Cutscenes in video-games: YAY or NAY?

[luc0s]

Cutscenes in video-games: YAY or NAY?

In this topic I want to discuss cutscenes in video-games and whether they are a positive addition to video-games or not.

First, let me explain what this topic is about. Then I'll present some pro's and con's about cutscenes in video-games. And then I'm curious to what you guys think about this subject.


This topic is about the usage of cutscenes in video-games to present a story or narrative to the player. Cutscenes are often story-driven and used for the single purpose of moving the story forward. Storytelling in video-games is difficult and trying to get your players into a certain state of emotion can be difficult. A cutscene can help with his, as it's easy to make an emotionally loaded cutscene. Well, I have to so relatively easy, because it's still pretty hard to nail a certain state of emotion in a cutscene.


We could argue that cutscenes are a welcome addition to video-games. They help moving the story forward, they help getting the player into a certain mood or state of emotion and cutscenes are useful tools to flesh-out your characters through dialogue, bodylanguage, gestures and facial expressions that would otherwise go unnoticed.

We could also say that cutscenes are an easy way out. Cutscenes are a lazy form of storytelling. It's an easy and familiar formula for storytelling and not always the best choice for a video-games. Cutscenes take away the freedom of the player, forcing the player to passively watch how events unfold. Because of this, cutscenes can break their connection with the player character. After all, in a cutscene, your player character moves and behaves how the directors of the game want him/her to move and behave, not you.


I personally believe that cutscenes are a fine addition to video-games as long as they're not overused. I'm under the impression that a certain emotional reaction from the player can be achieved with cutscenes that are impossible to achieve without cutscenes. An example I would like to give for this argument is this specific cutscene from ME3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrH0Lda0Hds

That cutscene right there is very powerful. I bet plenty of us had to shed a few tears during that cutscene where Mordin died. Not to say that ME3 was a great game, but I have to admit, this specific scene is one of the few very well done scenes in ME3.

Do you think the same emotional reaction could be achieved in video-games without the use of cutscenes?


So, the question for this debate is:

Do you think cutscenes make video-games more immersive and emotional? Or do you think cutscenes take away from the immerison and emotional investment? Do you think cutscenes are necessary to tell a compelling and emotional story in a video-game?

 

[steelbom]

It's late, so I've little to say right now but yes I do think they're necessary. I always get pulled in when playing games like The Witcher 2, and Mass Effect 2. It's essentially bringing the immersion and emotion of a movie into your game.

 

[Pangaea666]

If done right I think it adds something to the game that is hard to get otherwise. But if overdone it feels tacky and you get annoyed each time the character is pulled out of your control. And nowadays cutscenes are often overdone. I thought they were done very well in two of my favourite games, The Witcher and Mafia. The final cutscene in Mafia, that wraps up the story post the game's end, was beautifully done and I was close to tears. In The Witcher they generally don't butt in, but adds something to the story. That is how cutscenes should be used. But often they are just all over the place, like in the despiced DA2 game. I thankfully only played the demo of that disaster of a game, but cutscenes were still all over the place.

It's one of those questions that is hard to answer with dichotomous options. So I'll say, "Yes, in moderate doses".

 

[227]

I personally believe that cutscenes are a fine addition to video-games as long as they're not overused.

Agree 100%. A game that uses them sparingly can be bettered for their ability to show things outside the constraints of the engine (the Final Fantasy games on the PS1 did this masterfully), but games like Metal Gear Solid 4 that consist of nothing but cutscenes are made worse for them because they wind up being a crutch.

The first MGS game had many cutscenes, but they provided mostly non-essential back story more than they actually furthered the plot. Instead, the plot and characters in that game were almost entirely fleshed out by the codec, and that's the crucial difference between a game that succeeds with cutscenes and one that fails. They're there for seasoning, not to provide crucial information that would be better conveyed in-game. Putting a little of the plot in the cutscenes is fine, but moderation is key because they're like salt and pepper: A little can make the whole thing a bit better, but dumping huge globs on it makes the dish completely unpalatable.

Do you think cutscenes are necessary to tell a compelling and emotional story in a video-game?

No. If they were, we wouldn't still be talking about Planescape, a game in which the most compelling and emotional moments take place through dialogue. It's far more difficult to write material that compelling, but when you do, it's practically immortal.

 

[wichat]

I think that a cut-scene (agood cut-scene in a good game, specially RPGs) turns a mere game in a interactive movie. I don't know if I explain quite right myself.

 

[luc0s]

No. If they were, we wouldn't still be talking about Planescape, a game in which the most compelling and emotional moments take place through dialogue. It's far more difficult to write material that compelling, but when you do, it's practically immortal.

Good point. You make me want to play Planetscape now. Because yeah, I hate to admit it, but I've never played that game.

 

[yayodeanno.831]

Way, when needed. I'm a big fan of cinematic games.
Also: Cutscenes Aren't A Failure State

 

[luc0s]

I think that a cut-scene (agood cut-scene in a good game, specially RPGs) turns a mere game in a interactive movie. I don't know if I explain quite right myself.

true, but is it a good thing or a bad thing? Do you prefer "interactive movie games" or plain and standard video-games like we had 15 years ago?

 

[wichat]

It is a GOOD thing, at least for me and my way of playing.+1

 

[luc0s]

Way, when needed. I'm a big fan of cinematic games.
Also: Cutscenes Aren't A Failure State

Woah awesome video! Thanks for sharing! Very enlightening indeed.

 

[omerbu1]

Cutscenes are a very good way to forward the narrative and give more story details but there's a catch in them:
1.never overuse cutscnes,MGS4 is a perfect example.
2.in order to make a cutscene a good layout of the story you need it to be perfect,not good or enough,perfect.
most of ME2 cutscenes are example for perfect cutscene and the Vergen Battle cutscnes in Act II on Iorveth path are perfect example for bad cutscenes.

 

[spacehamsterZH]

I really don't think there's any way to give a definitive yes or no answer to this question. As basically everyone else has already said, it's not a question of whether the cutscenes should or shouldn't be there, but whether they're done well. There are definitely games where they're intrusive, take up space or are just plain poorly done, but there are others where they actually complement the overall pacing of the game and/or it feels more like the game is rewarding you with an awesome cutscene for accomplishing something. It's a narrative tool, it's not "good" or "bad" in and of itself, it just depends how it's used.

Specifically for RPGs, I definitely think there's a sensible use for them. A CRPG only ever gives the player the illusion of choice, compared to a PnP RPG where you can really do whatever you want at any given point; where they excel is being able to actually show you what's happening, rather than having some dude tell it to you and then rolling dice to determine whether you win the fight (hence also why I prefer the more action oriented combat in TW2 because it's a way of giving me control over my character that PnP RPG actually can't give me.) Cutscenes are one way of doing that.

For my tastes, it's mostly a matter of pacing. Combat-cutscene-combat-cutscene is fine in action games if the cutscenes aren't too frequent or too long. RPGs can use them, but it shouldn't be the only storytelling tool.

 

[chlong7]

A good cutscene is not lazy storytelling any more than bad gameplay is active storytelling. Every aspect of computer gaming can be done well or poorly.

YAY. Cutscenes are a great tool. One of many in the toolbox.

 

[mrowakus]

Cutsences are the EVIL and BANE of modern games and the less of them the better. The only kind of cutscenes I can tolerate are:

1) Cutscenes depicting the events outside of our character's control
2) Interactive dialogues which have cinematic feel to them.
3) Cutscenes providing additional lore, provided that this lore is common knowledge to everyone in the world.

All the other cases, at least to my mind, prove designers' powerlessness to tell the story through gameplay, which indicates that there's something terribly wrong with it. That may not be a big deal in a shooter but in an RPG it's tantamount to blasphemy.

If you find that your character or the character of the enemy displays unlikely prowess in a cutscene the likes of which you/he cannot perform in gameplay - it's a bad cutscene. If your character start acting uncharacterestically dumb in a cutscene so that he surely falls into the trap which you could see from miles away - it's a bad cutscene. If you win in a battle, but then your character gets his arse handed to the enemy he just defeated in a cutscene - it's a bad cutscene. Finally, if you are told that the main theme of the story is e.g. investigation, and then the realisation this theme happens without your input - only in cutscenes - you sure as hell are faced with bad cutscenes.

 

[Garrison72]

All the other cases, at least to my mind, prove designers' powerlessness to tell the story through gameplay, which indicates that there's something terribly wrong with it. That may not be a big deal in a shooter but in an RPG it's tantamount to blasphemy.

I feel completely the opposite. I'd rather cut scenes be short or non-existent in action games. In a 30-40 hr sprawling RPG, I relish the moments with Triss in the elven bath, the events at the end with Sile, Saskia, and those poor soldiers. Cedric's death. I could go on.

 

[mrowakus]

I feel completely the opposite. I'd rather cut scenes be short or non-existent in action games.

I am not saying that there should be cutscenes in action games, but if they are bad there, I think they are far worse in RPGs.

In a 30-40 hr sprawling RPG, I relish the moments with Triss in the elven bath, the events at the end with Sile, Saskia, and those poor soldiers. Cedric's death. I could go on.

Ahh, but these are the example of well done cutscenes - in all of those cutscenes save one the player simply cannot have any control over the events - it happens beside him. And in the case of Triss's bath the cutscene stemmed from player's choice so it's ok - the player had control over that and the cutscene accounted for this.

The examples of bad cutscenes in TW2, to my mind:

- Letho killing Foltest in the way he did, and the protagonist acting all blind. Jesus Christ - who didn't see that one coming? But, ok - it's prologue and Geralt couldn't read the title of the game so maybe it's justified.

- Letho handing Geralt's arse to him in fight in Act 1 - gameplay is directly at odds with the cutscene. Why can't they work together?

- Geralt's flashbacks. Some random guy says some random phrase and Geralt suddenly remembers everything. For such an important thread in the story, this one was solved suprisingly hamfistedly. No gameplay, no quests, no investigation, nothing whatsoever for something this important? Just a bunch of hastily put-together flash animations that spoonfeed the player with info? I bet the team didn't play Planescape: Torment. :/

- Every scene with QTE. QTE can burn in hell.

 

[myari]

I love cutscenes, they tell a story, sometimes they give a nice intro to some huge monster, coversations with the characters in some games and it makes you feel like you have accomplisched something by reaching the next cutscene

Cutescenes are only annoying for me when they happen every minute...so you do not have the feeling playing a game at all but watching a movie

 

[Garrison72]

- Letho killing Foltest in the way he did, and the protagonist acting all blind. Jesus Christ - who didn't see that one coming? But, ok - it's prologue and Geralt couldn't read the title of the game so maybe it's justified.

- Letho handing Geralt's arse to him in fight in Act 1 - gameplay is directly at odds with the cutscene. Why can't they work together?

- Geralt's flashbacks. Some random guy says some random phrase and Geralt suddenly remembers everything. For such an important thread in the story, this one was solved suprisingly hamfistedly. No gameplay, no quests, no investigation, nothing whatsoever for something this important? Just a bunch of hastily put-together flash animations that spoonfeed the player with info? I bet the team didn't play Planescape: Torment. :/

- Every scene with QTE. QTE can burn in hell.

-I agree that the Foltest cutscene could have been handled better, and I've ideas on that which I won't go into here, but yeah that part was telegraphed pretty bad.

-I disagree about the flashbacks because its a useful tool in storytelling, when done sparingly. I'm in a writing group and that was one of the first lessons learned - keep flash backs short and sweet. This is exactly what they did. The alternative is more exposition or journal entries. Either would suffice but I'm for the way it was done.

-I agree 100% and I'll eat my socks if they include QTE's in TW3. They've clearly gotten the message. Martin Iwinski even quipped about it during a presentation for the EE.

 

[phamvan94]

Yay. I want moments where I can sit back, let go off the keyboard and mouse and just watch the story play out. Too many though, often break immersion and keep me from enjoying the game (which is the goal of gaming in the first place). So the developers just have to find a good balance of cutscenes and gameplay, finding the right moment to interrupt it and make a seamless transition.

The only cutscenes I hate are the ones with QTEs.

 

[Blothulfur]

To me most of the cutscenes in Assassins of Kings are of excellent quality and serve to reflect your choices or logical progressions of the plot, that said the amount of times where the protagonist is forced into stupid or out of character actions in the cutscenes of other games (Bioware games and the new Deus Ex spring to mind) is quite galling. So if they're well done they're an aid to the plot, if poorly made they're a hindrance.