With the gaming news cycle now a 24-hour-day, 12-month-year ordeal, opening cinematics are in some ways bigger than the games themselves. Nowadays, many opening trailers begin their lives as marketing and promotional tools, unveiled weeks ahead of the game's release date to fuel fan excitement and keep the game in the news.
"When the gamer starts to play the game, they might already have seen the teaser," says Berman. "[They] feel right at home when they recognize the teaser -- even though it is a game they have never experienced before."
Bethesda's Todd Howard echoes Berman and says that an early trailer release is crucial when it comes to building excitement.
"It can put the player in the right mood before he even starts playing. He gets excited about who he's going to be and what he's going to be doing. He's already interested, he's already digested something. We think about that a lot with our trailers; I think the Fallout 3 one hit the right balance."
This dual purpose -- marketing and scene-setting -- has a financial benefit. A video that was probably going to be made anyway is used to bolster the advertising campaign. Even when the game itself is small, a stirring intro video -- like this one for Warhammer: Mark of Chaos -- can build excitement for what is otherwise a marginal title.
It's difficult to measure the effectiveness of opening cinematics as marketing devices with publicly available information. Do they lead to more preorders or greater awareness? If so, how much? Many big console titles get proper television advertising for this purpose, more akin to how movies are sold. They are one part of a marketing push, and may help a game develop long retail legs well after the buzz dies down. Berman points out that some gamers are late adopters and might come to a game after seeing a video online -- a good intro might help that long tail.
Breaking the Mold
For the most part, opening cinematics are two to three minute clips before the main menu. You punch Escape or the Start button to skip past it. Increasingly, however, developers are beginning to use the opening cinematic as something more.
Valve is often cited as the modern master of the opening trailer. Half-Life's train ride remains a classic of the form, but the most oft-cited opening in my survey of readers and friends was from Left 4 Dead 2.
Opening cinematics rarely show gameplay, and this one is no different. It does, however, show how the game is played, demonstrating all of the major actions a player can take. Weapons and skills are displayed. Characters are introduced. The point of the game is clear; your mission is obvious.
L4D2's opening goes far beyond merely setting a scene. This is not a mood trailer, but one that serves as a mini-tutorial. The controls aren't explained, but this is the most game you usually get in an opening cinematic that is still divorced from the game itself. It is, in many ways, a thrilling opening, with a lot of action, strong characterization and no doubt about what the player is in for.
Remarkably few opening movies present this sort of joy and value. Role-playing game intros, for example, are more likely to give you back-story than any real information on class differences or what types of enemies to expect.
The really big change in opening cinematics, however, is the complete drop-in -- in-game scenes that flow seamlessly into the action itself. And of these, BioWare's Mass Effect 2 opening is in a league of its own.
When I spoke to Mass Effect 2 Project Director Casey Hudson about this opening, it prompted a bit of mutual confusion between us about what I precisely meant by "opening cinematic." Did I want to talk about the part just before the player takes control of the hero(ine)... or everything up to the character creation, about 10 minutes in? That very confusion shows how BioWare approached the entirety of ME2's prologue in a cinematic way.
"When we create the beginning of a game," says Hudson, "we don't think of it so much as an opening cinematic, but rather, how -- through a series of cinematic moments that alternate with gameplay -- we can hook you into the story. The goal is to make it as interactive as possible."
In ME2's opening, you start with two new characters talking about protagonist Shepherd's accomplishments and revealing a new enemy. When the Normandy battle cruiser is attacked, you must steer Shepherd through the chaos of the assault. Then Shepherd "dies," the cinematic stuff takes over again, and you enter the character creation mode. In traditional terms, it moves from opening movie to gameplay to cu-scene to gameplay again.
"One small hook needs to be established at the very beginning," says Hudson. "We [layer] in some mystery for new players."
This spoiler-heavy approach obviously meant that the cinematic couldn't be used as marketing in any way. "We made a list of things that you could not show in advertising," Hudson recalls. "'You can show this character, but not what their name is', for example. [For marketing, we need to use videos to capture what the game is like] without exposing any mysteries."
This "jumping into the game" angle only works in games that are very story-based. But even BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins doesn't take this approach, opting instead for the traditional RPG back-story route:
"I like openings that let you participate in what is happening," says Hudson. But he adds, "The approach varies between projects."
