Eye Candy, Anticipation And Games: Why Cinematic Intros Should Go Away
As gamers we’ve all experienced the anticipation of a new game that we are really looking forward to playing. With that anticipation, we usually devour all the information we can get about a title. When a game company releases a cinematic intro for our anticipated game, we drool over how awesome the game will be based on how well the cinematic was done. Great cinematics for many games have been released, and I can tell you not one of them gives the average player a decent idea of what the actual game play is like. Game cinematics need to go away.
These cinematic movies are like concept cars at auto shows, they are merely showing you the future that will likely never come to pass. These cinematics often don’t accurately portray game mechanics or visuals, and I get that they usually aren’t intended to. They are there to get people excited for a given game, to raise interest and ultimately sell the game. They may serve that purpose somewhat, but they are misleading. They are the result of classic advertising, like the hamburger you see on TV looking nothing like the one you get served in the restaraunt. These cinematic intros are also expensive to make for the development studio, and are often done by a 3rd party.
I am far from an expert on high end cinematics, but it seems that these clips generally employ large amounts of computing power for high resolution graphics and animation. I also assume that the consumer level gaming rigs that could run a game with cinematic style graphics just doesn’t exist at an affordable price point. At this point, I also assume that it’s still to expensive and time consuming for game studios to even think about creating a game with these kinds of jaw dropping visuals anyway. If all those assumptions are even somewhat correct, it’s safe to say that these movies are unrealistic representations of the games they are made for, and there’s no way the game will come close to the visuals and epic feelings conveyed in most of these movies. For the most part, they are an injustice to the game and tough for the developers to live up to. See Warhammer Online’s first cinematic and gauge that against actualy game play and visuals. That cinematic featured two classes that didn’t even make it into the game at launch. Great cinematic quality, but poorly represented the game.
The most recent uber cinematic of recent memory is that of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m sure everyone under the sun has seen it, but if not you should take a peek at it to see my point:
The video above shows nothing of how the game will actually play or what the game actually looks like. However, the first time I saw this it got my heart racing. It is so well done, so epic feeling, that my fanboy meter shot through the ceiling. For this very reason, cinematics (at least for large AAA productions) are likely here to stay.
I think the perfect middle ground lies with the machinima artists of the world. Using the game’s very own engine and assets to produce a movie is a better bet in my opinion. That way, the graphics are not as misleading, and good story telling can still bring an epic feeling into play. I’ve noticed such a trend with Blizzard entertainment for example. While they have done the high quality cinematics before, they seem to be turning away from that and using their own game engine to produce the movies made for the game, ala Wrath Gate.
Do you agree? Should cinematics go away, or are you ok with them as they are? Should they change? Holla back.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree, especially on the example given. At this point, “Deceived” is a cinematic trailer, which I think qualifies in a different category from the cinematic introduction. I’ll try to explain.
WAR’s cinematic intro (hereafter “cinint”) started, iirc, as a trailer released before the game came out. As such, it did a few things right. It expressed the core of the game (or the intended core) of two sides fighting for supremacy and attacking capital cities. It gave some hints about gameplay, including squig armor, marauder mutations, shadow warrior stances, engineer turrets, and dark elf hotness (okay, that last one really isn’t gameplay). As a marketing tool, it was effective and interesting.
However, I think it fails as a cinint for many of the reasons you describe. The video graphics don’t look like the game. Actual gameplay wouldn’t support a shadow warrior taking a marauder (at least at launch). The city siege wasn’t a huge pvp only event. Basically, the trailer was re-purposed for a new job that it wasn’t designed for.
Which brings me back around to “Deceived”. It’s a trailer, not an intro. As a trailer, it does its job well. It gives hints about gameplay: the vast numbers of force users, armor-wearing Jedi and Sith, bounty hunters with jet packs and rockets, and light-armor ranged characters with a cover mechanic (smuggler/agent). Each of these were things only hinted at or completely unconfirmed when the video was released. We’re still getting new information that further fleshes out what was in the trailer.
Basically, I just want to point out that cinematic trailers have their place, and “Deceived” is an excellent example. However, I think that if it gets used as the cinint for SWTOR, they will have taken the easy road and missed an opportunity.
Very interesting point.
Personally, I like cinematics because they help set the feel of the game and immerse you, especially when you load it up for the first time. The problem I think is that they are too often used as marketting material and web bait. By the time the game has come out, everyone’s seen them and they mean nothing.
Some of my all-time favourite cinematics were from Starcraft. They were amazing and really set the feel of the game and helped move the storyline along.
If used correctly, a cinematic can have a big impact, it’s just unfortunate that they are used as marketing material more than anything else now.