QTEs (quick time events) suck and should be abandoned posthaste

[compl3x]

Just like the title says. QTEs, in my opinion, are overused, used unnecessarily, rarely add anything to game play, and can interrupt the flow of game play.

 

QTEs during cutscenes are even worse. Instead of watching the cutscene you are trying to pay attention to when the prompt appears. Cutscenes used to provide a momentary respite; a time to stretch your fingers, crack your knuckles, take a sip of your preferred beverage and take pride in your accomplishment. Now? You sit there like a moron waiting for a pointless prompt lest you die in the cutscene and have to start it all over again. This is QTE anxiety. We don't even know which games they are going to be in so we are all sitting there waiting for a prompt which may or may not even appear.

 

It makes gaming feel more like a chore than entertainment.

 

</rant>

 

 

Feel free to agree with me below.  :angry:

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

QTE's have a place when used correctly, but can easily be abused, or used too much to compensate for bad game design. 

 

QTE's in cutscenes, don't feel smooth / fluid with me. Agree with the break in immersion.

The only time I've seen this work (qte/cutscene) is in mass effects with the Paragon/Renegade choices.

[Louisifer]

If used right and not to often I don't mind them. The new Tomb Raider annoyed me, there were a few times in that game where it refused to accept my button presses even though it was perfectly timed :\

[exotoxic]

I agree, the ones in tomb raider were terrible,  especially the ones which don't even tell you which button to press :/

[compl3x]

I think even when they are used right, which is very rare, I don't want to do them because so many games using them wrong have turned me off of them.

 

Now in every game you are sitting there waiting for them. We're like monkeys in the zoo waiting for the little pellets to drop out for us.

[spaceelf]

If used right and not to often I don't mind them. The new Tomb Raider annoyed me, there were a few times in that game where it refused to accept my button presses even though it was perfectly timed :\

No, they were just programmed weirdly.  You had to press the button AFTER the circle went into the other circle, which was bizarre.

 

I have yet to mind QTEs terribly much except in a few instances where I didn't actually have time to press them or I couldn't actually see what button to press for some goofy reason like them deciding to slant the graphic or whatever.

Feel free to agree with me below.  :angry:

On that note I totally would if I agreed with you  :D

[Dashel]

I generally hate QTE's too.  A good example was NFS: The Run - absolutely no reason to add silly QTE driven cinematics.

[Louisifer]

I can agree they were programmed weirdly, you shouldn't have to die a few times to learn the timing on the presses, the challenge should be from which button do I press next.

[theyarecomingforyou]

QTEs are not fundamentally terrible. However, all too often they are used poorly and they break immersion in the game. The Half-Life franchise remains a fan favourite because the game immersed you in the universe - you didn't have a character talking out of nowhere; you didn't have cutscenes that took control away from the player; you didn't have QTEs or button bashing for action scenes; you didn't have an inventory screen to fiddle with, etc. Far Cry 2 was another game to do this very well. Don't get me wrong, both Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3 were excellent games but I found the QTEs to be unnecessary and they reduced the immersion.

 

Games should be trying to improve immersion and flashing a giant coloured button on screen is not going to achieve that. Technologies like Kinect, Leap Motion and the Oculus Rift offer new ways to interact with games and developers should take advantage of them.

[HawkMan]

Generally I find that QTE's (they're not really) in cut scenes aren't necessary. in fact I don't think I've seen any game where yo have to do them, they just provide minor changes to the story. ME being one of those that provide a bit bigger change to the story, but it's durign interactive talk scenes anyway so you have to pay attention anyway. 

[Phouchg]

Press T to have me agree with you.

 

Though I feel QTEs could still benefit an action game if implemented in such a way so that failing to complete some part of them (or missing out at all, depending on circumstances) does not mean failure, but only progressively less success, providing an alternate, suboptimal way.

 

You know what really sucks? Checkpoints. Show me a single modern game where checkpoint system doesn't solely add to the grind and instead allows to approach a certain problem differently. Throw QTEs in that mix and I write the game off near immediately no matter how good the rest of stuff is.

[BajiRav]

I think they add to immersion when done right. I still remember that QTE at the end of CoD:MW, I didn't anticipate it but it felt really awesome.

[spaceelf]

Generally I find that QTE's (they're not really) in cut scenes aren't necessary.

People used to have the same complaint about having cutscenes at all.

[compl3x]

Another complaint is that in some games if you miss a QTE and the game continues on you think "######, does that matter? Is it going to alter the game? I wasn't expecting it!"

[HawkMan]

People used to have the same complaint about having cutscenes at all.

 

Doesn't seem like I wrote what I intended to write. Well, I did. it just didn't come out right :)

 

what I meant by that is that you don't actually have to press them, you can just ignore them and the cut scene and game will progress just fine without you. it's just there for added immersion into the story for that that want it (do you want tio kill the dude or let him die by those angry villagers, Maybe you wount to punch this little a hole while interrogating, if you don't that fine to) 

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Gotta agree with OP. They are a lazy man's option for what would otherwise be interesting or fun gameplay. I think the only franchise that has ever got away with it is GOW and it was getting old after the 3rd game.

[Anthony Tosie Veteran]

I hate quick-time events. They make a game completely lifeless, and I'm not sure why developers are so insistent upon them.

 

When "Ryse" was shown to be heavily QTE-based, it killed pretty much all my interest in the game.

[+virtorio MVC]

As long as they're used appropriately I don't have a problem with them.

That said, a lot of games don't used them appropriately. 

[helios01]

 Agreed. I don't think they add anything to the gameplay 99% of the time. Sometimes they don't really hinder too much of the gameplay, but most of the time they do. 

[HawkMan]

I hate quick-time events. They make a game completely lifeless, and I'm not sure why developers are so insistent upon them.

 

When "Ryse" was shown to be heavily QTE-based, it killed pretty much all my interest in the game.

 

It's hard to tell from the trailer video, but I believe they use it as a quick and fancy finisher and you don't actually have to do it.

 

for some games, especially non ranged games like this, QTE's can help put you into the game and make it feel as if you actually do those fancy moves, as otherwise all the can do is either let the enemies just die regularly as you slash them, which is boring or add in fancy finishers, if you just make them happen automatically at the end of the life of a mob, then they're pointless and you don't feel like you do any part in them, and they're just part of the death animation, with some simple QTE, it puts you in there. 

 

What's annoying is those really long QTE fights, especially on bosses, Batman and some other similar games are terrible at this. hit these random buttons at the right micro second, there's like 30 to hit in a row or you die, oh and if you die they come in a new random order. The Darkness 2 has some annoying semi QTE's throughout the whole game play. 

[compl3x]

 

for some games, especially non ranged games like this, QTE's can help put you into the game and make it feel as if you actually do those fancy moves, as otherwise all the can do is either let the enemies just die regularly as you slash them, which is boring or add in fancy finishers, if you just make them happen automatically at the end of the life of a mob, then they're pointless and you don't feel like you do any part in them, and they're just part of the death animation, with some simple QTE, it puts you in there. 

 

 

 

To do fancy moves and finishers, you used to have to remember a button combo and time it right. There was a degree of skill and accuracy. Pressing a button and having an animation play out seems like an argument from laziness.

[richardsim7]

The only QTE I enjoyed was in MGS4, toward the end

[HawkMan]

To do fancy moves and finishers, you used to have to remember a button combo and time it right. There was a degree of skill and accuracy. Pressing a button and having an animation play out seems like an argument from laziness.

That was in arena fighting games. And the whole mortal kombat ridiculous button combo would get old fast in an actions game.

[compl3x]

QTEs have become old fast in action games :p

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

I actually quite enjoy them :)   not all of them, but sometimes i think they are appropriate.  and i had no problem with them in Tomb Raider (except one time, where i had no idea which botton to press!)

 

but for a bunch of good ones, there are a bunch of bad ones....    but since i only play the games i like a lot, i dont find any problem with them.

 

i mean, i enjoyed Heavy Rain, and it was all just QTE :)