Action Sequences ... good or bad?

[Andir]

A question that is bothering me since playing the Star Wars:TFU demo recently:

Why do developers put in action sequences?  I'm referring to the last "boss" you fight (the AT-ST Walker that ends the demo.)  I found it was impossible to kill this thing unless I got in close and triggered the action event.  I could have easily stayed at range and thrown miscellaneous boxes, people and objects at it to kill it, but using this method the walker would "heal" itself when it got below a certain point.

What purpose does this serve?  All it does for me is force the feeling that the game is on rails.  You lose the open feel when you are forced to beat a creature in only one fashion.  Other games, (I am running through Dark Kingdom again this weekend) allow you to kill a boss creature in whatever way possible.  You can brute force it, lead it to a lava pit if available or follow the sequence of lever presses to trigger the events.  Some are easier than others, but you have a choice.  With SWTFU, I lost that choice.

Another example of this kind of thing was in the beginning of the Heavenly Sword demo.  It involved sliding down the ropes to get to the area where you fight.  I didn't like this either and would have preferred a system similar to Ratchet and Clank's Train rail system.

There was another game as well where the demo would have you jump down a pit and hit buttons to trigger wall slide events.  I had the same feeling about this as well. (Sorry, don't remember the name.  I deleted it after hitting this sequence event.)

Are these meant to lower the difficulty of the game?  (or the opposite?)  What purpose do they serve to you?