Seconding Fallout 2. God help you if you sacrificed strength with the intent of using Power Armour to bump it up.
Against all tyrants.Yeah, let's drop you in the middle of the goddamn wilderness with a shitton of bandits, shitty weapons, almost no ammo and absolutely none of the game mechanics that you ABSOLUTELY RELY ON in order to even up the odds.
While I appreciate that game mechanics need to be introduced gradually, Borderlands is a textbook example of how a Forced Tutorial should not be done. The worst thing is that it's not representative. At no point will you ever fight with no shields and no powers beyond the tutorial for any reason other than a Self-Imposed Challenge. There's a difference between introducing game mechanics gradually and forcing you to fight in a way that makes no sense in the rest of the game because key mechanics are simply not present for no good reason. Borderlands does the latter and it's really quite annoying.
The result is a Difficulty Cliff that reminds me of Eve Online. The first few hours in which you play it will involve the game repeatedly humiliating you for what turns out to be no good reason. The result is either that you give up in frustration or by the time you scale the "Difficulty Cliff" and the game finally lets you play with the cool toys, it presents little additional challenge. This is the Sink-or-Swim Mentor approach to game tutorials and is really not a way to make good first impressions.
TSL's opening plays out like a horror film, and horror films are always worse when you know whodunit straight off the bat.
Against all tyrants.KOTOR 2's beginning might've seem more boring to me because they did the beginning so much funner in the first one and it was still fresh in my mind when i played. The first one was a better game, but the second one improved a lot for me after. I was playing the Xbox version which one were you playing
I don't have Kot OR that fresh in my mind, but I remember too much backtracking in Taris.
Oh God yes. Taris was a dreadful bore. Add in the Shoot the Shaggy Dog factor and it becomes interminable on repeat playthroughs.
Persona 3 and Persona 4 Started off as a barely interactive movie but get past the first hour or so and that shit takes off to the point they are some of my favorite games of all time.
edited 15th Jan '11 4:39:17 AM by Raso
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!Perhaps not the best example, but the most recent I can think of: Streets Of Rage/Bare Knuckle III.
The first few levels made me think "SOR 2 but with drab backgrounds, noisy music and annoyingly gimmicky levels." But once you get to Yamato, the quality of the action really picks up.
Also, pretty much any Lionhead game. Black & White 1 and 2 and Fable (haven't played Fable 2 or 3) all have exceedingly long tutorial sequences. It's the worst in Black & White, which is unskippable and treats you like a complete idiot. (You think I need instructions on how to move the damn mouse cursor? Really, game?)
The Darkness. Oh dear crap The Darkness. Loading those shells in for 10 fucking minutes, then not being able to hit a damn thing with it.

You know, the kind of games you suggest people not give up on even if it doesn't look like it will be much at first?
I'm saying Avalon Code. The first couple of dungeons might give the impression that the whole lot is probably just going to be one narrow path. And some players may believe the code system might limit other aspects of the game.
In my opinion, it has a really bad first impression. But before even being half way through it has already become the best DS game I played yet. Even more so than the popular The World Ends With You.
Help?.. please...