QTE's and Cinematic Games Aren't Going Away

It's Monday, I've been up for about an hour and a half as of the writing of this blog, and I decided I'd check out my youtube subscriptions to see if there was anything good to start out the day with. I saw a video from AVGN, Angry Joe reviewed The Order 1886, and Jim Sterling did a Jimquisition about Cinematics. All in all, some good videos.

Angry Joe and Jim Sterling coincidentally ended up talking pretty much about the same thing. Joe was being more specific because he was reviewing a game and Jim was talking about the industry in general, but Jim's video referenced The Order and both of them had similar opinions. Both of them, spoken in their own ways, are tired of cinematics being used as an excuse for poor design decisions and I'd wager that Jim is just as tired of bad QTE sequences as Joe is.

I started thinking about the games I've played that could possibly fall into such categories and games like Heavy Rain, Dying Light (the ending), Final Fantasy XIII, and such were coming to my mind. Now some of you are probably asking "Why Final Fantasy XIII?" I'm glad you asked.

I don't think I'm the only one that's been noticing this, but a trend has reared its ugly head in game development. More and more developers are convinced they are excellent masters of storytelling and that the best way to tell a story is to take control of it away from us. QTEs and Cinematics (whether the actual cutscenes, or the poor design decisions that devs will later excuse by calling the game more "cinematic") are all about control. Final Fantasy XIII has none of these things but the director of the game, one Motomu Toriyama, said in an interview that he thinks that control over the story of the game needs to be taken away from the player in order to be properly told and experienced. That's why FFXIII was so linear. He borrowed from modern Western shooters in this sense and wants to do so again. We can see that developers think rather highly of themselves as storytellers.

As I said earlier, QTEs and Cinematics are all about removing control of the story from the player's hands. A QTE sequence is a predetermined event the developer uses to hopefully wow you at how awesome the event that's happening is. Case in point, the God of War series. Every boss, and even many normal enemies, ends with a QTE event meant to showcase Kratos pulling off some badass moves that you apparently couldn't do yourself, which is only true because the developers didn't (or didn't know how to) allow you to even try something like that. To me, God of War started this whole thing, but isn't really even close to the worst example of QTE abuse.

I mentioned Dying Light earlier for good reason. **SPOILERS** For those of you that haven't beaten the game, skip this part.

Anyone who has beaten the game knows about the final battle against Rais. It, just like The Order 1886 and other games before it, is a QTE event. You don't get to pull out your trusty axe that you upgraded and added fire and electricity to and chop Rais up. Oh no. You get to spend the fight dodging his attempts at cutting you via QTE ending with a cliche, and unsatisfying conclusion of him falling to his death. This man that personifies a cliche villain, one that you still hate enough that you personally want to take him out in every instance you are near him, dies in a cliche way that you have no control over. Why? Because Techland had a story to tell.

**SPOILERS END HERE**

Cinematics are even worse. Cinematics are used to justify the look of a game, but also its gameplay. Now, I haven't (and don't plan to) played The Order 1886, but I've seen enough discussion on it, and enough videos about it, to know that the game is pretty much a 6 hour cutscene that costs you $10 an hour. The Order is not the first game with this problem, and it won't be the last. Unskippable cutscenes meant to pad out length will be justified due to the kind of story the developers are telling you they want to tell. It just covers up the fact that there is more cinema and less game. Cinematics take away your control over the story by forcing you to watch the game instead of playing it. Cinematics aren't all bad of course, there are legitimate reasons to use them as a supplementary story telling device. However. When you have a cutscene that removes your current equipment in favour of the equipment shown in the cutscene? That, to me, is just another example of your control being taken away.

When the excuse "we're going for a more cinematic look" is used, it's the devs refusing to accept their own shortcomings, or worse trying to laud their own storytelling prowess. I personally don't care about framerate. I don't play worse because a game is at 30FPS, but don't try to sell me a turd and call it Oh Henry.

So why are QTEs and Cinematics only going to get worse? Well part of it is because we've asked for it in a sense. We are always telling devs we want games with more and better story, and you even get comments like this...

"I love cinematic games. The reason I play games today are becasue of the story and I would love more games like the Order when they are a bit more polished on the game and story part. But the presentation was top notch. I also love FMV games which are sadly a thing of the past now. Some people like games like gone home which feature bad gameplay, bad story and is also very short and some people prefer games like Heavy Rain or the Order. The industry is big or should big enough to carter to everyone no matter your taste or liking."

That comment was taken from the Jimquisition video. That comment says it all right there. There are people who like having control taken from them. Doubtlessly they love David Cage's games. The one thing I can say about Cage though is that he doesn't try to hide that he's making an interactive movie, unlike devs like Ubisoft, or more recently Ready At Dawn.

So yes, part of it is that we asked for it not knowing what the end result would be. The other, more egregious, part is the unwarranted pride too many devs have in their ability to tell a story and the fact that they don't understand that there are MANY ways to tell a good one.

A good story can have amazing interaction between the characters of the game, such that personalities compliment each other or we the gamer can feel the hatred or rivalry etc... It could be in how the setting is... well... set up so that we know there is an interesting back story providing motivation and context for the actions taking place in game. It could be well-written dialogue and amazing voice acting talent. It doesn't have to be "here, watch this scene with the real storytelling it in that you can't skip" followed by generic gameplay that was an afterthought because the developers are still upset they didn't become movie directors.

I have a perfect example of small instances that I think we should see more as larger stories. While playing Dragon Age Inquisition, periodically the members of your party will talk to each other. Some of my favourite moments were pretty much any interaction between Sera and Vivienne because they are two very different kinds of people, or when Varric wants to play Eye Spy and Cassandra immediately cuts him off with a "No." These moments are small, only seconds long, but contribute to the story of these people being actual people with personalities. That's something you can easily forget as you're trying to focus on the larger aspect of saving the world, but it's very refreshing when it happens. I can't tell you how many times Sera made me laugh, or how I chuckled the first time I brought Iron Bull into a dragon fight and he was so excited about it. THAT'S how you pull off better story telling.

Actually, come to think of it, The Last of Us is pretty much entirely the interaction between Joel and Ellie. Yes it has cutscene moments meant to make you feel something, but I personally think that the story strength of TLOU is in how much it relies on the interaction between characters and how their relationship develops.

Unfortunately for us, there are increasing examples of developers cutting corners and making excuses. This is the real reason I think QTEs and Cinematics aren't going anywhere any time soon, and will likely be seen more and more. Taking control of the story away from gamers means less work that needs to be done to make the story more dynamic. In a development scene where the AAA developers skimp on QA testing for bugs, where a framerate choice comes with a PR response of "movies at this higher framerate seemed weird", where games are made solely to set up future games or games aren't made unless they can be made into an annual franchise, I personally hold no faith in the AAA scene to stop, turn around, and choose the other and better options.

Many people place their faith in the indie scene, but what do you think will happen to indie devs if/when they become big AAA devs? As a video I watched yesterday talking about the Free Market said, the Free Market will try to screw you. It will try to make the most money off of you with the least amount of work. That applies pretty much to all business including video games. If you don't believe me on that, take a look at EA, Activision, Capcom, Square-Enix, and any other number of devs that used to be small but are now big.

What do you think? Do you think we're only really getting started with the flimsy "cinematic" excuse and use of QTEs? Am I just being cynical? Yell it out in the comments.

[uth11]

I don't think QTEs are due to lazy developers. I think it's due to lazy customers.

Think about it.. QTEs are used in the Order in scenes that require complex action. The alternative is to use some complex sequence on the controller to approximate the same action that would likely be counter-intuitive or hard to remember. Or you could use motion controls.. But gamers have largely rejected motion gaming after the initial hype.
QTEs might be disliked, but aren't as disliked as the alternatives.. Unless a developer can find a truly intuitive way to approximate these types of actions. So I guess they are the least worst option we have at the moment for those kinds of scenes.

Or we could get rid of cinematic games, but I think they have their place.

[DragonKnight]

"Think about it.. QTEs are used in the Order in scenes that require complex action. The alternative is to use some complex sequence on the controller to approximate the same action that would likely be counter-intuitive or hard to remember."

Have you played any fighting game ever? Because all fighting games have those "complex controller sequences" to perform combos, supers, and ultras. Except for Dragon Ball Z games.

[uth11]

yes but you reuse those moves. In the order, in one QTE you are fighting over a gun, in another your performing a stranglehold.. you would be learning an action for one scene, by the time you learn it and perform it successfully, you don't need it anymore. That would probably annoy more people than it pleases.

[DragonKnight]

There are multiple moves with multiple combinations. I don't see the difference. Hadoken? Quarter Circle Forward and Punch. Flash Kick? Hold Down for 2 Seconds then Up plus Kick. Don't even get started on some of the ultras. It's not hard to mix up combinations of analog stick movements and button presses for the desired effect.

[ginganinja]

And how would you convey those 'complex controller sequences' that are only going to be used a limited amount of time?
Maybe, by putting an icon on the screen representing each button as it needs to be pressed?

Aren't moves in fighting games basically just an advanced form of QTE, i.e. you have to press certain buttons in a set order within a certain amount of time to get the 'right' result.

[DragonKnight]

@ginganinja: The monumental difference being the level of control. QTE's couldn't possibly be for lazy customers since lazy customers didn't ask for them and more than enough people complain about them. I'm wondering why now There have been (so far) 2 people defending them to the point of near vociferousness. If you like having control taken from you, I'm sure Cage will make excellent experiences for you.

[ginganinja]

I don't think either of our responses were particularly defensive.
I'd suggest mine was more of a flippant response to your suggestion of replacing QTEs with complex combos, and that in most situations where QTEs are used, such a replacement wouldn't be suitable.
E.g. In God of war, you use more complicated combos during the battling, then the QTE kicks in so you can feel badass as you finish the opponent off.

And I thought Uth11's was just a reflection that, while they're by no means perfect, they can serve a purpose if implemented correctly.

To put it another way. We were both telling you what we think, something you asked us to do at the end of your blog. If you want to write an essay length blog on a subject and then dismiss any discussion that's contrary to your own theory then fine, cheery-bye.

[DragonKnight]

I didn't think you were being defensive, I do now though. If your reaction to my opinion being replied to your opinion is to throw stones, why are you here? You and uth are of the impression that QTEs are either the fault of lazy gamers (impossible considering they weren't asked for and are now wanted gone) or necessary, which is also not true. You obviously didn't like that I showed you why it wasn't true, and now you're on the defensive acting as though I was attacking you when all I did was provide another option.

Feel free to state what you think all you want to, and be ready for others to do the same and say things you won't like. Can't handle it, don't comment.

[joeorc]

While I do see your point about fighting games, the Order:1886 main direction from the characters point of view durring what that character has done, fighting games in fact could do the same thing but are not in most cases due to the back end of the story is not front and center.

Imagine The Order: 1886 played with VR which focus on the view of the old picture viewers from the early 1800's but with interactive control in certain spots due to the fact you are looking at a window to the past, not present.
What has happened, not what is happening now or will happen.
and its only from select parts of certain characters lives in this world.

Some no doubt do not want such a game design in the type of games they want, and that is expected. But the choice Ready at Dawn decided on was done for a reason. And since the Designers has already disclaimed to the consumer what the game was designed as, along with more DLC on the way, on top of telling a certain point of view of characters in the game for as a into to the world, it goes without saying not every one will or is expected to like such a choice but it is the choice the developer went with for reasons they have yet to completely finish yet, because they still have more of the story and world to release.

[Blacklash93]

"QTE's couldn't possibly be for lazy customers since lazy customers didn't ask for them and more than enough people complain about them."

Developers and publishers pay attention to their sales numbers more than people complaining on internet sites. When they get good sales, that's the equivalent of consumers asking for more.

And The Order: 1886 and games similar to it do, in fact, typically sell well. That's why we keep seeing these games after so long. Devs and publishers don't actually make these games to serve their stubborn opinions, despite how it may seem that way by how they defend their products. No business makes any product just because it wants to; they make them when they expect to be rewarded for it.

Part of it is because these games *look* impressive. The priorities go out of interactive gameplay, and into spectacle and higher quality graphics. This presents well in advertising, and a lot of people like it when games try to 'ascend' to the status of films.

It's a vicious cycle for those of us who don't like these kinds of games, but the market demands them whether we like it or not. I'd argue that the continued existence of these QTE games usually have little to do with the particular likes and dislikes of the people making them, with the exception of developers who have specialized in them for ages like Quantic Dream.

[DragonKnight]

@Backlash: Publishers listen to reviews too. And did developers listen to sales when creating QTEs in the first place? No. And just because sales numbers are a certain amount, doesn't mean it's because of the QTEs so whatever your point was, there's a lot against it.

[Blacklash93]

Their continued existence is due to sales, as I said. Obviously, there was no precedent for sales before the genre really existed. Sales and popularity don't invent, but they certainly do expand and sustain.

I believe consumer habits are the core of the issue, as businesses can't run primarily on opinions and internal ego.

[DragonKnight]

@Backlash: I doubt that their continued existence is due to sales. That would assume that reviews aren't read at all and that people are buying the games because of the QTEs. No one bought The Order to have that fantastic QTE boss sequence experience.

[DragonKnight]

Rephrase: I meant to say not entirely due to sales.

[gangsta_red]

*Spoilers*

I agree about Dying Light, just finished it over the weekend and while I loved the game I was very disappointed with the final boss. It was a QTE, the whole fight scene. Right before the fight I took my time and I upgraded my weapon, put my best mods on it and crafted bombs, grenades and all sorts of meds thinking this boss fight was going to be epic. And it turned into a QTE sequence, I didn't get to use any of the weapons I was saving for that fight.

What a rip off!

------

Being "cinematic" is just an excuse to use when the focus is only on graphics and not gameplay. I am convinced this was the case for The Order. The emphasis for The Order by the developers was clearly on the graphics. It is a very beautiful game. But that is really the only thing they succeeded at.

Bioshock part one was an excellent game, that told an excellent story, one of the best story told last gen (IMO) and it didn't need a bunch of QTE or a huge focus on graphics/resolution to tell their story. Excellent gameplay, excellent level design and a variety of weapons to take out enemies, plus a great story told through characters and backlogs made that game great.

While I'm not entirely against QTE's, I think it's time to put a limit on them. It doesn't make sense to use QTEs to do some of the most mundane actions. QTE's to open a door...why? QTE's to hit a person in the stomach...why? QTE to jump on a train...why? If the devs want to show this elaborate action sequence then just show me the action. Sometimes seeing a button prompt distracts me from the actual action going on.

I wouldn't mind the QTE if they actually changed the gameplay. If they actually changed the narrative of the story, instead of Game Over if you miss a QTE, change the outcome of the event. QTE to jump on a train and you miss, then you have to walk the rest of the way on foot and surrounded by enemies (just as an example).

I think we are at a point right now where more of us including a lot of critics are seeing a lot of focus only on graphics/resolution and not enough substance. It's catching on and that is why a lot of people are putting their faith in the indie market, because just like the good 'ol days of 8-bit and 16-bit era devs had to make use of what little they were given to tell their story and make their games great.

The Final Fantasy(3?) opera scene comes to mind, it was not a CG cut scene but Square made it work with what the SNES could do and it was far more impressive than the remake and seeing them replace that scene with an actual CG movie.

Triple A games have their place in the video game market. But now these devs need to come up with new tricks and better designs to tell their story or move the action along. QTE's does seem like a major lazy cop out.

[Rachel_Alucard]

Shadow of Mordor final boss was worse than the dying light final boss. At least dying light's qte sequence lasted longer than 7 seconds.

[Chard]

Yep. With this trajectory, the gaming industry could be slowly heading for another crash if enough people wake up to the fact that more and more big budget games are becoming like movies that are only slightly more interactive, but with less interesting story and inferior visuals.

[Roccetarius]

Unfortunately we've been moving towards this for years now. It's sad to see developers taking a movie approach, instead of becoming something more due to mass market accessibility. It's certainly not what i wanted to see, while i was groing up in hte 90's.

[joeorc]

But on the same token, movies are static, games are not, the fact that it was a story to get you as the consumer ready for more of the world and its environment, its characters. This is the Past of just a few characters. It was talked about by the developers as the direction they wanted to take, many ask where is co op or even Multiplayer. The developer already went into that. Multiplayer was not being done at this time because story to bring the consumer into the games world was the priority. You may not agree with it, the reviewers may not agree with it, those that did not.

but Ready at dawn already told prior to release the games direction before the game was released.

The game was to release with DLC and it was said to be from 1886 to present day. That is a crap load of time line to cover, one of which many may call it greed, but others may call it if you are still interested to play into the games world even with all the negatives, is the developers have done their job.

its more about keeping the interest into the game when you are building a new iP, Uncharted IP started off the very same way. Its a new franchise, not a one off game.

[JoeReno]

intelligent comment @joeorc

[BitbyDeath]

If anything we were heading for a crash lastgen with the limited amount of genres we were getting and everyone trying to copy what was popular at the time.

This gen is less about the boring FPS games and more about creativeness as it now costs less and takes less time to develop games thanks to being on an X86 architecture.

Just look at the massive indie uprise, it isn't crashing, gaming is getting back to the glory of the PS1 and PS2 days.

[caseh]

Not everyone likes the big rise of the indie though. I don't think I've ever bought an indie title and I've only been exposed to them via PS+ which is genuinely beginning to grind on me.

Gaming will quite possibly never see a return to how it was in the late 80's onwards. But you know what, I really enjoyed the PS3 era and I often find my PS3 taking precedence over my PS4.

[Imalwaysright]

Not only indies but the japanese game development scene seems much better this gen than it was last gen. The ammount of great games that are coming from Japan mainly to the Wii U and the PS4 and to some extent the X1 and PC imo already makes this gen much better than last gen which imo is the worst generation ever.

[Ducky]

I tend to put DavidCage/TellTale QTEs in a different category because the QTE is often about a choice.

IndigoProphecy has a pretty memorable sequence early on where the character is experiencing hallucinations while being interviewed. I won't spoil the twist, but people who've played it probably remember because the QTEs are handled creatively for the context.

The QTEs I don't like are where you're pretty much watching a cutscene, but have to press button prompts as if you're playing simon or else a fail state triggers and it restarts the sequence. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be immersive, but I find myself paying more attention to button prompts than what's actually going on. Not to mention the fact that seeing button prompts on a screen is a very quick way of reminding someone they're playing a game. It's completely counter-productive to what devs claim to be aiming for.

And I completely agree with there being better ways of telling stories through games than just cinematics. I get that devs have a linear story to tell which requires something specific to happen, but they should try coming with ways that would convince the player to act a certain way. SpecOps:TheLine is an example of a game that does that. The game is mostly linear, but it tries to convince you that it is the best path to take.

But at the end of the day, if people enjoy 'cinematic' and QTE-heavy games, and want more of them, then what can you really do?
Press X to pay respects.

[gantarat]

QTE's and Cinematic is fine id Dev done right.

[Chard]

The reaction to The Order 1886 reviews puzzled me a bit;
When they came out, I thought that just maybe, mainstream reviews were finally entering an era where short games that overuse QTE's would actually get penalised regardless of production values.
Then, reading comments on this site, people have decided that NOW reviewers have become out of touch. Not last gen when every second game was getting 9+/10 despite being totally forgettable, but NOW. You have to question what some actually want from reviews, but it's probably because most of them have grown up with a game review system that never properly utilised the full scale.

[BillytheBarbarian]

I'm waiting for the the Order on Sega cd. 3D rendered graphics full motion video spanning 8 discs. Just played through Sewer Shark and Night trap to get my skills back up. Bring on the QTEs!

Dragon's Lair was a great QTE game too.

[caseh]

You missed out Road Avenger. :)

[Rachel_Alucard]

I remember god of war being one of the first games to start the uprising of QTEs' in 2005. Later I saw it again in tomb raider legend and from then on the rest is history. I don't think there is a way to do QTEs right unless the game was built around them like Heavy rain, as it stands in most games they are just tacked on cutscenes with button prompts that you are required to hit with the only effort put in was the animations during development. QTEs have been an easy way to progress a game and cut corners in cost overall during development, maybe this is why The Order uses them so much.

[Malice-Flare]

"Case in point, the God of War series. Every boss, and even many normal enemies, ends with a QTE event meant to showcase Kratos pulling off some badass moves that you apparently couldn't do yourself, which is only true because the developers didn't (or didn't know how to) allow you to even try something like that."

false...

QTE finishers are optional. that is why a prompt appears over an enemies head for a limited time while they are stunned. you can finish them with regular attacks, the trade-off is you don't get as many orbs for your upgrades...

"To me, God of War started this whole thing, but isn't really even close to the worst example of QTE abuse."

that means you're young, Shenmue started the whole story-based QTE game play. and, people want a sequel to THAT game...