Cutscenes Are Gaming's "Failure State," Says THQ Exec

[Evil Tim]

Finally shout out to the bit in Uncharted 2 where if you try to take a punch at a guy you hate, he decks you and will eventually kill you. It explains the story (why isn't he trying to escape?) and it correctly predicts how the player will feel and stops the story and cutscene being disconnected like would have happened if the guy was just invincible to being punched.

There was one disconnect I did get, but it was just story-related.

Spoiler

Did Lazarevic just figure Flynn was so dedicated to being a dick that he could give him a live grenade and Flynn would wait for Drake to turn up instead of throwing it at Lazarevic as he walked off?

 

[Unknower]

How silly. There isn't only one "CORRECT AND THE RIGHT" way to present a story. First of all, it's boring if every game does something the same way. Secondly, everything has pros and cons, traditional cutscenes are better at some things than, for example, HL-style whatevertheyshouldbecalled-storytelling moments.

At least for me, stuff like Half-Life 2's whatevertheyshouldbecalled-storytelling moments break my immersion to the game more than a normal cutscene would.

Hurrr, you are the saviour of all mankind, now watch as people talk with eachother and then tell you what you should do, never asking about your opinion about anything, even though you are their friggin' Messiah with a friggin' Phd.

This might be weird for me to say after complaining about HL2, but at least in Half-Life and it's expansions, even though you never heard anything, it's pretty obvious that Gordon, Adrian and Barney actually spoke during the game. For example, Shephard used radios (or maybe he just used Morse code...). Maybe it was a bit silly that you never heard their voices, but on the other hand, someone could say that the player could imagine what they said. But anyways, at least your character had even a small active part of the whatevertheyshouldbecalled-storytelling moments. In HL2, Freeman could just as well sit in the breakroom drinking coffee and wait while others come up what to do next.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Red dead redemption
Saints Row 2
Legend of Zelda OOT
Deus Ex
Grand Theft Auto 4.

All games made better by cutscenes. You don't always need to have a scripted in-game sequence for the game to be good.

Deus Ex had, like, two cutscenes ever and the thing everyone actually remembers it for is the multiple solution approach to every problem (gameplay), Ocarina of Time's cutscenes were, lets face it, utter pap and everyone remembers it for the gameplay, and RDR might have had quite good character work in its cutscenes, but they paled in comparison next to some of the scripted interactive segments (the first ride through Mexico is one that is frequently cited, where the song strikes up as you ride along).

Out of five examples, only two really remain solid, and in at least one of them (Saints Row 2), most of what happens in cutscenes doesn't include the boss (the scene at the graveyard with Gat and Shogo is by far the most powerful one in the game). Cutscenes like that are OK, they don't include the player's character, so the player doesn't really think "I should be doing this".

 

[BrotherRool]

There was one disconnect I did get, but it was just story-related.

Spoiler

Did Lazarevic just figure Flynn was so dedicated to being a dick that he could give him a live grenade and Flynn would wait for Drake to turn up instead of throwing it at Lazarevic as he walked off?

I actually had the same problem. It was a nice little twist on standard story tropes but it felt like they'd jumped a bit of logic to get it in there

 

[Ilyak1986]

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You know, everyone's arguing over cutscenes vs. gameplay...

Here's a novel little solution--how about comparing THE SAME EXACT SCENE, one time done with gameplay, one time done with a cinematic.

It's literally the SAME EXACT SCENE.

Now, ready for this?

Starcraft I, terran campaign, end of mission 9 (aka the one you see the protoss units for the first time ever if the first thing you do is play the campaign)

Vs:

The Betrayal Cinematic from Starcraft 2, which shows Kerrigan at exactly that point in time, running around and shooting Zerg units.

Same exact scene.

Here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPq83G549wg&feature=related

Same EXACT scene. No longer do you have to complain about "gameplay vs cutscene", because now you have the exact same thing done in both cases.

I very much prefer the cutscene version rather than "oh hey, large zerg wave not even attacking Kerrigan", and theoretically, you could probably wall in in such a fashion that you could slaughter all the zergies at the chokes on those ramps in the mission anyway .

Comments?

 

[Fanboy]

I couldn't disagree more. Cutscenes are an important story telling device, and simply because they can be misused does not warrant writing them off as a "Failure State".

Play "Thief" and tell me it would have been a better game without cutscenes.

 

[The Human Torch]

I enjoy a good cut-scene as an intro, but it can become quite a drag if it happens every 20 minutes. A good story needs to tell itself throughout the game, which could be occasionally reinforced by a cut-scene here and there. All in moderation.

 

[DarthCaine]

Maybe he should stop playing crappy FPS games then

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

If you can have cutscenes that can be played in-game then it would require them to adapt to anything your character can throw at it. For instance, a dude is giving you a lecture of what not to do and you can decide to do sit there and take it, punch him in the face, or walk away and ignore him. Another one is that you can be exploring some cave for awhile now and suddenly a monster hoard start busting from the wall and forming into a giant. You can try to stop it, run away, sit there and watch, or do all of the above in said order.

Only if it is a key event and there is no decision making altering the plot jazz then it would be okay... but not limited.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I like cutscenes. They always feel nice, a little time to relax and enjoy the beautiful CG.