All Paradox Interactive games ever created 😂
The worst I had was Hearts Of Iron IV. I played a 2h tutorial only to not understand a single thing the real game threw at me afterwards...
You gotta just start with an easy country. The CK2 community used to call Ireland “Tutorial Island” since it was low key and a good place to learn the mechanics, same with Spain in EU, or Belgium in Vicky.
About what Hearts of Iron? I tried that game once (3 or 4, don’t remember) and basically gave up when the tutorial ended and I still had no idea how to do anything.
It’s not nearly as complex as it initially looks imo, but I also play with a million mods some of which make the game needlessly complicated so maybe the vanilla game just looks simple in comparison to me now lol
Also, the tutorial has suffered bitrot quite a lot. The game has seen many significant changes since release, but the tuturial was only partially updated to reflect them.
I come back after a major patch or every 6 months and its all changed again! Which is good as it keeps it fresh, but the tutorial is very lacking on the changes.
I still don’t know how to play hearts of iron IV. I’d love to learn but I’m a trial by fire learner. It’s really hard for me to make it through a 2hr YouTube tutorial with monotonous robot voices.
Exo-Primal. Seriously it is really, really fun. But the tutorial is awful. It’s so slow-paced and then it takes a few hours of playing to really have the game show you what it is. By hour 7 or so though i was hooked and it’s just kept delivering.
Does anyone remember Driver on the, I think, PS1? I mean the tutorial wasn’t awful because it’s irrelevant but because it’s notoriously difficult to beat.
I didn’t find it difficult so much as frustrating when I would do what it asked, but it wouldn’t register until I did it like 10 times.
Elite Dangerous had a similar tutorial where you had to run through a checklist of things to complete it and move on to the main game. When I first got it back in beta, it was not optional and it also wasn’t clear on how to do some of the shit it asked you to do, forcing you to check the controls constantly. It’s an optional thing now, and there is also the option of running through the lift off check list every single time you launch your ship. Pointless and tedious, but adds some immersion.
Guild Wars 2 falls into this category for me. Being from the boom of MMORPGs I’m not sure if the deva figured everyone would just get it kr what. The game has a lot of odd choices in places and it does a poor job explaining those choices or even pointing them out.
The Darkness was pretty decent with tutorials, except for one particular part that involved moving a giant bell out of the way. A friend of mine who was watching me play at the time finally ended up telling me how to do it, because up to that point in the game - and this is a pretty far part into it, not like towards the beginning where tutorials usually happen - this mechanic was never mentioned or used at all. Even in the sequence of moving the bell (I assume to learn the skill??? idk), there are no prompts given to tell you how. It was the only frustrating part for me in an otherwise really cool and fun game.
Voices of the Void. Even though it does talk about the basics of the game, it really didn’t make the important aspects of these basics that aren’t known from other games clear at all.
It’s a demo, however, so that’s excusable, even if the tutorial was actually reworked too… I dunno why you need to launch it in order to get into the game though. :D
Dragon’s Dogma, at least if you’re trying to play as a mage. How do I target my spells? How do I even switch to the new spells I bought? That was a trip to the wiki and then r/DragonsDogma for me.
Diablo 2. The extent of which you’re given instruction is “here’s a stick, go whack stuff.”
Stat points? Better hope that you get it right the first time - you get three resets per character (unless you get a Token of Absolution which is a super late game item). Hell, before a certain patch this wasn’t even a thing. Do it right the first time or you’re restarting.
Same goes for skill points. Wanna put one point into everything, try it out before committing? Well those are now wasted points. Stats and skills get reset at the same time though, so you’re not entirely screwed.
Rune words! The game tells you literally nothing about rune words and yet no build is complete without them. You get three runes that make up a rune word in Act 5 if you complete an optional quest. You’re not told what to do with them, or that they must be in the right order (which the game does not provide), or that they must go in a normal, non-magic shield with exactly three sockets. Or that if you imbue the item after building the rune word you lose the rune word’s effects. Put them in the wrong order? Bricked it - you cannot remove gems or runes from sockets. Or you can, but it destroys the socketed gems/runes. And you can only do so using…
Cube recipes. You get a cube, you use it a few times in the game. You’re never told that it can be used to upgrade items, combine gems and runes, repair gear, craft items, or take you to the secret cow level.
If you never did extensive research on Diablo 2 before and while playing, you would be playing maybe a quarter of the actual game.
I am so glad I read this, because I've been thinking about trying out Diablo 2 lol. Looks like when I finally get around to it, I'll be doing a lot of research.
Add comment