Cinematic

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Revision as of 22:48, 20 December 2009 by Flux (talk | contribs) (Cinematics vs. Machinima)
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Cinematics are movies seen in the game, or released as promotional tools, that tell the game story, introduce new characters, or just generally serve as promotion or advertising. Blizzard has a long history of producing high quality movies through their in-house Cinematics Team, and these have been included with every game they've released since Warcraft 2.


Diablo 3 Cinematics

Candles are lit in the intro cinematic.

As of December 2009, there have been three Diablo 3 cinematics released. Click to the linked pages to see each cinematic, as well as screenshots and plot details.

  • Cinematic: WWI 2008 was the first, released with Diablo 3's premiere at the Paris WWI event, June 2008. This cinematic introduces the game world, hints at the plot, and shows some great scenery.
  • Cinematic:Wizard was the second cinematic, released at Blizzcon 2008. This machinima style movie introduced the Wizard character, and showed her marching boldly through the Tristram Cathedral, en route to a final battle with Leoric, the Skeleton King.
  • Cinematic:Monk was the third cinematic, released at Blizzcon 2009. This machinima style movie introduced the Monk character and showed him battling Cultists in Arcarnus, before a final battle against a Morlu Caster.

Full Game Cinematics

There will be extensive cinematics in the full game, approximately as many as we saw with Diablo 2, with the movies shown before the game, between each act,[1] and after, much as they were in Diablo 2. Kevin Martens and Julian Love commented on that during a Blizzcon 2009 interview: [2]

Diii.net: Can you comment on the cinematics? The overall length and presentation? When will players see them during the game, and how long will they run for?
Kevin: That’s not really been decided, since they’re still a work in progress. Currently the plan is to show some at the beginning and end of each Act, but the exact structure isn’t yet finished.
Diii.net: Any idea how long they’ll be in total? Comparable to D2?
Kevin: We really don’t know yet, since all of the scripts aren’t finished.

Jay Wilson also addressed this subject during a press conference at Blizzcon 2009. [3]

We're using cinematics to about the same level as Diablo II did.
It's a difficult story to tell with cinematics because we basically have a main character who can't be in the cinematics. We've really focused on the ancillary characters - Their focus is always to be kind of implying the player's presence right outside the room on the other side of that door.
We don't have a big focus on in-game cinematics. We try to tell our story through action, through questing, and through events. We do have a lot more scripted events, but we separate those from in-game cinematics in the fact that we don't pull control away from the player.
The mysterious meteor hurtles towards the Tristram Cathedral in a scene from the Diablo 3 introductory cinematic.