I Yearn For Faster Video Game Beginnings

Leave the lore dumps and little islands behind please!

Kassandra is still my favorite AC protagonist, in spite of the shade I’m about to throw at her game below. AC Odyssey PS5 screenshot taken by the author.

I think that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion unwittingly established a terrible precedent for how to begin an open world video game. It starts with a thirty-ish minute dungeon crawl where you learn the game’s fight mechanics and create a character, and then you emerge through a sewer door into the bright…