How do you start playing a game?

[GreyStone84]

When the title menu shows on your screen and you select New Game then you watch the intro movie (or skip through it!), when you finally take control of the main character, what do you do?


Do you look through the menu options?


Play around with the volumes?


Play with the window skin colours?


Scour the inventory?


Hit all the buttons to see what they do?


Run around the first room trying to interact with everything?


Does your decision of what to do first depend on something? Like maybe how much information is obtained in the intro movie? I'm not counting tutorial levels that walk you through your movement/combat options (Army of Two and Call of Duty come to mind).


Any and all answers welcome, especially things I didn't think of. Thanks in advance for sharing!

 

[Idril]

I usually save first thing, even if nothing has happened (particularly if the intro movie was really long and unskippable).


So that means I usually get a glimpse of the menu, but I exit out right after saving, I don't play around. I usually just adjust my volume on my headphones or device, rather than in the settings themselves. Don't know why.


In most games I play there is some introductory mission to go on. For example in Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, you start the game, Link wakes up and you take control of him, and he goes outside to talk to these kids playing outside. They ask you to buy a slingshot. You go to buy the slingshot in town, but the shopkeeper won't sell anything because she's depressed over her cat going missing. You then have to go find the cat, and lure it home, at which point she'll sell you the slingshot. So you have something to do that gets you really familiar with the controls.


In absence of this, I button-mash and try to figure out what's going on.

 

[Frogboy]

Run around the first room trying to interact with everything.

 

[trouble time]

see how much information the game gives me about it's combat. I min max like mad.

 

[Ronove]

I like opening menus just to see what's all there (usually save right after I do that if I can), then I try to interact with anything within range. Usually it'll give me an idea what CAN be interacted with so I know what to waste my time with later.

 

[ShadowHawkDragon]

In games with voice acting, before I even hit New Game I always check the options menu to adjust sound settings (background music quieter and voices louder so I can actually hear what they're saying). If there's no options on the title screen then I'll look for one in game at the earliest chance. 


Otherwise like @Ronove I look around and interact with what I can to find any early goodies and to know what to expect and whether or not its the type of game where you have to check EVERYTHING for even a slim chance of something being there....


I do always save the moment I spy the first save point too.

 

[Ink-Dragon]

I always start by opening up the options menu to see if you can change things like turning on subtitles for cutscenes or changing the text box designs. After that, I check to see if you can save from the menu, and if so I save the game. Then I check all the character info & stats that are available, and look through the inventory & anything else in the menus. After that I wander around the starting area checking out everything so I can see what's interactable, and generally avoid doing what the game tells me too until I've done everything else.

 

[jaypee]

Things I do upon playing the first game:


1] Check the menu screen


2] Check the status of each heroes I find it amusing reading those simple description of each characters


3] Check the skills they have


4] Options menu like sounds, auto dash, message speed (this is important for me)


Upon doing this I can now go save and proceed to the story and also try to talk with all the boring and not so boring npc's I see on my screen.

 

[GreyStone84]

Thank you to @Idril, @Frogboy, @trouble time, @Ronove, @ShadowHawkDragon, @Ink-Dragon, @jaypee for all the input! It will definitely help me adjust a couple of things in my game. I'm going to leave this open in case anyone else wants to come and leave their feedback.

 

[TheOriginalFive]

Look in the options menu for controls if listed. Then save first thing. If it's not in a language I understand, I poke buttons at random after saving.


If it's in a language I know, I look at the characters' stats and try to find a summary of what happened in the game so far.

 

[Wavelength]

I try to physically look around the first environment I'm placed in (especially in a 3D game, but even in 2D).  See what I can observe from the objects and the buildings and the light.  Listen to the music.  Turn around a lot.  Try to move around the space, pass things, jump over things.  Attempt to interact with objects - throw them, arrange them, destroy them.  Explore what looks like the boundary of what I'm allowed to explore before the game asks me to do something else.  Understand the boundaries and the game's logic.  For me those first two minutes of gameplay are about setting expectations, both in mood and in play constraints.


I don't usually check the menus in the first few minutes, nor do I seek out information or objectives, though if there's a manual or similar I'll usually read it before I start.