Cut The Scenes

Critical Gamer writes: Complaining about cutscenes feels like a futile pursuit for a couple of reasons. Partly because it feels oddly similar to banging a bit of bamboo against the stiff rigor mortis flesh of a deceased equine; partly because it must surely be a fruitless endeavour at this stage. Cutscenes are clearly here to stay and developers are making no secrets about the fact that they all get big, polygonal stiffies whenever they get the chance to live out their moviemaking dreams. I should point out that I have nothing (well…) against cutscenes in theory. In theory they are there to provide the narrative skeleton to a game, presenting aspects of the plot that would have been difficult to convey through gameplay alone. In the olden days they were also a handy tool for developers to show us graphics which the hardware would not have been able to muster up in real time, which broke the flow but looked awesome for the time.

[Jim Crikey]

I like cutscenes.

Don't hit me!!

[gaffyh]

Same here Jim. If you don't like cutscenes, STFU and don't play Kojima's games, simple as that. The attraction of his games is that they are story-heavy, and that can only be told through cutscenes really.

[rockleex]

Or rather, SHOULD, try to to provide more interactive cutscenes while still retaining a cinematic feel.

Its possible, and Kojima's genius enough to be able to pull it off.

[BeaArthur]

There is a difference between story driven and cutscenes that last as long as full length motion pictures. I like cutscenes but I like them in small snippets.

[Downtown boogey]

It's not so say I dont *like* cutscenes, but they're not a part of true gaming.

[DemonStration]

I like cutscenes when appropriate. Rockstar, for example, does cutscenes you can't really argue with. Bioware offers cutscenes you can interact with and change. And Kojima does his Hollywood wannabe thing that certainly has it's own appeal. It's all about what you're doing with your cutscenes. If they're only there to add some story to a game that shouldn't have a story anyway, or pad out the length of a game, or take away interaction when you could easily be participating, then they are bad.

[kneon]

Hold on there, I have much to argue about a particular very important cut scene in Red Dead Redemption. In my opinion they missed a great opportunity to redeem themselves for all the other failings of the story.

SPOILER!!!!!!

So the scene where John is in the barn and then steps out only to get gunned down was really stupid and incongruous to what happened in the game. We just finished killing off several dozen soldiers, taking out a dozen more should have been easy. I had all weapons nearly loaded to the max, I should have been able to just go into the hay loft and lob dynamite at them and then pick off the stragglers.

If they really wanted to have John die then there should have been some epic,, un-winnable battle such as being surrounded while in the barn as wave after wave of soldiers keep coming. Finally the machine guns roll in and they start fire bombing the barn. It would have had much better emotional impact and would have fit in better with the rest of the story. And it would be even better if it wasn't a cut scene, you actually fight the battle only to lose in the end.

[Downtown boogey]

Very true. Games these days shouldn't have cutscenes as they should stay true to themselves. During the whole brief existance of video games they have always touted the possibility to BE and live the character! So let us! I want pure games and not some game-movie hybrids...

[scruffy_bear]

Devil My Cry wounldn't be the same game if it wasn't for all the over the top cut scenes

[UnSelf]

QFT

[mjolliffe]

I do like a few cutscenes, but they need to be good, in the right places and not too many stuffed into one game.

[Inside_out]

Not a huge fan of cut-scenes...for the most part, they take the player out of the game, if done well and are relatively short, they enhance the whole experience...RE4 had the best balance. Short,and to the point. Some parts where moved along with RTE's that took the place of cut scenes while letting the player know the stories plot...some games like UC2 had far to many cut scenes. It felt like you were watching a bad movie. It's all pre-rendered so none of it is in game. Mgs4 had about 25 mins of cut scenes in the first 30 mins of game time. I think that's some kind of record...lol....

[El_Colombiano]

I think that short cut scenes make the game feel cheap and empty. I want a good meaty and meaningful cut scene and lots of them!

[Jockie]

I like well done cutscenes, but I think videogames need to further develop their own style of storytelling, rather than trying to copy film, because they often come across as a poor imitation of cinema in their methods.

[ZombieAutopsy]

Uhh how would games like Uncharted and MGS be if they had no cutscenes, not as good. Not all games need them but some just wouldnt be the same without.

[scruffy_bear]

Total agree games like Uncharted need cutscenes it's really the only way to tell the story

[claterz]

Yeh the Uncharted 2 cutscenes were awesome, really the only good way to tell the story in a game is through cutscenes, and you get to know the characters better. As long as they are fairly short and they don't pop up every 5 minutes they're not a problem for me =)

[Cubes]

I don't mind cut scenes in moderation. Anything over an hour and I begin to get itchy joypad fingers though!

[TheColbertinator]

Go to hell Critical Gamer.Go back to playing your 5 hour shooters with generic gameplay.

[redDevil87]

Games should all have an option to skip cutscenes. I never skip them, but it would be nice for those who don't like cutscenes.

[cobraagent]

I love the cut scenes I love them so much that i can't play a game that doesn't have any(single-player) !!!!!!!!!!

[hoops]

Too many cut scenes and ones thar are long take away from the gameplay element.
I loved MGS4 and consider it one of the best games I have played in the last 10 years, HOWEVER the cut scenes were too long and too many.

[MAGNUM-RAM]

since the playstation era, my goal was to get a cutscene.
its satifaction and a checkpoint. I loved every single mgs4 cutscene. hell, i loved when MGS was all about the codec conversations. i mean really, complaining about metal gear cutscenes is silly because we all know MGS has been about great gameplay and the great cutscenes. we were entertained on 2 fronts.

[vampstreak]

One of the main reasons why i buy video games is for the storytelling and without cutscenes it just wouldn't be the same

[The BS Police]

But to me they need to serve a purpose in the game, sometimes they can be way to short and not offer enough info on what is currently happening in the game, other times they can be to long and serve no purpose.

It all depends on the kind of game I'm playing, in a FPS I don't wnat to see scenes over 15 minutes long but for RPG's I wouldn't have a problem with them.

[rockydennis]

As the writer of this piece I feel I need to clarify something that I don't think came across too well in the article.

I'm not simply lambasting cutscenes as a phenomenon, but very specifically the cutscenes that contradict the story we see in the interactive portions of the game. What I mean is that there is sometimes a glaring lack of consistency between what happens in a cinematic and what happens in the game and it is this that I wanted to rage on a bit. I don't think I made myself that clear from what I can tell in the comments, and that is obviously all my fault. Re-read the piece with this in mind and you'll know better what I am trying to say.

[rockydennis]

And it's weird how people talk about MGS cutscenes when I don't mention any of those games even once in the entire article. The Kojima picture was included as a joke. ;)

[vsr]

Only sports games = don't need cutscenes