The Cinematic Gameplay Experience: Exploring Remediations of Film in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Abstract

This thesis aims to find out how the cinematic video game experience can be further understood by investigating Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End through the theoretical lens of Bolter and Grusin’s theory of remediation. Combining ludology and narratology, this thesis positions itself in a middle ground approach characterized by Henry Jenkins’ work and embodied by today’s academic climate in the field of game studies. A game analysis based on a theoretical framework with various concepts by notable game scholars shows that the cinematic gameplay experience is formed in at least these three areas: narrative, visuals, and gameplay. It seems like a certain framework of cinematic elements, formed in the theoretical framework, are always present in a cinematic game, to a certain extent. These cinematic elements, remediated from film, can change in function or gain additional functions when incorporated into a cinematic video game. The fact that three aspects of the game are analyzed proposes the idea that the cinematic gaming experience in similar games is created through these three aspects as well. Additionally, it becomes apparent that the cinematic gameplay is formed both by the creations of the game’s developer, but also by the player of the game themselves, through what I offer as the notion of the developer-director/actor and the player-director/actor.