10 Video Game Openings Designed To Make You Quit
No game should demand twenty-hours of work before it becomes good.
The beginning of any game is supposed to seduce you into wanting to play more - sometimes at the expense of, well, literally everything else.
Discovering the underwater city of Rapture, climbing up a train that is dangling off the edge of a cliff and poking out the eyes of a god are prime examples of video games wowing us from the very beginning. They entice us bloodthirsty escapists with horror, action and gore shrouded in mystery, suspense and cinematic direction.
Perfect.
However, while these types of openings make us feel comfortable with our £40 investment, the boring, confusing and simply unpleasant introductions found in some games just fill you with regret. Immediately.
They challenge your resolve as if to see how much you're willing to tolerate before giving up and giving into a trade-in or friendly swap.
If a game fails in making you want to play more or to see what will happen next, then you have every right to give it away. Life is short, time is fleeting, and when there are a plethora of other titles available, some openings are so bad they genuinely feel designed to make you tap out.
10. Heavy Rain
Not every game has to open with a jaw-dropping set piece, and the slow start to Heavy Rain does succeed in creating an obvious juxtaposition in father Ethan’s life after his son, Jason, gets walloped by an apparently blind driver, but pacing becomes a clear issue almost immediately.
After waking up in bed, you are left to wander about Ethan’s home with no idea as to what you’re supposed to be doing. You brush Ethan’s teeth, watch the camera linger on his butt as he takes a shower and even do his job for him (the only chore you don’t do is file taxes). Oh, and just to add to the annoyance of completing mundane activities in a video game marketed with sex, murder and mystery, Ethan never stops bragging about how perfect his life is.
All the juice drinking and tidying up toys is unnecessary filler. It doesn’t develop character, it makes players disgruntled, and it’s a list of deeds that can be ignored in favour of watching the clock tick by. A tedious beginning to a game that only gets good once Ethan's life encounters some monumental tragedy.