Buzz
The essence of video games lies in their interactive nature. By skillfully manipulating the controls, players guide their characters through expansive digital landscapes. This immersive experience makes you feel like an integral part of the journey, where your decisions directly influence the hero's fate. Additionally, mastering the gameplay often leads to significant rewards. Although these games may weave intricate and engaging narratives to connect their objectives, the story should never dominate over the actual gameplay. Unfortunately, not all developers grasp this concept.
In recent years, a concerning trend has emerged: video games attempting to mimic movies. These titles often feature limited interactivity, confining players to scripted scenarios with little room for skill or creativity. They compensate for this lack of engagement with lengthy cutscenes, resulting in more time spent watching than playing. While this approach may garner awards and attract attention from non-gaming artistic circles, it leaves players questioning their role in the experience. If developers are so intent on telling a rigidly structured story, they might as well abandon the pretense and produce a film instead.
10. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Admittedly, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has its limitations in terms of gameplay. The combat system revolves around a handful of repetitive combos, and the linear environments restrict exploration. However, the game’s presentation elevates it into a memorable journey. The haunting atmosphere and immersive storytelling are complemented by clever environmental puzzles. Most notably, the game masterfully employs audio and visual techniques to portray the protagonist’s psychosis. These elements combine to create a unique and promising foundation for the series.
Unfortunately, the sequel fails to expand on its predecessor’s groundwork. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II inherits the flaws of the original while diminishing its strengths. The gameplay remains shallow, lacking the psychological depth that once made it compelling. Senua is no longer alone, trading the intense isolation for mundane conversations. These interactions often occur during static cutscenes or leisurely walks through villages. With this misguided shift in focus, Hellblade loses its uniqueness and blends into the crowded genre of Viking-themed dramas.
9. The Order 1886
A prime example of squandered potential, The Order 1886 introduces a captivating alternate history where the Knights of the Round Table defend a steampunk-inspired London against supernatural forces. While the setting is undeniably intriguing, the game restricts exploration, offering only a few hours of gameplay—shorter than many films. Moreover, players are confined to a linear experience with no room for freedom or creativity.
The gameplay is disappointingly underdeveloped. Despite the rich urban backdrop, players are restricted to rigid, predetermined paths. Combat is reduced to uninspired third-person shooting, featuring a limited arsenal and repetitive enemy types. The developers’ insistence on controlling the player’s experience strips away any sense of excitement or engagement.
8. Ryse: Son of Rome
Certain games serve as tech demos for new consoles, and Ryse: Son of Rome fits this role perfectly for the Xbox One. It features stunningly realistic character models, a meticulously crafted Roman setting, and a cinematic presentation. The developers aimed to create a historical epic akin to Gladiator or Troy, and they succeeded in delivering a visual spectacle that highlights the console’s capabilities. However, they seemed to overlook the fact that they were designing a game, not just a visual experience.
Players navigate through linear levels in a hack-and-slash format, though this description might be misleading. Ryse lacks any distinctive flair, as the protagonist’s limited sword and shield combos are painfully generic. The enemies are equally uninspired, consisting of repetitive soldiers and brutes. Combat quickly becomes tedious, serving only as a means to transition between scripted cinematic moments rather than offering engaging gameplay.
7. God of War: Ragnarok
Transforming the fast-paced God of War series into slower, narrative-driven experiences was an unconventional decision, and Ragnarok marks the culmination of this shift. While the combat remains competent, it fails to innovate or surpass its predecessor in any significant way. This stagnation is partly due to the RPG elements, which lack the depth found in other dedicated role-playing games.
Similarly, the game includes a few side quests, but they offer little motivation to explore. Most are forgettable distractions—uninteresting and ultimately inconsequential. The level design further discourages exploration, as it’s dominated by narrow corridors and invisible barriers. Even if you engage with these optional tasks, they pale in comparison to the time spent on the main storyline.
Ragnarok is overloaded with cutscenes, many of which feel unnecessarily prolonged due to the game’s ambitious single-shot technique. Characters move sluggishly, pause excessively during dialogue, and engage in lengthy moments of introspection. As a result, only a fraction of the game involves actual gameplay, and even that often consists of walking while absorbing exposition. This imbalance makes you question why the developers included RPG elements at all.
6. The Last of Us Part II
This sequel shares the same issues as God of War, with an overwhelming number of cutscenes that overshadow the gameplay. These cinematic moments are slow-paced, dripping with intense emotional drama. While Naughty Dog is no stranger to cutscenes—evident in Jak & Daxter and Uncharted—the latter series balanced its linear structure with thrilling gameplay. The Last of Us Part II, however, struggles to maintain this balance.
The Last of Us Part II falters in its gameplay mechanics. Instead of offering dynamic level design, it relies on basic shooting, crafting, and stealth mechanics from its predecessor. Players face repetitive enemies like zombies and generic thugs, and much of the experience involves walking through dull environments while listening to mandatory dialogue. These flaws become more glaring as the game drags on unnecessarily. With the Last of Us TV show now available, this overlong installment feels even more redundant.
5. Quantum Break
Quantum Break sets itself apart from other cinematic games by aiming to emulate a TV show rather than a movie. This sci-fi thriller is divided into episodes, each featuring live-action segments starring actors like Shawn Ashmore and Lance Reddick. These scenes make up nearly half of the game, while the other half involves players controlling their photorealistic counterparts through futuristic environments. The game attempts to merge gaming and television seamlessly, but its ambition often exceeds its execution.
The game falls into the same repetitive traps as its peers. It features uninspired third-person shooting, linear platforming with no room for exploration, and overly simplistic “puzzles” that require minimal effort. What could have been a unique experience ends up feeling like a bland combination of overused mechanics. Combined with the heavy reliance on live-action sequences, it’s clear where the developers’ focus lies—and it’s not on innovative gameplay.
4. Final Fantasy XIII
As a cornerstone of the RPG genre, Final Fantasy is known for its expansive worlds, customizable parties, and player-driven exploration. Final Fantasy XIII, however, strips away these defining features. While it presents a grand adventure, the journey is rigidly linear, with most environments consisting of narrow, unyielding paths. Players spend hours moving in a straight line, with the game only opening up near the end—far too late to salvage the experience. The lack of meaningful role-playing elements further exacerbates the monotony.
The gameplay mirrors this restrictive design. Leveling up allows you to allocate skill points to characters’ stats and abilities, but these upgrades are unlocked in a fixed sequence. If a fire spell is next in line, that’s what you’re forced to take. Additionally, players only control one party member during battles, with the others acting autonomously, further limiting strategic depth.
Furthermore, the “Auto-Battle” feature removes even the limited control players have, automatically selecting abilities based on the developers’ preferences. FFXIII manages to strip away the freedom that is a hallmark of the RPG genre, leaving players with little agency.
3. Most Quantic Dream Games
Picture a series of games plagued by the same issues as Until Dawn, and you’ve summed up Quantic Dream’s catalog. This studio thrives on linearity, presenting its titles as if they were arthouse films. The games bombard players with endless cutscenes featuring over-the-top performances from Hollywood stars, rendered in unsettlingly realistic detail. These performances deliver overly dramatic and self-important narratives with no room for player input.
This rigid design philosophy extends to gameplay. The small environments are riddled with invisible barriers, and puzzles often have only one straightforward solution. Dialogue systems, which should offer meaningful choices, instead funnel players into predetermined outcomes, regardless of their selections.
This lack of player agency is a recurring issue in Quantic Dream’s high-profile titles. Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human are particularly guilty, embodying all the flaws mentioned above. Heavy Rain, while slightly better, still struggles to balance gameplay and storytelling, though it at least offers genuine branching paths. Even so, this minor success doesn’t excuse the studio’s insistence on this flawed format. They might as well make movies instead of pretending to create interactive experiences.
2. Until Dawn
Horror movie fans often criticize characters for making poor decisions. Until Dawn attempts to address this by letting players control the fate of characters in their own slasher film. However, the game limits exploration, confining players to small areas around the cabin and its surroundings. The gameplay resembles a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style, similar to Telltale games, but with even less freedom.
The issue lies in the lack of meaningful choices. While cutscenes are expected in this genre, Until Dawn features excessively long ones. Decisions rarely impact the story significantly, and characters often survive regardless of player input. Failing quick-time events simply restarts the sequence, stripping away any sense of consequence. This undermines the game’s premise, reducing it to a standard horror story with predictable outcomes.
1. Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima is known for his polarizing narratives and eccentric ideas, but Death Stranding amplifies his most divisive traits. The game bombards players with lengthy cutscenes, leaving little room for actual gameplay in the early hours. These scenes are filled with overly dramatic and bizarre moments, often in slow motion, interspersed with monotonous tutorials. By the time you finally gain control, you’re left wondering when the real game begins.
Delivering packages in Death Stranding does require a degree of skill and strategy, as players must traverse challenging terrains and plan for potential hazards by stocking up on necessary supplies. However, the experience is frequently interrupted. Each mission is followed by an overwhelming amount of exposition, delivered through lengthy audio logs or extended cutscenes. This lack of pacing highlights the consequences of giving Kojima unchecked creative freedom.
