Playing the Scripted Set Piece 

"When the stakes are fakes, there's no thrill on the grill" Gold.

I never understood why the most intense moments in many of these action/adventures games take control away from the player. It's cool to watch but that's not what I bought the gaming console for.

These set pieces are a big part of the reason why I haven't touched a lot of the current AAA games. As you said, I usually find them almost insulting and they perfectly represent the bad design trends so many big budget games having been following for years now - this mistaken believe that orchestrating every single detail of your game can be a substitute for good, deep mechanics. Here's hoping devs and publishers take some of your suggestions to heart.

I like the interesting scenarios that the Uncharted set pieces present. Fighting a bunch of dudes while the cruise ship is tipping over felt great and very intense despite it obviously being very scripted. The build up is also Dying kills momentum so making them simple is intentional which leads to the feeling of smoke and mirrors. On the other hand I feel like all Tomb Raider set pieces consists of Lara running and jumping while shit crumbles around her which is super disappointing considering the slightly more depth those games have. I think gameplay is king but other things matter just as much for me.

It's only been like 4 years since the last upload, you need to slow down mate.

I think Resident Evil 4 did it best. Nearly every room feels like a set pieces that changes the dynamic while still giving the player plenty of options.

I think the Nepalese​ village section and train sequence in Uncharted 2 were great set pieces because they do actually incorporate the key mechanics of the game.

Just found this channel. So glad I've got a great RU-vid channel to binge.

Can we officially rename the game to Rise of the Planet of the Tomb Raiders? Can that be done? Thanks.

Couldn't agree more. That's why I hate most of these sequences. Worst is these sequences are the most boring to develop and are the ones that drains the most resources out of a development team. They take forever to make right and cost a fortune. Way too much for moments that no one will want to replay.

You put the thrill on all our grills.

I've always hated this trend. It's all smoke and mirrros as you said

One thing about the set pieces in many post-PS3/X360 action games is the *often taking away of controls*. Uncharted, Tomb Raider Rising, Enslaved, all do it with result from "meh" to "boring". Even, Metal Gear Rising slows down when Raiden gets "injured". The kind of beauty of Half Life 2 is that you are still under full control, so when you actually survive a set-piece, it's all the more satisfying. Call of Duty has it's own share of setpieces, though they got pretty stale after Black Ops. Also, I think you should also talk about "emergent gameplay" (or when setpiece gets generated through game systems and player's actions, like Far Cry and STALKER games), and compare it with this approach. Anyways, another great video. Your videos have enlightened me a lot regarding games and ideas in them, and hope others too would understand and appreciate games better.

This is my exact problem with so many games today and the reason why the Spider-Man E3 trailer made me go "Oh no... :( "

5:55 - Stuff like this is why I feel I got as much out of watching a playthrough of Uncharted 4 as actually playing it myself. Essentially just watching the game play itself until the movie continues. Even the more successful set pieces you mention later on in the video, to me, felt about as engaging as any of the more static pop-and-shoot sections (although the kinetic, constantly changing nature of the setting does help). Pop out, shoot until no more boys, move on. At that stage you are basically just making an Indiana Jones film. It was infuriating seeing all the discussion surrounding the game devolve into the same kind of "GAMES ARE NOW EQUAL TO MOVIES HOORAY" legitimacy conversation that hasn't been relevant since, well, Uncharted 2 came out. Like you say, it's not about linearity-to me, it would have been more exciting to watch without the minimal mechanical requirements reminding me that the tension is all fake. In that sense, making the player actually play those sections felt like a crucially BAD action movie. Great vid as always, my dude.

I came here from that Shammy video and slapped that subscribe button. Nice video! Personally, I love the big set-piece moments such as those in Tomb Raider reboot games. I think it's impressive how they manage to feel intense despite being simple to play through, but I'm definitely all for developers trying to spice these moments up a bit more in the gameplay department. It could also come down to personal taste as well. I prefer allowing myself to be swept up into whatever game I'm playing, and since this comes naturally it is easier to feel the intensity of the set-piece so I can play in the moment. I would probably hate most video games if I came across one of these moments only seeing them from a strictly gameplay perspective! I think it's great hearing perspectives like in this video because it's one I may not even consider otherwise!

"When the steaks/stakes are fakes there's no thrill on the grill" Ah, amazing idiom there You deserve a like for that

And yet, I love these moments in gaming. It started with the game "Split Second" and the Time Attack Races. At the end of the airfield, a plane crashes down... and that moment is just phenomal and I played that level over and over again, just to witness this moment.

Your videos blow me away. Great writing, interesting ideas, engaging visuals, and loads of other awesome things you do. Keep up the great work.

this is why i love MGS V (at least for the gameplay, the story is a bit.. disappointing) it's a really dynamic experience

I don't complete disagree or agree but I'd argue that sometimes they take away some challenge in some set pieces because they don't want you to die and completely kill the momentum.

One game which did set pieces gracefully is The Last Guardian. They exist to grow the bond between the boy and Trico, and because your character can't fight, it makes you feel vulnerable. One particular set piece which I found effective is designed to make the player feel helpless, something that I felt none of the Uncharted games have ever done.

SPOILERS FOR METAL GEAR SOLID 4. I think the best use of it comes from MGS4, most precisely, the microwave scene. You need to crawl through a giant microwave to get to GW. The only thing you need to do is QTE but it feels so tense since you snake slowly dying and, on the lower half of the screen, you see what Liquid is causing and you just want it to sped up but it just can't

I love tropical freeze's gameplay set pieces because it you don't lose control and they actually elevate the gameplay

As soon as I heard ratatat playing I knew I had to like

I remember a game on the original xbox where the whole entire point of the game was to drive through crazy awesome set pieces. Wish i remembered the name of it. Damn.

A fantastic example of this done well is the Ginso Tree in Ori and the Blind Forest. The entire tree is a good example of level design which also introduces and expands upon two new mechanics (blue things which teleport the player as well as a new ability called "bash"). Once the player has gotten through sections which require understanding of these new mechanics, the game throws a wrench at the player in the form of an exciting set piece... the tree floods with water. This requires the player to rapidly link together all the mechanics they have learned up to that point in quick succession (jump, double jump, wall jump, using the teleports, bash, etc.) It is both a flashy set piece that creates a very tense moment as well as a "final test" of the player's understanding and mastery of mechanics. It is hands down the best moment in the game... and that is what you want to do as a game developer; create memorable moments. Start of Ginso Tree: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wh6gBjfXKxw.htmlm21s Start of set piece: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wh6gBjfXKxw.htmlm23s

God Of War 1-3 were a lot of the time scripted set pieces, and a lot of the most iconic moments were set pieces or QTEs. For some reason, we all, I included, fucking love God of War.

so are we just gonna avoid the fact that he said "rise of the planet of the tomb raiders" at 6:04 ??

It seems nobody noticed you saying "Rise of the Planet of the Tomb Raider". Damn Clever man! Nice videos

"If the steaks are fake, then there's no thrill on the grill." 10/10 A lot of Sonic games have this problem, though not to as much of an extent. Sonic Lost World has way too many segments where control is taken away while you run around at a cool camera angle. I really wish it wouldn't do that.

that Loud Pipes timing. Nice.

The editing for the intro was smooth as butter. Good stuff.

this topic reminds me what stories people share in games like battlefield... is it from campaigns, no. Battlefield online gameplay stories about some crazy rush or kill streak or whatever else exciting because it was not scripted bombastic barely interactive movie cut scene... "Daigo's parry" would not be legendary or even remembered 10 min after if it was a cut scene or scripted event. Games are gameplay first and they are remembered for it.

God bless the Tekken tag 2 music at the end

This genre of RU-vid (game design analysis) is turning into the new let’s play of RU-vid where it’s becoming the new thing that everybody is trying but I believe you are doing it the best

The entire reason these scripted action scenes exist, and why they're not skill based, is because ten years ago they would have been cutscenes. But game developers listened to people's complaints that cutscenes were boring/unfun, so they make them playable. That's why you got QTEs, and then later on these kinds of set pieces. They're not meant to be tests of skill, they're meant to be cutscenes that are interactable.

Yet uncharted is still my favourite franchise of all time.

This is some sharp analysis. Also helps that Rise of the Tomb Raider and Uncharted feature heavily. You even caught my favorite set piece moment in Rise in the final area of the game.

I really like scripted set pieces, (when done right, like in Uncharted), so here are my thoughts. Like you said, they are there partially to emulate movies. They give you the thrill of watching a crazy action scene. Problem is, if you are presented with a bunch of difficult challenges, then that conflicts with the flow of a crazy action scene. Because a lot of players will die. A lot. That ruins the momentum you want in a scripted set piece. Remember the intro to Inside? If you die in that intro chase sequence, it feels awful. Not in a "I feel sorry for this kid" way, but in a "clearly the designers didn't want me to die here" way. I think that's why the challenge has been sanded off the edges of scripted set pieces. If there's any real challenge to those segments, players will die frequently, causing the scene to lose momentum. Obviously these types of scenes are not perfect, but if you're looking for skill challenges, I don't think Uncharted or the Tomb Raider reboot are the games to play. They're about spectacle, which I think they deliver on pretty well.

1 thing I found funny was the volcano Firewalker mission escape scene. While inside the building, I ran to the exit, realized I missed a safe, went back, hacked it and ran out.

The problem is they are all supposed to be cinematic moments, with great pacing and build up of an adrenaline rush to a thrilling climax, and to experience them fully... you have to not die. That's the very point of them. You have to just make it through by the skin of your teeth while feeling that death was close, but not actually dying, otherwise all the tension and build up of excitement is lost as you do the most "gamey" thing ever... play the same bit again. And players vary hugely in skill level, so they have to make it survivable for people with slow reactions. I agree, the more agency a player has, the better, but only if an average player is able to still make it through first try. So they are always going to skew to the easy side, except in cases where the get the balance just right of teaching you the mechanic to survive them without being too intrusive. As you say, the ones where they depend on core skills are the best.

Great insights, never thought there are so many aspects to the game lol

I didn't think it was even possible to do scripted sequences right. If it was possible, I didn't think it could be explained in a simple expandable manner. How did you do both!?

man that was a meaty video. I will now always refer to that game as Rise Of The Planet Of The Tomb Raiders

How to make a game into a legitimate, challenging experience -- that tests the player -- WITHOUT breaking the immersion of its narrative? This is what the modern philosophers talk about. Are video games just a lost art?

Uncharted 4 was the one where I got really tired of these boring setpieces and fake tension. The game can be barely called a platformer, since falling and jump accuracy is a nonissue and 90% of platforming challenges are just one way pathways where you hold the stick in the direction you want to climb. The Madagascar chase was the only standout, everything else was just about running in a straight line and occasionally reacting to a predictable QTE, with several moments straight up copied from previous games. The Last of Us pulled it off better, with less predictable and much more lethal situations sprinkled throughout the game.

The song at 7:17 is A Familiar Taste, it is from the sound track of the movie "The Social Network"... :)

I feel like the exploding trucks in the uncharted 4 convoy sequence is to hide a sneaky level transition of sorts

I haven't played all the games mentioned here, but I think the set pieces in the Uncharted series especially (and some in the recent Tomb Raiders) were done very well. It seems that the purpose of the set pieces is to give an adrenaline rush with an enjoyable interactive sequence, which is what the Uncharted series does very well. I'm talking specifically about the relatively short sequences that involve escaping / climbing out of somewhere that's falling apart around you. The thing about these sequences is, if the player dies it ruins the pacing even if they succeed the 2nd time, so the devs need to strike a good balance of difficulty so that the vast majority of players will succeed on the first try and still get an adrenaline rush. I think a lot of the issues with set pieces are only noticeable on the 2nd playthrough, so for most people they aren't really issues at all.

I still prefer Uncharted over the other tries the industry has made any day in the last few years to emulate this differently.

Just noticed you used Ratchet and Clank 2 music in the background

The train of Splinter Cell: Pandora's Tomorrow is way better than the later one

I think it's worth talking about Call of Duty if we're going to talk about setpieces. CoD has consistently made setpieces an opportunity to test your skills in new or more difficult scenarios. My personal favorite in the recent games is the asteroid setpiece in Infinite Warfare - by putting you on a rapidly rotating object close to the sun you are forced to use movement tech and combat skill to move and eliminate enemies without getting burnt alive.

This made me think about the final setpiece in Max Payne 3. Its a wide corridor filled with enemies and limited cover. The music is pumping you up as you do what you have done throughout the game, but this time the odds seem impossible, yet they aren't. Pretty much the whole game has prepared you for this and so you feel like the biggest badass there is.

This is what I was trying to get at all the time with these games and thankfully you put my thoughts into words

Thank you for using ratatat

I didn't watch the whole video just the first minute and I agree. But I believe that many people actually misunderstand games like Uncharted. They are not really games. They are intereactive movies. Like Heavy Rain. It's all there is to it. But if you want to play a game, then you play something like Zelda, like Devil May Cry... hell... the best of all, Super Mario Bros. It's just gaming from start to end.

Basically in game design: anything scripted = goodbye replayability

nice vid. I personally disagree with your criticism of Half Life 2's boat mission feeling "out of place". In my opinion, Half Life 2 offers unrivaled variety in gameplay consistently throughout the whole experience; variety that the 2 vehicle sections enhance, not take away from. I do agree with your main point of the vid. Those 'scripted' moments when you're still 'technically' in control serve to do nothing more than be interactive cutscenes... not unlike telltale games or the entirety of David Cage's games.

Damn nice rhymes at 4 minutes

Halo 1's escape at the end = best set piece of all time.

Aw, I like when some of these appear as long as they aren't too frequent. Sometimes they help you get more attached to characters.

I have been an Uncharted fan since Uncharted 1 and i have to agree with you. lately i've started noticing patterns, after Uncharted 2, where it began. I don't feel any tension playing this game anymore, i just move from one place to the next listening to dialouge, watching stuff happen on the screen. But the story is still so engaging for me that i don't mind that in the moment, but after i finished i was just done with the game all together. After beating games like bloodborne and dark souls 3 for the first time i now KNOW how pure gameplay feels like, and set pieces are basically the bosses in those games.

Theres one problem here. Although the lack of any real failure states does cheapen the excitement of these scripted sequences, if more of these reaction-heavy interactions that you want existed in these setpieces, then it's only natural for the game designers to expect a portion of the playerbase to fail these on the first try, since their inclusion is to be something that the player can potentially mess up. The problem with that is the only real thrill/excitement that these setpieces offer is their initial shock. replaying any of the segments in one of these scripted sequences cause of a failure would ultimately be more boring than what we have now, cause their is no room for any more shock since the player knows whats happening ahead. The problem that this causes for the game designers is, then when do they place their checkpoints? If they place them too far apart, it won't be fun because the player will just be pressing thebuttons in the exact same order the did earlier with nothing else to gain from it, but if they place them too close together, there's no stakes in failing them as you'll be put right where you were before, which means failing doesn't actually mean anything the way you want it to. That's why games like uncharted place so much emphasis on visual flair and story, because the setpieces manage to stay interesting cause of the composition, but still feel important because of the narrative driving. For example, the prison escape sequence at the start of uncharted 4 is more than just a parkour sequence because of the way it uses story and character. The sequence starts because of Rafe shooting Vargas, motivated by his reluctance to let him in on the money, midway through you're seperated from Rafe and need to catch up out of a fear of him leaving you behind (which you suspect because of his earlier murder of vargas), and this ends with you having to leave Sam behind when he gets shot because of this same fear of Rafe leaving you behind. Although a lot of scripted sequences are lacking, i dont think adding extra reflex-based challenges is a way to make them more interesting, instead designers should be opting towards using the setpiece to develop the games narrative as a way to make players care.

My issue with "Press X to not die" Quick-Time-Events is that it seems like they're trying to raise the stakes by putting the player character in dangerous situations and scenarios without also putting the player in any danger. If you die, you just try again until you get it right, which usually isn't even that hard.

Was expecting a mention of Ori and the Blind Forest. It has by far the best scripted set pieces of any game I've played, including (and indeed especially) Uncharted and Tomb Raider. They are a genuine, challenging test of the player's mastery of the mechanics which you'll probably fail several times. However because there's no load time or gap in the gameplay, you will want to keep trying until you succeed, and you will come out the other side a better player and able to face the later challenges. Great video though. Hits the nail on the head of my problem with these kind of games.

Best cinematic set piece is the jeep chase from Uncharted 4. It's adrenaline pumping, a technical marvel, has amazing looking scripted sections, but you're IN CONTROL almost the ENTIRE time.

Some of the simpler set pieces are there for story purpose, the one you mentioned at the start of Rise where the guy warns about falling ice tells us he's an experienced adventurer and cares about Lara.

oh my god i hear loud pipes and ratchet and clank music your a fucking legend

This video makes me feel like... You should do a video on noman's sky.

From the first beat at 0:10 I noticed Ratatat Loud Pipes. Not really relevant but it's cool how recognizable it is.

6:04- "RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE TOMB RAIDERS" did anyone else hear that?

I feel like another way of getting around these is just adding a little bit of extra effort in the interactivity, for example in the part in which Drake slides down the slope and is blocked by some wooden fences they could have added a little animation of him getting hit by them without actually being hurt should the player fails to shoot at them, that way skilled players can still feel accomplished for overcoming the obstacles without ramping up the difficulty

Great choice of Ratatat music for the intro

Consider Mark of the Ninja - in that, there are several 'set pieces', but they're all testing you on the actual skills you learn and use in the game. You don't suddenly have to fight a dozen guards - you have to remain undetected for a certain amount of time while those guards search for you.

Keep up the good work dude really enjoying the content!

four years later unwanted opinion: Perhaps they're so restrictive because of the developers fear that the player will die too often? Nothing is more infuriating than having to play that one cutscene again and again and again and again and again and again, and that's what those set pieces essentially are.

Simple fix. Have the same controls as the normal game but different animation. She runs and then the plane break in half and a small scene plays and she now hangs. But immediately it goes back to the same hanging mechanics you have used all the time with the same function and grab mechanics. When he's chased by the truck it's the same running controls and speed but instead of him staring straight and running he's now panicking and looking back but you can still roll and jump as usual meaning the player will still feel vulnerable to obstacles that their skill might fail at and that adds tension

I played the new Tomb Raider and quit after one hour because of all that hand holding. There was this once scene where Lara was trapped in a bear trap and there were wolves coming at you. And you had to shoot them with your bow. The fact that there were bushes right in front of you and you could only hear the wolves, but not see them until they jumped at you has done a great job at building some awesome tension. But after the 4th or 5th wolf I was tool slow to shoot the next one and the game suddenly slowed down, destroying all that tension in the process. Also, I was eaten by a bush once, for some reason.

On one hand i love watching these game designs tidbits from guys like this and Mark and Warbot etc. but on the other......the more I stop to think about it the more they sound something like "Yeah, this was almost cool, like, aaaaaalmost. You guys can do it better. Try harder next time." Combine that with the fact they are "influencers" nowadays and most people never end up actually playing the games because the Game-Design-Guy on RU-vid said so and so about it.

There's a ton of examples of how to do this right among old 2D games, e.g. Contra: Hard Corps

Something that might have pulled this off well is of all games, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. It only happens once and very quickly, but at some point the player is required to take out a helicopter all alone. They do this with a grappling hook and an SMG, without any special quicktime prompts, and it all happens in real time. By the time the player is jumping free of the helicopter after murdering its entire crew in the blink of an eye, they think to themselves "holy shit, I just did that."

The uncharted series has the best set pieces in video game history.

Amazing intro with the musik kicking in when the thing hit the other thingy

You are wanting these games to be something they aren't. You are judging a fish on its ability to fly. Gameplay is more varied than we give it cred it for. Gameplay can be a lot more than just the things I want them to be.

Developers that put so many scripted sequences with little player interaction commit crimes against humanity and should be ignored.

These are some dankass videos dood.

I feel like set pieces kind of run along the same lines as time pressure in games. Ya know, when the characters say “oh my god we have to escape before it blows up!” And then you can stand there for 3 hours with no consequence. It just adds an artificial pressure to the game that once you know about it, is completely lost. Like the set pieces where it adds an artificial pressure while making you feel badass, but once you know about it and realize there’s not much actual danger, the veil is lost

When the stakes are fake, there are no thrills on the grill

Really good writing. Subscribed

It's an aesthetic climax as opposed to a mechanical climax. The latter tests the skill and understanding of the player, the former tests the skill of the developer(s).

See, here's the thing for me (and this isn't so much a response to your video as much as it is my thoughts on the subject): The big things I always here from people who don't like games that have lots of scripted segments are things like: it's not fun, it's lazy, it takes away the tension, it feels forced, etc. And it's like, for me, it's always: yes, it is; no, it isn't; no, not even remotely; and no, not if it's down well. That's just super-obvious to me. Like for sure this is a mechanic that can be done terribly, just like any other mechanic, but this is in response to criticisms to games like the Uncharted series. The scripted sequences of the Uncharted series have consistently been some of the most exciting, tension building sequences I have ever played in a video game, NOT because there's actually a chance you're going to die, but simply because of the spectacle. And I know there are some people who are gonna laugh at that, and (again) call it fake, but like... that's just not true. They're pieces of epic cinema, and cinema straight-up isn't fake. (I mean it is, but the emotions it creates aren't.) It also, despite what so many people like to say, DOES have a place in video games and CAN create some incredibly memorable experiences, even with shallow gameplay. Ultimately, I know, this simply comes done to taste. Some people simply can't get over the fact that the literal game play mechanics are very simple, and for them that ruins any experience the game might give. However, I feel because of that, many people discount some very well-done, amazing games.

Random Tekken Tag Tournament 2 track at the end. Well done.

I've been playing the uncharted collection recently. I've found I don't find the gameplay all that fun, what keeps me playing it is my liking for the characters and the story so what I do is set it to the easiest difficulty and let it feel more like an interactive movie than a game

i like prince of persia ones where you need to run between different traps while either getting chased by dahaka or taking damage as dark prince.

It is weird that some of these scenes are the most memorable and fun even when you aren't doing anything. I remember really enjoying the water slide in binary domain that lasted half a minute with minimal control lol. Guess maybe triggers same part of fun sense in brain you get from a roller coaster or an actual waterslide, then the gameplay between are like climbing back up the stairs.

The reason I like set pieces is because unlike multiplayer, you always survive (usaly) and it makes me fell like I’m good at the game

Ok... I always hated these things... but I think you've convinced me that there's something worthwhile here.

Nice Ratatat tune choice!