Back in the day, walls of text followed start screens and stood as the best intros gamers could hope for. For the most part, you were dropped into a level and pointed towards the exit. Nowadays, it takes a lot more to deliver the narrative potential of a video game.
Introductions mean a lot.
That’s why we decided to sit down and bust out our top 10 favorite introductions to the video games of this current console generation. These selections represent some of the best framing gaming has seen in years, and they stand as lead-ins that we’ll never forget.
BioShock
Who can forget your first trip down into Rapture? After a unexplained plane crash, you see a lighthouse in the distant past all the wreckage. You swim over to the island and climb up a massive spiral staircase to finally find a door leading inside. You’re greeted with a simple, yet poignant message: “No Gods or Kings. Only Man.” The pretty much sets the stage right there.
But then developer Irrational Games hits you with one of the best speeches in gaming, courtesy of Rapture architect Andrew Ryan, as you travel down below the depths to finally gaze upon Rapture, in all her destroyed beauty, off in the distance.
It’s at that point that BioShock has you hook, line and sinker.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
The game starts with you, Batman, escorting Joker to his most recent stint in Arkham Asylum. Players follow the depraved madman as he babbles incessantly through his bindings and guards. Your given a brief introduction to the matter at hand, a small slice of Arkham and a nice, heavy dose of the Joker’s antics. You’ll even see an old enemy along the way.
If nothing else, this entry serves as one of the more iconic, simple, villainous interactions with an insane foe.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
While not exactly the opening moments of the game, we call this credit scene part of the opening stance of Modern Warfare. Sure, slight us for ignoring the training and boat sequences, we don’t mind.
Being drug through the streets of some middle eastern nation rooted in combat from the first-person perspective was incredible the first time around. Players were hauled into a car, forced into a seat and driven to their own executions. It wasn’t until well after the scene that you found out exactly what the hell happened, but, in the moment, it was a completely awe-inspiring opening.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The train sequence. You can’t forget the train sequence. A lot of the marketing materials for the game’s pre-release centered around footage from the train crash featured at the onset of Uncharted 2. The game started with this monumental crash scene, Drake was forced to warily climb his way out of a wreck, fight off some baddies and continue on his journey... then gamers were flashed to the story as it lead up to the crash.
It was definitely unique.
Red Dead Redemption
You board a train bound for Armadillo as a prisoner, you arrive as a free man. This may be the slowest opening sequence in our list, but the onset of Red Dead gives players a sense of the environment around them. You hear about the industrialization of America, the fall of the wild west and the sins of mankind. You’ll eavesdrop on gossip as the train crawls from one station to the next, and you have a pretty decent understanding of the game’s central themes by the time you arrive. This ain’t just a standard shooter.
