Adventure Gamers - Forums

rtrooney - 09 October 2018 08:51 PM

I forgot the glorious opening cinematic. Others call them cut scenes. I call them tracking shots. Regardless, it was a wonderful introduction to the game. These kinds of cinematics is what Microids is famous for.

Let me annoy you with semantics.


A “cinematic” refers to a sequence in a non-movie medium that shares a lot of characteristics with a movie. For games, this means that “in-game cinematics” are sequences over which the player doesn’t have any control, but that do advance the plot.

A “cutscene” is a term coined by Ron Gilbert about the scenes in Maniac Mansion where the game ‘cuts away’ from the gameplay to show something that advances the plot. The term has since been embraced by the entire video game industry to signify any scene that’s not interactive.
(But even then, some developers are blurring the lines by making cutscenes somewhat interactive - in the Metal Gear Solid games for instance, you can often manually switch to alternative camera angles during cutscenes, or have “free look” control over your character during dialogue, or sometimes cutscenes are playing in one half of the screen while you’re still very much playing in the other half…)

For all intents and purposes, cinematics and cutscenes mean the same thing.


A tracking shot (or dolly shot), however, is a specific type of shot used in films where the camera itself moves alongside the objects it’s recording. This originated when cameras were placed on a dolly and were moving along tracks. Nowadays, any shot where the camera itself moves is called a tracking shot, whether or not the camera was on a dolly, on a car, in a helicopter, on a drone, or handheld by a walking cameraman.



All of this to say that the shot from the Eiffel Tower, over all the rooftops, to the front of the hotel, is very much an epic tracking shot. The next shot through the window is also a tracking shot.
But the shot from the doorway revealing the killer’s shadow and the frightened couple in bed, is NOT.
The entire sequence until you gain control over the main character to pick his dialogue option, that‘s the opening cinematic or cutscene.

GotGrog? - 10 October 2018 06:58 AM

Hi everyone,

The community playthroughs look like a lot of fun. I am a new member of the forum and was wondering if this is something I could join in with?

Welcome!
The more, the merrier! 

If “more’s the merrier”, then I’ma gonna piggyback this train, too! I’ve never participated in a CPT before…haven’t had the time to commit. But since I’m between projects right now, this will be a good way to get my feet wet.

I played this game a couple times over the years, have forgotten most of it, but I’m sure it’ll all come crashing back as we move along. I remember it fondly, just not accurately…yet. I’m looking forward to it!

Anyway, I’m all loaded up and ready to go. Oh, and I installed the game, too! 

Mike the Wino - 10 October 2018 12:30 PM

Anyway, I’m all loaded up and ready to go. Oh, and I installed the game, too! 

wilco - 10 October 2018 05:37 AM

Started Still Life but never finished because I lost interest.
Intro was ok, set the tone, creppy with Michael Myers showing up to kill the couple.
Opening dialogue with the woman is not very promising but it’s just the beginning.

No, No, its the best man.. try again.

1) Yes all are welcome to join in and play! The more the merrier!

2) Still Life is one of the very, very best adventure games ever! This game is good to play before it, after playing this game, if you liked it at all, you will LOVE Still Life.

I will nominate Still Life for a CPT after this, I want to play it again now!

Have spoken with the clerk using the suggested line of questioning. Also spoke with the bartender and received an inventory item which I delivered to the desk sergeant at the police station. Now I’m back at the hotel with nothing to do. Can’t go up the stairs, and there’s nothing further to discuss with the clerk, (at the current time.)

Before I left Gus’ apartment, I picked up a couple items…I hope this won’t change the course of play. Next, I went to the Hotel and spoke to the clerk/“manager”, identifying myself as a PI as directed.

From there, at least one conversation path gets MacPherson the cold shoulder and shuts down further communication, while another path is greeted with helpfulness. Does it matter which path we take at this point?

By the way, being new to a CPT, I am erring on the side of caution and probably overdoing the spoiler tags…

No, not at this point. When I talked to the clerk no matter what choices I made he shut me down.

However, Mike had better luck than me:

Hi Mikekelly—actually, when I first spoke to the clerk and used a certain conversation path, I was invited up to explore the room (505) adjacent to the one sealed off by the police (507). After checking out 505 and finding a possible entry way into 507 I decided to quit and await your further instructions.

Here is the path I used:

tab 1) I’m a detective…
tab 1) I thought you were the manager…
tab 1) So you will not discuss it…
tab 2) Do you often get murders…
tab 1) But the Whytes…
tab 3) You must have dealt…
tab 1) I will come clean with you…
tab 1) My client insists…

As you said, using this path and getting this far may not matter anyway, but this did—at least at this point—seem to persuade the clerk to at least let Gus check out the adjacent room.

Mikekelly, sent you a PM so as not to spoil anything here. 

OK, many want their next instructions now. If you want to continue past talking to the clerk, do the following:

Continue playing the game until you get to Alambic Bistro and solve the paintings matching and the suspect drawing puzzles these can be solved after exploring the bistro.

I will now post the next set of instructions next Friday.

Oh, I haven’t played a PC game in YEARS, lucky for me my laptop still runs like a champ and is actually very fun to play games on!

I will be playing lots more of them after this one!