6 Amazing Video Games Almost Destroyed By Terrible Mechanics

Much like any tool of man, quick time events are not inherently good or evil, but when used with malicious intent can cause untold pain and devastation to all who encounter them. Until Dawn is a great concept, with the ‘hours until dawn’, episodic structure and character driven narrative crafting an engaging gameplay experience. However, it fumbles the ball when it comes to the ubiquitous quick time events.

An often maligned video game mechanic, the quick time event requires a specific button press shortly after the appearance of an on screen prompt. They almost always suck, with a notable exception being the eye-popping introduction to God of War 3, but they rarely suck worse than in Until Dawn.

Not only is a huge amount of gameplay dependant on you’re QTE success (in fact, an experiment by Kotaku put the game’s length at only 5 hours if you fail every one), but they are used so regularly that they begin to lessen the impact of the action on screen.

The result is, rather than paying attention, you’re sitting there awaiting the inevitable QTE to be sure you don’t accidently smoke a character by missing it. It takes you out of the game world, rather than propelling you into it, and in a game as reliant on creating a connection between you and the characters as Until Dawn, that’s a pretty big problem.