One of the most important parts of a game is the storyline imo. Its what makes me wanna play to the end, makes me wanna turn that corner to see whats there. So lets talk about game story theory. What makes a good story? When is it that you have gone to far? Assests that should go into every story? A good game story that you know of? Snarkpit wants to here it.
That'd be your cue riven.
Actrully this good be a pretty good thread.
uh in the original Ghost Recon you are in Georgia (the country) fighting revolutionaries trying to overthrow the government and bring back communism. I know that required reading all the map briefings and such, probably too much effort 
The missions themselves even follow the story, starting off with discovering the intentions of the 'terrorists', the UN gets booted from the country by force, the capital of Tbilisi with the US embassy comes under attack, and eventually you crush the revolution through events I no longer remember.
Cut scenes are appealing to game writers because all the tricks of film are available to them, it's an easy way out so to speak. But some certain things occur when we have cut scenes in games. Gameplay in a game is everything, the story has to work with the gameplay; afterall, were playing a game, not watching it play itself. I'm speaking about this in context mainly to fps games.
Having a cut scene does just what it says: it cuts the gameplay; it stops it. When one comes up, the player realizes that the game has gone into "story mode" and they take their hand off the mouse to passively watch.
There are several problems when stopping gameplay dead in its tracks to run a passive cut scene.
Simply put there are less obtrusive, and more organic ways to accomplish the same thing.
I quoted that list from a book I'm currently reading titled: Character Development and Storytelling for Games (page 32) check it out!
I think that for a good story, I mean really good story (not your average game story) you need lots of mystery, you need to raise lots of questions about the story and these questions can be awnsered at the end of the game or in a cool sequel, some sweet twists in the story to throw the player of balance and so its not predictable and boaring, an awsome backstory for the hard core fans to check out and just in general many cool things. A sad story/ending is always good and will be remembered. I hear Halo3 is a very dark game. One of the voice actors (Jen Tyalor) who plays Cortana and some other cool charecters (Princess Peach from Mario and some cool movies) burst out into tears after she finished doing some gioluge. Thats pretty cool.
Speaking of Halo (me heres people going "oh god here he goes") Omegaplayer said some stuff about the cut scenes from Halo 2. I thought that they where cool, they gave the player its dose of the action and then scent them back into the universe for some killing/grunting. Many people belive that cut scenes are a disturbance or are breaking the action. MAbye this is one of the factors that seperates the Half-life people from the Halo people. But imo, a well done entertaing cut scene could go one for ever, I dont care as long as I get some target practice in the end. For example: (Halo 2 warning) I would watch these if you have broadband 
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Coolest ever Start of a game : http://halocinema.bungie.org/halo2/01_one_size_fits_all.wmv
Coolest ever anger/sespence build op of a boss: http://halocinema.bungie.org/halo2/30_delusions.wmv
Coolest ever cliff hanger game ending: http://halocinema.bungie.org/halo2/31_finale.wmv
Coolest ever Video game twist : http://halocinema.bungie.org/halo2/22_inside_job.wmv
Just check em out. You only live once.
lol. Episode 1 reference ahy?
@ Riven: Yes riven I agree with the book and I have to so get a copy, but the 1st and 3rd quote have exeptions in my imo. I'm going to use halo as an example (snarkpit:"arr again!") because I know it really well and if I use another game, i'm at risk of not knowing what I'm talking about.
For me, Halo is not a game really, its an experience. From when I start the game till the next movie and back to the gameplay and so on... I'm in like trans. I'm totally immersed in the universe just thinking of all the possiblites like, OMG that stupid brute tataurs... or I wonder why the forerunner really built the rings? or whatever. It is still really fun and hard and a game an all, but that singleplayer, I swear totally immersive to me 
. Its not just about the action, its about the fear of what the possiblities are, what the covenent are stupidly going to do, whats arounf the next corner.
However I can see how these rules apply to games like Half-life seris, well actrully that ending scene for hl2, I just didn't want it to end. It was amazing. It had mystery and it had unanswerd questions, for me these are the things that make a story great. Now I'm gonna go watch those movie links I posted again for the fiftyth time 
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Actrully this would seem like a good moment to reveal something/release some more imformation. Nuh I better not. Aww I'm lokking foward to that day. Oh sorry what, you where reading this. :o
edit: I forgot something because my brother was yelling in my ear the whole time: Most unexpected thing in a game: http://halocinema.bungie.org/halo2/29_backseat_driver.wmv
Once again I must reiterate, you are dumb. There's 'no story' because there aren't any third person cutscenes or overly dramatic voice overs that explain every plot point as it happens. There's a reason HL revolutionized single player FPS and why every one released since then has tried to copy it in some way. (HINT: it's because of the story and the way its presented!)
Regardless of how it was presented. I'm not arguing with you about its gameplay, which I thought was excellent in the manner it was executed Regardless of how it was presented. I'm not arguing with you about its gameplay, which I thought was excellent in the manner it was executed 
Apparently you DO need cutscenes and third person sequences to spell it out for you because you think that HL doesn't have much of a story.
I'm gonna make this clear for you: HL has a story, a very good one, in fact it is considered one of the first FPS ever to actually have one that is important to the game. Every level is designed with this story in mind. The fact that you don't think it has a story means yes, you need to apparently be force fed it so you'll actually understand it.
I just finished replaying HL1 a few days ago and I have a spoon, and by god I will shove it down your throat repeatedly if necessary.
I agree with G.Ballblue. I didn't think that half-life 1, not 2, 1 had much story. Almost none. Just what? Moving through Black Mesa, going to the surface, then to Lambda, the Xen. It was still cool though. And Half-life 1 DID have a cut scene or 2. Look again.
Also like G.Ballblue I like cutscenes. They are a nice reward for ma. However the type of cutscenes that are usally bad are the ones that a boaring and go on for ever. I dont wanna name any names but I was playing a hl2 mod where you are wathcing this ship drop of combine soilders then go back and disapper through the cliffs again. That went on for about 1 minute. Just one camera following the ship the whole time. It was a bad start to the mod, and I would have quit, but I didn't. The mod was actrully ok-ish but the start was terriable. You can loose alot of you audience if you dont make a good first impression.
And on that note, cutscenes that are not rendered with the game engine are usally crap. There are exeptions.
Anyways did anyone actrully watch those sweet video's I linked up earlyer or did I just waste ma time?
.That's because you are a 12 year old child who thinks Halo is God's gift to mankind. Maybe your parents will let you rent the movie 'Aliens' so you can better understand the cutscenes from that jungle level where the Flood is released in Halo1 and see where the design for the dropships came from.
Almost no story... did you not pay attention? Here's Halo1's story: You are fighting the Covenant over a 'mysterious construct', you discover the Halo is a weapon that could turn the tide of the war, you release the Flood, you blow up the Halo to contain the Flood. Guy grabs the ass of a Covenant if you beat the game on Legendary. Then there's a sequel which is lame as hell cause of akimbo rifles. Did I skip over alot of the story, miss important plot points? Yes. Now realize you did the exact same thing in your post.
Perhaps if HL had five minute cutscenes of Gordon talking to himself saying "christ what have I done did I mess up the experiment? I've caused so much death and destruction" or "I gotta get to the surface and help these innocent people" or "oh no the soldiers we thought were gonna rescue us are killing us" or "oh my god the scientists knew about xen before the resonance cascade and were experimenting on them the blood of hundreds is off my hands" you might understand the story better. That is just a tiny bit of it. It doesn't work if you just stop thinking about what your doing and just go through the motions of killing whatever moves onscreen.
And the end of Apprehension is not a cutscene.
) are a "reward" of any kind, this is a completely different approach to storytelling in games. An older (I won't say outdated, though) one.
@reaper47: Yes it would make sense that you like those other characters rather than the ones highlighted to help you out. As writers for any story, there is always that struggle with keeping the knowledge between the audience and the character(s) balanced. Sure, the audience knowing more than the character in Stranger than Fiction can be pretty entertaining, but the player knowing more than the character they control can be pretty detrimental to the illusion of the player character's life in the fiction of the world.
You should try to keep all surprises to the player character a surprise to the player and vise versa. If you do cut to a different scene that the player character is not observing, you shouldn't reveal a lot of information. This relies heavily on Aristotle's unity of action. The only reason you would do this, is if you wanted to create suspense.
So in the case of the character supposedly knowing more than the player in HL2 is not really evident with Barney and Alyx. You the player have been in control of Gordon ever since the accident, which apparently is when you met Barney. The only relationship Gordon had with him was shared by the player, so really, he is still a stranger, and his job then is just as evident now (helping you open doors, shoot headcrabs, and owing you a beer.) So you probably don't like him because he is a little audacious, but his reactions to Gordon are also his reactions to you as the player, because you were Gordon when you both "met" back in HL1. He still has a helping hand in the story?.read on!
Alyx works the same way; she meets you for the first time in HL2 and every experience she has with Gordon, she has with the player. She is trying to get to know Gordon, like the player is trying to know her. And there is not a minute in the game where Gordon knows more about her than the player, nor where Alyx knows more about Gordon (relevant to the action). Now you're probably thinking back to some lines where she mentions the stories Eli has told her of Gordon (you) working with Eli before the incident. Well, every story needs a setting or background, and the background for Half-Life is that Gordon is a Physicist. That's why he is going to Black Mesa, That's where he knew Eli, bla bla, and so the connections are established, without the player having to make the boring small chat and lunch breaks to get to know the characters outside of the main action. So to establish Alyx as a viable character to meet and interact with Gordon, she needs to have a common ground with him: she's Eli's daughter! And to have this common ground already established makes it easier to get to the point on things, and to let the story continue to the action
I would have to argue that Alyx and Barney were far from gimmicks. For reasons already stated, they are the "pivotal characters" of the game. And the role of a pivotal character is to drive the action.
Remind you of anyone? We find out that Eli is trapped, and Alyx must get him back, thus your mission is at hand! Now Barney is still questionable. We have to remember that the story is not over! He may still have a bigger role to play.
How?s that for character talk?
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