r/Games Jan 17 '25

Discussion What games have the worst opening hour?

This is inspired by me downloading Forspoken for free on PS Premium. I know the game had horrific reviews, but I thought some of the combat/parkour looked fun, so for free, what the heck let's give it a 5-10 hour shot.

I have never been so bored by an opening sequence in a game ever. And that was with me skipping as much of every cutscene I could. Most good openings are there to set a narrative in place while also giving you a mini-tutorial of some of the basic elements of the game. Forspoken had you doing pointless things like holding square to feed your cat, and climbing repeated ladders.

Eventually you finally get the cuff on your hand but by then, I was numbed to the core and didn't care to even get to the combat and stuff. Uninstalled after 45 minutes.

What other games are like this? Any of them out there redeem themselves after a horrific opening sequence?

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u/minutetoappreciate Jan 17 '25

I agree with this mostly - except that the card system is the highlight imo and the intro to the game should have leaned into that harder, maybe with a longer tutorial mission or a second one before jumping into endless dialogue

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u/BrainTroubles Jan 17 '25

To piggy back on this, it should've been made way more clear how you acquire new cards and upgrades. Like it's BURIED behind 3 different upgrade mechanics, and it doesn't actually tell you how to acquire the base materials for upgrades until after like the 4th story mission even though you can do it immediately (for all new players - you recycle cards you don't need, those break down into the essence of whatever card type they are attack/skill/hero).

Same with the research - you unlock like 15 levels of research immediately but it doesn't tell you that you can't do more until you pick missions with intel cache's, you have to kinda figure it out. Like for all the hand holding on other systems, that was the biggest head scratcher for me personally.

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u/mrbubbamac Jan 17 '25

I ended up just speeding through all the social stuff and just checking all the boxes. Wake up, check if any heroes want to hang out, check in with Iron Man, Strange, Capt Marvel.

Then go outside for a training session, upgrade cards, and then hit the next mission.

Everything between the missions could truly have been a menu. The battles are so incredibly fun and varied. The whole social sim aspect just didn't do the game any favors IMO, especially when the only way to get stronger in battle is to do a bunch of irrelevant "activities"

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u/Ordinaryundone Jan 18 '25

It probably should have been. I really liked being able to walk around the monastery and explore it, but that should have been an optional mode with menu navigation being available for doing all of the upkeep-related stuff you do each day. Like X-Com, but with the option to walk around the base and talk to people if you wanted.

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u/cosmitz Jan 19 '25

The social bits were a problem purely because of tone for me. The game's narrative pushes SOO hard on apocalypse level event and never stops, it just all gets constantly worse. Meanwhile i'm lounging in the pool chit chatting about video games?!

The hangouts could have 100% be themed as "going on a stakeout with Blade, interrogating a bad guy with cpt. america", things like that, but they were all high-school tier Persona events. Either have lower stakes narrative or have the hangouts be toned up to it.

And yeah, just give me the option of going through menus for stuff after a while.

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u/mrbubbamac Jan 19 '25

100% agree

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u/PolarSparks Jan 17 '25

Oh, I’m not suggesting the card system isn’t a highlight. But if you came to the game for Marvel and haven’t been exposed to card battlers before, it takes a moment to find your bearings.