Opening Sequences

Last night I fired up The Witcher for the first time. I got as far as the first five or six minutes of gameplay and then turned it off to go to bed. Why quit so quickly? There was a lot of video to get through before I actually had control of the character, which is problematic in itself, but the main thing was that as cool as the intro was, the writing and editing were very flabby.

Consider the videos below, especially the first one.

This is the opening FMV sequence:

And this is the in-game engine cutscene that follows it:

And that itself is followed by a couple of conversations and some standing around. It felt like close to twenty minutes before I actually got to play!

The running time aside, that first video is a great example of a lot of things done well and something fundamental done badly. Compare it to this awesome intro FMV sequence from Deus Ex: Invisible War:

The problem with the intro sequence of The Witcher is that it doesn't respect your time. There are redundant lines of monologue, and repetition of action. The clashes hit a level of tension early on and don't really escalate, and when you see how Geralt waits out the creature, we realise that he could have done that much earlier. Up until that point I had been giving the game the benefit of the doubt, that maybe the repetition was intentional to lull us (and the creature) into a rhythm to facilitate a surprise.

But no. It was just duel-porn, and I'm not interested, especially when I'm waiting to play your game.

By contrast, though the Invisible War intro isn't perfect, it's very tight. Everything happens fast, there's tension, and fun and surprising action sequences, like the scientist in the corridor, or the lift being chased by the nanites. I even smiled the first time I watched it when I saw how badass that final student is, as she nonchalantly waits 'til the last second to jump. It's not gameplay, it's story, and I think that's what's important here.

A fundamental difference between these two sequences is that the Witcher sequence is self-contained. It has a beginning, middle and an end, that says quite clearly that we won't be playing through any of these events or environments, at least not for quite a while, whereas the first moment of gameplay you have in Deus Ex follows on immediately from the intro sequence. It gives you momentum into the game.

Any medium of entertainment shares a basic premise: Don't waste the audience's time.

The audience/player/reader/listener has given you their time in exchange for something, if you waste it or don't respect it, they won't give you the opportunity to do it again. I feel like the culture of game design has really come around to this tenet, but there are still intersecting disciplines like FMV sequences and trailers that don't manage to hit the mark, which is something we all need to change.