Should Cutscenes only show stuff you can do ingame?

[heyheysg]

For example, in Wolfenstein, the hero manages to punch out several guards, jump over a lifeboat and swing from a hook and hijack an airplane.

I haven't completed the game yet, but I doubt you can actually do that in the game.

On the other hand, if this was Uncharted, you could probably perform those actions.

Next up we have Wolverine Origins that puts the cutscenes pretty close to the action. While Devil May Cry takes it up a notch too far.

The biggest offender would be RPG's, especially turned based ones.

 

[Flying-Emu]

No, otherwise it would be nearly impossible to tell an interesting narrative.

 

[Timotei]

No, otherwise it would be nearly impossible to tell an interesting narrative.

Spoiler: /thread

 

[Magic Muffin Man]

As awesome as it would be to, say, do all the stuff Cloud does in Advent Children/FMVs in FFVII's battles, There would be no point to watching the cutscenes then, would there? Sure, there's story to tell, but we all know that we play games for eye candy; If we wanted a good tale, we'd read a book.

 

[Timotei]

No. The Raiden sceen's in MGS4 are some of the awesomest moments in the game, and I don't think you shouldn't have them because Snake can't stop of boat in it's tracks.

You're right, he's too busy stumbling around after getting the shit kicked out of him by everything.

 

[NeutralDrow]

No. For a couple of reasons.

1. If cutscenes only showed what you could do in-game, why have cutscenes?

2. Cutscenes can be pretty damned entertaining on their own, not taking gameplay limitations into account.

Spoiler: I will always cite this as an example.

Ironically, this does show something cool that you can do in-game: body-surfing.

 

[olicon]

That's like saying "should movies only show what you can do in real life?" Why would you bother having cutscenes if it is doable in game? Cutscenes are there to relate the story, to fill in the gap where normal gameplay experience fails. It would be counter-intuitive to do such thing.

 

[SharPhoe]

Ironically, this does show something cool that you can do in-game: body-surfing.

Funny thing about that: If I recall correctly, you're never explicitly told how to do that, are you?

 

[MetalGearSukd]

@ IdealistComm

I agree because then snake and raiden would be unable to jump in cutscenes...

come to think of it so would a lot of other really poorly designed game characters.

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

No.

All the reasons are already said.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Ironically, this does show something cool that you can do in-game: body-surfing.

Funny thing about that: If I recall correctly, you're never explicitly told how to do that, are you?

Not that I remember, though one of the secret missions ("Hang Ten") hints at it. Other than that, you find out either by this cutscene, or accidentally jumping onto a downed enemy.

 

[heyheysg]

Here's my point, instead of putting impossible actions in cutscenes, why not take those actions and match them as closely as you can in the "game world"

Talking, running and other movement actions are possible and believable, but doing cool stuff in cutscenes you can never do in the game just makes it lame.

God of War does a pretty good job at this with QTE's, they effectively negate the use for cutscenes when your hero can literally bring down giants. Even though you aren't performing those with regular moves, you still feel that the character is being controlled by you.

MGS2 has the HF Sword which allowed you to actually pull of ninja moves.

Batman Arkham Asylum has the entirety of Batman's moves available outside of cutscenes.

So did Infamous and Prototype

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

It seems to me that what one can do in-game would be too limited to create compelling sequences to drive the story.

 

[Kajt]

No, they would be horrible if they only showed stuff you can do in-game.

 

[olicon]

The next logical question should then be, why can't we do all these things in game?

 

[IamQ]

Nope, I wouldn't want the ending of Arkham Asylum to have batman just spraying explosive gel on the floor and cripple Jokers feet.

 

[Erana]

Well, it would amount to a bunch of QTEs, wouldn't it?