Poll: Are cutscenes still necessary?

[GuitArchon]

I can understand your frustration about cutscenes. Many times, they seem to serve as a "Plot Bungee." That is, a lot of cutscenes happen just to set up the next significant plot event, not to further the story. Basically, if the character(s) you're controlling ever get(s) knocked out in a cutscene just to wake up in a different setting with the bloke who KO'ed you in the first place staring right at you, this is where the stitches in the plot start to show.

It's especially aggravating Story-Gameplay Segregation occurs. For example, in Dead Rising 2, Chuck Greene cuts his way through the undead populace no problem, can take gunshots and zombie bites and still stay standing. But when he walks into the Ted & Snowflake boss fight, it's initiated by Ted's fist coming from off-screen and KO'ing Chuck in one punch. Granted, Ted's a big strong guy, but it doesn't change the fact that I noticed the purpose of the cutscene was to set-up a boss fight rather than flowing into it seemlessly.

So, to answer the question, no, I don't think a game should rely on cutscenes exclusively for having the story unfold. I'm not saying cutscenes shouldn't be used at all, but they should be handled much more seemlessly. I think a good idea of what I mean is Dead Space 2. The game has plenty of scripted cinematics, but there's no fade-to-black loading screen precursor telling you to anticipate a cutscene.

 

[GuitArchon]

I agree with the Fable 2 assessment. Maybe if they had given your character varying animations depending on where you were relevant to where the action was occurring in the scene...

 

[Twad]

Depends on the game. I personally prefer when they are in-game and i can choose to listen or not, rather than being forced to watch some CGI scene. Cutscenes arent really welcome in FPS, more coherent in Third-person games.

When a game like FF13 that seems to use them wayy too much (afaik, didnt play it) they break the flow, and take too many man-hours for the dev team to make (wich can hurt the rest of the game)

Its why i prefer the HL2 of doing "cutscenes" wich are scipted events, in game, and you have some control. Its more immersive.

 

[BloodBowler]

There is a lot to consider in this question. I will assume you are referring to story based games and will exclude games otherwise (Puzzle games, a lot of indie games, those without a story and thus no need for cut scenes).

First of all, your loss of interest is bias. You usually play a game to become someone else or relate to a character, their choosing otherwise may make you relate to them less but I wouldn't shun a game based on it, there may be a very good reason for it. Instead of backing off, try and think about WHY the character has made such a decision. I'm sure there is more to this on your part though.

Cut scenes are not a matter of technology, we have always had the technology to avoid cut scenes. The basic matter is they are part of pacing in a game and an effective method of informing a player. If a game was all action all the time it would become stressful, there needs to be a relax period to let off tension. Besides cut scenes are often critical as they allow characters to act in ways never seen in the rest of the game. New animation clips are made solely for the cut scenes and you can see the character perform more actions in better ways than seeing the same moves over and over again.

Try something if you will, play a game, any game you wish but preferably something with more cut scenes in it (RPG, Adventure, Action, think GTA or Metal Gear Solid). If it one you haven't played yet, even better. On this play through however I want you to skip all cut scenes, all breaks in the action.

No mission briefs, no codec or phone calls, no debriefs, no intros, no special events, no gates, everything you can skip, skip it and see how your experience pans out. I'll wager it is not as good as it could be. It would be like watching an action movie which is nothing but car chases and explosions. Sounds good on paper but if you think about it, it would get routine and boring VERY quickly.

 

[teqrevisited]

Cutscenes are great in my opinion. A lot of the time they show you things that just werent possible to put into the game in an interactive way. They're mostly eye candy and nothing more, but I'd miss them if they were scrapped. Some of the greatest moments in gaming come from cinematic cutscenes.

 

[8bitlove2a03]

Unless the game is an FPS, I don't know how you can tell a story well without any cut-scenes. Or at least I've never seen it done. A first person game can go either way. The Half-Life approach works quite well for some games, and the Cinematic approach works better for others. I don't think many people are going to argue that.

I think the only thing anyone can really argue is whether or not the player should loose camera control for the sake of pointing important things out. Take the descent scene from the start of Bioshock: if your camera hadn't been forcibly fixed at the pod window you might have missed an awful lot of nice scenery, including the reveal of Rapture, because you were messing around looking at things in the pod.

 

[emeraldrafael]

As long as they're done right (where they;re not showing kick ass action scenes that you cnat possibly do in the game), and they advance the story.

I like the Persona cut scenes, as well as ones from Star Wars Battlefront 2.

 

[Telekinesis]

Depends. I think the best example is Persona 4 - the game's scenes occur in 'real time', I.E using the models and whatnot, occasionally prompting you for a reply, etc. But it still has animated cutscenes for some parts, which is nice.

I think a mix of both is best. Games that cut to a 5 minutes+ cutscene every 15 minutes are fucking terrible though.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Let's consider the other possible extreme: Valveing. We really don't want that.

Huh? I thought it worked perfectly in Valve's games.

And Bioshock for that matter, and that scene wouldn't have half the impact if your character acted via cutscene. That twist was extremely dependant on player agency at all times, and fused gameplay and story in this brilliant harmony.

But not all games should go without cutscenes. That would be ridiculous.
Diversity is a good thing.

 

[Valkyrie101]

It's clear that some form of narrative exposition is necessary. Personally, I'd take an interesting, well-animated cutscene over a system like the first Assassin's Creed, where you just walk up and down while you're being talked at. It always looks unnatural, and it's even more frustrating than not being able to control anything, because while you can move, it's heavily restricted. In FPSs, it's possible to get by with short sections where you can look around but are frozen, because that's all that's needed to convey minimal story details. In any other game though, and in a lot of FPSs, cutscenes are better.

 

[Legion]

I like cutscenes, especially the ones in Mass Effect 1 and 2.

I do like games that can work ways around them though, as long as the story can still come across.

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.

That's a bit odd. Why would a character have to act exactly as you would?

Exactly... that's why they are a character, not an avatar of the player.

It'd be like me saying "I stopped playing Halo because I wouldn't try and destroy the Halo rings, I'd want to save them". Or something along those lines.

 

[dibblywibbles]

cutscenes are important to me because I like watching movies. I'm also the type of person that explores all dialog options and actually pays attention to what they say. man if it weren't for those story building cutscenes, I'd probably find rpg's as boring as I do rts's. that would suck.

 

[GeorgW]

Well, portal and ME has made some strides, and that's great. But I like a good cut scene once in a while.

 

[kuyo]

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.

That's a bit odd. Why would a character have to act exactly as you would?

because having a disparity between the player controlled character and the cutscene character makes it look like his minds completely broken. (i.e. shifts between player controlled looting and game controlled persecution of thieves. PC maniacal murder fun vs GC war is hell message.)

 

[KalosCast]

Like anything in games, saying no games should have a cut-scene or saying every game should have cut-scenes are both completely moronic statements.

They work better in some games than in others, but generally speaking: well implemented ones will improve the game immensely, while poorly implemented ones will be the cause of the worst moments in the game.

 

[Cursed Frogurt]

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?

You're asking this on the escapist?!

Have you seen the number of anime avatars?

What do you expect?

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Depends on the game, and since it will eventually be posted:

They may be a bit overused now days...

 

[GotMalkAvian]

It definitely depends on the game and the reasons for the cut scene. Cut scenes are great for showing events that simply couldn't be handles within the context of a game. Fighting games aren't known for RPG elements, for example, so cutscenes handle character interactions that don't involve violence. Also, the romantic scenes in the Mass Effect games could really only be handled by cutscenes; anything player-controlled would probably lack the emotion necessary to make those scenes work.

On the other hand, I hate when games have unnecessary or contradictory cutscenes. How often have we seen a JRPG cutscene where a character is introduced in a blaze of glory, only to have that same character suddenly be excruciatingly weak as soon as they join the party? Also, cutscenes that just seem to show gameplay mechanics in action (Devil May Cry seems to like doing this with some of their more action-oriented cutscenes), whereas these scenes could've easily been handled by the player, and perhaps even worked into a sort of tutorial.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yes I do like it allows me to skip story things that I already know from previous play throughs when I am on a speed run.