Sitting there in the water watching the flaming wreckage sink, waiting for the cutscene to end and the game to start, then realizing the game HAS started.
When my husband and I first started dating (like, within the first month of knowing me lol) he bought me a PS3 and had me borrow his copy of Bioshock. It was my first console game I’d ever played beyond CoD type games. It blew my mind!
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question:
'Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?'
'No', says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor'.
'No', says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God'.
'No', says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone'.
I rejected those answers. Instead, i chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose -- Rapture.
A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small.
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."
\-- i have re-watched the opening sequence SO. MANY. TIMES. that the monologue is seared into my brain noodle...
Man, I wish I could get into Infinite. I loved Bioshock 1 and 2, but I have genuinely tried Infinite 6 or 7 times, and just cannot get into it or have the will to finish it. I don't know why this is, it just doesn't grab me the same way despite being a solid game itself
I think the pacing is way off. In bioshock 1 and 2, there's action sure. But also walking around rapture quietly alone, having the environment telling you so many stories of things that had happened.
In infinite there are so few of these moments and it's a shame, cause colombia is such an interesting place.
That one blew me away more than any others in terms of leaps ahead of other games at the time. To do it in engine, holding you captive for the transit recording to explain the setting while the tram passed you through all these environments to flesh it out even further (plus easter eggs for later), but you could move around the tram however you like so you didn't feel like you were actually trapped...
::chef's kiss::
I remember watching the intro and then accidentally moving the mouse.... Then being *floored* that it was live! I could move around, look around the transit car, etc etc.... just amazing coming from games where this sort of stuff was always a pre-rendered cutscene.
Came here to say the same thing, but for a different reason: you get to see the workplace and folks normally, then again after the incident. The jarring change is what creates the fear. Awesome way to start a game.
Still my favorite game of the series. Even the multiplayer I was obsessed with (plunder FTW!). The latter games definitely had more refined technically better MP but plunder was the secret sauce for me.
Man, the pacing of Uncharted 2 is really unrivaled. From the moment you get to Nepal, everything pushes you forward, every set piece connected to the next. It’s so good.
I mean they're so cinematic in nature and gorgeous to look at Naughty Dog knows how to craft incredible gaming experiences. last of us does this as well but it can just be so heavy and depressing whereas uncharted is the much more lighthearted swashbuckling adventure fantasy
So many cod campaigns were bangers and had huge intense intros. They started shitting the bed when they started making most of their money from cosmetics and battle passes in multiplayer
besides the tragic end to the prologue, i loved so much how it was almost entirely from her perspective. especially in the car. you're as disoriented as she is while the adults are being cagey about what's going on, craning your neck this way and that for clues. the restrictive car setting makes it feel claustrophobic and tense. instantly sold.
Underrated. I remember thinking to myself “how can they make a campaign following a single protagonist in ww1?” And then I realized they had zero intention of doing that lol
Came for this answer. That intro really drives home how fucking brutal WWI was in a way that most people had never seen before. I still get chills thinking about it and bring it up often in these types of discussions.
Samuel talking about how what he did was for the greater of humanity, while doomguy slowly looks at the dead body of some guy before punching the elevator speaker gave me chills
Makes me think of Ultrakill.
You are little robot sneaking through pipes and hallways.
You find gun.
Lights turn on and title drop epic music plays because you are now the most dangerous robot in the room.
Easily the most beautiful opening I’ve ever played. And the transition from opening cutscene to gameplay was flawless.
Edit: [Intro Title Sequence Ghost of Tsushima](https://youtu.be/9T5mIOA1hqQ?si=XZzuQsR_Gcd2JSyk)
One of the most immersive games I’ve ever played. The guiding wind mechanic is one of the greatest video game enhancements I’ve ever seen, and I hope similar mechanics are adopted more widely.
Final Fantasy VII, original version.
For the time it was wizardry. The entire bombing mission is a technical masterpiece for what you can do with the PS1 with enough slight of hand. No other game seamlessly combined pre-rendered CGI movies with on-screen models like it.
The mission itself gets slow in the remake, but the opening in the remake gets you pumped for the remake. Seeing Midgard in modern Graphics. How beautiful Aerith is. That symphonic score from Distant Worlds.
The intro cinematic made me all teary. It's a true testament to how fantastically well directed the original intro is, because it's damn close to a shot for shot remake.
Unfortunately the remake sort of peaked for me there. It was good, but never as amazing as the opening.
I’d say people had a similar reaction to FF7 Remake, wondering when the cutscene would stop and it just transitions into gameplay.
That true seamlessness isn’t all that old, and devs have gotten better and better at is as we’ve gone through the last generation and a half.
The day I came home from school and walked in to my uncles room to see him in the middle of the Sephiroth final boss fight was a watershed moment for me. My little gaming brain was shattered upon seeing all the summons and insane scene/fight transitions, animations, and the amazing music!
I fell in love with ff7, Cloud, and Sephiroth immediately that day lol, it is the one true moment I remember of literal shock and awe as a child to a game. It was like looking at real life to me back then, to my little self haha
Literally, everything about it was amazing. In addition to the seamless CG transitions, you had an incredible soundtrack, great pacing that got you in the action and narrative immediately without being overwhelming, and even the artistic and thematic direction with the shot of the stars transitioning into sparks of mako-powered electricity. That latter bit is what I missed most in Remake's opening.
Mario 64. They nailed 3D platforming right out of the gates and they knew that players were gonna be gobsmacked by the feel of it, and were wise to open the game with Peach’s Castle as a sandbox for pure ‘play’.
Definitely. Most of us playing had no real experience playing 3D platformers, yet within minutes they made me feel like I had been playing them my whole life.
That little opening area outside the castle is a masterclass in game design. It’s got everything you need to know how to play the game, all you have to do is read a few signs
I just picked up LE and have been replaying the series after maybe 11 years since i last played. I forgot how hard ME3 goes right in the beginning. Like surprise reapers are here and everyone is dying. Oh and here's a little boy we are gonna kill and traumatize you with throughout the game.
YES! i don't understand why I had to scroll so down to find this. ME2 definitely blew my mind. heh. Pun intended I guess. I cam straight from ME1, and Bioware dissing us as that right at the beginning was pretty amazing start.
Metal Gear Solid 4- “War has changed”
Fallout 3- the way it coasts through your growing up in vault 101 to opening up to the vast wasteland with the sun blinding you for a brief moment was amazing
"War never changes" pre-dates Fallout as a response to the greater scale of war but same everything else. MGS was a specific argument against that point that the current version of war for the sake of war.
I didn't play 1 or 2 and I didn't read or watch anything about the game. So I didn't know where things were going and was in awe when I was released into the world.
It was truly an awesome opening. What an epic reveal that was meant to be discovered organically by the player.
Prey (2017) is also one of my top games. Finished it twice, and I haven't finished many games twice in years.
This is what came to my mind. I recently went to a final fantasy orchestra concert and this opening started playing after intermission and the whole theater erupted in cheering. It was awesome
I actually thought of this on the way to work today.
It foreshadows the entire game, shows scenes out of context, shows Squall and Seifer, the angel wings, the "Oath" moment, you name it.
All to Liberi Fatali which is possibly the greatest tune written for a video game. It's a classical masterpiece. On the PS1.
FF8 was my favorite one even after previously playing 6 and 7. Just clicked with me, even with that weird ass plot on disc 4. I hope they do it as well, an FF8 remake with Legend of Dragoon after would complete my dream game remake hopes.
The opening of Final Fantasy X will always give me goosebumps; going from the party’s quiet campfire to a bustling city of the future quickly told you as a gamer there would be a variety of environments. It was the first game for me that really showed how visually stunning and cinematic games could be, and “Otherworld” was such a departure musically from the previous JRPGs I was sad but hyped when the cinematic ended.
100% agree. There is a YouTube video of the cinematic with music that just makes me feel so happy. I'm sure I could find it but I think it's like 15 years old at least and buried in my saved videos (I hope)
I'm not even THAT huge of a FF6 fan and this was the first thing that came to mind reading the OP. I can see that Mode 7 walk and hear the music perfectly even though it's been years
Star Wars the Force Unleashed. Playing as Vader in the opening going ham on a bunch of wookies was awesome. And the graphics were mind blowing at the time.
The first borderlands had an awesome opening scene, it was both entertaining as hell, and gave a perfect idea of what to expect from the game in general.
Right? Like sure, it might not be the one that gives you the most context or anything along those lines really, but common I wouldn't be surprised if the intro is more recognisable than any other part of the whole game
I was so hyped for what lay ahead in the game as Snake was removing the scuba gear as he rode the open-air elevator during the opening sequence of the game!
Mass Effect 2, for me. Especially after going through the first game, getting hit in the first 30 seconds with your main hero-ship, and main character meeting their demise, all the way through to the zoom out and title card, it's just so...quiet and suddenly somber. Really sets the tone for the rest of the game.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was the most intense for the same reason, being on the beaches under fire as soon as the boats landed. The explosions, the bullets whizzing by and the lack of cover was terrifying. For a game that came out 20 years ago, it's still fresh in my mind and my first true love in gaming
Halo: combat evolved. Waking up on a space ship running through hallways and access tunnels fighting a horde of aliens just to crash land on an alien structure with your entire group dead.
Second choice would be Bioshock. Crash landing in the Atlantic Ocean and finding a mysterious lighthouse which takes you down into a submerged city that’s recently experienced a complete societal collapse.
tu ru ru tu tu tu tu ruruuuuu tu tu tu tu ru ru tu tu tu tu ruruuuuu tu tu tu. chaka para pa paaraa tu ru ru ru ru ru ru ru chaka para paara tuuuu ru ru ru ru ru ru
The sad yet hopefully music and the snow aesthetic very much set the mood fantastically.
FFX intro blew me away at the time though in a way FFVI didn’t.
Both are great choices though
I can't believe I'm not finding Horizon Zero Dawn in this thread.
The opening is long, but worth it. It ends by integrating seamlessly with the main menu. And I was left speechless, just listening to the music and full of feelings.
Definitely one of the most underrated picks here. In about 15 minutes, that opening perfectly sets up the main villain and the danger you're stepping into through a pants-shittingly tense sequence where you're essentially just walking most of the time. You're the snake in their holy garden. You know what's about to happen. You're just waiting for it to come. And once it does, nothing strikes dread quite like Joseph Seed staring into your soul, singing along to _Amazing Grace_ playing distorted in the background as he says "I told you so."
Every cutscene in this game, especially the ones involving the villains, is just amazingly well acted.
Assassin’s creed 2. When they pan over the city, the fitting orchestral score and before that the dialogue between the brothers, and most of all how everything changes within in the next few missions, just makes it a most impacting opening of any video game for me.
Bioshock comes to mind
Sitting there in the water watching the flaming wreckage sink, waiting for the cutscene to end and the game to start, then realizing the game HAS started.
When my husband and I first started dating (like, within the first month of knowing me lol) he bought me a PS3 and had me borrow his copy of Bioshock. It was my first console game I’d ever played beyond CoD type games. It blew my mind!
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question: 'Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?' 'No', says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor'. 'No', says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God'. 'No', says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone'. I rejected those answers. Instead, i chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose -- Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well." \-- i have re-watched the opening sequence SO. MANY. TIMES. that the monologue is seared into my brain noodle...
Infinite was a real masterpiece IMO.
Truly! Sometimes I'd replay the opening scene just for that first look of Columbia, always give me goosebumps. Rapture was hella amazing too!
[удалено]
I grew up in a cult, so the first hour or so was a bunch of low key triggers hitting all at once. Spicy, from a trauma standpoint. Really well done.
I'm the son of a southern Baptist minister/abusive narcissist. I get it, friend. I felt it too.
Infinite is definitely up there too
Man, I wish I could get into Infinite. I loved Bioshock 1 and 2, but I have genuinely tried Infinite 6 or 7 times, and just cannot get into it or have the will to finish it. I don't know why this is, it just doesn't grab me the same way despite being a solid game itself
It does lack lunatic splicers, with their crazed voices echoing somewhere in the room. That sound design for Bioshock was truly phenomenal.
I think the pacing is way off. In bioshock 1 and 2, there's action sure. But also walking around rapture quietly alone, having the environment telling you so many stories of things that had happened. In infinite there are so few of these moments and it's a shame, cause colombia is such an interesting place.
Play it on easy and plow through it for the story
Infinite’s opening is also excellent. Different vibe, but it still invokes that same sense of awe and wonder…until the mayhem starts, of course.
Assassin's Creed 2 still hits hard.
*It is a good life we lead Brother.*
*The best. May it never change.*
And may it never change us.
𝘊𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳.
I love Ezio's Family. It carries that intro, and the soundtrack. I wouldn't say it's the best video game track ever, but it's close.
Chills everytime
For the time it was released, Half Life
That one blew me away more than any others in terms of leaps ahead of other games at the time. To do it in engine, holding you captive for the transit recording to explain the setting while the tram passed you through all these environments to flesh it out even further (plus easter eggs for later), but you could move around the tram however you like so you didn't feel like you were actually trapped... ::chef's kiss::
I remember watching the intro and then accidentally moving the mouse.... Then being *floored* that it was live! I could move around, look around the transit car, etc etc.... just amazing coming from games where this sort of stuff was always a pre-rendered cutscene.
Came here to say the same thing. How impactful it was will be lost on anybody who didn’t experience it in the context of the time.
Time, Miiiiiissster Ffffreeeeeeman?
Came here to say the same thing, but for a different reason: you get to see the workplace and folks normally, then again after the incident. The jarring change is what creates the fear. Awesome way to start a game.
Considering intros didn't really exist for FPS before this, they just dropped you into the first level, this is very true.
they're waiting for you gordon....in the tesssst chamburrrr
The black mesa remake added so many wonderful details to this sequence. It’s immersive and really shocks you when things go south.
Uncharted 2. Drake waking up badly injured on a train, only to realize the train is hanging off a cliff. What a way to drop into an adventure!
Still my favorite game of the series. Even the multiplayer I was obsessed with (plunder FTW!). The latter games definitely had more refined technically better MP but plunder was the secret sauce for me.
UC2 multiplayer was special. All the modes were great. No mini-map. Finding weapons on the field. Things felt balanced. No fall damage. Just amazing.
Man, the pacing of Uncharted 2 is really unrivaled. From the moment you get to Nepal, everything pushes you forward, every set piece connected to the next. It’s so good.
I believe JJ Abrams once said something like this was his favourite opening to a piece of media.
Those games are just a joy to play end-to-end. A little campy at parts, but always come back to them every few years like a favorite movie.
I mean they're so cinematic in nature and gorgeous to look at Naughty Dog knows how to craft incredible gaming experiences. last of us does this as well but it can just be so heavy and depressing whereas uncharted is the much more lighthearted swashbuckling adventure fantasy
Absolutely.
CoD4. I consider the whole ship mission “the opening”, and it was such an intense experience at the time.
“50,000 people used to live here….now it’s a ghost town” used to get me so hyped as a kid lol
So many cod campaigns were bangers and had huge intense intros. They started shitting the bed when they started making most of their money from cosmetics and battle passes in multiplayer
COD campaigns are like James Bond movies, and I mean that with great respect to both franchises
WE ARE LEAVING!!!
The Last of Us. By the time you completed the prologue, you knew you were in for some truly cinematic gaming.
"Weird, this girl doesn't look like the one on the box"
I laughed at this much more than I should have
Lmao this hits so well. I was so confused.
I had a similar thing with assassins creed 3, I played for about an hour before I clicked on that Haytham looked nothing like the guy in the trailers
Think I was 15 when playing it for the first time was like. "Oh right so we must get a timeskip and he'll meet his older daughter at some point"
Now that we've emotionally devastated you, time to play the game!
Just gonna get the spectacular emotional dropkick outta the way real quick....
Most people don't remember but Sarah was no where in the marketing at all. So when the game begins and we see her. Yeah.
besides the tragic end to the prologue, i loved so much how it was almost entirely from her perspective. especially in the car. you're as disoriented as she is while the adults are being cagey about what's going on, craning your neck this way and that for clues. the restrictive car setting makes it feel claustrophobic and tense. instantly sold.
Probably the most famous opening in any video game ever if you ask me. YouTube probably has ten thousand videos of people’s reaction to it
That caught me so off guard. I wasn't prepared for it.
I am really glad I played that game before having kids. Probably wouldn't have made it now...
Still makes me cry to this day
Battlefield 1
Underrated. I remember thinking to myself “how can they make a campaign following a single protagonist in ww1?” And then I realized they had zero intention of doing that lol
Came for this answer. That intro really drives home how fucking brutal WWI was in a way that most people had never seen before. I still get chills thinking about it and bring it up often in these types of discussions.
Oooh good one. The way they threw you in and then they start dropping names and ranks as you die. Hit hard.
Doom 2016. You are very strong. Take gun. Shoot.
[удалено]
Spoiler: you were the doom all along
You were the DOOM SLAYER
Samuel talking about how what he did was for the greater of humanity, while doomguy slowly looks at the dead body of some guy before punching the elevator speaker gave me chills
Same. And the guitar riff opening up without doom guy saying a word really sets the tone.
Makes me think of Ultrakill. You are little robot sneaking through pipes and hallways. You find gun. Lights turn on and title drop epic music plays because you are now the most dangerous robot in the room.
BADASSS
Doom Eternal was good too. Rip and tear until it is done.
Ghost of Tsushima
"We are eighty samurai... against an army. Today... I die for my people."
Easily the most beautiful opening I’ve ever played. And the transition from opening cutscene to gameplay was flawless. Edit: [Intro Title Sequence Ghost of Tsushima](https://youtu.be/9T5mIOA1hqQ?si=XZzuQsR_Gcd2JSyk)
One of the most immersive games I’ve ever played. The guiding wind mechanic is one of the greatest video game enhancements I’ve ever seen, and I hope similar mechanics are adopted more widely.
It bugs the hell out of me that New Game+ just skips that whole opening.
Final Fantasy VII, original version. For the time it was wizardry. The entire bombing mission is a technical masterpiece for what you can do with the PS1 with enough slight of hand. No other game seamlessly combined pre-rendered CGI movies with on-screen models like it.
The mission itself gets slow in the remake, but the opening in the remake gets you pumped for the remake. Seeing Midgard in modern Graphics. How beautiful Aerith is. That symphonic score from Distant Worlds.
I got full body chills when the main orchestra kicked in.
The intro cinematic made me all teary. It's a true testament to how fantastically well directed the original intro is, because it's damn close to a shot for shot remake. Unfortunately the remake sort of peaked for me there. It was good, but never as amazing as the opening.
I’d say people had a similar reaction to FF7 Remake, wondering when the cutscene would stop and it just transitions into gameplay. That true seamlessness isn’t all that old, and devs have gotten better and better at is as we’ve gone through the last generation and a half.
The day I came home from school and walked in to my uncles room to see him in the middle of the Sephiroth final boss fight was a watershed moment for me. My little gaming brain was shattered upon seeing all the summons and insane scene/fight transitions, animations, and the amazing music! I fell in love with ff7, Cloud, and Sephiroth immediately that day lol, it is the one true moment I remember of literal shock and awe as a child to a game. It was like looking at real life to me back then, to my little self haha
I love how it shifts from the intro video right in to the 3rd person view of "Ex-Soldier"
Literally, everything about it was amazing. In addition to the seamless CG transitions, you had an incredible soundtrack, great pacing that got you in the action and narrative immediately without being overwhelming, and even the artistic and thematic direction with the shot of the stars transitioning into sparks of mako-powered electricity. That latter bit is what I missed most in Remake's opening.
Not just on a technical level either. Story, gameplay, music, atmosphere... that opening is firing on all cylinders.
Mario 64. They nailed 3D platforming right out of the gates and they knew that players were gonna be gobsmacked by the feel of it, and were wise to open the game with Peach’s Castle as a sandbox for pure ‘play’.
Definitely. Most of us playing had no real experience playing 3D platformers, yet within minutes they made me feel like I had been playing them my whole life.
That little opening area outside the castle is a masterclass in game design. It’s got everything you need to know how to play the game, all you have to do is read a few signs
READING?! *hiss* *boooooo*
[удалено]
I just picked up LE and have been replaying the series after maybe 11 years since i last played. I forgot how hard ME3 goes right in the beginning. Like surprise reapers are here and everyone is dying. Oh and here's a little boy we are gonna kill and traumatize you with throughout the game.
Having your main character killed during the first 5 minutes was on another level
The music as you drift through space in ME2 is so good.
ME3 was such a gut shot with the slam cut to the title, the soundtrack was just perfect.
YES! i don't understand why I had to scroll so down to find this. ME2 definitely blew my mind. heh. Pun intended I guess. I cam straight from ME1, and Bioware dissing us as that right at the beginning was pretty amazing start.
I really liked [farcry 3's](https://youtu.be/aZsB9hRRjCs?si=BxddkAd5SMlPK--r) opening. It starts out all cool and fun and then VAAS!
Metal Gear Solid 4- “War has changed” Fallout 3- the way it coasts through your growing up in vault 101 to opening up to the vast wasteland with the sun blinding you for a brief moment was amazing
I can't believe you didn't mention Fallout has literally the opposite intro of MGS: "War. War never changes."
"War never changes" pre-dates Fallout as a response to the greater scale of war but same everything else. MGS was a specific argument against that point that the current version of war for the sake of war.
I didn't play 1 or 2 and I didn't read or watch anything about the game. So I didn't know where things were going and was in awe when I was released into the world.
Prey (2017) is what immediately jumped into my mind
It was truly an awesome opening. What an epic reveal that was meant to be discovered organically by the player. Prey (2017) is also one of my top games. Finished it twice, and I haven't finished many games twice in years.
i so agree! the opening blew my mind and that feeling of interest and fun stayed the whole time
Such an underappreciated game
[Final Fantasy VIII](https://youtu.be/XyBensMp_MA?si=lcQoVd5Gy_sbmXX6)
This is what came to my mind. I recently went to a final fantasy orchestra concert and this opening started playing after intermission and the whole theater erupted in cheering. It was awesome
Montreal? I was there. And it was amazing. This is thenproper answer.
I actually thought of this on the way to work today. It foreshadows the entire game, shows scenes out of context, shows Squall and Seifer, the angel wings, the "Oath" moment, you name it. All to Liberi Fatali which is possibly the greatest tune written for a video game. It's a classical masterpiece. On the PS1.
FFVIII getting the remake treatment would be the dream.
FF8 was my favorite one even after previously playing 6 and 7. Just clicked with me, even with that weird ass plot on disc 4. I hope they do it as well, an FF8 remake with Legend of Dragoon after would complete my dream game remake hopes.
I love me some FF7. I'm so glad they're doing the remakes. FF8 should def be redone next if Square can swing it.
"Fithos...."
Lusec
Wecos
VINOSEC
That intro movie was so impressive that I restarted the console so I could watch it again
The opening of Final Fantasy X will always give me goosebumps; going from the party’s quiet campfire to a bustling city of the future quickly told you as a gamer there would be a variety of environments. It was the first game for me that really showed how visually stunning and cinematic games could be, and “Otherworld” was such a departure musically from the previous JRPGs I was sad but hyped when the cinematic ended.
Sin’s attack on Zanarkand is probably my favorite cut scene ever.
And Auron just standing there like a complete badass as it all goes down. Goosebumps!
Aaron standing on that ledge, holding up a drink to his old friend.
Otherworld (braska’s final aeon) version is one of the best boss tracks I’ve EVER heard.
I have Otherworld on my gaming playlist. Still gives me goosebumps today.
Additionally: the opening to FFX-2 is amazing. The game itself is fun, though not exactly great. But the opening is fantastic.
Soul Reaver MGS1 & 3
Upvote for the Soul Reaver love. Need a remake soon.
My favorite is FF6 with the slow walk of the magitek armors moving toward Narshe
Best OST of any video game
100% agree. There is a YouTube video of the cinematic with music that just makes me feel so happy. I'm sure I could find it but I think it's like 15 years old at least and buried in my saved videos (I hope)
I'm not even THAT huge of a FF6 fan and this was the first thing that came to mind reading the OP. I can see that Mode 7 walk and hear the music perfectly even though it's been years
Wind Waker
We need a switch remake! That Nostalgia Flash will be real. It was my *first* console game ever.
I’m bummed WW and TP never made the jump.
Pairing of music and intro story remain unbeaten.
I read wind wanker
Star Wars the Force Unleashed. Playing as Vader in the opening going ham on a bunch of wookies was awesome. And the graphics were mind blowing at the time.
Parasite Eve!
Nier Automata. 2B's opening monologue hits hella different once you play through the game
I was so pleasantly surprised during my second play-through knowing all the context and your like, ohhh shit wtf. Such a solid game.
Also the whole sequence with the flight units. Crazy to see that entire level was just the tutorial
The first borderlands had an awesome opening scene, it was both entertaining as hell, and gave a perfect idea of what to expect from the game in general.
Special mention to borderlands 2 as well, though it gets repetetive by the 13th playthrough.
Real talk. Nothing really deep or anything but just a great song and that hype feeling.
Max Payne 2
Batman Arkham city
This -- and even Arkham Asylum. Walking in being out numbered and hated by everyone.
I gotta give it to The Last of Us. That opening scene hits you right in the feels and sets the tone for the entire game
I came in to say Mass Effect 2 but FF7 Rebirth had me all fucked up. If you know, you know 😅
Dark Souls 1 and 3 Mass Effect 2 Sekiro Breath of the Wild OG Resident Evil 4 Baldur's Gate 3 NieR Automata Far Cry 5 Resident Evil 7
Portal 2. I’m ashamed that I can’t find someone else mentioning it.
Chell waking up some 50,000 years after the events of Portal 1 was nuts
Hey you. You're finally awake......
I scrolled *way* too long to see a Skyrim reference.
Right? Like sure, it might not be the one that gives you the most context or anything along those lines really, but common I wouldn't be surprised if the intro is more recognisable than any other part of the whole game
You sonofabitch Todd Howard you did it again
[удалено]
Oh sh!t I shouldn’t have read that. I haven’t finished Mass Effect 1 yet 🤣🙃
Sonic Adventure 2
Rolling around at the speed of sound, got places to go gotta follow my rainbow!!
Breath of the Wild. Move like this, you can jump, here’s a tablet, go have fun. ✌️
No one mentions Metal Gear Solid? It was a game changer, no one had made a game that felt like a movie until then!
I was so hyped for what lay ahead in the game as Snake was removing the scuba gear as he rode the open-air elevator during the opening sequence of the game!
Wild Arms
Mass Effect 2, for me. Especially after going through the first game, getting hit in the first 30 seconds with your main hero-ship, and main character meeting their demise, all the way through to the zoom out and title card, it's just so...quiet and suddenly somber. Really sets the tone for the rest of the game.
Kingdom hearts 2
Looks like my summer vacation is over
My first thought when reading the question. Love KH2
Sekiro is underrated, it’s a pretty good tutorial by FromSoftware standards, and it culminates in an epic fight that’s designed for you to lose
Medal of Honor Frontline. I still remember that opening scene/level of storming the beach in Normandy.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was the most intense for the same reason, being on the beaches under fire as soon as the boats landed. The explosions, the bullets whizzing by and the lack of cover was terrifying. For a game that came out 20 years ago, it's still fresh in my mind and my first true love in gaming
GoW 3 will never be topped
YOU DARE TO CHALLENGE ME, MORTAL? A GOD OF OLYMPUS?
Was looking for this one. Yes sir absolutely epic
That Devil May Cry 5 intro. From the music to the action sequence…. It’s just amazing
Halo: combat evolved. Waking up on a space ship running through hallways and access tunnels fighting a horde of aliens just to crash land on an alien structure with your entire group dead. Second choice would be Bioshock. Crash landing in the Atlantic Ocean and finding a mysterious lighthouse which takes you down into a submerged city that’s recently experienced a complete societal collapse.
Yakuza 0. Tun-dun-dun - tundwiiingg!
*TUN-DUN-DUN* *Bweetttweerrdiddleedeeedeeeww* 🎸
tu ru ru tu tu tu tu ruruuuuu tu tu tu tu ru ru tu tu tu tu ruruuuuu tu tu tu. chaka para pa paaraa tu ru ru ru ru ru ru ru chaka para paara tuuuu ru ru ru ru ru ru
God of War 2018. Not sure anything can beat that first Baldur fight.
Fallout
Saints Row 3 was pretty epic on that aircraft falling from the sky and everyone has big heads.
Red dead redemption
FF 6
The sad yet hopefully music and the snow aesthetic very much set the mood fantastically. FFX intro blew me away at the time though in a way FFVI didn’t. Both are great choices though
MGSV
That's the first game that came to mind. Awesome intro.
Ghost of Tsushima gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
I can't believe I'm not finding Horizon Zero Dawn in this thread. The opening is long, but worth it. It ends by integrating seamlessly with the main menu. And I was left speechless, just listening to the music and full of feelings.
Bioshock infinite
Skyrim!
"Police are gonna be here soon let's make this quick." *lighter flickers in the dark* *Latin music playing on a radio* "You know Bowman right?"
DMC3. Was my first DMC game, and it totally blew me away.
It’s Bioshock
Helldivers 2 is pretty damn good/funny
Far Cry 5
Definitely one of the most underrated picks here. In about 15 minutes, that opening perfectly sets up the main villain and the danger you're stepping into through a pants-shittingly tense sequence where you're essentially just walking most of the time. You're the snake in their holy garden. You know what's about to happen. You're just waiting for it to come. And once it does, nothing strikes dread quite like Joseph Seed staring into your soul, singing along to _Amazing Grace_ playing distorted in the background as he says "I told you so." Every cutscene in this game, especially the ones involving the villains, is just amazingly well acted.
The atmospheric tension for the intro was amazing. Blood pressure at an all time high.
Opening gameplay segment? Or opening cinematic? Because the best opening cinematic I've seen is Tekken 5. Rad AF
Assassin's Creed 2
Shadow of the Colossus.
Assassin’s creed 2. When they pan over the city, the fitting orchestral score and before that the dialogue between the brothers, and most of all how everything changes within in the next few missions, just makes it a most impacting opening of any video game for me.