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电子游戏如何使用QTE机制?

发布时间:2015-04-27 10:56:19 Tags:,,,,

作者:Mark McCormack

首先,我想先解释下QTE(快速反应按键),这是在特定时间及时提醒玩家按压一个特定按键的游戏事件。根据屏幕上所提示的顺序,可以是按压一个按键也可以是一序列按键。这种类型的事件成为了我们所熟知的“按压X便不会死”机制,它们在游戏中往往是与灾难和其它刺激性内容相联系。

QTE应该是因为破坏游戏沉浸感并作为一个懒惰的游戏机制而火的,存在不少成功使用了这一机制的游戏。然而也有许多游戏未能有效利用这一机制。

在本文中我将分别列举一款有效使用QTE机制的游戏以及未能有效使用这一机制的一款(或两款)游戏。

最初的QTE

《Shenmue》,这是我玩过的第一款使用了QTE的游戏。人们都认为是这款游戏创造了QTE,快速反应按键最早便是出现于《Shenmue》的游戏指南中。

诞生于1999年的《Shenmue》是一款由行动,RPG和冒险游戏元素所组成的混合型游戏。这真的是一款很棒的游戏,同时游戏中还充满了QTE。尽管它被当成是最有效执行了QTE的游戏之一,我还是很好奇作为第一款使用了这一机制的游戏它是如何做的。现在有许多游戏社区对QTE充满厌恶情绪,所以一听到有一款带有QTE的游戏他们便会自动将其屏蔽。但是在99年的时候却不是这种情况,因为那时候的QTE仍然是一种全新且受欢迎的机制。

Shenmue(from eurogamer)

Shenmue(from eurogamer)

《Shenmue》中的QTE在游戏中的许多地方增添了游戏深度,这也是许多其它机制所做不到的。例如在一款节奏相对缓慢的游戏中,QTE的使用能够让游戏的过场动画更具互动性且更加激烈。经典的“追逐”场景便是一个典型的例子。在其中的一个追逐场景中,Ryo正沿着一条熙熙攘攘的街道追着一个人。玩家需要在这期间按压屏幕上的各种按键并快速对沿途的各种障碍物做出反应。如果表现不错的话你便能够完成一场华丽的追逐。而如果表现糟糕的话你有可能在沿途不断碰壁并导致最终的失败。

这便是标准的QTE风格,但《Shenmue》有效结合了过场动画,游戏玩法和QTE,所以玩家并不会觉得自己是在漫无目的地按压一些按键。

我不能(从QTE)得到满足

对于未能有效使用QTE的游戏,我们可以列举出许多例子。像《生化危机5》或《生化危机6》,《战神》,《骤雨》,《最终幻想X-2》,《古墓丽影》,《战地3》等等,并且这一列表还在不断增加。需要强调的是我并不是在说这些游戏不好,我只是认为它们使用QTE的方法并不妥当。它们总是会打断你在游戏中的沉浸感,并强迫你再次观看整个过场动画并在最后按压那烦人的X键。

通常情况下,如果一款游戏因为你的失败而将你消灭,那它便未能有效使用QTE。许多QTE是发生在紧凑的故事发展过程中,即你将只是待在那里并被突然出现的背景音乐所吸引!按压X键!等等,我正在观看的是过场动画而不是屏幕下方的小标识!这时候已经太晚了,你已经死了。你只能从上一个检查点重新开始。真的假的?!

现在让我们转向一些未能有效执行QTE的真正例子:

《Conan》—-Xbox(2007年)

我并不是敲打按键的行动游戏的粉丝,但说实话,我非常喜欢《Conan》较短的游戏过程。但是它在使用QTE方面却非常糟糕。对我来说在游戏中最糟糕的QTE使用是在他们强迫你按压同一个按键去移动一些超级重的东西时。

所有人都知道Conan是个具有非常大力气的野蛮人。所以给予一些关于难以被移动的巨大石头和石门的提示,或提醒你尽快按压B键便能看到Conan踢开们对我来说都是没有意义的。为什么不使用与按压按键序列一样的动画去表现他打开门的场景,而无需要求我同时快速使用控制器?在游戏中的几乎每个区域中至少都有一个无意义的QTE按键按压要求。

《生化危机6》(PS3,Xbox 360和PC)

没错,我之前曾经说过要提供一个正面的例子和一个负面例子,但事实是负面例子实在太多了!《生化危机》是基于各种方式去使用QTE,有些方式是有效的,但有些方式却很糟糕。

对我来说最无语的便是Leon所遇到的Airplane Cockpit场景。首先,提示会以一种并不直观的方式让你做些事,如呈现一个模拟控制移动但却未说明是哪个模拟控制杆。然后会出现一个具有误导性提示告诉你在真正需要按压方形按键的时候移动模拟控制杆。如果你在这个过程中出现任何错误,你便会死去。然后从检查点重新开始。

不过在《生化危机6》也存在许多会让玩家激动地大叫的QTE,平心而论它们真的非常有趣。

所以是什么发生了改变?

QTE的最初目的是添加深度到游戏的更多叙述区域并在过场动画过程中提供给玩家更棒的沉浸感。玩家将观看着过场动画,并在完成后继续游戏。伴随着QTE的使用,玩家将受到来自游戏的场景元素的更多影响,并让他们进一步沉浸于游戏故事中。

今天对于QTE的使用已经不同于其最初的理念。尽管最初的QTE受限于当时的技术,但是开发者经常会使用它们去执行一些在游戏运行中并不可行的行动。而在现代版本的QTE中,技术限制不再是使用这些内容的推动力。它们更多的是作为一种噱头并且总是会让人觉得过时且无意义。即使没有QTE,玩家也可以在QTE期间轻松地完成游戏的要求。

无意义的QTE

说了这么多,不管好坏,上述所提到的QTE都是有一定用处的。虽然毫无理由,但那些烦人的QTE却是绝对的赢家。就像游戏开发者在其它游戏中看到QTE时会这么想:“嘿,让我们将这个添加到我们的游戏中吧!”“但是你要怎么使用它呢?”“这重要吗?”

是的

关于无意义QTE的一个例子便是一款游戏提示你在过场动画期间按压一个按键,如果你未能即时按压它,结果都是一样的,不管怎样这都不会对之后的游戏产生真正的影响。

就像在《生化奇兵6》中,它们其实添加了一个选择去关闭QTE。你可以关掉一部分游戏机制,从中我们便可以看出有些人是多么不喜欢QTE。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Quick Time Events – An overused trope?

by Mark McCormack

First off, for those that don’t know, a QTE (Quick Time Event) is an in-game event that usually prompts the player to press a specific button at a certain point in time. This can be either one single button or a sequence of buttons pressed in the order prompted on screen. This kind of event has become widely known as a “Press X to Not Die” mechanic, and its inclusion in games is very often met with distaste and irritation.

It should be said that while QTEs are notorious for breaking immersion and overall being a lazy game mechanic, there is quite a few games that actual use them successfully. However, there is also an abundance of games that use them badly and far too often!

In this post I’m going to give an example of a game that uses QTEs well, and a game (or two) that uses them badly.

The ‘Original’ Quick Time Event

Shenmue. This game was the first game I played (I believe) that used QTEs. It is widely referred to as the game that spawned the QTE, originally named Quick Timer Event in Shenmue’s game manual.

Created back in 1999, Shenmue was a hybrid game consisting of Action, RPG and Adventure game elements. It really was a great game… however, it is also chock-full of QTEs! Although it is regarded as being one of the best implementations of QTEs, I wonder how much of that is to do with it being one of the first games to do it. By now a large portion of the gaming community is just sick of the sight of QTEs, so upon hearing that a game has them in it some people are automatically turned off from that game. This wasn’t the case back in ‘99, since it was all still shiny and new.

QTEs were used in Shenmue to add depth to the gameplay in areas where they couldn’t achieve the same effect any other way. For example, they were used quite regularly to make the games cutscenes seem more interactive and intense in what was essentially a fairly slow-paced game. A good example of this is a typical ‘chase’ scene. In one of these scenes Ryo (the player character) is chasing a guy down a busy street. The player is prompted with various buttons on screen during the event and has to react quickly and accordingly in order to dodge various obstacles along the way. Done properly you get a ducking and dodging awesome looking chase. Done wrong and you bundle your way through the street like you’ve had a few too many Saki’s, knocking into pretty much everything in your path and leading to inevitable failure.

This is pretty standard faire for a QTE but Shenmue just seemed to blend between cutscene and gameplay and QTE so well that you never really felt like you were aimlessly pressing buttons for no real purpose.

I can’t get no, Satisfaction (from QTEs)

And now onto a game that does QTEs badly or just way too much…. and believe me, there’s a myriad to choose from here. Games like Resident Evil 5 or 6, God of War, Heavy Rain (yes, i know it’s a great game, but it really overuses QTEs), Final Fantasy X-2, Tomb Raider, Battlefield 3… the list really does go on. Now understand that I’m not saying these games are bad, at all. I’m just saying they’ve used QTEs in what I feel is the wrong way. Quite often breaking you out of the immersion of the game and making you frustrated that you have to watch that whole cutscene again just to press that pesky X button at the end at just the right time.

In general, what I think makes a QTE bad, is if it kills you for failing it. Given that a lot of QTEs happen during plot heavy story moments, you are sitting there, intrigued by what’s unfolding and suddenly BAM! Press X!… Wait, what? I was watching the cutscene not the little icon on the bottom of the screen! Too late, you died. Restart from last checkpoint. Really?

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, on to the actual examples of bad QTEs.

Conan – Xbox (2007)

What i like to refer to as the poor man’s God of War. I’m not a fan of button mashing action games in general, and to be fair, i actually quite enjoyed Conan for the fairly short game it was. But it uses QTEs for some crazy things! Probably the most annoying use of QTE for me is when they prompt you to mash the same button to move something super heavy.

Everyone knows Conan is this barbarian with almost herculean strength right? So cue the giant boulders and huge stone doors that couldn’t possibly be moved or forced open! Or, just walk up to said door and hammer the B button as fast as you can and watch Conan kick that doors butt! These kind of events just make no sense to me. Why not just have him open the door, with the same animation he uses in the button mashing sequence, but without me having to manhandle my controller at the same time? And boy do they overuse it! Pretty much every area has at least one QTE of meaningless button mashing.

Resident Evil 6 (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC)

Yeah, I know I said I’d give one example of good and one of bad, but there’s too many bad ones! Resident Evil 6 uses QTEs in quite a lot of ways, some are actually good, some not so much…

For me the most irritating one is the Airplane Cockpit scene with Leon. For one thing, the prompt tells you to do things in a really unintuitive way, like showing an analog stick movement but not knowing which analog stick it is. Then a misleading prompt that tells you to move the analog stick when actually you need to press the square button? And if you get any of this wrong by the way, you died. Restart from checkpoint.

There’s so many QTEs in Resident Evil 6 that someone actually took the time to make a song about it, which is pretty funny in all fairness.

So what’s changed?

The original purpose of Quick Time Events was to add depth to the more narrative areas of a game and to give the player a greater sense of immersion during cinematic cutscenes that were previously a very detached event in a games storyline. The player watched the cutscene, and then continued playing once it was done. With the introduction of QTEs the player was given a more direct influence on the cinematic elements of the game, causing them to be drawn further into the story than before.

Todays use of QTEs is quite different to this original idea. While the original QTEs were used primarily due to limitations in the technology at the time, making developers make use of them to perform certain actions not normally possible in the run of the game. With the more modern version of QTEs, the technological limitations are no longer the driving reason to use these events. They are used more as gimmicks and often feel stale and meaningless. The player could have easily done what transpires during a QTE without a QTE.

The Meaningless QTE

Having said all this, whether good or bad, the QTEs mentioned above all serve a purpose. The absolute winner in terms of annoying QTEs are the kind that are just there… for no reason apparently. It’s like the game developers just saw QTEs in other games and thought “Hey! Let’s put them in our game!” “But how do you use them?” “Does it matter?”

Yes, it does

An example of a meaningless QTE is when a game prompts you to press a button during a cutscene or in-game, and if you fail to press it in time the result ends up being the same anyway, with maybe an extremely minor difference and no actual impact on the game afterwards in any way.

Going back to Resident Evil 6 briefly, they actually added an option to turn off the QTEs entirely. You can actually turn off a part of the game mechanics, that’s how much some people dislike QTEs.(source:gamasutra)

 


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