Most memorable opening line in a game

[CockroachTeaParty]

They were mentioned previously, but these some of my personal favorite heavy-hitters:

"At 0830 hours, alien forces boarded the Marathon. The current
situation is dire. All personnel are required to arm
themselves and fight for their lives." -Leela, Marathon ship A.I.

"Kain is deified. The clans tell tales of him. Few know the truth. He was mortal once, as were we all..."

(And from the same game, the line that 'sets if off' is pretty great: "Become my Soul Reaver... my Angel of Death." [RIP Tony Jay])

"This is Rupture Farms. They say it's the biggest meat packing plant on Oddworld. I used to work here. Well, I was really a slave, like all the others."

And I'm not sure if this one was mentioned yet:

"When I was very young, the Earth Empire controlled the skies. The Czar and his battle fleets saw everything, knew everything, punished everything."
~Colony Wars

Another good one:
"...Congratulations, Professor! With Hitler removed..."
"Time will tell. Sooner or later... time will tell."
~C&C: Red Alert

 

[pyramid head grape]

Rise and shine Mr. Freeman, rise and shine.

 

[lordlillen]

since everyone stole the fallout one im going for
MGS4 and snake trolling the fallout one.
''war... has changed''

 

[Auron225]

"Listen to my story. This may be our last chance." - Tidus, FFX

I don't know why - I just haven't forgotten it, and Ive forgotten most of the others.

 

[Karhukonna]

Didn't read all of the 17 pages of the thread, but I'll post this, just in case. They're not the opening lines, but that scene during the opening of Final Fantasy X, when Tidus is hanging off the edge of what appears to be a road, Auron looks up to Sin and says something along the lines of "You are sure?".

Sent chills down my spine. Wasn't the best, but the best have all been mentioned already so I just felt like sharing that one. The scene itself was pretty kickass too.

 

[Zorak the Mantis]

"Stand up, there you go. You where dreaming, not even last night's storm could wake you." -Jiub, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

 

[Diddy_Mao]

"The last Metroid is in captivity. The universe is at peace."

 

[Ladd Russo]

IN AD 2101 WAR WAS BEGINNING.

 

[Dectomax]

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." Not a video game, but still a pretty cool opening. The only other one I've got is Ron Pearlmans "War? War never changes." God did that send shivers down my spine when I first heard it.

 

[Kit Robinson]

"They told me, son, you're special. You were born to do great things. You know what? They were right."

 

[momijirabbit]

"Is it you? or does it just look like you"

 

[D-Class 198482]

"My name is Daniel Garner. I've been dead for so long it's hard to remember who I really was."
I like to skip intro cutscenes 'cause I wanna get to the game. But playing Painkiller Hell and Damnation and that being the first line I hear just made me sit my ass down and watch the whole thing.

 

[JamesStone]

War...
War never...

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Ninja'd by 50% of the people who posted.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

"The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh." Obvious source.

"The last thing that you remember is standing before the wizard Lakmir as he waved his hands." Getting harder.

"Wise men tell a tale late at night of a Great King destroyed by the temptation of evil." This one might need a hint...


HINT
"On a ray of light you descended to Earth.....
..A warrior sent to revive the living and punish evil.
A SOUL BLAZER!!"

 

[Brown Cap]

Borderlands' openings
"You want to hear a story huh?"
"You want to hear another story? Well too bad, I'm telling it anyway!"
Good times.

 

[Glongpre]

"Hey! Hey! Listen!"

 

[Foolery]

'The Hudson River, two years ago... We had classified intelligence that a new
type of Metal Gear was scheduled for transport. The whole thing stank... ...but
our noses have been out in the cold too long.'

 

[Zombie Badger]

'Find what you're looking for amongst the dead?' - Kreia in Kotor 2

It really sets up the game's tendency to deconstruct basic RPG tropes and Kreia's tendency to deconstruct your instinct to follow them.

 

[klaynexas3]

"They told me, son, you're special. You were born to do great things. You know what? They were right."

Quite frankly, those were the most uninspiring words I had ever heard at the beginning of a video game.

OT: "Free! At last..." -Uka Uka, Crash Bandicoot Warped

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately...
like, is any of this real, or not?" -Sora, Kingdom Hearts