If you set to make a list of what is most annoyed by gamers, then the top 10 will probably be monotonous training levels that cannot be missed. The games of almost any genre suffer from this disease: the fans of the shooters each time “learn” to squat and recharge, and Pokemon lovers, opening a new game, hear something like “And now let's know how to handle the pokeball and catch your first Pokemon!".
Do the developers understand how players relate to attempts to explain to them the basics of the gameplay? Surely yes. This is evidenced by at least how much forces some of them are invested in the creation of non -standard and inventive tutorials.
Let's remember a dozen games in which I don't want to skip the training level at all.
Super Metroid
The introductory video at the beginning of the game also matters, because it shows several useful techniques
Classic move: to build training so that we do not even guess that this is training. Super Metroid It begins with the heroine receives an alarm and goes to the aid of the space station. Upon arrival there, we get to the usual level – except that everything happens on it a little slower than later in the main game.
We slowly make our way through the corridors of the station, overcome simple obstacles and gradually begin to understand the device of the local map. We manage to relax and believe that nothing particularly dangerous is threatened with us – and then suddenly everything changes: a fire -breathing dragon attacks! Right in the heat of the fight against the boss, you have to quickly learn everything: jump to evade, shoot in different directions, shoot during a jump, dodge during shooting ..
The danger does not disappear with the death of the boss: now we have to flee from the dying station, and the road back is already the same as all other “normal” levels of Super Metroid. In this short adventure, the authors of the game without a single word manage to teach us the main thing that is required for survival: not to relax for a minute and always be prepared for danger.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
We still do not know how Drake got into this train and what led to a crash, but it does not matter
The similar scheme acts and Uncharted 2. The game begins with the fact that Drake comes to his senses in the train car, which is about to break off the cliff, and he needs at all costs and get out of it as soon as possible. Time is running out, so you need to act quickly and accurately: we jump here, cling to these seats, pull ourselves up, go around the corner, perfectly, rest, further, further! If we manage to figure out that we got to the training level, there is still no time to be indignant – on the contrary, we eagerly cling to every new hint and use it without hesitation, because life is at stake!
The creators built this tutorial with filigree accuracy: newcomers will definitely cope if they try, but experienced players will have to slightly strain. In the first fragments with shootings, users are clearly given a head start: here the hero has more time to aiming than in a real battle. But by the time the plot will reach real battles, the players will already get used to the management.
As a result, thanks to the creative approach and thorough study, the usual tutorial turned into one of the most spectacular and tense episodes of the series Uncharted. In addition, he immediately shows what level of quality is capable of Naughty Dog – And this is a good incentive to pass the game to the end.
Tomb Raider
Croft family estate was returned to Shadow of the Tomb Raider , but not as a training level, but as a flashback
It is still unknown what is worse: non -permanent tutorials or training, which takes place in a separate, specially designed lifeless location. In the end, we want to play the game – why are you holding us in this sump?
But a refutation will be found for any negative example. Croft family estate in the series Tomb Raider – In fact, the usual training level, and it was in the first part. But the opportunity to study a huge house, admire the decoration and relics and find the secrets was attractive, and in the next two parts this location developed and expanded.
The generic estate of the Light of British Archeology in Tomb Raider 2 and ** Tomb Raider 3 ** crammed with hidden passes, capabilities and tests. Including not the most obvious: for example, locked in the freezer of the butler Winston. And the final can be a training site in the yard: to pass it, not only excellent management, but also considerable speed will be required.
Dark Souls
This is how real masters do it
Dark Souls, The incredible complexity of which even gave rise to a separate game squeal, immediately falls on the beginner all his trump cards. Behind the first door the player literally falls on his head … The boss is a demon of refuge. A freshly built hero in rags and with a broken sword will almost guaranteed to die in the very first seconds, barely managing to scratch the enemy.
Insidious developers give the player the only, but the most valuable lesson: for each fight, you need to prepare, getting skills, practicing evasion and choosing equipment. That is why the demon of refuge is the only boss from which they simply allow you to escape.
Over time, after thousands of trials and attempts, the players found a way to kill the training boss, using only starting gifts. And especially skillful fighters who perfectly studied tactics defeated him even with a wreckage of the sword, using evasion and parrying to the maximum.
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Fallout 3
For high -speed Fallout 3, players are a lot of things to envelop and miss, but the first level is necessary. Literally
From Fallout 3 We were waiting for a lot, because from the moment the classical cult Fallout 2 Ten years have passed at that time. And fans of the original series, the new version of the wasteland basically disappointed. But in addition to the lost atmosphere of the original dilogy and the boring story campaign in it was something truly new: the first chapter. The training level, which was so lacking in the first parts.
Players begin their way literally with diapers: in the role of a small child, a new resident of asylum learns to walk and interact with the environment, gradually understands dialogue mechanics and meets the combat system. At the same time, he is shown how the shelter works, how the local community works and why life there is not as rainbow as in New Rino.
And in the final you have to go through a real test for career guidance, which determines the key skills of the hero. But if the result does not suit, it can be changed – if you agree with the teacher! Here you have the first lesson of diplomacy.
Assassin’s Creed II
The second Assassin’s Creed – Another game that begins with the birth of the protagonist. The player is offered to get comfortable in the body of a newborn: to move his feet, hands, head … This fragment, albeit touching, but very short, and we are unlikely to be attached to our future hero. But the local tutorial consists of two parts, and immediately after that we have to survive the escape from the laboratory.
All this episode, not counting the plot introduction in dialogs, is intended solely so that the player can get used to space. And as soon as Desmond begins to more or less accurately get into turns, he is given to remember and fix the assimilated in “childhood”: they arrange a skirmish with a group of guards. On this example, you can understand how to use your arms and legs in a fight, and immediately apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon – This is a vivid evidence that Ubisoft capable of the most unexpected surprises. A separate story addition for Far Cry 3 It came out as an Aprilian joke and turned out to be an incredibly stylish and funny parody of militants of the VHS era – and not only.
The local training level has long gone into history not only as the funniest tutorial, but also a great parody of typical boring students. The main character-koborg is loaded into the brain “Guide to the Teapots” and begin to persistently and patiently explain the most banal things: how to walk, what muscles are used when jumping, and what will happen if the player sits down.
"Click" Enter "to confirm that you can read". "Jump if you want to bounce". "Running is like walking, just faster". The hero reacts in the same way as a player in front of a monitor: with annoyance and irritation to all these wise maxims of the instructor. But there is always a way out: we are offered to be updated to a premium tutorial so that artificial intelligence itself will go through the game for you!
Portal 2
This time we do not participate in some abstract experiments – the matter is much more serious: we must be saved, obeying the instructions of a strange robot
Sometimes the first game of the series, Portal, Joking is called the training level for Portal 2. There is a share of truth in this: in the second part Valve took the same patterns, but managed to develop them and transform them.
The traditional tutorial deceives expectations: we are offered to perform a number of exercises to maintain physical health, but the whole complex is to look at the ceiling and on the floor. And for spiritual update it is proposed to be looking at the picture and listen to an excerpt from a classic work.
But they begin to truly teach game techniques and mechanics only after the player gets out of the room and goes to explore abandoned laboratories. And, in fact, the training does not end to the very end: each new mechanics explain when it appears, and not all the instructions are dumped at the very beginning. This allows you not to get stuck even at the most seemingly impassable levels.
The Last of Us
A person who has heard a lot about the touching journey of Ellie and Joel, but never played in The Last of Us, The beginning of this story will surprise. After all, we are offered to play not for the brave Ellie, but for an unfamiliar scared girl – about who she is and what does it matter to Joel, we do not find out far from immediately. In the first minutes of the game, Sarah wakes up from anxious sounds and simply wanders around the house in search of her father – a classic reason to get comfortable in the game and learn the simplest interactions.
But not only: the tragic story of the daughter of the protagonist immediately sets us up in the right way and lets us look deeper into the soul of a cynical smuggling. As for the training, it continues according to the typical model of “all its time”: we are explained each mechanics when it needs to use it for the first time.
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2, recognized as one of the best shooters in the history of the gaming industry, has long been considered the standard: its design solutions, finds and techniques are still inspired by many new genre games. And it would be strange if the tutorial in it suddenly disappointed.
Unlike the first part, in the sequel we do not immediately notice that the training mode has started. The main character arrives in a fantastic city, where advanced technologies in the best traditions of Cyberpan are adjacent to dystopia and devastation. Right at the station, he meets a friendly policeman: he partially explains what to do, and releases a silent Freeman to the city – and then he has to understand his own. After a minute, we are already making our way through the backyards, drag the boxes, jump on the roofs, learn to look for bypass tracks and along the way we get acquainted with the world and characters.
About the same, naturally weaving into the plot and circumstances, other fragments of training appear in the game. Sometimes they don’t even particularly explain anything to us, but simply let us experiment to experiment: in the laboratory where we get at the very beginning, along with a wide variety of objects on which you can experience playing physics, jumping through the tables and throwing cacti while scientists conduct smart conversations. A harmless game with Robops actually prepares us for a trip to Ravench.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The creators of the series The Legend of Zelda You do not have to look for reasons to re -teach the players to “catch your first Pokemon”, because Link wakes up every time, not remembering what its goal is. IN Breath of the Wild Together with him we get out of the cave and learn to survive in an amazing world: collect apples, chop trees, fight with goblins, dig ores, cook soups and climb the tops of tall towers.
Only after a few hours of game it turns out that all this time we have been on a separate training island. The tutorial Breath of the Wild seriously claims to the title of one of the longest in history – but its main feature is that it Superb Casino is not at all perceived as a boring "training". This is a full -fledged bright adventure, which other studio would have been enough for a full -fledged project.
Super Mario Bros.
Sieger Miyamoto explains how the developers created canonical training levels in Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros., The first part of the adventures of the restless brothers Mario was released in the far 1985. But game designers and ordinary players still remember it thanks to the first two screens. For them you can – and it is necessary to learn how to make a built -in "learning without training".
The first screen is completely empty, and all that can be done on it is to walk from left to right. On the second, everything is already much more fun: if the character hits the evil mushroom gumba, he will die, which means that the next time he will try to jump or go around the enemy. And at the same time, he, jumping from the bridge, may well get a gumba on his head, and so he finds out how to deal with them. And jumping over the gumba, you can knock out a coin or even fly agaric from a box with a flashing interrogative sign – and thanks to this at the same time find out that Mario can change the size!
So the gamemeracies at the very first steps show the players all the main mechanics, then let them go in a free adventure. And there you can already do everything that will please, using the knowledge gained at the very beginning.
We collected twelve impressive and memorable gaming tutorials, but talented projects with interesting training levels, undoubtedly more. And you probably already remembered other worthy examples – share them in the comments!
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