Enough Cinematics already!

[shadowroguetbc]

Maybe this is just a weird opinion I have that not a lot of people will agree with...

But how do you guys feel about excessive cinematics in video games? I have noticed in a lot of the newer video games I have played that they all are REALLY leaning toward a more cinematic art style in order to tell their story, and I personally believe this is lame story telling for the video game genre specifically.

Yes, I believe cinematics do have their place in video games, maybe to wrap up a giant story line, and making them few and far between. Think of the original halo for example.

I just got into this game called outsiders and I LOVE the gameplay, but holy. Fucking. Shit.... is it riddled with cutscenes/cinematics. I’m talking about every 5 mins of gameplay gives you a 5 minutes of cutscenes and cinematics built into the game itself. I tried to watch them all to follow the story, but through my limited time of playing I found myself sitting there and watching a cinematic instead of actually playing the damn video most of the time, so I just started skipping them so I could actually, you know, play the video game.

This isn’t just this game that I have noticed this either, WoW has done the same thing as well with their story telling and quite frankly... I don’t like it....

I personally believe video games are leaning too much on their cinematics to push their story, instead of finding ways to tell their stories through actual gameplay, and I personally hate it. And just to repeat, I think cinematics for SURE have their place in video games, but I think they need to be used in order to wrap up a specific point in a storyline, and be used very rarely, so when it comes time to showing a cutscene you are drawn in and you want to watch it to see what happens. Instead of watching 90% of your game when you could be playing it.

Does anyone else feel this way?

[XDurionX]

I've been skipping video sequences for years now, it's very rare that i watch them. Most stories in gaming are panifully generic and cringeworthy anyway.

[shadowroguetbc]

I've been skipping video sequences for years now, it's very rare that i watch them. Most stories in gaming are panifully generic and cringeworthy anyway.

I don’t want to sound too “well back in the day”ish because maybe there are still games that do this, but I don’t know if I think the stories are all that bad. I think Diablo 2s story was great, and i can probably count the amount of cinematics on one hand. The difference is they tell their story through the game and not cutscenes. Dialog can really go a long long way and I think that it has been a dying strategy to telling stories for quite some time.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Are you taking pre-rendered cinematics/FMVs, like the intros to Blizzard games? Or are you talking about cutscenes in general?

I play JRPGs like Trails and FFXIV so I can tolerate 45 minute long cutscenes, provided that it's good storytelling (which in the case of Trails and FFXIV is usually the case).

[shadowroguetbc]

Are you taking pre-rendered cinematics/FMVs, like the intros to Blizzard games? Or are you talking about cutscenes in general?

I play JRPGs like Trails and FFXIV so I can tolerate 45 minute long cutscenes, provided that it's good storytelling (which in the case of Trails and FFXIV is usually the case).

I mean the cutscenes and FMVs that are specifically in the middle of your gameplay specifically meant to tell a story. Like you’re playing wow and finish a quest and you get a 5 minute cutscene showing some story telling.

I just think they are way way way too overused in today’s video games when I think if they just tried something like turning it into gameplay it would make it infinitely better.

Like look back at some quests in wow (I’m just using wow because I can see in your sig you must have played it), back in wotlk there was that quest to invade undercity that had tons of dialog and it pushed the story through gameplay. Today, I don’t think they would even have bothered making this gameplay, they would have just given you a 5 minute video showing some “epic” battles and called it a day. And even if they would have made it an event, it would have inevitably still had a 5 min video.

[Bryntrollian]

back in wotlk there was that quest to invade undercity that had tons of dialog and it pushed the story through gameplay. Today, I don’t think they would even have bothered making this gameplay, they would have just given you a 5 minute video showing some “epic” battles and called it a day. And even if they would have made it an event, it would have inevitably still had a 5 min video.

That questline you mentioned did have a 5 minute video, and I think it was one of the most amazing parts of the game.

[shadowroguetbc]

That questline you mentioned did have a 5 minute video, and I think it was one of the most amazing parts of the game.

That it did, but I guess I should have restated something I said before, the magic in these was that this was one of how many cinematics you hit while leveling back then?

Today, if I was leveling, I could possibly hit tons of these random cinematics and cutscenes.

Maybe using that example sort of blurred my point.

Because like I said, I think there should be cinematics, but for wrapping up a giant storyline, almost exactly like the wrath gate did.

[minteK917]

I think cinematic are a tool as everything else in a good story telling video games. Some game can make very good use of long ass cutscenes, provided the game itself makes you give a shit about its story. On the other hand, games are a different media and you can tell a non linear story, where you discover what is going on while actually playing the game and let the set pieces and the lore make you think of what is going on. I think as cryptic as fromsoft story always are. Bloodborne is the peak of this idea that a game can be fun, thematically rich, with an engrossing lore without having to tell you almost anything. If you pay just a little attention while playing the game, you ultimately understand the nightmare, the dream, the hunt and the blood healing church. Theres no story being told as your character, instead the story is you discovering what happened and what is happening during the game. Your character is wandering inside the people of Yharnam story.

[Fencers]

Can't stand cinematics. I skip all skippable ones in most cases.

I skip almost all dialogue and cutscenes too. Nothing matches my hatred of tutorials though,.

[Super Kami Dende]

I like cinematics if they are used in a decent way. Games where its like 5mins of cinematics then you press X to walk through a door and start another cinematic is just Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Shoxu]

I love a cut scene and I remember playing Metal Gear Solid looking forward to seeing the next one.

My most fav cut scene of recent times is the Illidan one from Legion, "my destiny is my own!" I revisit it on YouTube every so often.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Really depends on the game. If it's FF10 or WoW, I'll watch the hell out of it, providing I can skip it a second time. Because just hearing stuff like 'I hate you!' and having to hear it every time I fight the boss is... anoyying

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And lets not even talk about those damn cutscenes before you fight the last few bosses in FF10

[shadowroguetbc]

I guess everyone draws the line somewhere else. But I have also read that ppl think there is too much of that for example in SWtoR. Maybe also FFXIV. As for WoW...hm...I wouldn't call those "excessive". Sometimes actually the roleplay is worse, at least cutscenes you can skip. But yeah...things like a small cutscene / cinematic when rolling a character and getting introduced to the race or after defeating the endboss...that is fine. Actually the least I expect. And I usually like cinematics that games throw out when they get released or x-pac is introduced.

I wouldn’t say wow is the biggest offender of this, just more so that they have gotten worse with it compared to what they use to do.

Just a little example is if you Google “all (insert expansion here) cinematics” you’ll see what I’m talking about. Tbc and wotlk had maybe like 20ish to 30ish mins of cutscenes total, and if you look at more recent expansions it’s closer to like 2 hours.

[Mysterymask]

And lets not even talk about those damn cutscenes before you fight the last few bosses in FF10

Oh no LETS...
I love a good cutscene as much as the rest but I practically had the cutscenes before Lady Yunalesca fucking memorized since dear fucking god who's bright idea was it to literally put some of the LONGEST cutscenes in the game right before the HARDEST STORY BOSS IN SAID GAME and not let us skip said cutscene. I remember when I first fought her.. like after death number 6 I started the cutscene, went to the kitchen to make some breakfast, ATE said breakfast, made another cup of coffee, sat back down and said cutscenes were still going!

FF10's cutscenes are wonderful (Even the fake laugh scene before SOMEONE mentions it..I swear that is taken out of context so damned much) but that game would get so much more milage if they let us skip them.

Even Metal Gear's cutscenes which is quite literally goes from OMG AMAZING STORY to Hideo Kojima lecturing us on the dangers of Nuclear Weapons are AT LEAST skippable.

[LordVargK]

WoW does not have many long cinematics. In SL I can't remember any that is 5 min long. Mostly they are short scenes that setup a scenery change. Even the covenant finishing cinematics don't last 5 minutes. Not even the ones regarding Torghast are that long. I really don't know what you're complaining about here.

Yes, in the intro scenario there are cutscenes. But they are not the problem. the unskippable scenario is. Everything else is pretty short. Also they are skippable and a way better way to tell the story than questtexts.

[shadowroguetbc]

Hm....might be. Then again, now in SL we tell the stories of 4 covenants and little in game cinematics like us placing quest objects ...I am fine with that. And hey..."The Vessel of Ardenweald" is pretty emotional and works best IMHO as a cutscene and NOT as reading quest text. In fact..that would have ruined it.

But that's just me...so I shall stay diplomatic with "I guess everyone draws the line somewhere else". Sure, for somebody who once saw them as a reward might get annoyed if they become plenty. Then there are those who think the Warbringers animated shorts that were released outside of WoW should have been part of the game.

Sorry for focussing on WoW here...it is the one I played most. So far the increase isn't annoying me....and as I said, it seems there are MMOs out there where ppl said they outright refuse to level alts because of the amount of unskippable cutscenes and cinematics. I sure would hate that too.

Eh I don’t necessarily mean they should just be quest text to tell the story, I’m talking actual gameplay, similar to the wrathgate in wotlk to let you PLAY the story.

And like I said, I’m not calling them all bad, I haven’t played shadowlands so I had to look up the cinematic you brought up, and this type of cutscene is good! I’m just assuming this is wrapping up a bigger story you have already played through, so this isn’t the type of cutscene I’m criticizing cutscenes that do not need to be in the game and could be replaced by gameplay telling the story.

And really wow isn’t really my main focus. Maybe you haven’t played it yet, but this new game called outriders, which is a ton of fun, is what I was mainly bringing up.

If you haven’t played it yet here is a link to the ‘all cutscenes’ to see how many there are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWUGCd1CsmM

Also, I know no one wants to watch all of these, but I’ll provide some context. There are 30 levels in this game for your character, I have no idea how much ‘story’ is in the end game... but I’ve played probably like 2 nights worth of this game, getting around level 21ish and maybe like 4-5ish hours played.... and I’ve already skipped an hour and a half of cutscenes....

Games that do this are ridiculous IMO. I think this specifically is lazy story telling that could have been used in gameplay instead of just “stop playing for 10 mins and watch this”.

[Adam Jensen]

I skip almost all dialogue and cutscenes too. Nothing matches my hatred of tutorials though,.

OMG This.

Every single Halo game "teaching me" how to move the camera

I KNOW HOW TO MOVE THE CAMERA BUNGIE/343 STUDIOS! I'M NOT BRAIN DEAD.

Or Monster Hunter where I couldn't even open the settings until I got out of the tutorial section.

Or a myriad games where they lock your basic abilities behind a tutorial section. Like jesus, let me just run my hand over my controller to see what does what, stop holding my goddamned hand.

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I like cinematics if they are used in a decent way. Games where its like 5mins of cinematics then you press X to walk through a door and start another cinematic is just Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Or games where you load for 3 minutes, get a cinematic, and then load for another 3 minutes . . .

*cough*outriders*cough*

[kranur]

Cinematics are good and all but yeah some games do them waaaay too much.

[VinceVega]

Maybe this is just a weird opinion I have that not a lot of people will agree with...

But how do you guys feel about excessive cinematics in video games? I have noticed in a lot of the newer video games I have played that they all are REALLY leaning toward a more cinematic art style in order to tell their story, and I personally believe this is lame story telling for the video game genre specifically.

Yes, I believe cinematics do have their place in video games, maybe to wrap up a giant story line, and making them few and far between. Think of the original halo for example.

I just got into this game called outsiders and I LOVE the gameplay, but holy. Fucking. Shit.... is it riddled with cutscenes/cinematics. I’m talking about every 5 mins of gameplay gives you a 5 minutes of cutscenes and cinematics built into the game itself. I tried to watch them all to follow the story, but through my limited time of playing I found myself sitting there and watching a cinematic instead of actually playing the damn video most of the time, so I just started skipping them so I could actually, you know, play the video game.

This isn’t just this game that I have noticed this either, WoW has done the same thing as well with their story telling and quite frankly... I don’t like it....

I personally believe video games are leaning too much on their cinematics to push their story, instead of finding ways to tell their stories through actual gameplay, and I personally hate it. And just to repeat, I think cinematics for SURE have their place in video games, but I think they need to be used in order to wrap up a specific point in a storyline, and be used very rarely, so when it comes time to showing a cutscene you are drawn in and you want to watch it to see what happens. Instead of watching 90% of your game when you could be playing it.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Lovem. All of them. If you don't like them skip them. People working on cinematics will not work on the game otherwise. Different jobs.
Every game i ever played has been made better with cinematics. Even back with settlers 3 where the gods had to paint the universe white again.

Cinematics are an easy way to show stuff that has nothing to do with fighting you cannot change or stuff you char is no part of but important anyway.
It creates a better atmosphere than just... standing there with your PC doing nothing while an NPC babbles at one point.
Also you can get more animation in it as it is prerendered mostly. So better facial expression. I NEVER played a game where i thought: Oh no this game would be so good if they only have less cinematics.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

As long as the cinematics can be skipped...I don't see the problem.