Games that were ridiculously difficult to get into?

[LittleJP]

So, what games had a learning curve so steep that it's a niche game because of it. Or alternatively, any game that was simply difficult to understand or start playing.


Personally, X3, I'm still figuring out how the economy works in regards to stations and all that. Dwarf Fortress if certainly up there with its interface.

Oh, and you could say minecraft, try to play that without any guides or anything, and you basically run around picking up dirt and dieing from mobs.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

I'd throw in Heavy Rain. Not because it's hard, but because it's extremely slow to get into the main story. Once it gets there it's well worth the wait, but I've known people to feel too underwhelmed in the first hour or two and just never pick it up again.

Also I found Mass Effect very hard to get into. That Citadel portion was a pain and made me restart months later more than once. Again, it gets better, but I had plenty of opportunities to never get through that game because I didn't feel involved at the start.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I for some reason started playing Metal Gear Solid 2, without trying the first one. Never again.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Dwarf Fortress, certainly. Biggest learning curve I've seen.

I guess I could say EVE Online too.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Games like Defense of the Ancients, or Heroes of Newerth. The rage! The elitism! The flaming!

The learning curve of Heroes of Newerth is so steep, it has an overhang. And people on top insulting your mother.

 

[NeuroShock]

I went and bought Pokemon Diamond after playing many hours of HeartGold, and the difference in the amount of polish is pretty substantial. It made the game a bit harder to get into, along with the fact that I didn't really like the character designs for the player characters and the stupid poketch thing that was just one screen with 100 apps that you had to cycle through to get to the one useful one. Strangely enough, though most people i've seen just complain about the actual generation of pokemon in that game I had no problem with them. They were pretty cool.

 

[jawakiller]

Mario anyone? Haha, I'm just kidding. Zelda 2 wins for me (of course I was a little kid when I started playing it). Compared to the original this was a total mind fuck. Especially for a little kid.

 

[Legion]

Dragon Age: Origins if you are quite unfamiliar with RPG's (like me).

Fallout 1 was extremely hard for me to get the hang of to begin with. I gave up after a couple of hours (I bought it for the first time last year), and then tried again a few weeks later, although I looked online for some basic tips first.

Both of which I loved once I got the hang of them.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Morrowind wasn't easy. But I got there. And it was so worth it.

 

[MolotoK]

The Europe Universalis series is almost impossible to get into.

 

[Vault101]

Dragon Age: Origins if you are quite unfamiliar with RPG's (like me).

Fallout 1 was extremely hard for me to get the hang of to begin with. I gave up after a couple of hours (I bought it for the first time last year), and then tried again a few weeks later, although I looked online for some basic tips first.

Both of which I loved once I got the hang of them.

Yeah I found that with the original fallout...just cant really get my head around the interface

anyway usually if I find a game very hard to get into I wont keep playing...the witcher because it was dull as hell

While from a gameplay perspective I suck at dragon age and it took some getting used too I didnt fidn it hard hard to "get into" because of the epic story that sparked my interest I think theres a difference

I wouldnt say S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is hard to get into..its a bit bleak but theres somthign that keeps drawing me back

 

[Cavan]

Darkfall for me, the UI requires you to take your brain out and then put it in backwards, coupled with the 50 bjillion potential buttons for anybody with any spells..which is everybody, the super fast paced FPS style fighting and general massive terrain/movement/friendly fire avoiding learning curve.

 

[Denomoses]

Borderlands for me. Mainly because i had no idea why the fuck i was doing half of the quests in the game and i made the mistake of not doing co-op so i really couldnt get into this overrated piece of tripe. The story may as well have just not been there as well.

 

[Ranorak]

EVE Online, by the gods, I'm still lost at some points.

 

[PAGEToap44]

Oblivion for me, which was the first proper RPG I ever played. Mostly because of the leveling system and partly because I didn't realise you could change the difficulty setting.

 

[The Apothecarry]

Minecraft and Alpha Protocol

 

[Quaxar]

Minecraft

Well, yeah. Thanks to the complete lack of ingame tutorials I found it really hard to begin and had no idea what the hell I was doing.
Ended up getting blown to pieces twice in the first night by creepers because I had no idea how to build a safe house.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

There never was a game that was that hard for me to get in to (my inner grammar nazi thirsts for blood after that sentence). Difficult to master, certainly, but I never had a difficult time of getting immersed into any game into which I've actually been immersed.

Take Morrowind, for example. Since first playing the game damn near immediately after release, I'm still not sure that I've mastered it. Granted, I haven't been able to play it much for any period of time, but there you have it. However, I was hooked from the first minute.

 

[MadCapMunchkin]

Zelda II on the NES. Didn't have an effing clue what I was supposed to be doing or where I was supposed to be going. Later when I actually learned of the existence of the internet, found the walkthrough and got through the game rather easily.

Morrowind wasn't easy. But I got there. And it was so worth it.

Indeed it was.