In any genre, the opening level of a game is both the most important section and also the toughest for developers to get right. Most games require developers to teach players the core mechanics right away, though they must ensure the tutorial doesn't frustrate players by being too long or too rail-roaded.
Thankfully, there have been many excellent tutorial levels that have provided a blueprint for how to do openings well. However, the following titles on this list all came stumbling out of the gate with awful opening stages, which managed to completely put some players off from persisting with the otherwise excellent game.
6 Driver
Driver was released on PlayStation 1 and PC in 1999, before coming to Game Boy Color, Mac, and even iOS in the years that followed. The game takes place in New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, with English city Newcastle upon Tyne also being unlockable in the PC release.
Unfortunately, many players never experienced the joy of driving through these well-designed and surprisingly realistic cities for the time, as they were too busy trying to figure out how on earth to complete the game's opening level. The tutorial gave players a shopping list of maneuvers to perform but didn't provide any guidance for how to do them. Moreover, the tutorial implemented a painfully short 60 second time limit and restarted if the car touched anything in the small parking lot, which was a bizarre inclusion in a tutorial.
5 Ecco The Dolphin
When most people booted up Ecco The Dolphin in 1992, they expected a heart-warming, casual adventure game that wouldn't provide too stern of a challenge. In reality, both of these statements would prove to be false. Not only does Ecco The Dolphin take some bizarre, Subnautica-like turns that will have frightened the life out of some unfortunate children, but it also gives players no help in what to do.
A lack of hand-holding can sometimes be a great thing in games, but Ecco The Dolphin takes it way too far by giving players no insight into what their objective is and, more importantly, not teaching them a key mechanic that is essential for progressing through the very first level. Like Driver, many people never made it past the opening stage of Ecco The Dolphin.
4 The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings
CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings was first released in May 2011 and received excellent critical reception, earning an 88 Metascore and winning the Shacknews' Game of the Year award. The game also received a deserved boost in sales following the release of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, as the third game finally brought the series to the attention of mainstream audiences.
Like the previous two games, Driver and Ecco The Dolphin, The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings' opening section feels like it's actively trying NOT to ease players into the game. The opening is tough, frustratingly rail-roaded, and feels like a chore to complete.
3 The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Speaking of opening sections that feel like a chore, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' opening section sees the player quite literally complete chores. One of the 2006 release's many similarities to the classic Ocarina of Time is that the game begins by showing Link's humble beginnings in a tight-knit village. However, Twilight Princess takes it too far by having players complete busy work tasks like the infamous goat herding section.
Thankfully, Twilight Princess' opening section is far more straightforward to complete than the previous entries on this list, so although it can be a bore to get through, it's unlikely that the player will get stuck and they can start embarking on the game's excellent adventure sooner rather than later.
2 Jet Set Radio
Jet Set Radio features on this list for similar reasons as Driver. Whereas most opening levels ease players into the game by teaching them the basic mechanics in a way that is enjoyable but instructive, Jet Set Radio's developers were seemingly the only people in the world who enjoyed Driver's tutorial and decided to replicate it.
Jet Set Radio's opening tasks players with performing a range of moves without even making it clear what some of them are exactly, while also adding insult to injury with a harsh time limit. As is the case with Driver, Jet Set Radio's tutorial is the hardest part of the entire game for newcomers.
1 Kingdom Hearts 2
To call Kingdom Hearts 2's opening a slow burn would be an understatement. The game's opening will take most players a whopping three hours to complete, thanks to the multitude of cutscenes and spoon-fed tutorials that feel like a battle of endurance that the game is imposing on the player.
What follows is one of the finest RPGs of the 2000s, so it is worth the effort for fans of the genre, though many players will wish that the opening could have been cut down by an hour or two in length.