Sometimes you can select an NPC using the keyboard. Try pressing F10. If that selects Strider, you may be able to interact with him, even though you can't see him.
Make sure that you have equipped the weapons you looted from the satchel, first.
There have been reports of graphics problems in the introduction. If your machine is starved for main memory or video memory, it is possible for some graphics elements to not get displayed. This can be the case for older and smaller machines. Or for machines with less common graphics equipment.
If you're up to it, you might discover some useful information from the task manager or resource monitor: open up the task manager and examine the performance tab.
You could adjust the graphics options, opened when you press Ctrl-O. There you can select a lower resolution and reduced graphic detail from to default. You can also change the DirectX version to use: e.g., DX9 or DX10 instead of DX11.
You could adjust the graphics options, opened when you press Ctrl-O. There you can select a lower resolution and reduced graphic detail from to default. You can also change the DirectX version to use: e.g., DX9 or DX10 instead of DX11.
Thanks, changing it to DX9 from DX10 worked for me. Too bad I'll have to stick with DX9 on ultra, though.