The phrase “it’s so cinematic” is thrown around constantly to compliment a game. It's shorthand for saying that a game is prestigious and expensive-looking, all because it feels like a movie. In the past decade, this has led developers of many AAA games to try and emulate more elements of cinematic visual language, yet this is sometimes done without much thought as to why it works in a movie and may not be best suited for a game. The latest example is God of War Ragnarök's new black-and-white mode, another cinematic feature in a game that aspires to cinematic greatness more than anything else.
