Backhand of Justice

 
Quick time events (QTE) have obvious flaws: they take control away from the player, they’re frustrating when trivial button press timers take you by surprise and ultimately they’re an inelegant gameplay mechanic. It’s easy to criticize QTE. What’s not so easy is coming up with potential fixes for QTE.
 
I’m going to discuss what the problems with QTE are, what they’re trying to accomplish, and what mechanics could take their place that would ultimately be more entertaining while accomplishing many of the same goals.

What’s wrong with Quick Time Events?
 
To design a solution to QTE, we first have to examine the problems. As we discussed earlier, the primary problem is that control is taken away from the player. Cutscenes are a classic example of a game mechanic that is now seen as clumsy because immersive experiences are better. ‘Slow walking,’ Gears of War style, is comparable to QTE in that you essentially have no control, but the developers tried to give you the illusion of control. The player should ideally always be in control.
 
In addition, QTE are either too easy and therefore boring, or too hard and therefore frustrating, depending on the button timing. Either the button prompts pop out of nowhere and surprise you causing failure that breaks the flow of the game, or they’re too easy and they aren’t tense or dramatic at all.
 
Good game design brings you into the experience by matching your inputs to the actions on screen, while QTE frequently are completely different from what you’re actually doing.
 
Finally, while QTE are visually impressive the first time around, when you’re seeing the animation for the 50th time watching it is merely tedious.
 
What are QTE trying to accomplish?
 
QTE are mainly designed so that the player can pull off elaborate and visually impressive maneuvers that would be difficult to replicate with a series of button presses.
 
QTE are also designed to create drama above and beyond traditional attacks, especially when finishing off a character. Tearing out centaur intestines gives the conclusion to a fight far more emphasis and potential satisfaction than merely having the enemy keel over and die after a set amount of damage.
 
A replacement would obviously have to pull off many of the same goals.

Press X to stab me in the eye?! Don’t listen to the screen, Kratos! NOOOO

 
It’s not reinventing the wheel
 
Designers know that QTE are flawed. Considering God of War III still has them as a core mechanic, however, it’s safe to say they’re not going anywhere soon.
 
If a game wants to create elaborate finishing moves that aren’t canned animations, they only have to look at Batman: Arkham Asylum. That combat system was extremely in-depth and responsive, but at the end of every fight the camera would cut into slow motion and give you a close up of the enormously wide range of finishers Batman possessed. The player feels like I did that instead of what an impressive animation. 
 
If a game wants to create inspiring camera movements and dramatic moments, they could either go the QTE route and bring the player to the enemy, or they could do something like Homefront. Homefront uses a ‘Drama Engine’ where events always happen near the player. If you destroy a jeep and it’s going to roll past you, it’s always *just* past you, not 50 feet away. This creates the same dramatic moments without taking you away from controlling the character.

Check it out Steve, I don’t even have to move, the missile will *just barely* miss me

 
If you want to create elaborate finishing moves, you can create situations where you feel like you’re the instigator and not along for the ride. Instead of reactionary button presses, God of War could have a proactive finishing move combo system like a 2D fighting game.
 
Imagine if every time an enemy was low on health an indicator like the Batman ‘counter’ indicator popped up over his head and you could input a button combination to pull off a Street Fighter 4 style ultra combo. Instead of taking a backseat, you could watch a satisfyingly epic animation and know that it took skill on your part.
 
Is anybody moving in the right direction?
 
Quick time events are mostly used in third person brawler style games. While God of War 3 is sticking to the tried and true mechanic of extensive QTE (that it popularized), Dante’s Inferno is giving you a (paper thin) choice to finish battles: save or damn your opponents. The problem with QTE is that you can only kill the centaur by eviscerating him. What if you want to throw him off a cliff, or into a wall? Or slice off his legs? You can’t do any of that, because it’s a straight canned animation. Even a binary choice is a step in the right direction.

Copy God of War?! If anything, GoW copied US! How do I figure? Uh … WHAT’S THAT OVER THERE?!

 
You’ll notice that all of the examples cited above as potential solutions to QTE are pretty much just QTE that are disguised or not absolutely enforced. When Batman’s enemies say they’re going to attack, you don’t have to counter; you can dodge away, or stun them with your cape. In a fighting game with finishing moves you can execute an ultra combo, or you can just punch an enemy to death.
 
Players don’t need the most in depth control of their characters. When they’re controlling Kratos in God of War, they’re probably glad they don’t have complete control as using the chaos blades looks slightly more difficult than hitting ‘attack.’ That being said, a little pacing improvement goes a long way, and hopefully in the future developers incorporate more of the above components into their games to maintain an immersive atmosphere.
 
I’m interested in your thoughts on the matter. Hit up the comments!