UGHHHH. CUTSCENES

by Spotgamers Team
published by Rinie 2 July 2009

Bad boi Snake.. Bad Boi!

Good day Gamers, you have been playing through a series of video games for the first time, and chances are you saw the game's cutscenes while you were at it. As for those who do not know what cutscenes are, it is a movie-like sequence where you lose control of your character and watch a story-related portion of the game. Now then you have completed the whole adventure and wish to play through the game again, only this time, you want to skip all the cutscenes and see if you can beat the game as quickly as possible. In some cases, however, you make a horrifying yet unsurprising discovery: the cutscenes cannot be skipped. Not if you are watching them the first time, and not if you are seeing them for the 3454165th times. This has long been a nuisance, and how I wish to do is to get right into the action as quickly as possible.


Cutscenes have been part of the games for many years now, and they have evolved from simple comical captions and illustrations to full blown action packed animation and voice acting, Maggie Q’s in particular, how sweet, how soothing her voice is… Right, back to the main topic. Some are simple and short, but some of them can be quite lengthy. Those former ones obviously end pretty quickly, but the latter ones seem to take forever to end. In this case, if a cutscene is long in addition to not being skipped, it makes an already annoying situation even more aggravating. Extended cutscenes may also artificially lengthen the game, making it seem longer than it really is. What is worse, some of these cutscenes may have to be viewed again if an important task is associated with them, and you happen to fail them for whatever reason. I am not saying that long cutscenes should be shortened; my point is I just want to point out that having the option to skip them would be beneficial and really encourage speed runs of various titles. Maybe I just hate waiting…


In some games, there are somewhat unusual ways of skipping cutscenes. For example, in Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64, you can only skip cutscenes if you have seen them before, and you do so by pushing the not-so-useful L button instead of the more common A, B, or Start button. Little did you know, pausing during cutscenes if you need to take care of a quick chores or girlfriend calls is being made possible. To its credits, this is another feature that should become commonplace for people who do want to see the cutscenes and wont miss any part of the main element of the story during the game play.


There are also some cutscenes that were terrible, mediocre, or otherwise nothing related at all throughout a game. It is bad enough to go through it once already and most players may wish to spare from having to watch it a second time. However, such cutscenes may not be skipped, and thus the player may have to endure it, or failing that, just take a cigarette break or you-tubing while it plays. First class cutscenes that are worth watching is still fine with me, but those that have nothing to offer are just plain dreadful. Other cutscenes may simply repeat what was mentioned in similar scenes, driving gamers nuts. In that case, it would seem that the cutscenes are trying to shove information down our throats to no end, which can get very annoying very fast. People can fast forward through boring parts of movies and YouTube videos, so why not the same for games?


What I suggest is that every company that makes games with cutscenes should make an allowance to skip them mandatory. No game should force players to watch cutscenes if they simply want to play the games fast. As I have mentioned, a simple button press could save all the unnecessary frustration. Perhaps developers could come up with a better alternative to just turn off cutscenes altogether, although it is not recommended for gamers who wish to indulge in every aspects and details in the game and also not getting lost in its storyboard.


I have played many games that do not allow you to skip cutscenes no matter how frigging times you have seen them. This practice is annoying and simply adds to the game's length. If only we have 48 hours in a day, even so I won’t want to go through such series of hectic moments. As such, all game companies should make cutscenes that can be skipped an imperative feature in a game. With such implementation, players are given the freedom to play games quickly, repeat the game without having to watch the scene again, and most importantly saving their ass from being bored of the waiting part. On the contrary, cutscenes should not be removed from the games altogether if they add to the game's appeal; rather, they should have the option for one to skip them for whatever reason. If every game with cutscenes ever made had such preference, the gaming world would surely be a somewhat better place, with less frustration on account of impatience to go straight to the action. Lock and load.