Quick-Time Events We Could Have Done Without

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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When done right, quick time events can be the perfect compliment to an already great video game. When done exceptionally well, they can be strong enough to stand on their own. It's not like QTEs are a new thing either.video games dating back to the coin-operated arcade era like <i>Dragon's Lair</i> and <i>Space Ace</i> spearheaded the use of single-button interaction.

With all the success stories of quick time event use also comes the not-so-great blunders. It's to be expected that not every video game that uses quick time events won't be able to pull it off properly. Some events don't give players enough time to interact like the dog attacks in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or the implied attempted rape scene in Tomb Raider. Other times, quick time events are put into games where they don't make any sense. The Spiderman 3 video game is one of those titles guilty of using QTEs when the default controls would have served the same purpose. 

Here's a look at a few more Quick-Time Events We Could Have Done Without.

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10. There's already a button for that.

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Offending Game: Spiderman 3 (2007)

In an effort to save a hostage tied to a timebomb, Spidey must Quick Time Event his way to her through a burning building. It sounds simple enough but it's a blood pressure raiser. Miss a step and Spiderman is engulfed in flames and the building explodes. Why Spiderman couldn't just run and jump through the obstacles without a Quick Time Event is beyond comprehension.

9. Death Doggy Style

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Offending Game: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

During the Killing Zakhaev mission, soldiers run out to gun the player down but bullets whizzing by isn't the only danger. Angry hounds are released to tear the throats out of everyone on the squad and if not shot soon enough, a QTE blinks just fast enough to watch the blood and flesh splatter all over the screen. It's nearly impossible to see which button needed to get one of Riley's ancestors off but after enough ill tempered, failed attempts, it's possible to finally catch the right button and put a hot one in the canine. Keeping the pop-up instruction on the screen would have helped out tremendously but Call of Duty fans are gluttons for punishment anyway.

8. Kill the Griffins

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Offending Game: God of War 2 (2007)

Ancient Greece's most irate god Kratos is on a mission where he has to ride Pegasus while slaying mythical Griffins and their riders. Not only does the player have to steer the winged steed and kill opponents, QTEs trigger amazingly violent but terribly difficult scenes. Time and time again, Kratos is thrown from atop Griffins back onto Pegasus--sometimes having to rock the stick back and forth to regain control. It's all a frustrating excercise that will leave anyone spent and full of rage.

7. Branched Out

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Offending Game: Jurassic Park (2011)

Surviving a fall down a rocky mountain is far-fetched but being taken out by missing a brittle tree branch in the process is plain ridiculous. After getting knocked off a cliff by a dinosaur, the player must hit various controller buttons to grab random branches on the way down. The event pops up out of no where leaving no time to press. Some say that's a challenge but it's more like getting flipped the bird just for playing.

6. Interrogations

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Offending Game: LA Noire (2011)

Rockstar's ode to the crime movies of old was a decent release and is hailed as revolutionary in facial realism. Throughout the game, the player must interrogate suspects and read their facial expressions for clues to their involvement in various crimes. Sounds awesome but it's not as fun when every person interrogated has same expression on their face as the last. The cop that's played has a choice of questions that be asked or techniques to use like pressing on the suspected perp harder or attempting to play "good cop" and going soft. It all really boils down to chance and hoping the choice is made is the right one. Not even the Long Island Medium is good enough to read all of the faces accurately. The graphics were great but technology wasn't as advanced as it was thought to be.

5. Me Lucas no smash.

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Offending Game: Indigo Prophecy (2005)

French developer Quantic Dream's video games are all filled with quick time events but in the United Kingdom, Indigo Prophecy had a special one that never made it into the U.S. version. What the pervy yanks missed out on was a steamy sex scene between the main character Lucas and his ex-girlfriend Tiffany. The QTE plays out with Lucas expressing his interest in Tiffany and after she lets him know that she's single, he plays a guitar tune while she sits on the floor. Using the analog sticks, the player must go through a "Simon Says" type of mini-game which if performed correctly, gets Tiff all heated up. After the song, Tiffany runs the old "well, I'm gonna go" line and Lucas plants a kiss on her to a blaring power ballad. Tiffany whispers, "take me to the bedroom" and another quick time event is triggered. Now, the player has to use their analog stick to repeatedly seal the deal.

The QTE is way classier than the "Hot Coffee" mini-game in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas but the main flaw in Tiffany's QTE is that it never made it to North America. Gamers can make the heads of soldiers explode in any first person shooter but a couple seconds of hot polygon love gets left on the cutting room floor.

4. "F-K" in the coffee.

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Offending Game: Deadly Premonition (2010)

If there was ever a reason to not put in a QTE, the letters in the coffee seen in Deadly Premoniton is it. Instead of having the main character York look down and discover the letters F and K in his cup of joe, the player must press the A button to do it. It's not like there are any other options either. This is a classic example of a video game having a feature in it solely because the feature exists. That development money could have went to a starving intern.

3. "No" means a bullet in the face.

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Offending Game: Tomb Raider (2013)

Highly contraversial, the ambiguous Tomb Raiderattempted rape scene was one of the most disturbing quick time events ever imagined. A bound Lara Croft is pinned against a wooden shack while the leader of an armed militia runs his hand along her hip and looks as if he intends to kiss her neck. There's little time to punch in on the QTE and if it's flubbed, Lara gets strangled.

Ron Rosenberg, who executive produced Tomb Raider was quoted in an article for Kotaku saying "In the new Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will suffer. Her best friend will be kidnapped. She'll get taken prisoner by island scavengers. And then, Rosenberg says, those scavengers will try to rape her." Later, Crystal Dynamics, the company that developed the game released a statement saying, ""In this particular section, while there is a threatening undertone in the sequence and surrounding drama, it never goes any further than the scenes that we have already shown publicly. Sexual assault of any kind is categorically not a theme that we cover in this game."

Watching the scene seems to suggest some type of harmful sexual aggression but then again, it can be argued that the character was the type of sicko that just got his kicks from killing and had no intention of rape at all. Maybe if the entire scene was nixed from the beginning and replaced with another that could drum up the tragedy of Croft's first kill, everyone would have been better off.

2. Finding Jason

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Offending Game: Heavy Rain (2010)

The Quick Time Event that spawned the internet meme "Press X to Jason" was the equivalent of a small child calling a parent's name over and over for no good reason. At first the idea of screaming out the name of the character's missing son in the middle of a crowded shopping mall seems like a novel addition to the story. Then it keeps going and becomes a torturous mess bordering how one would imagine water boarding to be.

1. A fist for America.

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Offending Game: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (2011)

This will be a spoiler to some but in the grand scheme of things, not really. At the very end of the game, the player is at a celebration and looks down at a clenched fist. Boom, a quick time event begins and the player must repeatedly hit a button to raise the character's fist in the air. The reward for pulling off the daring feat is a clip of the Simple Minds' 1985 smash "Don't You (Forget About Me)". Depending on the player, this could be the worst use of a QTE or the most insanely awesome.

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