Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

Games are NOT Movies

by Jaleel Boone June 27th 2008 11:55 PM CDT2 Comments

So you know, there's this pretty major title on the other HD gaming system right now. Here's a hint: the main character rhymes with Squalid Steak. As expected, reviewers are falling head over heels for it, and it is being dubbed the masterpiece of our generation. The game is anything short of amazing, but it perhaps may be a sign of things to come.


But is this a good thing? Nearly every review of Metal Gear Solid 4 has called it an “interactive movie”. Googling “mgs4 interactive movie” brings 1,430,000 results as if you were googling "Metal Gear Solid 4" itself. 1UP.com noted this in their review of the game:

“The MGS4 conundrum is this: The further you play into the game, the less you actually play...Despite this gradual decay, though, MGS4 is absolutely a great game.”

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How does the fact that you're watching more of the last half of game than playing it still make it an absolutely great “game”? Gears of War 2 designer Cliff Bleszinski called Metal Gear Solid 4 “passive entertainment” and stated that this is definitely not the type of game he's making. Though the internet for the most part ripped him a new one for the comment, I tend to agree with his thoughts.

If I wanted to watch a plot unfold, I'd pop in a movie. I play games because I want to be the plot, making decisions and carrying out actions that put me into the midst of the story at hand. I get excited by games that come up with innovative ways to tell stories without cutscenes, yet when it was rumored that Metal Gear had 90 minute cutscenes some were overjoyed. Even though I could easily skip these, in order to get the story I must sit back and watch. The interactive movie approach that Kojima Productions has taken with MGS4 is great when it's just one game out of a blue moon. Consider me wary if it becomes commonplace, however.


Video games and movies are two different entertainment mediums. There is a lot that can be learned from one and adapted to the other, but both must be careful not to blend into a interactive movie hybrid across the board. There are things that video games allow that cannot be accomplished by film and vice versa. When you mix in too many elements of the other format you begin to lose sight of the strengths of your own. Movies with too many video game-esque action sequences and not enough story, or games with too much passive development and not enough interaction are trends that I don't want to see.

Give me games like Bioshock, a video game with cinema quality storytelling, but also allows me to be a part of it every step of the way. Or give me a Mass Effect, a game that let's me create the story I want from the developer's basic outline. And give me Half-Life 2, a game that still has cutscene-like story sequences but doesn't take the player out of the experience in order to expand the plot. Some of these games even have cutscenes but they are used in such moderation that you are not detached from the experience while watching.


This is by no means a lampooning of what Hideo Kojima and the boys at Kojima Productions have done with Metal Gear Solid 4. The approach was innovative and there's nothing wrong with mixing it up in an industry notorious for being stale like the gaming industry can be.

I'm also sure MGS fans, who've expected an epic ending to the franchise, were happy as well just to get the story out there. It's just that this industry has a tendency to emulate success, and the blurring of the movie/game line doesn't mark the best for either.

Both outlets can apply the strengths of the other however. Games can take cues from Hollywood when it comes to character development and still allow the user input and interaction. Movies can take note on gaming's art direction in certain types of flicks, an area that's proven to be profitable in the past (i.e. 300). The connection should not be cut completely, but games simply need to stop trying to be what they are not.

I'm a game nerd and a movie buff, but as much as I love both formats I would like to keep them separated so they don't lose what makes them so individually appealing. Cutscenes are fine, but a day when I start popping popcorn for particularly long ones in my collection is a day I hope I never have to see.