Bioshock Has the Best Beginning of Any Game Ever | Extra Punctuation
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2023
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This week on Extra Punctuation, Yahtzee takes a look back at the opening moments of Bioshock.
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"Is a man not entitled to the _et_ of his _cetera,_ and all that." For a throwaway comment, this was *_very_* nicely written, Yahtz.
Right?! I audibly chuckled.
"Is a man not entitled to the (and) of his (the rest)"
Is a man not entitled to the (noun) of his (verb)?
@@SymbioteMulletetcetera means “and the rest”
@@IchabodSunkle i know, I'm just extending the meme for further hilarity.
The beginning is hilarious. "You kill just ONE small child because you want to see what will happen, and suddenly you're the bad guy!"
the shadows on the scene, as he thinks "oh just one", and the knife raises "just to see what will happen..."
I baked bread for people in my city - nobody called me Steve the Baker...
I built houses for the homeless - nobody called me Steve the Builder...
I would fix anyone's car for free - nobody called me Steve the Mechanic...
But you get caught shagging one single sheep...
"Just a little treat"
Actually… you’re allowed to kill one little sister and still get the good ending. Just one %)
@@IvanMosquitoI heard there's a neutral ending that's the same as the bad one but Tenenbaum's tone is different?
I love the Doom (2016) opening. Literally ripping the exposition dump from the wall followed by full control given back to player. Perfectly sets the tone of "story doesn't matter. Kill demons"
Yeah, it's acknowledging that cinematic intros are now obligatory, but it still doesn't want to waste the player's time.
Except it's a load of crap, it still forces a lot of story on you. I especially remember being annoyed in Eternal how this robot and those hell priests keep yapping into your ears endlessly...
@@fleshworm Doom 2016 was the one that did it well though. Eternal was back to dumping a crapload of story into a game that didn't need it.
In terms of metanarrative, sure, but it's actually a character moment showing that The Doomslayer sees right through the speaking head's bullshit, which is reinforced when it tries to assure you it was doing the right thing only for the slayer to look at the corpse in the elevator with him that makes it clear this is bullshit. It's honestly a lot more sophisticated a narrative than you'd ever expect from a freaking Doom game.
Nothing will ever hit as hard as that final gun cock as well, in time with the fricking music
An introduction I really enjoyed was Disco Elysium: when you start it’s just a black screen with a disembodied voice called the “Ancient Reptilian Brain” trying to convince you to let go of everything and just wallow in the warm, primordial blackness. Only for your character to wake up on the floor of his motel room, revealing that everything the player just went through was essentially the character waking up from a hangover
This is probably my favourite intro to any game I've ever played. Caught me so off guard. I guess it doesn't hit all the beats for what Yahtzee is talking about but for sheer originality and strangeness, wins it for me by a mile.
I played the game with and without the disembodied voices being, uh, voiced. Gotta say, it's so much more effective when the voices are clearly only sÕmĔŵHâͲ human, plus you get the over-the-top dialects and line deliveries that make it clear you're in control of someone who's not actually all that in control of himself.
Stanley parable isn't very flashy in the beginning but I think it conveys things in a very unique and efficient way
Stanley Parable's opening has different meaning to the player after learning more from each ending. I almost felt cheeky watching the intro again after making some discoveries, knowing a little secret the protagonist doesn't but making them go through the story again anyway. Basically the same feeling you get watching "The Sixth Sense" a second time. A lot of games with a twist ending employ this as a technique, but because the focus of Stanley Parable *is* the change in ending, it punctuates your last run and moves on to a new one with more oomph.
ALL OF THIS
I would say that Prey's intro, with the relaxed helicopter ride, then having to escape "your apartment", was definitely the most memorable I've ever seen. Completely subverted expectations and perfectly introduces what quietly ends up being the game's main themes.
Portal 2 is the first one that comes to my mind. I'd say it comes as close as possible to being a perfect introduction to the game's world & tone.
The lonely wake up sequence with undertones of creepiness, followed by the funny & chaotic ride to the main facility, only to be dropped into remains of Portal 1's test track.
It's the entire game's structure in microcosm.
"Just going to interface with this door..."
Ganna manually over ride this wall. This is going to get technical. *proceeds to ram your room into said wall*
Yeah, kudos for picking Portal in general, Portal 1 had a great intro too.
The "Talk" prompt's being jump was hilarious.
@@BFedie518 You've been under for *quite* a lot longer, and there's a good chance that you have a minor case of serious brain damage.
I like Far Cry 3's intro, even if its not as good as Bioshock's. Just something about never leaving Jason's perspective. The entire exciting intro of the holiday was actually just Vaas showing Jason's phone video back to him. Then the sneaking through the makeshift prison camp, the shooting of Grant, and finally the exciting escape through the jungle, featuring Jason's first kill (where there's actual remorse for it). You feel so helpless by the end of the intro, and it gives the player an initial goal to reach to: building up Jason to the point of being an effective soldier to save his friends.
Indeed, Far Cry 3 sets the tone, hints at who the big baddie is, and demonstrates the descent into madness that Jason will experience in the game when by the end is he really no different from Vaas? A shame the game lost steam and good writing on the last bit. Still a really great intro. Really hard to top.
@@ObadiahtheSlimFar Cry 3 kind of ruined farcry for me. It feels like that is where farcry peaked. Farcry 4 felt like a Farcry 3 mod without any of the storyline and a new map. Farcry 5 and 6 looked so bland I have yet to play them. Waiting till I can get get them nearly free in a humble bundle or something as that is all the marketing has made me feel they are worth. 6 at least has a great actor as villian, but the protagonist feels so empty in the materials I have seen.
"What is it, Jason? Jason, what is it? Why aren't you laughing now like you did up there? What, is this not fun any more? Have I failed to entertain you? You see, thing is, up there, you thought you had a chance. Waaaay, up in the fucking skies, you thought you had your finger on the pussy trigger. But hermano, down here... down here? You hit the ground."
I quite like Far Cry 2's intro. The taxi ride through the hot and volatile country, realising you have malaria and you barely have a chance to rest before your hotel is torched.
now compare that to far cry 6. A long slog of an intro that starts with a charater close to the protagonist getting shot but we have literally no reason to give a shit about them (at least in jasons case its his brother dying and that is immediately sad to anyone not diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder), a completely boring sneak sequence, and a three hour tutorial on asinine mechanics and progression (whereas Jason gets useful abilities and better weapons as you play which is much simpler, more fun, and doesn't take literal hours to introduce). Wtf happened to this series.
My favorite intro probably goes to Doom 2016, the opening monologue, the Slayer breaking free from his chains, Samuel Hayden trying to control him like a rabid dog let off the leash, and ending with probably the best title drop in a video game. Perfection.
Ironically, DOOM Eternal has one of the worst openings. I had no idea what was going on, no clue what a hell priest was, no sense of why I suddenly had a Gothic fortress in the middle of space... it's like ID Software forgot everything that made DOOM 2016 great
THAT'S the one. The shotgun, the elevator, the music.
Not sure if I'd call it my favourite, but it's certainly a great one, true that!
@@DagonExcelstraun Very true.
@@DagonExcelstraun Yeah, especially considering how DOOM 2016 ended- it was ridiculously jarring.
Super Metroid is my favorite opening, from the title screen until the morph ball upgrade is all so tense and isolated.
Great memories with this one.
Super Mario Bros. 3.
Curtain goes up, Mario and Luigi are jumping and having a great time.
This
I was thinking something similar, but it's the callbacks in that section you mentioned that i really like; you drop down the escape shaft from Metroid 1, through the location of the final boss of the same, and then get the morph ball in the exact same place you did in the first screen of mentroid 1. It's recreated brilliantly. Things are the same, but so empty.
Then you retrace your steps and get jumped, and it's game on.
I was just about to say I love all three Metroid Prime intros.
My favorite Intro will forever be Symphony of the Night. You start playing the final level of a different game, beat the final boss, it transitions into the opening with ALucard reaching the castle years later, silence, darkness, a lightining strikes and the bangiest OST known to man starts playing. Actually incredible.
Die, monster!
There's something about starting off with the climax of the previous game that needs to be done more in sequels.
"You steal mens' souls!"
Utterly nonchalantly: "The same could be said of all religions."
No better way to establish "The age of whip-and-jump Castlevania is over. The age of Metroidvania Castlevania is here." That's even the first Castlevania without a Belmont as protagonist, right?
@@digitaljanus No. Bloodlines stars John Morris or Eric Lecard.
Portal 2 might have my personal favorite opening sequence.
Grim Fandango is also up there.
I think we can put our differences behind us. For Science. You monster.
I loved Grim Fandango's intro. The whole soft-spoken undertone regarding the client's anxiety and confusion of realizing he's dead, only for Manny's dry humor and cynical charm to come in and show how he's set up less like the Grim Reaper and more like a beleaguered used cars salesman. Does a great job building up the setting's treatment of lost souls like just another shady business enterprise, as well as establishing the protagonist's personality and the nature of the journey he'll eventually undertake.
Apple
I'm so thankful I've been able to experience the evolution of amazing games from almost the beginning of them.
Portal 2 was great at making me feel the despair for Chell of "Oh no, we HAVE to go back into the test chambers"
I'd say Arkane's Prey intro sequence is up there in terms of both interactivity and all the table flips it hints at and provides right away.
Wandering around the area your character was kept in for the first 20 minutes also really immerses you in your situation, especially because to exit the area you have to see all of the stuff they were using to trick you before hand. That immediately sets the idea in your mind, if that wasn't real what is? The ending of the game hammering that lesson home.
I still can't comprehend how any of it actually worked and how it was on loop considering everyone was fucking dead.
the original prey also had a pretty swanky beginning.
@@Hysteria98the loop stopped when everyone died
the simulation was another thing entirely
@@Hysteria98 it wasn't on loop after everyone died, that's how you get out
In my mind, Portal has to be up there as far as game intros go. You have a disembodied voice talking at you from above about tests, but after a minute you're put face-to-face with yourself from the side, due to a portal you now have to go through to progress. It shows immediately how important shifting viewpoints is.
And it's such an interesting thing to see that even though most people don't get it immediately, most people stop to examine it so they're more likely to figure it out.
Disco Elysium's intro is super good.
But that again, everything is ❤
"No gods. No kings. Only man"
Hard to argue. Opening of bioshock was the shit. Unforgetable.
Well, there were also some women and some of the people really tried to do some king/god shit.
I love that the game pointed out how Randroids don’t follow “No Gods, no masters” to its actual logical conclusion.
@@Kuhmuhnistische_Partei"man", not "men". "Man" is short for "human".
@@kelvinrichardson5324"randroids" that's hilarious.
I think Firewatch's intro is really effective for how simple it is. It is by far the most emotional intro I've seen
I second this!
Yeah, it's amazing how that text just hits the right emotional notes.
"You find a fantastic place in Boulder and move her there. You see her every day."
*Then every other day.*
That questionnaire ruined the whole game, what kind of limp-dicked twat refused to move?
Arkham Asylum has one of the best video game beginnings I've ever played.
Outer wilds' opening has to be the best in my book. You press a button to wake up and you open your eyes looking at the stars. Immediatley there's something interesting but you probably don't notice it this wakeup.
The opening second of Outer Wilds has more intrigue and hidden meaning than most games manage over their entire runtime. The entire introduction sequence is just magical, and gets you super excited for the mysteries to come. I do wish there was more to do in the starting village throughout the rest of the game though, even if it was just (more) new dialogue.
RE4's town center sequence is still one of my favorite title card drops ever
Paired with the most iconically cheesy of all iconically cheesy lines, the mere thought of it still gives me tingles. God, what a masterpiece RE4 is.
But where is everyone going.. bingo??? We may never know..
RESIDENT EEEEEVIL. FOURRR.
Alien Isolation's intro is quite good at gradually bringing the player into the blocky sci fi setting, before everything explodes and then you're stuck in the station with crazy people/androids/xenomorphs. Certainly takes more than a few cues from Bioshock's, but bridges the gap between the original Alien movie and the interactive/reactive game world well.
Alien Isolation has to have my favourite menu screen of all time - the music, the background imagery... even the company logos flickering in, showing this is going to be done with a retro vibe. Before I'd even started the game, I knew it was going to be a love letter to the original film.
I find the GUI immersive on its own. Not to mention those tense 3 seconds before saving.
One thing I loved about Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines's intro is just how much it manages to say about so many different characters all at once. Most of them don't even have dialogue in the intro apart from the prince making a flowery speech on an execution, but the way that everyone reacts to it says a lot about their personalities and roles in the story. Some turn away at the sight of violence, some whisper in rebellious defiance, some treat it like a clinical day at the office, and one guy doesn't even bother to look up from his cigarette. It's the attention paid to establishing the setting while building up all these little character details that I feel like I only really appreciated on a replay.
My favorite beginning of a game has to go to CONTROL. The sudden realization of what certain visual effects mean, the Setpiece, the janitor, the tone, the setup. It's the most 'what the fuck' first hour or so of a game I've ever had and I love it dearly.
Yes, absolutely agree. The subtle off-ness of the first corridor you go through before you've even got in the elevator is so well done. You could miss it if you weren't paying attention, but even when you do, there's something that immediately makes you feel disoriented about it. Plus you meet the best character in the game right off the bat
And Remedy’s Max Payne and Max Payne 2 is one of the few games that effectively does in media res.
Control is a fantastic intro I completely forgot about, and it manages to keep up that vibe pretty well through a lot of the game too. Sounds like it's time for another playthrough of it
Control is so good
I think SOMA is an excellent example of a superb horror intro. It very much has the forest walk vibe - a very slow one at that - until it pulls the rug out from under you and yanks you straight into the deep end. Though, thinking about it, I can see someone having the Booker DeWitt problem as the protagonist mouths off throughout.
If I recall correctly, Yatzee actually compares Simon and Catherine talking and him being a little elf in Simon`s shoulder moving him. That said, the opening to SOMA is amazing for me, the atention to details, the voice acting, the shock when you wake up in Pathos 2. Man... I should replay SOMA
I think what makes Simon a good protagonist is that he is deliberately and consciously written to be annoying and a little bit dumb; his comments aren't exposition dumping for the player so much as they are establishing him as a person, because in fact a lot of what he says is mistaken or counterproductive. At various stages in the game you either relate to his confusion, or you feel bad for him when you realise something that he doesn't.
@@ZetaPrime9699 on the other hand, I'd friends tell me they got annoyed at how many times Simon just didn't understand the basic of the body changing. Mostly at the end when he and Catherine shout at each other about the a ark. I guess it depends a lot on the player
Simon is unbelievably dumb, so much so that it seriously detracts from the game. But it doesn't show too much in the early game.
I don't think it beats Bioshock or Infinite, but I do love the first "Chapter" of Return of the Obra Dinn with how it describes how to play the game with a simple tutorial describing what happens to the top level crew of the ship. It's not a complicated puzzle, but it sets the stage of mutiny and intrigue really well and gets the player excited to see what really happened on that ship.
Totally agree. The moment youre standing in the path of a freshly fired gunshot hooked me like few games have
I'll throw the Dead Space intro into the mix. the slow approach to the ishimura and first few steps on the ship will always be among my favourite openings
Hate to be the one but dead space's opening is as generic as it gets. 95% of sci fi games start with your spaceship blowing up and the player character being stranded on a hostile planet/environment.
Random spaceship pilots life expectancy is only slightly better than a helicopter pilot's in a call of duty game
"Deep in the Caribbean..." Monkey Island 1 starts in such a minimal and atmospheric way that I'm still transported as soon as I hear that first synthy (non-remakey) chord. It's the antithesis of Bioshock's intro but no less effective.
Monkey Island 1 and 2 are a total vibe.
@@MojoTheClownCurse is really good too
All it took was reading "Deep in the Caribbean..." and the theme was playing on my internal jukebox. Such a strong setting.
@@flunk_waffle8073 I know a lot of people started with that one, but I played it as an adult first and I found it surprisingly average.
Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max had great intros too.
Original Prey has a pretty effective intro. It establishes characters and what is normal for them in a neat playable sequence, only to tear it all up when you're transported to the Sphere. And then it's a rollecoaster ride, establishing subtly many story beats until you're thrust into survival horror mode with only a monkey wrench, very similar to Bioshock.
Homeworld. It comes with a manual that goes into great detail about about the planet, the clan system and the events that led up to the start of the game. Basically the planet Kharak is a dying desert world but recently the inhabitants found a derelict starship in the desert, it had a working hyperspace core and a map. For the last few centuries they had been reverse engineering the starship to travel to the planet located on the map which they believe is their original homeworld.
The game then starts with the mothership coming online. The first two missions are the tutorial and testing the mothership's jump drive. At the start of mission 3 you jump back to Kharak to pick up the cryogenics pods of all the people who would travel to the homeworld. You find the planet engulfed in firestorms from a planet destroying weapon fired by your ancient enemy. The fleet command just says: "Kharak is burning" while addagio for strings plays. You have to protect as many of the cryo trays as you can from attacking ships. Each one lost is 100k people and the only survivors of Kharak.
The rest of the game is the small fleet travelling to the homeworld. The gane has heavy focus on keeping as much of your fleet alive as possible since the fleet persists between missions. I feel like the opening sets these mechanics up perfectly and the story and gameplay is in sync.
Reading "Kharak is burning" alone is enough of an emotional trigger for me. Even when I've played it many time the moment still hits like a truck. It's really well crafted, both the scene and game in general.
You just unlocked some deep memories damn
I think Metroid Prime would have to be my favorite intro.
A sweeping view of the planet you'll soon explore but settling on the space frigate you immediately will.
Seeing Samus emerge from her ship and the camera zooms into the back of her helmet and seeing the diegetic HUD fizzle online, as if the game itself is making it's statement that this isn't like the 2D side scrollers you're used to.
Traipsing through the wrecked station and seeing the first dead Parasite Queen surrounded by slain Space Pirates while eerie music and half-dead monstrous gurgles echo across the cold metal walls.
Using the Scan Visor to do some on the fly research about what kind of experiments the Space Pirates are conducting there, not only filling out this alien race's agenda but also informing the player of how their relentless need for research and weaponizing creatures ultimately created the main antagonist.
The boss fight with the one surviving Parasite Queen that serves as a quick exam for all the movement and attack options you learned up to that point.
A thrilling escape sequence that is punctuated halfway through by the reveal of Meta Ridley, alive and well and very pissed off.
Having most of your weapons and abilities taken from you after you've had a taste of power and are forced to carry on with the bare minimum.
And then finally, you touch down on Tallon IV and after that heart-stopping experience, you begin your journey in a calm, safe rainy area with gentle music to cool you down after that high pitched sequence from before.
Perfection.
The Intro to Bioshock will always stick with me. When I played it as a young boy I remember that moment where your little pod ship thingy gets it's first view of Rapture, with the marine life swimming past and music perfectly complimenting it. It's just such an iconic moment.
I also played it when I was younger, on my 360. My older brother introduced me to it. He told me about it, and we went out and got a copy, along with some component cables for my 360. We plugged it in to a decently sized TV and yeah - what an intro.
Bonus points for the game blatantly taking aim at right "libertarian" nonsense. Of course, I'd really only appreciate that part later.
I always remember when you get to the splicer and the baby stroller. And the "remaster" totally fucked up that scene somehow...
The first Bioshock has a lot of iconic scenes right at the beginning. My favourite part is actually when you meet your first little sister - and shortly after, the first big daddy.
I have to give it to Final Fantasy VI. The march to Narshe with that hauntingly beautiful music and those Mode 7 graphics, as the snow swirls over the credits and the town gradually rises from the horizon... Gives me chills every time.
That's a good answer
That game does such a great job both in its opening hours and at the beginning of the World of Ruin putting you as the player in the same mindset as the main character(s)
I commented about FF7, but FF6 is right up there as well for me.
@@GregoryFlynn Drawing comparison to the effective "restart" or reintroduction to the World of Ruin is a great observation; the game really does kind of begin anew, but with Celes' section really focusing on what had been lost.
The additional detail that really puts the Bioshock beginning over the top is how you can still look up at Andrew Ryan's statue from the bottom of the rotunda before you enter the bathosphere. The "no gods or kings" banner is no longer visible from down there - once you're in his domain he has no further need for such pretenses.
The introduction to Breath of Fire II was pretty good. The music when walking through the woods for the first time, the transition from black and white to full color, and the sudden snap into the dark tone when your town just forgets who you are and your family is missing. That was certainly something, at least by 16-bit JRPG standards.
The virtuous mission in MGS3, aka, everything up to the nuke going off and the snake eater theme playing was awesome
Chrono Trigger is pretty stellar. Elegant all over. You wake up from a dream, which is the theme of the game in the first place, you go to a party with some great music and you play some games---a party which more or less invites you into the aesthetic of every era you meet in the game---you make choices which later come back to bite you, and you experience the basic premise of the game for yourself. Right up until the escape from prison, that first act or so is pretty satisfying.
half-life 2 has a comparable range of emotions in it's intro which serves the same purpose of giving the player a hidden tutorial and introduces the narrative worldbuilding. both half-life 2 and bioshock have left an impression even all these years later.
"Wake up and smell the ashes" is a hell of a line.
@@cruxreturns One of the best in gaming. In retrospect I wasn't that fond of HL2. It's very sterile, clever for sure, but hard to find anything to actually care about given how bad things have got. Sure there's some great bits, the whole horror section for one, but even with Xen I still vastly prefer the first game. That the first game didn't have dlc promising to continue the plot and then well we all know what happened with that.
But all that said when they used that line in the VR game trailer, instant. fucking. chills, and I suddedly wished I had a ludicrously expensive headset. It's just that good.
I loved that you can walk around the intro area as much as you want and talk to people. And what they say slowly builds to the horror of the world you have awakened into. The casual brutality of the metro cops. The woman waiting for her husband who was taken off the train "for questioning". The guy who tells you not to drink the water.
All the while Breens face on a giant monitor talks to you in a hopeful tone about how great City 17 is.
It's brilliant.
@@doomcookies Breen's "It's safer here" conveys so much in three words about the setting you've been dropped into.
And our first glimpse of a Vortigaunt in HL2 is a janitor, which says so much about this regime and your place in it.
@@Vermic12"You have chosen - or _been_ chosen - to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers."
Just that one sentence reveals a lot of subtle aspects of the world. For some people, they were told to move here by someone else, as in forced relocation by the Combine. It would be weird to describe a city as one of the "remaining" urban centers unless several of them were wiped out for some unknown reason. It's especially dire if this shithole can be considered one of the finest. Going outside of this short snippet, City 17 isn't the name of anything. It's a number. The Combine are stripping personal identity so much that even _cities_ don't have names.
Majora's Mask has to be one of my favorites. Immediately sets up a feeling of desperation, powerlessness, and terror (and a bit of body horror) that the franchise has never tapped into again, at least not to the same extent.
Honestly, Majora's Mask's tone is amazing throughout. My personal favorite moment is in Clock Town during the final hours. The eerie music, both somber and anxiety-inducing, the deserted streets, the intermittent rumbling as gravity from the grimacing moon shakes the very surface of the planet. And all of this punctuated by the slow, steady tolling of the tower bell which, normally a symbol of festivity and rebirth, sounds more like a death knell.
I've always been a big fan of the long, slow burn of _Twilight Princess_ myself. The fact that the game makes you do all that stuff in Ordon Village really sets up Link's character for when everything goes pear-shaped and he's forced to save the world.
(TP also has some of Zelda's best boss battles, too; Stallord, Argorok, and Blizzeta come to mind along with the ridiculous boss rush that is Zant. Would that they made him go through every major boss in the game.)
TP is my favourite Zelda game, and I’ve often gone back and forth on how I feel about the opening. The last play through I did though, I realised exactly how much character and setting development was being set up, now that I wasn’t just trying to get to “the good bit” again on a replay. And the introduction in the actual Twilight Realm to Zelda and Midna is top-notch.
Another wonderful game intro is Darkwood's. It has all of the things that makes Bioshock's special, even if the action is a bit more subtle given the nature of the game. But the way the player's perspective shifts in that intro, as well as the way combat is introduced and the setting is presented, is way up there with the best of them.
Also, Disco Elysium. Way simpler, but you know you're in for a ride when the first words the game gives you are your Ancient Reptilian Brain trying to convince you to surrender to the void.
"Here we are again, baaaabbyyyy~"
Espirit De Corps [Success]: "OP's Comment is sure to receive a lot of likes."
yeah, Darkwood was really good. I never turned off the introduction on subsequent runs.
Yep, this one's definitely up there. Best part is, it's not just an intro for you, it's for all THREE of you, including the two characters. You, the player, not knowing premise of the game thus far, followed by the Doctor, who just bludgeoned the stranger since he thinks the stranger has something he wants but is unsure about it so he also interrogates him, and ultimately, the stranger themselves, for whom we know nothing about nor does he know anything about the Doctor at that point.
Another thing, it's also a movement tutorial!
I also love how Darkwood's intro establishes some lore/gameplay bits early on-if you go to the bed, the doctor will admit he's terrified of sleeping. Similarly, he will vehemently deny to remove the barricades from the windows.
It's all just very thematic, and I love it a lot.
Honestly, even beyond the dialogue with the ancient reptilian brain, I love how you can just straight up die in your hotel room if you built your character the wrong way and fail the skill check to grab the tie.
It honestly does. When you're in the bathysphere and you crest that ridge and suddenly there's a huge underwater city beneath you, it's amazing. But you also see almost immediately that everything has gone to seed.
And of course, the amazing, haunting music
Its by no means a great opening, but an honorable mention needs to go to the opening of The Surge, with the wheelchair reveal. That was brilliant.
Didn’t they do that in avatar also?
@@firstprimehunter IDK I don't watch movies
I've always loved the opening to metal gear solid V, snake waking up from a coma only to have the hospital attacked by soldiers and mysterious supernatural beings, and the character creation fake out is a lovely touch.
Speaking of MGS:V, when I defeated 💀, and then the credits rolled, I was quite confused how suddenly the game had ended. I pulled up a search for an analysis of the ending, and quite quickly realized I had only beaten the first half when I read that Venom Snake _spoiler_ if you know, you know.
So that kinda ruined that bit of the story for me haha. I still really enjoyed the game overall.
Also, random sky whale.
MGSV is a great video game intro experiencing 5000% time dilation.
Then again, most narrative portions of Kojima games are experiencing four digits of time dilation.
There is something iconic about the way FF7 starts. I was really young when that game came out so JRPGs were kind of difficult for me to grasp, but something about that game clicked for me.
Homeworld's mothership test run and the events when returning from it get my nomination for best strategy game intro.
Very unexpected and instantly ramps up the stakes in a genre where you don't really expect any emotional investment into the plot.
Also adagio for strings. A small yet not insignificant detail, lest we forget.
And it holds that one nicely, cause then you jump back after the testrun, and BAM, you find... THAT happening.
Homeworld is literally in a league of its own.
For an rts.....it has a very evocative start and it manages to hold the audiences breadth right up to the last mission.
The game was and still is sublime....and full credit goes to the incredible story, jaw dropping galactic backdrops and fantastic music.
For me Homeworld holds up throughout its runtime like no other.
It's a 1 off game that is story complete as is.
Oh, good call. That still gives me goosebumps.
You have no idea how often I replayed the demo of the game when it first came out. Just the demo - that's just the first one and a half levels. The one with the launch sequence and the next one that ended at the point of your discovery of the Khar-Toba. That launch sequence with adagio playing is just a masterpiece. It certainly helps that I was (and am) absolutely obsessed with outer space.
I think for me one of my favorite intros is Dark Souls 3. The shorter cutscene than DS1 helps, and then the tense walk until you hit that view before Firelink Shrine is amazing.
Mine has to be Bastion. You wake up, there's some sexy narration and you're off. Realising that the world is destroyed and somehow forming beneath your feet as you walk and then the narrative reacts to you falling off an edge? We need more of that shit I'd say.
That'd certainly be up there. Realising that the narrator has lines prepared for you just breaking stuff that entirely fits was so dang cool.
I think Arkane's "Prey" has the best opening.
Just the sheer number of times it's willing to lie to you about where you are and whats' going on until you finally hit the lobby.
Brilliant timing, I was just thinking as I was slogging my way through Starfield's uninspiring introduction, how BioShock had been such a masterclass, over a decade ago. Then, BAM, the next morning, there is a notification to have that explored professionally by one of my favorite professionals.
11/10 as always
I like being explored by professionals
One I simply love is Outer Wilds. It sets the tone for how you should play the game perfectly. You're in control, you can do what you want, you can explore your home village, at your leisure, you can practice the drone ship before getting into your own, how the camera (the physical one your character has not pov) works and in the same room you have to go in to get the access code to your ship, a whole trove of knowledge on basic principles this universe operates on.
Spoilers below:
A very nice feature of the game is the first thing you see is the incident that will destroy the universe, but you don't have the context to understand what it means until much later in the game.
Between this and the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time episode, I would honestly love to see more of these types of videos. Just simple analyses of certain aspects about specific games. It would certainly give more to explore about some of Yahtzee's favorite games.
i was actually thinking about this not long ago. Fable has a great game intro where it fully immersed you into the worlds. being a child, having a mentor, interacting with the villagers and growing fond of everyone or being a little shit before it all goes south and the adventure begins with a clear motive and objective. seek revenge against Jack, save your sister, and have the freedom of doing it as a hero or villain.
Fable 2's intro was pretty good as well
As trite as it is, I'd say Final Fantasy 7 has a pretty perfect introduction. The Bombing Mission has all the ups and downs that you want and need, and introduces the game very well.
This also is a good call, that was good esp. for its time. (I just got the re-release of FF7 and played it a bit recently.)
What about 6, or even 4? The SNES games punched way above what you'd expect of a game from that era, even if they are Star Wars from the Empire's perspective.
Then again, 7's just that for the rebels.
@@scoobydoo7395 6s opening is absolutely top tier too yeah.
Yeah none of the other Final Fantasy games had me on the edge of my seat the way 7's intro had. Even replaying it years later, it's so thoroughly captivating. That and the Nibelheim flashback right after the party escapes Midgar are masterclasses of narrative in a video game.
I don't think it's better than BioShock, but I will concede that it probably comes somewhere close enough
I'll be very obvious what I'm going to say and I'm sure it's been said a lot. As much as I like ZP for its witty humor, I really enjoy the more contemplative EP Yahtzee. The voice, the delivery and the arguments just make it a very pleasant listen.
It's much easier to follow what he's saying in EP. Sometimes his ZP writing can become a bit too witty to handle.
@@deannickname That's a good point, yes.
Come for the ZP, stay for the EP.
I liked how Tunic just drops you right into the game without any instruction. Given how one of the game’s objectives is to recover the instruction manual page by page, it was a very appropriate way to start.
That happens with most games in the "metagame" genre, just due to how the genre works. When a large part of the game is figuring out the rules of the game, it's best to start completely cold.
Doesn't have to, of course. Frog Fractions hides the actual game behind a fake "normal" game.
A big part of a good game opening is to set the tone, and extra good if the game actually can carry that tone throughout. Indeed, games where you're expected to figure shit out from scratch are best served by starting you cold and thus giving you reason to think about everything you do.
Tunic's got an okay opening, but it commits a bit too much to the confusion angle.
Plus, the best moment in Tunic isn't the opening. It's the "oh you have got to be KIDDING ME!!?!" revelation about the Holy Cross. (Something that Yahtzee clearly never got to in his obviously-cut-short run of the game.)
Dishonoured 1 has an excellent intro that throws you straight from slow burning world intro to "oh shit."
Ooh yeah that's a good one
I think Arkane Studios is something of a master in this regard considering all three Arkane games I have played have incredibly strong starts. Both Dishonored games have excellent introductions and first missions. Then there is Prey, which is my choice for the best beginning of any video game, and it’s not particularly close in my opinion.
i was JUST thinking that. dishonored's intro is definitely up there
@@davidbondy2250 Deadloop continues the tradition.
Metal Gear Solid 2's rope descent intro is pretty awesome. Hell, all of the first 4 MGS games have great intros.
Came here to say this. MGS2, tanker chapter. Absolute peak Hideo Kojima, IMO.
In true Kojima style you’re an observer rather than a participant - so BioShock wins out there - but the narrative, the visuals which pushed the still-new PS2 to its limits… absolutely spectacular.
I would think the best beginning I've experienced in a game is the intro sequence from the original Prey from 2006. Between the character introductions, subtle tutorial, licensed music and alien invasion at the end it's certainly unforgettable, if nothing else.
Y'know, you're absolutely right. I'd forgotten just how damn good the opening to that game is.
I was thinking the same thing. Unforgettable is right!
That's a damn good opening
Has to be re4 for me. The quick recap cutscene, the small town/village feel of the car ride, funny dialogue, the interaction with the first villager and the timed fight scene in the village centre. All ending on a title card of the game as your heart returns to normal after the intense battle.
Halo CE has to be up their in terms of being specifically good as a GAME opening. Using the first mission as an introduction, tutorial, and something familiar to anyone playing FPS games, especially console ones, in the early 2000s only to throw you from the wreckage onto a whole new world and a new way of experiencing it still holds up today.
Glad I’m not the only one to come up with it! 😊
I was going to mention this as well. Runing through the opening weaponless watching the chaos of the Covenant attack sets the tone well as well as the story beats of the mysetriously ring object they'd found. Honestly I think that the ending cinematic to the first level is one of the most beautiful cinematics i've ever seen.
Yahtzee is such a talented writer, he could make a 5-min essay on “why I like hook shots” and it would be stimulating.
And Jet Packs
I would now very much like to listen to a movement mechanic based extra punctuation.
@@marcusrudd6675 well now that you say that I am a bit shocked we haven't gotten one yet.
Mass Effect 2 has quite possibly my favorite intro of all-time. I didn’t play the first one and ironically I think that made the beginning of the game a lot more effective and intense. Here I am thinking I’m about to be a badass space captain and then BAM, I get blasted out of the sky and killed. Only then to be revived by some sexy science lady that I apparently don’t trust. And as soon as you wake up from death you’ve got mechs trying to kill you. Good stuff.
It's definitely one of the starts that really stick with you. Is it considered a good begenning to the game? That's subjective, but since I will always remember it, I would say yes.
Yeah I think all the Mass Effect trilogy have pretty good openings, that seem like they should work impressively well even if you are arriving at the final act. The only rival I could think of to the Bioshock really. Though TES Oblivion starts pretty strong too.
I disagree with it being a good intro, it is certainly memorable but over the top, you could have easily ditched the whole "Shepard dies" part of the plot and retained most of the effect, could have just been mortally wounded but brought back from the brink of death via being picked up by the local terrorist organisation suspiciously fast... It would plant a seed of doubt that Cerberus was probably following the normandy somehow, perhaps a betrayal from high command? The rest of the plot could on almost the same, maybe hint at cerberus still being undeniably the baddies just like in ME1 and 3, just that, you suddenly disappeared from your ship crash and are working with them now, noone would trust you just like if you died... It could even hint at the fact that since cerberus managed to track the stealth supership and rescue shepard without anyone even noticing them that they are indeed way bigger than they would like to let on, maybe have the Illusive man throw out some comments about how it was a "lucky coincidence" this all happened, not like the actual way shepard's body was recovered means too much, only impacting a minor detail of the Shadow Broker DLC
Sherpard just dying and immediately being brought back kinda... Lessens the stakes, I mean, if cerberus could just do it in the process of a cutscene with no gameplay between that, it makes the revival look very easy...
Could have had something akin to you playing as Tali, perhaps, investigating the colony immediately afterwards when you suddenly run into someone who looks, talks and fucks like shepard, would probably be a jaw dropping experience when you suddenly can switch perspectives back to Shepard kicking ass again after being presumed KIA
@@domaxltvI disagree. You couldn't have nearly died because the plot needed a few years to have passed in order for: a) everyone to move on with their lives, b) the collectors to have time to slowly ramp up their attacks. I also felt that the cinematic of them rebuilding your body gave you an idea that it was complex and hard, which was reinforced when everyone tells you that reviving you was fucking expensive, thus keeping most of the stakes.
Oh yeah, 2 is the one where you're walking through the half blown-up ship in zero-G to rescue a crewmember in the cockpit. Definitely one of the best intros out there too.
i like ULTRAKILL's intro, while short i think the corridor leading up to the gun works well for building suspense.
Not sure if it really counts as an opening, but I like the beginning of Return of the Obra Dinn. Paperwork and insurance claims, followed by a trip to a boat, you find a skeleton, and then your quivering magic pocketwatch spins backwards. A black screen. Sounds of an argument. A gunshot. Then, boom: you're walking freely around a moment frozen in time, to inspect it from any angle. And then the game contrivances are at least explained to you synchronized with the music.
"The World is full of stories, and from time to time, they permit themselves... to be told." Opening words by the chief in the original Prey, that had a pretty epic beginning too.
Arkham Asylum's intro is pretty good also
I'd say for recent games, Amnesia: The Bunker has a really solid intro that almost comes close to Bioshock. It sets the tone, tutorializes you on the game mechanics, has some really good action that gives way to the intrigue after escaping, only to have an explosion go off that almost kills you, leading to the main events of the game, all in the span of ten or so minutes.
"The upshots of this method include being able to establish the setting with a nice sightseeing tour of where we're going to spend the rest of the game."
While showing the intro to Prey. It's this type of subtle humor that brings people back to the channel.
I really like Soul Reaver 1 intro. Amazing soundtrack combined with a quite good looking for the time cinematic that holds up even now with superb voice acting and writing
Bioshock will always be my most loved game because it was the first game I played from start to finish and made me realise how great the story and atmosphere in a game could be.
Original ff7 is still my favourite, original Midgard is just a great first area in general even if it does lose a bit of it’s tight pacing after the first reactor blows up
If you're counting all of Midgard as the game's "intro", then it's not exactly an even playing field. Midgard is longer than some whole RPGs.
@@hoodiesticks I was mainly talking about the opening cinematic
I’d agree, there’s a great video that explains the animation on CZcams and compares it to the remake as well.
I’d count the whole first reactor sequence from game launch in remake to be one of the best game intros I ever played, especially because they provided it free as a demo for people to test, and that sold me on playing the game.
They managed to convey so much information and context in a relatively short timeframe, that is good writing.
The first bombing mission is the best bit in the original game and the remake to be fair.
I unironically love how Yathzee used Spec Ops the Line as an example of helicopter ride and not in media res action scene flash forward
I remember that first glimpse of Rapture leaving me just breathless. So much excitement and mystery awaiting in that seemingly endless underwater city. Such a beautiful intro and still one of my favorite games of all time, warts and all.
Shows just how big the dream was, and how far it fell.
Prey 2017! The slow reveal that you're getting Truman Show'd along with the freeform method for how to escape the "set" really sets the tone for the paranoia and exploration you'll be doing for the rest of the game.
Not necessarily an intro in the traditional sense... but the end the call of duty: world at war credits leading directly into Nazi Zombies will forever be one of my favorite twists in a game. Id call it an intro into another game for sure. No tutorial, just thrust into the action in utter shock that the game is still going.
Black Ops 1 did the same thing, as soon as the campaign finishes it starts up the Zombies map "Five" (the one where you get to fight zombies in the Pentagon)
WaW and Black Ops 1 are so stylised and full of character for a Call of Duty game, its almost like the series don't deserve them. I see myself playing both those in every few years but never even want to touch other entries.
Also kudos to Gary Oldman. He could have just take the money and blandly repeat the lines given to him, like rest of the "celebrity voice actors" but he givens a performance that almost puts experienced voice actors to shame
@@hannibalburgers477word
World at war was a great game.
Kinda wacky too think that was the sorta side product that became something so treasured and bonkers down the line. Miss playing the original with the boys "last online 9 million years ago" truly is the saddest thing.
While the game as a whole is a good crash course, I still look at Vampire the Masquerade Bloodline's intro with much favor. You get a look into the confusion felt by neonates in vampire society, a slight rundown on almost everyone's personalities, a peak at Camarilla rules, the implication that LaCroix still has it out against you, and that Smiling Jack is pure chaos. Best opening? Maybe not, but it's still one I hold up in high regard.
And then it drops you into one of the most fun game hubs I've played in; Santa Monica. Feel free to go do what you like now. There are a bunch of crazy good characters to meet.
I can still hear Andrew Ryan’s speech, I can still hear the music swelling while revealing the city, even just the way he says “Rapture” during the reveal is engraved in my mind.
Far Cry Blood Dragon, for being on of those open helicopter door sequences it nails it!
I came here to make sure someone left that comment!
Mother 3. It shows you the daily life the protagonist and their community, leads into you switching perspectives and solving a small crisis, and ends with a tragedy. It sets up the tone of the game perfectly.
I hve never been immersed or taken back by a game more than Abe's Oddysee. You are introduced to a dystopian world, with a narration by Abe, the hero of our story. You get a bit of a glimpse of what his future is but it turns back to the present day. The interesting concept of it all is how you have a major plot twist at the start, and then you are thrust into this factory that you need to escape from.
I'm sure everyone's forgotten this but I love the opening to Darwinia. It's just a simple flythrough, but the ride is into the heart of the Darwinian's simulation, passing through their equivalent of a universe until you see their world, complete with retro chiptunes (less retro back then). It's all beautifully done and sets the mood perfectly.
16 bloody years... I remember watching Yathzee's own review of that game when it first came out...
we are geting old my friend
I’m a fan of myst and riven’s openings. In myst, a monologue narrates a man falling out of a hole in the sky, with a different sky beyond it, before vanishing and leaving a book behind. You pick up the book and notice that the picture in it is moving, then you touch it and you’re there. No pomp, no circumstance, just confusion to drive you to solve puzzles.
Riven’s even better. Sky hole man (his name’s atrus, btw) sends you on a mission of grave importance through a notably scrambled picture. As soon as you spawn in, a cage springs up around you, and you encounter a guard wearing a crap uniform speaking an unknown language. The guard then steals the macguffin Atrus gave you, before a masked rebel blow darts him and steals it again. The rebel then breaks the cage mechanism, and skedaddles before it lets you out. Deal with it, we’ve got stuff to do, and no clue what it is!
XCOM 2's intro of "yeah it turns out that the entire first game was just a simulation by the aliens for you to help them conquer earth" was quite an... interesteing way to take thing.
The opening ten seconds of Hatfall are fantastic at conveying the true scope of the game.
I think the intro in Soma hits a few points Yahtzee mentioned the intro of Bioshock hits except maybe throwing us right into action, there IS a little bit of action in the beggining but it's immedietly cutoff by revealing it's a dream sequence, which is not good for the pacing but at the same time we can infer not everything in the dream was a lie, it actually happened but the details were a little different.
Shadow of the Colossus. The way it emphasises a sense of scale, using size to insinuate that Wander is messing with things far beyond his understanding and giving us just enough information to get us going.
Chronicles of Riddick: "Escape from butcher Bay". The Arkham games took a lot of "inspiration" from that intro. It's always stood out to me.
Bioshock's opening and Fallout New Vegas's opening share the same place in my heart. Even when I was younger I knew both of those games had stellar openings narrative wise for different reasons. It is only the hindsight of age that made me truly appreciate the experience of playing both of those games for the first time.
New Vegas certainly had an excellent if not the best introductory cutscene of frankly any Bethesda game. However I don't think the intro in totality was particularly great especially compared to bioshock. Mostly because it's a Fallout game you know? You're set up with Doc Mitchell and you have to take your time to get acclimated to your abilities and equipment, and then you go outside and it's time to explore. It's not much of a roller coaster.
That is to say that it goes from the introductory cutscene into a Slow Burn
“The game was rigged from the start”
The Binding of Isac's into cinematic does a wonderful job at setting tone, conveying all the story the player is likely going to get for the first 20 hours before rhey manage to start getting endings and figuring putting together lore, even if it doesn't have any gameplay component yet.
The Stanley Parable is another good opening that gets you hooked quickly.
Most of my recommendations were mentioned here already (portal 2, Super Metroid, ...) but one game intro that REALLY got me pumped the first time I booted the game up was the intro to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. All those wonderful B-Actors doing the goofy FMV acting, establishing the Soviets are invading the US in a well prepared manner, only then for the epic Hellmarch 2 theme to creep in, showcasing the weird tech and how it's not taking itself seriously at all. Gave me goosebumps the very first time I installed it, I still love it to this day
Two particular opening sequences come to mind, from different RPGs in different eras:
- Chrono Trigger has a particularly memorable opening that Yahtzee is familiar with. It literally starts with Crono's mother coaxing them out of bed in the morning, followed by being _immediately_ able to control your character as he goes to the Millennial Fair, and being able to experience the sights and sounds first-hand, meeting Marle and spending the day with her, with all sorts of interactive funtimes. The teleporter sequence with Lucca seems like yet another fun spectacle, until Marle suddenly disappears, and you follow her into an unfamiliar location and discover you seem to actually have gone back in time. And when you think you've managed to reunite with Marle, she literally fades out of existence, and suddenly you're now forced into a race against time to save her ancestor from being sacrificed. It's a fantastic introduction, and on top of this your actions during the Fair are judged during the trial sequence that happens after you return to the present.
- Crosscode, a really great top-down 2D action RPG from a few years back, begins with a flashback to some indeterminate time in the past that allows you to get an immediate taste of the action and the kind of power you'll be able to wield during the endgame, before you end up in the shoes of Lea, a girl logging into Crossworlds for the first time, only to find that she's _mute_ due to some apparent system glitch. You get a quick tutorial of the basics and how to move around the world, and then you get your first sight of Crossworlds, a surprise boss battle with a mysterious antagonist that highlights there's more to this than just going through a virtual MMO, and then you're thrown right into Crossworlds proper, where you're introduced to Lea's bestie, Emilie, and her rival, Apollo, and things just go from there. It's a pretty good introduction.
Uncharted 2 comes to mind when thinking about good intros
The scene where drake is alone and beaten inside a tangling train is one way to start a game
Also its very good because when you flashback to drake and the other two who were talking about robing a museum you get the feeling that they don't quite trust each other and you think back to the scene on the train and conclude that someone is gonna betray someone
Also the scene looks as it's the after of a very hype set piece making the intro build tension
That's exactly what yatzee said about intros and why this type is not good
@@bionicearth but I think it doesn't apply hear
You don't flashforward to a tens action scene but the afterwards of one
The train scene is actually very slow and doesn't have a lot of action
Its job is to make you think a certain way when we go back and see how it happens
It also helps hypen up the action set pieces
@@bionicearthyou know it's entirely possible to disagree with Yatzee like a human being is capable of thinking for themselves I know that's something you can't do but that dosent mean people shouldn't or can't
Morrowind sticks in my mind as an old. Being below decks, realizing you're a prisoner. Stepping above deck and seeing the island for the first time(in all of its 3D glory!!), people milling around, that fast travel creature just derping there menacingly... But yea even that doesn't hold a candle to Rapture.
Yeah though a large part of that gulf is that Morrowind looks really terrible in comparison, even if it was really impressive for its day. Oblivion comes a little closer and has an interesting initial plot while looking good enough to still stand up reasonably well to a modern title in the same way Bioshock does. I recall Ocarina of Time blew my mind at the time, and Majora's Mask is even better, with a good start, some solid plot pacing, interesting initial characters, settings etc, but it looks pretty awful enough by todays standards it doesn't stand up so well...
The state of the art at the time for Bioshock/Obvlivion lets you have a world with heaps of details, good textures, reasonable animations, view distances great enough to give the world scope, not quite to picture of the real world quality but close enough you could believe it was - So everything you need for a world to really feel immersive. While things do have the scope to look better now it is well into diminishing returns, which lets some of these older games with their really well crafted story remain at the top of the heap.
Morrowind is fucking amazing!
I still don't care about how many polygons things have, my childhood was SNES.
It certainly stands out for giving the player control quite early in the game. Bethesda's later titles dragged you kicking and screaming through lengthy scripted sequences before finally telling you "you're free to go wherever you want, but please go to this one specific location first". Sure Balmora was the intended next destination, but Morrowind really made it feel like it was up to the player to decide if they wanted to go there, even giving you choices of how to actually get there (I always walked).
@@foldionepapyrus3441 This is a weird point to make. Who cares if the graphics don't hold up? I think people are able to play old games and understand they were products of their time. Bioshock's graphics don't hold up, the NPCs look like disgusting wax statues, and Oblivion's NPCs look like, well, Oblivion NPCs. For every impressive graphical set piece in those games, another janky texture or lighting bug would beat you over the head with the reminder that you're just sitting at your computer staring at a screen. Majora's Mask is also undoubtedly the best looking game on the N64, the art direction is superb. The limitations of the time restricted developers to conveying the most important graphical elements for a given segment, I don't really see this as a bad thing in an era of sensory overload simulators streaming endless quantities of extraneous detail straight from the uncanny valley.
@@xaphon89 This is a master's thesis grade explanation, dude! You worded my thoughts better than I could have put them.
Thanks, I chuckled at Prey's "sightseeing tour" at 2:45
Nier Replicant has a pretty great intro, from the revelation that it's snowing in summer. To a mystery surrounding the books, to the level up mechanic being thrown at you at near impossible RPG convention breaking force and the music.
A very solid one would be Skyrim; you wake up in cart with the characters gradually revealing your situation through dialogue, then it lets you create your persona as a response to question in the cutscene, an exciting action sequence happens, then a choice of which side to pick, and then a smooth tutorial that introduces you to the game’s mechanics. I guess my only criticism of it would be the imperials deciding to execute you without knowing your crime because that makes the choice in the beginning very obvious, it would have been better if they maybe shown the good parts of each side in that sequence.
While not the *best* opening out there, I do have a soft spot for the opening of the first Red Dead Redeption. It’s definitely way up on the “Slow Burn” side of things, but it’s a very thematic Slow Burn, I feel. Sure, you have to sit through the standard suite of R* cutscenes, but they do a good job of establishing the tone and the subsequent on-rails horse ride, initial meeting with Bill Williamson, and then meeting Bonnie MacFarlane all do an excellent job of immersing the play not just in the world of the game, but also the mind of the protagonist. It’s far from perfect, but it sticks out in my mind when I think of openings. Rose-tinted gasses, perhaps.
One of the best intros in my book is Doom 2016's. You begin tied down and shackled, before almost instantly breaking free with all of Doomguy's might, are given a gun and the player then guns down 3 demons, and only a minute has actually passed from the introductory loading screen actually ending. There's a bit of intrigue with holograms and demonic flashes as the Slayer dons his suit, but once a computer terminal that was giving us a vague one-sentence goal gets hijacked by Samuel Hayden, the Slayer slams the monitor aside in rage, then begins a relentless murder of demons for the next 10 minutes or so with little interruption. A non-stop train ride of violence, met with fast and brutal glory kills and complete with a shotgun that explodes imps bodies like hitting a raspberry jelly with a golf club.
After this, we get an elevator ride with Samuel Hayden trying to profess that he did everything for the good of humanity, triggering a look at the dead scientist in the same box as the Slayer, and as Hayden continues to assert his noble intentions, the computer he talks from is once again smashed and we then got a huge explosion of the Doom logo as Mick Gordon's At Doom's Gate revs your engine, getting you ready for gallons of demon blood to drink. But for a last cherry on top, Doomguy cocks his shotgun in time with the music.
It's great, and explains to the player what they're in for (violence), what they're not in for (big story dumps a la Doom 3), and also characterises the Slayer without a single word spoken. It's frankly as close to perfect as one can get, and the game manages to live up to this opening thesis statement as well.
I don't think it's the best opening ever, but I absolutely loved how Conker's Bad Fur Day started because it perfectly conveyed the style that would be pervasive throughout the rest of the game.
It starts parodying A Clockwork Orange, showing you having won the game already, surrounded by characters you will meet as the camera ominously zooms in with Henry Purcell's "Music For the Funeral of Queen Mary" playing.
Then it starts with you staggering out of a pub, puking your guts up, leaving you wondering if the entire game will control as badly as you expect a drunken squirrel to control :D
The humour will then remain just as crass (or more so) throughout, with loads of other film references.
I remember when this game was new. Every gaming website and reviewer hailing it as one of the best FPS titles ever. Still have a soft spot for it all these years on 😊
I mean it is one of the best FPS ever made