Cinematics (also commonly called "cut scenes") are short in game movies used to tell parts of the storyline. They often appear during missions but can also appear upon entering key locations.
These are not pre-recorded videos, but real-time rendered scenes, showing the party members as actors.
Skipping Cut scenes[]
During a cinematic players' control over their characters is "frozen" and they cannot make them fight, move or act in any way other than what the cinematic is showing. They may, however, choose to skip the cinematic, but only if all party members vote to skip will the scene actually be skipped.
Skipping cinematic is sometimes recommended, sometimes it is not:
- During a cinematic players are "frozen", but foes are not. Foes can't deal damage during a cinematic, but they can move, so if you aggroed a group of foes right before a cinematic started, you'll find yourself cornered by these foes after the cinematic if you don't skip.
- Minions do NOT decay while cinematics are playing.
- If you skip, you may miss an important part of the story, which may not only prevent you from understanding and emerging deeply into the storyline, but you may also miss vital pieces of information that you would need to complete the mission.
- When considering to skip or not skip, be mindful of others. Those who have seen the cinematic before can be more patient towards those who haven't and those who have not seen it can also come back and do the mission later if they wish to watch the cinematic.
Resurrection[]
One of the most useful "features" of cinematics is the fact that after a cinematic all dead party members and allies are resurrected and teleported to the cinematic location.
In case all party members with resurrect spells are dead, and the surviving party members have already used their Resurrection Signets, a cinematic may be the last resort to resurrect the dead comrades.
Dead Allies resurrected this way would come back to life at 1 health, meaning they would instantly die again if something was aggroed before the cinematic
Also, when running a mission, a cinematic will allow those party members who were left behind to catch up with the runner.
Replay[]
Cinematics that display upon entering a mission outpost can be replayed by speaking to the NPC who gives the mission details in the outpost.
Notes[]
- It is possible to perform an action during a cutscene by using the /dance * emote shortly before entering the cutscene. If this is done correctly, and the cutscene is entered fast enough, your character will be dancing during the cutscene.
- It is possible to move in some cutscenes by side-stepping (default keys are Q and E)
- In Nightfall, cutscenes that are activated via the end of a primary quest to get to the mission cannot be seen again unless the player talks to the NPC that gives the reward, accept the reward and clicks to the Replay Mission Cinematic button.
- In Eye of the North, all cutscenes relating to the story can be seen again at the Scrying Pool after the story arc in which the cutscene took place has been completed.
- If you lose connection to the server, and are reconnected during a cinematic, you will not be able to watch it, but will instead see a black screen with a message "A Cinematic is in Progress Please wait for the cinematic to complete." You can hear the sounds of auto-attacking if a spirit or minion was attacking during the cinematic, but you will not hear the dialogue. You still get the usual button to skip the cutscene in the lower right corner of the screen.