Comments on: Petroglyph.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:58:06 +0000

The sole exception I can think of is Baldur’s Gate, which lets you blow right by the tutorial and out into open country within about five minutes. But then a lot of people hate Baldur’s Gate for *other* reasons.

By: aosher

aosher — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:59:14 +0000

What is it about RPG openings? I guess it’s the need to add a tutorial level that coheres with the in-game narrative. It’s all very disappointing.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:59:53 +0000

I do try to stick with games that have bad openings. I mean, the only reason I went back to PS:T was because the entire internet was screaming OMG BEST RPG EVER at me, so it is possible for me to horribly misjudge a game based on its opening. As you say, though, it’s not really *my* problem. Games should do as much as they can to hook players in from the get go, and not necessarily in a Revenge of the Sith opening kind of way either. A conversation can be as tense and gripping as an epic space battle, but there needs to be *something* about it that grabs me.

By: innokenti

innokenti — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:08:39 +0000

Rubbish opening are a particularly annoying affliction of video games I think. There’s no shame in tarring a game with the brush of its opening, because a game should hook you in and catch you from the off. If it’s not fun for the the first hour or two or whatever, and fantastic after that, it’s still a significant part being rubbish.

And, to be fair, a great deal of my favourite games have got the opening wrong. Or had little to hook me in. But they did at least have enough promise for me to carry on playing. So stuff that doesn’t draw me in and has little promise of goodness more often than not doesn’t deserve more time.

Trying to think of model punchy opening and there are remarkably few, especially among RPSes. Red Alert 3 actually gives it a good go by throwing out the crazy from the word go, but is mired by other problems. Thief 2 had probably one of the best tutorial/first missions because it was well-balanced for both beginners and those familiar with Thievery. You can get right into the meat of the fun if you know what you’re doing, or get to grips with the basics otherwise.