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It's not uncommon to find praise for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves that cites its impressive melding of cinema and gameplay. You truly feel like you're playing an Indiana Jones movie, albeit swapping Harrison Ford for Nathan Drake. Paramount to executing that are the game's detailed cut-scenes. Ironically, however, Naughty Dog creative director Bruce Straley told an audience at the Game Developers Conference this afternoon that cut-scenes are "counter to our medium [games]."
"There is a cost for taking away a player's control," cautioned Straley. "In other words, removing control is counter to our medium. If we all wanted to watch a movie, we'd be in a theater."
That's not to say developers shouldn't be incorporating cut-scenes into their game. It's actually a necessity to drive a cinematic narrative, he argued. What's needed is careful balance between cut-scenes, gameplay and finding ways to have the two seamlessly transition from one another.
"If we have a cut-scene," he continued, "we have to weigh whether the moment is dramatic enough to justify a cut-scene, consider how long the cut-scene's going to go on for and how frequently we're going to cut into the gameplay."
Straley was critical of Naughty Dog's execution of his own proposal, walking through instances where the team struggled to meld cut-scenes and gameplay (i.e. Chloe blowing up the truck).
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Comments
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NortheastMonk
Coming from the PSOne era you can easily ignore cinematics being cg or not, but these days they play such a big role in storytelling and gameplay. Uncharted 2 was an amazing game and it's team deserve every single award they're given. You wonder if the dev studios could ever see a halt in lay offs if the industry gained profit from this standard. Just like George Lucas. lol jk
leakime
I love cutscenes! Which is why I love MGS.
Tim_1138
The loss of control in BFBC 2 was what put me off.
Beowulf1250
I honestly don't mind about the balance, as long as the game overall is an enjoyable experience :)
X02
So all things considered, I suppose the amount of cut scenes needed in a game is all relative. It all depends on what kind of narrative the story needs or what type of experience the developer wants to deliver to the gamer.
For a game like RE4 that aimed to inject a dose of action-thriller into the series, of course long cut scenes wouldn't be too necessary. They wanted you in the action, heart racing, at all times thus the shorter cut scenes that often included quick time events (plus there wasn't really that much of a story to tell). For HL2 on the other hand, while they had a large story to deliver, Valve chose to take a very personal approach in the first person perspective thus alleviating the need for cut scenes. As for MGS4, the amount of story and the type of narrative the developer wanted to tell really necessitated long cut scenes. Thus it's comes down to 'what is the story and how do we want to tell it' and games will be formed based what is decided upon.
I guess, in a way, I can see what Straley is saying - a movie isn't a game, thus taking control away from the gamer takes away the 'game' aspect. However, games have come to be so much more than from the days of Pong and Frogger. Now they often require deep narratives and it is up to the developer to determine what they need to do to tell this story, to give this experience the way it should be delivered and I don't think there is no set correct way that would apply to all stories. So long cut scenes, no cut scenes, it all depends. Different ways appeal to different people but they are all valid. At the end of the day, I'm just glad that there are so many good games for me to enjoy.
Tmidiman
I understand the need for cut-scense, but when reviewers get all hyped up on that over game play it makes me wonder. It's my opinion tht they are scoring more on the movie than the game. Whatever. At least Morgan got the hint and didn't drool all over MGS4 at it's next showing at E3.
I guess some people are more movie watchers than game players and that's cool. It's just that when I want opinions on a game I might like I'd rather hear from gamers than movie watchers. Whatever I agree with Straley.
BTW I don't like FPS. I like Open-World games. Mostly because I control how much fun I have and I'm fine with that. I don't need to be spoon fed to enjoy a game.
KingOfOldSkool
I agree to a certain extent.. but I have a problem pigeon holing gaming with either side of the cut scene debate. The beauty of gaming as a medium is it's unique ability to take the best of all other mediums and divvy it up into whatever portions best serve their intended vision.
No cut scenes, hella cut scenes.. single player only, heavily MP focused.. braindead fun, philosophically minded, so on and so forth. All that matters is that developers go with what "they" want to use when trying to realize their vision.. some gamers will like it, some not.. its a matter of taste.. and their should be plenty of ways to express it. As it stands now.. if more devs want "interactive movies" for games, go for it.. Hollywood has been churning out nothing but garbage for years now anyways.
B1ack_Blob
@samaside
I think you'll find that most gamers aren't like you, we play games because they're fun to play, and a good story is just a bonus. What gives a game longevity is how fun it is, thats why you put a hell of a lot more hours into a multiplayer game than a single player one. Usually when a game is really good, it's the multiplayer that really shines through. (notice I said usually) More often than not, there is no storyline in the multiplayer part.
CareyGrant
HL2 aside, I feel there are some parts of story and action that are better told by cinematics. And personally, not having to worry about game control, I'm allowed to sit back and absorb how something pivotal or meaningful to the story unfolds. Indeed, I kind of feel like cinematics are small rewards -like in-game pieces of chocolate- that praise me for moving forward or doing well; drawing you into the story further, driving you forward.
What's more, where else can you have meaningful dialogue between characters without cut-scenes? It's not like we as players, through our characters, can converse freely with the environment we're playing in.
Now, cut-scenes can be done to death (MSG4), thus it depends on the developer to strike that balance of what's appropriate to the story, the pacing, the "feel" and play of the game. But cut-scenes are still an invaluable tool for story telling, one I don't believe it's antithetical to video games, provided it's not beaten into the ground.
raulortiz2009
uncharted 2 and god of war 3 the best game of all times wooo hooo!!!
tragedy93
I think quicktime events ruin the point of cutscenes. Yes they did work great in Res Evil 4, but I'm not so sure theres anything wrong with the way Metal Gear Solid 4 did cutscenes. As I said before, the MGS franchise has a great story to begin with (I'm not saying that Res Evil doen't, either) so I don't see what they would achieve besides alienating core fans. The problem for me stems from games that use cutscenes very poorly and have jarring transitions between the cutscenes and gameplay, ie cutscenes that look out of place compared to the rest of the game, cutscenes that have porr quality acting or storytelling and cutscenes with long loading times before and after them.
X02
The issue of transition from game to cinematic has me thinking. Would a good way to tackle this problem be to involve the player in the cut scene? Of course we have seen this previously in games such Residental Evil 4 to much success. With games with lengthy cut scenes such as MGS4, would including quick time events be a positive addition or would it detract from players enjoying the cinematic experience as they would be waiting for, anticipating a quick time event to occur and not enjoying the narrative?
tragedy93
Games cost how many tens or even hundreds of millions to make as it is and people are quibbling over how games might as well come with more features and the "high" cost of DLC? If you really want the devs to use all 40-50+ plus gigs on a blu-ray (of course thats double density, kaching!) and give us even more features than they already do expect games to tack on an additional five years to the already three to five years it takes a game to go from the point of preproduction to when it comes out. And correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most AAA titles come with the "DVD-like" features you mentioned, case in point: both Uncharted games have a LOT of features like this such as making of...documentaries, concept art, and assorted other extras such as filters character models, costumes, etc. The only thing specifically that you mentioned that isn't pretty standard is "deleted scenes" and I figured that was what a lot of DLC was, which I'm fine with. The devs and publishers have to find some way to recoup some of their money after all.
tsep23
X02,
I disagree. I loved the cut scenes of MSG4 and I'd prefer they'd do more of it. Bluray's can handle 50 plus GB. I'd like them to use all the space they have available. Developers are really dropping the ball with the blurays on PS3. Every game should come with the same features that you might find on a DVD. Things like deleted scenes/cut scenes, maybe some footage of the development team while they were building the game. If they are going to hit us up for $15-$20 in DLC mind as well make it worth while and give us something extra.
tragedy93
Sorry, I had to post that way because the profanity detector was acting glitchy.
tragedy93
I guess if it is done well, and this goes for any other part of the game- cutscenes are fine, but otherwise, why bother having them at all,- unless of course it is being used as a tool to give you a break from bad gameplay, therefore letting you play the game a few hours or even minutes longer than you would have otherwise.
tragedy93
Most game designers don't know how to write a story and have never taken a literature or creative writing class.
Tmidiman ShowHide(5 Replies)
Ah yes, movies,..ummm, I mean cut-scenes. Somethiing I have always spoken about. Many games, MANY SONY GAMES, are more movie than game.
I remember when MGS4 was first previewed at E3. Morgan Webb was crazy about it,but wat she was crazy about was not game-play, but cut scenes.
I think many of sony's top games are rated highly not on game content, but on cut-scenes. Cough GOW III cough) More and more reiewers only care about cut-scenes. Even Final Fantasy is all about the cut-scene.
Well not that a dev has mentioned it maybe it will be seen for what it truely is. but I doubt it.
tragedy93
I think its great that Metal Gear Solid can appropriately integrate cutscenes into the game, but then again, Metal Gear Solid has a great storyline to work with
tragedy93
I just personally hate it when the cutscenes look like they used an entirely different technology than the rest of the game. I like my characters and gameworld to look consistant throughout the game and generally the best way to do that is by having no transition at all between the story and the gameplay.
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