A little while back I united, uh, pretty much all of you against me by daring to speak my truth. In a harmless (yet powerful and right) news update (opens in new tab) about the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake, I happened to mention that I was disappointed that Capcom’s re-do of the old classic is removing quick-time events from its cutscenes.
Like the great prophets and free-thinkers of old, I was pilloried for my opinion. The simple joy of screwing up the Krauser knife fight because you absent-mindedly put your controller down was apparently something only I appreciated.
Well, I am undaunted. The truth will out, and the truth is that QTEs are basically fine and here I am, outing it. I kid, kind of, but I genuinely am a bit puzzled by the sheer rancour that QTEs seem to arouse in people. Like almost any other game mechanic, they seem like something that can be done poorly or done well, yet whenever you mention them you’re bound to encounter cries of “Press X to not die”.
But, well, I do that quite a lot in videogames, and while I’d never be foolhardy enough to suggest hitting X to sip an Estus Flask in Dark Souls is the same as hitting X to round a corner in Shenmue, I can’t say that one sounds inherently conceptually bankrupt in a way that the other doesn’t.
Science tells us that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, even when they’re objectively correct, and I am nothing if not a man of science. So if my impassioned pleas aren’t enough to convince you, I’m ready and willing to defend QTEs in the cutthroat court of public opinion. Like a digital Erin…