Goals and Storytelling

[the dark side]

1st person cutscenes suck, i concur, as they are both boring (if im in first person i want to be in total controll) but they are also useless for telling a story, as you have no idea of the bigger picture behind it, only what "just kill him" need to know info comes from "the voice in your head". bad cutscenes that go "CLANG!" due to cheezy dialoque or really poor camara angles and broken animation suck as well, as do those cheap and annoying satellite view things...(if you are that low on budget, Dont Bother Making a Game!) as do cutscenes that are longer than most gameplay segments.

But really well done cutscenes that perhaps, show the enemies side of the story, or even give us info on what makes the villain tick, going right back to childhood, are a great addition to a game, as they not only give the player the all important Reason behind the villains goals, they also make the story far more interesting to watch unfold as you understand its central characthers better. it really does depend on what kind of cutscene is being used if they suck or not.

if there is one thing i Really cant stand however, is when they take a segment that would be Awesome as Gamplay, say, a Jet Fighter plane chase, and make it either a Cutscene or worse a Quick Time Event (Worst...Game...Mechanic Ever) wich is not only boring, but also so dissapointing it can stop me wanting to play the rest of the game.

would it really have been that difficult to use the multiplayer sections flight mechanics to make the chase Playable? of course not, its just the developer abusing the fact the "Marketing division" thinks "'murcian teens want the easiest campaign possible", and using it as an excuse to be lazy. its not "telling a Story", its "being lazy". why waste cutscene space with making something that should be playable, as a cutscene, because you are Lazy, when you could instead use the space to make the story more involving by telling us Why "Mad Russian General #897" blew up new york! whats his "issues" other than just the usual "iz russian, so, iz eeevil" micheal bay gernericisms?. EXPLOSIONS are Not Story! exposition, such as Bad Childhood, is Story!

If you are going to tell a story, Tell a Story! tell a story about what makes people do what they do! why do they want to blow up new york? whats the point in having a badguy if your not going to tell us Why he is bad! thats against all rules of basic story telling, come on, even the arthurian legends told us Why the Black Knight went evil... so why not todays games?

Consider that my idea of a Primary goal for a videogame story. tell me Why the badguy is a badguy, and not just becuase "iz russian". the more i know about the badguys past, his childhood, his life, what sent him evil, the more i can determine how badly he needs flattening. do it well, i may even feel BAD about killing them.