Best Game Introduction (In you opinion)

[Amnestic]

the menu video for assassins creed... awesome, and unlike most games, you CAN do everything altier does in the video

First, it's Altair, not Altier.

Second, no you can't. Altair uses a small hand crossbow in the opening video. You can't use that in game.

Furthermore, if you try to jump on someone with your hidden blade as they're pulling their sword out, they'll just grab your arms and push you back. You only land on them when they don't see you coming/aren't being threatened.

 

[Woem]

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. J=Jon Irenicus.

Spoiler

J: "Ah, the Child of Bhaal has awoken. It is time for more...experiments."

*Blasts you with magic.*

J: "The pain will only be passing, you should survive the process.

*blasts you with moar magic!*

J: "Interesting. You have much untapped power."

*blasts you some more*

J: "Do you even realise your potential?"

*Golem walks in.*

G: More intruders...have entered..the complex...master...

J: "They act sooner than we had anticipated. No matter they will only prove a slight delay."

*teleports out*

Fast forward to outside the lab...

J:"You dare to attack me here, do you even know whom you face?"

*Starts obliterating Shadow Thieves with magic.*

J:"You will suffer! You will all suffer!"

*turns attention to the main character*

J: "So Godchild, you have escaped. You are more resourceful than I had thought."

Imoen: "You're not going to torture us any longer!"

J: "Torture? Silly girl you just don't understand what I'm doing do you?"

I: "I don't care what you're doing. Let us go!"

J: "I won't let you leave, not when I'm so close to unlocking your power!"

I: "We don't want anything from you." *casts Magic Missile on J*

J: "I will no longer listen to the babbling of ignorant children." *retaliates with his own spell*

*Cowled Wizards port in*

CW1: "This is an unsanctioned use of magical energy."

CW2: "All involved will be held. This disturbance is over."

J: "Must I be interrupted at every turn? Enough of this!" *starts annihilating the Cowled Wizards one by one*

*more wizards port in*

CW3: "This mage's power is immense, we must overcome him quickly."

J: "Enough, I haven't the time for this!"

CW3: "You will cease your spell casting and come with us!"

J: "You bore me mageling. You may take me in but you will take the girl as well."

I: "What? No! I've done nothing wrong!"

CW3: "You have been involved in illegal use of magic. You will come with us."

I: "I'm not going with him! I'm not! Help me...please!"

*Cowled Wizards, Jon and Imoen port out*

Still sends chills down my spine.

Definitely. I loved how when you finally escaped the lab you realize that it has only really begun.

 

[BoosterHuster]

Half-Life 1

It was the first 3D-FPS I played (not including Doom 2. On top of that, on my first PC too). I was drooling at the graphics back then. It also really set the mood for the game. You know... being employed in a top secret research facility and all. Good times. Good times.

Honorable mention goes to Crysis.

Pretty standart and uninspired cutscene. Until I realized that the intro was over already. Free fall, seeing the island under you getting closer and closer? Pretty cool.

Also: Bioshock for obvious reasons.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

I like how in like Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 (i.e. every game by Bethesda I've ever played) there isn't a real opening cut scene and you just learn the plot as you play. I especially like how in Oblivion and Morrowind you can just assign your own backstory to yourself. It adds to the RPG element in them

 

[lolmynamewastaken]

conflict desert stort 2 had quite a cool intro, as was halo 2 (don't kill me for saying that ) also left 4 dead was pretty awesome.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Just love that intro, it really captures the Warhammer 40000 universe.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Lost Odyssey! Falling meteor! Kills everyone! Except Kaim!

Woo!

 

[Lonely Swordsman]

I always loved the intros to the Warcraft 3 campaigns. Just epic.

"What a nightmare..."
"No, not a nightmare. A vision."

 

[Psionronin]

The first one to come to mind for me is the opening from the SNES Shadowrun with your character getting executed in the street and then waking up in the morgue.

As far as more recent games, the plane crash scene from Bioshock was amazingly done.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

All time favorite:

Half-Life- In 1998 the standard to beginning a game was a short interlaced cutscene, embedded after the logos. When you started a new game you were dropped right into the action with the story already unfolded.

But when I booted that black CD, there was no intro movie. There was no substandard gun or melee weapon already in my hand. It wasn't until ten minutes or so later until you see someone die or brandish a weapon.

The game started off, with you as a normal man on a train. You were just going to work and taking in the breathtaking vista you are provided. Your route and vantage point showed you next to everything you were going to face within the facility and an early glimpse at your antagonist. It demonstrated the pinnacle of game technology back in 1998.

Honorable mentions:

Fallout 3- You enter this world from your birth. You see yourself grow from infant to adulthood and have your relationships sink in. I always felt that this attachment and storytelling wasn't as done as well in the rest of the game. If it was, it might have become my favorite game.

Call of Duty 4: Getting manhandled and abused while enjoying a car ride where you take in the view of the country you head being brought down. Then you are executed. All in first person!

Fable 2- You're an urchin taking odd jobs with your crass but loving sister, before she is torn away from you. I didn't like Fable 2, but I loved the childhood part.

Starcraft: Brood War- A masterfully shot scene. It starts off on lava drenched trenches where a visceral battle is raging. We feel the fear, sweat, and desperation in a lone Terran marine as he tries to fend off an oncoming Zerg swarm. He is saved, but not for long as up above their leaders coldly watches raging consumption of lives as if it were a game of golf before abandoning them.

Diablo II- Even after 12 years, it still looks beautiful. It wasn't just looks either, the audience is engaged in great storytelling by being introduced to two mysterious strangers.

Dark Colony- I was in the third or second grade when I played this obscure real time strategy game. The level of carnage I witnessed in the cutscenes of this game was unprecedented from any other.

Dark Colony Intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ByIYt_Wp4I

 

[Malkavian]

Just love that intro, it really captures the Warhammer 40000 universe.

This one. God, I've wathced that intro many times.

 

[are.you.the.god.its.me.vader]

I kinda had a soft spot for the intro to Spider-man: Web of Shadows. Made me sad :/

 

[Borrowed Time]

4 words.

War... War never changes.

 

[notsosavagemessiah]

Persona 3 is good. But no, best intro to a game, is hands down, the one where that guy jumps off a fucking cliff to kill himself, and you have no idea why, except that he said, "the gods of olympus have abandoned me" before he did it. Then one of the greatest video game adventures of all time unfolds as you play. Also, DAWN OF WAR had an amazing one as well.

 

[sms_117b]

Final Fantasy 8, awesome backing music, amazing visuals, teasing spoilers & a epic fight between Squall and Seifer.

 

[Woodsey]

Mass Effect's was quite good at making you feel like the game was going to be epic (which it was). Unfortunately, the sweeping shot of the Normandy goes past the worst textured planet in the game xD which put a dampener on things a little, as the rest of the game then looks fantastic.

The HL2 one for me was freaky as f*ck! I hadn't played the first one, so I didn't know the story (not that it had anything to do with it in the cutscene really except the G-Man was there) and was sitting thinking "Emm... right. WTF?!"

I'm glad the rest of the game and episodes kept the tone because it was fantastic.

 

[FROGGEman2]

The Final Fantasy 10 opening, it was my first JRPG and it just blew my mind and the music isn't half bad.

As opposed to X-2

You know, the fact that I've played over forty hours of Final Fantasy, yet I haven't finished a single one, annoys me.