What is it with the hate towards Quick Time Events?

[Spirultima]

I notice in games recently there has been quite a few QTEs and people shun them like a dog with rabies and i can't help but ask "Why?" a conversation between a friend and i was pretty much the following.

Him: "QTE are horrible, they lower the gameplay to simply pressing buttons to watch a cutscene and if you fail they have the gall to say "your dead"

My reply was "Well, just yesterday, you were complaining about MGS4's cutscenes saying "its just watching a movie pretty much, were is the fun in that?" And your complaining against a system that allows the cutscenes to be a bit more interactive? Bit hypocritical of you there"

Even Yahzee hates them, can anyone give a better explanation WHY you hate them? No-one is ever specific.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I like them...if the buttons correspond to the movement on screen. Like if left is your left arm, down is legs, right is right arm, etc.

 

[Simriel]

Quick time events are good if used WELL, See Star Wars force unleashed. But at the same time are usually used badly, See Ninja Blade, where about 50% of gameplay in the demo was stylish, pointless, annoying QTEs

 

[Samurai Goomba]

-Come out of nowhere in most games. Only RE4 and GoW are consistent enough about them for the QTEs to not feel like they came out of absolutely nowhere with no warning.

-Cheap deaths. They suck.

-Different type of gameplay. This isn't what I bought this game to do. I want to play the gameplay part of the game.

-Can't relax EVER. Sometimes I need a break. Again, RE4 was okay, because not being able to relax felt RIGHT in that game.

-Ubiquitous. They're freaking everywhere, and sometimes I don't want EVERY game I buy to have QTEs in them.

-They just suck. This is personal opinion.

 

[LisaB1138]

I don't like games telling me what to do. It's like pixelated square dancing.

The one exception is GOW, where they serve as nice break from button mashing. Otherwise, I feel like I'm being robbed of actually playing the game in favor of taking some test.

 

[bjj hero]

Its lazy game design. "I want to make this cool cut scene but make the player feel involved, I know, QTE"

How about you figure out a way we can do the cut scene in game?

Example, story arc dictates I have a cool knife fight, instead of a movie with random button presses, make a knife fighting game mechanic, you could even introduce it later in other knife related segments, or even let me stab the bad guys when ever I feel like it. Genius.

Im not a MGS fan, for me they should have cut most of the cut scenes and replaced them with actual game play. If I want a movie, ill watch a movie.

 

[Sea Age]

I don't like them because it meakes me have to sit on the edge of my chair concentrating just in case there's a quicktime event. Hated that on RE5 first time through. I just want to watch the damn cutscene in peace (or not, so I can skip to the actual level, depending on the cutscene) and enjoy it. Don't like the part of watching a cutscene, then suddenly "PRESS A!!!" jumps at me, and I die and have to do it again >.<

Quicktime events during the gameplay itself I'm okay with, but NOT during cutscenes. As mentioned, I don't get to enjoy the entirety of the actual cutscene since I have to concentrate on pressing buttons.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

Because in the actual game you can jog and fight in a repetitive way, but add quicktime and you suddenly become some sort of Demon-beast-thing, beating the ever loving shit out of a giant monster, with back-flips and sword/gun work that could shame anyone else alive or you can suddenly do movements not possible for anyone other than seriously dedicated gymnasts on ecstasy, steroids and freaking awesome-in-a-cup...Then you go back to jogging and your average fighting/moving system. It is just annoying to see most of the epic movements committed to brief periods.

Or at least that's how I view them.

 

[Stegofreak]

I don't mind QTEs in adventure games if they're used well (Uncharted Drake's Fortune for example) but when they're tossed into FPSs they're just annoying. And I'm pretty sure I played a game that only had one QTE in it and it was completely out of place in the game; things like that annoy me.

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

The first time I encountered a QTE, was in the horrible game Clive Barker's Jericho. I fell into a pit, and apparently had to click. I was totally unaware of QTE's though, and just saw a mouse or something in the screen, with a frantic flashing somewhere. I noticed that the second or third time, and managed to climb out of the pit. But it's terribly confusing though if you don't know what's going on.

The second time I came across them was in F.E.A.R. 2. I was better prepared, but still was surprised when I saw a mouse and some frantic flashing when Alma tried to kiss me. That happened a few times, and in that part it felt like a not so bad addition to the game.

The other one in that game though.. You had to wrestle with a guy. He meleed you, and you needed to frantically click right mouse button. If you were too late, you fell to the ground, and again needed to click RMB repeatedly, I think that if you failed that, you would die. Anyway, if you managed to hold him off, you get on your feet again, and need to click again. If you win, now the guy is off balanced, and you need to click like a mad man again. If your timing is correct, you get the opportunity to click on your left mouse button once, to shoot him through his brains, and you win.

I didn't die, but I did miss a few times, and got to the ground, then stood up, got him off balanced, but missed my shot and we got to that stalemate once again. He got me to the ground, and I managed to stand up again, etc. etc. I started laughing a bit, because it's exactly the same stuff over and over. Boring repetitive movement. I'd rather rely on skill in an intense gun fight and beat the guy, instead of clicking my mouse like a woodpecker to be honest.

 

[Gylukios]

It's a way to force you to interact with cutscenes, which in turn makes cutscenes more prolific and longer.

 

[rossatdi]

They occasionally work but the important thing is for them not to be surprises and not to make you re-watch length cutscenes. The worst offender is the Krauser quicktime in RE4. I appreciate in RE5 that they now allow you to skip to just before the action, still stupid but at least less annoying.

 

[Sombra Negra]

QTEs are, in my opinion, a cheap method of lengthening how long you play a game. That and it's just bloody annoying if you have to watch a 3 minute long cutscene again before trying and failing to dodge that boulder, so you've got to do it all over again.

 

[SmilingKitsune]

I don't mind them in a game like God of war where they're a large part of the gameplay, but in games like Uncharted they really irritate me, Uncharted for instance has about 6 scattered through the entire game, this makes in all but impossible to be ready for them when they pop up. There you are watching a cutscene, your grip on the controler slightly loosened and then "PRESS O NOW!!" "What? Oh damn it".

 

[Abedeus]

Because if you die, you end up having to watch the cutscene again.

Because they often have no warning, and give you only seconds to respond - I dunno about you, but when I watch a cutscene, I don't always have my hands on the keyboard/controller.

Because hitting "A" to do a backwards flip and fire ten pistol shots with your teeth isn't as fun as actually...you know. Playing the actual game.

This.

QTE take a LOT off the actual game part of the game.

I remember the times, where it's your skill determined how good you get at the game. Not the ability to remember when to press A, when B and so on. That's just stupid and pointless.

And let's not forget that QTEs are making the game longer, without making the FUN last longer.

 

[Doug]

Even Yahzee hates them, can anyone give a better explanation WHY you hate them? No-one is ever specific.

He qualified that once in one of the videos. I believe the arguement was "If the game is built with several quick-time events, and you're expecting them, fair enough. Only having 1 or 2 QTE's means you aren't expected them and hence its virtually impossible to pass a QTE the first time"

So, basically, he seems in favour of them when used right, not in favour of them when they are simply pasted onto something.

 

[solidd]

yeah i dont really like them (for boss fights mainly) because they are:
A: Lazy game design as mentioned above, how about an intuitive sequence to kill a boss rather than just mashing a boring sequence.
B: FRUSTRATING. In mercenaries 2, when hijacking a helicopter, the sequence changed for each class of chopper, so...you have to hijack...fail. rehijack. fail. rehijack. win. annoying at best. also the symbols for those events made no sense..

They work well for PSP games, but for big consoles and PCs...i dont like them around thaaat much. I prefer aiming for myself and setting up my own C4 deposits.

 

[51gunner]

- Quite often through their mystical power, they grant abilities not seen before that or for the rest of the game afterwards.

- When there's only two or three in a whole game, they feel like really cheap deaths/penalties that you had no hope of avoiding.

- Sometimes the goddamn indicators for them are pathetic, doubling point #2: you might not have even seen the warnning.

 

[Jandau]

People hate QTE because Yahtzee told them to...

Seriously now, QTE can be a good thing if done right, just as any other gameplay element. If they appear too much at random, forcing you to press one button or die, that's bad. If there is a system to them, they CAN make an otherwise passive element appear more involved. For instance I liked them in PoP:WW.

Another way to handle them is to make them optional. An example is The Last Remnant, where at times you get a small QTE (one button per character) which if successful improves your characters' damage and allows subsequent characters to act faster. However, if you don't want to stay on the edge of your seat all the time (or you suck at QTE), you can automate them in the options menu, in which case they will have a percentage chance of success.

Also, overly punishing QTE are NOT fun in any way. Giving the player 0.001 second to press a button or die and have all his saves erased is NOT fun and is NOT a proper challenge. It's an invitation to a nervous brakedown...