There is a saying that first impressions last, whenever we get a good impression, we’ll never take away our attention from that subject. This can be true in gaming, there is always an awesome opening that will keep us hooked to that game until the very end. We tallied some of the best opening sequence in gaming that grabbed our attention and had us all surprised or amazed where it left a mark into our gamer hearts. From the characters, the storyline or the immerse gameplay, even if it was just for a couple of minutes. Take note that we are not including cinematic intros, but more on playable opening sequences. Now here are our list of the Best Opening Sequences in Gaming.
Batman Arkham Asylum
The opening starts with Batman escorting the Joker into the Arkham Asylum, as you follow him through the hallway of the infamous prison, the Joker starts smacking jokes at everyone, plus you’ll be able to see other character cameos that you will going to encounter later in the game. You can feel uneasy as the tone of the atmosphere gets intense as you go farther inside the prison, as you are already expecting something bad will going to happen. This what makes this really awesome as how simple the scene was but it was the tension that made it great and memorable, and let’s not forget the incredible voice acting by Mark Hamil (The Joker) and Kevin Conroy (Batman).
Bioshock
After surviving a plane crash, you managed to swim into a lone lighthouse in the middle of nowhere, you get inside to seek for help, rode inside this transport pod then you finally descend below the depths of the sea. You were then be greeted with a short video intro by Andrew Ryan on his point of view in society then at the end of the video, you finally get to see the glory of his creation; Rapture. The storytelling was just astounding, it really let you dive into the world of Rapture, you may have less interaction on this part, but roaming around the lightroom and then marveling at the underwater city as you approach to it further keeps you immersed into the world. The same method was also done at Bioshock Infinite, but we chose the first Bioshock as this was the first game to made such approach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-TPhBIuTJc
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
One of the best from its franchise, for SoTN’s case, the opening sequence had a twist; it will instead send you to the very last stage from the Rondo of Blood game with a very recognizable vampire hunter, where you will be facing Dracula along with a brief conversation that uttered one of the famous quotes. After completing that level (spoiler: you can’t die in this level), you will be introduced to a new character that is so beefed up you can mow down anything along your path, then halfway through the first few rooms, you’ll encounter Death and strips you off with your powerful equipment, leaving you at a very vulnerable state, and this is where the real game begins. This opening is impressive as lets you think that you are playing as Richter with the same controls from the previous games for a short period of time then after that scene you are introduced to Alucard along with an all new gameplay, of course you can unlock the famed vampire hunter by beating the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kPWc1nCtFU
The Last of Us
Another game that lets you control a different character early at the opening scene, in the early portion of the opening scene, things look a bit calm, until you received a chilling phone call, once you started to roam around the house, you will be able to get some info on what’s going on outside, this is where tension gets high. Once you reunite with your dad (Joel), all hell breaks loose as you try to escape from the city. As you thought everything is safe now, the unthinkable happened. We won’t spill any spoilers about the end of the opening portion, you can just watch the video. The game lets you experience the horror on how the outbreak happened and how to survive such scenario in the most realistic way in video games, and it was pretty effective. It may not be the most original concept, but the execution was spot on, it lets you feel the amount fear from the beginning then ends it with a heart breaking scene at the end. That opening scene will definitely stay into your hearts for a pretty long time.
Mass Effect 2
You may thought everything’s going the way you thought it would be, strolling around the galaxy looking for Geth remnants or maybe waiting for a special mission from the Alliance, then suddenly out of nowhere a massive ship appeared and starts attacking the Normandy, many from your crew get killed and as you try to rescue Joker, you got caught between the particle beam from the enemy ship, throwing you out into the deep space along with the demise of your precious ship. With your life support damaged, you now descend into the nearby planet which of course would burned you alive from the re-entry to the atmosphere and as a result, kills you. Then of course after a few moments it turns out you were revived by Cerberus and the character creation screen kicks in. This definitely made it to our list as it made a shocking surprise by supposedly killing the main character at the beginning of the game, and this will be talked about by everyone for a long time. What a good way to start a game.
Hope you enjoy our list of the best opening sequences in gaming, if you have your own list, you can share it with us by leaving a comment to this article.
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