QTE is a scourge that breaks immersion and gameplay which is why I hate seeing it so often in modern games
Do we see it so often? Perhaps I'm playing different games, but I haven't seen QTE in years. And even then it wasn't so bad. I agree it can be immersion breaking, and is often pretty silly, but I don't recall ever getting too frustrated at it, outside of (ironically usually indie) games that do it really badly.
It's the "Press F to pay respects" meme on steroids and I hate it.
"Press F" is dumb because it has zero gameplay impact. QTE has gameplay impact. Sure, you can say it's lazy design, but I wouldn't say it's "Press F" on steroids. If anything, it's kind of the opposite.
Finishing a game used to be a joy, you used to get excited with a story driven game and could sit back and watch it like a movie for a reward once you beat a certain section a.k.a Halo 2 ( Especially with the amazing anniversary cutscenes ).
That I can agree with, though. QT events should be kept to gameplay if you're going to use them, and not cutscenes. The two should be differentiated easily, even if it's just something lazy like "cinematic" aspect ratios. If you're going to have cutscenes, they have to be cutscenes. Asking for player input during them defeats the whole purpose.
ubisoft
I still enjoy the occasional Ubi game but, yeah, on the whole I fucking despise what they've become. Lazy, unfun, copy/paste nonsense.
It is disappointing how so many of the big studios are just churning out utter crap.
Another in the billions of reasons to not support triple a. I primarily play indie games, almost to exclusivity and most of the shit gamers bitch about, I never experience. I'll keep it that way.
Like what? I admittedly don't play the biggest AAA games (for ages I didn't have an adequate computer for one thing), but I really don't run into QTEs, at all. Which games have them, and how did I completely miss that they're still a thing?
The only one I can really recall is...like...Tomb Raider Anniversary, I think, nearly twenty years ago? Did DMC have them too? Maybe? I'm not a big spectacle fighter fan. Maybe I'm just not in the right genres, I suppose.
It's fine in boss fights after you take a boss down to a certain health level, and allows for a nice cinematic ending. I don't remember a QTE other than that type in any game that I've played recently.
I kind of admit, watching Console 'Tards claw their way towards self-awareness is slightly amusing.
This post is just gold. It amounts to: "Wait, it turns out a mechanic for console games that is aimed at dumbing down gameplay kind of sucks! Why would retards want this?"
All while failing to see that they are the problem. Dumbing down games to market them to 'Tards has been overwhelmingly successful. They are so close!
It used to be pretty heavy in the mid 2000s, but it's cleared up a lot. I haven't found a QTE in years. But I did dislike at the time how many former cut scenes turned into press X to not die. Resident Evil 4 in particular had a few scenes that did not need to be QTEs, imo. It wasn't very annoying, but I personally could have done without it. I think the really annoying ones would change which button it was and not give you enough time to see it, recognize it, and press it. Which also could just be my reaction times fading. I am getting older.
I think it's possible that their fall from relevance might have coincided with the collective turn from rhythm games like DDR. The Press the button now or get less or no points genre tied to music. Seems like devs added it because it's what people wanted at the time.
Now people are mostly over it and very few gameplay elements rely on it. I've seen a few mini games rely on timing and pressing a button at a certain time. But never much more than just that.
Resident Evil 4 in particular had a few scenes that did not need to be QTEs
On the flipside, the Krauser knife fight could only be a QTE.
I think its related to what you said, in that the reaction time on them in a lot of games (especially RE4) were so tight and punishing that they lost any ability to be better than annoying.
Which, imo, is also a problem with the non-uniformity of buttons. Like, reaction time level prompts really suck when its "PRESS X IN 0.5 SECONDS" but you are playing on a Playstation after mostly using a Gamecube where that button is a completely different location. Compared to normal gameplay where button locations are reactionary instead of having that extra step of "where is X" in your mind.
You bring up a good point. When games get ported to other systems, X and Y are no longer where they used to be. As well as A and B. And when RE4, (using the same example game), got ported to the Wii, you had to use a different hand sometimes, which was on the nunchuck. And that'd throw you off if you're used to just using your thumb., If you're like me and beat the game each time it went to a new console, and the badly ported PC version that oops forgot to bake in the lighting the first time, just to see if I could get a faster time, or see what was different in this new version.
The QTEs became mini adventure games. Did they port the UI right? Or am I going to see Gamecube/PS2/original Xbox controls on the PC screen. I honestly don't remember if they did iron out that frustration. They probably did, or you'd hear me cursing about it on the other side of the earth.
RE4 was also an asshole about it and would change up some (but not all) the button prompts. So you couldn't just rely on muscle memory even on the same system.
There is a lot that goes into making "good QTEs" that most devs don't even bother thinking about. Its how you end up with either impossibly fast ones that make you hate the game or incredibly boring ones like "F to pay respects."
I don't think RE4s were that good, but given the context of the time (where super long, unskippable cutscenes were the norm) I see why they were popular enough to become a trend.
Mass effect has an example of a QTE-like system, the interrupt, done right. Particuarly that moment on a renegade runin ME3 where you have the option to shoot and betray your friend or not. A shining moment (of two) in an otherwise quite poor story and game (it wasn't just the ending that sucked, fight me). That trigger/renegade symbol appearing is almost QTE-like, but it's more 'press x to make a big impact on the story, betray a friend or finish the mission' rather than 'press x to nod along like you'd be doing anyway'
So I'm not opposed to it in theory, some of my fave moments are from that series and are QTE-like.
But I completely get what you mean, there's too many of them, they are too inconsequential, and they are generally lazy.
Witcher 3 had some good timed decisions too. Those are a bit less "immersive" since they're just a menu with a timer, but it's essentially the same thing anyways.
I liked how Metroid Dread did it. You have a dedicated "Melee Counter" button where you can interrupt certain enemy attacks to take them out more easily. Boss fights also have these attacks where landing the timing of the counter rewards you with a short cutscene of Samus styling on the boss in some way. Except it's not just a cutscene. You've still got complete control of Samus shooting at the enemy. And there are short periods where you can't directly shoot, so it's in your interest to find those moments and use them to charge your beam for maximum DPS. It very smoothly blends the flashiness and timing based challenge of a QTE with the standard run and gun gameplay. And there aren't any blatant button prompts beyond the standard "This is a counter opportunity!" flash you've already been getting.
This was, amusingly, one of the things I hated about Metroid Dread. I don't like being forced to wait for "oh hey, attention! You can kill me now!" indicators.
It was only mandatory on a handful of bosses, either ones that had you working to expose their weakpoint anyway, like the weird mollusk thing in the water area, or against the Chozo warriors, and they'd automatically put you in the finisher cinematic when their HP was low enough.
There are no QTE's in Skyrim. There are no QTE's in Conan Exiles. There are no QTE's in project Zomboid. There are no QTE's in No Man's Sky or Elite Dangerous or Space Engineers.
Perhaps if you stopped wanting to play a movie and started playing actual games you wouldn't be forced to watch interactive cut scenes. Open world games are superior to linear scripted anything. Hell, the last good linear game was Doom 2016. Level/stage based games are just bad. They have zero replayablity. After you've played them once you know where everything is. There is nothing new to learn or experience. Perhaps just some mutually exclusive achievements that exist solely to make you grind through it a second time.
What annoyed me about open worlds is that Ubisoft finally had a good tighter one in fenyx rising. It was still an open world but it was one finally done right, didn’t feel padded.
But because it didn’t do well they’ll not take any lessons from it.
Its because they almost completely copied Breath of the Wild, then sanded off a lot of the worst elements (inventory management and durability) while adding some lighthearted humor and more interesting challenges.
So all it proves is that BotW only gets the near universal acclaim it does because its Zelda, and even that was just the novelty as TotK's failure proved.
Still is a shame because its a legitimately good game, with the only major hamper being the absurd load times due to the gay online component for MTXs no one wants.
Always funny when you're not expecting QTE and you get to watch your main character, an established bad ass, stand there like a tard as a boulder rolls over him because you didn't tap the button. It's usually when I stop playing the game (despise QTE) but I do admit it's hilarious.
I like QTE when it's involved in gameplay, and isn't overused as fuck. God of War has always been fucking irritating with QTE, and tbh I feel like they invented the damn thing. Probably wrong but it's the first place I saw it.
Remnant 2 is the game I'm playing now with my friends, and there are zero QTE in cutscenes but they pop up occasionally with certain enemies that will grab you if you let them too close. But it's not all the enemies, they aren't put in as executions like Gears or God of War, and not every enemy can force it on you. It also makes for funny moments when it's a flying unit that grabs your ass up and flies you into the heavens to drop you on your head, if you don't do the Quick button mash, or hold if you change it in settings.
I think God of War was responsible for bringing them back and popularizing them, but there were a couple 80s arcade games that were nothing but QTE. Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were both very pretty games at the time, being made of hand drawn cut scenes and QTE, but the laser disc equipment they ran off was crazy expensive, which is probably why there was never a 3rd game and the QTE concept died out for a few decades.
I'll be honest I don't have an issue with QTEs, but I think there is a time and place for them. I think they are for action games like MGS:Revengeance and Asura's Fist - I'm not saying these are great games or that QTEs make them better, but that they fit in that kind of gameplay and world imo.
In general I think they are dogshit, and I have an example of a game that has no purpose with them - FF14, the MMO. Occasional boss battles will have you spam click a button on the middle of the screen (or hit any key on your keyboard over and over). If someone in your 8 party group fails some of these, it can cause a wipe and I think that is absolute dogshit design.
But if it is an action oriented game, it makes sense to me to kind of "play" the cutscenes - if it isn't overdone and adds to the experience, which rarely it does for me but definitely can.
The only ones in modern games that I recall bothering me is the ones where you have to spam the same key over and over as fast as you can to "struggle" or whatever. Especially those where I almost have to sit up and focus on key spamming because if I get one or two fewer keypresses per second I get to start over.
It's never been a fun gameplay mechanic though. If you really want to see how bad they can be go play Shenmue 2. Then, I will await news of your suicide.
Do you guys remember how they did it in older games?
I remember when they were added and they were fucking beloved for it. Resident Evil 4 and God of War were highly praised for them and became massive hits, inspiring people to copy them.
I even distinctly remember some review on G4 contrasting them to "Kojima mega-cutscenes" which were hugely popular at the time. Especially as most games refused to let you skip them either, so QTEs functioned as a way to keep action and attention during cutscenes instead of constant "put the controller down and enjoy a movie" that was huge in the PS2 era.
So the problem really isn't QTEs themselves. Its their overabundance and their extremely boring use. Even in the two big examples I used, they were only in a handful of cutscenes (and God of War only in actual combat) and were always either dramatic setpieces or for awesome attacks beyond the normal combat engine.
Do we see it so often? Perhaps I'm playing different games, but I haven't seen QTE in years. And even then it wasn't so bad. I agree it can be immersion breaking, and is often pretty silly, but I don't recall ever getting too frustrated at it, outside of (ironically usually indie) games that do it really badly.
"Press F" is dumb because it has zero gameplay impact. QTE has gameplay impact. Sure, you can say it's lazy design, but I wouldn't say it's "Press F" on steroids. If anything, it's kind of the opposite.
That I can agree with, though. QT events should be kept to gameplay if you're going to use them, and not cutscenes. The two should be differentiated easily, even if it's just something lazy like "cinematic" aspect ratios. If you're going to have cutscenes, they have to be cutscenes. Asking for player input during them defeats the whole purpose.
I still enjoy the occasional Ubi game but, yeah, on the whole I fucking despise what they've become. Lazy, unfun, copy/paste nonsense.
It is disappointing how so many of the big studios are just churning out utter crap.
Another in the billions of reasons to not support triple a. I primarily play indie games, almost to exclusivity and most of the shit gamers bitch about, I never experience. I'll keep it that way.
Like what? I admittedly don't play the biggest AAA games (for ages I didn't have an adequate computer for one thing), but I really don't run into QTEs, at all. Which games have them, and how did I completely miss that they're still a thing?
The only one I can really recall is...like...Tomb Raider Anniversary, I think, nearly twenty years ago? Did DMC have them too? Maybe? I'm not a big spectacle fighter fan. Maybe I'm just not in the right genres, I suppose.
Don't the latest God of War games have a lot of QTE?
What? God of War having quick time events? Well I never.
Well the poster above didn't mention it, so I'm not sure I understand your comment.
It's fine in boss fights after you take a boss down to a certain health level, and allows for a nice cinematic ending. I don't remember a QTE other than that type in any game that I've played recently.
Post Reported for:
It's an opinion about gaming you retards. We like these. These are good.
I kind of admit, watching Console 'Tards claw their way towards self-awareness is slightly amusing.
This post is just gold. It amounts to: "Wait, it turns out a mechanic for console games that is aimed at dumbing down gameplay kind of sucks! Why would retards want this?"
All while failing to see that they are the problem. Dumbing down games to market them to 'Tards has been overwhelmingly successful. They are so close!
Heh. Whining like a peasant. That is amusing!
It used to be pretty heavy in the mid 2000s, but it's cleared up a lot. I haven't found a QTE in years. But I did dislike at the time how many former cut scenes turned into press X to not die. Resident Evil 4 in particular had a few scenes that did not need to be QTEs, imo. It wasn't very annoying, but I personally could have done without it. I think the really annoying ones would change which button it was and not give you enough time to see it, recognize it, and press it. Which also could just be my reaction times fading. I am getting older.
I think it's possible that their fall from relevance might have coincided with the collective turn from rhythm games like DDR. The Press the button now or get less or no points genre tied to music. Seems like devs added it because it's what people wanted at the time.
Now people are mostly over it and very few gameplay elements rely on it. I've seen a few mini games rely on timing and pressing a button at a certain time. But never much more than just that.
On the flipside, the Krauser knife fight could only be a QTE.
I think its related to what you said, in that the reaction time on them in a lot of games (especially RE4) were so tight and punishing that they lost any ability to be better than annoying.
Which, imo, is also a problem with the non-uniformity of buttons. Like, reaction time level prompts really suck when its "PRESS X IN 0.5 SECONDS" but you are playing on a Playstation after mostly using a Gamecube where that button is a completely different location. Compared to normal gameplay where button locations are reactionary instead of having that extra step of "where is X" in your mind.
You bring up a good point. When games get ported to other systems, X and Y are no longer where they used to be. As well as A and B. And when RE4, (using the same example game), got ported to the Wii, you had to use a different hand sometimes, which was on the nunchuck. And that'd throw you off if you're used to just using your thumb., If you're like me and beat the game each time it went to a new console, and the badly ported PC version that oops forgot to bake in the lighting the first time, just to see if I could get a faster time, or see what was different in this new version.
The QTEs became mini adventure games. Did they port the UI right? Or am I going to see Gamecube/PS2/original Xbox controls on the PC screen. I honestly don't remember if they did iron out that frustration. They probably did, or you'd hear me cursing about it on the other side of the earth.
RE4 was also an asshole about it and would change up some (but not all) the button prompts. So you couldn't just rely on muscle memory even on the same system.
There is a lot that goes into making "good QTEs" that most devs don't even bother thinking about. Its how you end up with either impossibly fast ones that make you hate the game or incredibly boring ones like "F to pay respects."
I don't think RE4s were that good, but given the context of the time (where super long, unskippable cutscenes were the norm) I see why they were popular enough to become a trend.
Mass effect has an example of a QTE-like system, the interrupt, done right. Particuarly that moment on a renegade runin ME3 where you have the option to shoot and betray your friend or not. A shining moment (of two) in an otherwise quite poor story and game (it wasn't just the ending that sucked, fight me). That trigger/renegade symbol appearing is almost QTE-like, but it's more 'press x to make a big impact on the story, betray a friend or finish the mission' rather than 'press x to nod along like you'd be doing anyway'
So I'm not opposed to it in theory, some of my fave moments are from that series and are QTE-like.
But I completely get what you mean, there's too many of them, they are too inconsequential, and they are generally lazy.
Witcher 3 had some good timed decisions too. Those are a bit less "immersive" since they're just a menu with a timer, but it's essentially the same thing anyways.
what is QTE?
Basically "drink a verification can to continue".
They want you to watch a movie, they know you'll leave the room if it's unskipable, so they make you press buttons to prove you're watching it.
I liked how Metroid Dread did it. You have a dedicated "Melee Counter" button where you can interrupt certain enemy attacks to take them out more easily. Boss fights also have these attacks where landing the timing of the counter rewards you with a short cutscene of Samus styling on the boss in some way. Except it's not just a cutscene. You've still got complete control of Samus shooting at the enemy. And there are short periods where you can't directly shoot, so it's in your interest to find those moments and use them to charge your beam for maximum DPS. It very smoothly blends the flashiness and timing based challenge of a QTE with the standard run and gun gameplay. And there aren't any blatant button prompts beyond the standard "This is a counter opportunity!" flash you've already been getting.
This was, amusingly, one of the things I hated about Metroid Dread. I don't like being forced to wait for "oh hey, attention! You can kill me now!" indicators.
It was only mandatory on a handful of bosses, either ones that had you working to expose their weakpoint anyway, like the weird mollusk thing in the water area, or against the Chozo warriors, and they'd automatically put you in the finisher cinematic when their HP was low enough.
I guess you're not a fan of the youtube channel QuickTimeFailure
Curious what modern games you've been playing that has QTE. I'm an indie and sim gamers so I haven't seen QTE since CoDMW days on the 360.
QTE's only come up in linear adventure games. Just play open world games and you don't have to worry about them.
There are no QTE's in Skyrim. There are no QTE's in Conan Exiles. There are no QTE's in project Zomboid. There are no QTE's in No Man's Sky or Elite Dangerous or Space Engineers.
Perhaps if you stopped wanting to play a movie and started playing actual games you wouldn't be forced to watch interactive cut scenes. Open world games are superior to linear scripted anything. Hell, the last good linear game was Doom 2016. Level/stage based games are just bad. They have zero replayablity. After you've played them once you know where everything is. There is nothing new to learn or experience. Perhaps just some mutually exclusive achievements that exist solely to make you grind through it a second time.
Tremendously disagree, I would take Halo 1-3 and Homeworld over everything, off the top of my head.
What annoyed me about open worlds is that Ubisoft finally had a good tighter one in fenyx rising. It was still an open world but it was one finally done right, didn’t feel padded.
But because it didn’t do well they’ll not take any lessons from it.
Stop expecting Ubishit to make something that's not shit. The only make shit.
The last good ubisoft game was IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946.
Its because they almost completely copied Breath of the Wild, then sanded off a lot of the worst elements (inventory management and durability) while adding some lighthearted humor and more interesting challenges.
So all it proves is that BotW only gets the near universal acclaim it does because its Zelda, and even that was just the novelty as TotK's failure proved.
Still is a shame because its a legitimately good game, with the only major hamper being the absurd load times due to the gay online component for MTXs no one wants.
Always funny when you're not expecting QTE and you get to watch your main character, an established bad ass, stand there like a tard as a boulder rolls over him because you didn't tap the button. It's usually when I stop playing the game (despise QTE) but I do admit it's hilarious.
I like QTE when it's involved in gameplay, and isn't overused as fuck. God of War has always been fucking irritating with QTE, and tbh I feel like they invented the damn thing. Probably wrong but it's the first place I saw it.
Remnant 2 is the game I'm playing now with my friends, and there are zero QTE in cutscenes but they pop up occasionally with certain enemies that will grab you if you let them too close. But it's not all the enemies, they aren't put in as executions like Gears or God of War, and not every enemy can force it on you. It also makes for funny moments when it's a flying unit that grabs your ass up and flies you into the heavens to drop you on your head, if you don't do the Quick button mash, or hold if you change it in settings.
I think God of War was responsible for bringing them back and popularizing them, but there were a couple 80s arcade games that were nothing but QTE. Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were both very pretty games at the time, being made of hand drawn cut scenes and QTE, but the laser disc equipment they ran off was crazy expensive, which is probably why there was never a 3rd game and the QTE concept died out for a few decades.
I'll be honest I don't have an issue with QTEs, but I think there is a time and place for them. I think they are for action games like MGS:Revengeance and Asura's Fist - I'm not saying these are great games or that QTEs make them better, but that they fit in that kind of gameplay and world imo.
In general I think they are dogshit, and I have an example of a game that has no purpose with them - FF14, the MMO. Occasional boss battles will have you spam click a button on the middle of the screen (or hit any key on your keyboard over and over). If someone in your 8 party group fails some of these, it can cause a wipe and I think that is absolute dogshit design.
But if it is an action oriented game, it makes sense to me to kind of "play" the cutscenes - if it isn't overdone and adds to the experience, which rarely it does for me but definitely can.
I'm glad someone mentioned Asura's Wrath. It overdid the QTE's, but seeing the completely over the top scenes was the entire point of the game.
I don't think I'd want another game like it, but I dare you to play Asura and not have a giant grin on your face during the first big boss fight.
The only ones in modern games that I recall bothering me is the ones where you have to spam the same key over and over as fast as you can to "struggle" or whatever. Especially those where I almost have to sit up and focus on key spamming because if I get one or two fewer keypresses per second I get to start over.
It's never been a fun gameplay mechanic though. If you really want to see how bad they can be go play Shenmue 2. Then, I will await news of your suicide.
David Cage wants to know your location.
I remember when they were added and they were fucking beloved for it. Resident Evil 4 and God of War were highly praised for them and became massive hits, inspiring people to copy them.
I even distinctly remember some review on G4 contrasting them to "Kojima mega-cutscenes" which were hugely popular at the time. Especially as most games refused to let you skip them either, so QTEs functioned as a way to keep action and attention during cutscenes instead of constant "put the controller down and enjoy a movie" that was huge in the PS2 era.
So the problem really isn't QTEs themselves. Its their overabundance and their extremely boring use. Even in the two big examples I used, they were only in a handful of cutscenes (and God of War only in actual combat) and were always either dramatic setpieces or for awesome attacks beyond the normal combat engine.