Should Quick Time Events Go Away?

"In Mortal Kombat X, Most of the cut scene fights are just there for you to watch, then every once in a while unannounced, the game goes to a quick time event." -Play Legit

[johndoe11211]

Play Heavy Rain and the walking dead series then see if that question is even worth asking.

[Roccetarius]

Remove the button prompts and release it as a movie, then see if the question is worth asking again.

[SamPao]

Well I guess every game that is ever beeing watched on any videoplatform and peoplr enjoy it, should then not be a game. Very thoughtful

[xHeavYx]

Lol, people complaint that all games are similar, and when a game comes out that's different, people complaint that it's different.

[Summons75]

You mean remove the gameplay, take away all the player choices that make each playthrough unique, and release it as a movie....it would be a terrible movie. One of the best things about Heavy Rain was that all my friends had different playthroughs and endings making the game unique and fun to talk about and replay. Terrible argument, you can say that about any game.

[DragonbornZ]

For me it depends on the game. TWD, Beyond two Souls, they're fine and they work really well. And I don't mind QTEs in other types of games as long as they aren't heavy.

[gangsta_red]

QTE's are an old tired design and Heavy Rain is definitely not a good example to use in defense of QTE's.

QTE's in a lot of games have become pointless and a cop out for boss battles (Dying Light, ugh) or unnecessary for mundane actions during a cut scene just to make sure the player is paying attention.

It's time for developer's to come up with something else or just drop this tactic all together.

[johndoe11211]

Heavy Rain is THE most perfect example to use in defense of QTE's. That entire game was QTE's and these were the review scores of that game:

1UP.com A-
Edge 7/10
Eurogamer 9/10
Famitsu 37/40
G4 4/5
Game Informer 9.5/10
GamePro 5/5
GameSpot 8.5/10
GameSpy 4.5/5
GameTrailers 8.9/10
GameZone 9/10
IGN 9.0/10

That game was critically acclaimed by reviewers and users alike and made the entire world know the name Quantic Dream.

Also The Walking Dead series and The Wolf Among Us are 90% QTE's and they have also received critical acclaim from reviewers and gamers alike. There is no justification for getting rid of QTE's except for gamers whose brains are incapable of comprehending anything other than aiming down their sites and pulling a trigger.

[Revolver_X_]

Heavy Rain was a commercial and critical success. If I recall, TWD Season 1 was also a dominant GOTY winner. I have no problem with games designed around the concept. There is room for games of all kinds in my library. Now when QTE's are shoved in like RE6, Dying Lights' boss(you mentioned), and Shadow of Mordors' boss, it does get disappointing.

[kneon]

Most of what people are calling QTEs in Heavy Rain aren't even QTEs. They are simply dialog choices that seldom have a time limit, and even when they do the timeout is usually quite long, certainly not quick. If they had used a different UI for dialog choices then there wouldn't have been any discussion about them.

The real QTEs in Heavy Rain are primarily in the fight scenes and there their use is perfect. Because there are no do-overs in Heavy Rain using QTEs is a great way to build tension. Every time you miss one things get more desperate because you know if your character dies then they really are dead for good.

[3-4-5]

QTE's are insulting to peoples reactions times.

* Imagine if EVERY single jump in a Mario game was a QTE......

They had their 15 minutes.....lets move on.

[gangsta_red]

Heavy Rain was critically acclaimed for that time, but the more recent Beyond Two Souls wasn't, The Order has just been ripped for having too many QTE's, a lot of people were disappointed with a certain handling of Dying Light. And I remember Heavy Rain was also criticized for its over use of QTE's also by a lot of reviewers and gamers.

More games recently have been criticized and reviewed harshly for having to rely too much on QTE's. Sure their are a few games that are the exceptions like the Walking Dead or Wolf Among Us where the story trumps all but that is a small percentage with other games that have you press X to pay your respect, or repeatedly press X to open a door, or press Y, A, B and the end boss is defeated.

"There is no justification for getting rid of QTE's except for gamers whose brains are incapable of comprehending anything other than aiming down their sites and pulling a trigger."

How is that anymore braindead like then hitting the shiny red button when the big TV says so? Just recently I was playing the MK X storyline and right off the bat Johnny Cage starts fighting Scorpion in a cinematic, all of a sudden...press X...why? The real gameplay didn't even start and there was no reason or warning that a QTE was going to happen in the very beginning of the game.

[ZaWarudo]

Yes, they absolutely should.

[johndoe11211]

Obviously you never played heavy rain or the walking dead series.

[magiciandude]

I have Heavy Rain and it's only fun playing through it once even though the game has multiple endings. The game is a novelty, but that's about it.

Personally I want more control over the action rather than press X O X ◻ ◻ O △ X X △ or die, fail, branch out, etc. Now, I forgot quite a bit about Heavy Rain since that was many years ago, but I do remember the entire game being QTE laden.

[Mikefizzled]

Thats like 70% of a David Cage game.

[WizzroSupreme]

Yes, yes they should. They've always been an excuse to escalate drama through lazy button prompts than any game design.

[The_Sage]

Should quick time events go away?.... Yep.

[Roccetarius]

QTE's are usually in place because they can't come up with something else, in order to make gameplay more engaging. Some developers are just stuck at the movie studio.

[gjruk]

No I don't think they should, In games like Telltale's series, Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls etc they work great but they shouldn't be in specific games. All too often they pop up in games here and there for no reason, in games that I don't think need them.

[OhMyGandhi]

I used to be entirely against quick time events, but there are some exceptions to the rule, at least, to me.

In God of War, after battling a few dozen enemies, nothing feels as good as finishing off that last enemy with a glorious systematic beheading. The prompts themselves are the same as well. It's usually like X, Triangle and then the use of the trigger as well, but the combo stays the same for that enemy type.

Where I have a problem is when developers decide to implement quick time events where the prompts themselves are random. The feeling of successfully pulling off the prompt is then a random adrenaline rush, and should it be done correctly, it feels amazing, but when you mess up, it can get downright infuriating. Your domination of an enemy that feels cheapened, when they suddenly throw you off them, and hit you with their own counter attack, just for you to attempt another randomized sequence again.

I loved Heavy Rain, but Quantic Dream loves the ideas behind random quick time events, where it's not some amazingly choreographed ballet of slow mo death, but a test in reflexes.
Some bosses in God of War used random QTE's, but the average grunt had a pattern that felt good when it came time to "do the deed".

As I said before, Heavy Rain remains one of the most original, most unique video games I've played, but when every microcosm of player movement revolved around unintuitive, often randomized button presses, they may have well used a Bop-It instead of a DualShock.

[SmokingMonkey]

Why should any gameplay elements "go away"?

Maybe the user should spend their money on what they enjoy?

I don't care for racing games, so should racing games go away?

[supraking951]

I agree, holding down R2 majority of the time is lazy game development.

[Transporter47]

I hope that's sarcasm because you're playing racing games wrong if that is all you're doing.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

When done right QTE's are perfectly fine. When abused and over-used as they have become for many devs they become obnoxious

[SouljAx360]

Yes, they are my least favorite parts of games.

Obviously games that are only QTE don't count. (In response to all those Heavy Rain and Taletell game comments.)

[Skankinruby]

No, online only games are what should go away

[DigitalRaptor]

No.

Kill off any gameplay mechanic that has been valid for years, and you're killing diversity and culture. You guys can call it "evolving" if you please, but what is it evolving into? Nothing is evolving - what happens is that you're killing it.

QTEs are still a valid and enjoyable mechanic in many games, and if done right is perfectly reasonable. If you have a problem with a SPECIFIC game that uses QTEs badly, then make it an example. It's wrong to chastise the entire mechanic.

[Revolver_X_]

Ultimately, QTE's were designed when gamers started complaining about just sitting there watching a cutscene. Now, gamers want a full circle, to going back and just watching the cutscene out of shear laziness to press a button. Smh. QTE's will die when games cease to have cinematics. While, there are games based on QTE design, other genres I feel fit with QTES'. Hack n Slashes always have QTEs' that feel good. GOW, MGR, etc. Action/Platformers like Uncharted and Tomb Raider(2013) have done fine jobs in using them. TLOU did a fine job with'em. There are plenty of cases with them done right. So, next time you play through a great game only to have a boss fight be a QTE. Blame the devs not the mechanic.

[Chard]

"press x to trigger the next cinematic sequence"

^ great gameplay right there

[TWB]

Most of the time when I encounter more than 2 QTEs in one session, I feel really annoyed. If theres like one "hey here is this random QTE" Im just like "okay, great lets get this over with"

However sometimes I come across games that really make me want to pull the buttons out. I played the new tomb raider (the TPS one, not the download title) at my friends, I was done like in an hour (not that Tomb Raider ever was my type of game)

The only time I have felt positively about QTE's was in Puppeteer (PS3). They are predicatble because they always appear after you have basicly defeated the boss in platforming/arena combat. These QTEs always use only buttons the player utilizes during gameplay and they reflect the actions during the QTE cutscenes (X= jump, []= scrissor, o= bomb etc...). So essentially these QTEs are like fancy finishers against the bosses and they look sometimes pretty damn good, it feels good performing them.

Check them out from youtube if you are curious.

[TeamLeaptrade]

QTE's that I don't like are the ones where you have to play a game of Simon says. I don't mind games like TWD where it isn't like that. Yeah it can qualify as a QTE, but it's not an annoying mess of them. TWD does it right.

That's how I feel anyways.

[MonkeyOne]

Press Y on your keyboard to agree with this article.

[Jedislayer]

I play games, not interactive movies.

[DarkSniper]

The only game in Dark Sniper's opinion that did QTE correctly was Shenmue. When you encountered a QTE sequence, it had a level of immersion not seen in other games. Today QTE's are used simply as a mechanism to make you feel like you did something cool on an otherwise pre-rendered cutscene.

$niper

[AudioEppa]

I love them in games

Got a problem with them? Get over it