Step 1:Go on a random codex thread.
Step 2: Scroll down with half of your brain on a comatose state and the other half semi awake, if you see something interesting or retarded, pay attention
Step 3: If it is interesting, it might get you to play Deus Ex again.
Step 4: If it is retarded, say the user is retarded.
Step 5: Start a butthurt war with endless quote posts being an even worse retard.
Step 6: Use the butthurt energy to motivate yourself to play a game.
Step 7: If in 10 mins you are too bored, go to another random thread and repeat the process.
I got filtered by the first couple hours of enderal. It starts off with a spooky but long and pointless dream sequence, and then you're on a boat, then you get a long unskippable cutscene where you're thrown off the boat. The game then mercifully lets you explore a dungeon and the outdoors for a few minutes before you're forced into a long dialog with a pair of npcs who tell you everything you never wanted to know about enderal's religion, culture and politics. Then there's another dream sequence. Then you meet another NPC who tells you all about how he's investigating a murder in a city that's miles and miles away and he needs your help, along with all the detail about who he is and the political considerations that went into selecting him for the job. While all this is happening you're also getting tutorials for new skills, perks, leveling and arcane fever systems.
Its only after you get past all of that that the game starts getting really fun.
I just can't take games that want me to spend the first multiple hours of the game not playing the game.
PoE starts you off with a combat and a dungeon to explore. The narrative at the start is dumb but it at least lets you start playing immediately.Arcanum, ToEE, BG and PoE all have very slow starts. Arcanum is probably the least boring of the lot at the start, but the story takes a while to gather speed. ToEE takes a good couple of hours to really get going (unless you know exactly where to head). Baldur’s Gate is honestly quite boring most of the way through. PoE is boredom incarnate.
Maybe try something which throws you right into the thick of it, such as:
Knights of the Chalice
Wizardry 8
Dark Souls
Gothic II
All these games pretty much throw you some action and/or intrigue from the get go. You’ll be fighting and exploring within minutes in each game.
Fallout 1 is an exception - rats should have been boring, but for some reason, weren't bad
Icewind Dale 2 is of the type with its own tempo. You gotta keep up with it or it overwhelms you.
The key is, you play in short sessions, and stop when you are tired. Dont try to continue on after that because that's not going to be a fun run.
I also do it that way with most (tactical) games. Never be afraid of save the game and quit for 10-30 minutes doing something else (like reading or watching youtube).
Fallout Tactics, UFO Aftershock/light. With Fallout 1/2 the sessions can be longer, since the roleplaying part help, but for combat-heavy games the sessions always are shorter than RP games
It starts you off collecting berries. Then you get to the (rather boring) combat and dungeon.PoE starts you off with a combat and a dungeon to explore. The narrative at the start is dumb but it at least lets you start playing immediately.
'K. I was talking about those games because the OP specifically mentioned being bored with them. Then I just suggested some games I thought might help circumvent that early game boredom. Actually, what's your point?And this is a thread about games where you had to overcome initial boredom, not games where you're bored the entire time.
you didn't take the diplomacy route?"In Fallout 1, I was hooked in the first 5 minutes."
Because getting a fetch quest and fighting/avoiding rats is such an impressive first five minutes. LMFAO
Just start out in a cool dungeon. Wizardry 8's starter dungeon is one of the best dungeons in the game and I love to re-start the game just to replay the beginning.
Neither does the Vault 13 and retrieving the Water Chip for them, amirite? Especially with the time limit and all."Gaining trust of SGS" is not a plot hook, or at least not a good one, because the fuck do I care about SGS and whether they trust me. I don't even know anything about them at this point.
Yes, both Fallout games have terrible MQ hooks. Difference is, they open up immediately or almost immediately, not force you into a linear and inescapable succession of boring formulaic fetch/kill tasks.Neither does the Vault 13 and retrieving the Water Chip for them, amirite? Especially with the time limit and all."Gaining trust of SGS" is not a plot hook, or at least not a good one, because the fuck do I care about SGS and whether they trust me. I don't even know anything about them at this point.
Sorry, I'm just gonna quote myself from a different thread here:Instead, I'm gonna carry on and put this out for everyone else who read the thread:
People rationalizing bad formulaic quest design as being "realistic" or "justified" never cease to amaze me.
I got filtered by the first couple hours of enderal. It starts off with a spooky but long and pointless dream sequence, and then you're on a boat, then you get a long unskippable cutscene where you're thrown off the boat. The game then mercifully lets you explore a dungeon and the outdoors for a few minutes before you're forced into a long dialog with a pair of npcs who tell you everything you never wanted to know about enderal's religion, culture and politics. Then there's another dream sequence. Then you meet another NPC who tells you all about how he's investigating a murder in a city that's miles and miles away and he needs your help, along with all the detail about who he is and the political considerations that went into selecting him for the job. While all this is happening you're also getting tutorials for new skills, perks, leveling and arcane fever systems.
It's 'boring' and 'formulaic' for you, but do note that you're (oh God, what am I saying here to you who just don't care about anything)Yes, both Fallout games have terrible MQ hooks. Difference is, they open up immediately or almost immediately, not force you into a linear and inescapable succession of boring formulaic fetch/kill tasks.
To that, I say, "People dismissing everything as bad formulaic quest designs without actually putting much thought into it never cease to amaze me.", especially if you only talked about the narrative and quests designs, without even factoring in the gameplay mechanics.People rationalizing bad formulaic quest design as being "realistic" or "justified" never cease to amaze me.
ZzzzzzzzzFamiliarizing yourself with how things are done in SGS (the outposts needs to be turned back on, here's a parts needed to activate the main power generator/they need to diversify their cavehopper livestock gene pool, so you need to capture more of them) while getting to know some the residents at the same time (Harold, Ol' Jonas, Big Bret, Mordre, Newton, etc etc)
The Omega Station quest actually starts out intriguing - which makes it a ton more frustrating when it just fizzles out without leading anywhere.Helping them deal with a loose end they thought the had with an enemy from ancient history (Omega Station), where you ended up getting involved with a small habitat getting raided and held in a hostage situation
I have three possible answers to that. Take your pick:Hence, my confusion as to why you claimed that part to last 20 hours, whereas everyone else I saw on Underrail thread, including me, took not even close to 10 or even 5 hours to finish Depot A.
What 'fizzles out without leading anywhere'? The place has long since been abandoned. One of the habitat resident locked those vault, and turns out for a good reason. And even then, you can ask for the key, either by yourself with speech or telling on him with other NPC, so you can go on checking it out by yourself.The Omega Station quest actually starts out intriguing - which makes it a ton more frustrating when it just fizzles out without leading anywhere.
Not even once, since I first started playing the game on release, did I ever touch or installed Cheat engine on my laptop.1. Maybe that's because you're using Cheatengine speedhack?
Look, here we don't have a common ground because I don't know when was the last time you played and thus I can't just demand checking on your last save after finishing Depot A, while I merely speaks from personal experience of having finished the game few times and observing everyone else playing the game for the nth time, on DOMINATING of all difficulty mode. Not to mention that you might've been a storyfag with how you keep complaining how games don't have a hook in the first hours of gameplay.2. Might I suggest you google the expression "figure of speech"?
Once again, 'it to start properly' is subjective. You might not see those pre-drill parts as anything remotely interesting, but we're here to minmax and either punch, shoot, stab, smash, unload our bullet chambers in mere seconds, throw a fireball, or fry brains, depending on how you look at it. Whether or not there's a plot hooks in sight within the first 20 hours of gameplay isn't even half the fun, so eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯3. Even 5 hours is a huge time to invest into a game waiting for it to start properly.
Which could have been a perfect excuse to introduce some ancient mysteries - like, you know, the one in the main quest. It would have been piss easy to start the bigger plot there, without even changing the general quest structure. Instead even the nominal mcguffin turns out a dud.What 'fizzles out without leading anywhere'? The place has long since been abandoned.
My last save file is after finishing GMS compound and fucking around side areas of SGS a little bit but before starting the Junkyard. It clocks at a bit over 4 hours.I can't just demand checking on your last save after finishing Depot A
Good for you. Me, I'm more of an exploration guy. And there's enough fun stuff to explore in UR, which makes it even more frustrating that you're locked from doing that by a succession of inane tasks that don't lead anywhere. If you insist on putting the main quest on rails, at least make the rails interesting. Generators and hoppers could have been easily turned into side quests, while GMS and Junkyard could have easily included some anticipation of the larger plot, and that already would have made the beginning a thousand times better.Once again, 'it to start properly' is subjective. You might not see those pre-drill parts as anything remotely interesting, but we're here to minmax and either punch, shoot, stab, smash, unload our bullet chambers in mere seconds, throw a fireball, or fry brains, depending on how you look at it. Whether or not there's a plot hooks in sight within the first 20 hours of gameplay isn't even half the fun, so eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But going from there would be 1 main quest too early, even without changing the general quest structure, for reasons I'll elaborate further below.Which could have been a perfect excuse to introduce some ancient mysteries - like, you know, the one in the main quest. It would have been piss easy to start the bigger plot there, without even changing the general quest structure.
It wasn't a dud, so much that you can't comprehend the 5W+1Hs of it other than the Whos and Wheres. What's important isn't the mcguffin itself, it's the things around it. I do agree having it taken away at the last second because 'reasons' was dumb, but the DLC didn't repeat this crime at least.Instead even the nominal mcguffin turns out a dud.
Your first playthrough or your nth?My last save file is after finishing GMS compound and fucking around side areas of SGS a little bit but before starting the Junkyard. It clocks at a bit over 4 hours.
I'm also an exploration guy, but at least know that there's justified reason for why the quest and narrative are designed the way they were. Go ahead and call me rationalizing badly formulated quest design here all you want, but hear me out first.Good for you. Me, I'm more of an exploration guy. And there's enough fun stuff to explore in UR, which makes it even more frustrating that you're locked from doing that by a succession of inane tasks that don't lead anywhere. If you insist on putting the main quest on rails, at least make the rails interesting. Generators and hoppers could have been easily turned into side quests, while GMS and Junkyard could have easily included some anticipation of the larger plot, and that already would have made the beginning a thousand times better.