I love the opening to Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. It’s been done since, but at the time seeing those original MK characters in that awesome cutscene was exhilarating. Then running through the pit, Goro’s lair, and other classic stages as a connected world, while learning the awesome combo/fatality system, set the table perfectly for an excellent co-op game.
I’m not sure about favorite, but there’s something about the familiarity of the first bit of D3, up to where you meet Cain, that’s just very comforting.
I also really, really love the opening of Starcraft 1, there’s just a ton of tone imparted there that makes your space shooting feel a lot less fantastic and a lot more fun.
I remember really liking the introduction in Shadowrun: Dragonfall. That was my first game of that kind and the beginning really stuck with me. Deadly Premonition was really cool too, especially the bit where you get out of the initial combat zone. Otherwise, Final Fantasy IX and Half Life 2 are some of my long time favorites.
BioShock, like all the others said XD
The Darkness, too. And Max Payne 3. Batman Arkham Asylum had a good opening scene as well 
I’ve never actually played Mafia 3, just watched bits of it, but boy does it ever start with a bang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_x9rBcSCzc
I’m going to say that everything leading up to the first boss fight in Wonderful 101 is my favorite video game intro. So like the first two hours. Its just this constant escalation of insane situtations. You go from saving a school bus, to fighting giant robots, to chasing a robo-Ghidorah through the city. Its amazing and playful in a way that’s immensely satisfying. And it has the best quicktimes/cutscene/gameplay mix out of all the Platinum games. Its also really hard and probably doesn’t totally count as an intro.
For short intros Bioshock probably takes the cake. With Doom trailing behind. Though its really the beginning and the end of the intro for Doom.
For even shorter intro’s the latest Guilty Gear is dope since it has style for days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0zqh9spQ7g
I’ll third this. I thought saints row was just a gta clone. My brother talked me in to the third. Was blown away.
DOOM 2016 is definitely the game that comes to mind for me here as well. I was on the fence about buying it until I heard the praise going from Giant Bomb and I was immediately sucked in with the very beginning of the game. Then I was absolutely giddy and knew that this was going to be a game I loved when the intro finished with the elevator ride, Hayden’s speech, the music, and the cocking of the shotgun.
Saints Row 4’s opening was better than 3
e: like 3 is great, don’t get me wrong, but 4 is just such a perfect encapsulation of the insane bullshit that you are about to experience in a way that 3 doesn’t quite reach
The beginning of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag stands out to me for how openly it subverts your idea of what an Assassin’s creed game should be. As opposed to AC II or AC III where we get tons of long winded build-up about your character and their slow road towards joining the Assassin’s order and how sacred that role is, Black Flag starts you off as an openly greedy, ambitious privateer who happens to be marooned on an island with one of said Assassins, who he promptly kills in a fight. He then takes his outfit to pose as him to make some coin off the delivery he was making. It’s a bizarre, funny sequence, and the idea of giving you an assassin outfit that early in such an unceremonious way was really interesting.
Black Flag is my favorite AC game by far, and it’s largely because it uses its historical setting and protagonist wonderfully while scrapping a lot of what makes those games an occasional chore to play.
I came in here to say the opening of DOOM (2016) was one of the best damn games I’ve seen in ages.
I also really, really like the opening of Hyper Light Drifter - you get this flash of the history of its weird giant apocalypse, and then the Drifter’s problem is demonstrated, and then you’re in it and the game steps back to let you figure the rest out on your own.
Oh, and as a super-old example, the first level of Dark Forces is so good at immediately establishing HEY THIS IS FUCKING STAR WARS LOOK AT THIS SHIT that the rest of the game fails to live up to it. But man, the first time you hear a stormtrooper shout “uhhhh YOUR’RE NOT AUTHORIZED IN THIS AREA” and the sound of those blaster rifles starts… HOT DAMN.
Should I play Nier? I keep thinking I should but then I watched some of the Giant Bomb stream and it just seemed so boring.
Each opening of Dragon Age Orgins is so cool. It gave us a choice of 6, hour-long, completely unique orgins stories that each flesh out both the world and your character better than any RPG I’ve played.
(My phone autocorrected Orgins to Orgies. It’s making me have doubts about my life choices).
Great Plateau from BOTW is so well designed and fun. Having a microcosm of the larger world as your tutorial is such a great idea. It’s handholdy enough to get you familiar with the tower and shrine system while still largely leaving you up to your own devices.
At the very least watch the cutscenes. I honestly really like the combat (I’m problably gonna replay it on hard in a couple years or so). It’s definitely not Bayonetta but it has more depth than people give it credit for. The worst thing about it is that normal is way too easy and getting through that opening level on hard is a war against your will to live. That opening level is genius but jhc. With fear of overhyping it, it’s the best written video game I’ve ever played.
Just realized the original comment was about the 2010 Nier, which you should absolutely only watch the cutscenes for.
I have to agree with Automata especially in connection with the “other beginnings”. It sets an expectation that it later, repeatedly, throws back at your face. I see a lot of people hate on the start of Automata but I think it does a great job of showing it’s hand & still being able to surprise you. Most significantly with the start of play through C. After having played basically the same opening twice you expect the third to be exactly the same & instead the curtain has been yanked off the wall with the rod along with it. You still get that “oh wait a minute” with the start of play through B with the bucket & 9S but I really got the sense of “you just got played” with play through C.
I agree with MGS, Bioshock, Prey (2016) and Resident Evil 4.
I would add Mass Effect 2. If you unknowingly go into that from Mass Effect 1 it would shift all expectations, until a few minutes later it becomes obvious it was there to justify the face creation stuff and not to really explore the implications of bringing a person back to life from literal ashes
I meant Automata so your comment still stands lol. Yeah, I should play it.
I like several of the openings mentioned here (nier:a, bioshock, da:o, ff6) but I have to be true to myself and say Kingdom Hearts. Watched it for the first time and welled up (I was 9 or 10) and remember bookmarking a neopets-hosted website to listen to Simple and Clean embedded on it over and over.
Persona 3 has one of my fave openings. it sets the mood of the game (kinda gothic & scary) perfectly & gives you glimpses of certain motifs that will appear throughout the game. I love the interspersed shots of Yukari with her evoker, too, which of course you don’t know isn’t A Real Gun. it adds a lot to the atmosphere.
