So... Quick Time Events.
Really. Truly. Who. Likes. These. Things.
I don’t mean “who likes games that have contained Quick Time Events,” I mean who likes the Quick Time Events specifically. Is there anyone?
I see what developers are trying to do with QTE’s. They’re trying to combine cinema sequences with interaction. Very noble, but it’s hard to imagine it being done worse, at least without malice. Yes, as a player, I want to be in control of my avatar as she jumpkicks a nuclear missile and bites the head off a lava monster, but unless you can give me real gameplay during those moments, I’d prefer to just watch. It’s good that you’re asking “how can we let the player control the missile/lava monster sequence?” but the correct answer is not “by pressing the square button once”.
As Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw said in his Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune review, if you’re going to make QTE’s a part of the game, make them a core part of gameplay. But I’m going to do Yahtzee one better (I’ve been doing that to him his whole life. He hates me) and name a game that actually did a good job of that. It’s called Indigo Prophecy, or Fahrenheit, and a great many of its cutscenes are overlayed by a Simon-like game which roughly mirrors the onscreen action and which determines your success or failure.
A game of Simon is far from the most graceful interface for an action sequence, but take note: this is what it looks like when QTE’s are stretched into a full-fledged element of gameplay. And get this: they’re preceded by a message to “get ready!” So unlike, say, Heavenly Sword, where I can never tell whether a cutscene is going to let me relax, the user interface communicates clearly how and when I should interact! What a fresh concept! Except totally, completely not!
Did I manage to keep a positive tone in this post, despite my annoyance? I’m going to say I did! I’m terrific!
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