As a detour I always kinda thought Uncharted 2’s opening was overrated. Maybe that’s more of a hot take, but considering most reviewers raved about its opening I thought I’d mention it here. As for an actual hot take for the official thread….
The Best Level 1's in Video Games.
- Thread starter CriticalGaming
- Start date
How about best first time playing a game?
This really brings me back to the arcade days, and seeing MK2 in the chalet on a skiing trip. I was probably playing more than skiing that day.
Also Killer Instinct, but it was at my local arcade. The only thing that deterred my mind from it was the fact I was a freshman and had just danced later that same night with a senior that was eventually also the homecoming queen. Yes an actual arms-around-the-waist slow dance. Cloud nine, I was on.
This really brings me back to the arcade days, and seeing MK2 in the chalet on a skiing trip. I was probably playing more than skiing that day.
Also Killer Instinct, but it was at my local arcade. The only thing that deterred my mind from it was the fact I was a freshman and had just danced later that same night with a senior that was eventually also the homecoming queen. Yes an actual arms-around-the-waist slow dance. Cloud nine, I was on.
Out of interest, why do you think those were best? Cause I'd have said they were adequate (DN3d barely) but not much more.
I'll give a personal shout out to Oneechanbara Z2: Chaos. A lot of these games in the series don't have great level design or are just average, but I do love the opening. It immediately starts with a boss fight that happened during the end credits of the last game. Chaos immediately picks up after Kagura.
One of the most memorable for me... wasn't even a particularly good game. A friend bought Resident Evil 3. I was staying at his place for a couple of days. I watched him play it for a little while the night he bought it. Then he went to bed (he had work the next day, I didn't) and I started my own game. I marathoned it. Start to finish, only a couple of breaks to whiz or get something to drink. I was more than an hour in when I realized I hadn't died or reloaded. So I just kept going. Straight through, no deaths or reloads, from start to finish in one session.
But the best first time... probably Dragon Warrior for the NES. That was back in the day when a game's $60 price tag was actually a lot of money, over $100 dollars today. As a kid doing farm work I only earned enough to maybe buy a game a year, or get 1 on Christmas and/or my birthday. So getting Dragon Warrior for "free" with my Nintendo Power subscription... well it was a big deal to me back then. I was already cynical enough to doubt how good a game given away would be... and I specifically remember playing it that first time and being blown away by how much fun I was having after my expectations had been so low.
Were you playing on easy or hard mode?. I'm assume you were playing the PS1 version (or its various ports). If you're playing on hard mode, it just means that your good or skilled enough. You probably were used to Resident Evils controls by that point.
Whatever it defaults to, I don't change difficulty settings in an initial playthrough. Yes it was PS 1. I was fairly familiar with the control style, having already been through RE 2 as well as starting well before that all the way back with Alone In The Dark 1 and 2 on pc years before. But saying I marathoned it... does not indicate any kind of speed run. I'm always extremely careful and meticulous in games. Moving ahead very slowly and always having some kind of fall back plan. It probably took me around 12 to 15 hours or so, I wasn't timing it. It isn't that unusual for me to go through an initial run of a game without dying or getting a game over, hell if it weren't for one of the QTEs (stupid knife fight) I would have done so in RE4 as well. But RE3 was the only time I did it in a single session. If that is a mark of "skill" I'll take it, but it is also why people generally hate playing with me in multiplayer in a game I'm not familiar with. They are all way ahead of me in thrilling and dangerous adventure action mode while I'm hiding and sniping from the door or 3 or 4 rooms back searching every random nook for hidden items or doors. Some people might say skill, and thanks, but I'd have to agree with the harsher "slow" rather than skill. Maybe its because I grew up in the arcade era, but I hate game overs. These days it doesn't mean it costs me another quarter to play again, but I never really lost that mentality.
That's the thing, you get to choose when starting a new game. I gonna assume it was Hard Mode.
Still impressive. I was 10 when RE3 came out so, I know I died a lot on my first run.
I grew up during arcade era too, but most game overs don't bother me that much. Though it does depend on what I am playing. I still go for no death or no damage runs for games I really enjoy.
Ok, pay the level 1 Doom music, though I think the end of that ep had the better music.
That's not something I remember about the game, that it only had hard and easy. I would have chosen whichever option was already highlighted when the option came up. If that was easy... well, no wonder I never died. I must not have been paying much attention to the menu screens, I'm a "normal mode" to start off with kind of guy and would probably remember if a game didn't have any kind of "normal" option.
If you picked easy mode, then Jill automatically starts with a machine gun. If you pick hard mode, she starts off with her standard pistol.
Again for the same reasons, Music and Level Design.
Not every Level 1s has to be flashy spectacles like God of War's opening levels
Well yes... but I'd like to hear you describe it. I am asking for you to sit on the couch and tell me how it makes you feel.
I mean that music is definitely memorable. Not the best of the Doom music, IMHO, but a good piece.
Its something I am incapable of describing. You just have to see for yourself.