We all hate hand-holding tutorials, but how else should games teach basic mechanics?

[u/EmergencyBedroom641]

Everyone hates when a game forces you through an on-rails tutorial where it freezes the action to make you press every single button one by one. It feels tedious and treats you like you have never held a controller before.

At the same time, dropping the info into a quick text popup or reference menu usually fails too. Most people immediately skip reading the guide to jump straight into gameplay, only to end up confused about basic controls five minutes later.

What game has actually handled teaching you how to play without feeling like an annoying chore or leaving you completely lost?

[u/Disastrous_Youth_681]

Mostly how I feel about any modern Pokemon. I really wish you can skip them once you've played them once. Some games are faster with hand-holding, and some are not. I know you can't give players too much freedom, but at least giving options on if the player wishes to skip or not would be nice.

[u/DiscordantDiscordian]

Portal 1&2, to a lesser extent GTA

[u/Born-Holiday9597]

Maybe a sandbox mode, where you can experiment with the game's mechanics without penalty. It could be either included in the game itself, or as a separate mode.

Optional/Skippable tutorial levels are my personal fav. If a game includes one, I will likely play it voluntarily. If you force a tutorial level, I will be frustrated.

[u/EmergencyBedroom641 → u/Born-Holiday9597]

optional and skippable is such a clean compromise. the players who want the hand-holding can take it, and everyone else can just figure it out at their own pace. sandbox modes are great too because you learn by messing around instead of following instructions, which honestly sticks way better.

[u/Historical_Brain_619]

yeah the panic is the whole point right. the goomba doesnt teach you by stopping the game, it teaches you because you freak out and jump without thinking and then suddenly you just know. i wish more games trusted that instead of freezing everything to explain it

[u/EmergencyBedroom641 → u/Historical_Brain_619]

exactly, you learn by doing not by being told. the best tutorials are the ones where you don't even realize you're being taught until you already know it.

[u/Ustob]

I like learning the oldschool way or Trial and error.

[u/dukeofbutter]

Portal. Half the game is basically a tutorial and you barely even notice it.

[u/crocicorn]

Give me an easily ignored 5 minute "press X to do this" series of prompts at the actual start of the game instead of a whole tutorial level.

The player only needs to be told the controls, honestly.

[u/Appdownyourthroat]

Those are anti-tutorials which disable things that you would normally have access to during a fight. It’s pretty much the worst thing that you can do before going into a game. You’re literally training yourself to not even know about half of your **** functions when you’re making your first impression of the movement mechanics and getting a feel for the character during the tutorial. A developer worth his salt would have a counter tracking how many times you do moves like dodging and barrel rolling etc and uses a line like “ I see you already have a handle on the dodging mechanic, but perform it 10 more times” without taking your controls away.

[u/PPginormous]

Zelda Breath of the wild's plateau area is absolutely fantastic as a playground to learn the mechanics of the game

[u/Leksandrya]

Ark Ascended. Engrams gave direction but you get nothing in the way of tutorial. Just drop in and figure it out. Best way imo

[u/EmergencyBedroom641 → u/Leksandrya]

Ark is an interesting pick. Engrams do give you a sense of direction, but I feel like half the deeper mechanics still sent me to a wiki. Did you actually figure out stuff like taming and breeding on your own, or did you end up relying on guides anyway?

[u/Leksandrya → u/EmergencyBedroom641]

The knockout tame I did myself. Oddly enough the part that tripped me up was that I had to feed the narcs myself. The creatures didn't eat themselves like the taming food. Makes me chuckle everytime I think of this haha

[u/East_Monk_9415]

Old uncharted games gives you hint if you stuck or characters speak maybe?

[u/EmergencyBedroom641 → u/East_Monk_9415]

yeah that's a solid example. having hints come through character dialogue during normal gameplay hits a nice middle ground, you get nudged in the right direction without the game freezing to make you press X.

[u/BukakkeThePornoClown]

Mega Man tends to do it well. Magnet Man's stage in MM3 is a good example. it introduces the disappearing and reappearing blocks in a safe environment and then progressively makes platforming on them more challenging as you progress.

[u/Awesomedude33201]

Its not at the start of the game, but the ginso tree section in Ori and the Blind Forest is a great example of how to teach the player with minimal guidance or hand holding.

[u/Supernova984]

Sonic 1 & Fallout new vegas do a great job of it. 

[u/SkyAtNorton]

Mario 1-1 is still undefeated. No text, nothing, just a Goomba placed exactly where you'll panic-jump and suddenly you know how to jump and stomp. The freeze-and-press-X tutorials could never

[u/Synthessence]

You design the first level to give the player challenges in such a way that they will teach themselves how to play the game.

Ego Raptor has a fantastic video about it. Just look up Ego Raptor Mega Man X and you'll find it. Hilarious video to boot.

[u/Some_Cantaloupe613]

I honestly like tutorials, long or not. Even massive info dumps like Monster Hunter. The big thing for me is that the game should get as many of the interruptions out of the way, as early as possible, and then just let me play. That's where many games fail for me, they keep stopping me to explain something or talk down to me.

One highly underrated solution is the shop from Devil May Cry, which lets players just self-select what they want to implement into their gameplay at any given time. And unlike skill trees, you don't have to pick anything in a set order. 

[u/Danceman2000]

Dark souls. Leave a couple notes on the ground telling you what buttons to use, then go die a bunch til you figure it out.

[u/Smart_Material_5466]

Mina the hollower has a brilliant and quick tutorial

[u/Designer-Tomatillo21]

007 First Light had the best Tutorial sequence (that springs to mind).

A training montage, for your character being trained in game.m to be a spy. The montage aspect was very well done.

[u/E8P3 → u/Designer-Tomatillo21]

Yes! I came here to say this!

It feels like a cool training montage in a movie. It switches between different skills pretty quickly, leveling up the complexity or difficulty of each thing when it comes around, so it doesn't get boring and you get a refresher on each mechanic throughout. It also fits neatly into the story, which is the best thing a tutorial can do.

Honorable mention to Freelancer, which has you cast as an experienced pilot evaluating a training instructor by taking her class. She starts with the basics, but you don't feel talked down to because your character knows stuff already, and you still get the info you need.

[u/thitherten04206]

Elden ring

[u/JeMenFousSolide → u/thitherten04206]

Yeah, you learn pretty quickly all you have to know about the game: YOU DIED

[u/AffectionateLead2345]

Half-Life 2. The whole opening is a tutorial and you don't even notice. Well, the best tutorials are the ones you don't realize are tutorials

[u/Fun_Set7594]

Dragon's Dogma

[u/EmergencyBedroom641 → u/Fun_Set7594]

Dragon's Dogma is a good pick. What specifically about it worked for you? I remember it kind of just letting you figure things out, which was great for combat but also led to some confusion with the pawn system and quest structure.

[u/Fun_Set7594 → u/EmergencyBedroom641]

Full combat/gameplay against a boss in a safe environment, and then the step by step introduction of mechanics once you have created your own character.

[u/jujoking]

I am ok with tutorials, as long as they don't drag for too long. One of my fav recent ones was 007 First Light.

People ignore optional and text tutorials a lot. For example, the lumina tutorial on E33. The amount of people I see posting they didn't understand it, and didn't even use it, makes me think they skipped it

[u/EmergencyBedroom641 → u/jujoking]

That's exactly the problem I was getting at with text tutorials. You can put the info right there and people still skip it, then blame the game for not explaining things. E33 is a perfect example too, the lumina system isn't that complicated once you actually read through it, but if you blow past the tutorial you're completely lost. There's a weird middle ground where the game needs to make the tutorial engaging enough that people don't want to skip it, but not so forced that it feels patronizing.

[u/neon_alchemy_wisp]

portal is the gold standard because it weaponizes curiosity instead of lecturing. You figure out mechanics by dying a few times, not by freezing to read a popup nobody looks at.