Wow! Videogame Tutorial Levels Are Actually USEFUL For Something!

Well, since I couldn’t think of a better idea for an article, I thought that I’d talk very briefly about one of the few useful things about old-fashioned tutorial levels in videogames. This was something I ended up thinking about in early-mid October whilst deciding which game to play next.

Although I had at least four unplayed games left over from a sale on GOG earlier this year, and am still deciding what to play, I found that tutorial levels were a surprisingly good way to “try out” a game whilst deciding. Yes, not as good as old-fashioned demo versions – which let you try out a game before buying – but a tutorial level will still give you a general sense of what the game is like without having to commit to a full playthrough.

To give you an example, although I might end up playing something different, I checked out the tutorial levels for “Ghost Master” (2003) and “Strafe” (2017) and this really helped me to clarify some things about these games.

For example, whilst the concept behind “Ghost Master” (2003) – a very early “reverse horror game” where you scare people by placing ghosts – sounds really cool and I loved the presentation of the game, not to mention the hilarious way that the tutorial level is set in a retro-style US university sorority house etc…

But the tutorial voice-over, which sometimes pesters you to do stuff – repeatedly saying things like “Find the witch!” in the sort of exasperated and patronising way which will make you angrily shout “WHERE?” at the computer screen – and the slightly convoluted menu system made me lean away from the game. Which is a shame because it sounds really cool.

This is a screenshot from the tutorial level of “Ghost Master” (2003). I love the idea behind this reverse horror game and the presentation of it, but the controls were convoluted and the voice-over could get annoying sometimes.

On the other hand, whilst the playable parts of the tutorial for “Strafe” (2017) – an early example of a modern “retro-style” shooter game, with sci-fi and rogue-like elements – were the sort of standard tutorial stuff you’d expect from any old shooter game, I was amazed by the presentation.

The tutorial level actually includes live-action “employee training” VHS style segments that genuinely look like something from a low-budget 1990s sci-fi movie in the best possible way. Like an old 1990s episode of “Red Dwarf” but with the lighting and atmosphere of something like “Alien” (1979) or “Dead Space”  (2008). And, as dull and standard as the practical parts of the tutorial are, the fact that the game put a lot of effort into adding atmosphere is really awesome.

This is a screenshot from the live-action video segments of the tutorial level of “Strafe” (2017). Yes, the game’s graphics are deliberately blocky and low-poly in a “modern game trying to look old” sort of way, but these live-action segments genuinely look like something from the 1990s!

Again, I might not play either of these games properly yet – there are still other games to choose from – but I love how the tutorial levels were actually a useful way to get an impression of a game.

Of course, this is very much a modern thing. Back in the day, demo discs were used for this. Not to mention that the idea of having so many cheaper games that you can’t decide which one to play next is very much a modern problem (even back in the day, the old second-hand prices were still more expensive than modern digital sales). But, most of all, I’m still impressed that videogame tutorial levels were actually useful for something.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

A Good Videogame Tutorial Level?

Well, I thought that I’d talk briefly about videogame tutorial levels today. This is mostly because, after sinking quite a few hours into “Fallout: New Vegas” (2010), I needed a bit of a break from it and wanted to play something different. So, I decided to take a look at another game I got during the autumn sale on GOG – namely the puzzle/action/3D platformer game “Tomb Raider: Anniversary” (2007).

This seems to be a remake of the original “Tomb Raider” (1996) and, as you might expect, there’s the famous optional “Croft Manor” tutorial level. Partially out of nostalgia and partially because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start playing the full game yet, I decided to see what they had done with this legendary tutorial level.

And, to my astonishment, it is actually better than the original! In the original 1996 game, it is a fairly traditional tutorial. You walk around the manor house and the main character, Lara Croft, will tell you how to do various things. However, the 2007 remake takes a very different – and arguably better – approach.

Although I’m still playing through it at the time of writing, I’ve seen literally one tutorial message (telling me to use a grappling hook) during the half-hour or so I’ve spent with the level. For the most part, the game just plonks you into a relatively safe environment and lets you work things out on your own – sometimes with subtle contextual clues. It mimics how most players actually learn how to play videogames – through trial and error – and it is brilliant.

And, yes, this attitude of “work it out on your own” also extends to other elements of the level too. For example, you can find a map that helps you to navigate a maze. However, rather than being an “auto-map” or anything like that, it is a traditional-style paper map which you actually have to use in a similar way to real life.

More than that though, there is actual proper gameplay during the tutorial too. Rather than just being an open building which you can explore at your leisure, like in the original 1996 game, Croft Manor is actually a small game in its own right. It contains several interlocking puzzles, which often require you to find and use items found in other parts of the house (sometimes via solving other puzzles). It’s a bit like an old-school survival horror game or “point and click” game in this regard.

This is a screenshot from the “Croft Manor” level in “Tomb Raider: Anniversary” (2007). Unlike in the older games, this climbing room not only requires you to find an item by solving a puzzle in another part of the mansion, but it is itself a puzzle – requiring you to find a way to reach and push several switches around the room. You can then get a wrench which can be used to turn the water back on – which allows you to fill a bucket you found elsewhere and use it to extinguish a fire that is preventing you from reaching another item that you uncovered by solving an earlier puzzle. This is actual proper gameplay… in a tutorial level.

For example, you might find that you can climb up to a ledge in a storage room, but there’s a pulley rope that has to be cut in order to progress further. In other words, you have to go to a different part of the house and find a pair of guns that will allow you to shoot through it.

Although videogame puzzles really aren’t my strong point, and I’d almost forgotten what a large part of the “Tomb Raider” series they are, this level does at least mirror the typical type of gameplay in the series. It gives the player actual hands-on experience with the type of thing that they will be doing during the main game. However, because there aren’t incessant tutorial prompts and because it actually has some level of challenge to it, it feels compelling in a way that tutorial levels usually don’t. Again, it’s literally like a small game in its own right. The sort of thing that, traditionally, could have been released as a demo.

Yes, a lot of games will subtly do stuff like this. Most designers know that most players won’t bother with the tutorial or won’t read the manual (anyone remember those?), so they will sometimes make the first level of the game reasonably easy in order to allow the player time to work things out on their own. Still, this is the first time that I’ve seen an actual dedicated tutorial level that does this.

And, again, it is brilliant. Rather than being a boring chore you have to get through in order to play the main game, it is actually fun in it’s own right. It’s a challenging, compelling small game which shows you what the main game will be like – but in a slightly more “safe” way. Instead of delivering a dull lecture, the designers actually thought about the tutorial level from the player’s perspective and turned it into something genuinely fun.

Again, I’m just astonished that a tutorial level can actually be enjoyable for once!

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂