Bioshock sticks out in my memory: https://youtu.be/cMc92ekgJiI
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Borderlands 1. Fun, over the top, and great song to go with it.
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Prey, hands down. It would be a disservice to just watch it just go play the first bit.
Edit: I was talking about Prey from 2017, but based on the comment both may be good to play.
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The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver intro is top-notch writing and direction. Everything from the intro cinematic feeds into the feel of the game and builds excitement that never lets up until the game is over.
If this is your first time seeing this masterpiece, I envy you.
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The opening to the original Final Fantasy VII blew my mind and changed my life when I was kid
The first quest of Oblivion was pretty cool imo.
Most of the Uncharted games but especially Uncharted 2 where he starts out on the train on a snowy mountain. This game forever changed my expectations for video games. I just wish they would re-release then on PC so that I could now easily enjoy them again.
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Final Fantasy 6 with the amazing music and mode 7 effect.
War. War never changes.
Fallout 1 was absolutely seminal.
And…
L..L…L…look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone.
System Shock 1 and 2 were some of the most incredible experiences in the 90s/early 2000s.
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Homeworld.
Beautiful, moving, elegant.
A story, a tutorial, a punch in the gut
Love it.
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Descent 2 Intro, by far...
Witcher 2. Amazing production quality. Every shot is perfectly framed. There's a ton of small details, like the archer missing his shot because the ship cracks at the bad time, and Letho briefly holding the arrow in his gaze as it passes by...
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Demons Souls
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Outpost, while a mediocre game had an opening cinematic set to "Mars" from Holst's The Planets which sounded AWESOME on my Roland MT-32/SCC-1 (I don't remember which I had at the time.)
Here is the intro with standard Sound Blaster music, and here is just the music played on a Roland SC-55 which sounds pretty much the same as an SCC-1.
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I used to put Wild Arms and Duke Nukem into my PS1 just to watch the intros. Things were quaint before cell phones.
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Nier Automata's true opening is placed after 20 hours in the game, but it is truly devastating.
For music, there is nothing better than coin-op SpyHunter.
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As an angsty preteen, I loved Final Fantasy 8's opening cinematic. Because of that game I went to watch the Final Fantasy movie with high hopes, but even my childish brain found that a complete letdown and waste of time.
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Coming from NES and SNES onto my first PC, the idea that you could have an intro movie that had actual actors was jaw dropping
The intro movie to Stonekeep is so cheesy now, but when I was 8, this was the most impressive video game I'd ever seen.
I've never seen better than River City Girls
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The first bit of Grandia 2 when Ryudo was being a dick to everyone was a fun change of pace.
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Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has an amazing opening, with the Bionis & Mechonis fighting it out. Then freezing in place & cutting to thousands of years into the future, where sudeenly you realize those giant gods in rhe intro are the game world that you're going to be exploring.
Spoilers for XC1
What's even better is how almost every sentence in this intro is proven to be wrong. And the opening foreshadows the real conflict of the game for those watching closely.
Gothic 1: https://youtu.be/PVal5HLgIys
Not necessarily all the exposition. But especially "Welcome to the colony". This simple scene perfectly shows that you are not the great destined hero but just a wuss who is weaker than everyone else in the beginning.
I always like Fallout 4 opening, right until you surface from the vault. It have the feeling of dread and it's lengthy enough to make you hate Kellogg and whatever this new entity are.
New Vegas for the polar opposite of it. It's extremely short and sweet, and push you out the gate so quick you will be exploring in just a few minute, yet it doesn't do much to make you hate Benny.
Bioshock is extremely well done, it give you that famous "would you kindly" quote as early as the opening cutscene, set the stage of what Rapture stand for with that famous banner once you enter the lighthouse, and then let you take a glimpse on Rapture, and then immediately give you the "what goes wrong" with the whole city. It's damn great.
Breath of the Wild for just "Link, wake up and fuck off", and then you run out naked(because you missed the chest with clothing) and smell the wild.
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When I first played Duke Nukem 2, it completely blew my mind! https://youtu.be/_JQpxpR7XCk
The intro music to Mega Man 2 has always been a personal favorite.
Some ones that I've been impressed with.
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Relative to the technical limitations of the time, maybe the title music for Solstice for the NES, a Tim Follins creation. The sound hardware of the time imposed pretty severe limitations on what one could do, and Follins was famous for finding ways around them. I didn't hear this until many years after it was actually done, and it's decent even in absolute terms:
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The music for the Civilization series has been pretty good. Here's "Baba Yetu" for Civilization IV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A
First video game piece to ever win a Grammy award, for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)". Performed by the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
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In terms of openings that really do a pretty good job of building a lot of intensity and setting the stage for the rest of the game, I think I'd give credit to some Bethesda games, both of which involve attempts to execute the main character: Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas:
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Skyrim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsRA5BG3N8E
Fallout: New Vegas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxOiVxTB0KY
The opening of Subnautica is very good; the planetfall sequence that strands you on 4546B. It's relatively short, gets the point across.
I've also got to give some appreciation for Half Life's intro. A bit longer, has a bit of a "TA DAAA" feel to it as they showed off some things the engine could do, but it gets a lot of storytelling done in the background.
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Blizzard's cinematics always impressed back in the day. SC, D2, War3, and then WoW.
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Omega Boost:
The music, the FMV, it was just silly and oozed attitude. And it was god damn confusing. Some dudes go back in time to get the very first AI and you have to go back in time to stop them. The Pilot of the Omega Boost (I think he was even played by Steve Blum) is such a bad ass and he KNOWS he's hot shit. you get in the mecha and the mechanics all start cheering as you walk off to launch. And then there's the Jamacian mechanic who is like the pilots best friend and they're bantering and you have no idea what the hell they're saying because the damn awesome song is blaring away. It's awesome, it's epic.
Street Fighter x Tekken: yeah an odd one but the opening track and cinematic for the game are awesome.
Colony Wars: Vengeance: It lays out the setting completely. tells you what's going on, why you're fighting, and all the sides involved.
Xenogears:
It's confusing, it's weird, and it's an opening you won't understand until you're well into the game.
Starsiege: It's narrated by a child with a twisted poem to start. It feels like Warhammer 40k with mechs. Honestly Earthsiege/Starsiege/Tribes is one of those universes that really needs to be revisited and fleshed out.
Quake 3 Arena: Again just another opening that hypes you up to play. And the opening Animation with Sarge was pretty jaw dropping at the time. It was a VERY simple arena shooter but man was it a blast to play.
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Although I prefer the sequel more, personally, Sonic Riders has my absolute favorite opening. I also think the Sonic Unleashed opening cutscene when you first start the game is amazing as well.
Bet you can't tell I'm a sonic nerd. /s
Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.
Parasite Eve is as mysterious as I could wish for a sci-fi with horror. Also Ultimate Ninja 5 sells pretty well the action of the game, specially as the game itself is more straightforward than the previous game.
Gotta say final fantasy 10 opening blitzball scene.
Metaphor Refantazio intro, the one with battle music because it slaps
Also the walking in school in headphones bit in Life is Strange, just after 1st Jefferson class. Nice cosy vibes (poor Max didn't know what she was getting herself into)
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I like games that just drop you right into the action
Peeling the celo off the box
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