Cutscenes- Are They Necessary?

I think cutscenes are as others have mentioned useful tools. How they are used ultimately determines how necessary they are.

It is very possible to have pointless cutscenes other times a cut scene can be very useful for helping tell the story or show certain moments that game mechanics show with gameplay.

It really depends on the context of the game and the cutscenes in question.

Both interactive and non-interactive cut scenes work just fine in various ways.

I do believe you have to be careful about the length, context, placement, and avoiding overuse of cutscenes.

Who watches the watchmen?

I get extremely annoyed when people say that Half-Life 2 has no cutscenes. I mean, I guess very technically it doesn't, but what else do you call being forced to watch NPCs talk, spouting out dialogue about things you don't know about and can't possibly know about because the game never tells you? It's especially annoying when you have to wait for/listen to an NPC so they open a door, because apparently our inter-dimensional super weapon for hire can't trusted with keys, or that little EMP tool Alyx always carries around.

I mean sure, technically you can just jump around like an idiot and throw crap at them, but no one actually reacts, they just ignore you. And they lock the doors. And they're Friendly Fireproof. And show no reaction to you blowing yourself up with a grenade in their vicinity. It's clear that the developers didn't intend for you to do any of this, but rather just sit there and be confused, but then, what's even the point of making them interactive? It really breaks the immersion (well, more than being able to take dozens of bullets and having a player character who always fires from the hip already did). And being forced to sit and watch scripted events happen with control taken away from you are basically the same thing as cutscenes (the beginning of Episode 1, the Hunter skewering Alyx in Episode 2, the G-Man scene in Episode 2, both Advisor scenes in Episode 2...).

edited 23rd Oct '13 9:28:47 PM by CPFMfan

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Some may think that cutscenes are FMV's only.

Really, a cutscene is when you stop controlling your character for a period of time(that isn't just talking to an NPC, choose dialogue box, since that's not a real scene) while the game itself plays. Sometimes you can control the dialogue if it has any. You often can't pause it either, as it continues naturally. I've seen most handheld RPG's have dialogue boxes while the console ones have long cutscenes that are essentially a movie in disguise. I'm not sure if Metal Gear Solid 4's cutscenes are the same as controllable dialogue cutscenes or a Movie. I haven't played it, so it may be a third variation? I'm thinking it could be alike the Final Fantasy VIII summons, which are cutscenes when you can press a button to increase stuff. But you can't pause the game or let it run at an automatic pause(like you would do, with say, Golden Sun, by not continuing the dialogue).

Anyway, I don't think they're super necessary. At least, not to the degree of Metal Gear Solid 4. I think having one at the start of the game, before each new chapter, and having a small variant for Summons(essentially a 10-30 second max awesome scene).

I see three kinds of cuscenes;

• FMV: You have zero control over this save possibly a Pause button or pausing the entire game using the System Menu.
• Dialogue: This is one where you can press nothing to continue it. These cutscenes are not activated automatically by talking to an NPC. You won't be controlling your character's movement during this at all in almost any case.
• Cutscene with Action Commands: Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy VIII are huge examples. Another is a in-game summon in any game where you constantly press buttons to improve stuff. Mind you, the reason this is a cutscene and not just a normal gameplay element is that you actually don't have to press a button to continue the game and the gameplay itself isn't necessary either. For instance, sometimes when you use an item, you can only press one button to make it do better things.(Mario and Luigi are major examples on this) However, if you press nothing, it will fail. Cutscene Action Commands are different, as they're not auto-fail, but just improvable in some way towards the game.

...Last one is hard to explain, I admit. It has similarities to the Dialogue Boxes version, but that's because you press buttons during the cutscene in some way. Just one is needed, the other is helpful.

As I'm imagining that now, it feels either unnatural — the firefight just stopped so that I can talk with my friend — or somewhat of a distraction. I'm not sure that I'd likely think to use it in the middle of a firefight in any case, unless it was to ask for aid in said firefight (in which case a simple "ally command" dialogue (such as space-sims sometimes use) should work).

You also say that control is not taken away from the player; does that mean that the player can keep walking around, etc.? If so, how does one select which option one wants to use?

As far as I understand your intent, it seems to me that standard adventure game mechanics do pretty much what you want: I go over to NPC 1, press "use", and am greeted with a dialogue box. I select the desired option, they give a response, and so on. The only real difference that I'm seeing is that you don't lock the player into the dialogue, requiring the the player go back to the NPC, press the "use" button again and select a response; if that's accurate, then it honestly seems a little less immersive to me than a standard adventure game dialogue.

However, have you had a shot at making a prototype of your mechanic? That might greatly aid in conveying how it works. If you're not a programmer, try something like GameMaker or another fairly simple tool to put it together, or perhaps ask someone to help you. (Do keep it simple, however: two or three NP Cs to talk with at most, and some very simple other activity (walking around and faked shooting with no damage, perhaps) to illustrate how it interacts with other gameplay.

Hmm... That's fair enough, but I don't think that it's necessarily desirable in all circumstances. In an actual cutscene, and one that's entirely non-interactive, it might be preferable to sit back and watch, concentrating on what's happening rather than how one is going to react (in terms of gameplay actions). That doesn't mean that I'm not engaged, just that I'm not an active participant at that point.

I don't think that games need to be nothing but gameplay. Indeed, a break from gameplay can be very welcome at times.

Presuming that you have a reasonable amount of time in which to respond to the prompts (a few seconds at least), that sounds fine: they come up fairly often, so the result seems likely to be less "cutscene — except suddenly it isn't!" than "there is no cutscene, just rather sparse gameplay".

edited 24th Oct '13 5:42:14 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

My Games & Writing

On Telltale Games: For the most part its fairly easy stuff. Adventure dialogue stepped up a notch. Its only really anything else when you have to make a snap decision, and the game (Walking Dead at least) pauses for half of those. Really, the only mechanic that changes much with the Telltale Games is the adaptive way characters react based on what you say. Even then, its not a perfect system yet. Most decisions seem to push you into a binary good/bad standing with characters and is just as restrictive as a good/bad karma system.

I like the idea of in-action CODEC style things, where its dialogue where you have no direct interaction.
That's not exactly a new idea, though.
Bioshock, Fallout 3, etc.

I like cutscenes when done correctly. They serve a great purpose. They can be a cooldown after intense action. An easy means of exposition. Or a way to display a set piece in a way that you might not explore in actual gameplay. Not to mention some things, like listening to people talk, is pretty much the same in a cutscene or out. Half Life 2 was great, but after the first playthrough, the exposition stops were just as annoying as unskippable cutscenes.

Basically, cutscenes and its alternatives are tools, and they're tools that can be used correctly and incorrectly. It just depends on how its executed.

edited 24th Oct '13 6:43:46 PM by Zeromaeus

I wonder what would happen in a game that inverted the current trends in cutscene use by making all the most spectacular climax moments fully playable and all the mundane moments into cutscenes, interactive or otherwise.