this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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I hate when games try to make you feel like you have player agency when it's really just a cutscene and you're pressing a button. Whether it's a QTE or "Press F to Pay Respects." Recently RDR2 was a huge offender of this, featuring probably half a dozen cutscenes where all you do is press W or up on the controller to walk forward or whatever you're doing. Like there's one where it's probably 5 minutes of walking forward interspersed with dialogue. I understand why the developers made you walk that far. It adds to the tension and it adds to the feeling of despair that the character is currently going through. But I think it would've been fine if it was just a regular cutscene instead of "Press W to walk" and if you let go you stop walking, meaning you can't even take a break.
edit: also I dislike stealth games with unrealistic "alert" systems. In a good example like Metal gear solid v, you get a solid 5 to 10 seconds if a guard is outside hearing / sight range of other guards, so even if you're spotted you're still fine as long as you take them out quickly and silently. And even if you dont take him out quickly, he'll still only be able to alert people nearby or he needs to take some time to alert on the radio. On the other hand, in cyberpunk 2077 if just one guard saw you for even a fraction of a second, the entire base would be alerted. I guess lore-wise it makes sense, but from a gameplay perspective it was the least fun I had in that game. Trying to stealth my way through an entire place only for the whole thing to come crashing down because somebody saw my shoulder from 15 meters away. It came to a point where I was just going in guns blazing because stealth just wasn't worth it.
Spider-man from 2018 was also like this. The enemy hideouts or whatever were based very heavily around the game's stealth mechanics, but if just 1 guard became alerted, everybody would become alerted and it would start its stupid wave system. The game heavily encouraged you to take out guards silently so it didn't send in wave after wave of them, but it was just so incredibly punishing to be silent in that game.
Ehh I disagree with using RDR2 as an example, but I think QTEs in general are probably my least favorite game mechanic. I actually quite like walking around in RDR2 during the missions. A huge aspect of the game is just immersing yourself in the map/world and listening to the NPCs. I can see it getting old during replays but for me it's a hell of a lot better than watching a cutscene and being prompted to hit a button. I vividly remember fishing with Dutch and Josea for at least a half hour just listening to them chat with Arthur
Agree with you, I remember where the person is talking about, press x to walk on guarma, which did drag on, but they were shipwrecked and he didn't know what was happening yet. Rdr gets exceptions to me because it's so cinematic, to me the game is realistic, but so much that you aren't playing a game, you're watching a movie.
My issue is less that it drags on and more that it's basically barely even gameplay. You're pressing a button for minutes on end, then letting go when they talk, then pressing again when they walk again. It's boring. For a game as cinematic as RDR2 you'd think they wouldn't be afraid to just make it a cutscene. If they wanted gameplay then at least let me walk around a bit.
Right but it's a story, it doesn't all have to be rootin tootin cowboy shooting, the storytelling is a major part of it. It helps the player really feel like theyre expercing Arthur. I get what you're saying, but they definitely purposefully chose these devices from a storytelling perspective.
Yes and I'm saying the made a bad decision, no matter how purposeful it is. I find your reasoning to be really flawed here. Just because they chose to tell the story that way doesn't mean I can't complain about it.