Summary
It’s easy to find yourself playing a video game that you love the concept of, but realize that there’s way too much hand-holding. Whether the game itself is just too set on making sure you never make a wrong move, or there are way too many tutorials, these kinds of games are sometimes way too common, particularly in the Triple-A space.
Some players may remember the extra-long tutorials of these games, or some of the gameplay mechanics that just feel way too hand-holdy to be fun. Even though ultimately, these games are super fun, they can prove tedious thanks to their hand-holding gameplay.
Horizon Forbidden West is a truly fantastic game with amazing gameplay mechanics, a robust in-game economy, great puzzles, minigames, and more. Combat is a particular highlight of the Horizon series as well, as it encourages both great mechanics and strategy at once.
However, exploration is always a bummer in this series, thanks to the abundance of waypoints. While you do have to unlock these waypoints via tallnecks, once you do, an area is effectively rendered ‘undiscoverable.’ There’s no sense or organic exploration, or having to navigate the world as you see fit. Rather, the game leads you to all of the important destinations at play.
For lovers of dialogue-basedchoose-your-own-adventures, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a hidden gem that’s full of humor and heart. The characters, voice acting, and art style in this game are truly top-notch, as is the score, which is composed beautifully.
However, for a choice-based adventure, it’s easy to sometimes feel railroaded in this game. There’s plenty of freedom at times, but also, sometimes, you can’t progress or leave a certain area until you’ve talked to all of the characters in a given space. This subtly clues players into who they have to talk to, and takes out all sense of mystery, which is a bummer, given that there’s a murder at the center of this plot that you must unravel.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, love it or hate it, has a lot that’s worth celebrating. While in some ways, it’s a retread of the more popular entry Ocarina of Time, the game has a dark and brooding atmosphere, great supporting characters, and some incredibly memorable boss battles.
However, beyond just its overly long tutorial,the dungeons in this installmentare incredibly hand-holdy. Most of them have the same (or similar) layout, in which you must go down a series of long hallways from a central room. Plus, you can’t even progress to certain rooms until you clear others, making the exploration feel a bit rigid. This guides the player in a way that makes the dungeons in this game feel a bit underwhelming next to more challenging dungeons in other entries in the series.
The Civilization franchise is a great hex-based strategy game that has captured the imaginations of board-game and strategy lovers for decades now. Interestingly, the latest entry into the franchise, Civilization VII, has gotten some flak for being a bit too hands-off in its explanation of its systems.
However, the previous entry, Civilization VI, has a mechanic known as The Advisor. When you’re first diving into Civ VI, this is necessary just to understand how the gameplay works. However, unless you specifically toggle it off, the Advisor will continue to tell you the best buildings, units, and more to construct. Turning it off isn’t hard, but it’s still frustrating to have such a direct tutorial when you’re first learning the game.
The God of War franchise completely reinvented itself in 2018 and then built upon that legacy with the excellent God of War Ragnarök. This game not only has amazing set pieces, cutscenes, and combat, but also a host of new realms to explore beyond Midgard.
However, one area that this game severely lacks is its puzzles. There are many puzzles scattered throughout the world; however, if you dawdle too long near any one of these puzzles, Atreus or Mimir will begin giving you verbal hints as to what you should do. Worst of all, there’s no way to toggle these off. This can feel incredibly stifling, particularly because these hints come relatively fast.
While The Last Of Us Part 2 can be an incredibly moving and gripping game to play, and its gritty aesthetics are highly memorable and engaging, its puzzle design and exploration leave something to be desired. This is similar to games like God of War Ragnarök, in that it often feels like the game doesn’t trust you to figure things out on your own.
If you’re exploring a space with another character, or even alone, Ellie or other nearby characters often verbalize hints as to what you should do if you ever linger in one place for too long. This can be especially frustrating as, most of the time, the solution is either to look for yellow paint telling you where to go or to move another wooden pallet. Repeating these puzzles can prove tedious, especially when characters are giving you the answers anyway.
Red Dead Redemption 2, for the most part, is not super hand-holdy. Once you descend the snowy Grizzly mountains with the whole gang in tow, the game tends to open up pretty substantially. From there, you can explore anywhere you want to, which feels amazing in a great open-world game.
However, the opening hours of this game are incredibly hand-holdy, thanks to the game’s extended tutorial. There are six missions in total in Chapter One, which can feel a bit overwrought by the time you finally descend into Horseshoe Overlook. Frankly, it creates a slow start to an otherwise amazing, near-perfect game.
Another entry by Naughty Dog on this list, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, is a fantastic adventure game with wonderfully fun combatand stealth mechanics. The exploration in this game is also amazing, and some of the larger sections of the map allow for a sense of in-depth exploration that rivals a lot of open-world games.
However, much like The Last of Us Part 2 and God of War Ragnarök, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has a problem with dialogue barks, in which characters will often shout out the solutions to small puzzles if you take too long. This can prove frustrating, as it breaks up the fantasy of feeling like a courageous adventurer who can tackle any puzzle thrown at him.
If you enjoy mystery games, The Forgotten City is a must-try. This game sees you trying to unravel a mystery in a subterranean Roman city that follows the mysterious and magical ‘golden rule.’ Much like Red Dead Redemption 2, this game eventually opens up quite a bit, but if you’re not careful, you can end up on a very railroad-y path laid out by the designers.
From the start, you get a lead on the central mystery. This is great for players who aren’t sure where to go first, but if you take this lead at face value, the game will lead you through several very important quests by the hand, which can prove tedious and annoying. If you want a more open experience, avoid following this lead.
Lastly, Stray, which is a great action and adventure game that sees you taking on the role of a stray cat, starts very open-world, and then ends up feeling a bit stifling. As the game progresses, the adventure path becomes more and more linear, and somewhat hand-holdy.
As you work your way through the levels, the game will open up and close down again in ways that can prove frustrating, particularly in the middle levels. However, the game ends on a high note, so ultimately, the game toes a fine line between being just hand-holdy enough without completely ruining the experience.
