Salka

Intro Sequences in Games

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Just wondering... I don't think a thread has been started on this before....

Intro Sequences. They're the first part of the game we see, pretty much, so they ought to make a good first impression. Quite often they don't.

I still remember laughing hysterically at the lame opening of Resident Evil. Racing games seem to all have the same opening... pretty graphics, cars racing, occasionally a girl walking about, more cars. Nothing original or spectacular there. The opening of FFX annoyed me greatly, but then, so did the rest of the game.

On the other hand, sometimes games have really awesome opening sequences. Like Day of the Tentacle... I loved that as a kid. I could watch it over and over. It was great. It was even fun to read the credits. Grim Fandango has to have the most well-designed intro ever, as it introduces the main character, his job, the world and how it works, and the overall style of the game, all in a couple of neat, funny minutes.

Anyway, what about all of you? Any intro sequences you hate or love? Why? Discuss.

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Half-Life rocked I also liked the sky in Full Throttle. I don't know if I like all the logos that flash on-screen before the games begin...

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I don't know... I like one logo, especially if I like the company that developed the game. I don't like a whole bunch. I can't remember a game offhand that had something like 6 logos at the start, but I definitely remember playing them and hating them. I think Discworld might have had an excessive amount of logos. Can't remember.

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Logos are fine as long as they only show on your first start up of the game. I don't want to go all ESC ESC ESC ESC every time I start the game.

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I like how lucasarts has the unique logo animation for most every game...the problem is that the game after the logo usually sucks, but back when they were a decent company I really liked the logos.

As for good openings not mentioned above, ICO has a really great opening, if you've played the game you know what i mean. That game was just spectacular all-around.

I liked the opening cutscene of Armed and Dangerous too, it was quite funny.

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I wouldn't mind a zillion logos as much if they were better integrated into the opening cutscene, at least in sound form. Its always enjoyable in movies to me when the director/editor/sound designers have taken the time and forethought to make the music or opening audio extend back over the logos, it brings you in more and feels a lot less like movie running time being wasted...

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Logos are fine as long as they only show on your first start up of the game. I don't want to go all ESC ESC ESC ESC every time I start the game.

Or, even worse, the designers sometimes make the logo videos UNSKIPPABLE. Why???

I personally think that Half-Life's intro was incredibly lame, and certainly put me off even considering restarting the game - I like my intros skippable should I choose.

I liked the intro from Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon and also from Beneath a Steel Sky. And from most adventure games, to be honest. I also liked the drama of the Deus Ex: Invisible War opening (even if it bore little resemblance to the rest of the game), and I'm a sucker for the intros of Star Wars games.

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Ugh, Beneath a Steel Sky... incredibly bad opening. I know it was comic book style and all, and I'm accounting for that. But the voice acting was awful and either too loud or you couldn't understand a word they were saying. And I thought the comic book action was badly laid out. Okay, I enjoyed the rest of it after that one comic book bit, though.

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Ugh, Beneath a Steel Sky... incredibly bad opening. I know it was comic book style and all, and I'm accounting for that. But the voice acting was awful and either too loud or you couldn't understand a word they were saying. And I thought the comic book action was badly laid out. Okay, I enjoyed the rest of it after that one comic book bit, though.

Oh ho - I preferred the intro on the floppy disk version of BASS - helicopter, crash, Foster running! Escapes! Hooray!

Intro sequences that somehow incorporate some action with credits and the name of the game are great - the intro sequences to Monkey Island 2 and Full Throttle spring, effortlessly, to mind. It really lets you ease into the game without having to worry too much about paying attention to the beginning of some complex storyline. What's really evil is the trend for having a logo flash up for every single component of the game - 'Renderware!' 'Plays best on your el cheapo Geforce FX5200!' 'Paul's Awesome MIDI Library!', etc etc. Nothing discourages me from loading up a game for a "quick blast" more.

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Yes, Grim Fandango's opening is great. I also always liked the one for Sam and Max and Armed and Dangerous. The opening for Full Spectrum Warrior is pretty funny too (while also setting the very serious mood for the game.)

...and I'm a sucker for the intros of Star Wars games.

Ooh! Knights of the Old Republic was pretty cool. In fact, almost every cutscene in the game was cool. On the other hand, openings for Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are incredibly lame. (As a side note: Is it just me, or is Jedi Academy basically just like Jedi Outcast, only it sucks?)

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I also liked the drama of the Deus Ex: Invisible War opening (even if it bore little resemblance to the rest of the game), and I'm a sucker for the intros of Star Wars games.

The opening to DX2 was awesome just 'cause it had the guy who did Walton Simons in the first game's voice, Tom Hall, as a scientist, and that guy has the coolest voice ever.

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(As a side note: Is it just me, or is Jedi Academy basically just like Jedi Outcast, only it sucks?)

It isn't just you... I only played the demo though, but it certainly didn't make me wanna play more... there were way to many interrupting sequences (where the game takes over the control... I'm not a big fan of that.. especially not in action games), and the game just didn't feel as good as the previous one... meh

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The intro in Indy and the Fate of Atlantis was pretty semi-interactive and cool.

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Full Fucking Throttle, motherfuckers. Best intro ever.

And toblix: I really like the Fate of Atlantis intro for its interactivity as well. Very cinematic and classy.

I have sort of mixed feelings about the Half Life intro. I kind of hate it from an objective standpoint, but when I'm actually starting a new game and going through all that tram crap, I like it. It feels like a movie, and it wouldn't be good in most games, but it works for Half Life. The problem is I only like it now that I've already played the game. I don't think I liked it the first time I saw it back when the game came out, since it was so long and uneventful.

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I thought the intro to Ultima VI was pretty cool.

and Warcraft2.

and Sam & Max hit the road

and Black & White

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Grim Fandango was awesome. I also loved the intro to Curse of Monkey Island, the theme was even catchy enough to make me want to sit through the credits. Also I thought the intro to Space Quest 6 was pretty entertaining.

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I wouldn't mind a zillion logos as much if they were better integrated into the opening cutscene, at least in sound form. Its always enjoyable in movies to me when the director/editor/sound designers have taken the time and forethought to make the music or opening audio extend back over the logos, it brings you in more and feels a lot less like movie running time being wasted...
Right! Also, those movie soundtracks usually ease you in to it, whereas in games it often out extremely loud. Sometimes in fact I forgot my speakers were on really loud and when I start the game it's all like WHOOSH, NVIDIAaaaa!! or like "EA GAMES!!!!!! (challenge everything)" It makes me hide under the table.

What also gets annoying is if music in the most important GUI screen of the whole game is bombastic or just... annoying. I eventually disabled all the music in Enemy Territory because every time you got into that options screen it had this war theme like RRRumpa-PUMPUMPUMpa-RRRRRRRumpa that really got on my nerves eventually.

Title sequences in games are often very sad :( Besides the ones mentioned so far, Chronicles of Riddick has a title screen sequence that's pretty adequate. It's just you being escorted through the prison to your cell, seeing some of characters you'll meet later on, and so on. Meanwhile, credits slowly fade in and out.

When I first played Half-Life I was all like "wow this is the best credit sequence ever I must stop looking or I'll die" but I have to admit that when the cart came to a standstill I thought I had to break out of it or something. (I didn't see Barney walking towards the cart.)

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Hands down, Half-Life had the most effective intro sequence I've seen thus far. I don't think it would work for any other game in its context, though. Sometimes the coolest thing is the most subtle thing, and HL's intro exemplifies it.

I also liked the intro to No One Lives Forever. It was great seeing the conventional James Bond movie style reproduced for an action game, the synopsis laid out in a cutscene before the title sequence proper. American McGee's Alice wasn't bad, either. It was CG, a splendid pitfall of the thematic accroutements arcing the entiry story and game.

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I wouldn't mind a zillion logos as much if they were better integrated into the opening cutscene...

the doom 3 trailer thats up at the moment does that nicely... nothing amazing, just has the logos as part of the trailer. v decent of them

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when I start the game it's all like WHOOSH, NVIDIAaaaa!! or like "EA GAMES!!!!!! (challenge everything)"

try testing an EA game.. everyitme it crashes and you reset... that fucking sample.. holy shit its annoying

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i like a nice intro it has to be said, sometimes you feel a bit sad when ther eis nothing. Never winter nights skimped out a bit.. had a lame animation at the start. lame.

Warcraft II and in fact all blizzard games make the most of really powerfully rendered cut scenes and intros that arent particularly inspired story wise always make you say 'oooh'. Also the warcraft iii cut scenes are suspiciously the same as the lord of the rings movies in places.

Fat eof antlantis' interactive intro was amazing... more please.

other intros i dig:

GTA3 vice city

the settlers (first one)

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LucasArts had it right with the Grim/MI3/MI4 startup thing... Start Game, Load Game etc. If you clicked Start Game, you'd start from the beginning with the logos and intro. If you clicked Load Game, you go straight to your last saved game. No messing around skipping the intro before you can load your game or anything like that.

Something that kills me is when there isn't a good enough intro or ending. Best example I can think of is MI3... a gorgeous, lavish intro, and some beautiful cutscenes throughout the rest of the game... and you get to the end and...? What the hell was that!?

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Stick me down for Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis too. That was a brilliant intro.

Most of the LucasArts classic adventures had damn fine intro sequences (and were dame fine after the intro sequences too).

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"Idle Thumbs: Our readers and staff are not biased in any way towards any particlar company!"

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"EA GAMES!!!!!! (challenge everything)"

challenge EVerything

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