Ok, I feel really dumb. Sailed thru Morrowind and Oblivion with no problems. Just loaded Skyrim on PC and immediately am confused.
I was told to jump from a tower window and make my way to the keep. But where is it?
Many of my keyboard controls do NOT match what the booklet enclosed with the DVD says they should be.
For example: F is supposed to change the camera view but it does nothing.
ESC is supposed to pause the game but it doesn't.

My hands are bound and I can't figure out how to unbind them.
None of the soldiers will talk to me.

I don't yet have the strategy guide. I generally don't like relying on them but you can bet I'm ordering this one asap!

But in the meantime, could any of you kind souls assist this granny who can't figure out what's going on???

you jump out of the tower and into the top floor of the half destroyed building...i don't think you get your hands untied until after you do that...there is a marker to show where you need to be..if you played oblivion and FO3 you'll have a relatively easy time with skyrim..it had me stumped right at the beginning too...but once you get familiar with the controls you'll be fine..the first playthru just get familiar with the controls, you can always restart anyway...good luck

Once you reach the marker, F, ESC and all controls will also start working properly.

Can't help you on the beginning of the game (because it was so long ago in the game), but there are walkthrus that will guide you. I'm not sure why your kb commands don't work. Has the game updated through steam? The tab key should bring up the skills + magic + items + map menu and esc should pause the game, as well as exit menus, and bring up the save, load, settings, etc menu and F should change the view. Does your kb work ok otherwise? Perhaps try a reinstall.

You don't get your hands unbound until after you're safely inside with whoever you decided to accompany...

So glad to find another person here who had trouble starting! At the beginning, a number of your keys won't work, til you've played through this opening scenario. To startm there'll be a character urging you to follow him -- I can't quite remember whether it's into the tower or the stronghold -- something like that. If you look at your compass bar, there'll be an arrow pointing to the correct character. You go up stairs, jump from a window, and then again follow a character pointed to by the arrow in the compass bar. He'll lead you into the keep. NOW your keys will start working. He'll untie your hands and start leading you away. This is the training dungeon, so stop as often as you like to try out weapons, spells, hunt for loot, etc. He'll keep waiting for you. Once you two have found your way to the exit, you're free to do as you wish.

I must admit I've been having trouble with the game, and I too sailed through Morrowind and Oblivion. I think this game is heavily combat oriented, which hurts when you no longer have great hand-eye coordination.

Check out this video to see how it's done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE9ffbpphYQ&feature=related. There's also a #4 video showing the rest of the intro. It does get very confusing, but as soon as you're out of that first area, you gain control of what's happening (well, at least how fast things are happening). There's a soldier that you have to follow, he can be pretty difficult to see/find, but just follow the arrow on your compass. After 150+ hours I haven't found any other area as confusing/hectic as this one.

ESC should open the system/journal menu, while tab opens the magic/skills/inventory menu. 'I' opens the inventory directly. All these pauses the game. If this doesn't work for you, I'd reset the controls, from the system menu -> settings -> controls (I think, don't have game open to check).

Had the same frustration w/ the beginning. Ran ever which way until I spotted arrow marker on a character...still don't know if I was freed by stormcloak or imperial...was so glad just to be untied.

The beginning of the game is set up so that you have only limited controls, basically you don't need to do anything but run and jump until you get your hands freed.

Jump through the roof of the burning building, jump down to the ground floor, head outside and you'll see a quest marker over imperial dude's head. Follow him. After some running hither and yon, you'll get an update saying you can follow Hadvar or Ralof. A lot of people miss this- here is where you can decide to follow a Stormcloak (Ralof, blue armor) or keep following Hadvar (imperial soldier). It's not a huge decision because they'll both point you to the same town once you're out.

first thing i did was to remap the keys to the way i had them in oblivion e,g 'e' - jump, 'space' - use. it was too weird the other way around.

Q. F. T!!!!

Not an FPS fan.

Yo, OP. I was badly confused too. You have enough to get you going, but keep in mind that many besides you were originally confused.

The game is much more clear as soon as you finish the opening sequence.

whatwhatwhat?!

"Quoted. For. Truth!!!"

Ah, I see. Derp me.

Heh. Not everyone spends a lot of time on game fora - which is where I picked that up some while back. WoW fora to be specific.

Thanks, everyone. I did check out the Youtube video. It shows the character jumping onto the 2nd floor of the building, then going downstairs and out. When I jump out tho, I go straight to the ground floor and NO ONE will talk to me nor is there any kind of quest marker over anyone's head or anything. Guess I'll just have to keep doing it over and over.

BTW: read some reviews about the strategy guide and they were NOT complimentary. Don't think I'll be getting that either.

I need to re-play Oblivion so I can remember which keys I used for what. Then I can re-map Skyrim keys! Good idea, Aphaea!!

You probably need to get more oomph on your jump. W + space bar will launch you out a bit so you go through the hole in the roof. If you just jump you go straight down.

Yeah, I did do W and space bar, and I did go through the hole in the roof. But it landed me on the first floor. The Youtube video shows the guy landing on what seems to be the second floor and then going downstairs and out. I didn't have that option. I've done the jump only 3 times tho - maybe I'm just not aiming in the right direction or something.

You've got to make sure you jump out of the tower hole, in through the building hole, and then through the hole in second stories floor. Otherwise your way forward is blocked by rubble. Make sure you're waiting for the dragon to do his fire breathing bit. It really opens up pretty quick. As soon as you set foot into Skyrim rather than Helgen all the decisions are yours.

I made some screenshots. Hopefully this helps.

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/gmosko/opener.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/gmosko/opener2.jpg- heading east

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/gmosko/opener3.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/gmosko/opener4.jpg- north- you can see the quest marker through the wall

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/gmosko/opener5.jpg

Wow, thanks Celan! Those ss really helped - esp. the first one. I've been jumping to the left of where the marker is. That took me straight down to the first floor which apparently didn't trigger Hadvar et al. Will try it again tomorrow!

I didn't have any probls here. But i don't use the pc, I'm not very familiar.
If i had, I'd have been doing the same thing but 10X as long

yup, it took me forever to get to know where i needed to go in the opening sequence.

after a few times of jumping and still not getting anywhere i saw the hole in the roof to the right.

finally got through thank the nine.