Best game intro ever (will contain spoilers, enter at own risk)

[D10S]

What game intro has made the biggest impact on you and will be one you'll never forget ?
For me, it was witcher 2, had to pick my jaw from the floor

Spoiler: cinematic

that voice still playing in my head whenever I see the game mentioned somewhere

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fd_LcbJ9Hk

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That Witcher 2 intro still looks great 10 years later.

Intro videos that I remember we're going back to old Blizzard for me. They were the kings of the rendered cut scenes in the late nineties/early 2000's, the Warcraft 3 one still looks pretty good. Warcraft 2 and Starcraft not so much.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2vm-QjK2xQ

 

[D10S]

yeah, the w2 intro totally got me by surprise, I played w2 after w3, and didn't expect the opening cinematic to be even better. the game itself looks great too, found the old folder with 850 pics I took in the game. will upload some tomorrow. a lot of those will be further proof that a game's artistic design is just as important as graphical fidelity, since this is a dx9 game that can at times look better than some of next gen ones, including those w. rt

as for cutscenes, you're 100% correct. I feel that cinematic parts of games (cuscenes, intros) should get more coverage in game reviews too and also be part of final score/rating/opinion. a timeless classic game should absolutely deliver in that respect imo to even make it to the list of best ever.

I loved mafia remake primarily for incredible looking real time cutscenes, but how quantum break approached it will never be matched imo. the whole game integrated into chapters of a movie. remedy is absolutely brilliant.

 

[Brian Boru]

that voice

Yeah, pretty special—reminds me of Aurora, Maria Franz, Jonna Jinton, maybe Floor Jansen. There's something about that kind of delivery…

I feel that cinematic parts of games (cuscenes, intros) should get more coverage in game reviews too

Completely agree, it's often a chore to find out if those Mom-look-at-me bits are skippable

Far Cry intros are uniformly atrocious. Very cinematic, set story up, and definitely worth seeing once. But gawd, such a hindrance to starting the game over—one of my fav mods is always Skip Intro and adding a Skip to cut scenes.

Not sure if it's 'best ever', but the first one which blew me away is C&C's install sequence—I can't find whatever review wrote that there should be an Oscar for game intros, because C&C had nailed the first win. Nothing special today of course, but revolutionary in 1995.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73q_wsMLaZs


The other one which really impressed me was the first Crysis intro—the character modelling, especially for Prophet, was a leap forward from anything I'd seen before:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI_MlcXfq8M


Of course, there's always Civ for the truly epic. Here's a fan project putting movie clips to the first game music to win a Grammy—Civ 4's theme Baba Yetu:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRUnoGmwNCA

 

[ZedClampet]

For some reason, the intro to Far Cry 4 has stuck with me the most. The story is pretty intense and then you meet Pagan for the first time. After Pagan says his famous final lines and the music starts playing...It just really had me fired up to play the game.

The relevant final seconds:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGw3tLoT7lw

 

[Zloth]

Oh! I guess the full Baba Yetu song was just in the trailer for Civ 4, not the actual intro.

Let's see: the intro for Wing Commander 4, because it looked like a MOVIE! First time I ever saw a video game intro with opening credits like a movie would have.

View: https://youtu.be/ms2sYa6yFRg?si=Y7whlWFIcCBCA6y8


FF7 Remake's intro is awesome. Great establishment of the game setting, great music, and the nostalgia is turned up to the max for people who played the original:

View: https://youtu.be/xOA5GwRcBks?si=N1zXqPD6cGqemP5z


And just because I like the music (skipping the first 72 seconds)

View: https://youtu.be/4TcfqqUaKqg?si=tniPMaIDMdNniklm&t=72

 

[Colif]

no idea, usually too busy hitting escape to skip them.

I never did see the one for Diablo 4. It only showed once and no way to repeat. Oh well.

 

[McStabStab]

Yeah, pretty special—reminds me of Aurora, Maria Franz, Jonna Jinton, maybe Floor Jansen. There's something about that kind of delivery…


Completely agree, it's often a chore to find out if those Mom-look-at-me bits are skippable

Far Cry intros are uniformly atrocious. Very cinematic, set story up, and definitely worth seeing once. But gawd, such a hindrance to starting the game over—one of my fav mods is always Skip Intro and adding a Skip to cut scenes.

Not sure if it's 'best ever', but the first one which blew me away is C&C's install sequence—I can't find whatever review wrote that there should be an Oscar for game intros, because C&C had nailed the first win. Nothing special today of course, but revolutionary in 1995.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73q_wsMLaZs


The other one which really impressed me was the first Crysis intro—the character modelling, especially for Prophet, was a leap forward from anything I'd seen before:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI_MlcXfq8M


Of course, there's always Civ for the truly epic. Here's a fan project putting movie clips to the first game music to win a Grammy—Civ 4's theme Baba Yetu:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRUnoGmwNCA

I also want to chime in on the C&C series because my most memorable intro came from C&C: Red Alert. The live action plot to assassinate Hitler followed by cut scene footage with Hell March playing over it had 10 yr old me FIRED UP.

View: https://youtu.be/7QB9BSuwrbQ

 

[Brian Boru]

I like the music

Oh I hadn't seen that before, great intro, very atmospheric.

Red Alert

Epic, still gives me a vibe every time I hear/see it

 

[D10S]

Oh! I guess the full Baba Yetu song was just in the trailer for Civ 4, not the actual intro.

Let's see: the intro for Wing Commander 4, because it looked like a MOVIE! First time I ever saw a video game intro with opening credits like a movie would have.

View: https://youtu.be/ms2sYa6yFRg?si=Y7whlWFIcCBCA6y8


FF7 Remake's intro is awesome. Great establishment of the game setting, great music, and the nostalgia is turned up to the max for people who played the original:

View: https://youtu.be/xOA5GwRcBks?si=N1zXqPD6cGqemP5z


And just because I like the music (skipping the first 72 seconds)

View: https://youtu.be/4TcfqqUaKqg?si=tniPMaIDMdNniklm&t=72

took a peek at DS and it looks fantastic. Need to pause since the game is still on my waitlist.

 

[McStabStab]

I got the whole Death Stranding soundtrack after beating the game. I’m really looking forward to Death Stranding 2.

Unfortunately, the lead singer and founder of Low Roar (the band that plays the song in that opener and has many songs on the soundtrack) passed away at the young age of 40, so they won’t be back for the sequel.

 

[Jörmungandr]

Command & Conquer red alert 2

It's clearly a high stage situation and seeing the soviet forces rolling in all over the US with the booming music of hell march 2 by Frank Klepacki in the background it's just the best in my opinion.

 

[Pifanjr]

What game intro has made the biggest impact on you and will be one you'll never forget ?
For me, it was witcher 2, had to pick my jaw from the floor

Spoiler: cinematic

I've played the Witcher 2, but I have no memory of the intro cinematic. I wonder if I accidentally skipped it.

I'll have to give more thought as to which intro is the best in my opinion, but one that I'll always remember is the one from Lionhead's Black & White. It definitely isn't pretty, the music isn't very good and there isn't really a lot happening, but because it was (probably) unskippable and I've restarted the game many times over the years, it's stuck in my head regardless.

Spoiler: intro

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8sfa_KKpFY

 

[D10S]

I've played the Witcher 2, but I have no memory of the intro cinematic. I wonder if I accidentally skipped it.

I'll have to give more thought as to which intro is the best in my opinion, but one that I'll always remember is the one from Lionhead's Black & White. It definitely isn't pretty, the music isn't very good and there isn't really a lot happening, but because it was (probably) unskippable and I've restarted the game many times over the years, it's stuck in my head regardless.

Spoiler: intro

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8sfa_KKpFY

maybe you just didn't find it as astonishing as I did.

 

[McStabStab]

Command & Conquer red alert 2

It's clearly a high stage situation and seeing the soviet forces rolling in all over the US with the booming music of hell march 2 by Frank Klepacki in the background it's just the best in my opinion.

“I don’t give a wooden nickel about your legacy!” What a line haha

 

[Pifanjr]

maybe you just didn't find it as astonishing as I did.

I did when watching it just now, so that seems unlikely

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't think I've ever played a game with FMV. From these intros, I think I've missed out.

 

[neogunhero]

I’ve said it here before, but Oblivion’s “step-out moment” leaving the sewers still has such a huge impact on me, but as far the actual intro goes, it’s okay. It does a good job at showing off parts of the world and enemies you’ll come up against, and gives a bit of lore and background of the story, but overall not very memorable.

View: https://youtu.be/JGhlg4JqvQw?feature=shared


For an actual intro scene, my pick would be Half-Life 2. GMan is still pretty creepy to me, and seeing his eyes stare deep into my soul the first time I played it unnerved me so much but I had to keep playing. I can recite his whole monologue from memory.

View: https://youtu.be/7HBwxbWVb-M?feature=shared

 

[Jörmungandr]

I don't think I've ever played a game with FMV. From these intros, I think I've missed out.

FMV works really well for RTS games because all it needs to do is carry the story along between missions.

It's a shame Tempest Rising is banking on cgi instead least as far as the playable demo did.

 

[Frindis]

One of my favorites. You might want to turn down the volume for this one😅

View: https://youtu.be/oSvHayLg9DA?t=37

 

[SirDJCat]

Most people think it’s a bit silly, but I’ve always loved the RE4 intro, it’s so ominous and sets up the walk in the forest so well.

View: https://youtu.be/XQtqAx2s9qg?si=huOEtKv08ogHq-DU

 

[D10S]

Most people think it’s a bit silly, but I’ve always loved the RE4 intro, it’s so ominous and sets up the walk in the forest so well.

View: https://youtu.be/XQtqAx2s9qg?si=huOEtKv08ogHq-DU

on my list, same as Death Stranding.

One of my favorites. You might want to turn down the volume for this one😅

View: https://youtu.be/oSvHayLg9DA?t=37

fantastic, snake ISIS killed me lol.

glad I started this thread, so many old gems I never played and would have never seen those cinematic intros. Will have something to do late in the evening watching them all (except for those I'm maybe going to play)

 

[Brian Boru]

Command & Conquer red alert 2

One of my 3 fav RTSs of all time, great intro!
I like when actors show up in similar roles—eg Pres Dugan was Vice President in one of 24's seasons, and Gen Carville was the general in WarGames.
"I don't give a wooden nickel about your legacy."

Half-Life 2. GMan is still pretty creepy

Oh yes! "Welcome. Welcome to City 17"

But that's later. "Wake up, Mr Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." Great fadeout after those ground-breaking facial animations.

 

[Frindis]

Here is a couple more. The first one is really well done. Never liked the game much, but loved the intro. The second intro has some awesome music playing, which is one of the reasons it is high on my list.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRNCCkdkMlQ

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf9xqsmO9m4

 

[McStabStab]

I don't think I've ever played a game with FMV. From these intros, I think I've missed out.

Oh my god, the cut scene from Red Alert with Tanya being interrogated... you DID miss out!

View: https://youtu.be/yWmjo0D8mOE