I felt like I was going schizophrenic listening to that trailer. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 had another gameplay trailer revealed at the 2023 Xbox Showcase, and it was a perfect example for all gaming studios to know NOT WHAT TO DO when presenting “gameplay” to the public.
Do developers really think people just want to watch cinematic trailers for 30+ hours for their “gameplay” experience?
Ninja Theory and Xbox Games released another gameplay trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, and it really encapsulated a major issue plaguing the gaming world with cinematics being used in place of gameplay. And, as I said, games like Hellblade 2 are the biggest offenders of this issue.
Now, I need to make one thing clear before I continue: I am not attacking or demeaning cinematic moments of games. Personally, I love when games break up the monotonous flow of gameplay (all gameplay is monotonous after 20+ hours) with a brief 2-5 min. cinematic scene that either relates to the story, the characters, or some other important aspect of the game.
It provides a nice break from intense focus and allows the voice actors, motion designers, and setting designers to take center stage and really showcase their amazing talents and abilities. Moreover, I obviously have no problems with cinematic trailers as those are often some of the most memorable, enjoyable, and praiseworthy aspects of a game (ex: Elder Scrolls Online, Diablo), while they’re also platforms for the voice actors, designers, etc. to show their skills.
That’s not where I have an issue with cinematics.
Rather, I have an issue with cinematics that completely take up the entire game, conflate “gameplay” with just being able to move your characters back and forth in a guided cinematic, and act more as $60 movies with the occasional action scene. Those are not fun yet are becoming more and more prevalent in the gaming world.
(Microsoft-Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2-The Senua Trailer)
Games like Final Fantasy 15, Hellblade 1, The Last of Us 1, 2, and the remake, Witcher 3 (the Blood and Wine DLC in particular), Uncharted 4, God of War: Ragnarök, Death Stranded, Metal Gear Solid V, etc. all fall victim to this issue in varying degrees, though I’d have to call out Hellblade 1 and Naughty Dog (aka: Uncharted, The Last of Us) for being the biggest culprits of this trend.
I haven’t done the math on the actual cinematic runtime vs. gameplay runtime (so don’t quote me on this), but I would guess that 60-70% of the runtime of both Naughty Dog franchises are filled with cinematic cutscenes completely independent from player interaction, while 85-90% of Hellblade 1 feels like one massive cutscene.
I’m a little more sympathetic towards Naughty Dog given the fact their games are far longer and more wide ranging than Hellblade, so a player actually has more gameplay experience playing that game over a smaller, less expansive game like Hellblade, but its marginal.
As I said, I have nothing against developers making their games this way as they’re advancing the Unreal Engine (and other engines like Unreal) to unseen heights, I just don’t like how we’re getting charged $60-$80 to just watch a cinematic movie for 18-20 hours of a 30-40 hour experience.
I’m sure Hellblade 2 will be good, but I don’t know if its the kind of game for gamers like me.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Microsoft) (Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II: The Senua Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRqLDCBxW04)
In Text Image 1: (Microsoft) (Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II: The Senua Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRqLDCBxW04)
