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

Use cutscenes with caution

[PIPBoy3000]

Having just finished Resident Evil 4, I'm not sure the cutscenes always worked well for me. Mashing a button repeatedly isn't always fun gameplay. Fortunately it was relatively rare and admittedly kept the tension up during what is typically a relaxing point in a game.

Cutscenes are typically in place to move the plot forward or explain some complexity to the player. In general, there's a few ways that cutscenes have worked for me in the past:

• Thief & Splinter Cell. In stealth games, you can often overhear NPCs talking to each other as you go about your business. Information is passed along, yet the action doesn't stop.
• Sheer beauty. Some games have cutscenes that are almost a reward. The cinematics of Diablo were stunning and a fun point in the game.
• Respite. In games that are non-stop action, having a cutscene to give the player to take a breath can be most welcome.
• Short and Necessary Sometimes there's critical information that you simply must give to the player. Keeping them short and to the point works best.

Where cutscenes don't work well is if the game forces them to be repeated upon failure, they're not skippable, and if they take too much time away from the primary gameplay.

My 2 bits

[|/|/|||]

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.

Re:Again I say, FINALLY!

[Delphiki]

Hahaha, have you ever played GTA? Remember all the cut scenes where your character interacts with someone to find out what your mission is? You can skip them but then half the time you don't know what you're doing. Good way to make a point.