: Not to me. I thought the Reach cutscenes were masterful, and Bungie had a
: name for those first-person transitional scenes (I can't recall the name,
: but a dev mentioned it in a vidoc). I think they worked well. I don't
: think Lehto is talking about fisticuffs regardless, which FPS games, not
: being true fighting games, don't usually pull off as well in-game. (Reach
: had great assassination animations, though.)

I believe they were called vignettes. Don't quote me on that. Or anything. Ever. :P

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Reach's cinematic direction for the most part as well. Some of the best in the series, actually, and part of that had to do with the close-in shots as if Noble was being followed by a camera crew on foot or in a vehicle. Going back to my critiques of Reach, there were a number of scenes that were rather jarring and took me out of the experience as a player, as Lehto noted for Halo 5. Often times the same type of direction was used as with the middle cutscene for Winter Contingency, which I did not like, and the opening cinematic for Nightfall which was done really well.

: I pretty much agree with his comments on Halo 5 (I liked the game). Several
: of the early cutscenes especially were missed opportunities for exciting
: gameplay. And given the enhanced movement of Spartans in the newer games,
: those platforms would've been really fun to navigate. Cutscenes are for
: actions that players can't easily do or to communicate plot points they
: can't afford to miss. I think several of Halo 5's cutscenes show us things
: we could've controlled ourselves.

I totally agree that some cutscenes were things that we should have experienced ourselves in gameplay. For the most part though I'm satisfied at the very least with what we got in terms of cinematic direction. I wouldn't want to personally assassinate Jul 'Mdama in the same setting because I know he's not that great of a fighter and because he would probably just be a damage sponge with nowhere to go, just like the Heretic Leader. However I'd totally love to fly that prowler from the end of Blue Team that the Chief comandeered. :)