Camera Screw: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"In third-person games, the camera is like the working class. If you can't control it, it will plot to destroy you.''" |'''[[Zero Punctuation (Web Animation)|Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]]''', ''[[Epic Mickey (Video Game)|Epic Mickey]]'' Review}}

When the camera adds [[Fake Difficulty]] to a third-person view game, you have the [['''Camera Screw]]''', combining elements of the [[Interface Screw]] and [[Behind the Black]]. It has many causes:

* Coding the camera to best show off your [[Third -Person Seductress]].

* Moving the camera during a precision maneuver or hectic play.

* Forcing the player to run towards the camera while the camera focuses on whatever is chasing the player. Yes, it was impressive in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', but that was a non-interactive movie, and this is the worst possible camera angle from which to see oncoming hazards.

* The otherwise good game ''[[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' has a terrible camera that switches from full control to fixed often and at extremely inconvenient moments, among other things. In fact, at some point the camera will do pretty much everything that appears on this list.

** ''Defiance'' is even worse. The number of players who have torn their hair out during Raziel's sequences in Vorador's Mansion has become too large to count. What's worst about this is that one of the sequences of jumps takes a long climb and an inexplicable [[One -Hit Kill|deadly mist]] has suddenly risen on the floors you'd just cleared a few minutes ago, making you do the whole thing again with every missed jump.

** The [[PSPlayStation 2]] game ''[[Castlevania: Lament of Innocence]]'' has very few platforming sections, but all of them feature frustrating mid-jump camera moves. Fortunately, falling in these cases instantly sends you to the room's entrance, keeping the frustration factor from getting ''too'' high.

* In ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]'', the camera mostly displays from the ground, giving you the best view of your chosen assassins legs with the only camera control being a choice between looking in front of you or behind you. Otherwise, the camera will be switching back and forth between different angles unpredictably, from aerial shots to side views, to a fixed point in the corner or at far side of the room, to viewing the front of you so you must walk towards the camera, to making you walk away from the camera. Sometimes, the camera doesn't bother focusing on you at all and instead choosing to look at a poster of a bikini-clad girl.

* At first glance in ''[[MirrorsMirror's Edge (Video Game)|Mirrors Edge]]'', the camera control seems just fine; it does more or less what you tell it to, because the entire game is played from a first-person perspective. What they ''don't'' tell you is that in many cases, the height of Faith's jumps and the accuracy of her landings (especially ones where she has to grab a ledge or drainpipe) depend on where she's ''looking'' when she makes the jump. The problem with this is that if you need her to jump very high AND catch a ledge, she needs to be craning her neck up; if the landing surface is below the point where she leaves the ground, it requires the player to dive off a building staring up into nothing and ''hope''.

* ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]]'' just loves to change camera angles during precision balance scenes. The game's [[Edge Gravity]] may or may not let you grab onto the beam as you fall from it.

*** However, almost all enemies have audiable cues before their attacks, especially ranged attacks, so dodging even when you cannot see the opponents is still possible.

** Possibly justified by the fact that the camera is, when controlling the robots, the character's first person view, and missiles and [[Rocket Punch|Rocket Punches]]es are generally the sorts of things that would catch your attention.

* One level of ''[[Bomberman (Video Game)|Bomberman]] 64'' intentionally screws with the camera by positioning it underneath the large sheet of ice Bomberman is walking on. As the camera looks up through the ice, the directions of "up" and "down" are essentially reversed from the player's perspective. But why should Bomberman be disoriented by where the camera is?

* The camera in ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]/[[IndigoFahrenheit (2005 video Prophecygame)]]'' may kill {{spoiler|your brother}}. Indirectly, by making it freakin' difficult to find the telephone and warn him.

* The camera in ''[[Highlander]]: Last of the MacLeods'' is all over the place, jumping to new angles multiple times in the same area. It's so bad, it left the game and stopped [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Spoony]] from [https://web.archive.org/web/20130809212038/http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/10/19/highlander-last-of-the-macleods/ leaving his own bathroom].

== [[Beat 'Em Up]] ==

* ''[[Naruto|Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2]]'' has this issue during the free-roaming sequences. The game uses a new style to essentially insert the three-dimensional characters into lush painted backgrounds, giving it a similar look to the anime. However, this results in a fixed camera in most sections, making it frustrating when you're looking for items or trying to talk to someone (due to the camera generally being pulled WAY back to show off the scenery). The battles also have a camera screw of their own, sometimes positioning themselves behind the enemy, instead of the player.

== [[First -Person Shooter]] ==

* This applies to the ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]'' games. Taking hits causes the camera to shake madly, making it impossible to aim accurately and allows the enemy to hand you your ass on a plate, especially on the highest difficulty. The AI actually takes advantage of this by [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|always managing to shoot you and throw off your aim just before you pull the trigger.]]

* Pressing the lock-on button in ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 Wii(2010 video game)]]'' will automatically lock your camera onto the nearest environmental hazard you can shoot at to damage enemies. Great for when you charge into a room full of baddies and want to make a grand entrance. Not so great for when said baddies are aerating your skull from the complete opposite side of the room from the hazard that the game is so intent on you shooting down.

* Attempting to stand up and shoot from behind low cover in ''[[Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Videovideo Gamegame)|Rainbow Six]]: Vegas'' is an exercise in futility - if it seems like the camera would be most helpful viewing the action from the left side of your character, it will go on the right side instead (promptly burying itself into the nearest prop to keep you from seeing or shooting anything) and vice versa. Peeking out from the sides of cover is more manageable, as the position of your character ''forces'' the camera to go where it should.

* ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]'' does this a few times. In the most memorable instance, you have to run an obstacle course inside a moving air bubble at the bottom of a lake (long story). The camera is not only out of your control the whole time, but stays so far away you can sometimes hardly tell what you're doing. This is mostly due to the camera switching to the enemy's point of view (the player is being chased by a giant lungfish in this section) but still proves problematic.

** This seems to happen a lot during Team Sonic's version of the boss fight with the Egg Emperor in ''[[Sonic Heroes (Video Game)|Sonic Heroes]]''. Side-effects include: [[Cluster F -Bomb|Swearing]], [[Nintendo Hard|screaming]], [[That One Boss|frothing at the mouth]], [[Rage Quit|giving up]], [[Head Desk|and hair loss]].

* ''[[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|Super Mario 64]]'' defined the 3D [[Platformer]] genre in the same way that ''[[Super Mario Bros. (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario Bros]]'' defined the 2D Platformer genre. It was a breakthrough in multiple ways, was the top selling game for the Nintendo 64, and is still considered to be one of the greatest games ever made. It ''also'' left the player with the idea that the "Lakitu Camera" was under the control of Bowser and was working hard to prevent you from finishing the game. The default camera angles were, to be blunt, not very good, and the worst part of it was that if you tried to manually move the camera, it would automatically readjust itself.

** The best touch: trying to cross a narrow bridge or sneak by an enemy? The more slowly and cautiously you move, the more erratic the camera gets. This is because when you move quickly the camera drifts further back, and when you stop or slow down, it pulls tight -- buttight—but when it's in tight it can (and will) swing from one side of Mario to the other in an instant.

** By the time of ''[[Super Mario Sunshine (Video Game)|Super Mario Sunshine]]'', they had improved the camera a bit, making it more controllable by the player, reducing the wobble that plagued the ''Mario 64'' camera, and having a one-touch button that instantly centers the camera behind Mario. But it had a bad, bad tendency to let elements of scenery such as trees and overhangs completely block the player's view of Mario, and even worse, it was next to impossible in some cases to adjust the camera to a position where you had unobstructed visibility; often you couldn't see Mario unless you pulled the camera in super tight, and the second you tried to move... bam, there's that tree in your way again.

** The camera in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]'' was much more intuitive, giving players decent camera angles more often than not. But it was still only controllable up to a certain extent, and in fast-paced levels, it didn't always keep up with Mario's pace. But at least it didn't automatically readjust itself once the player moved it like the camera in ''Super Mario 64''.

** In ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'', about half the green stars are placed in such a way that the camera is about as unhelpful as possible in letting you get them. Many of them are located out in space without anything on the screen to help you gauge exactly how far out they are or where they lie on the horizontal plane. And worst of all, in some cases, you have to jump toward the star from a spot where it's ''physically impossible to see it''. The Flipsville one, where you have to fall into the star via reverse gravity is worst of all (and the [[Fake Difficulty]] page image), but one in Starshine Beach is also worth singling out; it lies just beneath an overhang in the middle of the ocean, and once you get to a spot where you can reach the star, it's in a place where you can no longer see it. Meanwhile, to get high enough to grab it, you have to leap out of the water with Yoshi's flutter jump and then dismount him in mid-air... again while you're not quite able to see exactly where above you the star is.

** Because the game was made for PSP initially, there's no up/down camera movement allowed. Even on the [[PSPlayStation 2]] version.

* ''[[Super Monkey Ball]]'', to the point you're utterly frustrated and give up. Since the camera is centered behind your monkey, this often causes it to go into a carousel mode, because the sightliest tilt will cause it to move around, which is even more frustrating once you combine narrow paths with curves.

* ''[[Banjo -Kazooie]]'' suffers this problem greatly, even in the XBLA version which is actually worse in design since the N64 controller had C-buttons, meaning one press made the camera swing around a certain angle, whereas using the right analog stick on an Xbox 360 controller gives the illusion of being able to adjust to any number of degrees....which it does not, at all. Despite the camera controls being essentially ripped off from ''[[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|Super Mario 64]]'', the camera will auto-adjust infrequently so, and....well just try to play Click Clock Wood and see if you can avoid falling because the camera suddenly cut to another angle and threw you off.

* ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]] 7'' was one long hard camera screw.

* A flaw in the otherwise great game ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'' -- when—when you go through the more elaborate portal patterns, if the screen has to spin, your up/down view will not be changed. Frustrating when you come out of a portal and suddenly see the ceiling and have no idea just where's the damn floor. Even more frustrating when you have to shoot a portal at the floor while in mid-air.

* ''[[Rhythm Heaven (Video Game)|Rhythm Heaven]]'' has a strange example, one considered not even an example depending on who you ask, what with being completely music based, but a lot of people depend on view. (In fact one of the winning dialogues is something along the lines of "You have a good eye for distance."). [[That One Level|Rhythm Rally 2]] makes the camera unwillingly fly around, with planets and such blocking the view.

== [[Role -Playing Game]] ==

* ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]'': [[Scrappy Level|Macalania Cloister of Trials]] has a puzzle that requires players to create an icy path by putting spheres in the right place. When the player finishes and goes to use said path, the player must be careful not to step on a tile that partially resets the puzzle. The problem? The camera angle suddenly changes right before reaching the tile, and if you don't know it's coming, the player will step on it.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]''. If your characters have a wall behind them, the camera WILL be shunted into the air and point directly at the floor. Very frustrating if you're trying to look ahead, guys. Fortunately it's an RPG, so you won't instantly die from it.

** ''[[Infinite Undiscovery]]'', on the other hand, has the {{spoiler|Vesplume Tower}}, with castle perimeter areas that have fixed cameras and dogs that dash at one or more characters for what at the time is about 1/3 of their HP. These dogs come at you from an angle that WOULD allow you to see them coming, easily, if not for the fixed camera.

** But that's not even the end of it -- theit—the camera in general was poorly realized, with the controls given to the R2 and L2 buttons and the speed FAR too slow to keep up with athletic, bouncy Sora. Locking-on helps most of the time, but god help you if it's a fast opponent that likes jumping around like a maniac...

** There's a fairly simple workaround -- justworkaround—just hold the stick forward and steer with the camera-control buttons. It's not the ''best'' possible solution, but when combined with the target lock system it gets the job done.

** In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'', the camera is fairly cooperative most of the time, but with the reintroduction of platforming to the series, vertical platforming is hit-or-miss, and much of the detail in the stages is hard to see, mostly due to the inability to look up/down while moving in third person.

** Re:coded suffers the most from any Kingdom Hearts game. The platforming is even more eminent than in the original; combine that with the typical Kingdom Hearts camera syndrome and the fact that it's on the DS, and you have the most frustrating '' [[Fake Difficult]] '' game in the series.

* ''[[Wild Arms 4 (Video Game)|Wild ArmsARMs 4]]'' was actually a step ''back'' from previous games that allowed you to rotate the camera at least in the horizontal axis. The camera in ''WA4'' is entirely fixed except for allowing you to zoom, which every so often makes for a frustrating bit of exploration. Thankfully it was fixed in ''[[Wild Arms 5 (Video Game)|Wild ArmsARMs 5]]'', replacing it with a fully 3D right-stick-controlled camera.

* ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]'' has an intentional case found in the Void Quest dungeon. In the 7th floor the camera will abruptly shift in every crossroad, effectively disorienting you. Quite lethal, specially if you found yourself running ''into'' the shadow you were trying to escape moments earlier.

* ''[[Nie RNieR]]'' uses Camera Screw in the Haunted Mansion as a [[Shout -Out]] to ''[[Resident Evil 1]]'' and its problematic fixed camera angles.

* In ''[[DemonsDemon's Souls]]'', it was evidently decided that a horde of demons wasn't enough to deal with, and [[Everything Trying to Kill You]] extends even to the [[Camera Lock On]]. Targeting the wrong enemy in some games is annoying, but targeting the wrong enemy in this game can be outright fatal, particularly in those segments where you're walking along a narrow ledge, a powerful enemy is just ahead, and your target lock decides it would rather pick the giant flying enemy far from the stage oh wait you were pressing forward weren't you whoops goodbye.

== [[Shoot 'Em Up]] ==

* Largely justified in 1983 arcade game ''[[I Robot (Videovideo Gamegame)|I Robot]]'' where putting a camera as low as possible (making it harder to see the playfield) will yield you higher points.

* With a deeply tinted view (in a pretty dark game, especially the deep space sequences), cockpit furniture that takes up over a third of a screen, and general lack of orientation and peripheral vision, one wonders what the first-person camera in ''[[Star Fox (Video Gameseries)|Star FoxFOX]] 64'' is actually ''good'' for. Aside from being a form of a [[Self -Imposed Challenge]]. And making Virtual Console players repeatedly curse at accidentally stabbing the C-Stick/right control stick upwards.

** [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]] has its share as a consequence of the more cinematic approach to camera angles compared to [[Metal Gear Solid]] which almost always had the camera top down(except for corner view and first person).

** To be fair, 99% of the time you have the control over the camera. It only moves during specific missions (most often the Assassin tombs), where you have to do platforming sequences. The way to go can be difficult to realize, and the camera moves always in a way to give you a clear view of where to aim your jump. The problem is basically the same as in [[Tomb Raider: Anniversary]]: Player input is relative to the camera, not to Ezio. If the camera suddenly turns 90° and you are running forward, Ezio will pull a sharp turn that's not always intended or welcome. Can be a bit irritating...

* The newest ''[[Alone in Thethe Dark]]'' occasionally has some poor angling for the third-person camera. However, the ability to switch to first person view almost any time as well as a lock-on function for melee combat help to alleviate this a little bit. However, the camera still likes to be dramatic and epic in certain scenes, so maintaining control of a car after a dramatic jump is a little addled.

* ''[[Dino Crisis]] 3''. The cameras are ''fixed'' -- as—as if you're watching yourself from security cameras. On a spaceship. Where ''dinosaurs'' can appear spontaneously ''out of the walls'' to attack you. My head hurts just thinking about it.

== [[Third -Person Shooter]] ==

* ''[[Dead Space (Franchiseseries)|Dead Space]]'' does this intentionally multiple times, arguably as part of the minimalist interface style. {{spoiler|Fighting the final boss in this manner tends to lead to at least one really unpleasant death scene}}

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' had the "Helpful" camera change problem. While driving the camera focuses ''directly'' behind your vehicle, meaning you can't see what's in front of you on the road. There's a button you can hit to move it to a much more useful angle, but as soon as you let go of said button, the camera slides riiiiiight back into crap-town. Of course, you can drive in first person mode, but then you can't see anyone pulling up behind or to the side of you; it becomes incredibly difficult to extricate yourself from the kind of 46-point turn scenario that often comes up when trying to drive through alleyways, and over everything else; and of course not forgetting, the car ''inexplicably gets wider when you're in first person view''.

=== Non-video game examples: ===

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===