Quick Time Events: An Introduction

written on Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Quick Time Event was a termed coined for the Sega Dreamcast game Shenmue. At certain times, a button (or button sequence) would appear on the screen, and the player would have to hit it quickly or fail the event. While this wasn't a new idea, the 1983 arcade game Dragon's Lair was entirely built around the same mechanic, it seems to be the term that's stuck.

And even back in 1983, the concept was controversial.

No one could argue against Dragon's Lair's graphics or sound. It was an animated feature film with real music while everything else was made of little squares or glowing lines, scored with beeps and boops.

But the interaction it presented was very different than what most players were used to. As you watched the cartoon unfold, you pressed the joystick at certain times to tell your character where to move or pressed the sword button to attack. If you did these things when the game wanted you to, you moved on. If not, you died and were fast forwarded to the next scene. Here's an example of Dragon's Lair being played. You hear beeps when the user inputs a command. But the control isn't direct and pushing the same direction has different results based on context.

I was never a fan of Dragon's Lair. It was fun to watch bad players die in funny ways and good players pass every challenge, but the lack of direct control made it seem less visceral and sometimes even arbitrary. Why do I need to destroy that giant skeletal hand with a sword? Why couldn't I have just jumped out of the way like I intended when I pressed up on the joystick? I think in the original hardware, the sword button would flash to indicate when you needed to press it. But there was still something about it that seemed off. Plus it cost more tokens than the other games, and I was cheap even way back then. :)

Back to the present, there's been a lot of nerd rage on the Penny Arcade forums lately about Quick Time Events. Originally it was confined to a thread on the recent game Ninja Blade, which has a bunch of QTEs in it. But then a whole separate QTE thread got started. I didn't really want to jump into that thread. But I wanted to sort my own thoughts on QTEs. And writing is the best way I know to sort thoughts.

The first thing I think of are examples: God of War, Resident Evil 4, and No More Heroes. All of these games flash buttons (or motions) on the screen to prompt the player. They are all games that I enjoyed. But did the QTEs help?

In God of War, I'd say they did. That game is largely about ultraviolence, and having to pound a button as you struggle with a minotaur adds something visceral. By the same token, the motions for killing a medusa or ogre got tedious. I might not have minded so much if they were the same every time. At least then I could feel like I had mastered them. But the designers didn't want to make it too easy, so they changed which buttons / motions had to be entered each time even though the animation was exactly the same. It made those QTEs feel disconnected from the action.

No More Heroes was also a mixed bag. Having to crank the Wiimote to recharge my light saber or win a sword clash worked well, but the wrestling moves got old. Well, to be fair, I loved body slamming that %*#^& with the baseball bat. I put some extra oomph behind those gestures. But otherwise I was just going through the motions.

I can't speak to all the QTEs in Resident Evil 4; it's been a long time. But I will never forget meeting Krauser. In most games, that would have simply been a movie you watched. In RE4, if you didn't hit the prompts, you died: instant game over. It took what was normally passive and made it life or death. I found it awesome.

But the RE4 knife fight QTE was just like the God of War kills in that the buttons were different on subsequent plays while the animation was the same. In the knife fight it felt right because the encounter was about the unexpected. If it didn't keep me on edge, it wasn't doing its job. God of War seemed to be trying to liven up something that was nothing but routine. It felt forced. My opinions about QTEs apparently turn on fine distinctions.