Crystal Dynamics: Tomb Raider Won't Just Be Quick Time Events

[Squilookle]

QTEs being "not its "primary tool"" still means they'll be used in the game.

And with that, I lose all interest in the game. Goodnight, everybody.

 

[Rawne1980]

I've said it before and i'll say it again I hate quicktime events.

Not just a small dislike and then i'll move on, I hate them.

Hate them with a burning passion as much as I hate brussel sprouts.

I saw a glimpse of this game and thought it looked "okay" but think i'll just avoid.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Does anyone actually LIKE QTEs? Why do devs so insist on putting them in?

It's just a way for them to cram actiony events into pre-scripted cutscenes, but still have some semblance of "interactivity"; cause otherwise people would just start bitching about how "It's just pretending to be a movie!"

And to be honest I fully understand that reasoning. A day will come when we can telepathically control every muscle in the protagonists body with clear 1 to 1 precision, with our MINDS!

UNTIL that day comes....there just isn't space on a controller for a "Jump on the Kraken's Tentacle and start stabbing it; then release at the right time" Button.

 

[luvd1]

Right. All interest has just died. QTE are to gaming as a week old, maggot ridden dead dog is to love making. A turn off.

 

[GeorgW]

This statement has actually gotten me less excited about the game. I figured it was just a one time thing, but now that they say it's a secondary mechanic I'm a lot less excited about the game. I figured when I saw the e3 demo that they just wanted to show off the atmosphere and that the rest of the game would be that fun puzzle part. I was a lot more concerned with the NFS the run demo, which was entirely QTE. I just looked at that and laughed at EA for being such fucking morons.

 

[ripdajacker]

QTEs are good and bad. If implemented badly, as ImprovizoR mentions examples of, then they feel unnatural in the context of the game, and even worse they just irritate.

Relying on QTEs is like hailing to a timed game of Simon. The core gameplay should never be QTEs, but they can work OK like in Gears of War.

I don't believe anyone actually likes QTEs, and I am pretty sure the developers know that. I think they are so common for two simple reasons:

1) They add a false sense of interactivity, as GrizzlerBorno mentioned
2) They are really cheap to implement

In some cases a missed QTE can kill you in a game, so this adds more challenge to the game at a very low price. Although the challenge added is usually very different from the rest of the gameplay, the game effectively becomes less easy and therefore longer.

Does anyone remember Ninja Blade? The QTEs frustrated me so much I sold my copy two days after I bought it.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

Cinematic Experiences and Quicktime events must die!

Throwing just CGI-sequences at the player is a statement from the whole dev team: sorry we suck, we cannot make immersive gameplay mechanics.

 

[Kargathia]

Still early days, and it needs to be pointed out that Quick Time Events are not in and of themselves awful. Tomb Raider Anniversary actually made pretty interesting (if bland) use of them, and games like Resident Evil 4 managed to inorporate them well.

I guess what irritates me is that self-important gaming douchebags have reached the point where they criticise before they know anything, which worries me. It's like the film critics who automatically rail against whatever the big superhero blockbuster is because 'it's superheroes, it can't be good.' Those sorts of people get attacked mericilessly on these very forums, but suddenly when it comes to our preferred medium, we're all experts? 'It's got QTEs, it can't be good.' Yes it can, you haven't seen the finished product, so you can't know.

They chose a bad part of their game to demonstrate, no doubt about that, because as above, gamers will leap all over something with QTEs even if it turned out to be the greatest game ever, simply because of their inclusion. But that's bad marketing, not bad game design or gameplay, and people really need to learn the difference.

But then again, no one's going to read this post seriously because I think Tomb Raider Anniversary was all right and I just suggested nice and reasonably that Quick Time Events weren't all bad, so clearly in the eyes of our little internet village I'm due to be shipped off to Bedlam.

I think the difference between you and the "haters" is that where you started out definitely positive about the game, they started out negatively thinking, or neutral.
This demo made a bad impression, so that just pushed the neutral thinkers into doubt, and enforced the opinions and prejudices of the negative thinkers.

Of course it is an individual's responsibility to think critically, but they can't expect to have bad marketing, and still have everyone buy their game "because you can't judge a game on its demo".

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

First the Fable: the Journey debacle, now this? Note to developers: you can avoid these confusions (though did anyone really think Tomb Raider would be all QTEs?) if you pick better sections of your game to show off.

 

[Sartan0]

Still early days, and it needs to be pointed out that Quick Time Events are not in and of themselves awful. Tomb Raider Anniversary actually made pretty interesting (if bland) use of them, and games like Resident Evil 4 managed to inorporate them well.

I guess what irritates me is that self-important gaming douchebags have reached the point where they criticise before they know anything, which worries me. It's like the film critics who automatically rail against whatever the big superhero blockbuster is because 'it's superheroes, it can't be good.' Those sorts of people get attacked mericilessly on these very forums, but suddenly when it comes to our preferred medium, we're all experts? 'It's got QTEs, it can't be good.' Yes it can, you haven't seen the finished product, so you can't know.

They chose a bad part of their game to demonstrate, no doubt about that, because as above, gamers will leap all over something with QTEs even if it turned out to be the greatest game ever, simply because of their inclusion. But that's bad marketing, not bad game design or gameplay, and people really need to learn the difference.

But then again, no one's going to read this post seriously because I think Tomb Raider Anniversary was all right and I just suggested nice and reasonably that Quick Time Events weren't all bad, so clearly in the eyes of our little internet village I'm due to be shipped off to Bedlam.

I quite agree with you. I enjoyed the decent implementation of QTE's in Res 4.

Your point about movie critics is well received by me as well. Those are the worst reviews I see on rotten tomatoes and elsewhere. I am going to keep my eye on this game and it maybe the first Tomb Raider I get since the second one.

 

[Sartan0]

As far as the section they decided to show: I am sure this one of the points they thought looked the coolest and showed some of the flavor of the game and they did not think through presenting a balanced example of the game play. Marketing can sometimes make bad calls. (Understatement)

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Does anyone actually LIKE QTEs? Why do devs so insist on putting them in?

I liked them in Resident Evil 4 because they were new then. Now though...I do miss the days when I could sit down and watch the actual awesome cutscene instead of looking at the lower screen waiting for the button to pop up. Final Fantasy at least has that part right still.

I don't understand why developers do this. Peter did the same thing with Fable. "Oh, the demo isn't the actual game. Don't worry about it." Okay, two questions then: 1) What is the game actually like? That's what a demo is supposed to do; demonstrate the game. 2) If it doesn't represent the game, why did you show it to us in the first place?

 

[Link Kadeshi]

I honestly hate QTE's. When you chuck a controller because you didn't hit a button quite fast enough for the billionth time... Or better yet, when you NEED to do a QTE to climb a rope, otherwise you die? Nope... They make me angery.

 

[Live4Lotus]

It won't just have quick time events? If it has quick time events at all then it has too many. I'm so sick of developers using quick time events and unrealistic cutscenes to try to move the story. I kill 20 heavily armed men with ease and walk through a door to a cutscene where my character allows a single man to take aim and fire a magic death bullet that does 100x more damage than any other bullet in the game...and I only get to move if I press a specific button at a specific time, nevermind that the guy would have been dead 30 seconds ago if the game actually let me PLAY!

 

[L-J-F]

QTE's ergh, why...