God of War Creator Hates Cutscenes

1up has a short piece talking about God of War creator David Jaffe's commentary on game cinematics. From the article: "Jaffe isn't saying players don't welcome this style, but claims it's not the best approach. 'It's almost like you appreciate the creativity but as a game it doesn't work,' he says in his latest video blog, citing Super Mario 64 as a good example of a game that works without cinematics. 'Obviously Mario 64 doesn't evoke a lot of emotion and political ideas, but it keeps you in the game.'" One of the reasons RE4 has been so well received, I think, is that it give you some interactivity during what would otherwise be a passive experience.

Comments

My 2 bits

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IMO cutscenes can be used effectively, but we all know that they can also be very, very bad. A couple of games that I've been playing recently, Shadow of the Colossus (totally awesome game) and POP:two thrones, provide some good contrast.

POP has pre-rendered cutscenes that are often unskippable. Shadow of the Colossus has cutscenes that are rendered in-game and are skippable. These two differences have a huge effect. Of course unskippable cutscenes are annoying, especially after you've seen them 5 times, but also annoying are cutscenes in which the entire world suddenly looks completely different. Especially obvious in POP was when you went from the opening movie to the in-game graphics. The graphics are good, but they don't look like the pre-rendered stuff. Really lame.

Shadow of the Colossus handles cutscenes well, but I think they could still be improved. Yes, everybody wants the option of skipping cutscenes, but I think a lot of people want to watch them, too. How come I can't pause the game during cutscenes? What am I supposed to do when a 5 minute ending movie is playing and somebody knocks on the door? I either don't answer the door, or I beat the game again later so I can see what happens. Lame.

My suggestions:
1. No pre-rendered cutscenes
2.Ability to pause the cutscene and bring up a menu with the option to skip

Why are these not universal in modern games? Does anybody disagree with these preferences?

Re:had me fooled..

[SlayerDave]

God of War was nothing but one continuous barely-interactive cutscene.

Did you play the same God of War that I did? Because the one I played was highly interactive (except during the real cutscenes, of course). I loved God of War because it had a great mix of solid graphics, exciting combat, non-obnoxious platforming, exceptional level design, and moderately-interesting story. I found myself interacting with the game quite a bit, and, in fact, I found myself unable to progress or even stay alive if I failed to interact with it.

What counts as interactive for you? Having a seizure while wearing a Power Glove, standing on a DDR dance pad in front of your EyeToy, and playing Guitar Hero with your feet?

Screw you guys

[StocDred]

Screw you guys. I love cutscenes. I love experiencing a well-told story with theatrical elements interspersed throughout the gameplay. When everybody dumps on cutscenes, there's this underlying assumption that no game does cutscenes well. I say many do. Right now I'm enjoying the heck out of Fatal Frame 3 (PS2)... a game that definitely has a story to tell, a story that I get to live out during the playable portions. The cutscenes aren't obtrusive, they don't appear every three steps, as most cutscene-detractors like to parrot. They're well-placed, they tell the story in ways that could not be done if I was playing 100% of the time. So fuck you guys who are out there bitching about them. There are plenty of games for everybody's tastes out there.

You know what I hate? When guys like David Jaffe stumble ass-backwards into public domain Greek mythology, staple GWAR armor onto everything, dump blood eveywhere, and call it the greatest IP since the world cooled. Maybe if you could tell a story that wasn't completely obvious and boring from the first half-hour (as God of War was), then maybe you'd have more use for cutscenes.