I have recently played 3 games that have forced a lengthy, unskippable tutorial section that runs for several hours of the game, just to unlock the most basic functions like buying the items, customizing features, multiplayer, and even 2-player split screen modes.
For 2 of these games (Armored Core 6 and Gran Turismo 7), the major draw for me was the MP and I haven’t even gotten to check out MP yet because it’s locked out until you get passed a certain point in the progression system. Fuckin’ why do any developers do this? I just wanted to play with my sister but we have to get through most of the fucking game before we are allowed to do the multiplayer modes. Such bullshit.
I have uninstalled and refunded games with frustrating tutorials
At this point in life, if a game is too complex for me to understand by simply playing the game organically, I’m going to watch a YouTube video. Reading pop up menus is okay unless they physically lock you out of the game.
I returned a game because it went right into tutorial and story in an alleged “open world” game. When I got out, I you too close to an NPC and back into the story I went! Riders Republic didn’t last 20 minutes with me.
If there is a constant need to watch YouTube videos or look up game guides the days of playing that game ends very quickly. Must be intuitive to play.
I very much disagree. Games like Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld absolutely benefit from both being left to your own devices AND having a repository of information to resort to.
Games with a steep learning curve shouldn’t necessarily lock you into a tutorial, just give me the option and let me fail a few times until I get the hang of things.
Factorio and Stellaris are another 2 great games with steep learning curves. They’re also 2 of my most played games according to steam.
Another commenter mentioned Elite: Dangerous. I have almost 300 hours into this game (rookie numbers for a lot of ED players), and I was still learning brand new mechanics I had no idea were in the game. One of the best experiences I’ve ever had in a game purely because it let me fail and learn on my own, even after I had lots of experience.
Sometimes I feel this, but the opposite is also true. I have a friend who will play a game for less than half an hour, declare it trash, and then complain the entire time because he thinks the mechanics are broken because he never bothered to play the single player mode where the game teaches you how the weapons, vehicles, and planes all work. It makes playing virtually any game with him a total drag unless he actually spends a bit of time in it. And then suddenly, he actually likes it.
He’s declared a bunch of games trash, played them for longer than a few sessions, and then puts 100 hours in it once he’s been forced to actually understand how the game works x3
Subnautica, Deep Rock Galactic, The Forest, Divinity 2: Original Sin, and Baldur’s Gate 3, all trash until he actually put time into them, and then really liked them. Somehow, he put 500 hours into Elite Dangerous, lol.
I am playing Elite Dangerous right now with over 500 hours too. I know all the mechanics since I’ve been playing since beta and saw them as they were added and have even contributed to the wiki.
It is trash. :P
1,041 hours here!
One of the Pokémon games has audio settings behind an unlock.
Ugh, it took me so long to find that when playing Pokémon Sword so I wasn’t deafened by the cries whenever someone Dynamaxed.
Remember when earlier gens locked the run button behind an unlock?
Fuck the running shoes too.
That’s evil
People won’t enjoy a game unless they learn the basic features.
It’s a fine line for devs between teaching the player what they need to know in order to even have a chance at enjoying the game, and jamming it down their throats.
The classic example is the game Portal. It’s a perfect tutorial. The player doesn’t even realize it’s the tutorial.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/analysis-of-game-concepts-and-player-learning-in-portal
I am frustrated with Cities Skylines 2, lately. Text-based tutorial with optional progress checks which is okay, but they pop up as soon as you look at a newly unlocked feature, not necessarily when you are ready to build the feature.
The original Super Mario Brothers’ first level is the best tutorial ever made. It teaches you every function of the game right in that first level, without holding your hand or even telling you it’s a tutorial.
MegaMan Xis what I think of for the ghost tutorial.
Mario, nice name drop. I hadn’t ever thought of that level as a tutorial, yeah it sure is though.
My favorite tutorial was in STALKER. The guy gives you a pistol and tells you good luck.
I guess another example of the Portal technique, where the teaching moments are blended into gameplay, is Cocoon. It takes that concept to an extreme.
Can’t wait for a sequel/DLC tho.
I can’t say I agree with this take.
I’ve played some games where the hero gets all of their tools from the outset, and it ends up being really hard to figure out when to use each one. Comparatively, when you slowly unlock things during tutorials, you’re building a mental framework of how combat should go, and on each unlock, get some time to work out how that fits in.
In fact, it’s something I think is an issue with fighting games and their competitive-only mindset. People play the 20 tutorials in quick sequence, get confused by a Reverse Upper Back-Airdodge-Cancel input that’s only going to happen in high-level play, and feel overwhelmed.
I’m not really talking about powers or skills your character can get; I’m talking like being able to get into multiplayer, or the settings, specific game modes, etc.
Using GT7 as an example again, you can’t even get to the settings page until you have gone through a very niche “tutorial” race mode that is unlike the rest of the game, and also sit through a 20 minute unskippable cutscene (which plays everytime you run the game unless you go into the settings to disable it) before you’re presented with the main menu screen.
In Starfield (and FO4 for that matter) basic game functions are locked behind perks, you need to be like level 30 before you can start playing the game
It felt really odd that the stealth meter, a staple in every Bethesda rpg I’ve played, had to be unlocked with a skill point in Starfield.
I think this makes sense for a RPG, why would a guns blazing character suddenly know how good he was at being stealthy? Bethesda is trying to do undo what they did with Skyrim with the hero that is a good at everything.
I replayed FF 13 a while ago, I was absolutely shocked how long it took to be able to customize role settings for the party members.
20 hours before you’re allowed 3 people as well.
That was my main complaint with the game. I didn’t mind starting limited and building up to full control, but it should have taken half of the time. And some of the early pairings were pretty rough to use without their full kit.
I have to say that this highly depends on the type of games you like, and if the unlocks are well designed into the story.
In general most of the types mentioned are cashgrabs, but I enjoyed an indie game called Evoland. You can ‘unlock’ better graphics and audio as part of the game, watching the evolution of gaming
Yeah, local multiplayer or custom hosted multiplayer should be unlocked right away. Online matched multiplayer can be skill/tutorial gated just fine.
can suck my nuts
Present them.
Get suckin’
Are you one of said games?
It’s from South Park. Cartman says suck my balls, and Ms Chokesondiks replies “present them, and I’ll suck 'em”.
In ac6 it’s about the inventory and not the gameplay. Before the multiplayer unlocks you simply don’t have enough stuff to go online to fight.
Yes, it would be nice if they had some kind of fixed inventory multiplayer mode, but the main game is about getting stuff and early on you don’t really have enough for a decent fight.
100% this. AC PvP would be awful for a new player using the limited early game parts/weapons. Think MMO level 50 vs level 5.
Yes an argument can be made to still allow it so people can fight their friends early… but a lot of people would just go straight into it and just be turned off to it altogether.
I don’t even remember anything in AC6 I would consider a tutorial. Unless he means the first 5 minute mission.
OP, the only multiplayer you missed playing with your sister was pvp, and you would have been absolutely shat on if you went into pvp. And you would shit up the games for other people too, because no one wants to fight a bunch of noobs all in the same starting gear who don’t know how to move (or worse, have them on your team).
Get bored with games SO quickly. Part of how to keep interest is figuring out on my own how the game works. And I can, on my own, figure out games, software, very quickly.
Too many phone games try to make you sit thru insufferable tedious tutorials. So you’re not only depriving me the chance to figure out on my own, you’re also insulting my intelligence. Any game does this, instant uninstall.
I find figuring out the controls the least interesting part of any game. I would be pissed if I played a game and couldn’t unlock multiplayer without hours of play, but I’ve not played a game where the tutorial was so long that I was really bothered by it, even if I found it completely unnecessary.
I thought you were talking about mobile games or something locked behind a paywall before I read further and realized you’re mad that multi-player is “locked” behind someone completing a tutorial. I haven’t played either of the two games you mentioned by name but I would imagine that they are complicated/unique enough where a tutorial is warranted. It’s kind of annoying if you just want to hop in and go, sure, but if “most of the fucking game” content consists of the beginning tutorial then you bought the wrong game to begin with.
GT7 isn’t any more complicated than GT1-6. To have an unskippable tutorial in the umpteenth installment of a game go over the basic controls and mechanics of racing a car is madness. They don’t actually give you any tutorial on the stuff that should have it, like manually manipulating the engine tuning, but they have several points of progression to familiarize you with the brakes and gas and steering. Which anyone who has driven a car or played a racing game can very much figure the fuck out without a tutorial.
Tutorials are designed for the dumbest person out there who has zero idea what they’re doing. So in this case someone who has never driven a car or played a racing game before. If a tutorial told you “this works like the last game, do the same” it’s obviously bad design. Yeah that’s a super small subset of the people playing the game but it’s better to overexplain than underexplain. But in this case yeah they should 100% just have a separate tutorial mode section for people who need it, having that REQUIRED in a racing game is ridiculous. I haven’t played racing games in years but last I remember that’s what used to be the norm.
I mean, the easy option is just selecting your level of experience at the beginning and offering experienced players an option to skip the tutorial.
Based on what you and others are eating about GT7, I’m not sure this will totally apply, but in my experience it seems like games will do things like this deter smurfs from making a fresh account and destroying low ranked players in MP. Not saying that is a good way to handle smurfs, or that these games are doing it for that specific reason, but might be something to consider.
But on fresh installs? That’s where it really sucks
Bah fuck that. If you can’t drop 45 min into learning mechanics I don’t want to play with you.
Gee it’s a driving game I wonder what the mechanics are
I can agree with you on GT7, but what about AC?
No idea about that one
Well that’s the point. Nobody wants to play MP with somebody who’s figuring out the game and can’t be bothered to do so in SP.
My point was that the same reasoning doesn’t work for all
My point was that the same reasoning doesn’t work for all
Yeah but you’re holding up AC6 and MP as an example, and the reason there is fairly obvious, is all I’m saying
The OP talked about three games, two specifically for mp. One was armored core and one was a driving game
Natural selection 2 forces tutorials before unlocking multi-player, but it’s absolutely needed for that game. It’s also not that long, if you can’t spend 15 minutes learning the basics of the game you are useless anyway.
