First impressions are everything, and if you are without expectations and an open mind, developers must do everything in their power to attract you and make you invest in their game. If you are truly excited for a specific game release, a sudden collapse can be devastating. Starting a game you were looking forward to and then facing a very bad opening can deter players before they have a chance to see the real potential.
Whether the game is good or bad in the end, the beginning or tutorial should not make players feel frustrated. It may seem simple, but there are many things that can go wrong in the first 60 minutes.
There can be serious pacing issues or disappointing gameplay sections that shatter our expectations. There may be extremely bad opening scenes, or perhaps an endless set of them, making us feel like we are watching a movie rather than playing a game. There are many ways to crush excitement before things truly begin.
The games on this list have annoyed players in one way or another, leaving a bad taste that the rest of the game had to work hard to correct.
Imperial Prison – The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
When it comes to epic games with great openings, no game remains in memory like Skyrim. A botched execution ends with fangs and fire breath from a dragon; it was an exciting start that quickly immersed players in the game.
This response could be due to its predecessor, whose beginning was less thrilling. Elder Scrolls titles are rare, and when they do appear, players feel the new release is definitely a significant upgrade over the previous one. After Morrowind, fans were eager to see how a completely new Elder Scrolls would look like.
How grand and bold could the game become with Xbox 360 and PS3? The cinematic opening of Oblivion, soaring above Cyrodiil, stirred our anticipation.
But it wasn’t a great start when the game begins in a fairly regular prison dungeon. Sure, the graphics leap was noticeable, but even the dark and foreboding dungeon remained just that, a dark and foreboding dungeon. It was a long, slow, linear journey that betrayed our enthusiasm for choosing a direction and venturing into the world.
When you finally see that beautiful blue sky, Oblivion truly starts, but this 45-minute introduction is certainly not the giant leap players were hoping for.
Endless Cinematics – Yakuza: Like A Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon offers a fantastic starting point for new players, completely reshaping the series. The game not only introduces a new direction for the series from the usual brawler style to JRPG, it also presents a new hero to replace the legend Kazuma Kiryu. It is not surprising that this level of change raised concerns in the minds of Yakuza fans.
However, some struggled with these changes, along with the resemblance, as Like a Dragon’s plot starts with the protagonist Ichiban Kasuga bearing the consequences of a crime and getting imprisoned; a plot that has been used multiple times in the series already.
While there were devoted fans upset for various reasons, Like a Dragon also raised questions among new players on what they got themselves into during the first two chapters. It takes a full three hours of cinematic scenes to get to the third chapter, where players are finally given full control of the game. And until then, there is a lot of interrupted exposition sometimes for linear exploration and relatively simple battles.
Fortunately, those three hours are worth it in the end, as Yakuza: Like a Dragon succeeds in delivering an exciting story on both the mechanical and narrative levels, with an extended opening.
Poor CGI – Snatcher
Thanks to the overwhelming success of the Metal Gear series, many players may not be familiar with Kojima’s intriguing works in his early days.
The game Snatcher, released only outside Japan on Sega CD, has a wonderfully consistent tone. It blends ideas from Blade Runner, Terminator, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers in a game that feels like the foundations of Kojima’s future success. Perfectly balancing vibrant neon colors, dark and eerie plot twists, it still retains the charm of early 90s adventure games that is hard to deny.
When the game was ported to PlayStation and Sega Saturn, an extra scene was added before the start of the game. It seems that the enthusiastic developers were so eager for the idea of a three-dimensional motion video that they couldn’t retract and see what they had created. The resulting 90 seconds are not only inappropriate in tone for Snatcher, but are likely the worst piece of CG you will ever see.
Like many of Kojima’s works, Snatcher is a sad homage to American cinema, so playing the game to see Weeble characters resembling Gillian and Jamie just robs the game of its greatness. And when the dedicated Japanese fans who bought a copy to support this neglected game saw this patronizing of human essence, the result was discouraging.
Disappointing Introduction – Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings
Witcher III: Wild Hunt was a huge success that didn’t waste time in starting the events, especially compared to its predecessor. What really annoys in the introduction of Witcher 2 is that it hides the true potential of the game behind a completely boring start. Massive amounts of exposition and conversation options make players feel like Witcher has completely changed its genre compared to its predecessor. Geralt feels less like a monster slayer and more like a character in a simulation of a fictional life.
The game drags in its opening hours to a point of boredom, which is a real problem because beyond this part lies an amazing experience to be had. Tutorials can be a tough thing to manage, but someone on the Witcher 2 team should have thought that the game could benefit from giving players at least some direction. Any activity that happens in the opening hours varies in difficulty, meaning the time spent in the slow beginning of the game feels wasted when you cannot surpass the early challenges.
Combat in Witcher 2 in general is a task worth overcoming, but transitioning from endless cutscenes to engaging fights from groups is enough to completely deter some players.
Where’s Sora? – Kingdom Hearts II
The melding of familiar Final Fantasy elements and classic Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts was a resounding success. And what was even better is that many who bought the game because of these elements were later drawn into the story of the Keyblade warrior Sora and his friends. When the first game ended with an exciting conclusion, fans had to wait three years for the next installment.
However, before they could get back on track, Kingdom Hearts II severely slowed down players’ progress with an introduction that created confusion and frustration for a large number of people. Suddenly, Sora was nowhere to be found, and instead, we were playing as an alternative character with blonde hair named Roxas, who didn’t have much to do.
As players sat and ate ice cream all day, they wondered why this kid was dreaming of Sora and why they weren’t playing the game they had waited so long for.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if the introduction was quick, but this opening chapter extends for about three hours. More than two hours of that were meaningless cutscenes at the end, even when we later find out that Roxas is the “nobody” of Sora – created when Sora lost his heart in the first game.
Just hurry up and tell me when I can spend time with Mulan, please!