10 Quick-Time Events That Made Video Games BETTER

3. Leon Vs. Krauser - Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil doesn’t have a flawless relationship with QTEs, I’m looking at you Resi 6, but the face-off with Krauser in Resident Evil 4 is a whole other story.

I’m calling it, knife fights are cool, and we’ve already got a solid fondness for our knife in Resident Evil so the cinematic encounter that calls for us to execute a series of QTEs perfectly is super satisfying. Leon gets to be his most badass, we get story exposition in a scene that we can actually participate in, and the action is beyond epic. It would have been a huge missed opportunity to let this encounter simply play out in a non-interactive cutscene.

The tension is also absolutely maintained even though the fight gives us a moment’s relief from the undead because it doesn’t even afford you one wrong move. You’ll need to be on the edge of your seat awaiting the flash of a button prompt. The encounter may not be a long one, but it’s a favourite moment for many Resi fans. For being awesome, and potentially the longest time they’ve tried not to blink. That said, some players have argued the window to execute the QTEs is way too fast.

Whichever camp you fall into you were probably happy to see Ada pop in to save your butt by bringing a gun to a knife fight.