What's the best opening to a game that you have played?
Now, before you answer, allow me to clarify! By 'opening' I'm not really talking about the opening 'cut scene' or credits, or even necessarily the hand-holding tutorials that inevitably seem to clog up the start of games these days. No, what I'm talking about here is those precious opening minutes - stretching to hours - where you are stumbling around the game world, finding your bearings, and getting a sense of the task ahead.
Take the much-heralded The Elder Scrolls IV: Morrowind as an example. There's a very brief scene on the boat to give your name and race, and a quick conversation in the Census Office to determine or make your class - but within moments you are thrust out into the big wide world with the somewhat scary line 'You're on your own now. Good luck!' It is at that point that - for the purposes of this discussion - the game 'starts'. That point at which you have to get on with finding your feet in a vast and extremely dangerous world. I still remember the sense of foreboding when stepping outside of the relative sanctuary of Seyda Neen - only to be totally 'owned' by a squib or rat.
In Oblivion it was stepping out of the Sewers, blinking into the warm light of a Cyrodiil day, the distant walls of the Imperial City in the distance. Even Skyrim did a pretty decent job of capturing that moment, as you step from the Helgen Sewers into a cold, frosty, mountainous world.
But there's little doubt in my mind that the preponderance of lengthy opening cut scenes, followed by excessively patronising 'tutorials' - inevitably breaking any sense of immersion - have tempered that initial flush of excitement that you get when starting games.
Very simply, you just don't get openings like Morrowind any more. Or do you? Perhaps I'm wrong, and there are plenty of examples of great and immersive openings to games. If so, please enlighten!
So... what do you all think? Looking at games that have come out recently - say, the last couple of years - what has been the best opening that you can remember? What's your 'all time' favourite game opening?
As always, I look forward to your thoughts.
Comments
it was HORRIBLE
Much better than the repetition you usually have. Wouldn't it be awesome if a future Elder S... more