The art of cinematic video games and the varying degrees of convention put into them to be a sort of “interactive movie”.
Introduction
The Last of Us, released by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2013 as an action-adventure survival horror game, was at the time and continues to be, an extremely successful game in the video game industry. A story about the journey of two protagonists, Ellie and Joel, through the post-apocalyptic United States, fighting against humans infected by a strain of the Cordyceps virus. The Last of Us has, since its release, received numerous critical acclaims, mostly directed towards the game’s masterful execution of its unique narrative, gameplay, and design, most importantly, praise towards the development of the game as a piece of literature. This article will explore the narrative, gameplay, and design of The Last of Us. It will further elaborate on how The Last of Us works as a cinematic video game, and the varying degrees of characteristics it adapts from cinematography to create a sort of “interactive movie”, including how the adaptation of these various aspects classifies the style of cinematic video games an “artform” similar to how certain literature could be.
Narrative of Cinematic Video Games
What exactly defines a video game as “cinematic”? With the rise of video games that push the boundaries of realism, the term itself is thrown onto games easily, but what steps does a video game seriously have to take to become a video game worthy of being tagged as cinematic? There has been an ever-growing relationship with video games and cinema for quite some time, and the increasing trend in these two markets colliding has become ever so apparent.
With the existence of the relationship between video games and cinema, the conventions used in the art of cinema has been evolved in video games. The term of a video game being cinematic comes from the development of these games under these conventions. The Last of Us, as a cinematic video game, uses modern-style cinema conventions in the main productions of the game, and the overall development of the narrative, design, characters, etc. In cinema, “each step in the production process, key professionals — directors, cinematographers, editors — contribute their knowledge and vision to the design of shots, sound, and sequences” (IEEE 67). This design of the shots, sounds and sequences are as apparent in the production of The Last of Us, especially with the cinematic cutscenes apparent throughout the game, especially the trailers.
The narrative of cinematic video games is usually what highlights them as cinematic. The unique context of rhetoric and narrative that they employ make them worthy of this title. A video game that effectively breaks the barrier between interactivity and viewability constitutes this. Of course, there are many aspects of a video game that seem very unrealistic, as “every gun or sword or grenade or potion just a button-tap or two away trumps our desire for realism” (Hughes, 149), despite this, we look at what cinema aspects will ultimately work with narrative, and decide whether or not an unrealistic piece of media, such as a video game, can be truly cinematic.
Development of Cinematics in Video Games
Exactly what conventions of cinematography is adapted for use in video games? There are numerous instances of player interaction that use these conventions, along with non-interactive aspects of the video game, such as cutscenes. Many video game studios have started pushing the boundaries too, “[adopting] the language of film to an interactive context” (Cozic 135–142). It’s safe to say studios like Naughty Dog has successfully done that, but what conventions arose to accomplish this development of cinematics in video games?
Surprisingly, in the creation of “cinematic video games”, there is an importance in the viewpoint of the camera. Similarly, in cinema, the cinematic director would be responsible for directing the camera to shoot the significant and elegant parts of a scene. Through research, static virtual cameras have extreme drawbacks, especially compared to the average human cameraman or camerawoman. The idea of using camera viewpoints in video games that has a similar effect of giving the game, “dramatic purpose” (Cozic 135–142). An example of this can be seen in many video games, especially games with a sort of “cinematic” approach. In The Last of Us, the game is mostly played in a ‘third-person viewpoint’, or with the camera hanging behind and above the controllable protagonist, pointing towards their back. However, during key points in the story, especially the interactive cutscenes and cutscenes in general, the camera is pointed at certain angles to assist the narrative. A different implementation of the ‘third-person viewpoint’ would be seen in Heavy Rain, a style most similar with films, where the camera focus on the protagonist from a distance, but from many camera angles, also giving the impression that the camera is controlled by a human rather than a static virtual camera.
Although there is an importance in the ‘filming’ of video games to give that game a cinematic appeal, many other aspects define the “cinematic” game. The evolution of cutscenes in video games has been a key point in breaking the “game-like” aspect of a video game, peaking towards realism. In the mid-90s, cutscenes were recognized as a simple cut from the gameplay to show a “cinematic scene”, a pre-recorded animated scene. There is a clear distinction between game and cinema, as shown in a regular video game cutscene style. However, as more video game developers look towards the path of making a “cinematic” game, they start looking towards breaking that disconnect between interactivity and viewability. Similar to what Half-Life (Valve, 2000) did, by developing the cutscenes into the game itself, avoiding the bridge and disconnect from “playing” and “viewing” (Brooker, 122–128).
In gameplay and cutscenes, there is “cinematic snippets [that] often deliver major plot points and character development” (Huang, 1). Naturally, the use of motion-capture would allow cut-scenes and in-game animation to reach a level of realism never seen before, but more importantly, connect the player with the character in a way cinema does. In cinema, it easier to be entranced by the real actors than the virtualized characters in video games, however, with motion capture that changes. With motion-capture, real-life life actors can be used, giving the video game a march towards realism with the idea of “cinematic”. For example, Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek starred as one of the main protagonists in Until Dawn, including many other actors. The nature of motion-capture is the mission to connect video games with realism, as the narrative itself is improved cinematic wise with proper cutscenes, animations, and character graphics.
In developing a game that’s “cinematic”, the subtraction of the disconnect between actual interactivity and viewability is necessary, another way that is achieved is through the addition of “background” cinema aspects. For example, what’s been distinguishable in the media of cinema and gaming alike is the soundtrack. In cinema, scenes need to be perfectly timed with music and silences to give the effect to the audience. The development of sound in cinema took effect in the development of video games also. As developers look for further ways to give their interactive narratives more meaning, an easy improvement is found in the soundtrack. Similar to cinematography, video games have entire teams dedicated to sound direction, and music composition.
“A conceptual and empirical link between the expectable impact of soundtrack music to video game players‘ cognitive and affective responses that generate overall game enjoyment is thus a missing element in understanding game entertainment.” (Klimmt 689–713)
Cinematic Video Games
Throughout this article, there has been a focus on the aspects of cinema that are implemented into video games, however, exactly what video games exist that are considered “cinematic”. What games exist, and what exactly does these game do that is different from the norm. There are plenty of video games out there that exhibit one or two cinematic aspects, but there are cinematic video games where game studios have taken it above and beyond in delivering what can be called interactive cinematic masterpieces.
One of the focuses in this article is The Last of Us, one of the most popular video games of all time. As previously stated, the video game itself has earned itself several impressive titles, from plenty of awards to even Game of the Year (Suellentrop 3). However, many other cinematic video games deserve the “cinematic praise” that The Last of Us has received, if not on equal grounds. One example is Detroit: Become Human (Carnevale 2019). Detroit: Become Human, made by the studios of another cinematic video game mentioned in this article, Heavy Rain, has taken numerous aspects from cinema in making the unbelievably realistic game it is today. The game prides itself in a narrative that honors pure interactivity, with a type of story that gives the player “numerous choices”, ultimately resulting in a change in how the overarching plot will take place, in short terms: multiple stories in one game. With the usage of real-life actors used for the protagonist’s player-models, voice and animation, the game feels almost too real, and sometimes, feels like an interactive film with a choose your own adventure twist.
Another notable cinematic video game, already mentioned in this article, Until Dawn. Another video game that wields a narrative with a choose your own adventure style. This cinematic video game took a closer approach to the use of real-life actors in the cast, with Hollywood star Rami Malek, who recently won an Oscar in his performance in Bohemian Rhapsody, and Hollywood star Hayden Panettiere (Carnevale 2019). The game itself has very little gameplay involved, so this is the closest to an interactive film as the cinematic video game collection can reach.
Closing
Overall, many aspects are needed in making a video game cinematic. This article throws the tag around like a label when simply it is a new genre that is arising in this pool of realistic video games being created. As seen, the narrative of video games is a great matter of importance in this new era of cinematic video games. Although the gameplay of the game itself is equally as important, gamers enjoy a tear-jerking or exhilarating story alongside it. The implementation of cinematic aspects has also put this new era, or genre of video games to the next level, with the creations of masterpieces such as The Last of Us, thanks to its use of cinema and narrative. Furthermore, with the continued use of realism in game development, and implementation of technology to use cinematography in game development, the cinematic video game genre will certainly take up the majority of top video games soon, as it already is accomplishing.
