I love FMV’s in games, plain and simple. I think they’re so rarely deployed that at this stage it’s almost always to great effect. Sam Barlow is the obvious one that comes to mind (Her Story, Telling Lies, Immortality) but there are also some famous examples from the past such as the often campy/ham-fisted but always fully-committed and enjoyable performances in Red Alert and Command & Conquer. I also really enjoyed Dr. Darling in Control.

All of this is to say that that FMV’s as a component or the centerpiece of games frequently comes across, at least to me, as being film’s “found footage” equivalent in video games. FF films got a bad rep for “shaky cams” or being a way to mask cheap productions, but some of the best films I’ve ever seen were shot in that style (for those of you who haven’t seen [Rec.] do yourselves a favor). Every now and then the style gets a brief moment in the sun and everyone moves on. Perhaps it’s just seen as too gimmicky but I don’t want to get too thick in the weeds here.

I’ve now seen several great examples of FMV’s and I feel like there’s just this barrier it can’t cross. I’m not sure if it’s technical - asking developers to also be versed in filmmaking, even though many of the same principles in games translate such as lighting and camera angles is maybe too big of an ask - or if it’s just not something that interests many devs yet. Either way, I’d love to see more of it and I’m curious how people think it can be deployed in new and interesting ways. Immortality is a great example because of how it integrated not just the footage but the very tools used to edit films. The UI is a gamified moviola which was necessary for editing and reviewing back in the day. Having editing experience myself actually made the game play better, but it was still very accessible to my friend who had never edited a clip in their life.

I know this is sort of half rant/half question, but I just really wanted to talk about FMV’s so here we are!