Do you get irritated by inconsistencies between gameplay and cutscenes?

[Archangel768]

No, no I don't.

The way I see it is this. If Nathan Drake dies from taking one bullet during gameplay, then it would be boring and tedious. It's all done to make gameplay more fun and I personally don't get irritated by it.

Also, with the Final Fantasy VII thing. Phoenix Down revives from KO. KO means Knocked Out. A lot of people seem to misunderstand what KO means because they seem to think that they could just use a Phoenix Down on a dead person when in fact, a Phoenix Down doesn't work that way at all.

 

[Gaiseric]

I try not to get hung up on stuff like that so I don't end up irritated with games I enjoy.

 

[rabidmidget]

I hate any cutscene where the main character does something incredibly stupid or incompetant, which makes it seem like all of your effort that was put into playing the game skillfully has gone to waste.

 

[Vinculi]

Hell yes, this was the main reason I couldn't stand Metroid Other M.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Ninja Blade. 75% of the game is quicktime events where you perform amazingly awesome stunts that gives gravity the finger, while the other 25% is you spamming the same button and wishing you could do those stunts.

Quicktime events is not gameplay. It's just cutscenes that requires reflexes.

 

[TornadoFive]

One of the funniest I found came at the end of Assassin's Creed 2

Spoiler: Assassin's Creed 2 ending spoilers

You have to climb over a series of platforms to position yourself right above the final boss, without attracting attention from the guards below.

You're then supposed to jump down on the boss and stab him. And the then the cutscene kicks in and it shows him stopping you, mid-leap, with his staff.

The thing is, I didn't jump down to kill him. I shot from up above with the hidden gun! He fell over, dead. But the cutscene still kicked in to show him stopping me in mid-air.

 

[Dexiro]

I prefer it when cutscene's follow the games rules, but it doesn't annoy me when they don't.

 

[Anachronism]

For another example, consider Jack's entrance in Mass Effect 2. She hurls herself headlong out of a cryotube and promptly tears apart three of those big security mechs. Sure, it was an effective way to introduce the character. Within seconds of seeing her face you get a fair idea of what sort of person she is. However, later on if you try to send her up against just one of those big ol' mechs within gameplay... yeah, she suddenly doesn't do so well. In fact, she'll go down in a few seconds.

This seems to be a BioWare thing; it was particularly irritating in Jade Empire. Just about every one of your companions is introduced by them giving a comprehensive beating to a fairly large group of enemies; you even have to fight one of them before he joins you, and he's reasonably tough to take down. However, when they actually accompany you, you'll be lucky if they manage to take down one enemy by themselves; their best use is as a distraction so you don't need to deal with all the enemies yourself.

 

[Kevin7557]

Yeah that does get kind of irritating. Like when you are in an RPG and during the battle you have to win but after you win you actually loose. WTF! now I have played games where the battles are rigged for you to loose and those were cool but when you have to win to just loose in the cutscene yeah that just sucks.

Or when in the cutscenes your character is super nimble and a complete bad ass but when you get to control him/her that all goes out the window.

Good thread man.

 

[Alucard788]

One of the funniest I found came at the end of Assassin's Creed 2

Spoiler: Assassin's Creed 2 ending spoilers

You have to climb over a series of platforms to position yourself right above the final boss, without attracting attention from the guards below.

You're then supposed to jump down on the boss and stab him. And the then the cutscene kicks in and it shows him stopping you, mid-leap, with his staff.

The thing is, I didn't jump down to kill him. I shot from up above with the hidden gun! He fell over, dead. But the cutscene still kicked in to show him stopping me in mid-air.

Good to see I'm not the only one who did that!

 

[Trivun]

One of the funniest I found came at the end of Assassin's Creed 2

Spoiler: Assassin's Creed 2 ending spoilers

You have to climb over a series of platforms to position yourself right above the final boss, without attracting attention from the guards below.

You're then supposed to jump down on the boss and stab him. And the then the cutscene kicks in and it shows him stopping you, mid-leap, with his staff.

The thing is, I didn't jump down to kill him. I shot from up above with the hidden gun! He fell over, dead. But the cutscene still kicked in to show him stopping me in mid-air.

Ah, but then you can explain that in-game as being that Desmond uses the gun in the Animus, which triggers the memory sequence, showing what really happened when Ezio did it, where he used the stupid choice and decided to get all up close and personal. Still, I agree with you here .

Usually when such inconsistencies occur in something, I either just ignore it, or you'll find that in most cases (that don't involve death, and even half the cases that do) the inconsistency can be explained perfectly well. Take any FF game where someone dies in a cutscene, for example. Easy explanation - Phoenix Downs don't bring you back from death, they simply revive an unconscious person. You don't die in battles, you simply get knocked out, until the 'Game Over' screen comes up, at which point you are actually killed and Phoenix Downs won't work. Or take Halo - characters die in cutscenes yet survive literally anything in-game. Easy explanation again, the medical packs you use to heal your health are explained in the books as including such wonders as 'biofoam' (and expanding foam that can prevent blood loss when sprayed into a wound, sanitising it, until proper medical assistance can be sought), and various chemical cocktails that help you fight on (a key part of at least one short story in the Halo canon). So those are what keep characters fighting on in the gameplay, then in cutscenes characters are killed too quickly for anyone to intervene, or there are no more medical kits around .

Simple when you use existing canon and your own imagination to fill in the gaps

 

[Dalek Caan]

I like how in the last of the Halo Reach cutscence were Emile dies he can take out a Elites Zealot shield with a single shotgun blast even when you play it takes about 5 shells.

 

[Kopikatsu]

In Uncharted 2, Nathan Drake can recover from injuries by regenerating health. Punches, bullets, shrapnel, explosives... whatever, so long as he can find some cover, all will be well. But then he takes one bullet during a cutscene and suddenly he's in mortal danger, suffering from a wound that takes weeks(?) to recover from. Sure, it worked well from a narrative standpoint, it added drama and tension and all that. But it seems odd that a guy who shrugs off several gunshot wounds per minute can suddenly be laid low by one cutscene-empowered bullet.

Actually, it was stated that when you get 'shot', the bullet actually misses because of Drake's freakish luck. The regenerating 'health' is actually his natural luck restoring itself. (Whatever the hell that means.) So when you 'die', it's assumed that that was the only bullet that actually hit you.

On the other hand, I found it annoying how Drake and Jeff were shot in exactly the same place, but Jeff nearly dies from it (and has to be carried), but Drake was able to climb up a destroyed train, withstand two explosions that knock him back into a wall, and then manages to fight off 15 or so guys and walks about half a mile (On a Siberian mountain wearing street clothes!) before finally succumbing.

It mostly bugs me when the world has an easy way to revive people (spells, items, what have you), but any plot deaths are permanent. Actually, there was one game where one of your characters is killed, but they poison that killed them made them immune to healing abilities/items. (And your characters actually tried to revive them anyway, but it doesn't work)

I want a game where you fight a Climax Boss, then later in the game when you're working towards someone else, the previous boss comes back. "We killed you! How are you still alive?!" "...I had a minion hidden behind my throne that could cast Revive. I plan for every contingency, assholes.

 

[Zhukov]

In Uncharted 2, Nathan Drake can recover from injuries by regenerating health. Punches, bullets, shrapnel, explosives... whatever, so long as he can find some cover, all will be well. But then he takes one bullet during a cutscene and suddenly he's in mortal danger, suffering from a wound that takes weeks(?) to recover from. Sure, it worked well from a narrative standpoint, it added drama and tension and all that. But it seems odd that a guy who shrugs off several gunshot wounds per minute can suddenly be laid low by one cutscene-empowered bullet.

Actually, it was stated that when you get 'shot', the bullet actually misses because of Drake's unnatural luck. The regenerating 'health' is actually his natural luck restoring itself. (Whatever the hell that means.) So when you 'die', it's assumed that that was the only bullet that actually hit you.

So... when those two grenades exploded next to me, Drake's luck was so awesome that all the shrapnel went in the other direction?

Cool.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Just had one playing Fallout 3 on a new save. I just got out of the vault, killed 2 bandits, went to a farmhouse where 3 mercanaries told me there was a price on my head, that someone wants me dead for doing all those things I did. Ive been outside for 3 minutes, what have I done!

 

[Kopikatsu]

In Uncharted 2, Nathan Drake can recover from injuries by regenerating health. Punches, bullets, shrapnel, explosives... whatever, so long as he can find some cover, all will be well. But then he takes one bullet during a cutscene and suddenly he's in mortal danger, suffering from a wound that takes weeks(?) to recover from. Sure, it worked well from a narrative standpoint, it added drama and tension and all that. But it seems odd that a guy who shrugs off several gunshot wounds per minute can suddenly be laid low by one cutscene-empowered bullet.

Actually, it was stated that when you get 'shot', the bullet actually misses because of Drake's unnatural luck. The regenerating 'health' is actually his natural luck restoring itself. (Whatever the hell that means.) So when you 'die', it's assumed that that was the only bullet that actually hit you.

So... when those two grenades exploded next to me, Drake's luck was so awesome that all the shrapnel went in the other direction?

Cool.

According to Naughty Dog...yes.

If only Elena had that kind of luck.

 

[monojono]

It doesn't bother me. Gameplay has to be fun and if you make it realistic, its not going to be that fun.

No, no I don't.

The way I see it is this. If Nathan Drake dies from taking one bullet during gameplay, then it would be boring and tedious. It's all done to make gameplay more fun and I personally don't get irritated by it.

Also, with the Final Fantasy VII thing. Phoenix Down revives from KO. KO means Knocked Out. A lot of people seem to misunderstand what KO means because they seem to think that they could just use a Phoenix Down on a dead person when in fact, a Phoenix Down doesn't work that way at all.

I don't think anyones suggesting that they should change gameplay mechanics to fit cutscenes, but that they shouldn't write cutscenes which obviously conflict with gameplay. Obviously that isn't always going to work, but developers should take it into account if they are going to put action scenes etc into cutscenes.

 

[Zhukov]

This seems to be a BioWare thing; it was particularly irritating in Jade Empire. Just about every one of your companions is introduced by them giving a comprehensive beating to a fairly large group of enemies; you even have to fight one of them before he joins you, and he's reasonably tough to take down. However, when they actually accompany you, you'll be lucky if they manage to take down one enemy by themselves; their best use is as a distraction so you don't need to deal with all the enemies yourself.

To their credit, Bioware do sometimes get it right.

For example, if you kill Wrex in ME1 (and shame on you if you did) then it actually takes five or so shots to put him down, despite taking place in a cutscene.