Basically it's taking camera control away from the player in a third person Polygonal Graphics game. The camera will either stay in a fixed location while the character roams about, or it will follow the player's movement only from a fixed angle and distance.
This is usually done for two reasons (and some games have both). One reason is "cinematic", as in making the game have a certain look and mood (though this quickly draws complaints of Event Obscuring Cameras when players want to look elsewhere). The second reason is to avoid Camera Screw by putting the camera in an optimum place. This is very hard to do right, as the developers not only need to find the right angles, but design the levels (especially the placement of traps, puzzles, and enemies) so that the player can notice them at said angles.
Yet there can be times when the player can still look around, such as with a Freelook Button.
Note that this is not when the fixed angle is necessary due to bitmap backgrounds. This is when it's all polygons.
Compare 2.5D (when the polygon graphics are always shown from the same perspective).
Contrast First-Person Shooter (in terms of viewing), Always Over the Shoulder, Free Rotating Camera.
Not to be confused with Camera Lock-On, where the player can "fix" the camera on a specific target of interest.
Examples:
- Adventure (1979)
- ANNO: Mutationem
- Devil May Cry
- God of War initially used these, with God of War: Ascension being the last entry to do so. Starting with the Soft Reboot God of War (2018), it's been replaced with a free camera.
- Genji
- Killer7 is a Genre-Busting action game that uses a fixed camera for movement (which is on-rails with some branching paths) and a Freelook Button for aiming a weapon.
- The Lego Adaptation Games.
- Ōkamiden, in most areas outside the world map.
- Metal Gear:
- Both Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty use a fixed camera that emulates the Top-Down View from the MSX games, along with a Freelook Button.
- The original release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater also uses a fixed camera, with a limited ability to look ahead or around with the right stick. The Updated Re-release Subsistence lets you toggle between the old camera and a new Free Rotating Camera with a button press. The remake Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater further modernizes the free camera from Subsistence, while keeping the option to toggle back to the old view.
- Luigi's Mansion (Series)
- Legacy of Kain: Defiance changed from previous games' Free Rotating Camera to this. Due to devs' inexperience, the results... could've been better. The fans, understandably, weren't thrilled.
- The 1997 video game Blade Runner.
- Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Unleashed's day levels, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations all force the camera behind Sonic in 3D parts and to the side in 2D sections.
- Super Mario Bros.: Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World, in areas without camera rotation.
- The Pro Pinball series does this, as each game uses a pre-rendered model of a pinball playfield. The model is rendered from several different camera positions, so players can choose one that works best for them, but the camera remains fixed regardless.
- Similarly, the 3-D Ultra Pinball series uses a pre-rendered playfield model. Unlike Pro Pinball, however, there is only one rendered camera used throughout the game.
- KAZe's digital pinball games all use a fixed camera view, with vertical scrolling between balls to show off the backbox art:
- Super Pinball: Behind the Mask
- Super Pinball: The Amazing Odyssey
- Last Gladiators
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2.
- Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX had a fixed camera in battle scenes.
- All 3D Pokémon games before Pokémon Legends: Arceus (although Pokémon Sword and Shield lets you rotate the camera freely in the Wild Area), including spinoffs Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
- Most areas in Brave Fencer Musashi.
- Alisa
- Dino Crisis
- Eternal Darkness
- The Fatal Frame series, save for Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, Maiden of Black Water and Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake
- Haunting Ground
- Heartworm
- Hollowbody
- Kuon
- Post Trauma
- Resident Evil – Code: Veronica does this with fully 3D levels instead of pre-rendered backgrounds like previous Resident Evil games.
- Silent Hill:
- Silent Hill 1
- Silent Hill 2
- Silent Hill 4 uses a fixed camera for the Otherworld sections only. The apartment segments are entirely in first person.
- Sorry, We're Closed
- Tormented Souls
- Until Dawn