Videogame Set Piece: Difference between revisions

*** Perhaps the most notorious set piece in ''[[RE 4]]'' is the oven man. To put it simply, it involves a flaming Ganado hiding in a large oven.

* ''[[Duke Nukem]] 3D'' featured occasional setpieces such as earthquakes and collapsing buildings.

** "You're in a computer game, Max..." Another setpiece in the aforementioned level.

* Although the first two games predated this phenomenon, ''[[Doom]] 3'' included several setpieces along with more traditional [[Cutscene|Cut Scenes]].

* ''[[Alien vs. Predator]] 2'' used several of these, the most impressive being a [[Cat Scare|false scare]] wherein a ceiling panel pops out, causing a curved pipe and length of cable -which look ''exactly'' like an Alien's head and tail- to come swinging out in front of the player.

** 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.

* 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.

*** ''Freespace 2'' corrected this by giving capital ships gigantic [[Wave Motion Gun|Wave Motion Guns]] they'd use against each other, providing yet another hazard to the player because said beams would vaporize fighters in an instant, no matter how much health they had. Capital ships were also given shrapnel-spewing flak cannons and pinpoint-accurate Anti-Fighter Beams, making them a serious threat to attacking fighters and bombers, [[Point Defenseless|unlike the first game.]]

* ''[[System Shock]] 2'' does this in spades. It's the little things, like {{spoiler|when you turn a corner to come upon the ghosts of two of the crew -- one of whom is about to turn the other into one of the cybernetic monsters you've ''been fighting for the last hour''}} -- and it is ''also'' the ''big'' things, like {{spoiler|when you finally get to the person you've been trying to reach throughout the entire game to date, only to find that she committed suicide a while ago -- but apparently that didn't stop her sending you voice messages. At which point, you're treated to a nine-minute in-game cutscene which ''completely'' changes what's going on. For the worse.}}. These (generally very well-done and believable) twists make what would already be a nerve-wrackingly scary game absolutely ''terrifying'', and [[Nightmare Fuel|deeply affecting as well]].

* ''[[The Suffering]]'' and to a lesser extent, its sequel tries to spice up the set pieces. For example: Checking on security camera video feeds provides vital information on threats up ahead. Or just imagery. But check on the same cameras two seconds later and... fun... things might happen.

* ''[[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.}}

** 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.

* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' uses this as well. Most doors can be destroyed by the zombies and your gunfire and the majority of cars and other large objects can be tossed around by the Tank. A plane crashes in the finale of Dead Air and the wreckage gets scattered across the field and then becomes a part of the level.

** There's actually an in-game engine called the AI Director that is programmed to create said setpieces and place them in convenient spots, effectively making a different experience every time you play a level.

* ''[[Uncharted]] 2'' has some of the most amazing setpieces of any game. The most impressive of these is a level that takes place on a moving train, itself a giant setpiece, and having to battle enemies while pressing forward. Eventually your enemies call in a gunship, and you have to move forward quickly ''while it shoots missiles at the cars'', detaching them one by one. Eventually you get to take it down with an Anti-Aircraft gun. And that's only a small part of what makes the game so fantastic.

* There are numerous instances within the [[Silent Hill]] games where one-time events happen. Some of them are relatively easy to miss, such as in 3 after climbing up the ladder in the Dark Hospital and turn right, you would see {{spoiler|Valtiel dragging away a nurse.}} Even if you exit the hallway and go right back in, it will never trigger unless you start over. Then there is the infamous Mirror Room.

 

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