In video games, a quick time event (QTE) is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the

player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen
instruction/prompt. It allows for limited control of the game character during cut scenes or cinematic
sequences in the game. Performing the prompted action improperly or not at all results in the
character's failure at their task and often in an immediate game over.
The term "quick time event" is attributed to Yu Suzuki, director of the game Shenmue which used the
QTE feature (then called "quick timer events") to a great degree. They allow for the game designer
to create sequences of actions that cannot be expressed through the game's standard control
scheme, or to constrain the player into taking only one specific action at a critical moment. While
some uses of QTE have been considered as favorable additions to gameplay, the general use of
QTE has been panned by journalists and players alike, as these events can break the flow of the
game and force the player to repeat sections until they master the event.

Contents
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1Mechanics

2History

3Use and critical reaction

4References

Mechanics[edit]
QTEs generally involve the player following onscreen prompts to press buttons or manipulate
joysticks within a limited amount of time. More recent games on consoles with motion-sensitive
controls feature QTEs requiring specific movements from the player. The prompts are often
displayed as a graphical image of the physical controller button; for example, games on the
PlayStation consoles may show any of the four colored face buttons (X, square, circle, or triangle) as
input for the event. Such actions are either atypical of the normal controls during the game, or in a
different context from their assigned functions. Whilst most prompts simply require the player to push
the appropriate button in time, some may require different types of actions, such as repeatedly
pressing a button a certain number of times within the time limit, or hitting the button with precise
timing.

History[edit]
Yu Suzuki is credited with coining the term "Quick Time Event" and popularizing their use in his
game Shenmue.

In the 1980s, Dragon's Lair (Cinematronics, 1983), Cliff Hanger (Stern, 1983) and Road
Blaster (Data East, 1985) were interactive movie laserdisc video games that showed video clips
stored on a laserdisc.[1] This gave them graphics on par with an animated cartoon at a time when
video games were composed of simple, pixelated characters, but left little room for more advanced
gameplay elements. Gameplay consisted of watching an animated video and pressing the correct
button every few seconds to avoid seeing a (circumstance-specific) loss scene and losing a life.
[2]
Compared to modern titles, games like Dragon's Lair would require the player to memorize the
proper sequence and timing of their input, effectively making the entire game one continuous QTE.
[3]
Such uses were also seen as giving the player only the illusion of control, as outside of responding
to QTE, there were no other commands the player could enter; effectively, these games were
considered the equivalent of watching a movie and responding every few minutes to allow it to
continue.[3] An improvement to the QTE mechanic was flashing the buttons that need to be pressed
on the screen, which appeared in the laserdisc games Super Don Quix-ote (Universal, 1984),[4] Ninja
Hayate (Taito, 1984), Time Gal (Taito, 1985) and Road Blaster.
Die Hard Arcade (Sega, 1996), Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage and most notably Shenmue (Sega,
1999) for the Dreamcast introduced QTEs in the modern form of cut scene interludes in an otherwise
more interactive game.[5] Shenmue's director Yu Suzuki is credited with coining the phrase "Quick
Time Event",[5] which were included in the game as to provide "a fusion of gameplay and movie" and
create cinematic experience to the player.[6] The game's manual called them "quick timer events", but
the phrase became popularized as "quick time events" since its release. [7][8] Since this period, several
other games on modern console and game systems have included QTEs or similar mechanics.
Quick-time events have also appeared in some sports games, such as the Wii version of 2010 FIFA
World Cup South Africa, where they are used to save penalty shots and free kicks aimed towards
the goal, or win possession of the ball after it is punted or corner-kicked. Failure to execute the
quick-time event in time would result in the opposing team scoring a goal or claiming possession of
the ball.

Use and critical reaction[edit]

QTEs have mixed reaction from players and journalists. They can be used effectively to
enhance cutscenes and other actions. The use of QTEs within Shenmue is often praised, as "they
seamlessly flow from cinema to the QTE sequence without any loading pauses at all", [9] and sections
which utilized the QTE were considered "some of the most thrilling in the whole game". [10] At the
same time, they also are considered to be a weak addition to gameplay, and often force the player to
repeat such sections until they complete the QTE perfectly to move on. They are often considered a
"bane of action games", as their presence breaks the standard flow of the game and reduce the
control of the game for the player to a few buttons, distracting, and turning interactivity into a job. [11]
[12]
Also, QTEs may frustrate the player due to the fact that they might not have any sign that they are
about to happen.
QTEs are often used during dramatic cutscenes. Resident Evil 4 uses QTEs (described by
cinematics lead Yoshiaki Hirabayashi as an "action button system") to "facilitate a seamless
transition between gameplay and the in-game movies" and prevent players from losing interest
during cutscenes.[13] One example in Resident Evil 4 is a knife fight. The fight occurs during a late-
game cutscene where the protagonist meets a major villain, who explains missing links in the game's
story while periodically slashing at the protagonist and requiring the player to quickly press a button
to parry him.[5][12] As the action takes place during the major revelation of the game, the QTE serves to
prevent the player from skipping over the cutscene. While this example is considered to use QTEs
effectively, punctuating the heating discussion between the characters with rapid player reactions, it
also demonstrates a common failing with the mechanism, in that if the player should miss a QTE, the
protagonist will be killed, and the player must restart the cutscene and the fight from the start.
[5]
Because of the likelihood of player death, the phrase "Press X to not die" has become
synonymous with the use of QTEs in game.[14] Furthermore, when a QTE is used during such a
scene, the player's attention is drawn away from the animation and instead to the area of the screen
where the button control indicator would appear, rendering the effort put into animating the scene
meaningless.[15]
Another problem with the use of QTE during cutscenes is that it can dilute the emotion and
importance of the scene to a single button press, trivializing the nature of the scene. This issue was
raised from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, in which during an early cutscene where the player
character attends the funeral of a fallen fellow soldier, the player is given the option to press a button
to mourn for the soldier. Forcing this type of interaction has been considered a poor form of
storytelling, as some have argued the scene could have been played out without requiring player
action to make the same form of emotional connection to the protagonist, or with the player give
more control of the character.[16][17]
QTEs may be used to provide a limited control scheme for a scene within the game that would be
otherwise difficult or impossible to perform with the game's standard controls. [5] A second example
from Shenmue II requires the player to navigate several narrow planks across a void in a disused
building, every so often responding to a QTE to regain the character's balance, with each successive
plank requiring more and quicker responses to QTEs. Failing to respond to the QTE leads to the
character's death and requiring the player to restart the sequence. This sequence is critically panned
as when the player finishes the plank sequence, the characters rejoins his partner who had used the
elevator to bypass the floors, an option not given to the player.[5]
More recent games have used QTEs that occur more directly in gameplay and, when failed, do not
end the game for the player. The God of War series uses QTEs as finishing moves: by completing
the maneuver successfully, the player can defeat larger beasts or bosses, but failure to complete
only leads to being tossed away, upon which the player can move back into battle to continue to
fight.[5] Often these are progressive QTE systems where the player is only partially penalized for
missing the necessary commands; these often take place in boss battles. An example of this usage
is from the game Ninja Blade; during a special attack by the boss, the player can attempt a series of
QTEs to minimize the distance that the protagonist is pushed back down a long hallway from the
boss, reducing the amount of time and damage that the character would then take in rushing the
boss at the conclusion of the attack.[5] Other positive means of incorporating the QTE is for
manipulating the environment to gain a tactical edge; Gears of War 2, for example, includes one
area where the player character and his non-player character squad are on a circular elevator,
fending off hordes of monsters engaging them on all sides. By temporarily abandoning the battle, the
player can engage the elevator through a QTE at its control panel to gain the high ground, though
this gain can be nullified if the monsters engage a second control panel. [5]
A more recent use of QTEs have been within cutscenes themselves where failing to perform the
QTE may alter or provide more details about the game's story and affect the character later in the
game. In Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, certain cutscenes contain dramatic moments where a
QTE will appear for a short moment, indicating an action that will drive the character towards either
extreme of a morality scale. In one case, the player is given the opportunity to stop ruffians from
firing upon a weaker character, with the QTE provided helping to boost the player towards higher
moral standing.[18] Telltale Games' The Walking Dead includes QTEs intermittently, creating tension
throughout the game. Furthermore, during conversation trees with non-player characters, failure to
select the next choice of topic in a limited time may affect later events in the game. [19]
More recently, the games Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in North America) and Heavy
Rain from Quantic Dream are primarily presented as sequences of QTEs, integrating the mechanic
as part of the core gameplay, and present controller actions that correlate directly with the character
actions on the screen;[11][20] this was emphasized further in Heavy Rain by a game patch to support
the use of the PlayStation Move motion controls where the player could actually physically perform
the moves that corresponded with character actions. [21] In both games, players may miss certain
QTEs, or may be given a choice of multiple QTEs they could perform; opting of which QTEs to
perform would alter the story, with the possibility of character death at some later point. In Heavy
Rain, for example, the player controls the fates of the game's four playable characters, leading to
numerous different endings if the characters remained alive and if they had discovered critical
information. Even prior to Heavy Rain's release, the game's director David Cage had to defend his
vision of the game from critics that were skeptical of the reliance of QTEs within Heavy Rain and
created an early stigma on the game's reception.[22] Despite the integration, Heavy Rain was often
criticized for use of QTEs in otherwise non-dramatic situations. In an early sequence in the game,
the player has to control the lead character to find his son Jason in the mall, with the only available
action of pressing the "X" button to shout "Jason" with no apparent effect. [21][23]
With the onset of newer technology to improve graphics, controls, in-game physics, and artificial
intelligences, gameplay eleme