Poll: Quick Time Events:Bane or Boon

[Molten Water]

As the people who watch Ben Yahtzee go about doing his stuff we have learnt to systematically hate quick time events...but are they necessary in taking the game forward and increasing your immersion??

I would say yes...the games that pioneered quick time events (PoPTT & GoW) got it pretty right...they let us watch the lead character do awesome things that cannot be done with the standard game mechanics like the occasional quick kill or boss kill but thses have now gotten so outa hand with makers of newer games that they make it a very integral part of gameplay mechanics which i think is the downfall.the quicktime events do help the story i think.what do you think about it?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Unless they are somehow integral or optional (like Gears of War's reload mini game or God of War's QTE kills) they should be burned at the stake.

ESPECIALLY random cutscene quick time events, the only thing that makes an unskippable cutscene worse is an uskippable cutscene you have to pay minute attention to every bloody time.

Edit: Neither God of War nor Prince of Persia pioneered QTE's, Shenmue on the Dreamcast is the oldest game I can remember with them as an essential gameplay element. I'll bet there's older ones than that though.

 

[coakroach]

A quick button mash sequence ever now and then is fun, as long as it isn't done to death

 

[More Fun To Compute]

They would be OK if they were used maybe in one game every five years and gave you about five seconds to press the button.

 

[Abedeus]

If I want to watch movies, I'll go to a movie.

I play the game to... PLAY it. Not to press a button (or mash it) to watch a cutscene...

 

[bodyklok]

When their done welll, they're great. When they suck, they really suck.

 

[fedpayne]

Isn't it basically just normal gameplay?

 

[SimuLord]

I hate them every bit as much as Yahtzee does, and the only reason I didn't say "even more than" is that I'm not wholeheartedly sure it's POSSIBLE to hate a "press X to not die" more than he does.

If you're going to make a cutscene, give me a great cutscene. If you want to make an action-packed sequence, do that. But don't combine the two---not only does it break immersion, but the constant "when's the monkey bit* coming up?" worry makes it impossible to absorb any artistic value the cutscene may have had.

*as in "monkey hitting bar to get food pellet", the old lab cliché.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I gave Resident Evil 4 credit just a minute ago in another thread for making an escort mission fun, and now I'll give it credit for another: it made quick-time events work. In every other game I've played, it's been nothing more than an annoyance, but Resident Evil 4 did it right.

 

[scotth266]

When their done welll, they're great. When they suck, they really suck.

Exactamundo. Quick-time events have no average basis: they're either good or bad. They don't deserve to be burnt for it though. Lots of games had them as a positive...

 

[GonzoGamer]

QTEs are for programmers who are either too lazy or stupid to come up with an intuitive control scheme. With a dozen buttons, a few directional sticks/pads, and motion controls on most consoles there's no reason for not being able to come up with an intuitive control scheme even for a cutscene.

Hopefully things like VATS, which bring gameplay more sophisticated than simon says to a cinematic, will spell the end for QTEs everywhere.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Ninja Blade did it extremely well, I thought. God of War and Resident Evil 4 are the ones that helped to start the trend, but it isn't a boon as long as it's done right.