Poll: Are cutscenes still necessary?

EightGaugeHippo

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Games havent evolved enough to abandon cutscenes.
There are somethings that cannot be made possible through gameplay (QTE are not active gameplay), that can only be Implemented via cutscenes.

When the devs want you to see the character doing something in the most epic way possible.

Like jumping through a flaming hoop on a pink dolphin and slapping God in the face with a pair of soiled trousers. Something like that would be hard to put into gameplay and the player might not be able to do the button combos right, ultimatly get frustrated and quit.
Where as with cutscenes that problem is not there.
 

Internet Kraken

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Yes, they are. It depends on the game though and the type of story you're trying to tell with said game. If you want to show anything outside of the main characters perspective it's very difficult to do so without cutscenes. Cutscenes can be perfectly fine, they just have to be used properly. When you use cutscenes excessively, the game just falls apart. Metal Gear Solid 4 has cutscenes that are way to long, poorly explain what's going on, and detract from the actual gameplay. Even if Metal Gear Solid 4 had toned down on the cutscenes it would've had an atrocious story, but at least you wouldn't have to suffer through it so much. Any cutscene over 6 minutes long is probably pushing it, but Metal Gear Solid 4 has ones that go over an hour.
 

Wondermint13

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michael87cn said:
Personally, I don't think they are needed anymore, we have the technology now to stop depending on them. Another thing is, I personally believe video games should be different from television, not similar. They should always strive to be interactive entertainment.
You make a very good point and a part of me would like to agree.
But I think many cutscenes have a deeper purpose than just taking away gameplay. Games have been referred to as an art-form alot these days and they are still praised for the lastest advancement in graphics and content variety. I think theres more to be gained by having a few cutscenes than not having them.

I think the gaming industry's attempt to have us more involved with the 'cutscenes' was to have quick-time events but often it was either live or die.
So perhaps games should include interactable cutscenes?
 

darth.pixie

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michael87cn said:
It's a simple question, should video games rely on cutscenes to tell their stories, or should they try to keep the player in control of the story themselves?

Often times I'll be playing a game, and a cutscene will occur where the character I'm playing will say or do something contrary to what I would have. This (for me) breaks immersion and makes me lose interest in the character and for that matter the game. Now I'm not saying I stop playing at this point, but it takes some of the fun away from the game.

Personally, I don't think they are needed anymore, we have the technology now to stop depending on them. Another thing is, I personally believe video games should be different from television, not similar. They should always strive to be interactive entertainment.

I'm curious, what do you think?
In my opinion, no game should ever, ever have to rely on cutscenes to tell their stories. That said, a cutscene can improve a story, give it a shine. You can do a lot of things in cutscenes that would be very hard to do unless scripted or on a high end computer.

I vaguely agree on your point of characters saying or doing something you don't want them to do, but unless you're playing an RPG that is unavoidable. Take Neverwinter Nights 2. The cutscenes never made the character do anything. It added intrigue and nice visuals and some enemies. It was perfect.

When the cutscenes start taking over the game, you feel as if you stop playing and start watching. That's fine. But when cutscenes are there to guide you as your own personal DM, then I consider them well used. When you get a cutscene of a huge castle on a hill, you as a player know where you need to go. Showing your character staring at the castle and saying lines you wouldn't say, trying to direct you there or who knows what else then I consider them somewhat misused.
 

Mikeyfell

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michael87cn said:
It's a simple question, should video games rely on cutscenes to tell their stories, or should they try to keep the player in control of the story themselves?

Often times I'll be playing a game, and a cutscene will occur where the character I'm playing will say or do something contrary to what I would have. This (for me) breaks immersion and makes me lose interest in the character and for that matter the game. Now I'm not saying I stop playing at this point, but it takes some of the fun away from the game.

Personally, I don't think they are needed anymore, we have the technology now to stop depending on them. Another thing is, I personally believe video games should be different from television, not similar. They should always strive to be interactive entertainment.

I'm curious, what do you think?
I agree with you but I still like cut-scenes
some times (like you said) the main character does something contrary to what I would do
Tales of the Abyss rings out as an example of this. You kill 1000 guards to get to the end of the level but then when you kill the guard in the cut-scene it's a big moral problem for you.

or sometimes stupid shit happens like
Rebeca Chang is basically immortal up until that one scene where Sullivan kills her with a single shot. I mean fuck, I've unloaded an entire LMG on her. no damage. You expect me to believe one bullet kills her

There's the action packed cut-scenes from Bayonetta or Devil May Cry that look way more fun than the game plays. I'd rather be doing those

There's the Halo Reach problem where half the scenes are in first person and half in third person. That'll ruin the experience.

then there's the quality gap. think Final fantasy 10 all the cut-scene's were in ultra hi-def-prerendered-shiny-o-vision but the game-play was standard PS2 graphics. That takes me out.

some things that work for FPS games like MW2 is where they lock you in a room and have the cut scene happen in front of you so you can look away if you feel like it. but that only works for FPS's

But one of my favorite games of all times is Jak 2, and it told it's story almost completely through cut scenes. Trying to change or take out the scene's from Jak 2 would ruin it.
what made the scene's in that game so good were that they were well written, well acted, SHORT AND FREQUENT.

that's what the problem is. Cut-scene's are long and far between so you loose track of the story during game-play and are bored to tears during the cut-scenes. I don't think that any of the scenes in Jak 2 (besides the first and last) clock more than 4 minutes.
the scenes feel like rewards for finishing the missions as well as being your context for doing the next one.

then there's Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain. Those games ARE cut-scenes and they're both really good.

This is all part of games evolving as an art form, if there's some better way to deliver context and story than encapsulating expositional dialogue in pre and post mission cut-scenes then I'd love to see it.
 

Wolfpocalypse

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of corse, the problem with those scenes where the story goes on, but your still in like third person or first person and can still wander around, is that they are (almost) universally crap. it takes so many of the dimensions that builds a good scene and tosses them out the window, like camera angles, and actually being able to see what your supposed to be looking at. this form of cut scene is not even alternative anymore, its mainstream. this sort of approach is quite frankly lazy imo.
 

CrazyMedic

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RUINER ACTUAL said:
Let me make this abundantly clear: Call of Duty does not need cutscenes!!! Nor do most military FPS games. Halo uses them perfectly. Bad Company made them work. Medal of Honor did not need them. Call of Duty definitely does not.

More generally, most first person games do not need them. Whenever the camera rips away from your face and looks at something else, all immersion is lost.
why does it need to rip away from their face? why not take control away from you but still have it be in first person?
 

Delock

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lordlillen said:
metal gear solid 4 enough said
Not really enough, as while some great cutscenes were in it, my favorite moment took place during a gameplay cutscene. Alternatively, the statement you're implying could be the over abundance of cutscenes to be a negative. Enough said is hardly the thing to say about Metal Gear or Xenosaga when it comes to the question of cutscenes' worth.

ANYWAYS, it depends both on the game and on how the cutscene is handled.

If you're focusing on immersion solely (like say Fallout 3), you'd want to stay away from them, unless you decide that a "set piece" is a cutscene. It's not that a cutscene would automatically mean the immersion is broken, as if it were a horror game and in the scene you're put in a second person perspective for a moment to indicate something is watching you, then in a third person perspective in which your character is oblivious to that thing coming down gently from the ceiling, where every fiber of your body is screaming for them to look behind, and then the scene ends with either the creature attacking or disappearing as soon as you notice it, the feeling is kept.

Now the big thing you want to avoid is making it so characters are pulling off moves they can't do in gameplay [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CutscenePowerToTheMax] when the main focus of gameplay is over the top action (like what was done in DMC4, where you were shown action that made your gameplay look weak, rather than say God of War where you were then allowed to do something just as brutal as cutscene Kratos just did via QTEs).

Cutscenes also make certain that the story is being told, whereas it's harder to make certain the point is being gotten across by conversations with an NPC. I don't mean forcing the player to sit down and listen to exposition (that's a bad cutscene), but rather giving the information in an interesting way that lets them know its importance. Often it also makes the player less antsy (how many people have walked their character around while waiting for the NPC to shut up so you can continue?) and more likely to take to heart what is being presented.

This is not the only way to tell a story, but it's also important to realize that it is not a method that should be discard simple due to alternatives.

Hell, voiced over text can be a great way to introduce a game if you do it right (through a variety of ways, including using the background, having it be short and poetic, clearly setting a mood, goal, or obstacle, etc.), despite the fact that it's often frowned upon, and still images are great for games that don't involve a lot of movement (such as adventure games).
 

ArchAngelKira

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the cutscenes in a game is like watching a quick movie to advance the plot and story telling, without them I wouldn't know what was going on.
 

GrizzlerBorno

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michael87cn said:
You wanna know when cutscenes will become irrelevant? The day i can walk upto a bunch of NPC's I'm supposed to talk to, for the quest.......and i can TALK to them. Like literally, type out my answer or say it in a mic, and they will be able to understand every word of my response, and answer me accordingly, with the story changing in the exact way depending on my actions.

We can't do that now, because we haven't yet invented the fully rational, cognitive Artificial Intelligences needed to imbue those NPC's with THAT kind of "life"(maybe we never will, but that's a different discussion all together). And until that point we will have either: interactive cutscenes a la Mass effect (if the developer is ambitious), normal cutscenes becasue it is the most obvious and "common sense'y" way to go...........

or NO cutscenes like in Half Life where your character stands around like a deaf, but ambiguously macho hollow box with ZERO social skills and personality / deranged psycho, throwing cardboard Boxes at people while they chatter about something boring. When Alyx Vance opens her mouth she is the Fucking Juggernaut, apparently.

Hope that provides some insight into your quandry ;)
 

SmoothOperator

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Valve games (Half-Life and Portal) has proven that you can make amazing games without cutscenes. And some of the best parts were going around the scene, picking up stuff, teleporting it, throwing it around, jumping up and down the characters, and stuff like that. We don't need them as such, but sure, sometimes it is a good solution.
 

badgersprite

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Cutscenes have never been necessary, especially since set pieces and dialogue exist. I don't need to cut to a movie to hear two characters talking. Even in action sequences, there's no reason the player couldn't be in control except that the designers want their game to look cool.

Are cutscenes necessary to convey story? Of course not. Do I think they should be erased and not exist? Of course not.
 

Jfswift

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In moderation, yes. Tbh though I dislike long cut scenes at the beginning of games however.
 

willsham45

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A cut screen is a tool and like all tools you got to know how to use it.
Like you can use a drill to put in a screw but you don't have to some times a screw driver is better.
 

Thaius

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Cutscenes are used to tell parts of the story that the gameplay can't in a more interesting fashion. There are a lot more interesting things that can happen in a story than just shooting things, but if the game is centered around shooting things, how can those be portrayed?

When you can tell me how a romantic scene with the protagonist would be done in a game that only allows the player to control combat situations, I will agree that this can be done.

However, I would like to point out a fatal flaw that appears in your thinking when taken to its lengths. You are saying that games should be different from television and film. I agree. However, to say that cutscenes should not be used in games is to say that games, and, taken to the logical conclusion, other art mediums as well, should only ever conform to the specific principles that are unique to its given medium. That causes all sorts of problems. That means action-heavy movies are inherently better than others, because visual action is something film can do that literature cannot: in other words, Transformers 2 is better than Casablanca, and the Star Wars prequels are better than the originals. It means that, since animation is capable of crazy, wild movements and such, any animated movie or show that tries to look realistic or spends too much time with characters just talking normally is inherently worse than Spongebob or Ren and Stimpy.

Some games do without cutscenes just fine, sometimes spectacularly. And some games work a lot better with them. All sorts of artistic theory problems come up when you say that games, as a medium, should not be doing a particular thing.
 

Cheesepower5

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Not necessary, but if you're going to have a plot-oriented game with no(or just few) dialogue options a cutscene is efficient enough.
 

RUINER ACTUAL

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CrazyMedic said:
RUINER ACTUAL said:
Let me make this abundantly clear: Call of Duty does not need cutscenes!!! Nor do most military FPS games. Halo uses them perfectly. Bad Company made them work. Medal of Honor did not need them. Call of Duty definitely does not.

More generally, most first person games do not need them. Whenever the camera rips away from your face and looks at something else, all immersion is lost.
why does it need to rip away from their face? why not take control away from you but still have it be in first person?
Because that's the type of cutscene I was referring to. Cutscenes where you stay in first person are fine, and help immersion. It's whenever the camera is taken away from your face that it loses immersion.
 

WanderingFool

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Fidelias said:
I like cutscenes. Games that don't use them to tell the story just make the story and characters feel forced. I usually have trouble getting into games like Assassins Creed because of this.(Yes, Assassins Creed has cutscenes, but most of their story aspects are you controlling your character while he talks to someone)

Besides, cutscenes give you a break in the action that is needed to keep a game going. One of my problems with COD is that it's al ACTIONACTIONACTION, so there's no change in the game. It just seems so repetetive.

But anyway, I'm rambling. This is just my opinion, make of it what you will.
Thats seems the opposite of the COD:Blops sp review from the Escapist. For him it was not enough action, course I think... NVM, not important.

Anyways, Ive seen the "cutscenes" from HL2, and frankly, didnt like them. I perfer cutscenes as done in games like MGS4 and AC2.
 

game-lover

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I think it depends on the game.

Some games don't really need them. But other games would fall flat without them.