QTE – evil or good

In the early 2010s, a phenomenon as QTE, that is, Quick Time Events, began to spread in the game industry.

This is a small mechanics, during which, during the kat scenes, the player needs to press the keys in time, which the game requires from him.

It would seem that a very simple mechanics designed to diversify the gameplay and make the game more spectacular. But this element began to abuse so often that the players began to naturally feel sick from this mechanics.

Time passed, and QTE has become hated by most players, and at present in games you can meet such a thing less and less.

But whether this mechanic was so bad, or is it all about too frequent use? What are the pros and cons of this idea?

Since on the Internet, including Stopgame, there are already articles on QTE history, in this blog I will try to figure out more than the reason for such an abuse of this mechanics, and why most gamers hate QTE.

Brief story QTE

Many probably know that for the first time QTE was actively used in the game Dragon’s Lair, where the whole game consisted of this element.

After that, this mechanics was popularized by Shenmue, where such a “mini game” was competently woven into the gameplay and added a share of diversity.

And so, in 2010, Heavy Rain is released – an interactive movie where the QTE mechanics occupied somewhere around 60% and even 70% of the total gameplay. And the game became a hit.

QTE in Heavy Rain were made at a high level, they competently built into the events, and forced the players to strain.

And after that, many developers considered that QTE should be in every second game.

Let’s look at the year 2011 and how many games this mechanic was:

And these are only famous games and franchises. The farther, the more QTE.

From single use to whole separate scenes, in one form or another, QTE could be found in most games.

The cause of frequent use

At the mention of QTE, many players come to mind Resident Evil 4 and God of War 3.

These games used QTE to create spectacular and memorable scenes, whether it is a fight on knives, an escape from a falling boulder, or to tear off the head to the ancient Greek god.

Technically, these moments are pre https://slotsnogamstop.co.uk/review/betfoxx/ -set KAT scenes that develop depending on the button you pressed: they pressed correctly – the scene continues; missed – the character loses, start again.

It is not difficult to realize this, just prepare several options for the cat-scene. But the player’s participation in this scene increases immersion and stress. It’s simple, but effective.

Those who played the Resident Evil 4, remember how you strained from the battle with the Crazer on the knives, or what emotions of God of War players had when achieving the next god. Although we all just pressed the buttons when the game asked us.

Resident Evil 4

The simplicity and effectiveness of QTE mechanics forced many developers to start adding this element to their games.

The reasons for the hatred of the players

As already mentioned, QTE is a great way to make the game more spectacular, but it is a very simple mechanics. Just press the buttons.

Many players began to bother excessive use of this chip in many games. But if it were only in this.

QTE actually takes control from you, the characters on the screen do something incredibly spectacular and epic, you would really like to participate in this yourself. But everything that the game offers you is to press the button.

And it becomes especially disappointing when some “cunning” developers, instead of full -fledged bosses in their games, who should check the skills of players, simply make one long QTE scene. In a word – disappointment.

But this mechanics are included not only in some large-scale moments. Quite often developers, in an attempt to captivate the player and make it not may he get bored, add QTE to smaller places. Open the jammed door, turn the valve, reach the ledge and so on. In such moments, the player, as a rule, simply requires to press one button several times. It’s okay, really?

But when there are 40 such moments in the game, your key is already beginning to pray for help at the sight of another closed door.

Spare my gamepad

And if games with such moments are dozens, hundreds?! As if developers no longer have imagination. Here the players are already triggered by vomiting, when in a tenth game in a row he meets the inscription “quickly press E to open the door”.

Sometimes it comes to ridiculous: QTE The scene is included in completely inappropriate points. Everyone is already familiar: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare:

Click F to honor memory.

Just why? As if a player would have fallen asleep if he did not need to press any buttons.

And there are not few such examples.

QTE – not so bad

But if you look at the QTE mechanics calmly, at the time when it began to refuse it, you can notice several noticeable advantages.

Firstly, it is a little, it diversifies the gameplay. When, during long shootings, a well -set episode is sharply turned on, in which you need to be distracted from the usual gameplay and participate in a beautiful scene, this is at least invigorating.

Secondly, which is more interesting: just watch a cat-scenes in the game, or take at least some participation in it? Albeit limited.

Well, thirdly, thanks to QTE, we saw in the games a lot of very memorable scenes, which in a different form would be very difficult to implement.

Great QTE Battle

How to do QTE

To create a beautiful, interesting, and most importantly, not annoying QTE scenes, it is not enough for developers to simply show you the buttons on the screen under the KAT-scenes.

The game should at least not prepare for the QTE segment. The player must know, now he has to check his reaction.

It is also important that in such a segment there are competent timings – that is, the time allotted to press the button. There should be enough time to see the player, realize, and pressed the required key.

But there should not be too much time. Still, this is a check of the reaction.

It is equally important to make inconspicuous transitions between animations, and add losing animation. QTE should occur during continuous animation to create immersion, and even if the player adored, the scene should continue and show the hero losing on the screen.

Ideally, QTE should give you the opportunity to miss/do not press the button, at least a couple of times.

Let me give you an example: Detroit: Become Human.

An example of a competently made QTE segment

During the battal QTE segments, the game allows you to fail several times by pressing the button, and this will affect the entire scene: the character will receive damage, miss a couple of strokes, and sometimes the entire stroke of the scene can turn differently.

Such QTE is not only spectacular, but also not annoying.

And finally, interface. You can’t just show a huge button on the full screen and write “click”. It is necessary that the required key does not occupy a lot of space, fit into the interface of the game, was noticeable, and gave a signal that the player successfully pressed, or failed the press.