First Impressions: How You Get Hooked

N

Nemphtis

Hunter
I was reading a feature in my bible, the Edge magazine, where they were discussing how the most important part of a videogame is the start. When you first pick up a game or play at your friend's house, those first five or ten minutes will usually make you decide if you'd like to continue playing or not. Many games employ various ways of ensuring your first few minutes will have you hooked.

Let us take God of War for example, within the first minute of the game you're thrown into a boss battle without having fought any enemies yet. Instantly you're drawn into the intensity of the moment, and thus your first impressions of God of War usually involve the words brutal and hectic. Yet another example is the Metroid games, where Samus starts with all her items at the beginning of the game, but shortly after she loses them all and throughout the adventure you'll be collecting them back one by one. These are all interesting tactics used to keep you interested for those first few minutes, and to ensure your first impression is a good one. So enough with my ********, here's the question: Which game's first few minutes impressed you to the point where you just knew it was going to rock your socks? Also, explain why it impressed you, because some people do care believe it or not.

Final Fantasy VII
You see a flower girl in a crowded street, the camera pulls back and you're staring at the huge steam punk city of Midgar, yet before you know it the camera is now looking at a fast-moving train, the music's grand theme sneaks into something more mischievously and you find Avalanche launching an assault on one of those big reactors you were staring at a few seconds ago. As soon as I saw that, coupled with how Cloud just kicked the security's ass, I knew that we were going to blow some **** up, and it was going to be a big bang.
 
heavenly Sword has an impressive start, not gameplay-wise I must say, but the amount that is happening, your being attacked by an army of say 1k+ men at least (all of which you can interact with), I thought that was pretty cool.

And then theres the darkness, the opening scene was brilliant and the next scene ( where you get your powers ) is just as good.
 
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Roadie said:
And then theres the darkness, the opening scene was brilliant and the next scene ( where you get your powers ) is just as good.
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I think you're right about the Darkness. That game was a bit of a sleeper hit to me, because it was just another comic to game adaptation but once you experience it and see the start of the game it's pretty obvious it's going to stand out. Nice call there, the Darkness is a great example.
 
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Metal Gear Solid
It was like nothing I came across before. It was like I was watching a movie but I was in control. When he takes off his diving gear in the elevator and stands up to the camera and the awesome music to boot, you just know that the game is going to rock.
 
Zen 2nd said:
Metal Gear Solid
It was like nothing I came across before. It was like I was watching a movie but I was in control. When he takes off his diving gear in the elevator and stands up to the camera and the awesome music to boot, you just know that the game is going to rock.
Click to expand...
Spot-on, this is in fact my second most memorable first few minutes into a game ever. This is also probably one of the most memorable intro scene in a game ever, that scene alone where Snake is taking off his diving gear is epic win.
 
Final Fantasy x - The opening for the game was just amazing and got me hooked onto the game straight away.

Pretty much any game that has a good opening short movie that just rocks my socks off i will just say its a great game :lol:
 
Company of Heroes 1st mission is the Normandy Landings, Omaha beach... if you've studied WW2 at all or watched Saving Private Ryan you can guess the carnage of the opening level.
Morrowind- you get out of the entry building and left there. What do you do next is up to you. 1st time i played this i had never had this amount of freedom and had no clue as to what to do. Still don't. Still get a little scared with the shear liberty that games gives me, it makes Oblivion look linear.
Silent Hill - After playing chase with your daughter Harry take a turn and things get dark, figuratively and literally. Skies darken, walls get rusty, and you the discover all manner unsavoury things before skinless babies kill you.
Discworld Noir The opening animation starts with your death. Then takes you back to a few nights before.
 
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Half-Life

The calm before the storm, you're given security clearance and transported to the research section. There's no combat for the first ten minutes, and then all of a sudden something goes terribly wrong and you're killing aliens while shouting WTF. I think Half-Life was probably the first game which made many gamers realise that even an FPS can do more than simply let you kill everyone in arena style combat. Half-Life was about surviving, and even though many of the aspects were scripted they worked very well.
 
I have to say I'm mostly swayed by the Cinematic intros, The lack of an intro itself and just being thrown into the gameplay is a good way to lower my first impressions but doesn't necessarily make a bad game. (One of my favourite games has no intro and a very short and humourously unbelievable background story.) The most memorable and influential intro is listed below and described as well as possible.

Independance war II: Edge of Chaos - {The Intro starts with pretty images of the universe and the nebulae of the galaxy while describing the current state of the universe and particularly the struggle of many eager colonists to build a new life for themselves by mining the newly discovered and untapped region of space of the edge of the known galaxy. Then it cuts to a father and son mining together, the son casually chatting as he watches his father working and moving his utility craft closer to help replace a broken drill bit when required. Developing the character bond and creating emotional attachments to the characters quickly.

Then the boy enquires about his birthday gift and is told by the father to go back to their home and find out what he had got, especially since he needed to do some blasting and didn't want his son at any risk. On the way back the boy is contacted by a strange man that wanted to talk to his father, he seems sly and suspicious and rudely cuts the transmission as soon as he discovers where to find the boy's father.

On returning to their home the boy goes to his room and discoveres a portable AI unit that introduces himself as his new guardian at the request of his 'late' father. Confused, the boy corrects the device and reassures him that his dad is alright until he thinks back to the strange transmission he got and rushes back out to check on his father.

The video cuts to the mining face where the strange man, Caleb Maas, is insisting on more repayments on the loan the father got to pay for the mining equipment he needed. The father refuses on the grounds he's paid ten times what the equipment is worth and continues arming his mining explosives. Caleb becomes furious and sends in two of his Interceptor lackeys. The father turns his ship around and slices off one of the engines of an interceptor with his mining laser, causing it to curl into the other one, destroying both. Caleb accellerates and launches a volley of missiles as he moves in for the kill. The father mutters a quiet goodbye to his son and activates the countdown for his armed explosives before being destroyed by the missiles. Caleb's ship warns of the imminant detonation and he barely manages to turn his ship around before it's violently hit with the explosion but unfortunately survives.

At this point the boy emerges from the miners colony and swerves around the final rock formation to see the hollow asteroid where his father was working lit up with bright explosions and despite many attempts, cannot reach his father on the radio.}

It's intros like this that get my attention and make me dedicated to getting revenge and completing the game that have the biggest influence on me. But this is still not even the best part about the game. After the initial flight training, consisting of the AI making sure the boy knows how to fly a real ship, rather than just a utility craft and then guiding him to his Grandmother's abandonned Biobomber pirate fleet carrier in the Efreet nebula, the boy explores some of the local sights and gets to work making the Biobomber base functional. During the final 'aquisition' run to recover his father's utility drone storage crate he runs into Caleb Maas again and is arrested for nonpayment of his father's debt and other trumped up charges.

This begins a short internment montage and then the humourous and exciting escape cinematic 15 years later which introduces you to the crew of people you'll be spending the rest of the game with. After fleeing in your liberated delivery tug you (actual gameplay) have to find a way of safely returning to your Biobomber and evading the police patrols, much of this is dotted with more humour and some multiple choice chat options to fool a police patrol that you have the poor luck of meeting on the final stretch. Once you're back, this begins the first chapter of the game where apart from the Stepsons' requests and the marauder storyline which is only optional for progression, the game is completely freeform. You can fly anywhere your engines can practically reach and steal whatever you want and can successfully defeat the escorts of. (you are pirates afterall)

all in all, one of my favourite games since the first few seconds.
 
I completely agree on the darkness.
A real sleeper hit.
And I agree with Metroid and Mgs.

Another for me has to be the underatted beyond good and evil.
Memorable opening fight with cool music and crazy slo-mo, and then your off to explore the seas of Hylia.
Truly memorable game.
 
Resident Evil (Well, RE2 to be more precise.)
Besides agreeing with all previouse posts I have to put this one in. The first installment was a bit hit and miss (Playstaion showing off that it shows live action clips). The game itsef was awsome though, which leads on to the next game.
Can't beat a zombie filled city attack for an opening sequence. I love IT!! Man, I'm a bit of a zombie geek to tell you the truth but you must admit it was a great opening to a great game.
 
Final Fantasy X - One of the best intro videos it makes your mouth open and just utter WOW, absolutely stunning and I still love to rewatch it.

Soul Edge - The intro video and song just made my jaw drop.
 
Hate to go along with Final Fantasy again, but Final Fantasy VIII's intro got me hooked. The beach and the waves, then the thunderstorm and the battle between Squall and Seifer, and the opera music in the background. I thought it was so badass back in the day.

And whilst not necessarily the opening, but the first hour or so of Star Ocean 3, where you're actually IN SPACE with all the ships and the graphics were just amazing. Shame the game went downhill from there but I still loved it.
 
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