Cutscenes: Watch Or Skip?

[skittlebrau]

Well, do ya' love cutscenes, or are you the type that doesn't care and moves onward without watching them?

Majority will say "Of course I do, skittlebrau.", obviously, but I've known people that are impatient and/or otherwise greedy for not wanting to see how the story progresses and would rather finish the game as quickly as possible. Just seeing if there's anyone here like that. Hopefully not.

As for me, of course I do. Can't see myself skipping ahead when there's important plot points to be had. Maybe on a replay I'll skip the more tedious scenes, but I'll always want to watch at least several (possibly all of them), even on replays. There's some great stuff in cutscenes :silly:

[42 Is The Answer]

I'm going to go with the recommended, "Of course I do, Skittlebrau!"

Although I do often long for a button that allows me to skip cut-scenes in games that don't have them. Say, Ocarina of Time. I've played that through many times, and I don't really want to see the cut-scenes. But I have to, so...

[Veryjammy]

It depends on the game. Metal Gear Solid's cutscenes make me want to slit my wrists through boredom. Generally any FPS or game about war/terrorism has cutscenes that don't interest me.

However I do like cutscenes in adventure games (Zelda, Ico,). Just so long as they don't last forever (MGS AGAIN)

[grissom]

Depends on the game. In a game where I actually care about the story (Halo) I'll watch them. If it's a game that where I really don't care about the story (any of the Need For Speed Underground games) I won't bother.

[bovine_university]

I'm with Veryjammy, I like cutscenes overall, but there are some games that just take them way too far. I enjoy a good story as much as anyone, whether it's told through a cinematic (MGS) or boxes of text (Fire Emblem), but when twenty minutes have passed by I get sick of watching or reading and I just want to get back to playing. Even worse are games that don't allow you to skip those boxes of text or cutscenes, making replays almost a chore (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, even The Legend of Zelda to an extent).

Overall however, most games keep the movies to a minimum or simply have cutscenes that are so entertaining to watch that it's almost as fun to sit back and be amazed. A few bad apples here and there aren't enough to make me hate cutscenes as a whole.

[caribou]

Would anyone have really enjoyed FFVII without the rediculawesome (for its time) cut scenes? Never had there been a death scene in an RPG as dramatic as when it cut to Aries being stabbed by Sephiroth. Cut scenes for the win.

[Alpha]

I'll always watch them the first time, but sometimes I skip some if I'm replaying the game.

[garret]

Yes, but only once. However, I do watch them again when I replay a game.

[Toli]

Cutscenes are the shit. People buy Gta games just for the brilliant plots.

[camelenchilada]

In the GTA games, which are pretty much the only games I play, I always watch the cutscenes...they're awesome. The stories are always brilliant in GTA titles, so to miss even one cutscene is missing a lot.

[Gunstar]

For the most part, I'm cool with cutscenes and never skip them on a first playthrough. They're a wonderful tool when balanced well with gameplay. However, stuff like MGS2's "walk down hallway *15 minute cutscene*, walk down another hallway *10 minute cutscene*, enter the next strut *10 minute codec conversation about King Kong*, etc." is a good example of what I'm not cool with. I enjoyed the game and all, but it was seriously trying my patience toward the end. Then we have games like Xenosaga...and I'm not even going to start on that. It's all about the balance.

Also, it should be mandatory for every game to have the option to skip cutscenes. If you place a save point right before a lengthy cinematic that introduces a tough boss battle, and don't allow me to skip it, I will kill you. I can't believe there are games that still pull that shit, it's completely unacceptable.

[DotheBartman]

Oddly I would say I sort of avoid games with a lot of cutscenes, if not exactly because of the cutscenes themselves. But I would say that it really depends on the game. On replays I pretty much always skip them, but on the first play, it can depend on how much I enjoy the storyline and whether the cutscenes are important to the actual gameplay itself (IE telling you where you need to go or what you need to do). While on occasion you'll find a real gem (the first MGS, a couple of the Zeldas), the fact of the matter is that 90 percent of video game storylines are absolute garbage and not worth sitting through unless absolutely neccesary.

[Drew]

Cutscenes are essential for getting into the stories. Stories are essential with games nowadays, they just add further depth.

It really depends on what game I'm playing if I choose to watch on a replay.

[jim]

Depends on the game. Most video game cutscenes are pathetic and pointless. But sometimes a game draws you in.

[Adamm R)))]

I always watch them, at least first time around. I hate it when people don't care about the plot so they skip all of the cutscenes because they just want to get on with killing, or whatever they're doing. Some are pointless though, RE Outbreak for example, they take ages to load and it's normally just a character walking around or looking at something for a few seconds.

[Sloppy Jimbo IV]

i prefer games with simple storylines to giant sweeping epics that force me to read page after page of information that just comes off as lord of the rings lite (ZELDA). the faster you get to the gameplay the better. the mario games usually have the right idea, with cutscenes that are brief, to the point and occassionally even funny. same with GTA, metroid, and so on

dont get me wrong. i'm not against games with detailed storylines, but theres only so much i can care about in this world and the last 4 billion years of hyrule isnt one them. i agree with rorschach that its about finding a balance. used right, cutscenes can be rewarding and exciting. used wrong and you could be reaching for the eject button

[Suus]

I usually only watch cutscenes the first time, after that I'll just skip through them. If the game has a very crappy and uninteresting story line or the cutscenes look like something from the 486 era I won't watch the cutscenes at all.

[Channel Surfer]

I'll fudge this and take the depends answer.

For me, the inherent problem of cinemas in games is that it's medium blending - movies and video games aim for almost totally different responses and viewer/player input. They don't necessarily compliment one another, and in fact can clash with one another. True interaction destroys movie styled storytelling, true movie styled storytelling destroys interaction. It's not an easy problem to get around.

That said, I watch if I think it's important for the experience. Since they've been mentioned, the MGS cutscenes, despite how infamous they are, I think would be criminal to skip. For whatever their merits (and I have many issues with them, and the franchise in general), the games are - amongst other things - meant to blur the lines between video games and movies, fiction and reality, and are a very core part of the experience. There are plenty of other games that I think make a sincere effort to tell interesting stories (Silent Hills, Siren, some Zeldas, certain RPGs) or at least put cutscenes to good use in some way (see Jimbo's examples) that I think should be watched. Though DotheBartman and jim are right, a large chunk of videogame stories and cinemas are shit or worse, getting in the way of what's actually good about the game without being important to it in any real way. Something like the story in Super Monkey Ball 2, who really cares?

[Haoie]

Watch them once, skip them the next time [if you actually can, and you usually can't].

[Mike Scully]

In most video games I could care less about the actual plot in the cutscenes, but they are very useful in providing atmosphere that complements the gameplay. In Zelda: The Ocarina of time, the storyline itself isn't remotely engaging as most of the characters have no real personality, yet the music, character expressions, and lighting, all add a lot to the experience.

I don't mind if cut scenes don't have a button to skip on replay. Most games that have cinema cut scenes aren't really the games you would want to play over and over again anyway. Much as I love Ocarina of Time, it would be painful to play it through a second time, cut scenes or no cut scenes.

One thing that should always be avoided is having a long cut scene right after a save point, instead of before. It was very annoying in Paper Mario 2 to have to play the same really long cut scene over and over again every time I died trying to defeat the final boss.

[Paul]

There are some video games where I watch the cutscenes every time I play it because they're just too funny (Monkey Island, for example) but the endless amount of text in games like Zelda or Paper Mario get extremely tedious on replays. I usually skip cutscenes whenever I get the chance.

[The Brain]

I usually watch the cutscenes, some of them are really good (like the big reveal in KOTOR) but after I've played the game a dozen or so times I really can't be bothered watching them again.

[billi vanilli]

i picked the second one cos i'm a rebel

but i like cutscenes sometimes

[the 'house always wins]

if it's a good game and i'm playing through it the first time i will watch cutscenes...any replay of the game or levels and i skip them

[conor.]

really depends at where im at in the game and what game it is, some games near the end im so anxious to beat it i dont worry about the cut scenes, most games though they make the objectives easier to do etc...

[film_girl]

I'll repeat what most people are saying -- it totally depends. I always watch them the first time I play through (unless it is a lame game and I'm really in a hurry), but how much/how often I'll watch them on repeated playings really depends on the quality.

[Greased Scotsman]

Metal Gear Solid's cutscenes make me want to slit my wrists through boredom.They're much better in Twin Snakes - much more action packed, although the storytelling parts still drag on.

And itdepends on the game for me as well. If I really like the game and the voice acting is excellent (e.g. Vice City), I'll watch them over and over again. Otherwise, I watch them once for the story and then skip them on subsequent playthroughs.

But the bad thing is in games like Zelda, where you can't simply skip through the text to get back to the action. The only time I can remember being able to skip text was in the owl's tutorials in Ocarina of Time.

[H Thompson]

Metal Gear Solid is an odd one, because the actual cut scenes are mostly fine, but it'ssome of the codec conversations that really grate. But I think it's also just a matter of pacing. Both Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater have really awkward structuring issues. I guess there wasn't really anyway around it because both games have a sort of prolouge mission before the main mission (The Tanker / The first attempt to rescuse Sokolov) That have to put out an enormous amount of plot exposition that gets paid off later in the game. Snake Eater in particular, just when you think it's about to start properly it stops again, and it is very frustrating, but eventually it does get going properly without much interuption, and the last few hours of the game are just brilliant and (as CS implied when he said the scenes are supposed to add to the experince) If you allow yourself to be sucked into the plot, it does make things more intresting, your not only sucked in by wanting to complete the tasks in the game but you want to know what happens in the plot as well, and those two things working in cohesion make for the best experince I think.


As a side point, what was the deal with Sons of Liberty, where they had face to face conversations, over the codec, was it just a way of cutting corners so they had to do less work? They say something in the game about it stopping people listening in, but that doesn't make any sense.

[phil]

I can't be bothered with most of them. However i really liked Ninja Gaiden's pre-rendered cutscenes and I'll watch those movies.

[NoOneFamous]

I'll go with everyone else on the "it depends on the game, how interesting the story is, and whether or not I've played through the game before" option.

[moneychair2003]

i usaully watch all cutscenes in a game except for some rpgs which have 20+ minute cut and mgs2 which has like 30 minute long cutscenes near the end of teh game.

[Kefka]

First time through: Watch
Any other time: Skip

[Dr. Bartley]

^ same here.