I miss David Cage's narrative masterpieces.

I don't think there is a more deceitful and fanciful writer in the industry, he sets up good concepts as the basis of the story, but how he develops and above all how he concludes his stories, is a disaster, he creates comédias without being his intention. His best game is undoubtedly Detroit and it's the one that had another scriptwriter at the helm.

PS. Whoever believes that Heavy Rain, Beyond, Fahrenheit, etc. have a good script, I recommend reading more novels, movies and quality series and not only play video games or watch Disney movies.
 
TerribleAtThisGame said:
Never played a single one. Every time I read a description, it sounds like unintentional comedy at best...which could be kinda cool I guess?
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Detroit is definitely his best game, but he had another writer to assist him there.

I love Indigo Prophecy, but it's really a mixed bag. It starts so strong, but it completely falls apart in the second half. Which, I guess it's Cage's trademark. He always creates interesting and innovating premises, and then he squanders their potential. Still, everything he did is worth a single playthrough if you can find it on a Steam sale or something.
 
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Detroit I had little issues with, it stayed good all the way through and there were a decent amount of branching paths.

The others I don't like much.
 
legacy24 said:
playing through fahrenheit right now and aside from the awful controls it's pretty good so far.
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To this day, I maintain that Indigo Prophecy has one of the best openings in a video game ever. In fact, the only thing that I would say rivals it is Detroit. I've lost count of how many times I've played through their respective demos. It's a shame that they can't sustain that level of polish throughout the entire game but Detroit was certainly getting there. And unlike a lot of people, I actually likes Kara's sections.
 
Where's Nomad Soul??

Fahrenheit has an incredible sex scene.
Heavy Rain is meh.
Beyond is goofy but I think it's enjoyable if you embrace the silliness.
Detroit is great imo.

I have high hopes for Eclipse, if it ever comes out.
 
I was out after Heavy Rain. That game was just awful, even the story, which I guess is supposed to the main course, is so poor. Plot holes galore.
 
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Heavy Rain was very unpolished. But the story was good. Beyond didn't resonate with me. But Detroit... man, that really got to me. A really emotional journey from start to finish.
 
Parody topic?

Dude never sniffed a masterpiece in his life...

I only played the first 2 games and it was more than enough.
 
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Not sure masterpieces are the right word..

Although back in the day i thought Fahrenheit's diner scene was kind of cool and intriguing.
 
Gitaroo said:
I think until dawn is better than all of them
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It's basically the only narrative adventure game I did not like. Anything Telltale, Life is Strange 1, 2, True Colors were all much better. But I also hate pratically all "horror" movies with obnoxious kids that are more laughable cringe than actually scary. The writing is lacking in everything gaming, but the interactice ride Cage and his team provides works imho well and gets continually better. I totally can see though how anyone hates them because much of it would not work as a non interactive thing. But especially choice actually matters, at least in Detroit every story path makes some sense and alters the ending, death required to play really bad, but getting everyone including sidecharacters too, required right decisions, which is actually very easy but while playing not so much.
 
GrayChild said:
What happened with him anyway? Their Star Wars game has been stuck in what appears to be a limbo for years now. We used to have at least one movie game from them every 5 years or so, but they've been dead silent since 2018.
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www.sortiraparis.com

Star Wars Eclipse: development continues according to Quantic Dream!

Finally, some news about Star Wars Eclipse! Quantic Dream has provided news, via a LinkedIn post by its CEO Guillaume de Fondaumière, of the game from the franchise far, far away. The game is still in development, and making good progress... We take stock!
www.sortiraparis.com www.sortiraparis.com

Cage was still working on Star Wars: Eclipse in March this year. The studio is at the moment looking for level and character designers for that project, that's a good sign.
 
darrylgorn said:
'Narrative masterpieces'

Austin Powers Doctor Evil GIF
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Yeah no shit, I expected to click on the thread thinking it was posted in irony, but people are serious.

 
Played through Heavy Rain and it's still a very memorable and powerful gaming experience. Detroit is my favorite though. It was a great experience with memorable characters and a powerful narrative. Yeah, I miss these sort of games from Quantic Dream. Beyond sucked balls though.
 
I still remember talking to a friend who was playing Heavy Rain at the same time when it first came out and we both had different things happening throughout our playthroughs. I really liked the game.
 
It's always funny to me when someone brings up David Cage or Fumito Ueda and glazes them while criticizing Sony's output.

By the time either of these guys put out games they'll be nearing a decade or more since their last release...
 
Its hard to make a narrative masterpiece using branching narrative experiences, but Detroit did it the best. I still wish they did a new Detroit game but just with Connor and Hank as a duo for protagonist.

 
Meh, his only game I liked was Detroit. I still though the story and writing were pretty bad, but it was a decent improvement over his previous games and the branching paths were actually impressive.
 
Grew up with friends who are film majors so learned a little about framing scenes and the techniques directors use, like the ones you'd learn from the classic Citizen Kane. Stuff like moving the camera through a window to reveal the conversation going on inside. Cage's games use these methods in ways I don't usually see in games and I enjoy them for that.

I remember being shocked while playing Heavy Rain for the first time when one of the main characters died after making a poor decision. I shouted 'Noooooooo!!' while scrambling to the ps3 to cut the power, lol.
 
I wouldn't call them "narrative masterpieces." I did like Indigo Prophecy, but that was back in the day when this approach felt very experimental and creative, and I was big on storytelling in games. I've changed my views over the years. I've grown leery of game directors who clearly want to be film directors and who seem to take their cues from Hollywood (e.g., Kojima, Druckmann, Cage).

I liked Heavy Rain okay. It didn't wow me the way Indigo Prophecy did.

I thought Beyond Two Souls was terrible. Just a nothing of a game, wrapped in fake drama that didn't work.

Detroit was entertaining - better than Beyond was, that's for sure - but the heavy-handed messaging was annoying.

I'd like to see something else from him, though.
 
GrayChild said:
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What happened with him anyway? Their Star Wars game has been stuck in what appears to be a limbo for years now. We used to have at least one movie game from them every 5 years or so, but they've been dead silent since 2018.

C'mon Dave. I need me some Cage kino already!
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Season 3 GIF by Parks and Recreation
 
Let me scale that down a bit to, I miss linear SP/Co-op games with set pieces and story beats rather than bloat and sidequest bloat.

(I found all Quantic Dream's games terrible besides Detroit)
 
It's so dissapointing that they're also working on a star wars game. First EA, Ubisoft and now them. And taking a decade for it. Like I get Americans have nostalgia/attachment to that brand but it's so annoying having it shoved everywhere.

Also I would recommend people try wales interactive games on steam if you like these types of game. They're live action and shorter but similar.
 
Loved them all, I've put so many hours getting as many endings as possible in heavy rain and Detroit. Detroits flowchart system is exceptional
 
Cage's best game is his first one which isn't included on your list! Where's OMIKRON: THE NOMAD SOUL?!
I absolutely LOVE what he tried to do with that game, the aesthetic and atmosphere are brilliant. Cyberpunk + exotic mysticism.
 
I'm insanely eager to see more from Star Wars: Eclipse. Together with Jedi 3 it's the only upcoming Star Wars media I'm actually interested in.
 
Loboxxx said:
His best game is undoubtedly Detroit and it's the one that had another scriptwriter at the helm.
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Oh. I was going to say that Cage is an interesting case because his writing started out atrocious but improved markedly by Detroit, meaning there might be something to continuing state funding of a primarily artistic endeavour even when the initial results aren't good. But that doesn't apply so much if he didn't actually improve!

I always got the impression with Quantic Dream that their philosophy was that all significant choices had to lead somewhere narratively interesting -- the exact opposite to Telltale's approach of not even really branching. The QD proposition is superior, I think, but requires phenomenal writing skill as the setup-and-payoff structure of a fulfilling narrative is directly jeopardised by making it genuinely dynamic. In retrospect the company probably set the bar way too high for itself especially when, on top of purely narrative concerns, you factor in the effect of asset generation cost on how dynamic a tale you can afford to present.

Gitaroo said:
I think until dawn is better than all of them
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Yeah I thought Until Dawn was comparatively clever. Where it misdirects the player as to the importance of certain choices it provides an in-universe justification, it has the perfect scenario for asset re-use, and the how-many-can-you-save goal that it resolves to will give the majority of players a decent reason to replay and take things in alternate directions. Probably all dynamic narratives that 'work' will wind up resembling Until Dawn along some significant vectors, and that might end up being an issue for the genre as the same tricks are used to curtail breadth and scope.
 
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