I'll always have a soft spot for FEAR - pretty efficient way of telling you that everything's gone to shit, really.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QfrYhn2gQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QfrYhn2gQ
Best Opening Sequences in Gaming
- Thread starter BloatedGuppy
- Start date
I still love you! Not Resident Evil 4 though...I liked Resident Evil 2's opening a lot though. Oh shit, your car more-or-less exploded and now you're stuck in the middle of a street occupied by a ton of freaking zombies! I love how Resi 2 just throws you the Hell in with no explanation. It was really shocking the first time I played and realized that I didn't have enough ammo to kill half of the hoard slowly approaching me.Silentpony said:
"Wake up,Tenno."
Warframe's first little opener,and,by extension,your first couple of hours with the Vor's Prize quest. It does an amazing job of setting the stage for your time with the game,and does an admirable job of introducing you to basic mechanics,and how to conduct yourself in objective sensitive missions,such as Rescue. And,it very handily teaches you EXACTLY how crafting works; Obtain blueprint,learn the resources,collect resources,build thing.
Warframe's first little opener,and,by extension,your first couple of hours with the Vor's Prize quest. It does an amazing job of setting the stage for your time with the game,and does an admirable job of introducing you to basic mechanics,and how to conduct yourself in objective sensitive missions,such as Rescue. And,it very handily teaches you EXACTLY how crafting works; Obtain blueprint,learn the resources,collect resources,build thing.
I will respectfully disagree. Not that RE2 doesn't have a good 'cold open' but I think RE4, given the camera angle of not knowing whats behind you, and the cultists constantly screaming, and having to board yourself up in a room, was simply more intense and heart-pounding than the running through the streets chased by a shambling hoard that RE2 gave us.Shoggoth2588 said:
Conker's Bad Fur Day. Also one of the best endings.
Resident Evil 6 - Chris Campaign. Flawless acting and atmosphere.
Assassin's Creed 3. The world building from fractals as you enter the theatre was perfection.
Metal Gear Solid V. I think the music elevates it to something awe-inspiring.
There are so many game with fantastic intros that it's difficult to narrow them down.
Resident Evil 6 - Chris Campaign. Flawless acting and atmosphere.
Assassin's Creed 3. The world building from fractals as you enter the theatre was perfection.
Metal Gear Solid V. I think the music elevates it to something awe-inspiring.
There are so many game with fantastic intros that it's difficult to narrow them down.
Same thing can be said for this one. Dated graphics (that were AMAZING for its day) but still one of the best game intros ever.Pyrian said:
[youtube]ECfKL4oS-6w[/youtube]
I still think the first Witcher game intro was pretty awesome. It tied in with the books really well anyway. Bit long, but so well choreographed and animated, for its time.
Also, +1 for the Resident Evil: Outbreak, and Devil May Cry 3. Those are real standouts in my gaming memory.
This one is a little silly as it's just a title screen, but the first 25 sec. of the Street Fighter 2 arcade game always got me amped for some reason. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking here, thrill of being a young fella in the arcades wanting to slay any and all challengers with new tricks.
Also, +1 for the Resident Evil: Outbreak, and Devil May Cry 3. Those are real standouts in my gaming memory.
This one is a little silly as it's just a title screen, but the first 25 sec. of the Street Fighter 2 arcade game always got me amped for some reason. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking here, thrill of being a young fella in the arcades wanting to slay any and all challengers with new tricks.
I'm not sure how good one can say the cutscene is (1 minute of nice visuals, 1 minute of tits, then 1 minute of violence shared from the npc to the enemies, the enemies to the npc, then you to the npcs before you can finally start killing them in gameplay), but I have some respect for Ninja Gaiden 2 still. A little distraction (that if memory severs can be skipped) before immediately dropping you into fighting several evil demon ninjas and either have you splatter them all over the walls or have them remind you that trying to play Master Ninja while drunk is a terrible idea. No hand-holding, no 30 minutes of tutorials learning how to swing your sword, no 2 hours of people gasping and setting up background and backstory; just get in there and kill some mother fuckers. And I think that deserves respect.
The opening that immediately comes to mind whenever this question crops up for me is still the opening mission of Medal of Honor: Frontline. Playing through the storming of the Normandy beaches was and is still one of the most exhilarating intros for a game I've ever played.
From a more sedate and narrative-focused perspective, Bioshock, Bioshock: Infinite, Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are all pretty obvious standouts thanks to the quiet but effective way they introduce the player into the world and use the environment as a narrative tool.
From a more sedate and narrative-focused perspective, Bioshock, Bioshock: Infinite, Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are all pretty obvious standouts thanks to the quiet but effective way they introduce the player into the world and use the environment as a narrative tool.
BioShock has a pretty brilliant opening sequences, what with the plane crashing in the atlantic and you finding your way relatively organically to the undersea dystopia that is Rapture, it guides you naturally to where you need to go and pulls you into a strange fallen world where you'll spend the next few hours of your time throwing FUCK MOTHERING BEES
Since all the cinematic intros were taken, I will cover some other ones, like gameplay heavy sequences.
Crash Bandicoot. The music, the animation, the art style all told me one thing: I was about to have a fun time. Spinning crates and enemies away like the Tasmanian Devil, risking TNT boxes for mask powerups, and even the bosses. The first level taught us all I needed to know to proceed, and hooked me right in to the full game. Never needed a instruction manual. Also Crash running into the maim menu never got old.
Fallout 3 intrigued me, because it did something I had never seen a game do before. It let you (for the most part) life the live of your player character. You got to learn about your mother and father, you got to go to your birthday party, you even got to skip tests or take them. It's almost like the game is allowing you to set up your own character in the lore, instead of just shoving a stat screen in front of us. You felt like your character was growing up in the vault, you felt that you were established in the lore. It also gave us reasons to like our dad and want to save him, rather then "This is your dad, hes awesome I promise, now go risk your life and save him"
Crash Bandicoot. The music, the animation, the art style all told me one thing: I was about to have a fun time. Spinning crates and enemies away like the Tasmanian Devil, risking TNT boxes for mask powerups, and even the bosses. The first level taught us all I needed to know to proceed, and hooked me right in to the full game. Never needed a instruction manual. Also Crash running into the maim menu never got old.
Fallout 3 intrigued me, because it did something I had never seen a game do before. It let you (for the most part) life the live of your player character. You got to learn about your mother and father, you got to go to your birthday party, you even got to skip tests or take them. It's almost like the game is allowing you to set up your own character in the lore, instead of just shoving a stat screen in front of us. You felt like your character was growing up in the vault, you felt that you were established in the lore. It also gave us reasons to like our dad and want to save him, rather then "This is your dad, hes awesome I promise, now go risk your life and save him"
With the proper context, I would give Final Fantasy 7 a vote. It all starts out with a simple flower girl walking down the street and then it pans out showing you all of Midgard, and if you hadn't played anything newer than Final Fantasy 7 at the time you'd be going "Holy crap! That looks amazing!" Basically the same effect Star Wars had when it first came out.
The Witcher 2's opening scene (mentioned earlier in the thread) is by far and away, without a shadow of a doubt, a million times better than most of the amateurish pap seen in other games.
I've yet to see an intro come anywhere near it in terms of quality.
I've yet to see an intro come anywhere near it in terms of quality.
Sadness. Nobody's yet linked the intro cinematic to Descent: Freespace. Well, I shall rectify that!