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

[Fasckira]

I remember when I was a kid playing games I used to love cutscenes as they often came after a difficult level or challenge so it was a reward to sit back for a moment and see the storyline progress while you caught your breath.

Cut scenes in newer games these days seem to go on a bit and take up more time than actual gameplay though. That to me is where the problem lies and not so much in the quality.

 

[Evil Tim]

I agree completely. Half-Life 2, Bioshock, Portal, and CoD4 showed that it's not only possible to tell compelling stories without cut scenes

Yeah, because I love being locked in a room I can't get out of while unskippable expository dialog is run though without any interaction from the player. All HL2 did was give you cutscenes where you could move the camera around and couldn't skip them.

 

[Saelune]

I dunno. I understand the view...but cutscenes can be alot of fun often. Hell, I wish game movies would just be animated like from the game like a long 2 hour cutscene. Maybe we need inbetweens. The next Dynasty Warrior game will have cutscenes that go right into play, and from what Ive seen, it actually works and is seemless. Maybe that will be better.

 

[random_bars]

I can see the problem with cutscenes. I totally can. I can see why the Half-Life 2 way of doing things is much better. But the fundamental problem with that is that it forces the entire game to be seen from the player's perspective alone, and storytelling-wise this brings up some problems. It means there's no possibility of seeing the the world as a whole; of seeing it from the perspective of other characters, of getting a preview of what's ahead before the character we're playing as does. It essentially means we're forced to BE the protagonist, and see the world entirely through their eyes and from their perspective.

Is this a bad thing? I don't know. But it's certainly restricting. And I don't think that every game needs to be, or should be, seen through the protagonist's eyes alone. There's other very effective ways of telling the story, which treat the protagonist more as one character amongst many others, rather than as the player themself. But I do think that, although the merit of cutscenes is obvious, there must be better ways of doing things, because cutscenes are just too awkward and jarring most of the time.

How about replacing them with sections where your movement of the character is more limited? Or giving the player control of the camera in a shot that pans across the level at the start of the game, before gradually zooming them in to the character they're going to be controlling? These are just a couple of suggestions, but I'm sure there are ways of showing the player things the protagonist can't see without completely removing player input.

 

[LordOrin]

I feel like Bioware has pulled off cutscenes pretty well, Mass Effect sort of gave you a way to control the cutscene and develop your character further...

I agree. Just because the game isn't letting you control where you're looking doesn't mean you can't still be playing.

 

[Serenegoose]

I disagree with the idea that 'cutscenes are bad'. Cutscenes are mostly bad, yes. However, some games do them fantastically. I remember feeling that Warcraft 3's amazing cutscenes were a great reward for finishing a campaign, showing me something the game engine could -never- do, and entertaining me at the same time. Could we really say Arthas's 'Succeeding you, Father' moment would be as impacting if Arthas was a low-detailed RTS unit model, whose method of fatherly assassination involved his character clipping into his father til his head came off? Hardly.

Anyway, before I ramble: Rarely used, exquisitely made cutscenes can be a great player reward and storytelling mechanism, in my opinion. Beyond that, I mostly agree they're bad.

 

[epikAXE]

Japan are going to be sooo pissed when they hear this...

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I do agree on most of that, very few games make a good transition from storytelling cutscene to gameplay, mostly it just feels like there are 2 different things going on.

Sadly most developer got the wrong end of the stick, instead of bringing story into gameplay they take away gameplay to shove in story/cinematics, then you get those bloody quick-time events or bullshit minigames that make you want to snap the f*ing controller.

P.S. Don't put HL2 and MW in the same bucket, that is just poor form.

 

[Bobbity]

I like the idea of the story being told entirely during gameplay; I think Yahtzee touched on that in his Alan Wake review. On the other hand, cutscenes really focus the player's attention on one particular area, rather than allowing people to look around and miss important events. Cutscenes can draw attention to facial features, and really add to the drama of a moment, if they're done right.

A mix of the two is probably best. FF is pretty much all cutscenes these days, and that's bad, but I was a little disappointed to find that FO3 didn't have cutscenes at all.

 

[ksn0va]

While I'm a fan of what Half-Life does, I still wouldn't like it if other games did the exact same thing.

 

[mjc0961]

I'd prefer cutscenes (skippable ones!) for the important stuff. They beat being forced to just stand there doing nothing but listen to some guy yak and I can't advanced until he's finished. With the cutscene I can watch the first time I play when I care about the story, then skip it the second time I play to just keep playing.

Of course, if there's a way to tell the story better than either of those methods allow, I'm all for it (no QTEs are not an improvement; unless the whole game plays that way like Heavy Rain, their random intrusion into cutscenes is annoying).

This man has obviously never played Uncharted 2 before. Give him a copy. Then he'll shut up about cutscenes being a failure.

I don't see why he would. I'm pretty sure that his point wasn't cutscene quality, it was that the story should be told in the gameplay itself, and not by little movies where you can put the controller down for a few minutes and just watch. So I think Uncharted 2 would still be considered a failure in that regard as it has cutscenes.

 

[funksobeefy]

See everyone keeps pushing Half Life 2 as a good story telling game. But I missed the story entirely, due to the fact I was on the other side of the room exploring stuff while the pcs were talking. I missed a lost just because the audio relied on how close I was to the speaker, which makes sense in a realistic way but when you put a controller in someones hand, we want to jump around a explore, not stand around and listen

 

[binvjoh]

I agree.

I'd prefer if games tried to deliver as much story as they can through in-game interactions.

we want to jump around a explore, not stand around and listen

Cutscenes are worse at that.

 

[Evil Tim]

I can see the problem with cutscenes. I totally can. I can see why the Half-Life 2 way of doing things is much better. But the fundamental problem with that is that it forces the entire game to be seen from the player's perspective alone, and storytelling-wise this brings up some problems. It means there's no possibility of seeing the the world as a whole; of seeing it from the perspective of other characters, of getting a preview of what's ahead before the character we're playing as does.

Unless they can read minds, then they can see other people's perspectives without ever leaving their own. See how easy it is to get around these things?

 

[captain underpants]

The question I'd like answered is, do games really need a story all that much? I realise that's the direction they seem to be heading, but if I want someone to tell me a story, I'll read a book or watch a film. I think games are doing themselves a disservice by trying to emulate films too much. They can tell us so much more about ourselves than mere narrative can provide, and I don't think the actual gameplay angle has been explored nearly enough.

If the story is only there to give you a reason to move from baddie filled room to baddie filled room, but the gameplay isn't all that interesting either, and you're only moving through the baddie filled rooms to see where the story goes, it all becomes rather pointless.

Nevertheless, if we must have stories in our games, let's at least find some ways to tell them that aren't trying to copy the old media. Cutscenes can be useful and effective, but once they start showing the player's character doing cool shit that the player would probably rather be doing themselves, they kinda defeat their own purpose.

 

[Sansha]

I enjoy cutscenes. I remember being disappointed playing through FO3 and seeing that there weren't any cutscenes. To each his own I guess.

Dunno what you're on. Fo3 gave me the gift of if I didn't like a cutscene, I could end and voice my disapproval by way of shotgun.

 

[Evil Tim]

The question I'd like answered is, do games really need a story all that much? I realise that's the direction they seem to be heading, but if I want someone to tell me a story, I'll read a book or watch a film.

A game's story needs to tell you who you are, what you're doing, and why you're doing it. Anything else is window dressing.

 

[NiPah]

To use a wide sweeping generalization as this THQ Exec seems to have done is pretty stupid in my opinion... Yes some games can get by with limited to no cutscenes, but should all games do this? No. Every gamer has their own taste, and games are made differently to meet these tastes, some love epic storylines with long cutscenes, some genres require them to further the story which cannot be told through gameplay (SRPGs, RTS, and flight combat sims are much different beasts then FPS games). Lumping all cutscenes together would be ignoring the individual differences that make gaming so popular.

Even FPS games are limited in the scope of storyline they can tell without resorting to some form of cutscene. Portal was amazing, but overall had a pretty limited storyline, HL2 would never have been as interesting had you not been locked in a room for a few minutes while it rattled off some back story to you. Not every gamer is going to want a game like Braid or angry birds, some people just like to sit back and watch a short movie that ties in the various story elements of their favorite game, and some don't.

 

[Hexenwolf]

What about bioshock? I LOVED the story in bioshock.