A 2000-word hyperlinked article on Computer Game Cinematization.
The Cinematization of Computer Games
Cinematization is the process of employing traditional motion-picture techniques in computer games in order to increase computer game prestige, presentation and world-narrative immersion.
Depending on mode and degree of employment, cinematic techniques can either positively or negatively impact player engagement, but no example can be given in which cinematization has improved gameplay whereas numberous examples can be cited in which it has adversely impacted playability and ruined replayability.
At their best cinematics improve computer-game presentation and drive narrative without interrupting gameplay, but at their worst cinematics put players into prolonged passive states rather than active gaming states; that is, players are waiting rather than inputting.
The Computer-Game Cutscene
Computer game developers have a propensity to over-cinematize primarily via lengthy, unskippable cutscenes and scripted sequences. This is mostly due to the fact that classic motion pictures garner more prestige than classic games, and cinematics sell.
The computer-game cutscene is a mode of cinematic presentation that drives narrative outside of player input and game-engine mechanics; that is, in the vast majority of cases cutscenes are bolted on rather than integral to or seamless with gameplay; they are usually 100% non-interactable.
Triggered by in-game actions via scripts or upon completion of level, chapter or the game itself, cutscenes update the state of play by displaying text, images, animation, CGI or live-action audio-visuals. Thus, in many instances cutscene aesthetics are divorced from in-game graphics.
Cutscenes can be as short as a few seconds or last several minutes; there are no guidelines or rules for cutscene duration or frequency: some of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful computer games in history feature high-frequency, long-duration cutscenes whose playback cannot be skipped or even fast-forwarded.
Cutscenes are usually unskippable because some developers fancy themselves as cinematographers, yet have no such background. In some computer games the simple act of sitting down at a campfire to rest "necessitates" a cutscene. And even when cutscenes are indeed skippable, there are so many that we find ourselves constantly clicking through them.
If someone were to argue that cutscenes furnish narrative, I would respond that player-generated stories that evolve within frameworks of potentialities are superior, and that driving narratives are unimportant and even get in the way of gameplay.
The iconic intro of Sid Meier's Civilization (1991): An example of mild cinematization: an intro and an outro. In-game cutscenes can be disabled.
Pervading most computer-game genre cinematization has been somewhat of a scourge since the early 90s, but with the advent of graphics chipsets and color depths that verged on photo-realism (as early as 1983) cinematic games began receiving undeserved acclaim, since they lacked playability: style over substance.
The Cinematizers: Cinematronics & Cinemaware
Cinemaware derives its insiration from the movies, not computer games ... our interactive movies combine sophisticated computer graphics with classic movie themes and characters. -- Cinemaware, 1986.
And that is why Cinemaware's computer games lacked gameplay.
Just look at how popular Cinematronics and Cinemaware games were in the early- and mid- 80s, yet most of those games played awfully and had no replayability to speak of. [1]
(That said, Cinemaware's Defender of the Crown has a special place in my heart; one of the most beautiful computer games ever made.)
"Gameplay" in Cinematronics games consisted of hitting the fire-button and directing the joystick at precise moments in response to a series of preset scenes featuring rotoscoped animations and digitized backdrops and audio.
Cinematronics games were basically interactive cartoons.
Players endured extra-long load times and diskette-swapping just to "play" (via trial and error) ports of the Dragon's Lair LaserDisc arcade game (1983).
If you got one input wrong you started again.
Players were only persisting with Dragon's Lair because the audio-visuals were striking; captivated by the expert animations and sampled speech appearing on their 1985-tech Amigas in 1989, they wanted to see and hear more of it.
In 1989 the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair set one back £45. How much was an animated feature film on LaserDisc?
That said, Cinematronics games pioneered digitized graphics and audio compression techniques; that is, they made a contribution to the computer game industry even though gameplay was an after-thought.
What Dragon's Lair shows is that extreme examples of cinematization existed long before CD-ROM became common: on six 3.5" 880 kB floppy diskettes (6 MB unpacked).
Cinematization via Full-Motion Video (FMV)
An FMV fad followed when CD-ROM became stock-standard in the early 90s:
Game logic = 500 kB, FMV = 500 MB.
Most FMV "computer games" were just about filling up the CD with live-action digitized video footage, but as always the masses were taken in by the marketing -- hook, line and sinker.
"Wow, video running on my computer! But not just video, interactive video!"
FMV computer games were just point and click adventure games that employed very little in the way of coding and mechanics: click here, watch some video; click there, watch some more video.
Riveting stuff -- coasters for the coffee table.
However, the FMV fad assisted in the adoption of CD-ROM as standard storage media, which is how the complex computer games of the late-90s would be distributed (Advent of the API).
And the FMV craze expanded the computer-game demographic dramatically.
The Source of Scripted Sequences
After the FMV fad had run its course Half-Life took up the mantle of cinematization via its scripted sequences that, while not denying players control of Gordon Freeman nevetheless limited what actions players could take until the scripted sequence concluded.
Mainstream commentary celebrated scripted sequences as a virtue, not a vice:
"You have the freedom to derp around while waiting! It's innovative!"
Evidently, they were not veterans of Doom and Quake. Because Doom and Quake players would feel trolled by enforced wait-states.
Half-Life's introductory tram ride overlayed by cinema-style credits says it all: Half-Life's narrative is on-rails and presented via scripted sequences and voiced NPCs; this game wants to emulate the Silver Screen; it wants cinematic prestige; it wants to be seen as a professional product -- and it is.
But as it pertains to computer game design it is difficult to cite a positive contribution from Half-Life:
Doom and Quake broke rock-hard ground whereas instead of tilling Half-Life cinematized a pure action genre and devolved the FPS simply because it wanted to differentiate itself from id Software's Quake, which was unassailably sophisticated in 1996.(Half-Life was built from Quake's core.)
After the mainstream success of Half-Life, not many computer games would be free of scripted sequences.
For game-flow, and providing they are skippable, it is actually less jarring to employ end-of-chapter intermission cutscenes than suddenly interrupt gameplay by forcing players to wait and watch. But of course, players should never be waiting and watching unless they are in full control to act at-will.
2D & 3D Cinematization
In numberous guises cinematics are employed in both 2D and 3D computer games. In 2D computer games cinematization includes scripted events, rotoscoping, full-motion video cutscenes, digitized stills, wipe transitions and traditional animation sequences (cel-based).
3D computer games employ much of the above as well, but they also employ cinematic cam movements and angles, along with shadows and lighting that evoke (but do not match) traditional motion picture cinematography.
That said, 3D graphics are no more capable of or susceptible to cinematics than 2D graphics. In 2D and 3D computer games the effect cinematics have on players is equivalent, but the means of achieving the effects differ:
- Cam versus screen-scrolling
- Polygons versus sprites and bitmaps
It should be obvious that cinematization has nothing to do with realism of graphics aka fidelity: ASCII-based computer games can evoke cinematics just as well as ray-traced computer games; monochrome palettes just as well as 32 bit color depth; Z80s just as well as Ryzen.
Cinematization is not fueled by tech advancements: it is presentation.
Unskippable intro from The Settlers (1993):
But sometimes, to match the production values of their visuals cinematized computer games employ extensive voice acting (VOs) for non-player characters, but reading is faster than listening to disinterested actors who often botch linguistic stress through their mechanical delivery; laughable, because it shows they don't even understand or care about what they are reading aloud in the recording studio. And who can blame them? Most computer-game writing is enough to put anyone to sleep, even if they are being paid to stay awake.
Conclusion on Cinematization
Cinematics and VOs have usually slowed down player progression through computer games and impacted the technical performance of computer games. FMV-based cinematics are also more likely to present compatibility problems due to screen-resolution switching, desktop color-depth demands and third-party executables that load Bink video files or *.biks.
Scripted sequences have also been known to glitch out or lock up (e.g, Half-Life).
Moreover, both cinematics and VOs often get in the road of gameplay if not ruin the free-flow of gameplay entirely.
Even cinematic rotoscoped animations slow down gameplay via increased number of frames on sprites that put players into micro wait-states (Prince of Persia, 1989). But realistic fluidity of sprite animation does not translate to better gameplay, it only slows it down and decreases player input-rate.
The reward for completing computer games used to be seeing your score and name lit up on the high-score table. Then, the reward became watching an outro.
While cinematization positively impacted aspects of computer-game presentation and gave computer games more prestige in the eyes of the cinema-going masses (thereby growing the industry greatly), the bottom line is that developers have over-cinematized computer games throughout history -- and games are to be actively played, not passively watched.
Computer games are to be actively played, not passively watched.
If one finds themselves constantly watching or clicking through cutscenes while playing a computer game, one may like to consider watching a motion picture instead, because the quality of cinematography in classic motion pictures far exceeds that of computer games by virtue of greater pedigree and grand tradition.
Just like if one is constantly reading or clicking through dialogue while playing a computer game, one may like to consider reading a book instead.
Genre Examples of Cinematization
Due to the FMV fad and advent of CD-ROM, practically every commercial computer game of the late-90s employed FMV intros, outros and cutscenes. Most FMVs can be disabled by renaming the video files or creating blank videos with the original video filenames. However, most players did not know that back in the day.
cRPG Cinematization
In the Infinity Engine games end-Chapter FMV cutscenes cannot be skipped unless they have been watched at least once (1998-2002). Or unless you know the *.ini lines to add. In addition to scripted cutscenes Planescape: Torment employs cinematic spellcasting sequences that take control of TNO from players (1999).
Even Fallout, Fallout 2 and Arcanum employ FMVs that interrupt gameplay (1997-2001). As if the Pip-Boy or Journal are not enough to keep players up to speed on events. These three cRPGs also added end-slides that are reactive to the inputs and oversights made by players during the campaigns.
A disciple of Half-Life (1998), Deus Ex (2000) constantly interrupts gameplay with jarring scripted events and laughable VO quality. Deus Ex should have been an emergent sandbox rather than plot-driven like Half-Life.
Morrowind (2002) chargen is heavily-laden with scripted sequences that hand-hold players in case they have never played a computer game before.
Watch and listen, enter your name. Watch and listen, choose your race. Watch and listen, choose your stats. Watch and listen, watch and listen, watch and listen.
Again, VO quality is laughable. Other than its chargen Morrowind is only lightly cinematized, however (but still features only bare-bones gameplay).
Adventure Game Cinematization
Point & Click Adventure Games are one of the most cinematized of computer-game genre.
The Secret of Monkey Island by LucasFilm Games (SoMI, 1990) cinematizes its text-based dialogue; even going so far as to time the display of its text for cinematic effect.
The player watches and reads. And often only reads a few words at a time. Feel free to call that "pacing" if it helps you sleep at night.
SoMI also contains numberous 2D-animated sequences that are pre-scripted.
Fallout (1997) not only formalized the cRPG genre but also rendered an entire classic genre redundant: the point-and-click adventure game. I used to play adventure games all the time: Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky -- you name it, big fan. And those games have a special place in my heart. But after Fallout I never played an adventure game ever again, only cRPGs like Fallout.
Flight Sim Cinematization
In Gunship 2000 (1991) profile, theatre, aircraft and armament screens are accessed via interactable cinematic bitmaps. Again, it's all about production values coming at the expense of efficient interaction via basic menus.
RTS Cinematization
Command & Conquer and StarCraft were big on professional FMV-based presentation. In some versions of C&C games you can disable FMVs by ejecting the CD-ROM or unmounting the ISO. This does not disable the soundtrack.
StarCraft missions are often interrupted by scripted sequences that drive its narrative via waffling NPCs.
The sequences can be skipped with the Esc-key in base StarCraft, but not in the Brood War expansion.
TBS Cinematization
Cinematization can be disabled via menus in Sid Meier's Civilization, Sid Meier's Civilization 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
As always, the GOAT-genre exhibits class by not enforcing cinematic wait-states.
[1]
List of Cinemaware's Cinematized Computer Games
Cinemaware's prolific and professional output on the Amiga from 1986-1991:
- Defender of the Crown (1986)
- S.D.I. (1987)
- The King of Chicago (1987)
- Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon (1987)
- Three Stooges (1987)
- Rocket Ranger (1988)
- Lords of the Rising Sun (1988)
- It Came from the Desert (1989)
- Antheads: It Came from the Desert 2 (1990)
- The Kristal (1989)
- TV Sports: Football (1988)
- TV Sports: Baseball (1989)
- TV Sports: Basketball (1990)
- TV Sports: Boxing (1991)
- Wings (1990)
List of Cinematronics' Interactive Cartoons
Cinematronics' LaserDisc games and ReadySoft Amiga ports:
- Dragon's Lair: Escape From Singe's Castle (1983) (Amiga, 1989)
- Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp (Amiga, 1990)
- Dragon's Lair 3: The Curse of Mordread (Amiga, 1992)
- Space Ace: (1983) (Amiga, 1990)
- Space Ace 2: Borf's Revenge (Amiga, 1991)
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