Games that were ridiculously difficult to get into?

[snave]

Both Magicka and Guitar Hero pretty much rely on this trope as their core gameplay mechanic. Derive satisfaction from seeing your own ability to understan the controls increase. Naturally, as either game goes on, theres a gradual transition towards muscle memory akin to Super Meat Boy but still.

Deus Ex
I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get past the badly aged graphics (and that's coming from someone who isn't a graphics whore)

Heh, be glad you didn't see the sequel. Deus Ex's graphics actually hold up extremely well comparatively for games of that era. It's almost as if it was made a few years later simply because of how high the res goes. I mean, considering that, it kinda saddens me because I feel you probably could not enjoy any 3d games roughly pre-2003.

 

[coldfrog]

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.

I actually agree with you on this one - the poketech or pokeanitch or whatever it was was really poorly designed, and it lacked the charm and newness of the original as well as the polish of the SoulSilver/HeartGold games. That said, I really only cared about the characters because I really easily got a team of a Torterra and 4 Phanpys and named them A'Tuin, Berilia, T'Phon, Tubul and Jerakeen. I mean, sure you can get a Torterra in SoulSilver but you START with it in the Diamond series of games. Way easier.

In any case, my addition to this one was GTA IV. I'm not sure what kept holding me back, but I'd get about as far as the mission where I have to stop that guy from beating up my idiot cousin, and then I'd sort of stop playing and not really want to go back to it. I keep starting over (because I feel like crap starting in the middle of that stuff) but I never get far past that point. I feel like I don't want to do what they're telling me to do, but I have too many other options available to me and I just sort of get locked into doing nothing and then quitting.

 

[Dragonborne88]

- EVE Online
Overwhelming at first, but the tutorial and just taking it slow certainly helped. In the end I quit anyway because there was too much time involved in getting to the really cool stuff.

Wait, wait. It was possible to take EVE Online SLOWER? The slowness is what killed me trying to play the game. I can't "watch" my ship do cool stuff, I want to be the one to be doing the cool stuff. It's an awesome concept though, which is why I bought X3, because it sounds like a single-player EVE with a controllable ship. Still was too much to track though.

 

[hurfdurp]

Lost Odyssey, DMC4, FFXIII, Alpha Protocol and Prince of Persia (one of the more recent ones). Not so much for their difficulty, they just didn't really grab me I guess. I'd find it tedious to go back to any of them.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Heh, be glad you didn't see the sequel. Deus Ex's graphics actually hold up extremely well comparatively for games of that era. It's almost as if it was made a few years later simply because of how high the res goes. I mean, considering that, it kinda saddens me because I feel you probably could not enjoy any 3d games roughly pre-2003.

True, early-3D definitely hasn't aged so well as late-2D, which I massively prefer for that matter. I didn't mind that much in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, mainly because they had their art styles going for them. But I still don't prefer OoT over Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask is a different story. But I don't really like Super Mario 64 either. I understand it's significance and I respect it for it, but I had a lot more fun with Super Mario Sunshine. I guess it doesn't help that I played all those games after I've played their recent brothers.

But in the case of Deus Ex, well, it was just a ton of...grey blocks. I know, I know, it's dystopian cyberpunk, but it didn't give me the Blade Runner feel. I missed things like dynamic lighting and shadows a lot. It depends a lot on the genre and feel the game is trying to produce whether I really mind old 3D graphics or not.

Maybe I'll try the game again when I have the time, take a different approach. The frustrating combat and stealth was a lot more annoying than the graphics and voice acting.

Wait, wait. It was possible to take EVE Online SLOWER? The slowness is what killed me trying to play the game. I can't "watch" my ship do cool stuff, I want to be the one to be doing the cool stuff. It's an awesome concept though, which is why I bought X3, because it sounds like a single-player EVE with a controllable ship. Still was too much to track though.

Well I just didn't try to do everything at once. That really helped. But I get what you mean though, EVE is a more tactical game whether the X3 games are indeed more direct action-oriented flying sims. But as with you, it was too difficult for me as well. I'm still looking for that space combat game that gives me the vastness of E3 and EVE, but has explosive, arcade action that's easy to get into.

 

[DaJoW]

All Paradox Interactive games, really. I played HoI 2 for quite a while without knowing how it worked, until I stumbled on a "How To Play Germny for Newbs" guide on the Internet. I'm still not very good at Europa Universalis despite having played it more than any other game

 

[Dragonborne88]

Well I just didn't try to do everything at once. That really helped. But I get what you mean though, EVE is a more tactical game whether the X3 games are indeed more direct action-oriented flying sims. But as with you, it was too difficult for me as well. I'm still looking for that space combat game that gives me the vastness of E3 and EVE, but has explosive, arcade action that's easy to get into.

Ever played Freelancer? It's not QUITE the scope of X3 and EVE, but is a pretty good arcade action space game with a pretty good story and a HUGE universe. I've played it a couple of times, and only saw like...maybe 10% of the available space. There are lots of secret galaxies to get to if you explore and find Wormholes scattered around.

 

[snave]

didn't give me the Blade Runner feel.

I can pretty much agree with all you said. To me it was a different type of dystopia. Urban wreck and ruin instead of futuristic. My friends and I used to call it the Hobo game because roughly half the characters are well, hobos. It does get BladeRunner-esque for a short while when you leave the US later though.

 

[HellspawnCandy]

Fallout 2. What the hell, I feel like I'm actually surviving the apocalypse its so hard.

 

[tahrey]

Shadow of the Colossus.

I don't know if I was doing something fundamentally wrong, but I couldn't even HURT the first colossus. As it was only a borrowed game, I gave up at that point. Wasn't really any kind of overarching narriative to give me motivation anyway ... go over here, kill a thing ... ok, whatever.

 

[Mistermixmaster]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (can't remember which one, but it starts off with the objective of finding downed helicopters)

It's not that it's not a good game, it was just a bit difficult to get into. You're told NOTHING except "here's yer stuff, find some helicopters". My guns kept deteriorating and I didn't know of any way to repair them, so I ended up selling those I could sell (some would be "too bad quality" to actually sell), dump the busted ones, and use the working ones. I didn't get far as I gave up pretty quickly (raided a ship or something with teammates, found an anomaly-artifact or something on a small ship, took a stroll through a lair with sleeping bloodsuckers(?) with a dude and found one of the helicopters before I gave up.

 

[tahrey]

Dwarf Fortress.

Possibly the most complicated game to try and understand.
THe UI is a big problem. And the graphics (or lack of) dont help at all (i use MayGreen version)
But there are plenty of ressources around to help you.

And its pretty rewarding to finaly understand it. Very rewarding to murd-- serve nobles.

I thought the slightly tricky interface and the barebones "graphics" were part of the entire POINT... it's an alternate universe game, but also it frees up the machine's CPU and RAM to actually make it more immersive just because of the sheer play area and number of variables it can track.
Bit like Minecraft, but squared (...cubed? 9_9)

 

[Auxiliary]

The Witcher, I never really got to liking the combat system.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Galactic Civilisations. That game was so hard to understand at first. Mind, once I did figure out how to actually play it, it instantly became one of my favourite games of all time. Two Worlds was also one mostly because of how shit it was.

 

[Hafnium]

Immediately thought of X3 as well, what an interface.. Terran Conflict improved on it though, but I'm still fairly terrible at it.

 

[Omega Pirate]

Etrian Odyssey 2, I spent a week playing it before I beat the first boss. And this was like 4 hours a day playing. But once you beat your first boss it gets to be so much fun. I loved that game. I realize that there is one before it and a sequel. But I haven't gotten around to them yet.

I am finding Mass Effect 1 really hard to get into, I am not sure why. But I am taking my friends advice and blasting through it on easy so I can play the second one without feeling like a jerk.

Ill probably catch some flak for this but the original Mass Effect. Once I hit the Citadel I would always lose my momentum some reason and stop playing. Fortunately I did pick it back up and powered through to the rest of the awesome game.

The Citedel is quite big, with a lot of people to talk to. I can see why it can put some people off. I am the kind of person that talks to every single NPC is a systematic fashion. So I know how huge the place is, nevertheless I felt a sminge of sadness when I realized that you couldn't explore the whole place again in Mass Effect 2.

I did however finish 2 playthough's of Mass Effect 1 back to back. I didn't find Mass Effect 2 as fun, I hope 3 is better.

 

[Tornd]

It was somewhat difficult to get into Team Fortress 2 BEFORE the item bonanza. I can't imagine being a new player now and trying to figure out how everything works.

 

[Pipsquid]

Fallout 2, with the stupid beginning temple. I left it, and then after a few weeks of boredom, I tried it once again and i'm glad I did.

KoTOR and it's gameplay mechanics. My god it made me rage.

 

[DustyDrB]

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

Agreed, but I couldn't make it past three hours.
I should note that I was playing the Xbox version (and with that admission, I hear from the Escapist Universe a chorus of sighs with percussion provided by the sound of many faces meeting palms).

 

[00slash00]

star ocean: til the end of time. not a difficult game, but nearly impossible to get into. i have tried, on two separate occasions, to get into the story but i just cant force myself to give a fuck about anything thats happening