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Agnostic Pope

02-25-2011, 12:08 AM

My fav cut scene incompetence comes from ME but you can find many other games that do it worse.
SPOILAHR!

In Mass Effect, your first fight with The Dragon ends with him giving you a beatdown until Nuke Ex Machina distracts him and lets you get away while he runs for his life. While the fight is designed to be hard enough to have that cutscene be reasonable, the player can have access to powers specifically designed to turn one on one fights into "point gun at helpless, immobile target. Pull Trigger. 30 goto 10."

* There's also the fact that pretty much every cutscene that involves you drawing a weapon shows you drawing a pistol, even if you've got max skill in the assault rifle or shotgun.
o Some of that particular feat of incompetence even bleeds off into gameplay, as it tends to switch your active weapon to the pistol and then you have to switch back when the fight starts.
o While that is inexcusable if you have your weapon in your hands before the cutscene starts, it makes sense (kind of) if you didn't have any weapon out. Why? The pistol is the only weapon you have that doesn't have to be "deployed" from its carrying mode. Thus, the thing you reach for when you have mere seconds to react is the one that can be fired immediately. Of course, as soon as the fight starts, the enemies seem to obligingly pause long enough for a weapon switch...
o A particular fun example of Cutscene Incompetence bleeding into gameplay takes place on the planet Therum. Having slashed and burned their way through hordes of Geth, elite Marine special forces veteran Commander Shepherd and his squad stealthily approach some buildings... and in the ensuing cutscene, blithely walk out into the open without any thought to cover or a Geth ambush. Naturally, the Geth not only ambush the player, but they do so by dropping a giant walking tank right in front of you. Naturally, Shepherd doesn't dive for cover at the sight of his giant new opponent (and the horde of leaping radar-jamming snipers that come with it) but when the cutscene ends, the player finds their squad standing out in the open... right in front of the instant death main gun of the giant robot. Initiate palm-forehead interface.
* In the sequel: Archangel/Garrus does quite well on his own during his recruitment mission. It's even mentioned beforehand that he's been singlehandedly fending off three mercenary groups who have been all-out assaulting his base for an entire week. Including taking down a gunship. By himself. This doesn't stop him from nearly dying and having half his face ripped off during the subsequent cutscene.
o It might have something to do with the fact that he's been holding on alone for days. It's a small wonder he doesn't pass out of exhaustion as soon as he sees friendlies.
o He has other good excuses in that he was completely taken by surprise. Tarek may have been being much more careful with the gunship this time.
* Also regarding the sequel: when onboard the reaper ship to obtain the IFF, particularly on higher difficulty levels, the player may find themselves making the transition from expending large quantities of ammo to deal with an individual enemy to watching their teammates executing numerous instant kill headshots in the cutscene.
* Biotic Acrobatics. You see several characters do it. But can a biotic Shepard? No. Fall off a building in the Shadow Broker DLC? Your biotic foe can stop her fall, but Shepard faceplants straight on the ground (and still somehow gets up and dust his/herself off). Making a last ditch jump onto the Normandy to escape the Collector base? No biotics for you. Not even a Charge if you're a Vanguard.