QTE—Quick Time Events, are they gone now?

One of my pet hates in gaming for sure. I remember them spattered across Far Cry 3 mainly, since I replayed it so much. When a tiger is chewing your face, I guess I can slightly tolerate it. But in the boss fight v Vaas??? That was such a letdown after him being built up as a real badass.

I haven't seen many comments about them lately, so I'm wondering have they been consigned to the 8th Circle of Hell already?

If not, can we rename to Slow Hit Insufferable Times? Acronym to follow…
 
One of my pet hates in gaming for sure. I remember them spattered across Far Cry 3 mainly, since I replayed it so much. When a tiger is chewing your face, I guess I can slightly tolerate it. But in the boss fight v Vaas??? That was such a letdown after him being built up as a real badass.

I haven't seen many comments about them lately, so I'm wondering have they been consigned to the 8th Circle of Hell already?

If not, can we rename to Slow Hit Insufferable Times? Acronym to follow…

They are still alive and well in Telltale-like games. House of Ashes, which released yesterday, is a narrative QTE game. Another recent one, from July, is Last Stop. Both of these are great games, but they are built from the beginning to have QTE's as a primary form of interaction.

Games that just suddenly spring a QTE on you from out of nowhere suck. I can't express how disappointed I was to fight and platform my way to the top of a collapsing skyscraper in Dying Light. The whole way up I thought, "This final boss fight is going to be rough," and then I get there and it's was nothing but a QTE then game over.

Yep, condemned to hell, you get there by pressing A+Ctrl, then C+R when prompted, meaning don't jinx it with angst, it might stir up chat from QTE lovers and get them resurrected. :D

They aren't gone, but they seem to be gone from the places they should have never been to begin with.
 
I absolutely hate QTEs. Hitting a specific key, or key combination at a specific moment, and if you fail, you replay that scene again; and often (at least for me), many times again. Maybe some game developers feel that QTEs add a sense of tension or suspense, but for me they are usually just repetitive and frustrating. I haven't played a game in recent memory that had QTEs, but if I know in advance that they do exist in a game, I'll most likely avoid it.

Thanks @Brian Boru for the warning about the QTEs in FC3 (which you mentioned in another post also). I picked up that game on some Steam sale years ago, and it's now relegated to the bottom of my backlog.

The last time I remember playing a game that contained QTEs, was early in the Tomb Raider series, I think it was The Angel of Darkness. I ended up rage quitting that game after multiple attempts at some of the QTEs, repeating a scene over and over and over is not fun in my gaming book. I gave up on the TR series after that, which disappointed me because I have fond memories of the first TR, as it was the first game I played with an add-in graphics card; a Voodoo or Voodoo 2, can't remember the exact name, but I was just "wowed" by the graphics. Maybe the TR series have abandoned QTEs in recent games, I don't really know.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
Angel of Darkness was the last one before Crystal Dynamix took over. They kept the QTE's, though. Legend burned me hard with one that was right after a long vehicle sequence that I had to do an extra time because a QTE popped up while I was sitting back and enjoying the show.

There's some kinda-QTE's that I like. They don't play in proper cut-scenes, they play in animations. For instance, in The Last Remnant you tell all your squad what to do at the start of the turn, then they go and do it in a long animation scene. By the end of the game, that means watching 18 characters all go through their attacks plus whatever the enemies do. That's a LOT to watch, so the game will sometimes pop a QTE thing up. If you get the timing right, you'll get a little extra damage. If you get a few in a row right, you get a bonus attack. That worked well for me. (There's also the option to turn them off and just have the animations play in fast motion.)

Another good one was on console: the Shadow Hearts series. Each time one of your characters attacked, a ring would pop up and a gauge would spin around it. On the ring are different colored areas. The better you are at hitting those areas, the better the character attacks go. Over time, you learn where a character's colored areas will be so you get better at hitting them. The game messes with the ring a lot, too. For instance, you might get a weapon that does more damage but the gauge spins twice as fast, or enemies will cast a spell on you that makes the ring spin backwards - throwing off your timing. It was a fun addition!
 
They aren't gone, but they seem to be gone from the places they should have never been to begin with.
Never said they were, just implied they aren't as prevalent in shooters anymore. It almost felt like an experiment that they even appeared in them to begin with.

Then again, it is said Shinji Mikami popularized them in RE4, and even though it's technically more horror game than shooter, it does have a lot of shooting.
 
a ring would pop up and a gauge would spin around it. On the ring are different colored areas
There is a simplified version of that in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, used for disarming mines. Only 2 colored areas around the ring, you must released the mouse button while the cursor is inside one of the colors—pretty easy to do, I only missed one or two. Bit of a pain tho with 10-20 mines in a minefield.

I never thought of them as QTEs, but now you mention it, the similarity is obvious.
 
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Then again, it is said Shinji Mikami popularized them in RE4, and even though it's technically more horror game than shooter, it does have a lot of shooting.

Definitely a shooter, just a survival horror one. But the thing with RE4 is that the QTE's were much more natural than how they were implemented in many games, even in later RE games. They weren't obtrusive and out-of-place. By the time we got to RE5, though, they were definitely obtrusive and out-of-place. Glad they are gone.
 
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quick time events...for me it was shemue,great game but i hated the QTEs incredibly.im not mentaly fast enough to process that level of speed and information so it was very frustrating.
i know the 3rd shenmue which to my knowledge was released not that long ago for the PC audience has still got QTEs but theyve made them a bit more forgiving and there are now QTE check points,how about just no QTEs? no? im craving some forklift driving action lately though,i might end up buying no.III afterall.
 
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Worst QTEs in a game I've ever experienced was the God of War title that came out right after the PS4 launch. I was playing it on my friend's PS4 and they would flash onscreen so fast I hardly had any time to react. The only way to get through them was to hope you could memorize the sequences, but even then, I was dealing with a gamepad, which I'm not too good with.
 
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Zloth

Community Contributor
You can rent a forklift for about $100 per day, $200 for a really big one, @MrShadow!

... I was dealing with a gamepad, which I'm not too good with.
I sure hear that. Push triangle now! I have to look down at the controller to remember which one that is. If it just pops up a letter on the keyboard, I'm pretty quick.

And speaking of QTE's, how about a game that is nothing but QTE's, back to back, for about 12 minutes. Miss any of them and you have to start over.
View: https://youtu.be/hdumVFgwgP8
 
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I sure hear that. Push triangle now! I have to look down at the controller to remember which one that is. If it just pops up a letter on the keyboard, I'm pretty quick.
No kidding, I was fairly good at geometry and basic algebra in school, but better with letters and numbers on control devices, even though I was not the greatest at English class. Kind of ironic.
 
The one sudden QTE that caught me off guard that I still remember was in one of the Mass Effect games where I suddenly had to decide whether to shoot someone or not.

It would have been nice to get a heads up that a QTE was going to happen.
I hadn't realized that those renegade/paragon choices that pop up during a conversation were considered QTEs. Those never bothered me, I think there was about a 2-3 second time frame to click either the left or right mouse button (depending upon your choice), and you could even skip them completely; without having to replay the entire conversation.

The one I remember the most was knocking the mercenary through a plate glass window after interrogating him. It was a definite renegade choice, and even though I always play a paragon Shepard, I usually take that option. Garrus even has a snarky comment when I push the merc out the window.
 
I hadn't realized that those renegade/paragon choices that pop up during a conversation were considered QTEs. Those never bothered me, I think there was about a 2-3 second time frame to click either the left or right mouse button (depending upon your choice), and you could even skip them completely; without having to replay the entire conversation.

The one I remember the most was knocking the mercenary through a plate glass window after interrogating him. It was a definite renegade choice, and even though I always play a paragon Shepard, I usually take that option. Garrus even has a snarky comment when I push the merc out the window.
Yeah I think technically they are QTEs in ME, because it IS a prompt to make a control choice, even if there are only two options. The ones in the original trilogy I didn't mind, as they were easy to see, and no mistaking what choice it was. Even if you made a bad choice, there were tons of saves you could revert to and do it over.

In ME Andromeda though, they went to a tiny mouse icon instead of the huge blue and orange icons placed strategically for left and right mouse buttons. So there were times in Andromeda I had to reload a save just to see whether it was a paragon or renegade option.
 
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