Cinematic

Cinematics (commonly also called "cutscenes") are short ingame movies used to tell parts of the storyline during missions.

These are not pre-recorded videos, but real-time rendered scenes, showing the party members as actors.

During a cutscene players are "frozen" and cannot fight, move, talk, or act in any way. They may, however, choose to skip the cutscene, but only if all party members vote to skip will the scene actually be skipped.

Skipping cutscenes is sometimes recommended, sometimes it is not:
 * During a cutscene players are "frozen", but foes are not. Foes can't deal damage during a cutscene, but they can move, so if you aggroed a group of foes right before a cutscene started, you'll find yourself cornered by these foes after the cutscene if you don't skip.
 * If you skip, you may miss an important part of the story, which will not only prevent you from understanding and emerging deeply into the storyline, but you may also miss vital pieces of information that you would need to complete the mission. Hence it is not recommended to skip if you play a mission for the first time.

One of the most useful "features" of cutscenes is the fact that after a cutscene all dead party members are resurrected and teleported to the cutscene location. In case all party members with resurrect spells are dead, and the surviving party members have already used their Resurrection Signets, a cutscene may be the last resort to resurrect the dead comrades. Also, when running a mission, a cutscene will allow those party members who were left behind to catch up with the runner.