I watched the Sony press conference and the trailer/demo for Horizon Zero Dawn. I really like it and get annoyed because they have made in my opinion a big flaw. Twice during the gameplay session they remove your control of the camera and character and that irritates me allot sins the game looks great otherwise.

The first time they basically say here look at this monster as it makes its introduction. This is basically saying I am showing you something awesome look at it! witch automatically makes any awesome thing less awesome.

The second time they break for a cinematic to put the final blow to the monster. And they think that its cool but what happens instead is, you didn't kill the monster the character in the cinematic did and it lessens the accomplishment of killing the beast.

I wish developers would dare to have players miss stuff and everyone doesnt need the same Cod experiece. Knowing that you probably miss some stuff makes the awesome things you see feel more unique.

Interesting. But you forget that there was a heavy emphasis on the character. She was talking, reacting, expressing what the player was supposed to etc. They were definitely trying to give us the sense that we would be embodying a defined person with specific skills and attributes rather than a player surrogate. Games like Monster Hunter and Dark Souls create the sense that YOU are a part of and responsible for the action taking place onscreen. If they're writing a character-focused story then the inter-cut cinematics seem appropriate to me.

I like the way Gears of War has always handled the first example - when something awesome is happening, you can hold the Y button to get a more cinematic look at it. That way, you can choose to experience the thing in a way that you enjoy most. I like seeing the cinematic takes, but some people (like yourself) obviously prefer it to be seen more organically by the player.

As for the second example, I think that can work as long as what you do to trigger the cutscene feels substantial. There's a fine line to walk there - you want to feel as though you dealt the final blow, but using a cinematic animation for that moment allows for some more striking finishes to fights. I think this can be achieved somewhat by having the canned sequence triggered by the player attacking the downed or otherwise vulnerable opponent.

Keep in mind that what they showed was presented at their press conference, so it could just be a demo-specific thing. I doubt it would switch to a cinematic every single time you kill a giant monster but who knows.

Not to be overly cynical, but I couldn't help but think of Horizon as the new Watch Dogs. Will be interesting to see some actual gameplay hopefully next E3.

Feel the same, i'm not really excited over this since it's an E3 stage demo. Lot's of games look amazing during E3 but end up being just average. Right now this seems like more of a concept then a game, just like the original Watch Dogs as you mentioned.

Aslo it's just so far out from being released it's hard to get excited for it.

I've always liked cinematica in video games the way they used them. I think they pulled it off right in that demo. Not cutting to prerendered footage but just using the camera in different way during important parts. It is more immersive to me this way rather than just having important parts play through in a bland way. Strong directing can really take a good product and make it great.

You still killed the monster. The cinematic wouldn't have played if you didn't line up the shot properly and take it. If you were going to miss, the cinematic wouldn't have played out. So you still killed the monster.

That's like playing Mortal Kombat X and pulling off a fatality and saying "I didn't rip his spine out, the character in the cinematic did" because you weren't in full control of Scorpion during the fatality. You still had to input the command correctly to do the fatality. Technically no you didn't pull his spine out, but really you did because he wasn't going to do it himself. Just like that character wasn't going to kill the monster if you didn't shoot it properly.

This seems like a silly thing to be worried about, I can't think of any single-player action game or shooter that doesn't at some point take control of the camera other than the Half-Life games and the first Portal. Is this a concern specifically about taking away control during combat?

@rearmed: 100% agree. I also hate it when games go into slow-motion without you controlling it. Totally reminds me of not being in control and playing a game.

I hope this was just for E3 purposes, can't imagine they will show a close up of a monster every time you 'aggro' one. The canned 'death blow animation' will probably still be in, as it's much easier to cut away instead of positioning the character accordingly to hit the enemy.

Though it showed gameplay, I also thought the demo was enhanced. The character delivered some line right before she released her bow, and it just made me think, that if it was the player and he missed that shot, it wouldn't make any sense.

I know this is a stupid complaint, but it annoyed me that the robots dinosaurs would respond to pain when she shot or damaged them. As a robot, I could see them acquiring a limp, or having sections disabled making it harder for them to function correctly, but crying out in pain just seemed stupid.

The bolded part is what I thought, too. It was all framed to look more cinematic; the game itself probably won't be quite as scripted... hopefully. As for the second paragraph, perhaps the dinosaurs are a mix of both robotic and organic elements?

I find that generally trailers like this are very scripted, but it creates a bad situation. I hate, no absolutely despise, talkative, witty playable characters who respond to every single thing that happens with a witty quip. So watching that trailer, there are 2 possibilities. 1: this was all done just for the trailer, or 2: they're actually going for that witty comeback for everything type of character, which means lots and lots of repeating dialogue and unfunny jokes. I think it just being for the trailer is the most likely option, but there has been enough examples of the second that I'm more cautious about the game than I would be otherwise.

The planet appears to be over run by low level A.I. for some reason. Developing pain and communicating it is a huge evolutionary benefit especially in social creatures so it doesn't surprise me that pain was implemented (by whom or what is a mystery) into these robots given that they operate as pack/heard/social animals.

I was going to post something very similar. Having characters voice their thoughts out loud to no one is insufferable. It's beyond insulting to have the main character vocally be an audience surrogate. The player is your fucking audience. How is it a good idea to add a completely unnecessary layer that essentially removes the user from the experience?

Boy, it's a good thing that character openly stated what they were doing while they were doing it, otherwise I never would have figured it out. Thanks also for having the character provide commentary on what's happening, because there's no way I'm capable of formulating my own reactions. Openly explaining extremely obvious shit and trying to tell me how to react to it isn't quite enough, though. If you could just have the game play itself for me, that would be great.

I really hope that was just for the trailer (although it wasn't necessary there, either). The game otherwise looks promising, but if they keep that character commentary bullshit in there, it will ruin the whole thing.

@brackstone: Yeah, I think they just had the voice actress talking over the demo footage or something like that. I think at one point they had the character running towards the camera and her mouth wasn't moving while she was speaking. I'm totally with you in that having a protagonist firing off quips every few seconds would get very old quickly, but in this case I think that it was simply done for this reveal footage to give us a sense of what her personality may be like in the finished product.

My only thought on Horizon was that it could be a sequel to Journey.

I thought it stopped looking great as soon as the gameplay started.

I figured it was a visually enhanced super scripted trailer like 99% of E3 stage presentations are.

Don't care, still think it looks very promising regardless.

Yeah, how 'chatty' the character was was definitely what bothered me the most about that trailer.