8. Cutscenes & Tutorials
If I want to go and see a film, I'll go and watch Man of Steel again. When I play a game, I'm not asking for an "interactive movie," I want a character to go where I tell them to, to do what I want and not to spend half an hour soliloquizing his reasoning behind every action while I watch my clock ticking towards my inevitable death. BioShock Infinite used the technique of momentarily snatching control from the players hands to direct their attention to specific events, and monorail exposition with character conversations. This worked well at exposing the narrative without breaking from the first person perspective. I know that Japanese RPG's such as Final Fantasy are far worse perpetrators, with hours of dialogue and several quick-time events to keep the player in their seats. Cutscenes are annoying on their own but being unable to skip them is unforgivable, especially when you are returning to a game where you have already memorized every line of script - even Skyrim with all of it's successes still fails to provide alternate beginnings, leading me to replay Helgen each time I restart. However, past this, Skyrim is quite laid back allowing the player hands on action from that point. Another part cutscenes are forced to play are as a final segment, the last boss fight played out through a series of films and "Press X to Not Die" events. The final boss fight should consist of a practical application of every weapon and move in your arsenal, allowing you to block and dodge away from attacks. There is a soulless quality to any game that ends with no contact between the player and closing sequence, removing from the moment and detaching from events.