I was reading an article at the weekend and a discussion point that often gets brought up about best game openings. But it got me thinking, what are some game openings you have thought were particularly poor, even if it's from a great game.

One that springs to mind for me is Red Dead Redemption 2. I know many will disagree with that but I just found the first two chapters to be a bit of a slog, just lots of walking around listening to characters talk and not much action. It put me off so much that I actually stopped playing the game and it wasn't until I returned to the game over lockdown and pushed through those first two chapters that the pacing began to pick up in both story and action and I ended up loving the game by the end.

Skyward Sword I remember taking about 2 hours before you get to the first dungeon

My view is that the opening hours of most games are among the worst hours of most games. The start of most single player games are full of cutscenes, exposition, tutorials and gameplay that has fewer options/mechanics in play compared with later on in the game

That's not to say those are bad things, but generally if you have a 10 hour game, the first hour or two will probably be some of the worst hours of that playthrough

Older games get more to the action/point so this doesn't apply as much to those, but for a lot of games from the last 15 years or so I think that's true

oni-link wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 1:32 pm Skyward Sword I remember taking about 2 hours before you get to the first dungeon

My view is that the opening hours of most games are among the worst hours of most games. The start of most single player games are full of cutscenes, exposition, tutorials and gameplay that has fewer options/mechanics in play compared with later on in the game

That's not to say those are bad things, but generally if you have a 10 hour game, the first hour or two will probably be some of the worst hours of that playthrough

Older games get more to the action/point so this doesn't apply as much to those, but for a lot of games from the last 15 years or so I think that's true

Yeah I would agree, I always mentally prepare myself to be somewhat disappointed by a games first hour or so and try to remember not to abandon a game if that time playing doesn't click with me.

Okami had a similar problem - took far too long to take the training wheels off.

Driver always sticks out to me - that 'tutorial' level was the most difficult part of the game!

The Witcher 2 comes to mind. The game doesn't do much to ease you in, either in terms of gameplay or the story, so I had no idea what I was doing or what was going on. I remember fighting a guy on a tower, trying random actions and picking dialogue choices without context. There is a tutorial but you have to access it separately from the main menu, I think. This was years ago too, so it might've been my own cluelessness, hard to say. But either way it took me a while to settle into it as I had to put all the pieces together myself, and not in a good, mysterious sort of way.

Truk_Kurt wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 9:22 amOne that springs to mind for me is Red Dead Redemption 2. I know many will disagree with that but I just found the first two chapters to be a bit of a slog, just lots of walking around listening to characters talk and not much action. It put me off so much that I actually stopped playing the game and it wasn't until I returned to the game over lockdown and pushed through those first two chapters that the pacing began to pick up in both story and action and I ended up loving the game by the end.

Ha, I loved this opening! Reminded me of The Hateful Eight, which is my favourite Tarantino film.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is a famous one. I know people who will keep a save file right after it so they can skip the opening on future replays.

Nier: Automata has to be up there too purely for the fact that it takes roughly an hour before you can save for the first time.

The Persona series is particularly bad for this. I know these games operate as visual novels too, but when I played 4 for the first time I think it was about three or four hours before I was allowed to control a character's movement. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it was a frustrating experience. Let me at least do something in between extreme exposition drops.

Seph wrote: ↑January 30th, 2024, 12:17 pm The Persona series is particularly bad for this. I know these games operate as visual novels too, but when I played 4 for the first time I think it was about three or four hours before I was allowed to control a character's movement. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it was a frustrating experience. Let me at least do something in between extreme exposition drops.

Oh god yeah, the opening of P4G I played on Vita dragged on for soooooo long. Just wandering round that village, it was ages till the first battle.

All Pokemon games from the 3DS era right up to roughly Sword and Shield had an awful habit of railroading the first 5 hours of the game, with Gen 6 & 7 constantly ripping control from the user to show mechanics the player would've probably long since figured out. The Meowth cry from Gen 7 still gives me shudder as you're constantly forced to listen to it from unskippable cutscene to the next Clockwork Orange style.

Witcher 2 is a great shout.

Metal Gear 5: Phantom Pain is just cutscences long corridors for ages. Then a stupid flying whale turns up. Takes ages to get to the (good) core gameplay loop.

TheEmailer wrote: ↑February 4th, 2024, 9:33 pm Metal Gear 5: Phantom Pain is just cutscences long corridors for ages. Then a stupid flying whale turns up. Takes ages to get to the (good) core gameplay loop.

I loved that opening! Pure Kojima over the top silliness