The days of pre-rendered cutscenes are long past, at least in action games, left for the slower more plot driven ventures of RPG's. Even then, what gamer hasn't heard the complaint that Xenogears had you watching cutscenes for seemingly half an hour or more at a time leaving you with little to do (personally, I always wonder if pressing a button will skip the cutscene, and either I do and then I lose out on that cutscene and any possibly useful information it had, or a I chicken out and don't, and just wait, while wondering the whole time). Often times I feel that despite how pretty these clips may be, I would rather just be fighting, or whatever it may be. This is where the interactive cutscene comes to play, the bridge the gap between avoiding player boredom and still conveying important plot and storyline.
Example A: Half Life 2
Here, whenever story needed to be told, Gordon (the protagonist) is often left in an enclosed space, usually a room of some kind. The action to be seen and heard either takes place in the room with him, or behind some kind of window. When supporting characters are revealing plot information to Gordon, they will face Gordon, or another character, while he is left free to move about the room and see what can be played with, or just stand and watch. Characters can even react to Gordon during this "cutscene". For example, if you knock over something while a character is speaking, they can berate you and tell you to be more careful, then continue with their speech. Overall, this is Valve's mantra when it comes to their first person shooters: always show and tell the story in the eyes of the protagonist, so as to never break character and the illusion that the play is in fact the character, not just someone playing him.
Example B: Assassin's Creed
Ubisoft also attempts to forego the typical cutscene formula in this game, although it's not quite as free as in the previous example. The custcenes are still all real-time and not pre-rendered, although they're interactivity is more limited to provide a more cinematic feel. When the protagonist Altair enters a "cutscene" he is usually able to move about freely in within a space closed by invisible walls (that is to say, there's an invisible box that prevents him from moving too far away from the action). The focus however, always remains on what is happening, whether it be a peasant being roughed up by guards or someone on a soapbox preaching to a crowd. Sometimes during these cutscenes, you'll see a "glitch" where if you press any button, the camera will move away from Altair to another point of view, usually to show the action up close. This would for example, zoom up to that peasant and show the guard punching him in the back of the head from a closer, higher angle, as well as show the blood associated with it. It's interactiveness could be expanded on, but it still gives the player a choice, which is always better than none at all.
In short, give a player something to do during "cutscenes" and make them feel like they still have free will. Maybe even have a "choose your own adventure" element, so that a player's choice of action during a cutscene will actually affect the gameplay ahead. Just make it more interactive, and less a movie.
Microsoft's Press Conference was earlier today and they made some pretty impressive announcements. Here are some of the ones I'm looking forward to (and will hopefully get a chance to try on the show floor!
