Since the early days of the video game industry, cut-scenes have been incorporated to relay information to the player. Simon Nielson argues that “many games with a sophisticated story use this technique to situate player actions in a fictional world that can thus be described with great authorial control.” While many argue that cut-scenes primarily exist in games to boast graphical capabilities by rendering pixilated heroes doing simple activities like talking to each other, they in fact have more purpose. Firstly, they introduce a central narrative tension. Many games use cinematic sequences to set up the scenery, mood and characters of the game. Two introductory cut-scenes that I remember recently hooking me in were those in Fable II and Lost Odyssey.
Cut-scenes also allow the game to shape the storyline in a new way. For instance, when a certain area is reached in a game, the player may be interrupted with an event to move the narrative along. Depending on the genre, many games utilize cut-scenes to compensate for missing game narratives. Platforming games, in general, suffer from a lack of storyline due to the limitations of the game mechanics. However, they can make for this with usage of cut-scenes. The Grand Theft Auto series is a prime example of this. The start of every mission begins with a cut-scene to introduce the purpose of the mission, set the mood and introduce characters, but the rest of the game is non-interrupted. Nielson also states that they are a great way of converging games with film. As seen with the two links above from Fable II and Lost Odyssey, the camera work and sound effects are as well-crafted as a feature film. Lastly, cut-scenes may provide players with useful information. For instance, before each stage in Super Mario Galaxy, the camera scans the map and eventually shows the location of the star the player is supposed to find.
Many critics dispute the usage of cut-scenes in video games, claiming that they are too much of a burden for the actual gameplay and provide too many interruptions. However, a recent trend in video games is to avoid cut-scenes entirely. Popularized by Half-Life, the player retains control of the character at all times, including during non-interactive scripted sequences. This can be witnessed is such games like Splinter Cell, Bioshock, Dead Space and Assassins Creed.
While I personally enjoy watching cut-scenes, I think that developers can get too dependent of them. Games like Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX incorporated them in a perfect way. They served their purpose of progressing the story, setting the mood, displaying beautiful graphics, and weren’t too long. Any cut-scene that does not allow the option to pause and lasts more than 30 minutes is pretty ridiculous. I remember my brother finishing Star Ocean: The Last Hope around 1:00AM. He had to wake up for work the next morning at 5:30. The ending cut-scene of that game lasted nearly two hours and he was not able to pause through it. Thus, he was forced to stay up all night. What do you guys think about this? Are developers too dependent on cut-scenes or are they too much of a distraction to the actual gameplay? Have you ever had a similar situation like my brother’s?
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