This is a pretty common trope. I think it was super popular among console games in the '00s.
Portal and Portal 2 were the first things I thought of too. Wheatley explaining how to move while your apartment was collapsing was great, especially if you ignored him and didn’t do what you were told.
In general, I view this as the most well produced game I’ve ever played. It’s not my favorite, or what I would consider the best game ever made or anything, but the direction you receive while being entertained is tough to top. The combination of timing, instruction, voice over talent, etc is just so well done. In almost every other game you can see the “gaps”…you can see the sloppiness in them, probably the “tightest” game I’ve ever played in terms of vigilance to the ongoing experience.
TLDR: Portal 2s ongoing tutorial as you play the game and get introduced to new systems. Many games make the mistake of unloading everything on you at once, Portal 2 doles it out to you when you need it, and not before.
The only thing I remember about Portal 2’s “tutorial” was Wheatley asking you to speak, then you get prompted to hit the A button to speak, which is of course the jump button. Then Wheatley asks why you keep jumping, and figures you have suffered some brain damage.
I rest my case.
It’s great! But as you pointed out, you get the bits you need as you go, which kind of makes it an un-tutorial. There’s no downtime, you are figuring stuff out on the go. I don’t know if it’s my absolute favorite game evar, but it’s way up there.
You’d think that losing such abilities would be fatal to a person.
Not fatal, just intensely annoying.
I think all five of the tutorials for Guild Wars 2 are pretty good.
Back when Valve was in the business of making games, they would put enormous effort into teaching you how to play without you noticing it. I never realized until I listened to the developer commentary, but when they introduced a new gameplay mechanic they went through a whole series of steps. First they show someone else using it. Then they put you in a situation where it’s intuitive that you use it. Then they use that mechanic in more and more complex ways.
That’s exactly what I loved about Portal 2. It was a never ending learning curve. Most games dump all of the “learning” right up front, when you have no idea what half of the stuff even does, or why you would use it. Valve was great at making the entire game a continuous learning experience, and not loading you down with information you didn’t need for the immediate future. They also managed to do this in, usually, an entertaining way.
I guess it can be chalked up to pacing, and understanding where the players skill level is at, what they need to know now, and slowly unlocking the gameplay instead of bombarding you with it all at once.
Witcher3 comes to mind, but the prime example of this for me is DCS World modules like the A-10C or Viggen where learning how to operate the heavy machinery is the game.
I didn’t expect Basingstoke’s tutorial to be so good. It sets the game’s doomed scenario up nicely but it gives you plenty of time and space (as well as some harmless creatures) to get just comfortable enough with the basic verbs (like throwing, distracting, running etc.) before the proverbial shit hits the fan. It’s very hands off and unlike a lot of tutorials it doesn’t feel safe and toothless so you’re actually playing and doing the things you should be. You get a really good taste of the atmosphere and tension right from the beginning.
I’m glad Portal 2’s tutorial tests got a mention because they were brilliant and hilarious. They’re very much in the same vein as ‘Pick up that can’, organically combining world building and flavour/personality with learning.
It’s not strictly a ‘fun tutorial’ but it’s a tutorial that most people don’t even realise is one – before the game even begins – and that’s the L4D intro video. It folds a lot of the game’s core mechanics into an exciting 5 minute pre-menu popcorn movie. The only notable omission is the boomer.
Offworld Trading Company has a great set of tutorial missions. Fun and amusing.
If I wanted to tell you how to play a game I’d say its got the FPS bits from A with the strategy bits from B plus a bit about giraffe breeding. Tutorials never do the useful thing of telling you which games their game is like.
I’d say Thomas Was Alone is pretty great. I used it to teach my kids platforming mechanics, and it really worked. Limbo and Inside both do the Valve trick of introducing mechanics only when you need them. Emily Short’s parser puzzlers Savoir Faire and Counterfeit Monkey and zarf’s Hadean Lands all do a great job of introducing their central mechanic with simple puzzles in a “walled garden” before unleashing the more difficult permutations on the player.
Assassin’s Creed III’s idea of an extended prologue/tutorial was an interesting idea just poorly executed, and ran into the storytelling problem that the dad was a more interesting character by far than his son, TBH.
I really enjoyed the System Shock 2 tutorial/character creation.
Die by the Sword had a short but memorable tutorial, largely thanks to Michael York lending his wonderful voice to a condescending, clearly bored instructor who would frequently lament that “the King’s regulations” mandated non-lethal responses to player failure.
Breath of the Wild, which is pretty amazing given how tedious and talky the intro areas of home console Zelda games have been since Ocarina. In Breath of the Wild’s intro you play a smaller scale version of the main game with some direct instruction but also lots of chances to discover things on your own. It’s a game that rewards exploration like no other and that starts about 30 seconds after you click on new game.
Also this.