So what are your favorite video game opening montages and why?
For me, the two I’m particularly fond of are Metal Gear Solid 2 and Fallout 1.
In the case of MGS2, the MGS main theme’s reorchestration by Harry Gregson-Williams was phenomenal and the splicing of that with scenes from the game, the opening shot of the U.S. Constitution (or was it the Declaration of Independence, I don’t recall, but it’s a reference to the Illuminati-like Patriots’ control of the events of the MGS games), and the animations of a snake moving across the screen while pieces of a DNA double-helix are joined together (a reference to the fact that Solid Snake and the other L’enfants Terribles are all clones of Big Boss) make for a truly amazing opening sequence.
Oh, and the first scene in the actual game with Snake jumping off the Hudson Bridge is one of the best opening scenes in any game.
In the case of Fallout 1, the shots of post-apocalyptic destruction with “Maybe” by the Inkspots playing in the background, followed by Ron Perlman’s “War Never Changes” narration of what led to the events of the game seamlessly set the mood of the game.
Final Fantasy VI - Three mechs walking towards Narshe with scrolling terrain and snow blowing across the screen while the opening credits rolled. It’s not so impressive now but when it was new on the SNES, it blew my young mind away!
Maybe I should have qualified my OP with intros that are memorable because they are actually well done and capture the essence of the game (or what the game was intended to be).
The Opening to HL2 Episode 2 was quite a nice intro, with all the flashbacks of Alyx, and then i thought she died and i got depressed, then she found me… then she got stabbed, now Vortigaunts are helping her.
I had to stop playing because I was getting too drawn into the world and got really depressed that I can’t physically become Gordon Freeman and enter the world and respond how I want to to conversations and… yeah I get drawn into well written stories too easily (this was yesterday so I’ll finish it tomorrow or so. I’m detoxing on Spore creature creator and Burst Limit in the mean time).
I came in here to say this. I remember my head nearly exploding at the detail of Rinoa’s knit sweater sleeve during that intro. It was amazing.
That game is not the most fun of the series by far, but damn if that space sequence doesn’t get me misty-eyed every single time I play it. I keep a saved game right before that point just so I can see it every now and then.
I noticed FFX hasn’t been mentioned. That intro was bad-ass, huge giant monster destroying a futuristic city. It’s was all the beauty of FF8’s CG, but w/ good gameplay to back it up.
