The weakness of the in-game cutscenes doesn't even get at how bad Cain's death was. He died to some freaking RED BUTTERFLIES, practically by accident as Magdha was only torturing him! That's what is wrong. Poison, a blade, a rack, fire, anything would be better than fairy butterfly magic.
Well, technically it was supposed to be Leah who killed him, cause she couldn't control her power. I get where they were going with that. If they story went a different way, they could have used that accident to drive Leah insane, which would have been a better way for Diablo to posess her, imo.
But that goes down a whole other path that I thought they were going - Leah slowly breaks down from killing her uncle/all the crazy horrors she's seen/Diablo poisoning her mind, and starts to resent the PC/Tyreal/Adria because Deckard died for no reasons, as the end of the world isn't coming and/or there aren't actually angels and demons fighting a proxy war through us (which is how I read her comments that "no of this is real," not dismissing the fact that monsters exists, as so many people assume, but that the end times aren't upon us, and the forces of Hell and Heaven aren't fighting a proxy war in Sanctuary). All this could have been building subtly (maybe we get a cinematic or two where we wander by Leah and she's talking to herself, and for some reason we can hear that one of the voices is Diablo, and we can tell that because its slightly demonic reverbed), until at the end of Act 3, where she voluntairly takes the BSS, stabs it into herself, becomes Diablo, kills Adria, and runs off to Heaven.
To start with, I don't really agree with the idea that a characters death should be "epic." I think he should have died in between Act 1 and 2 because he tripped and broke a hip, and they had to put him down (now THAT would be an epic cutscene).
What I really don't like though, is that Blizzard keeps doing these stupid in engine cinematics. They...need...to...stop. NOW. I can't think of a single good in game cinematic, in any of their games, even more so compared to their balls to the walls awesome rendered ones. It's like they completely forgot that so much of conversation is in body language, and then only gave all the models two or three actions that they just repeat. Translation - you should have walked in as Cain is dying (no talking, just walk in, Leah goes "noooooo" kaboom, "cain fixes the sword" and then cut to the summary cutscene that is voiced by your character. That would also do away with the second problem - they tell you what happens (tell, not showed, 3rd problem) twice. Once in the cutscene, and again in the voice over cutscene.
I think the reason they do a few cinematics in-game is because they don't have time to make a ton of those beautiful animated cinematics. I remember this being the case of the expansion pack for WarCraft III. A fight between Illidan and Arthas was made using the in-game engine, and they later said they planned to have that being a fully animated cinematic, but had to cut it due to time constraints.
Yeah, I kinda understand the reason WHY they did it, but I still think they shouldn't have, because the in game engine is not capable of decent cinematics. The fight between Illidan and Arthas wasn't good. It wasn't even exciting. Further, the in game cinematics from War3 and SC2 are slightly different. They were either from the RTS camera angle, in which case there weren't any "acting" beyond the talking, so it was at least passable, or they were the ones in SC2 that were, even if built in the in game engine, specifically built for the cutscene - along with body language and motion. The ones in D3 are close enough that it is weird if they don't do anything, and close enough to show off bad/reused body language, mostly using stock motions. This is one thing that bothers me about CGI in a lot of games and movies - just because you CAN doesn't mean you should. If the CGI is so bad it distracts, then you should probably find another way to do it.
To start with, I don't really agree with the idea that a characters death should be "epic." I think he should have died in between Act 1 and 2 because he tripped and broke a hip, and they had to put him down (now THAT would be an epic cutscene).
What I really don't like though, is that Blizzard keeps doing these stupid in engine cinematics. They...need...to...stop. NOW. I can't think of a single good in game cinematic, in any of their games, even more so compared to their balls to the walls awesome rendered ones. It's like they completely forgot that so much of conversation is in body language, and then only gave all the models two or three actions that they just repeat. Translation - you should have walked in as Cain is dying (no talking, just walk in, Leah goes "noooooo" kaboom, "cain fixes the sword" and then cut to the summary cutscene that is voiced by your character. That would also do away with the second problem - they tell you what happens (tell, not showed, 3rd problem) twice. Once in the cutscene, and again in the voice over cutscene.
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Well, technically it was supposed to be Leah who killed him, cause she couldn't control her power. I get where they were going with that. If they story went a different way, they could have used that accident to drive Leah insane, which would have been a better way for Diablo to posess her, imo.
But that goes down a whole other path that I thought they were going - Leah slowly breaks down from killing her uncle/all the crazy horrors she's seen/Diablo poisoning her mind, and starts to resent the PC/Tyreal/Adria because Deckard died for no reasons, as the end of the world isn't coming and/or there aren't actually angels and demons fighting a proxy war through us (which is how I read her comments that "no of this is real," not dismissing the fact that monsters exists, as so many people assume, but that the end times aren't upon us, and the forces of Hell and Heaven aren't fighting a proxy war in Sanctuary). All this could have been building subtly (maybe we get a cinematic or two where we wander by Leah and she's talking to herself, and for some reason we can hear that one of the voices is Diablo, and we can tell that because its slightly demonic reverbed), until at the end of Act 3, where she voluntairly takes the BSS, stabs it into herself, becomes Diablo, kills Adria, and runs off to Heaven.
Yeah, I kinda understand the reason WHY they did it, but I still think they shouldn't have, because the in game engine is not capable of decent cinematics. The fight between Illidan and Arthas wasn't good. It wasn't even exciting. Further, the in game cinematics from War3 and SC2 are slightly different. They were either from the RTS camera angle, in which case there weren't any "acting" beyond the talking, so it was at least passable, or they were the ones in SC2 that were, even if built in the in game engine, specifically built for the cutscene - along with body language and motion. The ones in D3 are close enough that it is weird if they don't do anything, and close enough to show off bad/reused body language, mostly using stock motions. This is one thing that bothers me about CGI in a lot of games and movies - just because you CAN doesn't mean you should. If the CGI is so bad it distracts, then you should probably find another way to do it.
What I really don't like though, is that Blizzard keeps doing these stupid in engine cinematics. They...need...to...stop. NOW. I can't think of a single good in game cinematic, in any of their games, even more so compared to their balls to the walls awesome rendered ones. It's like they completely forgot that so much of conversation is in body language, and then only gave all the models two or three actions that they just repeat. Translation - you should have walked in as Cain is dying (no talking, just walk in, Leah goes "noooooo" kaboom, "cain fixes the sword" and then cut to the summary cutscene that is voiced by your character. That would also do away with the second problem - they tell you what happens (tell, not showed, 3rd problem) twice. Once in the cutscene, and again in the voice over cutscene.