r/truegaming • u/StoperV6 • 19d ago
Introducing Artur's Ultimate Cinematic Challenge: A New Way to Experience Games
Hey everyone,
I’ve been playing a lot of games like Elden Ring, Sekiro, Wukong, and Ghost of Tsushima lately. My playstyle is all about exploring every corner, completing as many side quests as possible—without obsessing over hitting 100% completion. I also enjoy watching YouTube streams where players take on insane challenges, like no-death runs or beating games without armor.
But recently, my cousin Artur visited, and we had a really cool conversation about gaming. Artur plays games in a completely different way—he treats them like a movie. He roleplays the main character as realistically as possible, avoiding unnecessary actions like random jumps or swings. He even slows down to walk in buildings or safe zones where running would feel out of place. Artur plays on the easiest difficulty, focusing only on the main story to fully immerse himself in the narrative.
This got me thinking: What if we turned this cinematic playstyle into a challenge for streamers?
Artur's Ultimate Cinematic Challenge:
The goal is to play the game as if you're creating a movie.
Any out-of-character actions—like unnecessary jumps, weapon swings, or breaking the immersion—means you have to restart the game.
Streamers could race to see who can complete the game first in this "cinematic mode."
To make it even more interesting, you’d be judged on the choice and sequence of quests/scenes, creating a cohesive and immersive story.
You’re allowed to use all in-game content, but you can only gather the minimum resources needed for upgrades, avoiding things like pre-collecting every top-tier item before starting the challenge. The idea is to preserve the progression of a first playthrough.
All cutscenes are mandatory—they’re part of the story!
Imagine the cinematic masterpieces that could come out of this! The streamed version could include commentary (like Hollywood-style director’s cuts), while the cinematic version of the playthrough would make for amazing YouTube uploads.
I’d love to see this challenge take off and add a new layer of creativity to gaming streams. Let's make the gaming world even more interesting and diverse!
What do you think? Could this be the next big challenge for streamers? If you like the idea, feel free to share it with other subreddits or communities and tag your favorite streamers. Let’s see who’s up for the ultimate cinematic challenge!
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u/longdongmonger 18d ago
Ive heard of something similar that would probably be more fun to watch. A youtuber does "style" runs of megaman games where they showcase cool ways to use all the weapons while also going fast.. It shows off more of the game than a speedrun because speedruns usually only use one or two weapons.
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u/Gamertoc 18d ago
It seems like a very subjective ruleset. Like out-of-character actions - what does that mean? E.g. practicing with your weapon is a thing people do, so does that make it fine? Is dying (e.g. in Elden Ring) just a full reset? Are you as a streamer allowed to take a break/talk to your chat, or is that also immersion breaking? Is fast travel immersion breaking since loading screens aren't part of it? Do you have to wait an hour IRL every time you rest at a bonfire?
"you’d be judged on the choice and sequence of quests/scenes, creating a cohesive and immersive story"
Judged by whom? And by what criteria? Choices are always subjective, so you can play it a certain way and someone else can play it a different way, that doesn't make either wrong.
"but you can only gather the minimum resources needed for upgrades, avoiding things like pre-collecting every top-tier item before starting the challenge."
Isn't that against the core concept? Like if I come across a really good gem - I would definitely take it, and not leave it lying around until I actually need it.
"while the cinematic version of the playthrough would make for amazing YouTube uploads."
I frankly disagree. It would be interesting from a certain point of view, but imagine that for 8 hours - you'd need some really good commentary to make that work
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u/JamesCole 18d ago
out-of-character actions - what does that mean?
To me that’d be things like making your character walk around in a tight circle, or having them just stand there, doing nothing for a while, right in front of an NPC. Or say in a GTA game, when you’re playing a character who isn’t a total psychopath, killing lots of innocent people.
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u/Renegade_Meister 18d ago
I think understand the sentiment of how Artur likes to play and why you & he might think that it would be interesting to stream/record/share with others - It is different from (what I assume are) typical streaming game content: Speedruns, playthroughs, crowd sourcing major game decisions, completionist run, etc.
I don't watch streamers or other people's playthroughs, so I cannot provide meaningful feedback on how well it would be received by viewers of the steam/recording.
However I do have some thoughts on the viability of parts of the challenge through the lens of the sentiment:
Any out-of-character actions—like unnecessary jumps, weapon swings, or breaking the immersion—means you have to restart the game.
Streamers could race to see who can complete the game first in this "cinematic mode."
To make it even more interesting, you’d be judged on the choice and sequence of quests/scenes, creating a cohesive and immersive story.
Out of Character actions causing a restart is such a huge penalty that I think that to start with it should just be a criteria for judging. As someone who has watched Games Done Quick no glitch runs, where glitches can be made subjective, it is difficult to create a desire for speedrunning in such a subjective specific style as what constitutes in character or is cinematic.
You’re allowed to use all in-game content, but you can only gather the minimum resources needed for upgrades, avoiding things like pre-collecting every top-tier item before starting the challenge. The idea is to preserve the progression of a first playthrough.
I mean hoarding all the resources you can get certainly could be out of character, uncinematic, or unrealistic in game context. But for various games, gathering the minimum needed could also be out of character or "unrealistic" in context. So this again would have to be a criteria up to judges, or pre-defined in advance per-game.
I’d love to see this challenge take off and add a new layer of creativity to gaming streams. Let's make the gaming world even more interesting and diverse!
I'm sure that some subset of people who like watching whole playthroughs may appreciate this type of content - I just have no clue how many.
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u/Quietm02 18d ago
This sounds like a more in depth role playing attempt.
Have you seen baldurs gate 3? It's all about role playing. As a player you can make whatever character/class you want, and you can probably read between the lines & guess where dialogue options/quests are going. However, a lot of people strictly do not do this and instead go where their character would go.
Have you made a thief? Feel free to steal everything and talk to noone that's not essential.
Is your guy a loner? Talk in no more than grunts and refuse company all you want.
Do you have an unwarranted hatred of a specific race? Go for it, murder hobo runs against all tieflings/dwarfs/elf's/etc. are viable.
There are obviously other games that do similar (Skyrim was the first I played that really allowed a level of choice like this, but even before that there were others). Bg3 just happens to be one of the most recent (and best).
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u/bvanevery 15d ago
I think your concept can only be a big success if it's for comedy. Austin Powers style. Staying "in character" is a lot easier if the character is a buffoon.
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u/DemThrowaways478 18d ago
ngl that sounds like dogshit why would i want to play a game like a movie when it's a game. otherwise i'd.. watch a movie
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u/XsStreamMonsterX 18d ago
but you can only gather the minimum resources needed for upgrades, avoiding things like pre-collecting every top-tier item before starting the challenge
Depending on the game, this may not be feasible, or at least make the game harder than it's meant to be. For example, Monster Hunter games all but assume that you will be grinding monsters to build the best gear – or at least the most appropriate one for the fight. Combine that with the fact that there some RNG involved in getting materials from monsters, then trying to play this way might mean going into fights seriously underpowered (especially since all stats in MonHun come from your gear, and "levels" don't really exist).
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u/capnfappin 18d ago
Playing a game like it's a movie would just be really annoying honestly. A lot of what makes movies "cinematic" is the camera work and that is often in opposition of what's needed when playing a game. Let's say you're playing Elden ring and you're running through a field. If you want that to look cinematic you're going to want to position so that it's facing the character. This will look cool and cinematic, but you won't be able to see what's in front of you.
The stuff about not pre-gathing resources does nothing to make the game more cinematic. If anything, you would want to do as much tedium as you can ahead of time so that you the audience doesn't have to watch a guy mine ore for 15 minutes to complete some quest.
It seems like youre trying to get people to consider a challenge run that's simultaneously about cinema and realism, but the two are often at odds with each other.
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u/Disordermkd 18d ago
I get the cinematic playstyle, I do it myself to maintain immersion like walking and being more patient with things, but adding more to this "challenge" just seems like the opposite of entertainment. I don't see how this could be fun playing, and watching this seems even more excruciating because then you're left with whatever the streamer can come up with in the dozens of hours of content.