A core appeal of video games is their interactivity. By pressing the right buttons you guide your avatar through a virtual world, feeling like a true participant in the adventure. Yet a growing number of titles seem more interested in dazzling you with story than letting you play. These ten entries illustrate how the industry sometimes prefers a cinematic experience, turning what should be a game into something that feels more like a glorified movie.
Why These 10 Games Glorified Feel More Like Movies
10 Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Let’s start with the sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. The original already suffered from limited combat options, relying on a handful of combos and a largely on‑rails progression. Still, its haunting atmosphere, clever environmental puzzles, and masterful use of sound to convey Senua’s psychosis gave it a distinctive edge.
Unfortunately, the follow‑up doesn’t build on that foundation. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II inherits the same shallow combat while discarding the mental‑illness focus that made the first game unique. Senua is no longer isolated; conversations unfold in static cutscenes or leisurely strolls through a village, turning what could have been an intense, solitary experience into a bland Viking drama with little more than generic dialogue.
9 The Order 1886
Next up is The Order 1886, a title that promises an alternate‑history London where Knights of the Round Table battle supernatural threats. The premise alone is tantalising, but the game quickly stifles any sense of exploration. Your playtime barely stretches beyond a few hours—shorter than many feature films—and you never get a moment of true freedom.
The combat feels like a stripped‑down third‑person shooter, offering only a handful of weapons against a meagre roster of enemies. The developers clearly wanted you to experience the story a certain way, but that rigidity drains all excitement from the experience.
8 Ryse: Son of Rome
Ryse: Son of Rome essentially serves as a tech demo for the Xbox One, showcasing photorealistic characters and a gleaming Roman aesthetic. It aims for the epic grandeur of films like Gladiator and certainly succeeds in delivering a visual showcase of the console’s power.
Gameplay, however, is little more than a series of fixed, hack‑and‑slash set‑pieces. The hero’s limited sword‑and‑shield combos feel generic, and enemies are recycled soldiers and brutes that quickly become monotonous. The combat exists solely to shepherd you from one cinematic moment to the next, without offering any depth of its own.
7 God of War: Ragnarok
When the once‑fast‑paced God of War series pivoted toward slower, more introspective storytelling, the shift felt odd. Ragnarok pushes this evolution to its limit, treating gameplay as a secondary concern. Combat remains serviceable but offers no meaningful improvements over its predecessor, and the RPG elements feel shallow compared to peers.
The side quests are sparse and lack any real incentive; most are simple curiosities that feel more like filler than rewarding content. Level design is riddled with corridors and invisible walls, discouraging any deviation from the prescribed path.
Perhaps the most glaring issue is the sheer volume of cutscenes. The game adopts a pretentious single‑shot approach, with characters strolling slowly, pausing for lengthy dialogue, and reflecting in a way that drags the pacing. In many moments you’re merely walking forward while listening to exposition, leaving you to wonder why any role‑playing mechanics exist at all.
6 The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II suffers from a similar imbalance. Cutscenes dominate the experience, each delivered at a glacial pace that leans heavily into hyper‑emotional drama. While Naughty Dog has a history of integrating cinematic moments in games like Uncharted, those titles never let the cutscenes eclipse the core gameplay.
This sequel leans heavily on the predecessor’s rudimentary shooting, crafting, and stealth mechanics, offering little in the way of fresh platforming or level design. You spend much of your time wandering through dull hubs, forced to listen to mandatory conversations that stretch the game’s length without adding meaningful engagement.
5 Quantum Break
Quantum Break attempts to blend video‑game storytelling with a TV‑show format, alternating between live‑action episodes starring Shawn Ashmore and Lance Reddick and photorealistic gameplay segments. While the ambition is clear, the execution falls short.
The gameplay itself is a collage of repetitive third‑person shooting, one‑directional platforming, and button‑press puzzles that offer no real challenge. The live‑action sequences dominate the experience, leaving the interactive portions feeling like an afterthought.
4 Final Fantasy XIII
As a flagship of the storied Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy XIII was expected to deliver deep role‑playing freedom. Instead, it strips away the series’ hallmark exploration and party customization, guiding you along a predetermined path of narrow corridors.
The combat system follows the same on‑rails philosophy. Skill points are unlocked in a fixed order, and the game even nudges you toward using the “Auto‑Battle” function, which decides the best abilities for you without any input.
By the time the game finally opens up near the end, the damage is already done: the title feels like a linear ride that saps the very freedom that defines the RPG genre.
3 Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is a post‑apocalyptic courier simulator that leans heavily into his signature convoluted storytelling. The opening hours are saturated with lengthy cutscenes, often presented in slow motion, leaving you barely touching the controller.
While delivering packages does require skill—navigating treacherous terrain, managing supplies, and anticipating hazards—the constant barrage of exposition dumps, whether via audio logs or overlong cinematics, prevents you from finding a comfortable groove.
2 Until Dawn
Until Dawn tries to emulate a slasher film by letting players decide who lives and who dies. Unfortunately, the game offers very limited freedom: you can’t truly explore the cabin or its surroundings, and movement is restricted to a few feet at best.
When you do make choices, they rarely influence the narrative in any substantial way. Characters often cannot die, and failed button prompts simply reset the sequence, undermining the premise of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” experience.
1 Most Quantic Dream Games
Quantic Dream’s catalog, epitomised by titles like Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human, suffers from extreme linearity. The games masquerade as interactive dramas, but in reality they feel like arthouse films with limited player agency.
Invisible walls confine you to tiny environments, puzzles have a single solution, and dialogue choices rarely branch the story in meaningful ways. Even when the narrative offers multiple paths, the writers funnel you back into preset scenarios.
Among the studio’s offerings, Heavy Rain provides the most genuine branching, yet it still stumbles in marrying gameplay with cutscenes. Overall, the series feels like a series of movies that merely wear a game’s skin.