Best/worse starting zones in RPGs?

[Melan]

Great:
Ultima VII: The Black Gate: The beginning town investigation is well realised, and provides good hooks for followup arcs. This is notable because a bunch of Ultimas (including Worlds of Ultima) start on an unassuming note, and only reveal themselves over a lot of play. As tutorials go, this is a good one.
Ultima Underworld: Level one is a memorable combination of abandoned dungeon sections, faction lairs, secrets, water areas and great heights. It has a little bit of everything that makes UW so interesting.
Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar: The starting area has a good wilderness segment and two excellent dungeons (Aquavia is a brilliant combination of newbie puzzles, combat and exploration), culminating in a boss fight and a brigand gang to weed out the week. After that, you arrive in town and the game starts to branch out.
Morrowind: It does the whole "dropped into a strange world, now do whatever" in an elegant way. There is a lot to do right from the start and a lot of places to go to. Caius Cosades? He can wait.

Not-so-great:
Fallout 2: A stupid test that has no bearing on the rest of the game, and doesn't even feel like part of a post-apocalyptic adventure. It is doable, but it is a chore.
System Shock 2: I like the game. The beginning area is rather underwhelming.
Arx Fatalis: The same. Interesting to compare it to UW1's magnificence. Which brings us to...
Ultima Underworld 2: This game is a colossal bore at the start. You wander around the none-too-interesting Castle Britannia, and then descend into a baddish intro dungeon that has very little of the organic 3D landscapes and complexity of the first game. It is not just a meh start, it is a roadblock.
The Legend of Grimrock 2: The starting coastal section is fairly meh, and doesn't draw me into the action. It lacks the survival feel and iconic environment of the first installment.

 

[MRY]

Darksun: Shattered Lands had the best opening area of any RPG to date at its release, and it certainly remains in the top tier. Indeed, the stretch from the arena to freedom remains one of the best stretches at any stage of any RPG.

Teron in AOD, as I've mentioned before, is probably the most fun I've ever had in an RPG.

I disagree with Hobo Elf regarding Baldur's Gate 2. While it's not an especially fun introductory area, it is a pretty great opening hook.

PS:T's opening loses something when you go into the game knowing what to expect, but the first time you play it, the visuals, deep interactions everywhere you look, and weirdness are top notch.

Bioware got pretty good at openings for a while. I liked the DA:O concept of having character-centric opening areas, and I thought the ME games had good grabbers. Along the same lines, many jRPGs have memorable openings, with Lufia's my favorite.

--EDIT--

Also, I'll have to differ with ilitarist. No doubt a big part of why I bounced off the game was because my computer can't really run it, but man, I did not like the first 10 minutes of the intro. "You have diarrhea!" -> Locked in a context-free, low-stakes, lore-dumping dialogue with an uninteresting character where the screen is totally static -> "Now you have to wander around camp scrounging for gear before looking for natural Imodium." I'm sure it got much better, but I never got farther than that.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Best: I would say Pillars was the best. The intro does excellent job introducing all of the mechanics and setting up the mood for the rest of the game. I agree that plot starts weak, but I actually find it amusing that instead of being told I'm the chosen one who will save the world, I was told that I have diarrhea so bad that it stopped entire caravan.

Worst: Arcanum. Starting area is a disaster on every level.

 

[markec]

Bethesda makes by far the worst starting areas.

Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 3/4 all have way too dragged out, completely scripted and linear starts which makes Fallout 2 start feel like a rollercoaster of excitement.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

My favourite intros are the ones like Gothic, Fallout 1, & Wizardry where they just chuck you into the world. I really don't like long unskippable ones, BG2 is a good example of one that just keeps going and going. It's not as insipid as something like Oblivion, but it would be nice to shorten it. I don't get the praise for Pillars, the intro was short and slightly more engaging than everything after but it was nothing more than meh in my mind.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Dorateen]

Great:

Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar: The starting area has a good wilderness segment and two excellent dungeons (Aquavia is a brilliant combination of newbie puzzles, combat and exploration), culminating in a boss fight and a brigand gang to weed out the week. After that, you arrive in town and the game starts to branch out.

On top of that, there are multiple locations the party can start in. The Gardens of Midknight could be a challenging opening, as giant bats are dangerous to low level characters. And the prison below Crowl seems an interesting way to begin, as well.

 

[wyes gull]

Never really understood the hate for ToT in Fo2. You can either run or sneak past the ants, even if you don't have very high Agi or Sneak. The dude can be a pain but all you need to know is either have high Int/Speech or tag unarmed so you can kick his ass. It takes all of 2 minutes.
Now a real shit starting area, that'd be Kotor 2. It serves perfectly as far as the plot is concerned but as far as the game, it just never ends and there isn't really any way to influence or curtail it. What a god damn chore.

 

[Sigourn]

Best:

- The Witcher
- Gothic
- Fallout
- Arcanum
- Planescape: Torment
- Fallout: New Vegas

Worst:

- Baldur's Gate
- Fallout 2
- Fallout 3
- I don't know, but I think Morrowind's beginning is a bit shit. It's just way too slow. Sure, you can go around exploring right off the bat, but there isn't much to do in the starting area. Only finding Mentor's Ring is noteworthy.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

best starting area in any game is cordon in stalker; shadow of chernobyl

closely followed by liberty island from deus ex

for my rpg choice it has to be underrail

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Best dungeon-crawler start: Dungeon Master (1987) Level 2. After exiting the Hall of Champions, you descend into the first proper level, which serves as an informal tutorial for introducing to player to basic game concepts, and to the incredible interactivity offered by the game, while nonetheless being a true, lengthy dungeon level.

Spoiler

And the level contains shriekers!

Best open-world start: Morrowind (2002), which introduces the player to the weirdness of an alien setting and then spits the player out to do as they please.

 

[mushaden]

Baldur's Gate 2 is mixed. The starting dungeon isn't great but afterwards you're thrust into Athlatka, which is a really well done city.

 

[pakoito]

Is nobody going to mention Hommlet?

EDIT: Apologies, last page and a bunch of agrees.

I'd also say the first 10 hours of every new Monster Hunter are quite boring too until you get up to speed in equipment and economy. And Ys: Felghana's first dungeon has consistently put me off the game three times already. Bunch of backtracking & non-obvious boss requirements.

 

[Sigourn]

whats good about it...

I really liked that you are already thrown into the game's conflict from the get go, as opposed to "waiting" for it. You also learn the important mechanics at the beginning and put them to use. And Kaer Morhen looks great.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

 

[McPlusle]

Best:
Fallout 1's little opening text when you leave the cave sets up the world in such a great way. The rat kicking is a good XP start as well.
I thought that Planescape: Torment's opening area was merely okay the first time I played it. I basically slaughtered my way through it, left, and thought it was alright. Now that I've seen just how much can happen in this area (and I've probably not seen the half of it), I think it's excellent.
Morrowind is how an open-world sandboxy RPG should open. Make your character, get a tip as to how to start the main quest, then go, in not even ten minutes.
Deus Ex's first area is awesome as a way to teach you how not a shooter this game is (at least with your base stats and unmodded equipment).
The opening section of Bloodlines is both an excellent tutorial and a fantastic setup for the world of VtM and its factions.
System Shock 2's tutorial and military tour prologue is a really inventive way to build your base stats, and the actual start of the game is quick, to the point, and still harrowing today.

Worst:
Every Bethesda opening after Morrowind can fuck right off. And while I'm at it, so can New Vegas's. It tries to have the brevity of Morrowind, but fails miserably with the sheer amount of character creation dialogue that I don't care about. Inb4mods
Everyone has already said Fallout 2. For a reason.

Probably really polarizing:
The opening dungeon of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is cool and atmospheric but it is so fucking long.
The beginning of Icewind Dale is gonna fuck you if you're not ready.

 

[laclongquan]

1. NWN2OC: It's not the best starting zone, but it's also not the worst either. You got the chance to test about half your skills, and low level combat. But there's some missed chance for intentionally causing players to really engage:
- Your father quest to get the heartwood bow. That bow is really a fake, nowhere near the quality of the a handmade heartwood bow you can have/make later on. The writers miss the chance to point it out to greedy metagamer who can plan to intentionally fail to give your father in order to keep this good stuff for the early areas. "why that thief of a trader! He foist off this piece of weak ass bow to us! He thought noone in this hayseed village can identify that bow?"
- No way at all to test craft items.
It's not that bad, but about 6-7/10, I think.

2. Fallout 2: It's of top ten well-made starting zone, ever. You can test most of your skill in this one, with exception of energy and big gun build.

3. Fallout 1: Waaaaaaay too easy to miss this area. You need to wait a day to get back into the vault for some early quests and items. This is a failure point and lead to a 7/10 evaluation.

4. VTM Bloodlines: Great starting zone. The end. 10/10.

5. Planescape Torment: Great starting zone but slightly too long for a tutorial area. 9.8/10.

6. Baldur's Gate 1: Great starting zone. Its size is barely veer into "too big" term. can test all kind of build here.

7. Baldur's Gate 2: Great starting zone but perhap "too fucking big".

8. Arcanum: I gotta agree that the starting area is not very well made. Of course, if you extend that to the nearby village the term "too fucking big" come into play, though quality increase~

 

[Grauken]

Wizardry 6: intro hub actually looks like a castle and connects to all major zones of the game, and you'll come back to it again and again, also very easy to navigate structure with lots of rooms to discover stuff

Wizardry 7: has a literal tutorial dungeon that gives you a good taste of whats to come later, you can explore a little bit, but are cleverly closed off from going to far into dangerous territory and the Rattkin ambush teaches you whether you're ready to go forward or not (also a the treasure chest with the map by the sea is neat to discover)

Wizardry 8: the monastery is awesome as a starter dungeon, lots of different monsters, lots of cool treasure to find, some nice puzzles and it looks quite cool IMHO

 

[Cael]

Why do people cry so much over the five minutes it takes to compete the Temple of Trials and which serves as a nice and simple tutorial, without constantly interrupting you with dialogue and written instructions? I always thought it was the perfect beginning.

You can't go through the temple in 5 mins if you want everything from it, especially the XP, which is invaluable at low levels.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I will get flamed for this, but I think Xenogears has the best "Starting RPG hamlet that gets tragically destroyed" ever.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Village of Crowl

 

[laclongquan]

You can't go through the temple in 5 mins if you want everything from it, especially the XP, which is invaluable at low levels.

Correct. You need to take proper time, especially at the trapped floor if you want to harvest every possible XP (disarm/trap xp).

The Temple of Trial allow for speed run, but reward completionist. It's a great design.

 

[ilitarist]

I think there are a lot of problems with Morrowind starting area.

First, it makes you think you're in a typical medieval fantasy setting. The only thing that may tell you what this game is really about is Silt Strider but first you have to notice it (and due to engine limitation it may be in the fog in the beginning). If you don't use it then you'll see rats and more or less typical trees on your way to Pelagiad.

Second, it's full of quests and special characters. It probably has 10% of characters with special dialogue of the game. Rest of the game is full of people defined only be race, faction and profession. In the rest of the games you use systems and the world, not scripts. And there are so elaborate ones, like watching Fargoth - those quests are totally unlike freeform missions you get in the rest of the game.

It's not very good for the first time player. Creates wrong expectations without a good reason. And that is what intro should care about.

 

[Cael]

Correct. You need to take proper time, especially at the trapped floor if you want to harvest every possible XP (disarm/trap xp).

The Temple of Trial allow for speed run, but reward completionist. It's a great design.

It makes the completionist in me cry every time I go through it. Boring, tedious, but XP!