The opening is one of the most important parts of any piece of media. It has to grab the audience, give them an idea of what to expect, and set up the plot — while also being compelling in its own right. If the opening is poor, the audience is unlikely to watch the rest of the piece.
This is even more true with gaming since it requires a much higher time investment from its participants. A game's opening scene, whether a cutscene or a gameplay sequence, must way hook players in some way and make them hungry for the rest. Some games accomplish this task with such excellence, their opening scenes become legendary in their own right.
8 Half-Life's Opening Shines In Eerie Mundanity
One of the most famous and influential video games ever made, Half-Life stands out from the very beginning. Unlike other games at the time, which often begin with exposition or a big combat scene, Half-Life begins with the most ordinary thing in the world: a person being transported to work.
In Half-Life's five-minute first-person scene, the player simply watches as Gordon Freeman arrives late for work at Black Mesa. The strange nature of his workplace creates a steadily-growing sinister undercurrent. The incredibly mundane opening is so distinct and juxtaposed with the chaos immediately after that it has gone down in history.
7 God Of War (2018) Introduces A New Kratos
Games in the God of War series typically open on explosive action scenes, featuring a berserk Kratos roaring in fury as he battles his foes. As such, the opening of God of War (2018) hits much harder by contrast. The first thing the player sees is Kratos touching his hand to a marking on a tree, an expression of quiet grief on his face.
Kratos uses his axe seconds later, but only to fell the tree, clearly trying for catharsis. With other touches like his cold dialogue with his son Atreus, and his attempts to cover the scars on his arms, God of War (2018) demonstrates in few words that it's a different, mature experience — focusing on a new side to its main character.
6 Until Dawn Makes You Play Through Tragedy
Games like Until Dawn blur the line between game and film, being visual stories that the player influences at key moments. Its opening scene does everything the opening to a game or a film could want. A year before the rest of the game, Until Dawn introduces the game's main cast, its core gameplay mechanics, and the story's inciting incident.
Playing as Beth Washington, the player controls her for a short scene where her friends prank her sister, and the two run off into the woods where they meet their end. It's a dark scene, but one that gives players an instant connection to the story and the cast — setting everything in motion for the bulk of Until Dawn.
5 Dark Souls Makes The Player Want To See The World
The plots of the Dark Souls games are vaguely-told and obscure, but each one tends to give a large amount of information in their opening cutscenes. In the very first Dark Souls, the player is introduced to the game's world and shown how it came to be, watching scenes from the war against the dragons while learning of each of the main Lords.
To new players, Dark Souls's cutscene is particularly confusing, full of vaguely-defined proper nouns and introducing a vast bevy of concepts. Nonetheless, it serves to make the game's world and history inviting and instantly intriguing, while having enough hints of lore and deeper meaning to reward returning players as well.
4 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed's Opening Stars Darth Vader
For the majority of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the player controls Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice and a Sith assassin. In its opening chapter on Kashyyyk, however, the player gets put into the shoes of one of the most iconic villains of all time: Darth Vader himself.
The Force Unleashed's opening seconds serve to give the player a feeling of power, making them all but unstoppable as they devastate Wookiees and eventually a Jedi with their lightsaber and the force. Introducing the game's core mechanics and Force system, it's an exceptionally fun opening many players fondly remember.
3 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Begins In Media Res
One way to give the audience a thrilling opening scene without needing to set it up is to begin in the middle of the action, something Uncharted 2: Among Thieves does with gusto. In the first seconds, the player controls a wounded Nathan Drake in a ruined, hanging train as he tries to escape.
The Uncharted series is well-known for its engaging set pieces, and this is as strong as any in the series. Positioning it at the beginning of the game averts a potentially-boring exposition dump. Introducing this element of the story to players early on makes them curious and eager to discover how Drake wound up in his predicament.
2 The Last Of Us Hits Hard Within Minutes
Both games in The Last of Us series have some of the darkest stories in gaming, and the opening of the first game quickly lets players know what they're in for. Introducing the players to Joel Miller and his daughter Sarah, the games instantly creates sympathy from their interactions, and paints Joel as a flawed character, but deeply loving father.
After this sympathy has been established, The Last of Us takes a hard turn. Joel flees from the zombie outbreak with Sarah, but she's shot dead in his arms because of someone else's paranoia. This moment shocks players, keys them in to how dark the story is going to be. In the blink of an eye, The Last of Us makes its world and Joel himself deeply, tragically compelling.
1 Fallout: New Vegas Hooks Players With A Single Scene
Many game openings try drawing players in with either gameplay, or lengthy, story-heavy cutscenes. Fallout: New Vegas hooks players with a simple cutscene just minutes long. Before the player so much as makes their character, they're given a brief overview of the Fallout world and Vegas itself. Then they're shown a scene of their character bound and helpless, with three others talking in front of them.
In the scene, the character Benny voices his intention to kill the player, drops vague hints about their situation, and then shoots them in the head. With its sharply-rising tension, compelling direction, and actor Matthew Perry's delivery, the intro and the words "truth is, the game was rigged from the start" have become iconic within gaming circles.