Quick Time Events have become a more common gameplay feature over the last few years, but very few games manage to make them enjoyable. So how can some games get QTEs right, while others get them oh-so wrong? Destructoid.com takes a look...

Remember the first time you played God of War (you did play it, right?) and, with the evil hydra finally at your mercy and an on-screen prompt, you pressed some buttons and totally kicked that sea creature's ass?

Yeah, it was pretty great when God of War did that and you hadn't played a Quick Time Event (QTE) since Shenmue. When David Jaffe's violent love-child re-popularized QTEs, at least the game did them right. See, a Quick Time Event's purpose is to allow for a moment of more cinematic gameplay while still keeping the player involved in the process. QTEs are useful for pulling off moments in a game a player couldn't do himself while making them feel like they did do it themselves, the talentless hacks.

God of War and Resident Evil 4 are two games among plenty that have used QTEs well and made them a genuinely fun aspect of the gameplay. However, the list of games that failed to make QTEs fun is larger than any of Jim Sterling's hatred for PlayStation 3 fanboys. Games like Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit for everyone else, though Indigo Prophecy is way more searchable on Wikipedia), Heavenly Sword, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and so on and so forth. Nowadays it's hard to come by a game that doesn't offer Quick Time Events, and almost all the time it's f**king annoying as hell.

So, what exactly is it about God of War and Resident Evil 4 that made the QTEs enjoyable, and what was it about Indigo Prophecy and Uncharted that made them a chore? I am not going to claim that I know for sure, but I think I might have an idea.

Miss Razz via destructoid.com »