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[conman]

Good QTE = Allowing the player to do something awesome that the existing mechanics can't do.

Bad QTE = Forcing the player to do something during a cutscene because devs think players are bored by cutscenes (when, of course, the better solution is just to cut the boring, tedious cutscenes).

 

[Manny Calavera]

Until Dawn: Doing it right

The Order 1886: Doing it wrong

Pretty much this. I've never hated them though and I do enjoy them occasionally as a way of keeping the player sharp and awake.

 

[Airola]

Videogames became like a theme park ride, where instead of going and doing, you sat with arms and legs inside the cart, and you road down the rails, and you watched the animatronics depict the adventure you used to have.

I see the auto-playing levels in Super Mario Maker as accidentally made commentary on modern gaming culture. They are exactly what you just described. When you let people who love modern games create Super Mario levels, that's what you get. And I am sad for it.

 

[Nanashrew]

In its overuse and many badly done. QTE has existed for a long time but feel nowhere near as prevalent as they are today.

 

[Frunobulax]

cutscenes are the time to smoke stuff and whatever

stop making me fail movies

I don't mind combat QTE's though.

 

[Creaking]

I'm fine with them in games that are dedicated to them, like Heavy Rain or Until Dawn. I don't like seeing them included in places that they don't really fit though.

The hijacking qte in Just Cause 2 for instance; that gets really annoying. The close encounter with a wild animal qte in Assassin's Creed 3 was also annoying. I'd be trying to do something through normal gameplay, then the game forces me into a qte sequence that robs me of all agency.

I also don't like qtes that require you to destroy your controller to complete them. Looking at you Resident Evil.


I wouldn't consider button prompts to be quick time events though. That's silly.

 

[RiverBed]

They are only bad when they obscure the scene happening behind them. For example, When playing Indigo Prophecy, I could only glimpse the action happening while I could hear someone next to me saying "woha! wow! aaa!" at the Matrix-level action going on.

God of War series evolves with each game. By the last game, the QTE scenes weren't obstucted at all. They did a smart thing which is indicate using the edge of the screen. So when you saw the right edge of the screen glow from the corner of your eye, you pressed the right button. Also, allowing you to ente the combination then continue the actionn is a good decision.

The bad thing about QTE for me is that; obscuring the scene happening. Other than that, it's just a mechanic. Heck, there are whole genres built exclusively on QTE.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

It's the truth. I wouldn't be surprised if the same people who hate QTEs are the same people who think characters that wear beanies or characters that have hair are "douchebags"
Old men who are to slow to press a button when the prompt shows up and then get mad at the game for their slow reflexes are usually the ones who are complaining.

Why is it that every time you post I feel like I'm being trolled. You can't possibly believe this silliness.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

We used to think they were rad. Until about RE4

Huh? RE4 is was repopularized them (and I use that term generously since it was really only Shenmue that did anything close to that in the previous decade)

 

[Ninja Scooter]

They were novel when cinematic games were something fresh and new, and seeing polygonal character models move around like characters in a movie was cool, but that novelty has worn off for the most part.

 

[T.O.P]

Until Dawn: Doing it right

The Order 1886: Doing it wrong

Sums it up

 

[KevinCow]

I just hate them because they take my attention away from whatever's happening on the screen and instead just makes me focus on wherever the QTE prompts appear. Like in God of War, I completely miss all the cool stuff Kratos is doing in the background because I don't want to miss a QTE prompt and have to do it all again.

 

[UrbanRats]

They were novel when cinematic games were something fresh and new, and seeing polygonal character models move around like characters in a movie was cool, but that novelty has worn off for the most part.

When implemented in significant ways, such as Until Dawn and similar games, they can be a lot of fun.

--

I don't even think the line between various mediums is really that defined, to the point where people calling things like QTEs "not gameplay" have any real merit, to be honest.

I mean it really doesn't take that much more skill to play something like Shadow of Mordor, than to press button prompts in Until Dawn.
But it's interesting when those button prompts are applied to a situation where you have to live with the consequences of your actions.

So basically, QTEs applied to unchanging cutscenes, with fail states, are bad.
QTEs that will let the narrative continue in a new direction, when you fail them, are good.

 

[Hektor]

How could someone not like moments where the game strips the player of all fucking player agency and shows him a cutscene of good action rather then allowing him to be part of it.

 

[Boomshaw]

Was it not the God of War series?

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Pushing buttons when prompted is the simplest form of challenge and design. there's no balance between being irritatingly difficult and mindlessly easy. It's just flat out bad. God of War QTEs are just as terrible by the way and I have no idea why people seem to like them.

 

[Hektor]

pushing buttons when prompted is the simplest form of challenge and design. there's no balance between being irritatingly difficult and mindlessly easy. It's just flat out bad. God of War QTEs are just as terrible by the way and I have no idea why people seem to like them.

Because they look cool, that is for many people sadly nowadays more important than everything else.

 

[Aquillion]

the only thing i know, the QTE's in Shenmue are amazing

I think it fit in Shenmue because it worked with the Wuxia / martial arts theme -- it always felt good to succeed at one, because it helped you get into character as a badass martial-arts dude with lightning reflexes. (One of the problems I had with Jade Empire was that they never really managed to give you any sense of being a martial artist outside of combat; Shenmue's QTE's avoided that problem.)

But it was copied by a lot of other games where it didn't really belong.

 

[Atlas AS7-K]

I like them the least when they are used to "gamify" a story driven game. Life is strange is a perfect example of a great game that knows its story/characters are enough to carry it without making me prove that i'm still watching by pressing x to not die, or whatever.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Until Dawn: Doing it right

The Order 1886: Doing it wrong

I've never been one to hate them outright, just when the sequences are so insipid as to be demeaning.

good post right here.

 

[anothertech]

If you can do it while still in full view of what's happening in the scene, then it's fine. What ruined it was when they started making them so prominent you finished an entire boss fight without actually knowing what happened or what the boss looks like.

But the frustration? That started right here in the 80s

 

[Xpliskin]

https://youtu.be/Yy44s_de15Y

This made my day, thank you

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Pressing buttons during a cutscene is less fun than just watching the cutscene, and pushing a sequence of buttons in a prescribed order is not interesting enough to be considered actual gameplay. It's the worst of both worlds.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Pressing buttons during a cutscene is less fun than just watching the cutscene, and pushing a sequence of buttons in a prescribed order is not interesting enough to be considered actual gameplay. It's the worst of both worlds.

Ayup

 

[Inuhanyou]

Oversaturation, like most things.

I like GOW's implementation and not much else.

 

[Acquiescence]

Because so few developers actually know how to pull off the QTE correctly.

Games that do it right...

Shenmue
Heavy Rain
Until Dawn

Games that do it wrong...

Everything else

 

[Red Liquorice]

Taking orders to auto-pilot the game isn't fun.

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

Failing a QTE and doing it over again is a great time.

 

[Jack Scofield]

I like them. A lot of the QTE-heavy moments in the God of Wars games (such as the end boss in Ascension) wouldn't be nearly as impactful if they were just cutscenes.

 

[TouchMyBox]

If they are actually well thought-out and are used as a decent metaphor for the actions that characters are performing on screen, they can be okay. The goal is obviously to not have QTEs, but there is only so much you can do mechanically with limited input schemes that they're a crappy compromise without a better substitute in most cases.

But what happens far too often is a developer puts some QTEs in a cutscene because "hey this is a video game and if people aren't doing video game things for a while they're gonna feel like they're not playing a video game but that isn't enough of a deterrent to make the game more interactive so let's just make the player press the A button a whole bunch lol, I dunno". And that's how games get me to shut them off.

 

[old manatee]

Because I never know what happens in the cutscene. My brain filters the cut scene out so I can see the button prompt. I don't remember what's ever happened in a single qte cutscene in gaming history.

You didn't miss much.

 

[Cipherr]

the title says it all.

i mean there is some bad QTE out there (Platinum games im looking at you) and good ones
(sony santa monica)
but because of 30 seconds of QTE people start to hate the all game why?

also the order 1886 has one of the worst QTE ever. jesus christ pointless shit

It came from its over use. No one gave a shit about QTE in the Shenmue days. Its the years that followed it when developers started overdoing it that brought people to hate it, and rightfully so.

Everything in moderation man.

 

[Brashnir]

It stops the game you're playing it and replaces it with a worse game just for the sake of showing you something "cool."

It's game design for people who don't actually like games.

 

[Window]

RE4 probably.

I don't know if this was the case but when I completed RE4 for the first time on PC a few months a go I found the QTE's to be absolutely obnoxious.

 

[tintin1029]

I think games like Until Dawn, games by Quantum Leap or Telltale get a free pass because the game focuses more on it's story than it's gameplay, so bitching about their gameplay is completely pointless.

As long as of course if the story is actually entertaining, which Telltale succeeds in doing most of the time. If The Order's story was fantastic and had amazing characters, I don't think anyone would complain about it's lack of gameplay (except for the people that don't care for story)

 

[EatinOlives]

Fail states for QTEs are annoying because literally the only thing do is re-watch the same cutscene and press the same button, except do it faster. It's not like playing a game where you start thinking about which mechanics/weapons/etc. to use while you get to the enemy or obstacle again. It's gaming reduced to its simplest interaction and it doesn't make for an enjoyable experience.

 

[ReBirFh]

The first time I heard about QTE was in Shenmue and to this day I think it's the best implementation of Quick Time Events from the games I've played since then.

 

[Nibiru]

Asura's Wrath was one of my favorite games last gen and got a lot of hate for QTEs but imo that game was incredible.

 

[LouisaFerre]

Time for more KH2FM dickriding by yours truly.

They get some flack, and honestly below critical mode they really are too powerful, but that's more of a balance issue than anything. In terms of the way they're actually designed, I'd say it's one of the few games to implement them in a way that I would say is (mostly) good.

The vast majority of the times they appear, they are optional. That's the most important thing. Even in a boss battle, there are plenty of times where a sequence tied to a QTE can be avoided and is not necessary to finish the battle. On top of that, it's more just a context sensitive command than anything.

Fighting dusks? You can press triangle to dodge in a half circle behind them. That's all it does, no extended sequence where I'm deprived of control, just a move specific to that enemy. Fighting snipers? You can press triangle after they shoot to teleport to the bullet and hit it back at them. Instead of having the game slow down to give you time, the shot just stops in mid air for a moment after the enemy fires. That's a small detail, but it's important that they did that because it gives the player time to react if they want to do the reaction command/RC without depriving them of control. There is a visual prompt, but outside of that the way you can interact with the game continues normally.You can just use reflect or a dodge roll if you don't want to do the RC. There are also more creative uses, where the, once again, optional RC will initiate a game that turns the normal deck of commands into a roulette wheel. No separate screen, no pop up menu, just a change to the existing menu for a couple of seconds. And on a boss you can even do the RC at specific times to replace your regular attack command with expendable uses of the bosses attack. People shit on them a lot, but they were really well integrated into the rest of the gameplay.