Spider-Man PS4: 10 Big Things We Learned From The E3 Demo
9. Quicktime Events Are Still A Thing
Marvel
Urgh.
Look, this game looks wonderful. Like, so good. But really? Quicktime events in 2017? What's up with that?
If I'm being honest all it does is conjure memories of the painful tie-in to Spider-Man 3, a game that wore its QTEs on its sleeve and produced some highly meme-able content in the process. It's not that they can't be good per-se, it's that they feel kind of lazy. In small doses, sure, they can add a sense of immersion, but when they're everywhere (and I do mean everywhere), they can really break the pace of gameplay, and leave you wondering why a simple cutscene couldn't suffice.
Granted, that crane scene looked incredible, and is a fine example of where QTEs can compliment the basic gameplay of a title. What I don't understand is why players have to mash triangle just to initiate a fight. Otherwise, this is just one negative to draw from. The rest of the thing looks fab.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
