Good cinematic PC games.

[martin31406]

Hey, y'all. I wanted to get you all's pick of decent good cinematic games for the PC. Now, when I say 'cinematic', I don't necessarily mean a game with a lot of cutscenes. Rather, games with film-like presentation and production value; a game that immerses a player with atmosphere, character and story in the same way a great film does.

Here are games I consider to be cinematic and ones I've played so far;


Deus Ex
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Half Life 2
Mafia
GTA 3, VC, and SA
Max Payne 1 and 2
Indigo Prophecy
Blade Runner
Star Wars: KOTOR 1 & 2 (maybe cinematic?)

[brunoafh]

Fallout
Planescape Torment
Duke 3D

[Xeogred]

System Shock 2 hands down.

[fastbilly1]

Planescape Torment - but you need the fanmade widescreen fix
System Shock 2
Bioshock 1
The Dig
Broken Sword 1
Half Life 2
STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl
Longest Journey
Fahrenheit
Ultima Underworld
Almost anything by Infocom

[BoringSupreez]

The Half Life series, the Deus Ex series, the first two MGS games (only buy the PC versions if you don't have a PS2), the Command & Conquer series too I guess.

[Hatta]

Surprised no one has mentioned Out of this World yet. It seems obligatory.

Maybe also try King's Quest 7. It has all the production values of a Disney movie. Gets looked down on as a departure from the master works that were KQ 5 & 6, but it's a good game still.

[fastbilly1]

Surprised no one has mentioned Out of this World yet. It seems obligatory.

Sadly I have not finished it. I bought it on Gog last Christmas and just havent gotten to it yet - Planescape Torment and Longest Journey got in the way.

I will second Kings Quest 7 - heck any of the Kings Quests are good.

[Hatta]

I haven't finished Out of this World either. Beautiful, influential game, but not my cup of tea.

As for King's Quest, really any of the Sierra or LucasArts games would fit the OPs requirements. They're all very strong on atmosphere and character, much stronger on storytelling than game play usually.

[J T]

Scrolling through some of my installed games, here are a few that strike me as being on the cinematic side:

Beyond Good & Evil
Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within
Dead Space
Half Life series
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Call of Cthulu
Jack Orlando
Realms of the Haunting
Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon
The Witcher
Tron 2.0
Runaway- A Road Adventure
Obscure
The Last Express
Psychonauts

[J T]

Planescape: Torment seems more literary than cinematic to me. It has some of the best writing of any game I've ever played, but there's not really much cinematography technique in the game.