I know what you picture when someone says that a game is "cinematic." If you've played games much in the last 20 years, you likely think of extremely realistic character models moving through spectacle-focused gameplay as they progress from cutscene to cutscene. That description certainly applies to some of my favorite "cinematic" games; 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted 4, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Parts 1 and 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Remake all fit those criteria to varying degrees.
Or, you might think of games that are more like "interactive movies." These cut down on traditional gameplay, and instead largely tell their stories through cutscenes, with choices or quick-time events sprinkled in throughout to incorporate interactivity. There may be some brief walking around bits, too, where you search a confined area for a key item or a character you need to talk to. Games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Detroit: Become Human, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Telltale's The Walking Dead, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Until Dawn all fit in this category. Or, if you're into indie stuff, you might think of FMV games. Her Story, Telling Lies, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Immortality (all from devel✨ope♑r Sam Barlow) present the player with a trove of footage starring real people, and task them with figuring out what it all means.
This is the smallest category because the genre had gone out of fashion until Her Story showed that it could be done in a cool, modern way in 2015, leading to a minor ⛄resurgence in the indie space.
I like all of these kinds of games. But, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is extremely cinematic and doesn't fit in any of these categories. No, the latest game in Ubisoft's long dormant action-adventure series belongs to a genre we tend to associate with gameplay first and foremost. It's a 2D Metroidvania, and 2D and Metroidvania both tend to work against a game being cinematic.
When a game's world is seen from a 2D perspective it can't ape the rules of cinema as easily as, say, a third-person game can. It isn't much of a shift to go from playing as Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2, with the camera floating along behind her, to watching a shot-reverse-shot cutscene, where the camera moves in a little closer and frames the conversation from over her shoulder. It's a minor change in perspective, and the game already accommodates a similar shift while in combat, with the camera moving in closer when Ellie aims down the sights of her weapon. In a 2D game, the world may not be built to be seen from that perspective at all and, if the game is made with pixel art, the world doesn't even exist from that viewpoint. There are 2D games that manage to be cinematic — Playdead's Inside is a standout example — but it's less common.
Metroidvania design is another hurdle if a game wants to present its characters and world with movie-inspired visual flair. Cinematic games tend to be linear, with the strict critical path making it easier to set up striking compositions. But Metroidvanias are known for their nonlinear sprawl; for worlds that are designed around function more than aesthetic beauty. Again, there are gorgeously cinematic Metroidvanias, like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ori and the Will of the Wisps, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown approaches the problem in an interesting way. It does have cutscenes and the game looks decent graphically, but neither of those make it cinematic - at least not on their own. Instead, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is cinematic because of the way it makes use of the ꦗsame tools a director would to set up a compelling shot.
For example, early on in the game, Sargon goes to speak with the rest of his comrades, all gathered on the palace roof after a battle. Though Sargon remains on the same central plain he always occupies, Ubisoft Montpelier arranges some of his pals in the background and one in the foreground. Big boy Orod and pretty boy Menolias stand one plane back, and the wily Artaban sits one plane forward, all the way to the right. The shot is visually interesting without any need for powerhouse graphics or showy camera work. It's just "blocking" — a cinematic term that refers to the way the director arranges actors and objects in relation to the camera — and it's surprisingly effective.
Elsewhere, Ubisoft smartly blocks a conversation so that it effectively communicates the hierarchy within the kingdom. During the same evening as that conversation on the roof, Sargon is sent to the throne room to be honored for his accomplishments in battle. The Queen is at the center of the room, and standing by her throne at the top of a staircase at the top of the frame. The Prince, also important, but less powerful, is also central, but at the bottom of the stairs. Sargon, our POV and entrypoint, stands next to the Prince. His comrades (less important for the moment) stand to the right and left, and are intermittently covered up by talking heads during the dialogue that follows. Unnamed characters further populate the edges of the screen and, like Sargon's comrades, are frequently covered up. It's simple blocking, executed solely with visual language, and it tells us everything we need to know about the relationships at play here.
The Lost Crown uses the techniques that we've come to expect from games, too. When a big boss enters an arena, they get a flashy cutscene, complete with close-ups that show off their most threatening bits. But the game gets an impressive amount of mileage merely from demonstrating a deep understanding of cinematic basics. I wouldn't have expected that from a 2D Metroidvania, but I will going forward.
Prince Of Persia 💧Nails The Metroidvania Art Of Burಌying The Double Jump
There's a lot of bad ways to introduce the double jump in a Metroidvania, butꦰ the new Prince of Persia does it right.
