Games for Beginners Taking the leap.

Blasting zombies together on a couch is my favourite form of bonding. To this day, I remember my stepfather’s giggles when he would land a headshot on an alien, describing the exaggerated gore “like an exploding watermelon”. I’ve always loved cooperative console games, but as my friend group has evolved, I’ve found less and less of my social circle know how to raid a dungeon or heal through a boss fight.

That doesn’t mean they’re not interested, on the contrary, most of them have expressed a desire to get “into” gaming. They just don’t know how. Using two analog sticks at once, remembering the difference between the trigger and the grenade, not jumping on the spot for half an hour; things that come naturally to me are conscious decisions for them. Every  journey has to have a beginning. And so, we set out to not only find the best co-op couch games, but to open the world of gaming, bit by bit.

They say hindsight is 20-20, and they’re right. When I started this quest, I made what now seems an obvious mistake. Rather than looking for what would be fun for a beginner, I whipped out all of my favourite games and excitedly put in the disc. Unfortunately, while I took endless pleasure in sniping from afar before leaping off the balcony, Caroline found staring at the wall before being mauled by a zombie horrifying and disheartening. So, we re-evaluated. First person shooters were off the table. Fast-paced and engaging, it’s one of my favourite genres. For the inept beginner though, the constant stream of information and general unforgiving gameplay makes them a big no-go. Walking and moving your head to perceive the world at the same time is a skill we learn from an early age. Translating this skill to a virtual format is a huge leap to take, and combined with all the other bits and pieces that we were going to have to pick up as well, we decided to start elsewhere.

Remembering hours of fondly playing Champions of Norrath as a child, I thought a dungeon-crawling hack and slash could be a good place to start. Here, you would pick to be a fighter, mage, archer or cleric, and design your own hero as you battle through worlds of evil and darkness. Rather than dig out my old PS2, I decided to see how the genre had changed and which modern equivalent would be best (really, I was just too lazy to go find all the wires and discs I’d need, and the second-hand section at Gamestop seemed a better use of an afternoon). Blasting hordes of monsters with fire and ice, slicing through legions of demons with sword and shield, or even just picking out which cool bow to use, I was hopeful it’d be an easy and accessible genre to get us started.

While there were plenty of options for the PC, my PS3 had less going for it. An old Blizzard (the makers of the famed, or infamous, World of Warcraft) fanboy, I had watched with bemused interest as they finally migrated to the console with the release of Diablo 3. Realising it fit the bill, we googled to make sure it supported multiple controllers for one screen, then searched the second-hand sections of CEX and Gamestop looking for a reasonably priced copy. After hours of mind-numbing trawling (“Why don’t we just play Jenga…?”), Stephen’s Green was our eventual salvation, and so we trotted home, box in hand.

From the character selection screen, we knew an RPG was the right choice. Oohing and ahhing at the descriptions of the various classes, Caroline eventually settled on the monk as her weapon of choice. Knowing that she’d be up close, fighting through the monsters, I opted for a ranged support, and took the Demon Hunter, clad in leather, as my persona. Having a ranged and melee character on a team not only compliments each other, but made it easier for us both to distinguish who was who in the fray of battle.

Another constant delight from Blizzard games are the cutscenes. As daft as it sounds, having a cool video before you start playing is a big morale booster.  Being big movie buffs, the chance to play out as if we were characters in a feature film gave life to the experience. As we made every effort to save each other and survive the increasingly difficult  fighting, the dialogue between us naturally turned epic, and led to quite a few self-aware giggles.

Most importantly; what did the beginner think? Talking to Caroline afterwards, she explained she found the over-the-head perspective much less nauseating, an improvement from the get-go. While the game started off slow, she was introduced to her various powers and within an hour or so of gameplay, had 6 or 7 options of how best to fight our adversaries. Even when she wasn’t sure which button she was pressing, she felt that all were effective, and so wasn’t punished for becoming confused. Most of all, she loved being able to consistently use her favourite powers. When I was injured, no amount of demon dogs could stop her from running over to heal me (even when it might have been better to let me die). Knowing she could make a difference, and knowing the controls to make that difference, were two huge aspects of enjoyment for her.

Another positive from Diablo 3 was the level design and loot system. Every monster we killed would drop shiny gold coins. It might seem like a small thing, but the sense of progress after a particularly long fight was essential to holding our attention.. Combine this with the sprawling levels featuring plenty of different directions and things to see, and we never felt like we were wasting time. The stream of different enemies and our new powers to investigate as we levelled up was sometimes overwhelming, but more often just kept the game fresh.

One complaint was the difficulty level. While we started on Normal, even Caroline complained of how easy she was finding the game. Eventually, we decided to up the game to Hard. While some fights required little-to-no effort, others were incredibly challenging and tedious. Even for an experienced gamer, it took all the effort I had to stay alive and push through.Most of these encounters came from venturing off the main path however, and so could’ve been avoided. Having a more consistent difficulty experience, where we were challenged without being punished would’ve been preferable however.

While the story wasn’t particularly interesting, this wasn’t a huge issue for either of us. The majority of our engagement with the game came from our own struggles rather than those of the plot, and so the shouts of distress from main character Deckard Cain was less a concern, and more an occasional laugh. While the main story failed to impress, the occasional side quest managed to catch our interest, usually when it focused on the minor characters. There was more room for engagement and our own narrative when we were struggling to save the dying wife of a peasant, before being forced to execute her to spare her from the realm of the undead.

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