Best opening sequence in a videogame

[IFS]

Saints Row the Third had an awesome opening if somewhat insane and ridiculous, other than that I'd say Skyrim had a great opening sequence introducing you to the game and all the major conflicts in a smooth showing not telling manner. Although it feels a bit long on repeated playthroughs.

For those saying ME2 and ME3 I disagree, 3's opening in the demo almost made me not buy the game, considering it was mostly stupid speeches, terrible attempts at emotional manipulation, and reapers acting stupid. 2 on the other hand had shepard dying so that they could be resurrected which was and is a stupid plot point that then gets only mentioned as a joke with the exception of one sentence in 3 near the end, and the whole point of it was to force the player to ally with Cerberus which is its own giant plot hole of an organization. I will admit both of them had some cool looking stuff though so I get why people like them, I just don't.

 

[Smolderin]

A bit of a predictable answer but Bioshock. It is a true example of an opening done right. It's all in game, it set's the mood and atmosphere, and is just executed quite wonderfully. I am bias however as Bioshock 1 is my favorite FPS game of all time.

 

[Raggedstar]

Shadow of the Colossus. No dialogue, just 3 minutes of Wander and Agro walking through beautiful landscapes with really pretty music. When I first popped in the game I went "Yep, I'm going to like this"...and I did.

I can't remember if it was the OPENING or not, but there was a scene in Devil May Cry 3 where Dante was eating pizza while killing monsters. It's so stupid yet so entertaining lol.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Shadow of the Colossus. No dialogue, just 3 minutes of Wander and Agro walking through beautiful landscapes with really pretty music. When I first popped in the game I went "Yep, I'm going to like this"...and I did.

I can't remember if it was the OPENING or not, but there was a scene in Devil May Cry 3 where Dante was eating pizza while killing monsters. It's so stupid yet so entertaining lol.

Yup, that was the opening scene for DMC3. He was also topless, lest we forget the most important detail :3

Thinking about it, I like the start of Dark Souls. The opening cutscene is more Heavy Metal than Heavy Metal and although I don't like much of the game beyond the tutorial level and Undead Burg it is still fun.

Funnily enough I never got that the one guy who gave you the Estus Flasks was the same guy who let you out of your cell. I was waiting for some big plot reveal but no, it turns out the guy died from... Something? There were no enemies in the room and he was far to the right of where the big ol' ball o' death crashed through the wall.

This is why I don't like the story, no more like I don't like the way the story is presented in Dark Souls AKA not at all.

What he trip over a rock and impale himself on his sword? Yeah that's probably what happened. People are damn unlucky in that universe.

 

[Nero18]

Shadow of the Colossus was really amazing, I also really liked Super Metroid but my favourite is without a doubt God of War 3. Starts out with the spectacular action.

 

[Verkula]

Right now this is the only one that comes to mind

 

[BrotherRool]

Openings to games are really generally of a high quality. I'd struggle to choose a best. Everything that is awesome about Planescape is shown in the first 5 minutes. The first half hour of Final Fantasy X is very beautiful exciting and sets up enough mystery to drive me through the rest of the game. FFVII was bold. God of War is always an example of how these things should be done...

I like how effective ME3's opening was. They really captured the raw power of the Reapers wrecking shop without even trying.

really? tbh i thought the reapers were really underpowered in that scene (and the whole game)

That's because throughout the series they were built up to be these evil omnipotent space gods, but then turned out to be no more than brainless tripods.

OT: Uncharted 2 had a great opening... followed by a crappy stealth section.

Even more it was ugly in a boring grey way and they messed up the pacing so badly that the main failings of the rest of the game are established in those opening 15 minutes. We don't spend any time on non-destroyed Earth so it's hard to care about and the rest of the game will repeat that constantly as your main motivation, even though you can't empathise. It even makes Shepard look like a jerk as he asks all these aliens to commit resources to saving Earth instead of committing Earths resources to get the Reapers off homeoworlds that haven't been entirely conquered yet.

Then we have the idea of Shepard's earth guilt and the starchild, which fail because we get absolutely no time with anyone on earth including the star child, bar 2 very manipulative scenes.

And finally the Crucible gets introduced in a completely silly and convenient way. We have 1.5 games of "How do we destroy the Reapers? They're too strong!" and then within the opening mission of ME3... "oh I guess we defeat them with this then"


Totally agree on Uncharted 2. That was such an excellent start, to have him beaten up and wounded. It's more shocking than so many flashy openings because we're shocked to see Nathan so vunerable and want to know how it got to that point. Really is a masterclass of an opening.

I can't remember if it was the OPENING or not, but there was a scene in Devil May Cry 3 where Dante was eating pizza while killing monsters. It's so stupid yet so entertaining lol.

And the shooting the cue ball into the pool balls into the bad guy all in midair... and Dante being stabbed by 5 guys just calmly walking to the jukebox whilst dragging them within him... fantastic opening, sets the tone perfectly. And if you had the special edition you also get a cutscene with Virgil and Dante duelling in the rain...

Saints Row the Third had an awesome opening if somewhat insane and ridiculous, other than that I'd say Skyrim had a great opening sequence introducing you to the game and all the major conflicts in a smooth showing not telling manner. Although it feels a bit long on repeated playthroughs.

For those saying ME2 and ME3 I disagree.

I kind of agree with Saints Row 3, it was a lot of fun but after a while all the helicopter shooting dragged a bit for me. I wish the rest of the game had kept more consistently to the tone of the opening (I know it's silly, I'm playing Saints Row and all, but I didn't like it when the missions started having you traffic people etc. I preferred the idea of the ridiculous over-the-top mega-corporation/squad).

I completely disagree with Skyrim. Its about as boring an opening as possible and for a game all about choice and freedom of movement, having a linear hour long introduction in a cave and starting off without being able to move at all was a bad step. It was awful enough that I actually didn't get past it. I got out of the cave and I was so fed up by that point and struggling to see why I should play the game that I stopped and never touched it again. Contrast to Fallout 3 where you make a lot of choices, wander around and talk to people, most of the exposition is interactive and as soon as you leave the vault and start combat proper you see this huge vista of DC with all these landmarks worth visiting.

I agree with ME3 wholeheartedly =D And I understand ME2, but it is one of my favourite openings of all time. (It helps that I hadn't played ME1), its very beautiful, nicely small scale and I appreciated the establishing of Ceberus and the position it put Shepard in. I thought it was a really neat way to account for the power reset... but I do understand why and the concept is hugely not-used at all in the rest of the games. And I didn't know that Cerberus were these stupid mad scientist people in ME1, I'd assumed they were more of an IRA organisation.

 

[AgentLampshade]

Gonna go with something completely out-there. Remember the ridiculously titled Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure? Whatever about the game, but the intro was pretty cool.

Spoiler

 

[Legion]

I have always loved the opening sequence to Halo: Combat Evolved. The beginning where you wake up from Cryo-sleep to find the ship under attack, evacuating the ship and crash landing on a Halo for the first time. It's always been memorable for me the first time exiting the drop pod and noticing the planet arcing up in front of you.

It's just a shame that they decided to almost do it again for Halo 2 and Halo 4 really. Then again, the ending to Halo 3 was almost identical to the ending of Halo: Combat Evolved so perhaps imagination isn't their strong point.

I love Mass Effect 1's beginning, as it set the tone for a Sci-Fi beautifully. It quickly establishes the setting, the purpose and the sense of mystery that is relevant to you being a part of a new civilisation.

I like the idea behind Skyrim's beginning, but to be honest the awkward voice acting and animations makes it feel quite clumsy. The idea is solid, but the execution is not (I seriously did not intend for that to be a pun).

For those saying ME2 and ME3 I disagree, 3's opening in the demo almost made me not buy the game, considering it was mostly stupid speeches, terrible attempts at emotional manipulation, and reapers acting stupid. 2 on the other hand had Shepard dying so that they could be resurrected which was and is a stupid plot point that then gets only mentioned as a joke with the exception of one sentence in 3 near the end, and the whole point of it was to force the player to ally with Cerberus which is its own giant plot hole of an organization. I will admit both of them had some cool looking stuff though so I get why people like them, I just don't.

I agree with ME3 definitely for the reasons that you described.

ME2 I agree with your point in regards to how bad the idea was, but I do think the execution was excellent. The style, the music and the voice acting were superb for it, and that's why I like it despite the poor idea.

 

[saintdane05]

I'm gonna be a little more contemplative and nostalgic and say Half-Life.


For a number of reasons:

- The title roll occurs in real time, over the intro, much like a movie. So, points for cinematography.
- You take control of the protagonist from the very beginning (and never lose it, either).
- The narration both hands out exposition and establishes an uneasy atmosphere quite seamlessly.
- The background action of day-to-day working was/is rather novel and immersive.

I don't wanna get into fan-blurbing. Suffice to say, if this wasn't the first game to use its introduction in a creative and artistic way, it was among the very first to do so, and it was the very first to make me realize it and appreciate it and set a level of expectation for every other game released after.

Please, that has NOTHING on the one from Bioshock.
<youtube=JeNtHY8Igf0>

 

[regalphantom]

ME 2 and 3 had really good openings. However, the game who's opening I enjoyed the most was...

Borderlands 2.

While not a perfect game by any means (but still probably my game of the year) the opening really did set the stage. It showed the changes that had been occuring on Pandora, showed off the main characters, and established Jack's personality. However, most importantly, it showed off the tonal shift from Borderlands 1. While the first Borderlands (prior to the DLC) was very vanilla, Borderlands 2 is at the same time both lighter and darker in tone. The song is the key point of this constrast, unlike the more upbeat 'No Rest for the Wicked', 'Short Change Hero' is much more sombre, in a way forshadowing many of the events of the game.

Plus, it shows that somebody at Gearbox has really good taste in music.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm gonna be a little more contemplative and nostalgic and say Half-Life.


For a number of reasons:

- The title roll occurs in real time, over the intro, much like a movie. So, points for cinematography.
- You take control of the protagonist from the very beginning (and never lose it, either).
- The narration both hands out exposition and establishes an uneasy atmosphere quite seamlessly.
- The background action of day-to-day working was/is rather novel and immersive.

I don't wanna get into fan-blurbing. Suffice to say, if this wasn't the first game to use its introduction in a creative and artistic way, it was among the very first to do so, and it was the very first to make me realize it and appreciate it and set a level of expectation for every other game released after.

Please, that has NOTHING on the one from Bioshock.
<youtube=JeNtHY8Igf0>

Try NINE years.

 

[uchytjes]

Spoiler: forgot about fallout:New Vegas

also:

And one of my all time favorites that never gets mentioned.

Spoiler

My word! I haven't seen anything about that game in ages! I remember watching commercials about it and thinking "man I wish I had an xbox" Whatever happened to that game? was it any good?

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I quite like the dancing feather fight scene from FFVIII.

 

[VanQ]

Spoiler: forgot about fallout:New Vegas

also:

And one of my all time favorites that never gets mentioned.

Spoiler

My word! I haven't seen anything about that game in ages! I remember watching commercials about it and thinking "man I wish I had an xbox" Whatever happened to that game? was it any good?

The game was excellent but never particularly popular. It did get a sequel that improved on the mechanics of the original a lot but lost its charm when you started to play as the villains. Sequel aside, if you have a 360, I'm pretty certain you can get it off the XBox Live store for fairly cheap.
The game's unique art style and game mechanics still hold up today in my opinion so if you have a few spare bucks I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[Brainwreck]

Warcraft III (RoC).
This was back when Blizzard meant something.

 

[IGetNoSlack]

Saints Row the Third had an awesome opening if somewhat insane and ridiculous

That's why it's an awesome opening. It perfectly, PERFECTLY, sets the tone of the game. Shame the rest of the game after Party Time's 1st half wasn't amazing. Good, but not amazing like that game's first few hours.

OT: Journey. Just, Journey. It was Shadow of the Colossus's opening on a grander scale. Although SotC did have an awesome opening, Journey's is, IMO, superior.

However, Uncharted 2's opening (oh forget that stealth section) really got me hooked on the game, which got me hooked on the medium in general.

 

[MarsProbe]

Please, that has NOTHING on the one from Bioshock.
<youtube=JeNtHY8Igf0>

Try NINE years.

Indeed. Seeing the Half-Life intro for the first time way back when the game was released, there was really nothing like that intro out there. The intro for the expansion Opposing Force wasn't too shabby either, I thought, even if the package as a whole didn't compare with Half-Life of course.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

And this version which should be Civ 6's

It is the intro to the Caveman to Cosmos mod of CivIV

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/civilizationivbeyondthesword/mod/46707.html

or if your PC is a shit as mine:

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/civilizationivbeyondthesword/mod/47178.html

On Topic: I think I'd have to go for FO3. Certainly less effective second time round, but no other game has made me give a shit about the collection of pixels that I've been directing around the screen. It made me feel invested in them as a "person" and in what they were doing, and the first look outside the vault made me want to explore every last inch of the charred bones of civilisation.

Video wise it would have to be the Dawn of War II intro. The screaming of the Banshees, the dreadnought crashing through the rocks to obliterate said Banshees with a rather redundant but awesome one liner, chainsword disembowelment and the final "it's not your planet, it's theirs..."