Games that prove that the medium is a viable way of storytelling.

Apparently, I'm one of the few people who think that cutscenes are usually a crutch used to mask poor storytelling technique.

To find out what makes a video game story truly memorable, I usually examine personal examples. In this instance: System Shock 2.

It pioneered the use of audio logs, and used chatter between certain... appropriate characters..., conveying a good deal of story through audio.

There were dozens upon dozens of available text logs, some critical and many ancillary, allowing the player to decide just how deeply they wished to dive into the world.

The visual design alone dispensed very, very much of the story. For example,

It used a couple of cutscenes to demonstrate travel, and when the player character was incapacitated.

Video games (should) stand tall as being a cut above film, for they can most easily make use of nearly every sensory device to convey story elements. I mean, we've even got vibrating controllers to help tell stories! Now we're just waiting for the return of Smell-O-Vision...

@Video_Game_King said:

@ick_bop:

No? That's like saying the text crawl at the beginning of any given Star Wars movie invalidates film as an artistic medium, or that because paintings use lighting/shadow/color/etc. to convey a message, it's impossible for movies and video games to do the same in any artistic manner. Again, the interactive nature alone adds a lot more than you're giving credit for.

If Star Wars delivered the majority of its story through scrolling text, it would certainly invalidate it. I refer you to the TANG "Alone in the Dark" episode (so, so good).

@Video_Game_King said:

So you don't want games with cutscenes? Because that's a massively stupid idea, if true.

"I disagree." Sure. But "massively stupid idea?" That's ridiculous. We're trying to make the internet a bit more classy here at Giant Bomb. Join in, it's fun. And frustrating.

There's 100 years of visual storytelling language developed by cinema, it would be foolish of game developers not to use it. That being said, the interactivity of gaming represents a lot of interesting possibilities involving choice, personalization, and characterization that other mediums aren't able to do. In various ways video games at their best can mix the best attributes of film, television, and the novel together. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a good recent example, as are the Mass Effect games, and in its own way Deadly Premonition.

If you ask me, any game with a good story. However the game decides to portay it is irrelevant if it's good. But the issue is better asked from the outside; would any of those games be compelling enough for someone else to watch me play and still enjoy the story of? I'm not sure there are many of those, if any at all.

Portal, Portal 2, Silent Hill: Shatted Memories, Silent Hill 2, SotC, Superbrothers Sword&Sorcery; EP, Limbo, Braid, From Dust, Half-Life 2, Amnesia, Heavy Rain (to some extent), World of Goo, Digital: A Love Story, Machinarium, Dead Space Extraction, Alan Wake (particularly The Writer) are games that I would introduce (and in some cases, have introduced) in a classroomwhen talking about digital games as modern narrative medium. There are more (the Call of Duty franchise actually does a fairly good job), but these are the ones that come to mind. The one game I always use to showcase the medium to people who have had no exposure to it, and who are always very impressed afterwards, is Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

The Metal Gear games and Grand Theft Auto IV.

@believer258 said:

Half-Life 2. The story is presented in a way that's far more compelling than it should be, given how shallow it really is. If you're looking for a good example of how video games can present and tell a story, then this is it. Remember that the manner you present and tell a story is different than the story itself. You could have one of the tightest stories ever made, yet it would suck if it were told in a boring manner. Especially compared to a story that's got some plot holes but presents itself very well.

Other good ones are Bioshock, Metroid Prime, the original Dead Space, Dragon Age Origins, and Mass Effect.

As good as the story is in Half-Life, the bottlenecking gets annoying, especially on multiple playthroughs. You might as well have cutscenes instead, since really they're just interactive cutscenes.

'This whole level is going to be dedicated to ONLY story and character development. Bet you were wishin' you could skip it like a cutscene now dont'cha?'

@Napalm said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Napalm:

Putting "cutscenes" in parentheses and leaving at that is kinda vague.

Well then, you strategically avoided the, "becoming a movie," part of his sentence. That usually implies an abundance of cutscenes and flashy camera angles.

Dead Space works, Doom 3 in my opinion, and by extension, so does F.E.A.R. and System Shock 2. No cutscenes. Everything is in game and from your perspective.

There are absolutely cutscenes in Dead space and FEAR. Perspective and graphics engine is not where the 'cutscene' terminology comes from. And Dead Space is third person anyways.

At the end of Dead Space, when Isaac is in that small room with the window and the girl explains the entire twist to him, you have no control of him anymore. He stands there and covers his face. Or at the very end of the game, when he gets on his ship.

A cutscene does not denote that it is a cinematic. Uncharted 3 does half the story in-engine, that doesn't mean it doesn't have cutscenes. The vast majority of Mass Effect's cut scenes are in-engine and shot in coverage.

As others have said, Bastion is the epitome of how to tell an engrossing story without the use of any cut scenes. It's a little hard to see that in the beginning of the game, but by the end, the true power of Rucks' narration becomes apparent. Certain reveals are timed with you getting to specific points in the level to maximize their impact. The way everything unfolded in front of me while I was playing Bastion was just breathtaking.

I will also second Half-Life to some extent. The scripted moments in the first game, such as the scientist getting sucked into the air duct and guts spraying out, were really unsettling. I say to some extent because their decision to leave you more or less in the dark on what exactly was going on did kind of hurt the story a little, for me.

I won't go so far as to say cut scenes are bad, but they are not the way I want to experience a story in an otherwise interactive medium. To reference the admittedly excellent text crawl analogy, reading is not how I want to experiences films, either. Films are a visual and auditory medium. If you have to resort to a wall of text to explain your story, then I feel your narrative is ultimately flawed. That doesn't mean bad. It just means you were unable to tell your story within the standard confines of the medium and had to cheat to get all the required info out to the audience. This is how I feel about cut scenes in video games, as well. It's especially true of overly long cut scenes that are poorly written and contrived.

One last thing; I hate having to physically make choices. The one gripe I will level at Bastion is among all this super fluid storytelling, everything stops dead and asks me to hit A or B. I would like to see someone come up with a more fluid, natural way for that to happen. If what we're going for in all this is immersion, than having a big screen pop up outlining my choices isn't it. Neither is an NPC popping up on your com and telling you to walk up to something and "hit the action button".

In no particular order:

- Silent Hill 2

- Shadow of the Colossus

- Monkey Island

Skyrim has some moments of telling a story without any cutscenes or dialogue, I'm talking about when you find a dead person among some ruins with a journal entry, that in itself is a little story in a way.

Singularity, like BioShock tells a lot of backstory with audio logs and other forms of media scattered around its levels. Singularity in particular leaves a lot of notes around that are quite interesting to read.

I thought Shenmue was a revelation in game story telling at the time too. I quite enjoyed the emphasis on asking around to find out new information on your current goal.

For me personally I get the most story out of open world games where I'm just wandering around aimlessly doing "ambient" challenges. In games like Skyrim or The Saboteur I get so into aimlessly wandering the world that the character and situation develop in my head on their own with no pesky plot line interrupting to tell me who I am or what my motives are.  
 
I guess that's more an example of my ability to get immersed than it is an example of how games can tell a story but the key for me is still the world. A well crafted, fully realized world always goes a long way for me. It allows the writer to keep things to the point while the setting fills in the little details.

I was just talkin in this Metal Gear Solid 2 thread about how the fact that it's a game strengthens the storytelling, and puts the player in the best point of view to hear what the game has to say, even though it has cutscenes.
If the game were a movie, it would miss out on all the manipulation and "VR Training" and "following orders" themes, because you'd just be watching it instead of actually doing it.

Dead Space works, Doom 3 in my opinion, and by extension, so does F.E.A.R. and System Shock 2. No cutscenes. Everything is in game and from your perspective.

@Brodehouse said:

@Napalm said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Napalm:

Putting "cutscenes" in parentheses and leaving at that is kinda vague.

Well then, you strategically avoided the, "becoming a movie," part of his sentence. That usually implies an abundance of cutscenes and flashy camera angles.

Dead Space works, Doom 3 in my opinion, and by extension, so does F.E.A.R. and System Shock 2. No cutscenes. Everything is in game and from your perspective.

There are absolutely cutscenes in Dead space and FEAR. Perspective and graphics engine is not where the 'cutscene' terminology comes from. And Dead Space is third person anyways.

At the end of Dead Space, when Isaac is in that small room with the window and the girl explains the entire twist to him, you have no control of him anymore. He stands there and covers his face. Or at the very end of the game, when he gets on his ship.

A cutscene does not denote that it is a cinematic. Uncharted 3 does half the story in-engine, that doesn't mean it doesn't have cutscenes. The vast majority of Mass Effect's cut scenes are in-engine and shot in coverage.

Cutscenes generally invoke a shift in camera perspective, taking control away from the player and advancing the story that way. I wouldn't consider in-game plot points and dialogue to be cutscenes. There is only one cutscene Dead Space and it's at the very end, and it's used for a very specific purpose. The same with Dead Space 2. And once again in the F.E.A.R. games, everything is through your perspective.

@Video_Game_King said:

@ick_bop:

No? That's like saying the text crawl at the beginning of any given Star Wars movie invalidates film as an artistic medium, or that because paintings use lighting/shadow/color/etc. to convey a message, it's impossible for movies and video games to do the same in any artistic manner. Again, the interactive nature alone adds a lot more than you're giving credit for.

To be fair, Star Wars is mediocre at best. The text crawl is only used because George Lucas is garbage at exposition. He doesn't know how to write it as part of the film so he throws it up in text at the beginning.

@Brodehouse said:

@Napalm said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Napalm:

Putting "cutscenes" in parentheses and leaving at that is kinda vague.

Well then, you strategically avoided the, "becoming a movie," part of his sentence. That usually implies an abundance of cutscenes and flashy camera angles.

Dead Space works, Doom 3 in my opinion, and by extension, so does F.E.A.R. and System Shock 2. No cutscenes. Everything is in game and from your perspective.

There are absolutely cutscenes in Dead space and FEAR. Perspective and graphics engine is not where the 'cutscene' terminology comes from. And Dead Space is third person anyways.

At the end of Dead Space, when Isaac is in that small room with the window and the girl explains the entire twist to him, you have no control of him anymore. He stands there and covers his face. Or at the very end of the game, when he gets on his ship.

A cutscene does not denote that it is a cinematic. Uncharted 3 does half the story in-engine, that doesn't mean it doesn't have cutscenes. The vast majority of Mass Effect's cut scenes are in-engine and shot in coverage.

Cutscenes generally invoke a shift in camera perspective, taking control away from the player and advancing the story that way. I wouldn't consider in-game plot points and dialogue to be cutscenes. There is only one cutscene Dead Space and it's at the very end, and it's used for a very specific purpose. The same with Dead Space 2. And once again in the F.E.A.R. games, everything is through your perspective.

@gladspooky said:

None. No games tell good stories.

You must be playing the wrong games. There aren't any that are as vast or complex as some films or books, but then this is a new medium and it is making its way there quicker than films or books did.

@mlarrabee said:

Apparently, I'm one of the few people who think that cutscenes are usually a crutch used to mask poor storytelling technique.

To find out what makes a video game story truly memorable, I usually examine personal examples. In this instance: System Shock 2.

It pioneered the use of audio logs, and used chatter between certain... appropriate characters..., conveying a good deal of story through audio.

There were dozens upon dozens of available text logs, some critical and many ancillary, allowing the player to decide just how deeply they wished to dive into the world.

The visual design alone dispensed very, very much of the story. For example,

It used a couple of cutscenes to demonstrate travel, and when the player character was incapacitated.

Video games (should) stand tall as being a cut above film, for they can most easily make use of nearly every sensory device to convey story elements. I mean, we've even got vibrating controllers to help tell stories! Now we're just waiting for the return of Smell-O-Vision...

@Video_Game_King said:

@ick_bop:

No? That's like saying the text crawl at the beginning of any given Star Wars movie invalidates film as an artistic medium, or that because paintings use lighting/shadow/color/etc. to convey a message, it's impossible for movies and video games to do the same in any artistic manner. Again, the interactive nature alone adds a lot more than you're giving credit for.

If Star Wars delivered the majority of its story through scrolling text, it would certainly invalidate it. I refer you to the TANG "Alone in the Dark" episode (so, so good).

@Video_Game_King said:

So you don't want games with cutscenes? Because that's a massively stupid idea, if true.

"I disagree." Sure. But "massively stupid idea?" That's ridiculous. We're trying to make the internet a bit more classy here at Giant Bomb. Join in, it's fun. And frustrating.

I have emboldened two things that I want to call attention to. The first is that you mention that games can make use of nearly every sensory device to convey story elements. This is true, but it doesn't really give any solid reasons as to why cutscenes are bad, or at least not good. Why, if gaming has the potential to be the best form of storytelling, can it not take advantage of the lower forms? Why can it not combine them all - reading, movies, and its own interactivity - into something that delivers the best of all three?

The second is about Star Wars and delivering the majority of its story through text. I was recently playing Kingdom Hearts 2, which has far too many cutscenes. It's an example of how not to do cutscenes in a game. Every cutscene feels as long as the gameplay segment between it and the last one. However, a game that delivers some of its story through cutscenes - think Dead Space's few cutscenes - is a perfectly viable way of telling parts of a story. Sometimes, the story can be most effective when cutscenes are used. In Resistance 3, I would not have cared anywhere near as much about Joseph Capelli's plight if I had not seen the interactions between him, his wife, and his child in a third person cutscene. Even if the overarching story isn't really all that, I wanted to see the end because cutscenes better illustrated his character and his relationships with other characters.

@BionicRadd said:

I won't go so far as to say cut scenes are bad, but they are not the way I want to experience a story in an otherwise interactive medium. To reference the admittedly excellent text crawl analogy, reading is not how I want to experiences films, either. Films are a visual and auditory medium. If you have to resort to a wall of text to explain your story, then I feel your narrative is ultimately flawed. That doesn't mean bad. It just means you were unable to tell your story within the standard confines of the medium and had to cheat to get all the required info out to the audience. This is how I feel about cut scenes in video games, as well. It's especially true of overly long cut scenes that are poorly written and contrived.

Yes, but remember that while movies can't expect you to read much more than introductory text and subtitles, games can deliver that option. Skyrim is quite an example - there are hundreds of books in it to read. Games are different in that they can combine reading, cutscenes, and interactivity, though I do agree that interactivity should definitely take a large priority over the other two.

Alan Wake. That game is dense with atmosphere and a running narrative throughout.

@Brodehouse: No, I'm not confusing anything. We just have different opinions on what a cutscene is. I don't consider the in-game stuff you see from Dead Space to be considered cutscenes. The end, yes, there is a cutscene, and Dead Space 2 has more of that, which is why I don't enjoy the storytelling as much. I consider cutscenes to be the explicit change in camera angles, whether in-engine or not, and specifically showing you something that can't, (or they didn't do) in-game to advance the story in some fashion. 
 
EDIT: And for the sake of discussion, lets leave F.E.A.R. 3 out of this since that game does have actual cutscenes.

And so does the original FEAR. I was playing it last weekend for kicksies. I don't want to be judgmental, duder, but what you consider to be a cutscene is simply not what they're defined as. I don't want to be that guy, but it's how it is. Metal Gear Solid 4 allowed you full camera control (as Rex MK 3) in several cut scenes. Those are still dyed in the wool cutscenes. Skyrim never 'changes camera angles' but you'd be crazy to say there's no cutscenes in that game. And I feel like you've either forgotten or are ignoring clear cutscenes in Dead Space that are not the ending. Like the beginning. Or when Isaac returns to the Kellion, control is taken as he sits down and begins launch procedures (and returned as the necromorphs destroy the ship), or when he freezes up and watches the Nicole video while Kendra has him trapped in that room. These are cutscenes, regardless of if you want to consider them that. I'm not here to fight you, I just want to make sure some stuff is clear.

Cutscenes generally invoke a shift in camera perspective, taking control away from the player and advancing the story that way. I wouldn't consider in-game plot points and dialogue to be cutscenes. There is only one cutscene Dead Space and it's at the very end, and it's used for a very specific purpose. The same with Dead Space 2. And once again in the F.E.A.R. games, everything is through your perspective.typ

@Grumbel: Scripted events do not equal cutscenes.

@James_ex_machina said:

Alan Wake

You said it!

I love cutscenes in videogames and I think that they're very effective at telling a story, so there

But I also apreciate how Valve does it, though I guess I prefer cutscenes and not having to analyze everything and read stuff on walls, specifically thinking L4D and Portal here

Though Portal 2 did have an awesome story

If we're talking strictly game mechanics and how they can portray narrative (or at least reinforce it), then things like Passage, Braid, Gravitation, Time Flows But Does Not Return, Axel & Pixel and The Void could all be mentioned. Just to note, dynamical meaning is a phrase coined for this concept of mechanics holding narrative importance.

If we're looking into diegetic (inferred/in-world) storytelling, then Valve does a splendid job in most of their games (see Half Life, Portal & Left 4 Dead). Bethesda also deserves a mention, as do games like Silent Hill, Yakuza & Shenmue.

Cutscenes are only a valid or effective means of conveying story when symbiotically linked with the mechanics/gameplay. Otherwise it's a film. Ergo, the only way to prove video games are a viable way of telling stories is through their gameplay first, then the accompanying custscenes/dialogue/FMV etcetera. A convincing world & characters given interactivity can overshadow the lesser written elements of the story -- see DragonAge for a good example & FFXIII for a bad one.

Stanely Parable.

Stanely Parable.

Stanely Parable.

@LordXavierBritish said:

Stanely Parable.

Stanely Parable.

Stanely Parable.

What about Katawa Shoujo? Or did you forget your Hanako love?

Hatris - A plot so clear and core to the human experience with hats that it transcends language and culture.

BioShock uses traditional cutscenes only as very specific "your character is no longer in control of his actions" narrative markers and in the game's finale. One occurs when the player injects his first plasmid and is writhing in pain, the most notable occurs

BioShock also uses several "aquarium" cutscenes as described by @Grumbel above. That said, games whose narratives would not function without being games include BioShock, Deadly Premonition, and Bastion.

Also, you are most definitely searching for Missile Command.

@Video_Game_King said:

@LordXavierBritish said:

Stanely Parable.

Stanely Parable.

Stanely Parable.

What about Katawa Shoujo? Or did you forget your Hanako love?

Katawa Shoujo isn't a game it is a way of life.

@LordXavierBritish:

That way of life being, "have a heart attack, join a club, plow a girl without legs"?

@Video_Game_King said:

@LordXavierBritish:

That way of life being, "have a heart attack, join a club, plow a girl without legs"?

Exactly.

@believer258: My statement that cutscenes are usually a crutch was a bit harsh. Perhaps it would better express my opinion to say that games that tell most of their story through cutscenes use them as a crutch.

I like cutscenes, but I think that they are overused. I've played several games in which the story is told either primarily, or practically solely, by fixed-camera cutscenes. I find it depressing that the writers aren't taking advantage of the huge opportunity available to them: that is, the fact that they are making a video game. A book is restricted to text, a verbal story to audio and selected visuals (expression, posture, etc), a film to controlled visuals, audio and occasionally text. But a video game can use any of these, uncontrolled motion and visual direction, and even touch. I know bad things are happening when my controller starts to shake with the footfalls.

I don't think cutscenes are a bad thing. But I wish more developers thought of more natural ways to express story.

Silent Hill 2 couldn't work or carry the same weight it did outside of being a video game. The game is constantly judging you and making assessments of James' mental psyche based on how you play and it's all natural and never truly conveyed to you. It was the perfect morality system.