The lost art of tutorials

johnny_ultimate

A subject that I personally think is quite interesting: what are the good and bad tutorials of games? 'Tutorials, pah!' you might say. But the best ones teach you the basics, sometimes without you even knowing it! Some good and bad ones:

Good:
Deus Ex - know what I like about this? It's separate from the rest of the game :pac: Play it or don't play it, whatever. And that's to be welcomed! You can go back to it if you need, or skip it if you're playing second time around. Brilliant.

Halo - so subtle I didn't even know about it 'til I was told. All Halo games feature a moment at the start of the game where you're asked to look up or down. And it decides whether to invert your controls or not based on that.

Uncharted 2 - teaching you the basic climbing skills while you dangle off a cliff on a collapsing train? Yes!

Rock Band series - the most in-depth tutorials I've ever come across. Teach you everything you need to know, and much more than that too.

Bad:
Bangai-O HD - the game that brought this topic to mind. For a game so spectacularly hard, throwing you in the deep end with nowt but some text files and ineffectual 'training levels' doesn't really help. Great game, **** tutorial.

Any game that forces you to consult a manual - If you're still scratching your head after a few hours play, then the developers haven't done their job right! Subtlety is key sometimes.

Dragon Age Origins and any game that forces you to create a class before you've taken a step forward. A tutorial in an RPG should give you a taster of different combat styles before making you commit to one. Any game that does otherwise is forcing you to make the most important choice of the game without the knowledge to do so. Boo!

Any other examples of the best and worst of the tutorials? You may hate 'em, but we need the bastards!

hevsuit

Portal 2: A Tutorial

Captain Chaos

I remember playing the tutorial on Thief for the first time, amazing game. Using shadows and sound to hide.

Also Falcon 4, 26 training missions but you still needed the 600 page manual beside you to get through them on realistic settings. Then the Free Falcon mod with the 15min tutorial on how to start the jet up from cold, matched lately with the DCS Black Shark and A-10C sims.

I love my complex games.

K.O.Kiki

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution.

Taught you intricacies of the game engine which would've taken the average gamer AGES to understand by themselves.

Basically, EVERYTHING HERE (actually, more than is covered on the VFDC wiki) in bite-sized chunks.

Comparing VF4's tutorial to *any* fighter since is like comparing a 4yr BSc to Senior Infants.


*edit*
Also I love how TIE Fighter eased me with training missions into learning how to handle over 40 keys for space combat.

Zeouterlimits

Do hate how SF has little to no tutorial. Practising moves does not help me learn how to fight an opponent.
Made it impossible for me to get into SF4, as none of my friends were playing.

Shiminay

There seems to have been a shift in recent years to almost do away with tutorials and integrate them into the first mission where they're also setting up the story. Bulletstorm comes to mind, they run through the basics and unleash a lot of plot on you in the process.

I'm not sure it always works - as an experienced gamer I find it annoying that I'm being asked to "Use the right stick to look around" or "press SPACE to jump" but when it's integrated in a suitable or funny way (

Portal 2 "OK, that's jumping, try to talk" springs to mind

), you chuckle along with it and think of the n00bs who're having their gaming cherry popped with this experience and wonder how I'd have felt if this was my first time looking at a game

Raze_them_all

WORST TUTORIAL EVER=FINAL FANTASY 13


/thread

nyarlothothep

I thought the tutorial in Dragonage was one of the best I've played in that it really didn't feel anything like a tutorial at all. Although I did know what type of character I wanted to be, did Baldurs Gate not force the player to choose aswell at the beginning or maybe I'm remembering it incorrectly?

sarumite

I would like a tutorial to not only tell me how functionally to play the game, but also how to actually play the game. This is especially true for RPG's where if you play your first time you may look at all the different skills etc and not really develop a balanced character. As well as telling me that X is attack, also explain the difference between a tank and a DPS etc. Perhaps it doens't need to be integrated into the main game, but it would be nice for a noob etc not to go 10 hours into a game and realise that their character is totally unbalanced.

Pyr0

First tutorial that comes to mind is the Age of Empires 2 tutorial campaign. Very nice way to get settled into the all around tactics of the game before moving on to the more challenging campaigns.

Retr0gamer

I remember when games had well thought out controls and didn't need a tutorial. Then again I also remember getting stuff in games because I didn't read the manual so didn't know how to pull off a move. However I would prefer if games would stop babying the player. Press RT to shoot. No **** sherlock.

sarumite

Anno 1701 on the Nintendo DS has a pretty good tutorial. There is kind of a 'single player' mode where there are lot of different objectives which are achieved by learning new mechanics. Playing it didn't feel too much like a tutorial.

Korvanica

Raze_them_all wrote: »

WORST GAME EVER=FINAL FANTASY 13


/thread

fyp

sarumite wrote: »

Anno 1701 on the Nintendo DS has a pretty good tutorial. There is kind of a 'single player' mode where there are lot of different objectives which are achieved by learning new mechanics. Playing it didn't feel too much like a tutorial.

I found Anno 1404s tutorial quite good too.

Retr0gamer

Has anyone played Fire Emblem on the GBA?

I remember playing that for hours getting through Lyndis' story and being really satisfied with the game after beating her story. Thought the game was over only to find out it was only the tutorial and a side story to the main one. Value for money right there!

johnny_ultimate

Dragon Quest IV does something similar - introduces you to all the characters and mechanics in 2-3 hour segments before it all comes together. It's a load of small stories that eventually builds up, and one I should finish at some point :pac:

Also, I think achievements and trophies can act as tutorials of a sort. Whether accidental - must have done something important there - or by checking through the list, they can introduce you to mechanics and how to utilise them effectively. Whatever you think about the concept behind achievements, for me the main benefit of them is to help suggest different playing styles.

Oh, and as much as I love Demon Souls, I wish there had have been something to tell me I needed an item to use magic earlier in the game

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Oh, and as much as I love Demon Souls, I wish there had have been something to tell me I needed an item to use magic earlier in the game

It's called the manual :P. Anyone stepping into Demon's Souls without the wiki is asking for trouble.

DirtyBollox

just bought AC: Brotherhood and it eased you into it whilst reminding you about the storyline, also when you are in the animus and on the loading screens it has tips on the screen to also remind you how to do stuff.

long boring tutorials where it is has a pop-up every 3 seconds annoy the crap out of me and i usually prefer to skip them when i can and learn as i play.

sarumite

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's called the manual :P. Anyone stepping into Demon's Souls without the wiki is asking for trouble.

Thats true unless like me you imported Demons souls from Tiawan as at the time it wasn't out in either America or Europe so the manual was all in Chinese....I don't know how to read Chinese

Retr0gamer

I got an asian version as well. There was a tiny leaflet in the box that explained the controls in english. The rest was all chinese. It was as useful as a cock flavoured lollipop. Thank god I was a little late and the wiki was up and running.

o1s1n

Raze_them_all wrote: »

WORST TUTORIAL EVER=FINAL FANTASY 13


/thread

Never in my whole life have I given up on a game before the tutorial ended.

But then, never in my whole live have I spent 15 hours+ on a bloody tutorial!

Pain in the arse.

In general, I hate tutorials. Just let me in and at it. No better way to learn than to do.

super_furry

Nothing annoys me more than the unskippable tutorials that plague the start of every single FPS released. "Use left thumbstick to move". Cheers, I couldn't have worked that one out.

ríomhaire

Portal 2 has the best tutorial ever.

Press space to say apple.

Sofiztikated

I loved the tutorial in Settlers 3. I used to have a demo on the PC, yonks ago, and only recently picked up a copy of it to realise the demo was the tutorial. Twas a good 45 minutes of play too.

Dyr

farenheit: they had some annoying german guy who wrote the script take you through the tutorial in some sort of behind-the-scenes-with-troy-mcclure schtick


I hated him and wanted to shoot him :mad:

ReacherCreature

Tutorials died when they made them videos. You had to learn via a video. Pathetic.

Recently playing Ace Combat: Fires of Liberation, you had to play the first mission, defend your homeland, face stiff opposition. For a newbie this is a huge order, the tutorial came after the first level. Just as well that I played the previous games non-stop.

Banjo Fella

There's a great, subtly incorporated tutorial in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The first town features a little theme park which introduces some of the main tools you have at your disposal for dealing with the game's many block-pushing/log-rolling puzzles. Conveniently, the progression through the theme park also mirrors and summarises the main events of the first two games! You even fight the "Dim Dragon" - a rubbish but appropriately named cardboard cut-out of the final boss from the previous game. Ah, Camelot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzPwwEQ3IIM

JohnMarston

Batman: Arkham Asylum throws you right into the action, drip feeding you the controls, weaving it seamlessly into the story.

Blowfish

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Dragon Age Origins and any game that forces you to create a class before you've taken a step forward. A tutorial in an RPG should give you a taster of different combat styles before making you commit to one. Any game that does otherwise is forcing you to make the most important choice of the game without the knowledge to do so. Boo!

Oblivion did this well, it introduced you to the basics of swordplay, archery, stealth and magic while in the initial sewers then gave you the option to choose when you wandered into the open world.

Another one in the 'bad' category would be Europa Universalis III. Given the depth of the game a decent tutorial should be there to make the learning curve easier. The one that's there though is pretty crap as it doesn't tell you about half of the features and in my case would constantly crash the game at a certain point making it un-completeable.

Retr0gamer

System Shock 2 did the character creation really well. Gave you a chance to play with the advanced class abilities before choosing as an 'employment' survey and then you chose your starting stats by taking tours of duty.

Dyr

JohnMarston wrote: »

Batman: Arkham Asylum throws you right into the action, drip feeding you the controls, weaving it seamlessly into the story.

I hated it, i dont usually play xbox games so i was like "ye press what now? Oh look I'm dead, thanks"

landsleaving

Bambi wrote: »

farenheit: they had some annoying german guy who wrote the script take you through the tutorial in some sort of behind-the-scenes-with-troy-mcclure schtick


I hated him and wanted to shoot him :mad:

Wasn't that David Cage himself? He's quite irritating alright, and it was a *very* bad tutorial.


I usually dislike the long winded tutorials that games have now, especially first person games, but Fallout 3's worked really well. The way it slwoly built your character as you grew up in the vault tied tutorial, character development and plot together brilliantly.

Shiminay

Bambi wrote: »

I hated it, i dont usually play xbox games so i was like "ye press what now? Oh look I'm dead, thanks"

Well that's your problem right there Batman Arkham Asylum was a phenomenal game (MetaCritic score of 92) and quite easy to pick up with I thought. The controls worked very well for anyone who's played any kind of 3rd person action game (like Assassins Creed or Prince of Persia or even, to a certain extent, older games like Tomb Raider).

Retr0gamer

While I did really enjoy Arkham Asylum I think some of the gushing over the game is a bit over the top. Great game, well worth playing but it did have some problems. I can see how some people could hate it.

sarumite

Retr0gamer wrote: »

While I did really enjoy Arkham Asylum I think some of the gushing over the game is a bit over the top. Great game, well worth playing but it did have some problems. I can see how some people could hate it.

I agree. The lacklustre boss battles is an exampe.. I hated the killer croc one.

Retr0gamer

The worst was the last boss. Joker mutating into a monstrosity? Was almost fooled into thinking I was playing a japanese game with a silly anime storyline

Mr. K

Retr0gamer wrote: »

While I did really enjoy Arkham Asylum I think some of the gushing over the game is a bit over the top. Great game, well worth playing but it did have some problems. I can see how some people could hate it.

"Hate it" is a little strong, there was nothing game-breakingly bad. Wasn't crazy about the final boss, but it didn't ruin the game by any stretch!