I am so sick of games that take forever to "get fun" - what games rip right off the bat with the most minimal of tutorials

My steam library is full of amazing, wonderful games that take hundreds of hours to play. A lot of them spend the first 10% of that playtime teaching the player the game, or locking features behind progression, or otherwise extend the grind for the sake of the grind.

Or, they are fully immersive experiences that also take hours to get introduced to (hi, X4)

Or, they drown you in so many "optional" side quests / collectibles / macguffin hunting and spend so much time introducing you to every single one (here's the tutorial side quest, here's the tutorial collectible quest, here's the tutorial macguffin quest - hi ubisoft)

Or they take hours and hours and hours to "get good" or "understand the game" (paradox, terraria, noita, roguelikes)

I guess I'm looking for games that don't have a lot of cruft to wade through to get to the good bits. I don't want to inventory manage. I don't want to return to town to sell my loot. I don't want downtime. I want to play the frickin game.

Doom 2016 is a good example - Doomguy smashes the tutorial console within 30 seconds.

I've been playing games for three decades. I don't need a tutorial, i DO have limited time to enjoy a game, though, and as i get older, i find i have less time/patience to set aside to dedicate to a game that takes a workweek to get to the good bits.

Whatcha got?

One last thing: I'm very aware of the "Survivor-likes", Vampire Survivors, Terratech Legion, etc. They are good, fun games, but they keep a lot of game mechanics hidden/inaccessible from the player until multple playthroughs at least, and the levels are clearly designed to slow progression somewhat no matter how well you play them so the player doesn't unlock the metaprogression too quickly. I don't want that.

Posted Jun 30, 2026, 2:50 AM UTC

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