Have we hit a creative wall? Over the past two decades, video games have evolved drastically. Flat 2D environments have been replaced by fully interactive 3D gameworlds. Bleeps and bloops have been replaced by full soundtracks. Text scripts are now an archiac option used to support fully voiced dialogues. And of course, graphically, the colors and textures being used are infinitely superior to those old 8-bit styings and pallets. All logical and impressive achievements in game evolution right?

But what about gameplay? Has gameplay honestly evolved for the better? For the mostpart, I would argue yes. We can now do much more whilst in a game's environment, and today's gameplay includes a staggering amount of customization, options, and well, a hell of alot more buttons, LOL.

That said, there is one current gameplay trend that is becoming a plague; the "Quick Time Event".

These "Quick Time Events" (QTE's) are those moments when a game suddenly instructs you to "Press X Now!" either to avoid an attack, perform a jump sequence, or interact with an aspect of the gameworld. While timed or instructed button taps had been used before, the game that truly brought this gameplay mechanic to prominence was the immensely popular "God of War", which at the time was a fresh and entertaining experience. But it wasn't too long before every action or adventure game started throwing these moments at the player, even when they really didn't belong.

Remember the original Legend of Zelda? You had to actually manuever Link into position, avoid attacks, and hit Ganon with those magical silver arrows. It was 8-bit, it was oldschool, but damn, it was epic. And more importantly, it was fun. Now imagine if you didn't have to actually avoid Ganon's attacks, but rather just press "B" when the game flashed a B on the screen. And imagine if instead of aiming your shot, you just had to press "A" when prompted. Would that fight have seemed worth while? Simply put, in all the effort to make games look, sound, and feel better, we're losing something; gameplay.

Its obvioius what developers are trying to do; they're trying to engage the player. Unfortunately, they've forgotten that well designed gameplay can be just as engaging. I don't want to "press X now!" to avoid that attack. I want control of the character so I can actually dodge the attack myself. Performing manuevers yourself offers a sense of intensity and accomplishment. Being able to just tap a button when prompted is not engaging, its not interesting, and its not very fun. Usually, if you miss the correct button or sequence the first time, its just a matter of replaying that section, and that becomes even less interesting because you know when the QTE is coming. At that point its more of a hassle than anything else. Some games don't even implement them properly, and other games seem to just throw them at you like they're some kind of filler.

The worst offender in recent memory was "Resident Evil 5", which was absolutely littered with QTE's. Not only were there far too many QTE's in the game itself, but even the cutscenes were plaguedby them. Doesn't anyone want to actually fight or kill a boss anymore!? Or is simply hitting "X" good enough to give you a sense of accomplishment? During the final chapter of RE5, there are upwards of 10+ QTE's, one after another, and including the final boss. Even after you've killed the final boss, they just can't help themselves from cramming in one more lame and forgettable QTE in the closing cutscene. The worst part is, QTE's aside, the game had some pretty cool moments. Unfortunately, what I remember most is those damned QTEs.

The worst form of the QTE is the rapid-press, where not only do you loose control of the character and have to perform a button tap, but you have to keep pressing the button rapidly to get the desired outcome. So if I just keep tapping "X" quicker, my guy will run faster or be able to dodge an attack that I could have just rolled away from had the game allowed for some REAL gameplay. The wear and tear put on my controller is another negative QTE byproduct.

With all the production values and massive budgets going into games these days, can't we come up with a better gameplay device than pressing a button when instructed to?

BOTTOM LINE:

"God of War" was fun because it was different at the time. But its not now. Tapping a pre-set button sequence can not replace actually playing the game. Quick Time Events take the control away from the player, distance the player from the action, and completely eliminate any sense of accomplishment. Lets put full controll back into the player's hands. QTE's are lazy desgin, they're so 2005, and they need to go.

Long Live Gameplay.