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Game Trailers Top Ten Bad game Beginnings

I disagree with Dark Souls and MGS3. I could see how someone might not like MGS3's codecs and cutscenes though, but I disagree with their thing about the backpack being hard to find.

I nominate the Witcher and Far Cry 2, hate both of those beginnings.
 
You know, as fucking difficult as that Driver intro test was, it made me a good player right off the bat. Great game.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Snake Eater

Really

Really
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Virtuous Mission has like 15 minutes worth of codec, and it's nothing but a tutorial. MGS3 is one of my favorite games but I'm not surprised to see it there. Overall I thought that was a pretty good list, Dark Souls excepted.

AC3 should've been there. Just garbage.
 
RobbieH said:
Completely forgot about my least favourite opening area and it's in one of my favourite games:

enteringthetemple.jpg


Temple of the Trials in Fallout 2. Awful in every way imaginable.
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but its quite short as I remember.

Actually, there should be a certain (or more?) Sonic game on the list with those thousands of tedious one-minute-long tutorials. Sonic and the secret rings maybe? I know it was a Wii game.
 
RobbieH said:
Completely forgot about my least favourite opening area and it's in one of my favourite games:

enteringthetemple.jpg


Temple of the Trials in Fallout 2. Awful in every way imaginable.
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Agreed 100%.

Another game I love but would readily place on such a list is Suikoden V. I can appreciate slow build-ups, but having hours of almost nothing happening is going too far.

On the other hand, I think the Dark Souls intro is really well designed. it teaches you everything you need to know, but is not obnoxious or hand-holdy about it. And it doesn't take long.
 
Xanadu said:
driver test wasnt THAT hard jesus people
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I agree, I didn't have that much trouble getting through it on the PS1. But I remember re-playing through Driver over again on my iPhone a few years ago, and trying to perform all those stunts in the garage with touch controls... god damn, now that will test your patience.

But I actually did complete the iOS version of Driver from start to finish though and I enjoyed it, outside of the opening "tutorial".


As for Dark Soul's , I sort of agree there. I really wasn't feeling the game at all through that first dungeon, and I did kind of want to quit. But after you leave and get into the hub area, it starts to become more enjoyable.

I also agree with Twilight Princess (The Wii version). That mandatory fishing mini game with the Wii controller drove me insane and it made me want to quit right then and there.
 
completely agree with KH2. I jumped in after hearing about how awesome the series was and never played 1. Quit after the game tell me I have to do some mundane shit to get money.
 
I agree with both Dark Souls and MGS3. It took me months of repeatedly forcing myself to play it (MGS3) before I finally made it past the beginning and the game finally "clicked." I don't know why it's poor, just know that it is.

Dark Souls is a different beast. It bombards you with countless unintuitive and poorly explained systems from the very beginning. Yes, I understand that is an intentional design choice. It's still bad and turns away everyone who hasn't already decided to stick through it or is armed with a wiki.
 
Tookay said:
Honestly, I get the dislike for Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword's openings, but - like almost everything else on the internet - the criticisms have taken on lives of their own, becoming almost hyperbolic in their terribleness.

For games that run 30-50 hours, you can withstand an hour or two of worldbuilding and mechanic-explaining.
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So wrong.

There are a ton of 30-50 hour games that don't have this problem. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword's intros/tutorials are notoriously bad. The worst thing is they can easily be fixed, but Aonuma and his team seem to be fucking oblivious to the issues. They had 5 years to figure out and fix the mistakes in Twilight Princess, and we got Skyward Sword.
 
Okami's my favourite game of all time, but... yeah, that intro really is just awful.

It's not even the good kind of slow paced intro that establishes the kind of world you're experiencing. It really is just a shitload of text.
 
Snowden's Secret said:
Dark Souls is a different beast. It bombards you with countless unintuitive and poorly explained systems from the very beginning. Yes, I understand that is an intentional design choice...
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No, it's not a design choice, it's just a lie you are making up.
There are very few mechanics in Dark Souls that could deserve to be labeled to some extent as "complex and unintuitive" (covenants, Humanity system, weapon upgrades, etc) and *none* of them play a role in the tutorial part.
Seriously. Not a single one.

What you need to know during that part is just "here's how you equip things, hit with those buttons, lock the target in this way, rest at a bonfire" and they are all explained in a very simple way.
 
Dr Zhivago said:
Driver was a crime against humanity.
It wasn't a 'tutorial', it was an exam.
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I agree! Thing with Driver was they didn't tell you how to perform the stunts and I didn't know anything about cars since I was like 13 when I played the game. It's easy today because you can watch on youtube, but it took a while back in the day.
 
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
No, it's not a design choice, it's just a lie you are making up.
There are very few mechanics in Dark Souls that could deserve to be labeled to some extent as "complex and unintuitive" (covenants, Humanity system, weapon upgrades, etc) and *none* of them play a role in the tutorial part.
Seriously. Not a single one.

What you need to know during that part is just "here's how you equip things, hit with those buttons, lock the target in this way, rest at a bonfire" and they are all explained in a very simple way.
Click to expand...

I played Dark Souls for 20 hours and have no idea what bonfires were for, what humanity is or used for, or even really any understanding of the stats. I knew to wander around and try and not die, which is what I did for 20 hours.

I thought the opening was probably the exact opposite as modern Zelda, and just as bad for it.
 
Kingdom Hearts 2 should not be on this list, and anyone who thinks it should most likely has no awareness of the series. The stories in Kingdom Hearts are all apart of one larger story; and if you think that you can just jump into this series from any point...think again! Though, I suppose most gamers aren't familiar with this form of storytelling in gaming. After all, you don't jump into a book series from the middle, right?

The Kingdom Hearts 2 prologue is easily one of the most compelling openings in video game history. It is a parallel to the Kingdom Hearts 1 prologue—so anyone who complains about this, and not KH1 is full of it. There are just so many things they did right with it: great atmosphere, great simulation (how meta) of life in Twilight Town, works flawlessly with the prequels, and transitions into the man game with a beautifully delivered final line.

I found it hilarious how the person in the video ended the segment by saying all the "mundane" things were actually "significant" in the end. So basically his real complaint was about how long it took, and everything else was crap.

...maybe this kind of quality storytelling just isn't for everyone.
 
Snowden's Secret said:
I played Dark Souls for 20 hours and have no idea what bonfires were for
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Did you somehow miss one of the very few explanatory pop-ups in the tutorial? Openly and bluntly stating that sitting at a bonfirer refill your health, your flask and makes all enemies respawn?
Do you have the attention span of a ferret or what?
 
Dark Souls? Easy tutorial. MGS3: Snake Eater? Backpack wasn't hard to find. Whoever is making that list doesn't have that much patience.
 
MGS3? It has one of the most epic game intros ever. The cutscenes at the start are probably a bit too long but it's not nearly as bad as some of the others on the list.
 
Agreed on MGS3. Not because the backpack was hard to find or anything, but the whole intro just felt so slow. I'm someone who usually enjoys MGS's long cutscenes and excessive dialog, but even I was getting bored by those intro codecs trying to explain everything. Thankfully the game picked up soon after and MGS3 wound up becoming one of my favorites, but good lord that intro was putting me to sleep.
 
Oh come on, is it really that difficult for some of you to get why the Dark Souls intro isn't great for a lot of people?
 
Loxley said:
Oh come on, is it really that difficult for some of you to get why the Dark Souls intro isn't great for a lot of people?
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Actually yes, especially because I'm not even trying to argue "it isn't that bad". I'm stressing that it was simply awesome.

That's the kind of "tutorial" I'd like to see in any game: short, easy and quick to rush when you're experienced, with minimal amounts of hand-holding and that didn't feel disconnected from the rest of the game at all.
 
Holy shit, I hadn't thought about the Driver intro in years. I must have rented that game about five times and, with my eight-year-old driving skills, I just never ever got past it.
 
I actually really love tutorials...and i find it very odd when people praise games for not having them....not everyone has years of experience under their belts, and there are about a billion different ways to toss a grenade from game to game

That said...I would much rather the tutorial be integrated in the story in some way, but their needs to be explicit, 'button A does thing Y', and oh btw you can do 'XYZ when combining button presses'....I think a game has failed incredibly if it requires you to go online to figure out what certain buttons do

boutdown said:
Seriously? Edjumacate me
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I know at the very least with 'The Darkness' the game, ESRB wouldnt let them just start the game with the car scene without any logos/credits...Im not sure why and Ive been having a hell of a time finding the interview with the Darkness devs where they explain why

EDIT: Bioshock Infinite would have been an amazing cold opening
 
tokkun said:
Persona 4 would be up there for me. 3 hours before the game actually starts.
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I am still hazy about about this opening. Why do people find the opening terrible. I just got done playing P4G and found it quite compelling. From beginning to end.

What was it about the opening that people found particularly bad? Cause I don't know what people are talking about when they say the game had a "bad opening".

botty said:
Kingdom Hearts 2 should not be on this list, and anyone who thinks it should most likely has no awareness of the series. The stories in Kingdom Hearts are all apart of one larger story; and if you think that you can just jump into this series from any point...think again! Though, I suppose most gamers aren't familiar with this form of storytelling in gaming. After all, you don't jump into a book series from the middle, right?

The Kingdom Hearts 2 prologue is easily one of the most compelling openings in video game history. It is a parallel to the Kingdom Hearts 1 prologue—so anyone who complains about this, and not KH1 is full of it. There are just so many things they did right with it: great atmosphere, great simulation (how meta) of life in Twilight Town, works flawlessly with the prequels, and transitions into the man game with a beautifully delivered final line.

I found it hilarious how the person in the video ended the segment by saying all the "mundane" things were actually "significant" in the end. So basically his real complaint was about how long it took, and everything else was crap.

...maybe this kind of quality storytelling just isn't for everyone.
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Yup and yup. I personally loved the opening and it paid off in dividends throughout the entire series. You get almost immediate results of the beginnings of the game the minute you get to control Sora again.

Is it slow? A little. But it uses that time to get you attached to important characters. But like I said before I think you and me are in the minority for some odd reason.
 
botty said:
Kingdom Hearts 2 should not be on this list, and anyone who thinks it should most likely has no awareness of the series. The stories in Kingdom Hearts are all apart of one larger story; and if you think that you can just jump into this series from any point...think again! Though, I suppose most gamers aren't familiar with this form of storytelling in gaming. After all, you don't jump into a book series from the middle, right?

The Kingdom Hearts 2 prologue is easily one of the most compelling openings in video game history. It is a parallel to the Kingdom Hearts 1 prologue—so anyone who complains about this, and not KH1 is full of it. There are just so many things they did right with it: great atmosphere, great simulation (how meta) of life in Twilight Town, works flawlessly with the prequels, and transitions into the man game with a beautifully delivered final line.

I found it hilarious how the person in the video ended the segment by saying all the "mundane" things were actually "significant" in the end. So basically his real complaint was about how long it took, and everything else was crap.

...maybe this kind of quality storytelling just isn't for everyone.
Click to expand...

What? I bought KH1 and 2 Day 1 and still think that opening was horrible....most of the time is spent doing some REALLY mundane tasks that have literally no bearing on the story....and instead of explaining what happened during CoM as 90% of their fanbase probably skipped it like I did, they spend 3 hrs with a majority of characters who have little bearing on the overall story...and it was boring, and the town it self was not very "explorable"...there are a few signs to read and, well thats about it outside of the not-so-great chores you need to complete

In short:
-It was confusing
-It was long
-It was boring
-It was a waste of time that could have been better spent explaining what the hell happened in CoM

It was just not fun.... especially when compared with KH1 opening

EDIT: God having CoM being such an important part of the KH franchise was so stupid..... it actually has more bearing on the entire franchise than KH1
 
PshycoNinja said:
I am still hazy about about this opening. Why do people find the opening terrible. I just got done playing P4G and found it quite compelling. From beginning to end.
What was it about the opening that people found particularly bad? Cause I don't know what people are talking about when they say the game had a "bad opening".
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Forcing the player to a passive role for several minutes (when not even hours) feeding him with overdone exposition is always bad in my book, no matter how interesting the story is (or it's supposed to be).

So yeah, while I enjoyed the game to some extent, you could add me among those who didn't like Persona 4's opening.
 
PshycoNinja said:
I am still hazy about about this opening. Why do people find the opening terrible. I just got done playing P4G and found it quite compelling. From beginning to end.

What was it about the opening that people found particularly bad? Cause I don't know what people are talking about when they say the game had a "bad opening".
Click to expand...
Oh dear god....it is literally 3 hrs before you get into a battle....oh and they dont tell you where you can save before this point...oh and if you die in that batlle (its literally a boss battle) you need to do it all over again....I may or may not have had this happen to me and it may or may not have reallly pissed me off
 
The lost world jurassic park on ps1

the one where they make you play as a compy for 2 hours after telling you you could be a trex.

Thank god I discovered the cheat codes that saved that game for me during my childhood.
 
Ridley327 said:
Heavy Rain has a bad beginning? Most people would point to that being the high point of the whole thing!
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God I hated Heavy Rain. I fucking shaved and watched my kid play in the yard. Can't believe I was tricked into believing this was an "innovative" game. Nope. Just a pretentious QTE.
 
sn00zer said:
Oh dear god....it is literally 3 hrs before you get into a battle....oh and they dont tell you where you can save before this point...oh and if you die in that batlle (its literally a boss battle) you need to do it all over again....I may or may not have had this happen to me and it may or may not have reallly pissed me off
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem not going into battle as long as the story is good and is moving you along.

I am pretty sure they do tell you about save points. They do it when you first get home (save at the counter at the phone) and outside with the blue butterfly flying in a circle which looks like a save point no matter which way you slice it. This sounds more like player error and not reading the prompts when they pop up.

And lol. I can believe that if you didn't save.

sn00zer said:
What? I bought KH1 and 2 Day 1 and still think that opening was horrible....most of the time is spent doing some REALLY mundane tasks that have literally no bearing on the story....and instead of explaining what happened during CoM as 90% of their fanbase probably skipped it like I did, they spend 3 hrs with a majority of characters who have little bearing on the overall story...and it was boring, and the town it self was not very "explorable"...there are a few signs to read and, well thats about it outside of the not-so-great chores you need to complete

In short:
-It was confusing
-It was long
-It was boring
-It was a waste of time that could have been better spent explaining what the hell happened in CoM

It was just not fun.... especially when compared with KH1 opening

EDIT: God having CoM being such an important part of the KH franchise was so stupid..... it actually has more bearing on the entire franchise than KH1
Click to expand...

I disagree. The opening's only purpose was to introduce you to Roxas, the Organization and Roxas friends and to explain each of their characters. I enjoyed the opening and made
finding Sora and fighting Axel that much more important
. It's purpose was to introduce the concept and world of Kingdom Hearts to the player.

So yeah we are gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.
 
I don't see the point of the MGS: Snake Eater complaint. To me they assumed that you'd played the other games and would know the basic controls. But I am a big MGS fan so I'm biased to defend that one.

Twilight Princess wasn't bad to me but I'm running off of a 6 1/2 year old memory so I can't say for sure without playing it again. I don't remember the beginning with the cat being a pain as cited in the video at least.

Good to hear about Okami (that the intro is skippable in the later ones) since I have the Wii version and have never played it. I need to just get the HD version and play it, hopefully it is skippable if it's supper annoying.
 
Yeah driver is perhaps the perfect answer, I never left that garage and not from a lack of trying hah.

Also lol at all the people getting mad at Dark Souls and MGS 3 being mentioned, they're both great games (mgs3 is perhaps my favourite game ever) but I can kind of see why someone would pick them, DS does throw you into the deep end, someone might be inclined to thinking you need to beat the boss the first time you see him and MGS 3 going into that massive sepia toned fmv of dialogue exposition after the halo jump is an extemely inelegant way of getting the info across, (that I remembered they very wisely didn't put in the demo when I played it before release).
 
Loxley said:
Oh come on, is it really that difficult for some of you to get why the Dark Souls intro isn't great for a lot of people?
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Since you find it so easy, why don't you tell us, because the complaints GT state are bullshit.

GT said:
"with little or no direction on how to operate the controls"
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The game tells you ever single control operation right before you encounter the situation you need to use said control operation.

GT said:
"or where to go"
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Beginning, dead end, shortcut, two locked doors. There is nowhere else to go BUT through the fog door.

Holy shit in a chapel, batman, what more do they want? A FOLLOW prompt? The game to take control and point flashing arrows and freeze time until they press the button the game wants them to press? An FMV showing them how to press 'button' to stab? Fuckin'...

This is why Zelda.

That is the complete sentence.
 
Loxley said:
Oh come on, is it really that difficult for some of you to get why the Dark Souls intro isn't great for a lot of people?
Click to expand...

I think we can agree that its a little hard for "some" people.. i was new to the series though and I had no complaints and I can think of far worse openers.

Sadly there are a lot of classic wrpgs I have not played due to the beginnings. :/.
 
daniels said:
Well i screamed in Reallife "what the fuck" as soon as i saw Dark Souls and closed the site.
Gametrailers lol
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But their complaint is really from an inexperienced gamers angle. He said that Dark Souls doesn't really explain things well. Think of someone playing that or Driver for the the first time ( and having little experience in driving games).
 
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