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Trigger Happy
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might assume that these were identical-looking but
different vehicles. This is how montage creates a sense
of rhythm and motion, but such an approach would be
fatal in a videogame, where the player has to control
the car, and thus requires a continuous, unbroken
viewpoint—either a cockpit cam or follow cam. This is
essential for easy, intuitive navigation; if the camera
cuts to a different position so that your vehicle appears
to be going the other way, the physical videogame
controls will suddenly be reversed in their effects.
You’re going to crash nastily.
Sometimes videogame camera positions change
automatically rather than at the player’s behest; even
so, when they do, they are not performing traditional
montage but trying to give the player a better view of
the action under his control. This is the case in the
Tomb Raider games, for instance. Such changes of
view, however, can and often do employ other
quasifilmic techniques such as tracking and panning.
Metal Gear Solid is given a particularly “cinematic”
feel by touches such as these: whenever the hero backs
up against a wall to hide from an enemy guard, the
camera, which normally takes a functional aerial
viewpoint, swoops in to about shin level to frame the
player’s character and the guard walking past (see fig.