10 Incredible Video Game Mechanics That SHOULD Be Everywhere (But Aren't)

It's absolutely maddening that, in 2023, the overwhelming majority of video games still don't give players extensive control of cutscenes.

In the scope of gaming, the ability to pause cutscenes is a relatively new one, perhaps popularised by Metal Gear Solid 4 back in 2008, because if you're going to serve up hour-long cinematics, you'd better let players pause it to go to the bathroom.

And yet, just mere months ago Marvel's Midnight Suns bafflingly released without the ability to pause cutscenes, and despite months of fans complaining about it, the feature still hasn't been patched in.

But it goes beyond merely the ability to pause - ideally, we should be freely available to skip, rewind, and even restart a cutscene at will, as well as being able to re-watch any previously viewed cinematic in a cutscene viewer.

While there are certainly mechanical considerations where rewinding real-time cutscenes is concerned, it's tough to accept that this isn't a widespread feature in the modern gaming era.

Skipping a cutscene is at least relatively common, and games like The Last of Us Part II handily allow you to restart an entire cutscene should you wish, but overall most games need to give players much greater control of in-game cinematics.