Borderlands 1. Fun, over the top, and great song to go with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqbgncFCO0M
EDIT: I'd add that the later games in the series also thematically followed the first game's opening:
Bioshock sticks out in my memory: https://youtu.be/cMc92ekgJiI
Especially because of how the ending completely recontextualizes it.
(spoiler)
Oh shit, I brought down that plane...
Prey, hands down. It would be a disservice to just watch it just go play the first bit.
Edit: I was talking about Prey from 2017, but based on the comment both may be good to play.
Which Prey?
I assume the immersive sim one. It's genuinely great.
The original one's opening is also great. Every time I hear "Don't fear the reaper" I have to think about it.
This game made me fell so bored in the first few minutes and then BAM! "Don't Fear the Reaper" starts blaring out of the jukebox. Great opening to a mind bending game!
That jukebox scene is about the only bit I still remember. The Prey from 2017 was much more my style and has an amazing opening sequence as well.
The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver intro is top-notch writing and direction. Everything from the intro cinematic feeds into the feel of the game and builds excitement that never lets up until the game is over.
If this is your first time seeing this masterpiece, I envy you.
I think it's hard for modern audiences to imagine just how hard Amy Hennig and her team knocked it out of the park with that one.
It’s even deeper than this. This was the first time a game disc or cartridge included actual dialogue at this scale like in a movie. Other games like Metal Gear used smart workarounds to seem this way but Soul Reaver changed it all.
There’s a really cool podcast that delved into this. It’s a fascinating listen.
This intro cinematic goes so hard it’s still not been dethroned and no one has the balls to do it
This was on the original PlayStation. They stretched that system to its limits.
Once in game, no "loading" screens, you could traverse from one end to another without downtime. That was a masterful feat with the PS1
The opening to the original Final Fantasy VII blew my mind and changed my life when I was kid
The first quest of Oblivion was pretty cool imo.
Final Fantasy 6 with the amazing music and mode 7 effect.
War. War never changes.
Fallout 1 was absolutely seminal.
And…
L..L…L…look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone.
System Shock 1 and 2 were some of the most incredible experiences in the 90s/early 2000s.
Fallout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG3uBgQmTnk
System Shock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tKIJUxSyaU
System Shock 2:
Most of the Uncharted games but especially Uncharted 2 where he starts out on the train on a snowy mountain. This game forever changed my expectations for video games. I just wish they would re-release then on PC so that I could now easily enjoy them again.
Still mad that they ported uncharted 4 to pc but not the original trilogy. Why did they think pc players would want to start at the final entry?
Witcher 2. Amazing production quality. Every shot is perfectly framed. There's a ton of small details, like the archer missing his shot because the ship cracks at the bad time, and Letho briefly holding the arrow in his gaze as it passes by...
Homeworld.
Beautiful, moving, elegant.
A story, a tutorial, a punch in the gut
Love it.
I used to put Wild Arms and Duke Nukem into my PS1 just to watch the intros. Things were quaint before cell phones.
Thank you! I was otherwise occupied, so I didn't have an opportunity to pull up links.
And then the transition to the Wild Arms title screen music. Here's one with that is there, too: https://youtu.be/wg2Lo-6aisY
Outpost, while a mediocre game had an opening cinematic set to "Mars" from Holst's The Planets which sounded AWESOME on my Roland MT-32/SCC-1 (I don't remember which I had at the time.)
Here is the intro with standard Sound Blaster music, and here is just the music played on a Roland SC-55 which sounds pretty much the same as an SCC-1.
"now it is time to leave the cradle...
or die in the attempt."
I'm assuming, based on the YouTube channel name ("MT-32 Theater"), that this was rendered with a Roland MT-32:
Yup, that definitely sounds like an MT-32. I've updated my comment with an SCC-1 version (or close enough).
Nier Automata's true opening is placed after 20 hours in the game, but it is truly devastating.
Coming from NES and SNES onto my first PC, the idea that you could have an intro movie that had actual actors was jaw dropping
The intro movie to Stonekeep is so cheesy now, but when I was 8, this was the most impressive video game I'd ever seen.
The first bit of Grandia 2 when Ryudo was being a dick to everyone was a fun change of pace.
As an angsty preteen, I loved Final Fantasy 8's opening cinematic. Because of that game I went to watch the Final Fantasy movie with high hopes, but even my childish brain found that a complete letdown and waste of time.
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has an amazing opening, with the Bionis & Mechonis fighting it out. Then freezing in place & cutting to thousands of years into the future, where sudeenly you realize those giant gods in rhe intro are the game world that you're going to be exploring.
Spoilers for XC1
What's even better is how almost every sentence in this intro is proven to be wrong. And the opening foreshadows the real conflict of the game for those watching closely.
I always like Fallout 4 opening, right until you surface from the vault. It have the feeling of dread and it's lengthy enough to make you hate Kellogg and whatever this new entity are.
New Vegas for the polar opposite of it. It's extremely short and sweet, and push you out the gate so quick you will be exploring in just a few minute, yet it doesn't do much to make you hate Benny.
Bioshock is extremely well done, it give you that famous "would you kindly" quote as early as the opening cutscene, set the stage of what Rapture stand for with that famous banner once you enter the lighthouse, and then let you take a glimpse on Rapture, and then immediately give you the "what goes wrong" with the whole city. It's damn great.
Breath of the Wild for just "Link, wake up and fuck off", and then you run out naked(because you missed the chest with clothing) and smell the wild.
Wait, there was a chest with clothes?
Right? I just walk past the two chest and off i go, link is naked all the way to kakariko. I only noticed it when i go back for something. It's inside the shrine of resurrection.
Gothic 1: https://youtu.be/PVal5HLgIys
Not necessarily all the exposition. But especially "Welcome to the colony". This simple scene perfectly shows that you are not the great destined hero but just a wuss who is weaker than everyone else in the beginning.
Metaphor Refantazio intro, the one with battle music because it slaps
Also the walking in school in headphones bit in Life is Strange, just after 1st Jefferson class. Nice cosy vibes (poor Max didn't know what she was getting herself into)
Omega Boost:
The music, the FMV, it was just silly and oozed attitude. And it was god damn confusing. Some dudes go back in time to get the very first AI and you have to go back in time to stop them. The Pilot of the Omega Boost (I think he was even played by Steve Blum) is such a bad ass and he KNOWS he's hot shit. you get in the mecha and the mechanics all start cheering as you walk off to launch. And then there's the Jamacian mechanic who is like the pilots best friend and they're bantering and you have no idea what the hell they're saying because the damn awesome song is blaring away. It's awesome, it's epic.
Street Fighter x Tekken: yeah an odd one but the opening track and cinematic for the game are awesome.
Colony Wars: Vengeance: It lays out the setting completely. tells you what's going on, why you're fighting, and all the sides involved.
Xenogears:
It's confusing, it's weird, and it's an opening you won't understand until you're well into the game.
Starsiege: It's narrated by a child with a twisted poem to start. It feels like Warhammer 40k with mechs. Honestly Earthsiege/Starsiege/Tribes is one of those universes that really needs to be revisited and fleshed out.
Quake 3 Arena: Again just another opening that hypes you up to play. And the opening Animation with Sarge was pretty jaw dropping at the time. It was a VERY simple arena shooter but man was it a blast to play.
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