Your Favorite Video Game Cutscenes

The Star Wars flight sim games had some great ones that really pushed the envelope and made the best of the limited animations they could do on those old 486's, including a kamakazi blockade runner that takes out a half-dozen parked Star Destroyers. One in particular stands out, the execution of Admiral Harkov in Tie Fighter. He's the worst kind of traitor. He didn't turn to the Rebels out of political idealism, just wanted to make a quick buck running Imperial guns. Eventually, you'll disable his ship, and shortly after his capture he is brought before Vader. What happens next is a grisly execution where he pays for his treachery.



His panicky whelps before the Dark Lord of the Sith collapses his throat still give me chills.

Been playing AC2.5B alot lately, and the opening CG CUT SCENE that plays is hella cool! I love it. I've seen it like 25 times by now. My favorite part? The arrows felling everyone around Ezio as he stands perfectly still, a smiling sneer on his face

My second favorite?

Probably the CG cut scene intro from DEUS EX THE CONSPIRACY
I'm sure there are other great cut scenes I'm forgetting, but those stand out in my mind right now

Anything that Blur Studios have a hand in will be utterly breathtaking.

I started a lonely little thread about them here. I urge you to have a look at the link. Their work on the Wolverine game was (and I am seriously not exaggerating) better than the film.

There have been many great cut scenes since.

But one of my favorite cut scenes, and the first time I remember being completely gobsmacked by something in a video game's cinematic presentation, is the ending of Resident Evil 2. The REAL ending, after you play through it again a second time with Leon.

Samus - helmet reveal.

What makes a great cutscene is sparring use. Final Fantasy XIII went overboard, found a dolphin, raped it and then traveled back in time and impregnated it's mother, with cutscenes.

A JRPG that could have been much worse was Lost Odyssey, which had some incredible depressing cutscenes for the first third of the game. You are sitting there watching some veiny boob and then entire families are wiped out with sobbing kids. There was a bunch of good and bad in that game, but for depression, that game was aces.

Obviously by the fourth one they just abandoned the concept of 'video game' altogether and made it one long ass cut scene, but in Metal Gear Solid 3 the pre-Boss fight cinematic, with the epic music and the field of white flowers swirling around, where Boss asks you to basically kill her always put a lump in my throat.

I was going to come in and say it, but Erix already said it. Resident Evil 2 in general had me loving cutscenes. The opening sequence, the scene at the lab with the industrial espionage assassins which leads to Birkin becoming a mutant, and that ending. Also the reveal of Mr. X's monster form and that operatic music that plays right before you fight with him.

The first Resident Evil also packs a remarkable opening sequence, and ending.

I'll also throw in the first Silent Hill. Just the opening cinematic with Harry driving and that music.

'Star Wars: KOTOR' - the cutscene/flashback where you discover the identity of Revan. That caught me off guard and gave me a fun HOLY SHIT COOL moment.

As good as the cutscenes were, though, the best stories in that game were text. Really fucking GREAT text, but still.

If we're gonna go with FF, though, I'm gonna go with Tidus fading into nothingness at the end of FFX. For a good two minute stretch, I genuinely care about that bitch, and the idea of saving the world meaning you fade into nothing is just tragic as all hell.

Back in 1997, I remember thinking that this would tide me over until the prequels eventually arrived.

Still better than AOTC.

Upstreamers, ftw.

My favorite FF cutscene was Kefka's betrayal of Gestahl in FFVI. For a "whatever age I was" kid, pretty "holy shit."

I'm partial to that story about the guy trying to break out of prison, but forgetting how long he's been underground, so he goes blind the second he sees sunlight.

-The entire ending of FFVI comes to mind...fantastic way to resolve most characters plots and personalities in small but so meaningful ways.
-Sappy anime fan that i am, losing Alkaid in the second volume of .hack//GU was quite the blow.
-Elly and Fei adrift at sea in Xenogears is also a favorite of mine.
-Demise of Viola in Zone of the Enders.
-The ending of Planescape Torment, of course.
-Kos-mos emerges from her pod and battles the Black Testament, Xernosaga III.
-"Out the window, Sam...there's nothing but strangers there"

Dead To Right's intro had my inner John Woo fanboy dancing a jig. Shame the game itself couldn't live up to the cutscene.

The game was ass, but I can't imagine anyone with any nostalgia whatsoever for Mortal Kombat not getting nerdboner over MK Armageddon's intro.

FMV be damned, im quite fond of Jun turning on the Dark jedi in teh first Jedi Knight game.
Also, to this day im freaked out a bit by the prothean visions from the first Mass Effect.
Last, i also have a fondness for the over the top gothic cheese of the reveal of "Dracula" in Castlevania: Lament of Inocence.

Final Fantasy has definitely had some incredible ones over the years, but I'll always remember them making kids everywhere fall in love with opera for at least for a few minutes with FFVI. It's beautiful in the original game, but let's face it, midi music can't do things justice all the time.

I can't remember if this is the end credit or during the opera or what have you, but it's brilliant:

FFVI Opera

It's recent, but the ending cutscene (post-credits) for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is pretty incredible.

It's from the Opera sequence, which is the pinnacle of in-game JRPG storytelling.

Obligatory Silent Hill 2 mention: The videotape. THE videotape.

Hell yes...also, the flaming stair and the run towards the elevator....and monster on monster rape.
Another one coems to mind...the resolution of the trap in the african tomb in "Gabriel Knight I"

Gotta second the cutscenes from Jedi Knight 2 -- especially where Kyle finds his father's lightsabre.

But the ones I remember most are from the Thief series -- really brought home what good sound design could do. The Constantine reveal is an excellent example.

Anything from Red Dead Redemption, however the opening in amazing.

Each and every cutscene from Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age

The opening to Resident Evil 2. God, I was hooked from the first few seconds.

Final Fantasy X-"This is your story." Goddamn, but Auron is awesome.

Arkham Asylum-Any of them, really, but the opening is great for just pure mood and uncertainty. You know *something* bad is going to happen, but the game prolongs it for so long that you're still unprepared for it.

We've kinda been dancing around the obvious, but, fuck it.

"A man chooses....a slave obeys"
*THWACK*
"A man chooses...."
*THWACK*
"....a slave obeys...."
*THWACK*
"OBEY!!!"
*THWACK*

I'm a sucker for the good ending.

Lots of great one's already mentioned but the one that immediately jumped to mind was Grey Fox/Ninja jumping to save your life and sacrifice himself at the end of the original Metal Gear Solid. That whole scene affected me more tham alot of movies ever will.

Alternatively the rousing speech and subsequent assault on Denerim in Dragon Age: Origins never fails to get my blood pumping.

The beginning of Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

The Bridge opening in MGS2.

Shadow Hearts Covenant and Shadow Hearts from the new world still rank up high with me.

Eternal Darkness. The bathtub. Still a never-fail jump out of my fucking seat moment even though I know it's coming every time.

Rescue on Fractalus. When the alien would break the glass of your cockpit.

Beat that, punks.

Not necessarily a cutscene, but still one of the most badass introductions to a final boss fight ever.

The Soviet Giant Mecha Centipede of Death remains one of my favorite bosses ever.

That was Blur Studios! (I'm going to keep banging that drum)

Have you gotten Undead Nightmare yet good sir?

"The Ballad of the Starcrossed Miner", Planetfall.

Works as great as any videe sequence.

Well played, sir.

Thanks....you set the bar really high back there (god dammit, id forgotten how creepy it was to see the alien walking towards your ship....coming closer and closer...))

We were camping out in the yard, had just recently received Zelda N64, and after a long while, I was the one that finally beat Gohma. The cutscene with the Great Deku Tree, and then the panning over Hyrule Field was a glorious, glorious moment.

I floved the cutscenes in Eternal Darkness, and really enjoyed Duncan's Death, and the monologue Alistair gives when you're a female Warden who sacrifices herself. It was sweet. (On that note, the sex scenes with the pseudo Enya me the hell up.)

This, and most of the cutscenes from that game actually.

Ninja Gaiden's opening duel not mentioned yet? Think I'll revisit the series on wii's vc soon.

I remember Onimusha 3 having some great cutscenes as well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z4_2gfIiIk
Oh, Wing Commander 3. Such a font of awfulness.

Good call. Love the old Lucasarts point-and-clicks. One scene in particular that I've always loved was the sequence right after the first bike fight in Full Throttle where Ben looses his front tire.