Do all cut-scenes need to be interactive?

[Mr. Omega]

Here's my view:
Traditional:
Good: MGS. It happens whenever there is plot to discuss. Makes you pay attention.
Bad: DMC. I mean the action bits. It's just to make Dante look badass, but you can't do anything close to that in-game.

Interactive:
Good: Heavy Rain. Lets you walk around while talking to people, mess aroung with things, ect.
Bad: Can't think of one now, but I know there are some.

QTEs in cutscenes:
Good: NEVER.
Bad: ALWAYS.

Unskipable cutscenes:
See "QTEs in cutscenes"

 

[SuperNashwan]

Hi

This is my first post, so hopefully I am conducting myself admirably ...

I like the retaining control thing in half life, though I think it works best when you are watching or taking part in real events, as opposed to hearing NPC's relay information. The original Half Life may even have had it down best - the story was literally happening to you, in things around you and stuff said and done by other characters. Thats part of the reason why it pulls you in IMO - it dangles just enough to get your curiosity, a bit like a teaser, but doesnt completely fill you in.

So I prefer it when the story happens directly to the player, with your attention naturally absorbed by whatever you need to see, and as little 'narration' by NPC's as possible. A great example is the Test Chamber scene in Half Life 1 - that for me is both immersion AND moving around because you are doing stuff whilst being spoken to. Of course that might not always be practical for every storyline.

 

[latenightapplepie]

I like what the Assassin's Creed games do in many of their cutscenes.

You can walk slowly within a small area (the camera is fixed on the source of exposition) and you must stay near it, however you can turn your back, walk back and forth, or stand still.

However, I think they may have been unskippable, which is a bit lame.

 

[Valkyrie101]

I like what the Assassin's Creed games do in many of their cutscenes.

You can walk slowly within a small area (the camera is fixed on the source of exposition) and you must stay near it, however you can turn your back, walk back and forth, or stand still.

However, I think they may have been unskippable, which is a bit lame.

I don't like those. I end up walking round in circles and it's distracting when you try to get your character facing in precisely the right direction. Pre-rendered is preferable for me.

 

[Saltyk]

I think it depends on the game. In a lot of games, scenes are pre-rendered and that works well for them. Others let you interact or move around.

Someone already brought up Assassin's Creed, but I'm going to use that as an example. I kinda liked being able to control my character. I could walk around, acting like I'm pacing or look at them like I'm paying attention. When talking to an informant, I could look away from him as though, like I was trying to act in a way that passers-by would think I was discussing killing one of the most powerful men in the city. In short, I could decide how it looked. However, if those scenes were pre-rendered, I wouldn't have felt slighted at all.

Like I said, it depends on the game and how the designer wants to present their ideas.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

I don't mind cutscenes like in ME2 where you can make choices that affect the story.

Quicktime events shoehorned into cut scenes are horrible though.

 

[Twad]

i also prefer the HL2 way, they help immersion.

And normal cutscenes break immersion, and is too often afflicted with the "cutscene incompetence" or "cutscene power to the max" disease... wich dont make much sense, and rob you of any control (like allowing a monologing villian to escape alive)

I rather walk around listening to NPCs than watch a clip where our character is shown doing/saying something stupid.

 

[Kitteh]

No, I hate them.
Cut-scenes should show off some kind of story or game play, not force you to press random buttons.

I think he meant cutscenes where you can free look, not quick time events.

Right, but now some of them are now getting QTE, like RE4.

It's just retarded.

at the least, some games have skippable cut scenes. its the ones that dont that piss me off.

 

[Mr.Petey]

I dont mind quicktime events in cut scenes as it always keeps you on your toes. So you mistime the sequence and die again, you can restart from a checkpoint and be prepared for it next time. I don't see what all the commotion is about whatsoever regarding that type of cutscene.

However I feel that standard cut scenes in a game that omit any interaction from the play are just as good too as I fully agree with the OP: shutting down your trigger finger for a few minutes as the game sets the scene and progresses with the story gives you a good sense of being immersed in that world.
Plus HL2 where you could just wonder around like some attention deficit child kinda irked me because I wasn't sure where to turn next once one character would stop talking and another one interjected even.

So yeah, I do prefer to sit back and play the odd QTE sometimes as opposed to being given full control to doss around and break the character immersion somewhat. MGS4 handled this well; giving you the option to look around to your surroundings ever so slightly but Snake still remained still and therefore the immersion wasn't broken. Even pressing X to trigger images and flashbacks added to that depth too.

Plus on a personal note, I don't like it in a online game where people have seen XYZ cutscene before and insist on people skipping it. THAT bugs me the most. Yes you've seen it but some of us don't get tired of it. Live with it, because I'm sure it won't kill you to see it again

 

[JeanLuc761]

I'm sure someone here has already progressed along this line of thinking, but oh well. I don't think cutscenes need to be interactive, but if they're done well, then I far prefer interactive cutscenes to what are essentially mini-movies. Half-Life 2, Modern Warfare and the Mass Effect series are very high on my list of "How to do interactive cutscenes properly," as you can still get the story the game wants to deliver but you also have a wonderful, immersive level of freedom.

 

[Kraiiit]

Did you really even read the OP?

Of course forced actions during "cutscenes" are unpleasant, but I like the fact that games like Half Life 2 let you move around a bit during the cut scene.

I really don't buy into the immersion factor either, especially in Half Life 2 where you can run around killing zombies with flying toilets.

Forced actions (QTE's) are unpleasant, but I didn't really feel like Half-Life 2's partial movement thingy worked out for me either. When Alyx and Eli spoke in White Forest, I spent all my time hopping inanely around the room, looking for a way out, and knocking over furniture.

I don't really know if movement in a cutscene can actually help with the entire setup, apart from aforementioned immersion.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

There have been a lot of problems with cut scenes in games in the past in that they ruined the pace of the game and generally lowered the tone by being crappy. I think that dropping them totally as the quality is increasing is a mistake. Or even messing with them by adding very shallow and stupid gameplay is not good. In some types of games like immersive simulations or pure gameplay type games they are just not that appropriate. Personally, I don't like it in Valve games when it switches to the talky bits where you can't do anything interesting and didn't like it all when they announced Portal 2 and showed too much of that stuff.

 

[JeanLuc761]

I remember tons of non interactive cut scenes in masseffect, actually don't remember any interactive ones at all. What you talking about Willis?

When I say "cutscene," I'm referring to basically all of the larger dialogue sequences, even if it's just with a random NPC. Sure, it's really just a glorified version of Final Fantasy "Talk to me!", but Bioware did it so well that each one felt like a cutscene.

 

[SuperNashwan]

Half-life 2 Ep.2 demo

Alyx is chatting, you have to help her plug something while she's talking because she doesn't know why it's not working. I love that, it's a nice touch.

Agreed! And that scene where you push in a plug and Barney says "I see that MIT eucation really pays for itself" Gordons skills do seem to come down to button pushing, plug-plugging and killing stuff. Oh and being quiet whilst surrepticiously checking out Alyx's, um, belt.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I don't think cut-scenes should be interactive. Now I'd like to say that I have a genuine, valid point to make, like it's because they're there to expand plot and to give the character a breather whilst at the same time engineering a change of pace - but I've got to be honest (and selfish) and say it's because (weird link time) I'm a smoker. At the end of a quest/mission it's often quite nice to light up a smoke, and games that require me to press buttons or select options when I'm halfway through rolling a celebratory cig really wind me up.

I know it's not the best reason for not liking them, but it is my reason for not liking them.

 

[EHKOS]

Cutscenes are a time to relax. You're driving full speed on a motorcycle, out of ammo trying to get into the back of a jet as it's taking off on top of a mountain. Boom end of level cutscene. Feels awesome. Plus you don't have to be on your guard during them.

 

[Korten12]

I remember tons of non interactive cut scenes in masseffect, actually don't remember any interactive ones at all. What you talking about Willis?

When I say "cutscene," I'm referring to basically all of the larger dialogue sequences, even if it's just with a random NPC. Sure, it's really just a glorified version of Final Fantasy "Talk to me!", but Bioware did it so well that each one felt like a cutscene.

Nice edit

those were conversations that almost all rpgs have, you select, and the interaction is limited to just selecting what conversation piece you would use, much like a quick time event is, just more jarring cause the game comes to a complete stop to let you decide I would not consider those interactive cut-scenes more just conversations, when I think of cut scenes im imaging, well the cut-scenes, and there were lots of them, and you never had much choice in what happens outside of dialog options like kill him or save them or do a little dance (one of those options never happens, do you know witch?)

Yeah I agree, Mass Effect wasn't exactly interactive on a movement scale but it was on a story-scale.

 

[gellert1984]

Its one of the things that really bugs me about Mass Effect 2. The paragon/renegade mouse clicks are so rare that I'll find myself relaxing leaning back to enjoy a cutscene and then BAM! blicking light in bottom left hand corner scrabble for the mouse hit the button just as the damn thing fades out.

 

[AngryMongoose]

There should be a skip and a pause button, and that's all they really need. That being said, it's not really playing the medium to its strengths having non-interactive cutscenes.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

i dont really like the interaction, in half life its not even interacting, its boring ass dialogue where near nothing happens but you can walk around in an awkward manner while everyone looks at you while you dont pay attention to them.

personally, if they are gonna have cutscenes, have them do cool shit/plot driving/or dialogue choices to push the story/quest/battle forward into something else that actually makes me want to continue and figure out whats gonna happen, or like i said, at least make it a cool ass cutscene with me doing a 720 flip throwing three grenades simultaneously(dk how that works but still would be cool) and destroying some baddies in a sick ass manner. i fucking hate stopping for near nothing besides "oh you made it to point B? lets go to point C now! *3 minutes of extra boring ass dialogue that doesn't matter a single fucking bit to the game or gameplay*"