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sundin13 on 19 January 2015
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Roronaa_chan said:

I went ahead and actually measured how much of the ~30 minutes of footage we've seen consists of QTEs

18 seconds.

When people warn you to ignore negative previews it's not because criticism isn't welcome, it's because they are outright lying (18 seconds of 30 minutes is 0.01%, that's not a "QTE fest" like Eurogamer and Gamespot called it). If a journalist is lying, you can't trust anything he says. I don't know if they do it for hits or if there's an actual agenda, nor do I care, the point stands that they should not be taken seriously.


Edit: if you're wondering, those 18 seconds aren't 18 different QTEs popping up at diferent times (in that case it could result in too much qte-age). It's all concentrated in just one section. You are not constantly popping in and out of QTEs. Wanted to make that clear in case someone misunderstood.


Its not just QTEs....its all "cinematic" breaks in the gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENWbbQsmr2E

This video is a little hard to tell for the first 1:30 what is gameplay and what is cutscene, but this is how its broken down:
0-1:30 - Really slow walking 
1:30-2:18 - Cutscene
2:18-2:25 - Interactive cutscene
2:25-2:41 - Cutscene
2:41-2:43 - QTE
2:43-2:56 - Cutscene
2:56-3:01 - Gameplay
3:01-3:48 - Cutscene
3:48-3:52 - Gameplay

The gameplay in this segment was extremely linear and offered zero freedom of any choice and it was just basically a glorified cutscene. Rapidly switching between cutscene and "gameplay" can be quite jarring and makes the player feel like they aren't actually participating. Judging by the characters actions in the cutscene, it can be assumed that this is his first meeting with a werewolf and as such, it is the most tense and the most important. Giving the player full control of the character could have great effect in this section, as they would have to make a decision on how to act, giving them the illusion of choice. All choices could funnel into the same area, but that illusion is extremely important in games, and it is what gives games the ability to be so great. 

Now lets take a look at this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bew48tQFDBE):

0-1:00 - Interactive cutscene basically
1:03-1:10 - Gameplay
1:10-1:23 - Interactive cutscene (that can't even be called a mini game)
1:23-1:36 - Cutscene
1:36-1:52 - Stealth gameplay with "cinematic" takedowns 
--------------End Section---------------
1:52-2:32 - Interactive cutscene/QTE
--------------End Section----------------

The rest of the video does have a slightly higher gameplay to cutscene ratio, however, the shooting is just uninspired. I think this next video shows off quite well what I mean when I say that the shooting in this game is mostly just glorified whack a mole (with cool weapons, granted)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVSfjmB2yi0

Watch that shooting section at the beginning...its basically a mounted gun section, where you just shoot the guys who pop up with no regard for any sort of tactics or positioning. Unfortunately I couldn't find the video when the guy tries to go out and change positioning and almost dies and is forced back into his boring hideyhole. Then it goes into a boring scripted sequence with the generic "use the pistol while your helping another guy" sequence. Then the next section always makes me laugh. Its like a "find the QTEs segment" where you walk around the tiny room until you get to the boiler where you press a button to watch more story.

 

The problem with the game is that it doesn't give the player any choice in really any segment of the gameplay from what we've seen. There is no choice how to handle enemies, very little choice when it comes to positioning, no choice whether to go stealth or guns blazing, no choice on how to handle the werewolf...its like a movie with boring shooting sections sprinkled in it and some lovely on screen button prompts (if you don't want to call them QTEs, you don't have to, but button prompts pop up on screen a lot)...

I think that gaming has a tremendous capability to tell interesting stories because you have control over the player and while you may be stuck in a linear experience, you are still given the illusion of choice (Extra Credits on the Illusion of choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45PdtGDGhac and Extra Credits on Agency in Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0RFoGvkQfs )

In the Agency video, EC describes something similar to the shooting video I posted earlier. Just hiding behind the box and popping out when the enemy stops shooting. That is a badly designed gameplay segment, and feels like a shooting gallery.

PS: I have heard people saying things like "but you haven't played the full game", and while that is true, I find it worrying that Ready at Dawn believes these boring, uninspired sections are the ones that best represent the game and best will sell players on the game...

I said a lot here, and I'm sure I missed a few of the things I wanted to say, but I think I got the general point across...