Tutorial Failure: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Video Game Tutorial|Video game tutorials]] are meant to quickly and easily improve the player's comprehension of the game he or she is playing. Ideally, they should explain everything the player needs to know to play the game without hand-holding. They should be succinct and easy to follow. But what happens when a tutorial fails to do its job?

 

This trope is for those tutorials which do a completely inadequate job of what they're supposed to do—the kind that leave the player frustrated that they can't perform that seemingly-simple move, or wrap their heads around a gameplay system which seems straightforward. Either this tutorial contains misleading or false information or fails to mention some vital aspect of gameplay. Perhaps it's because of a [[Blind Idiot Translation]]; perhaps it's because the game swamps the player with [[Info Dump|mounds of text]] right out of the gate and expects them to remember everything immediately; or, maybe, the tutorial tries to simplify a complex game mechanic into a "rule of thumb" which ends up being more of a hindrance than a help. Perhaps the tutorial gives advice that is no longer valid after a game patch. Whatever the case, this tutorial just doesn't work. Think of this as a tutorial-induced [[Guide Dang It]]. Related to [[Manual Misprint]]. If an important gameplay element ought to be in the tutorial but is not, that might result in a [[Noob Bridge]].

 

* In the original release of ''[[Dungeon Lords]]'', the tutorial told the player about a great number of features that '''were not in the game.''' Later patches added some features and removed references to the ones that never materialized.

* When the player does enough damage to the first boss enemy in ''[[Fable]]'', the boss falls to the ground and starts writhing in agony. At this point, the [[Voice with an Internet Connection|Guild Master]] tells the player that the boss "is near death. A few more hits should finish her off!" In fact, the boss is already defeated and this is her death animation. Hitting her while she is writhing on the ground does absolutely nothing.

** ''[[Red Hand Of Doom]]'' advises the DM to play one antagonist as a "masterful liar". This is pretty much impossible, as she has no ranks in bluff.

* The Firewalker DLC for ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' featured on-screen tool tips that gave the wrong keys for a number of necessary tasks to use with the Hover Tank (jumping and mining, specifically). This was presumably the result of a minor case of Porting Disaster.

* Feel free to completely ignore the on-screen instructions in the Star Destroyer level in ''[[Star Wars: The Force Unleashed]]'' because you will get absolutely nowhere trying to follow them.

* The first ''[[Rollercoaster Tycoon]]'' surprisingly falls into this category despite essentially giving all of the right information. The tutorial involves the computer playing through the first scenario. Moving the mouse or making any keyboard input aborts the tutorial and dumps you into the game. There's no way to skip ahead or speed up the tutorial, so if you bump your mouse five minutes in, prepare to wait through another five minutes restarting the tutorial...

** There's also the fact that Paradox seldom bothers to update the tutorials to reflect their endless expansion packs, most of which alter gameplay more than enough to make the tutorials useless.

* One of the loading screen hints in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' says some classes multiclass better than others. This is correct and sound advice. What is wrong is that it follows this by giving the Monk as an example of a class that doesn't, which is completely wrong. It says Monks gain lots of abilities at high levels, which is true but these abilities are all terrible while the abilities they gain at low levels are useful for a melee class or divine caster.

 

{{reflist}}