History Main / CutsceneIncompetence

* In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' The Traveler is allegedly superhumanly strong and skilled in combat:

** When they tried to fight Beisht, they were beaten and knocked out, needing to be saved by Shenhe.
** When they fought against Arlecchino, not only did they fail to use any of their elemental abilities to fight her, but [[spoiler:she uses a mental attack to instantly freeze the Traveler in place and end the fight.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' Traveler is allegedly superhumanly strong and skilled in combat. [[spoiler: When they fight against the Raiden Shogun]], they were defeated and nearly killed. [[spoiler: When they confronted Scaramouche]], they were beaten and nearly killed. [[spoiler: When they tried to fight Beisht]], they were beaten and knocked out.

** The UsefulNotes/NintendoDS sequel ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'' trades one kind of incompetence for another. The rewind power is not forgotten in cutscenes -- Razia first uses it in a cutscene to save the Prince. But the reason she ''has'' to is that he jumps onto a collapsing platform... and just stands there while it collapses!

** ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' takes this to ridiculous lengths. In gameplay, your character is an unstoppable murder machine that routinely wipes out entire mercenary camps without any difficulty. Even without armor, you can shrug off hits from grenades, machetes, rockets, and various types of high-powered rifles, while killing off dozens upon dozens of attackers with little issue - you're [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Brock Samson]] with guns. But this doesn't stop the game engine from dictating that you be surprised and defeated by a guy armed only with a single machete during a cutscene. Never mind that the room you're heading into screams "obvious trap" and the player, if they still had control, would probably have lobbed a grenade into the room first. Not to mention as well that you can prove to survive a direct hit from a mortar shell - ''the'' single most damaging weapon available to you - then get knocked out by simply being stepped on in a cutscene. Generally speaking, the plot of the game is wildly inconsistent with what actually takes place in the game itself.

* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' this is often averted as dialogue options in the main storylines occasionally allow you to make preemptive attacks on enemies. PlayedStraight in the BountyHunter Hoth arc however, as the player is sent after an infamous Trandoshan SpacePirate. When they first meet him, he declares the player NotWorthKilling and just casually walks past them while siccing his {{mooks}} on them, and the player just ''stands there and lets him walk'', [[{{Padding}} dragging what should've been a ten-minute quest out for hours]] on [[ThatOneLevel one of the game's most hated planets]].

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'': In Abigail's final cutscene, [[spoiler:you get knocked out by a single stone golem, a rather low-level monster, and Abigail is forced to fight it off herself. By the time you reach this cutscene, your character will almost certainly be very skilled at fighting and you'll have good weapons that would render it not a threat at all.]]

** In the opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', your supposedly elite S.T.A.R.S. team discovers their companion team's crashed helicopter, and responds by splitting up to search the area individually and leaving their heavy weapons on their own helicopter. This results in one of the team members being killed in an ambush, while your helicopter pilot responds by taking off and leaving the team behind.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'': All the various justifications of why the enemy [=CO=] can't be captured at the end of a battle all add up to a generous all-you-can-eat buffet of this trope. Only ''once'' is it actually justified, where they capture the MadScientist Lash and discover it's a dummy she made to cover her retreat, and all the various other times if it's even mentioned at all a character will remark how "they were too fast", "are too far away to chase", or will just shrug off capturing them like it's not worthwhile, ignoring the fact that capturing even one enemy [=CO=] and preventing their future usage by the enemy would be a crippling blow. [[spoiler:Only ''once'' do you actually capture the enemy [=CO=], and it's the end of ''Dual Strike'' where you do in fact capture Von Bolt in the final mission]].

* ''{{VideoGame/Contra}}: Hard Corps'' sets this up in one scene when [[spoiler:[[MadDoctor the Doctor]]]] tells you that you have no choice but to surrender... because you are surrounded by thirteen [[{{Mooks}} ordinary guards]]. However, thanks to ''Hard Corps''' multiple story paths, you can choose to either surrender or fight it out, making Cutscene Incompetence actually ''optional'' in this case. (Although if you do choose to fight, it's against entirely different enemies...)

* One of the oldest examples can be found in ''VideoGame/FinalFight''. After smashing your way through the bar in stage 3, the player walks to the street only for a cutscene to kick in, when an Andore Jr. runs up to him, grabs him by the neck and carries him offscreen. The player even drops any weapon he was carrying. Right afterwards, the player is pitted in a center of a wrestling ring, cluelessly looking around, before ''two Andores'' drop from somewhere above. If there are two players, the second player will simply follow the first player being carried out doing nothing to help him. Cue ''three Andores'' dropped into the ring afterwards.

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has a particularly blatant case affecting the player character(s), Roland, and Lilith, halfway through the game. All three of these characters have repeatedly shown how badass they are, yet [[spoiler:the game's villain, Jack, appears from nowhere, hits Roland with an InstantDeathBullet, kidnaps Lilith, and escapes -- all while the player character(s) stand there like morons unable to do anything about it]]. [[spoiler:This returns with a vengeance in ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', where the player party just sits with their thumbs on their asses while Tyreen has a gun to Ava's head and Troy drains Maya like a starving metroid.]]

** Towards the middle of the main quest, you find your father being held hostage by [[TheDragon Colonel Autumn]] and two Enclave troopers. By this point in the game, you're almost certainly a heavily armed and armored murder machine who is easily capable of slaughtering dozens of Enclave troopers. But, instead of simply letting you into the room so you can murderize Autumn and his two goons, your father [[spoiler:floods the room with radiation, killing the Enclave troopers and knocking Autumn unconscious at the cost of his own life]]. To top it off, this indirectly results in [[spoiler:your death at the very end of the game, when you're forced to walk into the irradiated room to "face your destiny"]]. Gee, thanks Dad. At least the latter half got got a retcon in the Broken Steel DLC. However, [[DirtyCoward if you send Sarah in there]], [[KilledOffForReal she still dies]].
** And again, after you've been sent to get the GECK. After retrieving it, [[spoiler:you get jumped by a squad of Enclave troopers. Keep in mind that you've already fought your way through several dozen of these same troopers earlier in the story. But one flashbang -- never mentioned before or after -- thrown by soldiers who had no way or reason to get in, and down you go]].

** ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' takes this to ridiculous lengths. In gameplay, your character is an unstoppable murder machine that routinely wipes out entire mercenary camps without any difficulty. Even without armor, you can shrug off hits from grenades, machetes, rockets, and various types of high-powered rifles, while killing off dozens upon dozens of attackers with little issue - you're [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Brock Samson]] with guns. But this doesn't stop the game engine from dictating that you be surprised and defeated by a guy armed only with a single machete during a cutscene. Nevermind that the room you're heading into screams "obvious trap" and the player, if they still had control, would probably have lobbed a grenade into the room first. Not to mention as well that you can prove to survive a direct hit from a mortar shell - ''the'' single most damaging weapon available to you - then get knocked out by simply being stepped on in a cutscene. Generally speaking, the plot of the game is wildly inconsistent with what actually takes place in the game itself.

** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', most of Batman's problems would have been solved by giving the player control and letting them do absolutely nothing. Batman is just so stubborn on this game that every word that comes out of his mouth seems to make everything worse.

* In ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'', the protagonist spends the game beating gangs of bad guys, yet in the final mission a single thug knocks him out from behind and captures him.

* ''VideoGame/{{Prodigal}}'': Halfway through the game, Oran, after being stranded on an island, finds himself trapped in an icy cave. Despite having the Dread Hand, which he uses to teleport himself out of most dungeons no matter how far away they are ([[CutscenePowerToTheMax something even the player can't do]]), he doesn't think to use it here and instead almost freezes to death before Amadeus shows up. The Dread Hand itself is just as guilty, since it will act on its own to teleport him out of dungeons if he gets knocked out, but does nothing in this instance. Oran also doesn't use the Hand to escape from impirsonment whenever he's captured.

** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', the final confrontation with ComicBook/TheJoker begins with Batman walking into what is ''obviously'' a trap, spotting a bomb, and ''just standing there like a damned moron while it explodes''. All because the story requires Batman, who is capable of disarming bombs in his sleep and knows when to get out of the area when he sees one in any case, to be disabled by a bomb at this point.

** ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' takes this to ridiculous lengths. In gameplay, your character is an unstoppable murder machine that routinely wipes out entire mercenary camps without any difficulty. Even without armor, you can shrug off hits from grenades, machetes, rockets, and various types of high-powered rifles, while killing off dozens upon dozens of attackers with little issue - you're [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros Brock Samson]] with guns. But this doesn't stop the game engine from dictating that you be surprised and defeated by a guy armed only with a single machete during a cutscene. Nevermind that the room you're heading into screams "obvious trap" and the player, if they still had control, would probably have lobbed a grenade into the room first. Not to mention as well that you can prove to survive a direct hit from a mortar shell - ''the'' single most damaging weapon available to you - then get knocked out by simply being stepped on in a cutscene. Generally speaking, the plot of the game is wildly inconsistent with what actually takes place in the game itself.

* ''VideoGame/{{Geist}}'': The guards are easily killed by the imps in cutscenes. No, these imps are not ImmuneToBullets, and no, they aren't remotely strong. They're by far the weakest enemies in the game, and have about as much HP as your typical GoddamnedBats, except without the numerical superiority. They are killed by one bullet from any gun. They can be killed with a fucking fire extinguisher, for crying out loud! And yet, in the cutscenes, when guards are confronted by them, you'd think they were {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le minibosses. In fact, the fire extinguisher doesn't do ''any'' damage, it just has the game check if the target has less than 1 HP (this is why guards don't shoot some of your possessed characters even if you spray them with one, because they're not suffering a health loss). The imps are [[OneHitPointWonder Zero Hit Point Wonders]].

** A rogue's stealth mode is instantly canceled when entering a cutscene. This is especially infuriating when you approach a group of enemies stealthed and then enter a cutscene for the Mooks to deliver a PreAssKickingOneLiner (seriously, not a dialogue, just one "Arrr, you might have the intestines of our 100 other comrades spray-painted on your armor, but THIS fight against 5 generic bandits will surely end differently" line). Your stealth is gone, the cooldown timer prevents you from entering stealth again and the rest of your party is far away at a safe distance.

* A similar scene takes place in ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', [[spoiler:Oersted's chapter]]. A bunch of soldiers run away from you in cut-scenes, and you slaughter any of their ilk that you encounter as random encounters. But venture back into town, and two of the very same soldiers will capture you without any resistance, making a HeroicSacrifice by your {{Mentor}} necessary.

* In ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'', ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} appears for one badass cutscene, before being easily swatted aside and rendered unplayable.

** The end, when [[spoiler: your party gets shredded one by one by a creature they could at least heavily damage, or in Dak'kon's case probably destroy]]. Oh, for a challenging [[spoiler:[[InformedAbility end boss]].]] To be fair, while he defeats the others alone, he brings overwhelming odds against Dak'kon. Thus each separate fight is believable if we assume he could heal between them.

** In the ''Resident Evil'' series, probably half the boss fights could be avoided if the idiot characters would just shoot the bad guys during their monologues '''before''' they inject themselves with whatever they're holding. This is mentioned [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/7796-Stolen-Pixels-209-Please-Let-Me-Arrest-You here.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Prodigal}}'': Halfway through the game, Oran, after being stranded on an island, finds himself trapped in an icy cave. Despite having the Dread Hand, which he uses to teleport himself out of most dungeons no matter how far away they are ([[CutscenePowerToTheMax something even the player can't do]]), he doesn't think to use it here and instead almost freezes to death before Amadeus shows up. The Dread Hand itself is just as guilty, since it will act on its own to teleport him out of dungeons if he gets knocked out, but does nothing in this instance.

* The original 1988 NES version of ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' was one of the first video games ever to feature this trope. Despite being an elite ninja, Ryu is knocked out and captured by Irene Lew in a cutscene after the first level, and only gets out of prison after she lets him out. He later gets captured by CIA agents (the second time he's captured in a span of 3 levels) and forced to work for them. Eventually he is manipulated by a HostageForMacGuffin situation in which he hands over the demon statues Jaquio to prevent him from killing Irene. [[ILied Naturally]], Jaquio takes the statues, doesn't release Irene, and dumps Ryu down a pit trap, forcing him to fight through long levels just to get back to Jaquio again.

** ''VideoGame/FarCry5'' attempts to subvert this formula having the player get captured or drugged in-game before the story cutscenes kick back in. However, the player quickly realizes that only the illusion of choice is given: if you're at that point in the story, you are going to be hit by the (for instance) insta-capture tranquilizer dart whether you're out in the woods, in the middle of a friendly fortified camp, or flying in a plane hundreds of feet off the ground. This happens ''nine'' different times. In the cutscenes themselves you're not so much incompetent as oddly passive: every villain will be allowed to monologue their entire speech/death speech, no exceptions, even when you're in a position of power.

* In ''Franchise/DotHack'', your level and ability to handle particular enemies doesn't always matter. For instance, the Demon Palace semi-finals against Alkaid. You get her HP down a certain amount and she'll use Beast Awakening (even if you've successfully countered her enough to lower her morale gauge) and start hitting you in rapid succession. She doesn't have to do significant damage, the story has decided she's winning, forcing Haseo to use Skeith.
* In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' Traveler is allegedly superhumanly strong and skilled in combat. [[spoiler: When they fight against the Raiden Shogun]], they were defeated and nearly killed. [[spoiler: When they confronted Scaramouche]], they were beaten and nearly killed. [[spoiler: When they tried to fight Beisht]], they were beaten and knocked out.
* In ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' the party is [[spoiler: on the moon]] they will be attacked by waves of extremely weak mooks until [[spoiler:Mareg]] finally commits a HeroicSacrifice to save them. Not only are these mooks weak, but it's possible to build your characters in such a way that they can heal themselves for free faster then the mooks can deal damage. It's literally possible to fight these mooks forever without dying.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', you are frozen in place for a number of cutscenes, including the murder of the Emperor that happens right in front of your eyes. It's justified by the strength and swiftness of the assassins while the player just started out and didn't learn any skills yet, let alone become a memetic badass, but the fact that you are forced to stand there probably speaks to the creators' fear of you successfully intervening.
** Later, there's another quest where you have to rescue someone who got suckered into a deadly maze. Completing the quest requires clearing the maze to get the key, and it leads back to the starting area. Immediately on return, you lose control and can't do anything at all until the person you want to rescue is killed. This example reaches absurd levels if the victim gets on a staircase. His would-be killer cannot reach him there, meaning the player can ''never'' move, [[GameBreakingBug and you'll have to reset]].
** There's also the finale of the [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] questline. [[spoiler:Due to a traitor among the Dark Brotherhood tricking you into assassinating members of the Black Hand, the Brotherhood has been dealt a heavy blow. One of the victims happened to be the Listener, which means that the Brotherhood is unable to receive orders from the Night Mother, and thus cannot receive contracts. You and the 4 remaining members of the Black Hand enter a secret underground chamber to perform an ancient ritual in order to contact the spirit of the Night Mother, seeking her guidance. One of the remaining members of the Black Hand is actually the traitor, who intends to kill everyone present, including the Night Mother. This trope comes into play when said traitor makes his move, and the other members just stand there as he announces his intentions and brandishes a dagger. He kills two of the other members without any resistance before the only survivor left realizes "oh shit this guy needs to be stopped", and ''then'' the player is allowed to intervene.]]
* This is a common complaint about the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' GameMod ''VideoGame/{{Falskaar}}'', as every time the mod's BigBad shows up to monologue at the player, the player's controls are frozen and all they can do is stand around and listen to him talk. This is especially blatant late into the mod's storyline, as the villain has captured all of the keys needed to access the MacGuffin that will give him immense power, and he manages to monologue at the player twice before running off, and in the second case, he interrupts a ''duel to the death'' with another final speech and makes a dash for the artifact in question while the player stands there unable to move.
* The grand champion of OnlyIdiotsMayPass, ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', features this in the sequence before meeting Jeff -- Ness and Paula are suckered into a trap in which they're attacked by a band of zombies and [=KOed=] instantly -- never mind that you can pretty easily destroy that many in one or two hits at this stage of the game, even if they're ActuallyFourMooks.
* A similar scene takes place in ''[[VideoGame/LiveALive Live-A-Live]]'', [[spoiler:Oersted's chapter]]. A bunch of soldiers run away from you in cut-scenes, and you slaughter any of their ilk that you encounter as random encounters. But venture back into town, and two of the very same soldiers will capture you without any resistance, making a HeroicSacrifice by your {{Mentor}} necessary.
* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', the party has to hide in Mizuho because they are being tracked by a few armored knights... about the same number and kind that they had to fight upon entering the forest. Similarly, the very first boss in the game is perhaps easier than the first wild monsters you encounter -- if you spent any time at ALL leveling up, that is -- and yet after you "defeat" it, your characters are completely exhausted despite the fact that any decent player will have full health, and Kratos will have to come and rescue your sorry ass. Later, an attack by a basic {{Mook|s}} leaves the protagonist severely injured, despite the fact that these are common-or-garden enemies you've been fighting for hours!
*** Another instance happens in the Remote Island Human Ranch. After the [[TearJerker heartwrenching scene]] of [[spoiler:Botta's sacrifice]], the party is ambushed by three dragons. After killing those, three more appear, and they suddenly whine about there being too many and must resort to [[CutscenePowerToTheMax summoning Aska via a flute and requiring Mithos to save them]].
** Early in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', Cress gets knocked unconscious by a single snail, an enemy whose attacks can only merely hurt in encounters, just to wake up again in Trinicus' house (this was probably done so to avoid pinpointing the location of Mars' jail from which Cress and Mint just escaped).
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'' the party has to save Harold from one of her robots gone rogue. Harold is the most powerful character in the game and could likely easily solo it on her own in normal gameplay. Perhaps justified as she was trying to gague the strength of the other characters.
** At one point in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', the party is confronted by a member of the QuirkyMinibossSquad and a couple of mooks, who demand they surrender. Despite the party having defeated said boss when they were 15-20 levels lower and having butchered their way through umpteen RandomEncounters with the exact same mooks to get to that point, the party surrenders.
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'':
** In the cathedral in 600 AD; after defeating a large group of Naga-ettes, one will leap out and cheapshot Lucca, providing an opportunity for Frog to make a dramatic appearance and rescue.
** Same goes for the setup for Ayla's first appearance. The party is "hopelessly outnumbered" by a party of 8 Reptites, when they'd just been able to defeat 5 of them moments before.
** Also the brilliance when fighting King Dalton --- your characters parry his fireball, but blithely look behind them --- when King Dalton asks them to, in the middle of a fight. Cue being captured.
** The NewGamePlus feature exacerbates all of the above. Normally, all of the above encounters could at least be troublesome to deal with, but on that playthrough, your characters are casually one-shotting anything that isn't a lategame boss, meaning it makes no sense for them to be threatened at all.
* In ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'', ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} appears for one badass cutscene, before being easily swatted aside and rendered unplayable.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Darth Malak appears as a DuelBoss about two-thirds of the way through the game. He's easy enough to beat... until the game takes your controls away from you and cuts away to show your character being defeated.
** What makes it all the more jarring is that ''KOTOR'' is very deliberately paced with regard to level gaining. A reasonable guess can be made as to what level the player would be at that point, and thus the developers could have made Malak sufficiently powerful to defeat the player fairly. Though the experienced difficulty varies widely with the character level up choices made by the player. To the extent that the final boss can range from a virtual one-turn kill to being completely {{Unwinnable}}.
** Malak himself suffers from a reverse version of this trope in that first battle. It would be more logical for him to be vastly more powerful in game terms, but then he'd just kill you. So it all makes sense if you don't look at his hit points or any other number.
** This trope is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when you are confronted outside your latest butchering ground by a police contingent which says you must surrender and stand trial. If you refuse, a ButThouMust statement repeatedly appears saying (in bolded text) that there is no way you could possibly fight your way to the spaceport and off-planet against the entire military. This is a reasonable conclusion, but still... It makes you wonder.
** No matter if you have a piece of equipment that would render you immune to poison, if a cutscene says you're going to get poisoned, you're going to get poisoned. This is especially {{JustForFun/egregious}} in the sequel, where your character gets poisoned twice in cutscenes in rapid succession, then can, with the proper equipment, proceed to fight through a bar with a toxic atmosphere with no trouble whatsoever.
** The poison in the latter case can be at least partially forgiven, as the poisonous gases supposedly bypass breath masks and enters your body through the skin, requiring a full-on space suit [[spoiler:or a special breathing force power]] to survive. This never explains why your cybernetic immune-booster can't take care of it, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation and in-game]], both those and breath masks will protect you. The ''first'' time, however, involves a woman introducing herself as one of the bounty-hunters chasing you, and '''somehow''' convinces you off-camera to meet with her at an obscure location of her choosing and gasses you there. To top it off, the reason she didn't go down despite breathing the same air as you? ''She was wearing special protective equipment.''
** Likewise, the fights against [[spoiler:dark-side Bastila]]. Even when your comrades get stunned, you can probably win in one or two strikes, but she will push you back and restore health fully, all while talking all kinds of smack. Actually justified because she's clinging to the hope of being unbeatable thanks to the power of the [[spoiler:Star Forge]], not her own abilities.
** As a lesser example, the first duel you see on Taris, Deadeye Duncan vs. Gerlon Two-Fingers, shows Duncan accidentally dropping his blaster just as the duel begins, and Gerlon shooting him as he bends down to pick it up. While Duncan is renowned as a terrible duelist and is by far the easiest enemy in the game outside of the tutorial, he's not quite that incompetent in actual gameplay.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' this is often averted as dialogue options in the main storylines occasionally allow you to make preemptive attacks on enemies. PlayedStraight in the BountyHunter Hoth arc however, as the player is sent after an infamous Trandoshan SpacePirate. When they first meet him, he declares the player NotWorthKilling and just casually walks past them while siccing his {{mooks}} on them, and the player just ''stands there and lets him walk'', [[{{Padding}} dragging what should've been a ten-minute quest out for hours]] on [[ThatOneLevel one of the game's most hated planets]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' has a slightly bizarre variant where the cutscenes make 90% of the characters indifferent to their comrade getting wasted right in front of them.
** ''VideoGame/XenosagaEpisodeIDerWilleZurMacht'': The whole party stands around looking bored as Jr gets himself throttled from behind by a robot girl, about twenty inches from where they're standing at the time.
** ''VideoGame/XenosagaEpisodeIIIAlsoSprachZarathustra'': Early on, the party comes across [[spoiler:T-Elos, an EvilCounterpart of KOS-MOS]]. After the obligatory boss fight, the cutscene commences. KOS-MOS states that [[spoiler:T-Elos]] is too powerful, and offers to hold her off, knowing she'll be beaten, in order for the party to escape an otherwise certain doom. Kosy charges in, and as promised, begins losing spectacularly. The party just ''STANDS THERE'' as KOS-MOS is treated like a rag doll. One would think that if they decided to stay, they would at least help out. Yet all they do is sit there and watch everyone's favorite RobotGirl is torn apart, with Shion occasionally shouting her name whenever a nasty blow is dealt. The result is KOS-MOS almost dying. Strangely enough, [[spoiler:later on in the game, after KOS-MOS has been rebuilt more uber than before, T-Elos shows up again and the party DOES try. Granted, they failed miserably, but one has to wonder where that team spirit was when KOS-MOS was being mutilated]].

* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', whenever a player character's HP reaches 0, the player can, if there's a nearby ally, always call for the medic. In a cutscene around halfway through the game, [[spoiler: Isara gets shot, and ultimately dies]]... Even though all the rest of the main cast surrounding her never think to call Fina over.
** What makes it worse is that, in a later cutscene [[spoiler:this time, Alicia gets shot]], the characters were quick to call for the medic.

* An early plot point in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'' is that you need to stop Darum, a criminal, from causing trouble by rescuing his daughter Teim. So you rescue her and offer to bring her to Darum to defuse the whole situation. But since he's got enemies who might be gunning for her too, she dons a veil so they won't recognize her. Okay, fine, let's go have a loving reunion. But when you find Darum, she just walks up to him, veil ''still on,'' and since he doesn't recognize her, he demands money. She refuses ''instead of taking off the veil.'' So he gets pissed and kills her. ''Then'' he takes off her veil, realizes he's killed his own daughter, and commits suicide by explosives. In other words, two people just killed themselves over a tragic mistake while your party just ''stood'' there, not saying or doing anything that might've cleared the confusion. It may have been her plan all along to commit [[SuicideByCop suicide by proxy]] out of the shame she felt for his actions, or give him a SecretTestOfCharacter. That doesn't excuse the party for standing there and letting her, though.
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse'' keeps mentioning the main characters ignorance and self-reliance in every other cutscene... even though the game forces the player to operate with a team or die. Probably one of the worst examples is two cutscenes during an early boss fight. During normal play the boss is vulnerable to guns and his special moves can be easily avoided by moving one step to the left or right. During the cutscenes, the boss is immune to guns and the special attacks can't be dodged.
* From the official add-ons for ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'':
** In ''NeverwinterNights/ShadowsOfUndrentide'', you and your henchman inevitably get petrified by a medusa at the end of the Interlude between the campaign's two chapters: Heurodis, the Big Bad of the expansion. Normal game rules would allow you to attempt a Fortitude save to resist, but in this case you aren't even given a chance to try.
** At one point in ''NeverwinterNights/HordesOfTheUnderdark'', you have the option to take out a large number of drow holding a formian hive in slavery, or just sneak by. If you agree to save the formians, you're treated to a cutscene of your character storming through the gates and shouting to call the enemies' attention to themselves. Not very fun if you're playing say a rogue or some other character who was hoping to rely on stealth, tactics, and maybe not taking on every enemy in the area at once.
* After completing the Mystech tunnels early in ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'', you are assaulted by a cutscene with the gangster boss Detta and a couple of thugs, who proceed to demand you hand over your primary find. Your boss Grumpos insist on fighting since he really, REALLY wants to keep the rare find, but our hero Sly folds like a wet blanket, even knocking Grumpos down on his own. This comes back to bite everyone in the end. To be fair you fight a similar brand of mook as the bodyguards Detta has with him as somewhat-competent (for mooks) opponents in the last dungeon of the game. At the point you face Detta you just beat the very first boss in the game, your very low level and only have one ally. Assuming that the bodyguards are as strong as their mook counterparts run into later Sly and Grumpos were no where close to strong enough to beat them at this point. So in reality Sly probably made the right choice. A bigger question is why Detta claimed to need Sly and Grumpos to clear out all the monsters in the cave when his overpowered mook bodyguards could have done it easily. Another possibility is that, at this point in the game, Sly is still a borderline alcoholic shell of a man, and still has fresh in his mind a beating one of Detta's goons had given him at the beginning of the game. It seems likely that Sly was too scared of Detta and his goons at that stage of the game to dare cross them.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'':
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' has a fairly {{JustForFun/egregious}} example. The Hero comes across his long-lost father Ortega in the depths of [[BigBad Zoma's]] Castle. Ortega is fighting a battle against a powerful monster, and seems to be holding his own, but finally runs out of MP for healing and dies. Neither the Hero nor his party considers joining the battle, providing the needed healing, or using one of their spells or items to bring Ortega back to life after he dies.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': Averted with the death of Pankraz. He doesn't get oneshotted by an attack that would normally be no problem. It plays out in the actual battle engine, with Pankraz "silently enduring" as he gets attacked repeatedly, and it takes forever for them to work through his massive HP total. It's much more epic and sadder this way, too.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII''. Your team is captured by guards that you could probably kill with a single attack each when they're accused of [[spoiler:killing an important religious figure]]. Naturally, they don't attempt to explain the actual situation at all, and let the guards throw them in a supposedly inescapable jail for the better part of a month, because... well, who knows? The heroes were not fighting back because the guards were innocent... but they probably could have just ran out onto the balcony and activated their portable GlobalAirship. You know, the one they ''needed to gain access to the area they currently are in''.
*** [[FromBadToWorse Worse yet]], your team is regularly found standing there idly while [[PlotlineDeath important people are dying]] any time you enter a cutscene, or the villain flies away while everyone [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgets the spells and ranged weaponry they possess]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mass Effect|1}}'' with the NewGamePlus feature. As the first mission begins, you start with Kaidan and RedShirt [[LeeroyJenkins Richard L. Jenkins]] as your squadmates. The latter seems like a normal party member, down to having skill points that you can allocate to abilities, but is killed by without firing a shot a couple minutes in by a basic Geth drone. In the first playthrough, he's weak enough for this to make sense. However, in a second playthrough, he, like everyone else, will be a level 50-something badass who you can give a fully maxed-out Combat Armor stat and the best armor in the game. He still dies in one shot.
** A villainous example in [[spoiler: Kai Leng's fight against Thane Krios on the Citadel. Rather than simply [[AssassinOutclassin cloak, shoot Thane down with his palm blaster, stab the Councillor, and run]] before Shepard can get down from the balcony s/he's standing on, he takes Thane in a fair fight - contrary to how you'd expect an ''assassin'' to fight, [[OutOfCharacter and his behaviour in the novels.]] Thane does it too in that fight. He's an assassin as well, known for [[StealthHiBye sudden appearances]] that usually result in [[NeckSnap snapped necks]], is a [[ColdSniper capable sniper]] and is packing powerful biotics. Yet his entrance involves a ClickHello with a pistol from roughly three feet away from Kai Leng (instead of just shooting him immediately), then choosing to engage him in a fistfight despite his opponent being a cybernetically-augmented martial artist with super strength (in that very scene Leng pulls a five meter vertical jump while wearing heavy armor), resulting in him getting stabbed. Mind you, Thane has a disease that makes physical activity very difficult]].
** Not to mention that Shepard and the rest of the party just sit back and watch the extended hand-to-hand fight, instead of trying to help out.
** In ''Franchise/MassEffect'' pretty much every character ever who dies in a cutscene has their armor turn into Stormtrooper armor, their shields are disabled, and they never use their medi-gel (or they lose it, and no one else uses it on them). And on top of all that, the weapons of Shepard's squadmates [[CutscenePowerToTheMax take on PC effectiveness]], rather than [[OverratedAndUnderleveled doing significantly less damage than everyone else's]] [[spoiler: The sole exception to this rule is Urdnot Wrex, if you betray the krogan while he's in charge - assuming he removed his [[PsychicPowers biotic amp]] to avoid Citadel sensors - he takes a [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration reasonable]] amount of [[HandCannon Carnifex]] or Avenger fire to take down, and gets to have some LastWords too]].
** Kaidan is a [[PsychicPowers biotic]], and a powerful one at that; it's stated relatively often that the outdated implant he has, because he was one of the first human biotics, gives him [[BlessedWithSuck severe migraines but also a significant boost to his biotic strength]]. In the first game, if you level him up right, he can take on hordes of enemies by himself, and though he's slightly nerfed in the third game, he's still a force to be reckoned with if you play him right. Yet in every single cutscene [[spoiler:(apart from a single one in the Citadel DLC)]] his biotics are completely forgotten about, and he simply relies on a pistol instead. This is especially jarring when he's paired with Liara, who takes every chance (especially in the first game), to show off her biotics in cutscenes.
* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'':
** During gameplay, your character can take shotgun blasts at point blank and not even be slowed down, particularly if you've been investing heavily in Stamina and Fortitude. In a cutscene, one cheap shot with a baseball bat is enough to knock you unconscious, and presumably would have left you incapacitated while three Sabbat vampires tortured you to death were it not for the intervention of another character. (On the other hand, any BackStab inside the gameplay is always an instant kill, even if you use a baseball bat on a vampire.)
** In one of the 'bad' endings to the game, you end up being betrayed by the 'ally' you sided with, at which point she [[AndIMustScream ties you to a coffin and dumps you in the ocean.]] The problem with this scenario is that your character, who in all other endings actually ''kills'' this woman and wipes out all her followers single-handed, apparently accepts this horrific fate without a protest or a fight.
* ''VideoGame/Mother3'' has this in spades - one scene in particular stands out: [[spoiler:When you reach the top of the mountain after you're done tripping on 'shrooms, you beat the [[MachoCamp Barrier Trio]] and are ready to pull the Needle. All of a sudden, saucers land, 6 Pigmasks get out, ''roll out a red carpet'', and wait for the Masked Man to land and then one-hit KO your party. Fine, except for all this takes about 30 to 40 seconds. If Lucas had spent that time ''pulling the damn needle'', he could've gotten it, but no, instead he sat around and watched all of the saucers land and everything]].

* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'': This occurs several times throughout the game. The first major time is near the beginning when trying to escape Alfard, Sagi and Guillo find themselves at the sword-points of soldiers that they were (under player control) soundly and easily defeating so that Milly can come save them. It also happens every time you fight a machina arma; sometimes it would be impossible to beat, but other times you could easily have trashed the enemy.
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': Every class has the ability to prevent enemy movement, with friendly fire very possible. Despite this, your character conveniently forgets to use it if a [[spoiler: romanced Alistair is about to sacrifice himself to slay the Archdemon. Most offensive as a mage, as a specific power you might have--Force Field--allows you to stop him, disable his templar powers, and prevent any damage from coming to him all at once]].
** A rogue's stealth mode is instantly canceled when entering a cutscene. This is especially infuriating when you approach a group of enemies stealthed and then enter a cutscene for the Mooks to deliver a PreAssKickingOneLiner (seriously, not a dialogue, just one "Arrr, you might have the intestines of our 100 other comrades spray-painted on your armor, but THIS fight against 5 generic bandits will surely end differently" line). Your stealth is gone, the cooldown timer prevents you from entering stealth again and the rest of your party is far away at a safe distance.
** In "Leliana's Song" DLC the main character who is a badass ActionGirl, is taken down with a single treacherous stab in a cutscene after having taken maybe a hundred non-treacherous stabs with swords in normal gameplay.
** In 'Awakening', no matter how good your rogue may be, s/he'll fail to notice the [[SchmuckBait giant and ominous-looking circular disc in the middle of an otherwise empty room]]. The whole party will walk into the room even if they're supposed to be holding their position and be put to sleep. The next time the PC wakes up there is a [[AntiVillain calm and apologetic monster]] experimenting on him/her and stealing his/her blood.
** In the sequel, it has been shown that some of the characters can be quite competent even in cutscenes. For example, a Witty Hawke can throw a blade into a slaver's head during a cutscene while the slaver holds a hostage. Varric will shoot a supposed ally in the back when said ally starts turning on the group. Even so, when Grace turns on Ser Thrask and Hawke, no one bothers to take the next 3 dialogues worth of time to kill her. Hilariously, this can be inverted in the final battle against [[spoiler:Knight-Commander Meredith]]. The villain has an attack that stuns everyone on the playing field while [[spoiler:she]] goes through a very, very extended VillainousBreakdown... but, if you've given Aveline or a sword-and-shield Hawke the 'Indomitable' ability, they're immune to stunning and can continue to wail on [[spoiler:her]] [[ShutUpHannibal as much as they want]].
* Most fans complain about ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'': Volume One--in which an overpowered Haseo takes on an underpowered Alkaid in the arena, but before you land the finishing blow, a cutscene is triggered in which your character whines about how powerful his opponent is and summons his avatar for help. The game tries to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] this by having Alkaid during the gameplay part of the fight activate a hyper-mode, allowing her to wail on you while you sit there frozen in time. However, if you're grossly overleveled, our hero Haseo gets beaten by a flurry of attacks that each [[DeathOfAThousandCuts do 1-2 damage.]]

* Characters in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' have all sorts of crazy movement abilities ([[AirJousting midair combat]], [[FlashStep lightning fast movement]], [[TeleportSpam rapid teleportation]]) and spells in gameplay. In cutscenes, you'll see basic spells (from magic-focused characters) and much more mundane combat skills. This is sometimes CutscenePowerToTheMax ''at the same time'', because said much-more-plain-looking attacks tend to OneHitKill. It's the rare exception in ''Dream Drop Distance'' when Mickey ambushes Young Xehanort with a [[TimeStandsStill Stopza]] spell.
** A couple of villainous examples in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''.
*** Demyx claims that he's not cut out for fighting and generally acts like a coward in story scenes. When Xaldin steals the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast's]] rose and captures Belle, Belle actually manages to stun him with an elbow to the gut and swipe the rose back from him. Surprising, then, that the boss battles against them are much more difficult than expected.
*** Sora has trouble with Armored Knights after TheReveal right after [[TheWarSequence The 1000 Heartless War]], though this was because he knew that [[spoiler: defeating the Heartless with the Keyblade was actually helping Organization XIII, so he was reluctant to kill them]].
*** There is a scene where Riku and Kairi are struggling against a horde of ''Shadow Heartless''. In-game, they are the weakest enemies and incredibly easy to kill, yet in this cutscene they're strategically jumping around and dodging the heroes' attacks.
*** Lampshaded in one cutscene. At one point, Donald and Goofy are captured by a few Strafers (which are among the weakest Heartless in the game), and Sora orders his friends to "show them who's boss". Then the "[[TheManBehindTheMonsters Heartless Commander]]" shows up and orders them to [[ElectricTorture torture]] the duo [[ForcedToWatch right in front of Sora]], causing him to surrender.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'':
*** Eraqus's flashback fight with Master Xehanort could've ended better for Eraqus if he'd just used Light spells at safe range instead of blindly charging in for a Keyblade blow (and leaving his face open for a Dark pepper-spraying).
** The entirety of the final act of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' is just one long downward spiral of this for the heroes, all of whom appear to suddenly forget how to fight at multiple points and lose all sense of self-preservation, Like Aqua deciding to face-tank a fireball from Vanitas rather than blocking or using her barrier. The bit with Terra-Xehanort is probably the worst, where he wipes the floor with the team in spite of being outnumbered ''nine-to-one.'' To wit:
*** [[spoiler: When Aqua realizes that Terra is actually Terra-Xehanort, she makes no attempt to fight him and instead stands around waiting for him to make the first move.]]
*** [[spoiler: After he strikes down Ventus, Aqua just kneels there and spends the rest of the battle processing what just happened.]]
*** [[spoiler: When Terra-Xehanort tries to attack Kairi, no one except for Sora tries to defend her, and even then rather than using his Keyblade to block Terra-Xehanort's strike or diving out of the way with Kairi or anything else, he instead just hugs her and tries to shield her with his body.]]
*** Riku and Mickey stand around and do absolutely nothing in spite of the fact that they're two of the strongest characters present.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'': While not the player character, [[OldMaster Eagun's]] Lv. 50 Pikachu goes up against a Cipher Peon's Lv. 35 Shadow Hitmontop. The cutscene plays out like an actual battle... with the Pikachu using only Quick Attack. At that level, he could have easily roasted even a Shadow Pokémon using a move like Thunder.
* Done in real time in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' where after defeating a Team Flare Grunt, he still refuses to move out of your way. The point of a hostile Pokémon battle is that it's dangerous for a human to try to fight even low level Pokémon on their own so once your team is exhausted you have no choice but to listen to the guy with an attack dog still on their feet or run for the nearest Pokémon Center. So it becomes pretty glaring when your way is completely stopped because a single completely helpless grunt can block off a path by standing there (with no other form of excuse like other similar walls where you might just be being polite).
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' a new encounter exists where a Pokémon flies out of a tree to ambush you if you get close enough to the tree. These encounters can't be avoided even with the use of a repel and actually can't be avoided when they start because your player takes notice of the tree shaking and your controls are locked out so you can't move back.
* Happens early on in ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}''. You are confronted by a large amount of guards. After fighting a couple of squads of them, your character decides there's just too many of them. Worth noting is that if the high-magic party member has the fire rune, she can usually end both fights with a single spell.
* Similar in ''VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar''. When approaching the Grindary, the party is surrounded by a wave of moves. After a single fight, where your two mages can effortlessly slaughter the whole group by themselves. Everyone fears for the worst, prompting another round with similarly effortless results. Cue good-bye "we're doomed" lines. Subverted earlier in the game, where the party of newbies is surrounded by monsters that are a decent challenge at normal level. After the first wave is driven off Laike appears and offers help. It clearly appears to be this trope, but if you consistently refuse his help, fighting a new wave of monsters each time, you will eventually defeat them all on your own. It will be a hard fight unless you've done a bit of grinding or loaded up on healing items though, the players are justified in being afraid of fighting without help.
* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Breath of Fire|I}}'', you get stranded on an island. Gobi shows up and extorts you into a huge debt in return for him getting the Gills that will allow you to breathe underwater and leave the island. Nina has the [[WarpWhistle warp spell]] that will teleport you instantly to any town you've visited, but since the game [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent switches you to Gobi]] until you finish the Gills quest, you never get the opportunity to cast it. Then again, your destination is somewhere you've never reached before and considering the trouble you went to getting a ship, only for it to get attacked by the Dark Dragons and sink, it's reasonable to take Gobi up on his offer.
* In ''VideoGame/FableI'', when Hero and his mother try to escape Bargate Prison for the first time, they are encountered by [[BigBad Jack of Blades]], who is accompanied by two minions, the enemies that Hero had already killed before in large amounts. Hero doesn't even try to resist the enemies and gets imprisoned.
* ''VideoGame/FableII'' has a cutscene with the player character standing still and doing nothing while the villain kills his dog, kidnaps his allies, and shoots him in the face. The hero has a gun.
* The original ''Prophecies'' campaign to ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' had a frustrating example in that Prince Rurik's death while leading his people to safety is an important plot point of the game's first Act. The fact that the party of four players present will have at least one person capable of resurrecting him in ''3 to 8 seconds'' is never brought up as the party opts to leave him dead in the wilderness without so much as a proper burial. The closest thing to a justification is that a tree fell on him.
* Dog in ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'' suffers an instance of 'off-screen incompetence' shortly before you first meet him. He's one of the most useful followers you can recruit to assist you in combat, starting off as a level 12 GlassCannon and becoming a LightningBruiser at later levels. When you find him, he's been subdued by a level one gnome civilian.
* The ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' games are constantly forcing Lan and [=MegaMan=] to avoid fights they could easily win. A particularly blatant example occurs in [=BN5=] when you're faced with a small army of [=HeelNavis=]; [=MegaMan=] and [=ProtoMan=]/Colonel decide to recruit a tank for their team and come back. What's wrong with this? Not only ''could'' you win this fight, the previous game required you to! Tetsuke's scenario pit [=MegaMan=] against 20 [=HeelNavis=], and that was without three teammates backing him up.
* In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' this seems to be the ultimate superpower of the [[BigBad Iconians]]. When one makes its first appearance on Qo'nos, it casually vaporizes the Klingon High Council then disappears ''while a virtual army of [=NPCs=] and the PlayerCharacter are standing there'' doing nothing. The entirety of Season 10: The Iconian War shows this trope in full swing as a player could have equipment and skills powerful enough to make [[{{Mooks}} Herald]] ships and troops disappear just by blinking, but the game and the [=NPCs=] will tell you that, no, you're caught in a losing battle.
* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' has some spectacular instances. Adam Jensen [[spoiler: lets the CEO of Tai Yong Medical get behind him, trigger a panic room, and dive into it]]. Later, he allows ''the same person'' [[spoiler: to pull out a remote and scramble his augs]]. In time it took her to do that, he could've killed her a dozen times, although this might have happened to players hoping to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk her down]] either way.
* In ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' the player and their squad confront [[BigBad Jessica Watts]] at her brother's funeral after deducing that she's responsible for her brother's murder, and make no attempt to shoot her or her accomplice during her long MotiveRant or stop them from calling for backup, and simply let them run away while their security shows up to attack the squad.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' has a particularly facepalm-worthy one, when half ''VideoGame/GoldenSun1's'' party is incapacitated by a trap and the others are forced to fight the antagonists. When you see the battle, not only are their stats nowhere near what they should be, but you can see that they've been reduced by [[StanceSystem having ALL their Djinn ready to summon]] (a situation that should only occur at the ''beginning'' of a boss battle, and even then only if you're [[GlassCannon confident your party can survive in their weakened state]]). Worse still, they have all four elements of Djinn on two party members, which turns them into a MasterOfNone. And of course, it's particularly aggravating if you used an OldSaveBonus to transfer the first game's party's stats, who could have wiped the floor with the enemy even with all those restrictions.
* In ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'' there is a moment when enemies surround the player character and offer him to go with them without fighting and even explicitly tell you that there's no point in fighting. You can still fight - and beat them easily; but, with the game being what it is, player then simply gets bashed with a hammer in a cutscene. May be justified, as InUniverse the combat (at least, between kids) is just live action role play.
* This happens quite often in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries''. While both [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Sky]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure Crossbell]] arcs somewhat justified it due to the limited options players have, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel the Erebonia arc]] puts this out on display as players can absolutely wreck bosses very easily due to the numerous amounts of options players have especially since physical attacks no longer suck compared to the past two arcs, but the cutscene afterwards shows that the players were having a tough time against the enemy and then someone rescues them in a BigDamnHeroes fashion. This happens so many times in ''Cold Steel II'' that many players wonder why they even bothered at the end. Not to mention the ''two'' times the party decides to have prolonged conversations with a FriendlyEnemy without first securing the less friendly enemies present in rapid succession, which gets a man killed and a boy turned evil, both of which have lasting implications for the next two games.
* ''VideoGame/VirgoVsTheZodiac'': While Virgo and her allies are looking for Ginger in Cancer's Realm, Altarf shows up to stop them. Rather than go into a battle, the game instead has her easily defeat the party and prevent them from reviving while they're taken to the prison.

* This trope can be invoked unintentionally. For example, in ''VideoGame/DynamiteHeaddy'', there is a level where you jump from ledge to ledge to climb a tower. The first few ledges are done for you... by an AI that messes it up about 10% of the time and falls off the tower, causing minor damage. For a more straight example: the Robo-Collector captures Headdy in the opening cutscene. When it appears in-game, it is incapable of doing any damage at all.
* In the first few chapters of ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'', the player becomes accustomed to out-running armed policemen, throwing themselves off buildings, and [[spoiler:jumping between two crane arms on parallel skyscrapers]]; however, upon reaching Ropeburn, the player finds themselves in a cutscene involving being grabbed and thrown off a small drop by him. This is then continued [[NintendoHard unless the player knows a surprise attack is coming (or has unbelievable reflexes)]], as Ropebrun proceeds to hit you once and throw you to your death; whilst Ropeburn is introduced as an ex-wrestler hired [[TheDragon as muscle]], the fact that he's settling into corrupt politics and taking on [[ActionGirl a bad-ass female in peak physical health]] doesn't really justify the cutscene.
** Done again later chapter when Faith is [[TheReveal beginning to uncover more of the]] [[BigBad Big Bad's plan]]; when reading files on a computer, she watches the lift behind her get called down a few floors, hears radio commotion about an intruder, [[TheSmartGuy gets told to run by Merc]], and '''still''' [[TooDumbToLive only flees when the lift opens and several]] EliteMooks [[TooDumbToLive step out.]]

* In the Sierra Entertainment video game of ''Literature/TheHobbit'', there's one instance where Bilbo Baggins must sneak his way through goblin guards to rescue a Dwarf slave. He states in the cutscene that they are too strong for him to fight -- even though he has been fighting goblins all the way through this level, and will fight goblins this tough later on. He is also captured all too easily if spotted during gameplay.
* In ''VideoGame/DisneyPrincessEnchantedJourney'', in the final boss fight, your character just stands there in the cutscenes as the Bogs attack her.
* Hailey, the player character in ''VideoGame/Gamer2,'' trips and loses her deflector plate in the opening cutscene of the second level. This forces you to stealth your way through a zombie-infested four-story house as a OneHitPointWonder.

* In ''VideoGame/Metro2033'' and ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'', Artyom plows through entire armies when controlled by the player, but is captured numerous times in cutscenes and subsequently requires rescue from other characters, often quite minor ones. Some of these captures are the result of predictable easy-to-spot tactics, such as a drugged drink (which the game forces you to drink). There are also multiple occasions where he is captured at the end of a level by a few regular enemy soldiers, the same type of enemy soldiers he was slaughtering en mass during the level itself.
* The page quote refers to [[spoiler:Kat]]'s [[KilledMidSentence sudden]] death in ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', which apparently occurs because the character in question ''forgot to raise their armor's [[DeflectorShields shields]] before running into a combat zone''. This is, unfortunately, entirely in-character.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'': In a scripted scene, Gordon gets knocked out by a single melee attack from ambushing Marines, despite wearing power armor that can withstand point-blank shotgun blasts and psychic alien lightning bolts during gameplay. They accomplish this by attacking under cover of total darkness, using a magic light switch that can turn off not only the room light, but also Gordon's suit flashlight.
* The ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'':
** In one level of ''Mysteries of the Sith'', the expansion pack to ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'', player-character Mara Jade fights her way through a swarm of enemies, some of whom are very well concealed (but still visible to Force Sight), then ends the level by walking casually into a warehouse full of good hiding places, where she gets ambushed, stunned, and captured by half a dozen enemies without any chance to save herself.
** In ''VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast'', Kyle is forced to sneak around an Imperial base and will be arrested if a Stormtrooper manages to sound the alarm. At the start of the level, he somehow sees that "there are too many of them." At that point in the game, with his lightsaber and almost full Jedi powers, [[OneManArmy he could probably kill fifty Stormtroopers with ease]] (and probably won't even need [[WalkingArmory the blasters, repeater gun, sniper rifle, various explosives, and rocket launcher he's also lugging around]]). But if anyone sees him and gets to a button, you get an instant cut to his being imprisoned and a Game Over. At the very least, however, the player can take advantage of the fact that the stormtroopers actually have to ''reach'' the button to press it, which they can't do if they've got a heavily-armed and well-trained Jedi in the way.
** [[AvertedTrope By contrast]], in ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'': When the player character is taken prisoner at the start of a level, (s)he surrenders when surrounded by several EliteMooks pointing weapons at him/her (and most of them are ''not'' even pointing at each other through her/him, so no DeadlyDodging) that are not blockable with a lightsaber and are fast firing, with a couple more mooks and the boss standing above on an unreachable height with similar weapons; in other words, the situation is actually life-threatening even in game terms, at least at that point in the game (if Jaden had third-tier core Force powers at that point, (s)he could still kill the ones on the ground with ease with the right moves[[note]]for one example, jump up high, Force-pull the enemies into the air and watch them fall to their deaths[[/note]] -- but (s)he doesn't).

* Among its other annoyances, the game ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'', once you finally steal the eponymous sword, has the BigBad appear in a cutscene and announce that you can't fight him, because it's the same sword in different parts of time, and it would destroy the universe... ignoring that not only does the PC have enough weapons to level a small country, he has two sidekicks with similar amounts of weaponry. "Will someone shoot him, please? He's pissing me off."

* In ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'', your character gets knocked out in a cutscene in a similar way to the ''Tomb Raider 2'' cutscene above (albeit by being punched in the face rather than with a spanner). Both ''Crysis'' and ''Crysis: Warhead'' have certain cutscenes with situations that are treated as being very dangerous, despite the fact your character could resolve them in all of ten seconds with the abilities and weapons they have available in-game.
* A couple examples in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'':
** Towards the middle of the main quest, you find your father being held hostage by [[TheDragon Colonel Autumn]] and two Enclave troopers. By this point in the game, you're almost certainly a heavily armed and armored murder machine who is easily capable of slaughtering dozens of Enclave troopers. But, instead of simply letting you into the room so you can murderize Autumn and his two goons, your father [[spoiler:floods the room with radiation, killing the Enclave troopers and knocking Autumn unconscious at the cost of his own life]]. To top it off, this indirectly results in [[spoiler:your death at the very end of the game, when you're forced to walk into the irradiated room to "face your destiny"]]. Gee, thanks Dad. At least the latter half got got a retcon in the Broken Steel DLC. However, [[DirtyCoward if you send Sarah in there]], [[KilledOffForReal she still dies]].
** And again, after you've been sent to get the GECK. After retrieving it, [[spoiler:you get jumped by a squad of Enclave troopers. Keep in mind that you've already fought your way through several dozen of these same troopers earlier in the story. But one flashbang -- never mentioned before or after -- thrown by soldiers who had no way or reason to get in, and down you go]].
** ''The Pitt'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]] forces you to follow its script by confronting the player character with three typical ''Film/MadMax''-wannabe Raiders just inside the city gate. It doesn't matter if the character is incredibly stealthy (or using a [[InvisibilityCloak Stealth Boy]]) or has the combat skills and weapons to take down these mooks with one or two hits each -- they still beat the PC up and take all of his/her stuff. [[spoiler:You do get it back later.]] This one is especially annoying because, in the Enclave example, you might be intimidated or afraid of endangering ol' Dad. With the Pitt Raiders, these are ''criminals'' who you kill ''all the time'' - in fact, some of your first kills upon exiting the Vault at the start of the game would have been other Raiders exactly like these guys. By that point in the game, you would have more trouble with irradiated animals. And to top it off, they [[GameplayAndStorySegregation should]] be diseased and cancer-stricken anyway! What's worse, to trigger this particular cutscene, you would have ''just killed four guards outside the damn gate who tried the same thing''! This would only be forgivable for a low-level character, which most players won't be because that mission is near the top of the map, and players won't travel that way without being at a decent level.
* The ShotgunWedding scene in ''VideoGame/Fallout2''. To recap, you sleep with a girl (or with her brother), and their father threatens you with a shotgun into marrying them. Never mind that you carry enough weaponry to level the entire village ([[GoodOldFisticuffs or no weapons if that's your choice]]), have enough HitPoints to survive at worst two shotgun shots, and may even have a huge muscular tribal with a huge hammer and a mechanic with a rifle as backup. To be fair, there is nothing stopping you from picking up your gun and murdering everyone in the middle of the wedding. The cutscene is not actually enforced, it only happens if the player does nothing to interrupt it.
* Cate Archer of ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' is an elite government spy, stealthy and quite handy with a gun. And yet, during cutscenes, her idea of sneaking is carelessly clomping around, like Elmer Fudd trying to get the jump on the "wabbit." Inevitably, this leads to her capture. [[spoiler:''Twice.'' And by the same person both times.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Geist}}'': The guards are easily killed by the imps in cutscenes. No, these imps are not ImmuneToBullets, and no, they aren't remotely strong. They're by far the weakest enemies in the game, and have about as much HP as your typical GoddamnedBats, except without the numerical superiority. They are killed by one bullet from any gun. They can be killed with a fucking fire extinguisher, for crying out loud! And yet, in the cutscenes, when guards are confronted by them, you'd think they were {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le minibosses. In fact, the fire extinguisher doesn't do ''any'' damage, it just has the game check if the target has less than 1 HP (this is why guards don't shoot some of your possessed characters even if you spray them with one, because they're not suffering a health loss). The imps are [[OneHitPointWonder Zero Hit Point Wonders]].
* [[http://www.dailymotion.com/Static_Fiend/video/5496130 This]] video of a LetsPlay for ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'' points out that the big {{spider tank}} takes out your fellow marines' tanks effortlessly -- but you can take it out easily yourself. ...The element of surprise probably had something to do with it. By the time any player has made it through the hospital, they should be well capable of blasting a Strogg in a tank before it snags their commanding officer. Or maybe Kane just didn't like that guy much.
* ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune: Payback'' does this in the most obnoxious way possible. Right after defeating two bosses in a row and getting the mission critical briefcase, the lights suddenly go dim and a woman runs straight up to you with a fire extinguisher and hits you, taking you down. She thanks you for doing her dirty work and strolls off with the case. All your character does is utter "Bitch" in contempt. The game then ends on a cliffhanger. Screw you, Activision. Also happens when Taylor is killed in ''[=SoF=] 2''. Mullins saw the {{mook|s}} coming outside the window, but didn't try to stop him.
* During the intro level of the first ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon FEAR]]'' game, the player is ambushed by Paxton Fettel, who simply pops out from behind an obstacle and swings a wooden board at your head. He moves so slowly that you could easily have ducked under it. Hell, you can actually shoot him once or twice before he actually hits you and it does nothing. Instead, you're knocked out cold.
** An even more blatant example. In one of the expansion packs, you have taken a man prisoner. A large explosion distracts your squad long enough for him to make a break for it during the cutscene, while you have a gun pointed directly at him. It gets even worse, though - like the above first scene with Fettel, you never actually lose control during the scene. You can empty ''five'' full mags from the SMG into him with no effect. Then he locks you out of a hallway, via glass doors that you and your teammate can't just break until he's got a huge lead on you.
** FEAR 3 has the player hit in the head again, as both the Point man and Fettel.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' and many other games, where there are many "locked" doors that are only opened by [=NPCs=] during cutscenes or {{scripted event}}s.
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has a particularly blatant case affecting the player character(s), Roland, and Lilith, halfway through the game. All three of these characters have repeatedly shown how badass they are, yet [[spoiler:the game's villain, Jack, appears from nowhere, hits Roland with an InstantDeathBullet, kidnaps Lilith, and escapes -- all while the player character(s) stand there like morons unable to do anything about it]]. [[spoiler:This returns with a vengeance in ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', where the player party just sits with their thumbs on their asses while Tyreen has a gun to Ava's head and Troy drains Maya like a starving metroid.]]
* The first ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' game has a brief but ''exceptionally'' annoying one about three-quarters of the way through, when you get caught unawares by a tear-gas canister. In most games that would be no big deal, but your character is ''wearing a space suit'' at the time. [[FridgeLogic How the hell does that even work?]]
* In gameplay, monsters of ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'' are behemoths capable of shrugging off enough firepower to level city blocks. In the ending cutscene for Evacuation, the hunters are dropping Stage 3 monsters left and right.
* ''VideoGame/RainbowSix'' Vegas 2 - At the start of the last leg of the Recreation Center mission after [[spoiler:the chemical bomb has detonated in the stadium]], you and your team notice the main target of the mission as he attempts to leave the scene in disguise. Your character, who should be holding his gun in front of him and pointing it in the general direction of the target but isn't because guns are always lowered during cutscenes regardless of context, yells at him to stop. Instead he takes off clumsily after several seconds of limping and stumbling, during which your character (who is the LEADER of a trained counter terrorist squad and is standing barely fifty feet away) could easily shoot him in the leg, leading to a long chase during which you must fight through anywhere from one to several dozen of his flunkies (depending on difficulty) before you finally corner him. The player can actually avert this example if they react quickly enough by shooting him after their gun comes up as they exit the cutscene. However, doing so instantly kills him and nets you a game over (even if you shot him in the leg with a low powered SMG or pistol round.)

* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather 2'', there's one point where [[spoiler: the Manganos]] take over some of your businesses while you're forced to watch the cutscene of them doing so. If it were gameplay you could have gone into action and stopped at least one attack.

* In ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeNewYorkCity'', Marcus enters Benjamin's studio where upon entering, he is grabbed from behind. He is then shown to be tied to a chair and is about to be killed by Benjamin, but gets lucky. Never mind the fact that Marcus could easily free himself from being grabbed, fight a group of people single handedly, and [[GameplayAndStorySegregation possibly know every fighting style the dojos have to offer.]]
* Very common throughout the ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' series. Examples:
** In the first game, Frank West can be captured and stripped naked by a scrawny little punk with a gun after spending the whole game getting shot at and slicing through zombies.
** In the third game, one of the boss fights begins with Nick getting ambushed by an [[DeadlyDoctor evil doctor]] despite, again, spending his time getting shot at and slicing through zombies.
** Even bosses aren't immune: there's an optional boss fight against the [[BasementDweller basement-dwelling]] {{Geek}} Kenny Dermot. While he's no pushover in-game [[note]]he's sort of a MirrorBoss, as his motivation is to [[IJustWantToBeYou take Nick's place]][[/note]], the cutscenes show Kenny to be a hapless, out of shape dork; he gets no respect from his hostage, and when defeated, he falls to the ground wheezing and begs Nick to save him from incoming zombies.
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'':
** John is prone to this. In the first mission, he decides to draw a gun on three men pointing rifles at him, only to get shot. Later on, an important character is holding someone hostage. John can resolve these situations several times in-game due to his elite marksmanship but in these cutscenes, he apparently forgets that he can.
** In the mission "Cowards Die Many Times", even after it's clear that [[spoiler: Williamson and Escuella]] aren't in the church as [[spoiler: De Santa]] promised and John is definitely led into a trap, John ''still'' keeps his guard down and turns his back on [[spoiler: a Mexican Army soldier]] who predictably knocks him out. It's profoundly out of character for John considering he is usually the type to pull his gun out at the slightest sign of trouble, but here, he doesn't even ''reach'' for it here.
** Played with in the final mission. [[spoiler: If he were controlled by the player, John could have taken down every US soldier attacking the ranch. But John knows that killing them all would worsen the situation and deny his family the peaceful life they deserve ... So he decides to end the fight [[HeroicSacrifice on his own terms]].]]
** Also played with during John and Dutch's confrontation at the bank. In gameplay, John could have already shot Dutch and his henchmen and saved the hostages. However John never really wanted to kill his former gang members and Dutch was something of a father figure for him so John's hesitation to shoot Dutch makes sense.

* Mio from ''VideoGame/FatalFrameII'' could definitely qualify for this when she accidentally drops the Camera Obscura (her one and ''only'' weapon against the ghosts that attack her) at the worst possible moment when a particularly vengeful ghost begins chasing her. She never seems to be this clumsy in any of the previous (player-controlled) battles with ghosts, even if one of them grabs her and has to be shaken off.
* ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'': All of the human[[ArtificialHuman (oid)]] cast members suffer from this; in particular, Fiona, the main character - who is prone to tripping on stairs, backing into corners, falling down, fainting and otherwise letting her stalkers get some sort of an advantage over her the moment she leaves player control. Her stalkers, on the other hand, move slower, gloat evilly and monologue to themselves, and generally give the heroine or her pooch ample time to spring a trip, leave a room, or otherwise ''directly help her'' for no real reason but to move the plot along. Hewie, her CanineCompanion is [[CursedWithAwesome afflicted]] with the [[CutscenePowerToTheMax inverse condition]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'', you at one point enter a dungeon reasonably well-armed and with a killing score comprising of dozens of thugs. Then a handful of unarmed mooks approach you and beat you to a pulp while you (the Player) watch helplessly.

* This happens constantly in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars''. Look at the time when [[spoiler:Ingram]] captures Kusuha. It's like he'd still capture her with just four {{Mooks}} surrounding her, probably because if the player is in control of Kusuha, she'd whip out the Guard/Iron Wall Spirit Command and lay the smack down on those mooks. It would get even worse if the player upgraded Kusuha's Grungust Mk.II to maximum beforehand.
** [[spoiler: Kusuha and Ingram are both Psychodrivers, MindControl makes piloting Mechas meaningless as you can't control even your own body. Same thing with the Einst.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ImpossibleCreatures'', enemies become completely immune to damage during cutscenes. Very frustrating in mission 8, when La Pette hovers near your anti-aircraft towers for about a minute and then you spend the rest of the mission trying to kill her.

* ''[[VideoGame/RedFaction Red Faction: Armageddon]]'':
** In-game, Darius Mason hurls entire buildings at monsters with his Magnet Gun, he has a wealth of 'nanoforge' powers including projected shields that protect while eating away at opponents, a massive shockwave that can send a two-ton behemoth sailing hundreds and hundreds of feet, and an area-effect telekinesis wave that leaves all nearby enemies hovering helplessly. Yet, in a late-game cutscene, he is attacked by ''the single weakest monster type in the game''. It knocks him down and gets on top of him, rendering him apparently completely helpless and he forgets he has that building-hurling weapon and every single one of those aforementioned powers, any of which could have saved him.
** Additionally, towards the end of the game, there's a part that's [[spoiler: set in a {{mecha}}. At one point the mecha is damaged after falling down an underground canyon, triggering a cutscene showing Darius and his girlfriend, Kara repairing it. Darius apparently forgets the he has the Nanoforge, an arm-mounted device that ''instantly repairs any damaged object that it's used on''. While they're doing repairs on the mecha, one of The Queen's tentacles stabs Kara in the back, killing her and drags her away, never to be seen again]].

* ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'':
** In the first game, Girdeux has his mask off in the cutscene before you fight him. However, Gabe Logan doesn't shoot him.
** In the cutscene before the final battle in ''Syphon Filter 2'', the otherwise fully-armored [[spoiler:Jason Chance's]] head is exposed, and he isn't shown donning the helmet either. Gabe is too incompetent to headshot him.
** Happens again in the after-credits epilogue of ''Logan's Shadow'', where [[spoiler:Gabe stupidly gets shot by Trinidad]]. He had a clear window to shoot her first.

* When the player first takes control of Ellie in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', they first have to clear out a level full of infected enemies. Then they have to go through a whole town full of armed humans. The player's reward for all this is being treated to a scene in which Ellie is choked out and captured by one man attacking her in a frontal assault. The game hits this trope a couple of times. One of the game mechanics is a skill called "Listening" which acts as a sort of sonar to show images of enemies behind walls and in other rooms. Perfect for avoiding or spotting upcoming ambushes, right? Except occasionally the game decides it's time for a scripted ambush for plot reasons and that's when listening suddenly doesn't reveal the enemies who ambush, even if the ambush looks very obvious from the level design. The above example is particularly bad because when its triggered, you've likely just finished clearing a room, see a blocked door, and making sure you can't be ambushed, attempt to open the door only for an enemy to just teleport in behind Ellie and grab her.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', Isaac Clarke fights through hordes of Necromorphs and his armor in game is able to survive most of their hits, and in sections of the game can tank assault weaponry. He also has the strength to fight off Necromorph attacks and smash them with his punches. However in Chapter 5, Clarke walks into a room while disengaging his helmet and is suddenly ambushed and grabbed by his shoulders by two armorless henchmen. He stands there apparently restrained, not bothering to put his helmet back up, apparently about to be escorted to his enslavement before being saved by a gunship trying to take him down. Later in the game Clarke also encounters a crazy man (Stross) attempting to take out Isaac's eyeball with a screwdriver. The moment the armorless Stross grabs Clarke, Clarke's nearly indestructible helmet disengages, and Clarke now has trouble fighting off Stross despite Clarke's superior strength.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' has a piece of cutscene incompetence so big that, if you take the Awakened DLC into account, may have destroyed the human race, when [[spoiler: Carver allows the bad guy to wake up a moon sized necromorph]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'', a level is made of Shelob's cave and the things that live in it. This is all well and good with smaller spiders, generic orcs, and the like. A typical hack and slash game. But after you beat Shelob (a gigantic spider)... The scene where Frodo is knocked out and believed dead makes perfect sense in the movie or book. But in the cutscene of this part, Sam hides from just ''two'' Orcs. After he just slaughtered at least 40 of them in the previous levels and a huge number of spiders in the cave by his wits and swordsmanship alone. And they're just regular orcs, too -- no appearance from the awesome guy at the top of Cirith Ungol who can kangaroo kick people. He appears as a boss in the ''next'' level, where it's a requirement to kill at least 80 orcs by yourself, including miniboss varieties. You'd think that he'd defend Frodo's body a bit better.

* ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi'' played it even worse: there is a mission when you are saving Sun Jian from prison, wich ends with him standing behind to protect your escape from a pathetic number of mooks. Later, you can play this mission as Sun Jian himself. In the end-mission cutscene, there will be ''two'' Sun Jians: one will flee and one will stay. You guessed it: the one who stayed was the "real" one.
* The same issue exists in the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series. You can fight through waves and waves of FacelessGoons and shrug off AnnoyingArrows in game, but if you're doomed to die in a cutscene, then you will die. Interestingly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with 8 XL's Alternate History mechanic: if the player knows how a character will die, they can [[TakeAThirdOption take options the game doesn't suggest]] to avoid their fate. Doing this with everyone in a given faction will [[EarnYourHappyEnding unlock the faction's non-historical Victory ending.]]