Who thinks the action sequences in BttF: The game should be QTE sequences?
I am referring to the chases. Maybe a chase in the DeLorean or a chase with Marty on something similair to a skateboard.
I think the chases could be done very cinematic if they're QTE sequences. Just look at Shenmue 2
Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxkROaUPVyk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=137fcGcPUsQ
I think the chases could be done very cinematic if they're QTE sequences. Just look at Shenmue 2
Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxkROaUPVyk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=137fcGcPUsQ
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It would be just a small portion. 1 chase per episode...heck maybe even 3 chase in total of the season. There could be a small tutorial before the chase starts and the reaction time not too strict.
Really...it doesn't get much easier than pressing a designated button that appears on screen. Maybe only limited to the arrows, with the arrow having the design of the one in the BttF logo.
Aww come on they're not that bad. Plot-wise there probably won't even be a lot happening. Just an epic chase you're missing out on.
Anyway...what TellTale can decide to do is make the chases in a way that they can't be lost.
So like, Marty is on a skateboard and he has to dodge a pedestrian and when you miss the button he'll bump into that person but get up afterwards. So there is no really bad outcome only that you make Marty McFly look like a butthead.
Another thing I wouldn't mind would be optional reflex or action-based mini-games as fun diversions, perhaps as hidden easter eggs. For instance, "use wild gunman arcade" (assuming you ever ran into one somewhere) could take you into a point-and-click mini-game where you have to shoot targets (complete with 80's-style pixelated 2D graphics). Sort of like how the entire original Maniac Mansion game was playable as an easter egg in DOTT if you used Weird Ed's computer, or like how you could kill time while playing The Dig by using the PDA to play a lunar-lander arcade game.
Owh...I didn't know TellTale did such ones.
I only played Sam and Max S1 due to my comp's limitations(will get a laptop soon)
and I loved what I played but the car action scenes were not overly convincing. It was just an endless loop of same streets and stuff.
Seconded, unfortunately.
1) "Press the button as fast as you can"
2) "QTE"
3) Shift to online games
4) "Achievements"
These are the main things that turned me away from consoles (my last console was the PS2, which eventually played far more old PS1 games than actual new PS2 games). QTE has a solid second place. I can see why some people like it, because it's at least some kind of interactivity, but then again, I personally find it very insufficient to transport even the faint idea of controlling a character.
For people who like action games they are lame and for people who don't like action games they are extremely irritating and spoil the adventure experience.
Its the action scenes in sam and max that spoil it for me and is the main reason that I have never been into sam and max.
I remember being really annoyed when I couldn't beat the boxing helena in one of their episodes and cursing that such a scene shouldn't be in an adventure game anyway.
I got it in the end but as I had got the episode free with a coupon I vowed never to spend my hard earned cash on sam and max games.
Imagine going to a movie and being handed a big controller. In order for the movie to play as normal, you are required to hit whatever totally random buttons pop up on screen perfectly, or you're forced to re-watch the last 5 minutes of the movie for no good reason. How does that sound entertaining?
Some games actually use actual buttons for the QTE. (for instance if something is chasing you, you have to "jump"). Those logic QTE are pretty interesting.
There's also the simple arrows, if something is in front of you, dodge on the left etc...
I agree that the blank QTE like we can see in most games, is ridiculous.
Also, stop talking about Uncharted or else, it's not as if TellTale could do that.
The only problem I see with action scenes in BTTF the game, is that it's going to be horrible repetitive, the time you figure out what to do. Or worst, if you fail, does everything keep going on ?
Then it wouldn't really be challenging. Then what would even be the point ?
They're the same linear QTE which leave no freedom to the player OR control over the character. So they still suck.
The way I see it: either make a sequence playable and controllable (and cinematic, which I said is clearly possible), either make a cinematic cutscene which we can view and even awe upon. But "interactive" cutscenes where we have to press the right button to progress through it and ONLY that button - that's just plain stupid. We ought to get rid of that.
Full Throttle did action scenes really well and I'm not even talking about the motorcycle fighting bits. The whole climax of the game was essentially a big action chase sequence where you're being shot at as you race down the highway towards a ravine yet it was still point and click puzzle solving.
The final of Monkey Island is probably one of the worst ever.
I mean it looks great, it's epic. IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.
Otherwise it's horrible how boring and repetitive it gets >.< ... I mean, if you don't figure out what to do right away (and you're not supposed to), the endless loop is just painful.
That's the problem, it's not controlling the action. It's only an illusion. In reality, you don't control anything - either press what the developers want you to press, or face the consequences of failure. (with the consequences depending on the game itself)
EDIT: Huh, turns out while I was writing this little post you had yours edited
Then again, that's the only game I played which had QTE (lucky me!
If you fail, you alter the timestream and get a harder puzzle instead? So either
A) You are twitch gamer? Good for you, have easier puzzles!
Yep. That was my following idea. Just make your actions alter the QTE sequence, no game-over or retry.
People see it as an easy cop-out for evading gameplay. Cutscene with an excuse for gameplay.
But you can also look at it from another way. Instead of provided with an action packed cutscene, that would've been rewarding on it's own, some interactivity has been added and adds excitement to it.
The glass is either half full or half empty.
Same with GoW, never got the complaints. Instead of having enemies killed just by regularly depleting their health bar they added a cool 'finish him' sequence. And it's even a sequence that is interactive. They could've as well decided to omit this and you just keep attacking the enemy. Instead they added something EXTRA. Yet people call it cheap design. But it's a cheap design of what? The alternative would have been doing the same thing; spamming that button.
The problem with that is that there are many gamers who have BOTH good reactions and twitchy fingers AND urge for stronger puzzles, so that's not really the best option for success/failure
Let me explain what modern QTEs should AT LEAST do to be NOT cheap designs.
Let's suppose that there's three actions: jump, punch, kick. For the simplicity of explaining. Now. Instead of showing what of the three action buttons to press, an icon shows up that you SHOULD press a button now (a button of YOUR choice)
So, let's say Hero and Enemy are both in battle positions (the sequence that I just thought of is actually crap, since I didn't really give much thought to the sequence itself, I'm talking about what QTE should've had become by now)
ACTION ICON APPEARS
If you press Jump - You jump on the enemy (supposedly a boss). He gets in a battle pose.
If you press Punch - You try to punch him. He dodges.
If you press Kick - You try to kick him. He dodges.
ACTION ICON 2 APPEARS.
Tree 2.1 (if you pressed the first time jump)
Press Jump - You grab on some object and jump even higher. The enemy jumps to follow you.
Press Punch - You try to punch the enemy from the air, that doesn't work to well as he easily counters the attack and throws you away (and action icon will appear as you're lying, so you would be able to get out of the situation)
Press Kick - You kick the enemy in the face, he is thrown back, you land in a battle po
Tree 2.2 (If you pressed punch in tree 1)
Press Jump - You jump overhead the enemy as he tries to punch you after his dodge.
Press Punch - You try to punch the enemy as he tries to punch you, both catching eachother's hands you stand in a locked position.
Press Kick - The enemy punches you before you can do anything with your feet.
Tree 2.3 (If you pressed Kick in tree 1)
Well, you get the idea. To make this big tree of actions, some successful, some would lead to bits of failure (from which you can quickly recover if you do successful action). Now THAT would be an INTERACTIVE cutscene, that could enhance the gameplay, it would require not to look at the button you HAVE to press, but to actually look at the picture and what's going on, what's the situation, to make you actually THINK quickly rather than just press the right button without thinking. To make it more exciting. As it should be.
And, granted, this would require a GREAT amount of work, but given the budgets all these big action games have (meaning they can freely do stuff like that), their QTEs are REALLY just simple cheap design.
Aaaaand... what is an adventure game exactly ?
I mean, you click on things and witness the action, you never actually do it, right ?
And if you try things that are not what the developpers want you to do, it doesn't work and you witness "failure", right ?
...
Heavy Rain does exactly that. They tried it in Farenheit and got it better in Heavy Rain.
Yes, those were also little inspiration for creating this topic. I think it worked well in those games.
QTEs are just baaad!
Of course any action sequence in an adventure is bad.
Main reason I never finished Simon 3D.
(The bad graphics and the stupid controls didn't help either, but I was willing to give the game a chance despite those)
If I want to play an action game..I play an action game.
(And if I want to play a game where I have to run from candy heap to candy heap in limited time, I go and let my head examined :P )
Could be tied in with the "what happens in episode X makes things a little different in Y" giving even MORE replayability.
Search the thread, I don't got the time now (had to leave 15 min ago actually 0_0)...
Naahh....personally I am not fond of different endings and outcomes in game.
Yes, failing to press the button might affect Marty directly in the QTE sequences but failing it would have to give the same outcome as being succesfull.
Maybe only a slight different reaction at the end. Like "geez.....time traveling must affect ones skateboarding abillities". Okay that is lame but you get the picture.
I loved anniversary (have played the original on PS when it came out in 1997), and it's a pretty perfect Tomb Raider experience. That didn't make me like the QTEs.
a) exist adventure games with multiple puzzle solutions (and I wish there would be more of them)
b) adventure games don't usually tell you 'Push this' or 'Press this' or 'Use this with this', punishing in a few seconds if you didn't.
c) even if there is one possible puzzle solution outcome in an adventure game, you think, you experiment, you use logic to get to it (unless it's a shitty puzzle with a logic that the developer himself wouldn't understand if he would see it again in a few years after he made that puzzle), you have freedom. You can talk to people, you can get some clues, you can do this, you can do that, even if there is one possible solution, the player is still in control how he would get to it.
d) comparing the adventure game genre to the QTE mechanic is, no offence, foolish.
Heavy Rain? Sure, it's actions are all contextual in relativity to the controller, BUT, if we talk about Heavy Rain QTEs, they are still crap in a sense that there's still little to NO freedom in there at all. What Heavy Rain does is in no means what I said QTEs should evolve into. It's still 'we show you what action you HAVE to do' instead of 'quickly think what you should do'. The only good difference in HR QTEs is that the failure penalty doesn't cause immediate death.
PS. Don't think that because of my criticism over QTEs in general or Heavry Rain QTEs in particular means that I think it's a bad game. It's not. But Heavy Rain is at it's best when it DOESN'T show action sequences with QTEs.
I dont know about you, i wanna play a game, not a cinematic experience. game not movie, game.