Great video game openings

[Maximum Bert]

I still regard this as the best intro of all time.
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I mean GOD THAT MUSIC is just fantastic!

Ah someone beat me to it yeah Soulblade/edge had an amazing opening that has never been beat imo and it always gets me pumped for the main game. If only SoulBlade had Soul Caliburs (SC1) gameplay and graphics then we would have a near perfect package.

FFVII was incredible back in the day the opening FMV blending seamlessly into the start of the game I had never seen anything like it and didnt actually realise the game had started for a few seconds when I first played.

Little Big Planets opening was also fun.

 

[Emanuele Ciriachi]

Wing Commander 2, hands down:

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The first time a PC game had cinematics with digitized voices. 'nuff said.

 

[Best of the 3]

Weird nobody has mentioned Borderlands yet, usually that's really far up there.


I'd also say Warcraft 3. I love their cinematic openings.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Bioshock. You can't go wrong with Bioshock.

 

[Noswad]

Weird nobody has mentioned Borderlands yet, usually that's really far up there.

Definitely agreed on that one that music is utterly fantastic and brilliantly sets the tone for the rest of the game.

Other than that got to love the dawn of war series openings, not even much of a fan of War Hammer but they are fantastic scenes, just wish each expansion came with a new one, i want to see the imperial guard doing a Stalingrad impression damn it.

Also honourable mention Forza 4, not the best but having Jeremy Clarkson introduce a racing game is an masterclass on how to set the tone.

 

[Varrdy]

Does anyone else remember an game called Terminal Velocity? Aside from being pretty darn fun, the oping cinematic was very effective. There was no real explanation, just your space-craft / fighter being prepped and launched to some increasingly dramatic music. Simple but very effective, in my opinion.

The opening to Mass Effect 2 also stunned me rigid. After the epic finale to ME1, everyone was feeling pretty good about themselves and then - BAM!!! As openings go, it was one of the most dramatic, intense and shocking I've ever seen!

 

[BanicRhys]

Y'all need to sort out your priorities.


Even though I didn't really like the game, I'll throw in Demon's Souls for dat brass.


And because I love to see SPESS MEHREENS getting killed (especially by my Neckies), I'll add Dark Crusade.

 

[AuronFtw]

FF7 and FF8 were both great; two incredible musical numbers accompanied by great-looking FMVs. Those would probably be my first picks, but since those were picked ALREADY, here's my next choice:


Starcraft:Brood War.

Great introduction to Stukov and Dugalle, great feeling of disconnection between the ground troops and the higher ups, and it captured the chaos of the battlefield skirmishes with zerg all in a few minutes. Looks dated as hell now, but damn that was good shit. Edit: also, great russian choir music in the Aria!

 

[SonofaJohannes]

I remember seeing this for the first time. Blew me away with its awesomeness.

 

[Cooperblack]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9AN1hpbw2Y&feature=player_embedded

From 1997 but still amazing.

 

[Lieju]

Ghost Trick.

It throws you right in the action; a woman is being threatened by an assasin, and you are dead. Now go save her.

It benefits a lot of the main character having an amnesia and not knowing anything about his powers, though.
You can immediately sympathise with him because he starts from the same place as the player but he isn't just a stand-in for you; from the very first thing he says you start getting to know him:
'I'm not the kind of guy who can just watch someone get shot and do nothing!'

Also Fahrenheit had a great opening, although of course it's not that great in hindsight when you realise the game doesn't have any real answers to offer you to make the mysteries offered to you in the opening make sense.

It's easy to write an interesting hook of a mystery, but whether you can provide the answers and give satisfying answers, well, that separates Ghost Trick from Fahrenheit.

EDIT: If we're just talking about opening cinematics:





Here, have the characters doing random cool stuff. It also shows things about the personality and background of all those characters features in the cinematic and get the feeling there is something important happening that brings these very different people with different motivations together to kick the shit out of each other.

 

[Harlemura]

Although it doesn't really tell you anything about the game and is just a bunch of flashy and/or dramatic shots of the characters, the Tales of Xillia opening is one that I find difficult to skip every time I start up the game.
Oh, and I'll put another vote in for the Kingdom Hearts 2 opening. Even if I'm doing so only because the first time I saw it I was super hyped to see Donald and Goofy in those graphics.

 

[ArithianFlame]

I'm going to have to go with Wrath of the Lich King. I thought it set the stage for the expansion very well. Great, yet simple narrative with powerful cinematic camera work.

 

[NerAnima]

For opening cinematics, I'm gonna go with Chrono Trigger (haven't played or seen Crono Cross, so not sure how the two compare) and Grandia.
For opening gameplay, I'm gonna go with Majora's Mask (possibly my nostalgia talking, but whatever.)
I would post links on here to these, but I have no idea how to do so, so if someone could tell me how, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DataSnake]

Cinematic: Dawn of War II
Gameplay: If you like your game to pace itself, the slow build of Resident Evil 4 was extremely well done. Things gradually went from "more or less normal" to "completely batshit crazy" in a way that perfectly cultivated a feeling of being out of my depth. If, on the other hand, you want an attention-grabbing, balls-to-the-wall cold open, you can't go wrong with the more recent Saints Row games. The third started out with the Saints robbing a mob bank disguised as themselves, followed up by jumping out of a plane and having a massive shootout in midair. The intro to SR4 was even wilder, but to avoid spoilers I'll just say it involves terrorists, nukes, the presidency, an alien invasion, a 1950s sitcom and a rocket launcher.

 

[Evonisia]

BioShock 1 and Half-Life 1 are two brilliantly done openings (the former more than the latter), just a shame that Half-Life 2 and BioShock Infinite basically copied their predecessor's openings and made it cheaper.

 

[Story]

I liked Portal 2's opening quite a bit. It was a clever way of introducing the tone of the game while giving a tutorial at the same time. Plus, Wheatley is funny.
Hmm, I can't really think of any more that stood out enough for me remember them right away. At least ones not already mentioned. I'm sure there are others though.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Bioshock's opening completley blew me away the first time I saw it. And the second time. And the third...

 

[Hero of Lime]

For opening cinematics, I'm gonna go with Chrono Trigger (haven't played or seen Crono Cross, so not sure how the two compare) and Grandia.
For opening gameplay, I'm gonna go with Majora's Mask (possibly my nostalgia talking, but whatever.)
I would post links on here to these, but I have no idea how to do so, so if someone could tell me how, that would be greatly appreciated.

Since I like the intro for Majora's Mask I'll post it and show you how to post future videos. First, copy and paste the url from a site like Youtube onto this site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVCHGGv0W_c

You could leave it like this, but it's better to put it on the site itself. So, you erase everything besides the word youtube, the = and whatever appears afterwards like this: youtube=PVCHGGv0W_c. Then you put these [ ] on the edge of the new link and it will appear as it does below.


I know there is a guide on the site for learning how to do things like this, but since I forgot where it was, I figured I could just show you how to do it.