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The 15 Best Opening Scenes in Video Game History

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Ignacio Weil

Galleries - October 15th 2026, 02:00 GMT+2

Doom 2016 — 15. Doom (2016)

Samuel Hayden would like to explain the situation. The Doom Slayer would like him to stop talking. Their brief disagreement, settled by shoving a monitor aside, tells you exactly whose priorities matter here. *Doom* establishes its protagonist through impatience, physical aggression, and a pointed glance at the human cost of corporate ambition. The opening has a wicked sense of humor about exposition, without leaving its hero entirely without something to say. | © id Software

Fallout 1997 opening — 14. Fallout (1997)

A soldier executes a prisoner, then waves at the camera. Welcome to *Fallout*, where the advertising is cheerful and civilization has thoroughly embarrassed itself. As the Ink Spots’ “Maybe” plays, the camera retreats from a television into the ruins surrounding it. That contrast gives the opening its bite: the old world keeps selling its promises after destroying the customers. Ron Perlman’s narration arrives to deliver the obituary. | © Interplay Productions

Portal 2 2011 opening — 13. Portal 2 (2011)

Pressing a button to speak and jumping instead is a wonderfully stupid joke. It also teaches a control, preserves Chell’s silence, and gives Wheatley another reason to doubt your mental faculties. *Portal 2* packs that efficiency into an opening that soon sends your entire room crashing through Aperture’s decaying facilities. Stephen Merchant’s increasingly desperate chatter supplies the comedy; the enormous wreck outside supplies an unsettling question about how long you’ve been asleep. | © Valve

Final Fantasy VIII 1999 — 12. Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

Nobuo Uematsu’s “Liberi Fatali” does considerable heavy lifting here, turning a training duel into something that sounds like the heavens have booked front-row seats. Squall and Seifer’s gunblade clash cuts through images of waves, feathers, and faces whose significance remains tantalizingly unclear. *Final Fantasy VIII* trusts music and imagery to create anticipation before explaining itself. Even without knowing these people, you understand that their romantic and professional lives will be exhausting. | © Square

God of War III 2010 opening — 11. God of War III (2010)

Apparently, climbing Mount Olympus on a Titan counts as a warm-up. *God of War III* begins with Kratos riding Gaia into battle, making the ground beneath your feet an enormous participant in the fight. Poseidon’s assault turns that moving landscape into a battlefield of water, rock, and thrashing limbs. The scale is outrageous, but the clever part is how directly you inhabit it: this particular spectacle comes with working controls. | © Santa Monica Studio

Silent Hill 1999 opening — 10. Silent Hill (1999)

Following your missing daughter into an alley sounds considerably more sensible than anything that happens once you enter it. In *Silent Hill*, the camera twists around Harry Mason, darkness swallows the route, and ordinary streets give way to blood and rusted metal. You keep moving because Cheryl might be ahead. The sequence exploits that understandable impulse beautifully, guiding you into an encounter you cannot win before offering the deeply unconvincing reassurance of waking up. | © Konami

Half Life 2 2004 opening — 9. Half-Life 2 (2004)

One discarded drinks can makes an excellent introduction to authoritarian rule. Early in *Half-Life 2*, a Civil Protection officer knocks it onto the floor and orders Gordon Freeman to pick it up. Obey or throw it back: either response makes this oppression personal. Around that petty humiliation, City 17 supplies nervous residents, surveillance, and Dr. Breen’s soothing broadcasts. Valve builds a reason to resist before handing you the equipment to do it. | © Valve

Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty 2001 opening — 8. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)

Rain outlines Solid Snake’s stealth camouflage as he drops toward a tanker beneath New York’s George Washington Bridge. Subtle entrance? Absolutely not. Magnificent entrance? No objections. *Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty* gives its returning operative the full espionage-star treatment, then lets you take over on the wet deck. The transition matters: all that cinematic confidence becomes an invitation to perform, with patrols waiting to discover whether you’re remotely as competent as Snake looks. | © Konami

Prey 2017 opening — 7. Prey (2017)

The apartment is lovely. The helicopter commute looks expensive. Your first day at TranStar even includes a few simple tests, which would be reassuring if the coffee mugs behaved themselves. *Prey* carefully establishes Morgan Yu’s routine before letting you smash through its central deception with a wrench. Discovering what lies beyond the apartment window changes how you read every subsequent room. Arkane teaches suspicion through an action you perform, making curiosity feel suddenly dangerous. | © Arkane Studios

Final Fantasy VII 1997 opening — 6. Final Fantasy VII (1997)

First, a flower seller’s face; then, an entire industrial metropolis. *Final Fantasy VII* pulls back from Aerith to reveal Midgar before rushing toward the train carrying Cloud and Avalanche into their bombing mission. That movement connects an individual life to the machinery towering over it, quietly introducing the conflict beneath the adventure. Then the music accelerates, Cloud hits the platform, and the game trusts you to catch up while the job is underway. | © Square

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves 2009 opening — 5. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)

Nathan Drake wakes up bleeding inside a train carriage and discovers that the floor has become a wall. Outside, a cliff provides the explanation nobody wanted. *Uncharted 2: Among Thieves* disguises its climbing tutorial as an emergency, feeding you collapsing handholds and alarming views while teaching the essentials. Starting halfway through Drake’s disaster also gives the quieter scenes that follow an advantage: you’re already wondering which terrible decisions will get him back onto that train. | © Naughty Dog

Half Life 1998 opening scene — 4. Half-Life (1998)

Your first assignment in *Half-Life* is to survive the commute. No shooting required; just stand inside a tram while Black Mesa’s laboratories, machinery, and security checkpoints pass the windows. The journey gives the facility a convincing working life and establishes how deeply Gordon Freeman is buried inside it. When the experiment goes wrong, that geography suddenly matters. You’ve already seen the scale of the workplace that is about to become your escape route. | © Valve

Mass Effect 2 2010 — 3. Mass Effect 2 (2010)

Destroying the Normandy is a vicious way to welcome returning players. Killing Commander Shepard immediately afterward makes the intention unmistakable. Between those shocks, *Mass Effect 2* finds its most effective moment in the ruined ship’s exposed interior, where the chaos drops away and Shepard’s breathing dominates the soundscape. BioWare makes you walk through the wreckage of somewhere familiar before taking away the hero, too. A sequel rarely announces its willingness to upset the furniture this forcefully. | © BioWare

The Last of Us 2013 opening scene — 2. The Last of Us (2013)

Playing as Sarah gives the outbreak in *The Last of Us* its terrifying proportions. You’re a child searching the house for her father, piecing together distant disturbances before the danger reaches your street. The desperate escape then narrows an expanding catastrophe to Joel carrying his daughter toward supposed safety. Her death at a soldier’s hands establishes the wound beneath his later behavior with devastating clarity. The infected start the panic; a human decision delivers the tragedy. | © Naughty Dog

Bio Shock 2007 opening scene — 1. BioShock (2007)

A lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic seems like salvation when you’ve just survived a plane crash. That assumption gets you into the bathysphere. Andrew Ryan handles the sales pitch, and then *BioShock* reveals Rapture: an underwater city whose impossible beauty briefly makes its founder sound persuasive. You understand the attraction before confronting the wreckage of his dream. That carefully timed descent makes the setting both the opening’s spectacular payoff and its most compelling unanswered question. | © 2K Boston / 2K Australia

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You’ve barely adjusted the brightness, and the game is already giving you something you’ll remember for years. The best opening scenes in video game history know how to make those first minutes count, whether they hand you control immediately or ask you to watch as everything goes horribly wrong. Spectacle helps, but a quiet conversation can do just as much damage. These 15 openings earn their place through what they make you feel before you’ve even figured out all the buttons.

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You’ve barely adjusted the brightness, and the game is already giving you something you’ll remember for years. The best opening scenes in video game history know how to make those first minutes count, whether they hand you control immediately or ask you to watch as everything goes horribly wrong. Spectacle helps, but a quiet conversation can do just as much damage. These 15 openings earn their place through what they make you feel before you’ve even figured out all the buttons.