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Most technically impressive set pieces/cutscenes (at time of release fair game)?

wafflebrain

wafflebrain

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,245
Replaying The Last Guardian on PS5 recently is what inspired this thread. It's crazy how well the game's set pieces still hold up, especially Trico's first flight after the initial visit to the end game tower, and the bridge collapse scene earlier. The animation of Trico is just otherworldly levels of good, the way things like wood splinters or stone crumbles beneath Trico's talons has almost cg levels of detail going on in certain scenes. The fact that its all real time with somewhat adjustable camera control depending on the scene is another point in its favor. It feels like such a singular accomplishment in gaming it has me bummed there's nothing else quite like it maybe outside some of Uncharted's set pieces. Knowing the hell TLG's development went through is probably an indication we won't be seeing anything similar again anytime soon.






So what are your picks for best set pieces or cutscenes from a purely technical pov?

As an aside between replaying TLG and SOTC remake I'm in sore need of more "large, mythical beasts" type games. Here's hoping Wild comes out at some point.
 
ethelred

ethelred

Member
Oct 28, 2017
81
Vagrant Story's introduction was not only incredibly impressive for its time, it's still impressive today, 21 years later.

www.youtube.com

Vagrant Story - Title Screen Introduction

Vagrant Story's shortened but different introduction when idling at the title screen. I'm doing a lossless recording of all VS's cutscenes, which I plan to s...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
RecRoulette

RecRoulette

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,044
For a series defined by its setpieces, the Madagascar chase scene in Uncharted 4 is fucking ridiculous and is kind of downplayed by the fact that they showed the whole thing at E3 well before the game came out
 
ninecubed

ninecubed

Member
Oct 27, 2017
253
Came here to say God of War, also, but I will also mention Uncharted 2 (or frankly, any of the Uncharted games).
 
Patitoloco

Patitoloco

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,690
The Uncharted 2 train section was absolutely nuts.

And then The Lost Legacy may have done it better.
 
Mr.Deadshot

Mr.Deadshot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,285
ninecubed said:
Came here to say God of War, also, but I will also mention Uncharted 2 (or frankly, any of the Uncharted games).
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Honestly, we could pic almost any Sony AAA game since God of War 2 and find something impressive. But God of War 3 is still the most amazing thing I've seen in a videogame, especially for it's time.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,438


The whole tanker conclusion in MGS2, the arm thing is utterly ridicolous yet potrayed in such an epic way. Metal Gear Ray breaking through the tanker and the bullets deflecting on it, looked so cool.
 
SunBroDave

SunBroDave

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,159
Uncharted 4's car chase was actually insane. It's unfortunate that they showed it off in marketing before the game's release.

 
CypherSignal

CypherSignal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,072
Uncharted 2 train for the sake of gameplay+story+tech combined, but on a purely technical level, the entire Ship sequence in U3 would be trivial to argue. I can't think of any game codebase that is comparably equipped to accomplish everything that's pulling off in terms of level and environment dynamics.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,364
LsPY.gif
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,438
Patitoloco said:
Ohh and the chase of Shagohod through Groznyg Grad was also really impressive back then.
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The shagodhod sequence was a wonderful mix of gameplay and cinemactics, but I chose MGS2 because it was such a leap compared to Metal Gear Solid, and for me, it was the first time a game felt like a blockbuster movie.
 
fanboy

fanboy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Slovakia
I really liked car escape in TLOU 2, just from the visual standpoint and the heavy intense atmosphere. I really didnt know if they are going to make it.

god of war - taking down the dragon.. the last seconds when he drops before Kratos were cinematic opus magnum.
 
Altairre

Altairre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,051
The final setpiece in Lost Legacy which is about 30-45 minutes long. It's fucking bonkers. You'd think it'd be less impressive because you've already seen all the other setpieces in the series but for me this is where it all came together. Uncharted truly went out with a bang.
 
Thera

Thera

Banned
Feb 28, 2019
12,876
France
The chill... What a game.
SoTC are a sucession of set piece so that one come to mind too. I can't wait to see what GenDESIGN will release.

If we are strictly talking about gameplay, it's "Naughty Dog the thread" :)

Theorry said:
I replayed this mission so so so many times. Stuff blew my mind in 2002

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Blows everyones mind, incredible stuff.

(I don't play FPS since a long time so feel free to correct me)
I am surprised that we have no recent exemple of large scale battle like that in SP campaign.
 
Theorry

Theorry

Member
Oct 27, 2017
61,028
Thera said:
The chill... What a game.
SoTC are a sucession of set piece so that one come to mind too. I can't wait to see what GenDESIGN will release.

If we are strictly talking about gameplay, it's "Naughty Dog the thread" :)


Blows everyones mind, incredible stuff.

(I don't play FPS since a long time so feel free to correct me)
I am surprised that we have no recent exemple of large scale battle like that in SP campaign.
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Everyone was expecting it with BFV. Imagine a beach landing on Frostbite. Pff.
 
NotLiquid

NotLiquid

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,769
Dated or not, in my mind, Sonic Adventure basically wrote the playbook for set piece driven games back when it came out.

The game starts off with this legendary opening.




It leads into the first boss battle with the liquid-based Chaos 0 under the lit night time streets complete with rain effects

Then you get the first level, with the Orca gif posted above that speaks for itself.

And it's still not even done after that; you get to Windy Valley, race through the stage for a bit, only to get swept up by a hurricane, platform through floating debris, only to land and race through a sky-bound highway.

And it still won't stop. Speed Highway, Ice Cap, Twinkle Park, Sky Deck, Lost World; every stage just keeps upping the ante in terms of presentation and set pieces; culminating with the Super Sonic final boss against Perfect Chaos.

Pretty wild for a 1998 video game.
 
Thera

Thera

Banned
Feb 28, 2019
12,876
France
Theorry said:
Everyone was expecting it with BFV. Imagine a beach landing on Frostbite. Pff.
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I read a leak saying COD will goes back to WWII so maybe they will have one.
BF V tone down the destruction a bit it seems, but leak says BF VI will go back to big desctruction. So I think we will have big thing on that front, but not specially big numbers of NPC.
 

Deleted member 16876

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,148


Best.

This cutscene creeped me and grossed me out so much as a kid. It looked so damn real. Heck, I still get the chills from watching it to this day.

If we are talking set pieces I love GOW3's intro. It is such a cool way to start the game and looks even better than the CGI cutscenes of GOW2. I loved how it basically continued on from the ending of 2 and you actually played through it.
 
darthkarki

darthkarki

Banned
Feb 28, 2019
129
Basically every scene in the Uncharted series :D Especially the car chase in 4 as mentioned above.

The Stranger fight in God of War:




The way Kratos gets knocked around with the camera following right along is very unique.

I'm also incredibly impressed with Miles Morales. The entire opening sequence and mission:




Along with the bridge fight later:




I'm really impressed with how much these setpieces have improved from Spider-Man.
 
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Pottuvoi

Pottuvoi

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,065
Beginning of Another World was amazing.


Frontier: Elite 2 intro was mind blowing at the time. (and so was the game.)
 
Combichristoffersen

Combichristoffersen

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,756
I think the first part of God of War 2 impressed me more than the first part of God of War 3 tbh. Seeing the colossus in GoW 2 and the ensuing fight, all that running on a PS2, now that was something.
 
Zephy

Zephy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,168
Final Fantasy VIII had the most insane set pieces at the time. Some sequences mixed gameplay and real time models with CG backgrounds.
 
DarthBuzzard

DarthBuzzard

Banned
Jul 17, 2018
5,122
Want to give a shoutout to Paper Beast. This part in particular was especially impressive, combining the 3D audio (you can hear it in the video) and the OLED screens of my VR headset created an amazing setpiece.



Also, the Sea of Corpses in Hellblade VR:

Hellblade5.jpg


10957CDDFD39F50293BC13FBFC7794651E4C618B
 
julian

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,786
Xenoblade Chronicles. I'd been playing Skyrim, had to go away for a while and found myself frustrated when I tried playing it again dealing with load times. Then I tried Xenoblade and the environments and the speed with which you could move around them on this weak little console was insane.
 
Hyun Sai

Hyun Sai

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,562
Hard to top the intro sequence of God of War 3, even if the second opus is still my favorite.
 
djplaeskool

djplaeskool

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,752
I think most people got a lot of the good ones.
Uncharted 2 - Train sequence
Uncharted 4 - Car chase
God of War 3 - Intro (Poseidon)
FFVIII - Galbadia Garden Invasion
Asura's Wrath - Wyzen

maxresdefault.jpg
 
SoundLad

SoundLad

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,251
It's been mentioned already, but Uncharted 2 train sequence always comes to mind when I think of crazy set pieces in video games.
 

Deleted member 34949

Account closed at user request
Banned
Nov 30, 2017
19,101
NotLiquid said:
Dated or not, in my mind, Sonic Adventure basically wrote the playbook for set piece driven games back when it came out.

The game starts off with this legendary opening.




It leads into the first boss battle with the liquid-based Chaos 0 under the lit night time streets complete with rain effects

Then you get the first level, with the Orca gif posted above that speaks for itself.

And it's still not even done after that; you get to Windy Valley, race through the stage for a bit, only to get swept up by a hurricane, platform through floating debris, only to land and race through a sky-bound highway.

And it still won't stop. Speed Highway, Ice Cap, Twinkle Park, Sky Deck, Lost World; every stage just keeps upping the ante in terms of presentation and set pieces; culminating with the Super Sonic final boss against Perfect Chaos.

Pretty wild for a 1998 video game.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I came here to mention the Garden Vs. Garden battle in FFVIII, but yeah I think this actually might be it for me.

Sonic's story in SA1 really works it's ass off to impress the player during that first playthrough.
 
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