to begin with. I will still hold off on any purchases until I've read reviews and seen actual gameplay outside of a trailer.

 

[Mad Artillery]

Well it's good they dropped the mechanics, not so good that it was there in the first place. I've been iffy on this whole thing for a long time, it's too bad I loved the thief games. Well here's to hoping it's not another colonial marines at least.

 

[Evonisia]

It's about time, now just get rid of the heavy action dependency.

 

[Mahorfeus]

I liked them in God of War, but they just seemed to pop up everywhere since then.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

One thing I don't understand is how the hell did it take the industry this long to get the hint that NOBODY LIKES QTE'S!

 

[Saulkar]

One thing I don't understand is how the hell did it take the industry this long to get the hint that NOBODY LIKES QTE'S!

I have a theory and mind you this is just conjecture. I get the impression that QTE's are relatively easy to develop and in order to cut costs and impress board members game designers point out how a couple of games with high scores and sales used an inordinate number of said QTE's. Or it was the other way around and board members/suits forced game designers to cut costs and development time by replacing game mechanics or segments with QTE's.

It may even come down to skewed metrics coupled with hubris or ignorance.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Thank bloody fuck for that, I really do wonder what school of retard design has led devs to the idea QTE should ever come near any game ever... is it that do you really want us to hate your work?

 

[Yuuki]

Why I quit playing Tomb Raider, too many Quick times.

To be fair, Tomb Raider is basically a more action-packed free-roaming version of Heavy Rain. It's difficult to criticize a game for having QTE's when they are such a core mechanic of the game. It's less of a game and more of an interactive storytelling experience (or in Yahtzee's words, wanker material ).

 

[Frankster]

Meh kinda an unpopular opinion but...I don't mind QTES :/

Well not in a thief game obviously, i'm not advocating putting in QTESs in places it doesn't belong, but in general I reckon there are games where QTEs are ok (fps and action genre) and can add a bit to the immersion as it's perfect to represent a desperate struggle of some sort like finding yourself in melee with a big scary looking monster and desperately trying to dodge its jaws as it tries to tear your head off, timed events to represent your character dodging out of the way or countering is perfectly legit imo, much better then just a button press then watching an animation happen.

In Tomb Raider for example I found QTEs for finishing moves and certain cutscenes perfectly fine, minus one QTE early on which was very tricky due to having to tap buttons really fast (those qtes are just meh, timed reaction ones to represent reflexes is where it's at).

 

[Tanis]

O THANK GAIA!
:|

I can't stand QTE, especially in cut scenes.
I'm trying to watch a piece of the story, not press random shit.

 

[Battenberg]

This is gonna get me a lot of stick but I actually don't mind QTE's as long as they're used properly. By that I mean not in place of actual gameplay (yeah I'm looking at you Heavy Rain) and not overrused to the point of meaningless like it looks like Ryse will do.

Resi 4 got the balance nearly perfect for my money. There's still a few too many in there but it's hard to deny that the knife fight with Krauser is awesome and would not have been half as good if you were simply watching rather than participating. I just think when there's an intense cutscene where your character has to react quickly the player should have to do the same.

 

[Teoes]

Good that they responded to feedback - means that I'm slightly less cautiously pessimistic about the title. At the same time, we need to be careful with stuff like this and that devs make the game that they want to make without pandering too much to the fans.

This is gonna get me a lot of stick but I actually don't mind QTE's as long as they're used properly. By that I mean not in place of actual gameplay (yeah I'm looking at you Heavy Rain) and not overrused to the point of meaningless like it looks like Ryse will do.

BURN HIM!

 

[Metalrocks]

good. now if every developer could do the same by never ever using QTE in any title, that would be awesome.
the only game i had no problems with QTE was blades of time. at least there it dint matter if you press it or not. and it was mainly the same button so no random button mashing.