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Videogame Set Piece: Difference between revisions
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'''Tycho:''' Give it a shot, we'll be in the kitchen.|''[[Penny Arcade]]'', in discussion of set pieces used by Capcom's [[Survival Horror]] series, namely [[Dino Crisis]].}}
As computer game players have become more and more familiar with the conventions of gaming, so game designers have to work harder to surprise them. One solution that is particularly popular in [[FPS]] games but is becoming prevalent in other genres, is the setpiece.
This involves [[Scripted Event|an occurrence]] (triggered by an internal clock or the player reaching a certain checkpoint) that is not part of the game's typical gameplay/engine mechanics. For example, there is a moment in ''[[Half Life]] 2'' in which the player is racing down a river on a motorboat, only for a massive chimney on a nearby factory to be struck by a missile, causing it to fall over, directly in the path of the player. If he or she has quick enough reactions, the player can then steer towards the middle of the chimney where there is a big enough gap to squeeze through. Alternatively, a setpiece can be something small and non-game-changing, such as seeing a monster scuttle past a window in ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'', or having a fan loudly slam shut without warning in ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]''.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Half Life]]'' games and expansion packs made heavy use of setpieces - everything from monsters breaking down doors to automated tours of labyrinthine factories.
** Valve once said that they use so many because Half-Life without set pieces is boring: Valve themselves learned this lesson while brainstorming on Half-Life's level design, sticking every single character, object and set piece they'd come up with so far into a single level and noticing how fun said level was to play. Such is the quality of their set pieces.
*** Of course, this leads to a phenomenon where the player's mere presence causes things to happen. Unlimited enemies? They'll go away the moment you go around a corner! Scientists? Oh, they'll die the moment you enter the room. Fall off of a platform and an explosion across the way will send legions of enemies after you! The line between time and the player's location in space is extremely tenuous.
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** All of the ''AvP'' games are packed with these sorts of cheap scares, usually a [[Stanley Steamer Spaceship|blast of steam]] in a [[Red Alert|dimly lit]] corridor that sounds far too similiar to an enraged xenomorph.
* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' has setpeices as minigames, such as in the opening to the second game, involving the homicidal magically-animated Colossus of Rhodes, or jumping from pillar to falling pillar.
* Half of ''[[
* The Infinity Ward-created titles in the ''[[Call of Duty]]'' series are famous for some of their incredible scripted sequences. These range from crossing the Volga River in ''Call of Duty'' to the first few seconds of the Normandy landing in ''Call of Duty 2'' to a chilling scene in ''Call of Duty 4'' where {{spoiler|you live through the last few minutes of a player character's life as he limps hopelessly through a nuclear wasteland.}}
* ''[[Free Space]]'' is a space-sim chockful of these, including one where the ship you were supposed to be escorting gets blown up (to prove how powerful the new alien enemies are.) but launches an escape pod and you're supposed to protect that. Gets dumb when the ship makes it into the jump portal and sits there for a few minutes waiting to die.
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* ''[[Fallout]] 3'' has a couple of them. Perhaps more people will recall {{spoiler|Liberty Prime's march to the Jefferson Memorial}} as the most memorable moment of the game, but equally awesome (and far more terrifying) was {{spoiler|the arrival of the Vertibirds. You're traveling through an access tunnel, trying to get Project Purity up and running, when you come to a break in the pipeline. You look out, and watch as a fleet of black, insectoid helicopters descends from the sky.}}
** Also awesome: every Behemoth in the game. Hell, one of them is triggered by picking up a teddybear!
** Special mention goes to DLC Point Lookout's set pieces in Calvert Mansion. Groups of Tribals continually take advantage of the structurally-unsound estate by bursting through walls and then proceeding to savage you with whatever they happen to be carrying at the time. This quickly becomes predictable, and a few well placed mines outside a boarded up door or weak looking piece of ceiling can derail these events. Just as the novelty starts to wear off, you yourself fall victim to the mansions derelict state falling THREE FLOORS down through the mansion into a wine cellar and are then forced to fight your way out. Props to Bethesda for finding a way to show off their DLC's new character animations while stopping repetitiveness and maintaining the immersion.
* [[Killzone]] 2 has a moment were a boarding party smashes through the side of your ship's hull meters away from you in a massive explosion. You then face a Hellghast-style [[Zerg Rush]], a mere second after the level being relatively calm.
** It also has one later on when a flying unit's bugging you on the last level. It has chainguns and rockets, but can't actually kill you unless you suck. It's cool though.
* The ''Clock Tower'' games often rely on this extensively. In the opera house level on one of the games, you do nothing but interact with setpieces in attempts to escape from the killer. Hide in a pipe, wait for him to try to grab your legs. Hide in a closet, wait for the pillar to topple over on his head, etc.
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