Tomb Raider developer downplays QTEs

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 3 August, 2011

Not Crystal Dynamics' "primary tool".

The creative director of the Tomb Raider reboot has downplayed the importance of quick-time events in the game.

Tomb Raider's E3 2011 showing left some fans concerned that it would rely heavily on scripted events and quick-time events, but according to creative director Noah Hughes, they're not Crystal Dynamics' "primary tool".

"Quick-time sequences is something we will leverage in the game," Hughes told Gamespot.

"One of the things which is absolutely important to us is to deliver an intense and cinematic experience. At very specific times, we feel we can do that best – while still delivering challenging gameplay – in a quick-time type event.

"Having said that, it really isn't the primary tool we use to deliver drama in the game."

Emotional impact, Hughes said, will be delivered in other ways.

"The idea of camera during normal gameplay experiences, and the animation systems and the audio and the big events in the world, these are all things that will deliver emotional impact in a different way."

Hughes admitted the E3 2011 demo, which saw a young Lara beaten and bruised as she frantically tried to escape murderous fanatics, "relies a little bit heavily on the quick time tools, but ultimately, that's a small sweep of our dramatic gameplay experience."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 10 months ago

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  • bad09 #1 10 months ago

    My Mrs loves TR, she watched the E3 trailer the other day and thought it looked total pants and was thinking of giving it a miss, I'm not huge on TR myself outside of the first couple but I have to agree with her. If this new TR is not the dreadful QTE fest it looks like they better get some better footage out quick because right now it's really not looking good.

    (maybe some footage with less grunting to!)

  • ZuluHero #2 10 months ago

    A = I
    Y = Like
    B = Q
    X = T
    A = E
    B = s

    (as long as they aren't those insta-fail ones) :)

  • BBIAJ #3 10 months ago

    Why does the general consensus seem to be that QTE's are fine, as long as it's only done in God of War or Shenmue, where everybody loves them?

  • IncredibleKoosh #4 10 months ago

    @BBIAJ - Because those games do them well.

  • bad09 #5 10 months ago

    Does everyone love them in Shenmue? I thought they were the weak link in the chain personally.

  • Murton #6 10 months ago

    Depends how the QTE is implemented. I don't mind having to press buttons to perform specific timed actions but if it's a flash of a button I have to press in under 50 milliseconds or die and restart from that checkpoint five minutes ago then that's going to be a fit of controller throwing rage for shitty design and result in your game simply not being bought.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #7 10 months ago

    There's quick time events in uncharted as well isn't there? (the yeti bit)

    Or did I dream it...

  • space_ace #8 10 months ago

    totally unconvincing PR...

  • Alestes #9 10 months ago

    QTEs are horrible. Ever since I played Dragon's Lair back in the 80s I despised them. It was poor gameplay in the 80s and it's poor gameplay now, I really don't understand why more and more developers started to use them in the past few years. How can this extremly poor gameplay mechanic gain more popularity among developers?

    Any developer who even thinks about using QTEs should be fired :p

  • bumyoghurt #10 10 months ago

    Oh for fuc...

  • Pehmu #11 10 months ago

    There's quick time events in uncharted as well isn't there? (the yeti bit)

    Or did I dream it...

    I remember UC1 having a few QTEs but I don't recall UC2 having even one. I've finished the game two times, but I guess I could be wrong.

  • Master09 #12 10 months ago

    QTE are now being overdone. More interested in the puzzles.

    This wont be the first TR to have them, Anniversary had them and they were not good to say the least.

  • dirtysteve #13 10 months ago

    It's the 'intense and cinematic experience. ' bit that has me worried, is the take-your-time exploration bit gone forever?

  • Subdominator #14 10 months ago

    Didn't they already use QTEs in Tomb Raider Legend for cutscenes? I'm not per se against them, but I think they distract from what is happening on screen. It's like reading subtitles for a foreign film, you just aren't as focused on the story, you just concentrate on that little thing that is about to pop up and you have to press the corresponding button.

    For me the only right way is to use them the same way as ingame. You have a jump button, a fight button. You're used to them. Then you have a cutscene and are chased towards a ravine. You press the jump button and jump over it. That's natural and you don't even have to be afraid of the next button press, because it is what you'd do anyway if you could play the whole scene yourself. But in most games QTEs are a mediocre mix of press ABYXAX and rapid LT/RT moves.

    In any case, QTEs are just another step on the downwards spiral in making games more accessible. The CoD generation of today would be totally lost in an old school shooter like Doom or Serious Sam, where there are no marker pointing to the next waypoint in ten meter distance. Games, where you actually can get lost if you don't use the map. Today we rely so much on navigation systems and linear games, we'd be literally lost if GPS went down or a game would be an actual challenge.

    I played UFO - Enemy Unknown recently, one of my favourite games of all time. And I got destroyed by those alien mofos in minutes. Because back then if you didn't read the fifty page manual you were lost, even on easy settings. That's something I miss from the old times. Alot of games these days pretty much play themselfs. There is no skill required, it's just a constant flow of 'do this here's' and 'do that there's'. QTEs are just that. You don't have to go exploring, you just do something to continue.

  • Spong #15 10 months ago

    Being a massive Tomb Raider nerd, I find myself not comforted one little bit by Noah's statement. It was a well-known bugbear amongst fans that the QTEs in Legend & Anni were crap of the highest order. The part of the demo for TR9 that Crystal chose to release didn't help quash the fear that they're at it again. I get that they wanted to put out the whole "Lara is vulnerable" thing, but considering she's up & walking about just seconds after impaling herself on a spike, they even failed in doing that. But anyway, for the most part, QTEs are a lazy tool used by lazy developers who want a cutscene to somehow constitute actual gameplay by including the bare minimum of interactivity. It's not like the tool has even evolved (in Crystal's case anyway), I'm willing to bet that failure of any such QTE will simply result in death and a restart. That's so old now that it's archaic, like Alestes said, it was a shit mechanic back in the '80s with Dragon's Lair, and it's not improved with age. I don't like them and I don't like that Crystal are being lazy again, and having the audacity to justify it by claiming it's 'cinematic'. It's not cinematic, it's cheap and shit.

    And to top it off, one of the cornerstones of Lara's repertoire - underwater exploration - doesn't even exist in TR9. The official word on that? It apparently didn't fit with Crystal's vision of the game. An island surrounded by an ocean, and underwater swimming doesn't sit well with that? Seems like Crystal should try politics instead of making games, given the shit they shovel sometimes.

    *Edited for grammar and an extra dig about the lack of swimming*
    Edited by Spong at 03/08/11 @ 10:31

  • Pehmu #16 10 months ago

    I don't like QTEs but they weren't so tough in Legend & Anniversary. They actually gave the player a moment to react. Not saying I liked them, but I've seen a lot worse QTEs in games. Take Mercenaries 2, for example. Vehicle hijacks were these difficult QTE minigames with very short reaction times. The whole final battle was a one big QTE shit where one single mistake meant you had to start all over. It was so difficult I had to check from the internet the correct QTE button order and memorize it.

  • bratmandu #17 10 months ago

    Obliterate all QTE's. They are pretty much the worst convention in gaming ever. They say it's to allow cinematic type scenes with interaction - but guess what? It's not possible to be following button sequences that flash up on screen AND watch what's happening in the game - you miss what's happening your character. Doesn't matter how much fancy animation is going on - you're watching a sequence of buttons instead. It's like heavy rain - heavy pish more like it - I'm sure it has a great story, but I missed most of it because I was following button sequences on screen instead of the characters.

  • bumyoghurt #18 10 months ago

    Resident Evil QTEs are actually pretty good tbf

  • grussbarbar #19 10 months ago

    Personally, I think the QTE's in Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the Wii worked really well. Most of the time, the movements you had to make with the Wiimote/Nunchuk mimicked what Lara was doing (although maybe somewhat exaggerated) and you also had enough time to both execute them and watch what happened on-screen.
    But I can see those being less fun if you just have to push buttons (on the non-Wii versions).

  • ZuluHero #20 10 months ago

    Ohh, why all the hate? QTEs done well, ala Heavy Rain, Shenmue, God of War et al, they can be really immersive and cinematic! Besides, I'd rather feel like i had some impact on doing cool stuff, rather then just watching cool stuff.

    And I like to press 'X' to win - there is something really empowering about it! I always feel short changed when i've been having an epic battle with a boss, and a cutscene takes over and delivers the final blow.

    Edited by ZuluHero at 03/08/11 @ 13:37

  • intpleeus #21 10 months ago

    There should be an option to turn off QTEs; I presume it would not be technically difficult to turn them into cinematics.Crystal Dynamics could then monitor how many people turn them off using Xbox Live; perhaps then we can figure out whether they are worth having in the first place.

  • Bravestinsane #22 10 months ago

    wasnt heavy rain all quick time event i loved that game

  • Kaminari #23 10 months ago

    QTEs are so 1999 -- and so is this "rebooted" Tomb Raider.

  • SnoopySunderland #24 10 months ago

    Um, so no Tombs to explore then? I miss the simple times where you played a smart, big-titted archaeologist who raided tombs in style. Now she's a whining victim in what looks like a horror movie...