Greatest intro movies ever?

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2006-08-31 04:33pm

What game would you say has the best intro movie? Maybe it's something that really grabs you and draws you in, or maybe it's a great intro to the story, or maybe it just looks really really cool.

The best one I've seen has to be the intro movie to Dawn of War. Special mention to the Starcraft intro movie as well.

Acidburns · Post by **Acidburns** » 2006-08-31 04:41pm

Dawn of War has a great intro indeed. The intro from Freespace 1 looks great even now. Listening to the panicing pilot still makes my hairs stand up. The intros from World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2 are enjoyable also. All the cutscenes from Starcraft (and Warcraft 3 for that matter) are great. My favourites are maybe when the marines board the space station with the nuke in SC, the trenches from Broodwar 2 and when Arthas overthrows the king in WC3

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2006-08-31 04:49pm

RA2. Goofy (and totally awesome) acting aside, the awe inspring might of the Soviet war machine--combined with C&C's unmatched ability to lay out some kickin' tunes--gets me every time.

The eery scene of the Kirovs floating over American cities... then, "Westwood Studios Proudly Presents..." the shit hitting the fan.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-08-31 04:53pm

I've always like Outcasts.

"How long do I have?"
*helicopter lands outside the bar*
"Right..."

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-08-31 04:56pm

StarCraft Brood War's opening has always been a favourite. Half-Life 2's is also pretty slick.

Fallout 1 & 2's openings are pretty tied for style.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-08-31 04:57pm

Starlancer and Freelancer had very nice intros and animations, Starlancer especialy. Similar feel to the Dawn of War one.

I-war 2 is also a good candidate.

On the more obscure front, there was that game that used voxels for terrain, right at the begining of the 3d revolution. Looked better then almost all 3d stuff back then, but it was very limited in resolution do to heavy processor demand of the voxel engine. Think the name was Outcast or something like that? Anyway, it had this very cool intro sequence where you went thru some portal in the Artic and wind up in an alternate dimension or something. Very cinematic. I think the same team did I-war 2 later on.

Sharpshooter · Post by **Sharpshooter** » 2006-08-31 04:57pm

I always loved the opening to Mechwarrior 2. It's not the flashiest of movies, but it works perfectly with the music score they gave it and seems pretty well coordinated and planned by itself.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-08-31 05:18pm

On the more obscure front, there was that game that used voxels for terrain, right at the begining of the 3d revolution.

That's Outcastand it was released in '99. Obscure but not the antique you think it is.

It's still quite pretty...

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-08-31 05:19pm

I severely disliked Dawn of War's intro. Oh, sure, it's flashy, but that's pretty much all it is. Woo! Blow shit up! It's not anything that hasn't been done a million times before, just this time it has Warhammer 40K stuff. Hey guys, it was awesome sacrificing an entire unit just to place a flag that served no greater purpose, am I rite lol?

I-War 1 had a fucking awesome intro, not that it was amazingly flashy or anything, but it told a cool story and got you to start caring about what happened. I think it's the only game of it's time that had a 15 minute CGI-intro. The music was awesome, and the twist at the end had you going, "wait, what the fuck?". I love Clay.

Freespace 1 was awesome, it perfectly set up the desperate battle you'd be fighting.

Mech 2 Mercs was pretty cool, and really helped set the tone for the game. "Look at the bright side. You get to keep ALL the money."

A special mention has to go to Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, because it was narrated by fucking Tom Baker, and that by itself was awesome.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-31 05:30pm

Can we disallow intros that feature shit you can't do in the actual game? Like DoW, where no sorry, it's not at all realistic and yes it does take ages to grind down someone's hitpoints. OH you thought an AT missile would kill a tank? You silly boy! And of course all the MMO intros that make combat look interesting and fully of unique animations when it's really just Pokemon. Like the Guild Wars intro.

The FS1 intro is of course good. I love the FEAR intro, because it gives the whole fucking plot away and basically means you don't have to play the game anymore.

And because nobody played the game but me, Metal Fatigue. Giant robots, stupid 'brothers' plot, but plenty of tanks getting killed, swordfights, all cool stuff. Also you can at least think that mechs getting knocked down, arms cut off and owning tanks is indeed possible in the actual game.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-08-31 05:37pm

oh man, Metal Fatigue. I've been trying since, like, forever to get that thing to work online or over LAN. I loved that game so much for just all the crazy shit you could do with it.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-31 05:43pm

*I've* been trying to get a single-disc install working so I can finally store it on my server for years. Gotta love those 'totally unfinished' games, hey?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-08-31 05:43pm

Why hasn't anyone mentioned SSBM yet?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-08-31 05:51pm

I always thought Homeworld's intro was quite well done.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2006-08-31 05:51pm

Bounty wrote:Why hasn't anyone mentioned SSBM yet?

um... cause nobody thinks it's that great?

Stark wrote:Can we disallow intros that feature shit you can't do in the actual game? Like DoW, where no sorry, it's not at all realistic and yes it does take ages to grind down someone's hitpoints. OH you thought an AT missile would kill a tank? You silly boy! And of course all the MMO intros that make combat look interesting and fully of unique animations when it's really just Pokemon. Like the Guild Wars intro.

Sorry! This thread's entitled "Greatest intro movies ever?", not "Most realistic portrayal of gameplay in intro movies ever?

...though if the Dawn of War intro featured an extended fight-scene with realistic HP-grinding down time, I wouldn't have cared much. Really! Unless they show the same animations over and over...

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-08-31 05:55pm

I'll divided mine into two.

First up, GTA2. The acutal intro movies in 8 minutes and 12 seconds long, it's a full-blow feature length intro which was cut down to just under two minutes for the acutal in-game intro.

Features of this intro, foot-chases, car-jacking, drug theft car-stealing, hostage beating, car and cop chases, shadow coperations, monk rescues, drive bys, rooms filled with guns, massive gun fights and assasinations.

In short... "quality"
Here's the youtube for the two minute version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJUnH9pt9J4

My other one is the intro to Thief-2 the Metal Age.... Thieves? Stealing? Flashbangs? Good solid fun.

Nods to FFVIII, crap game, great intro song, the decent computer FMV style.
as well as Red Alert 2, goofy acting is so much to love.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-31 05:57pm

So you don't think it's lame when intros have all this dynamic, exciting thrilling stuff that would really rule if it was in the game... but it isn't, because the game is a bog-standard x-genre game? It's quite common to see this: no, you can't trade... no, you can't use knives... no, you can't insta-kill from behind... no, ambushes don't really work... no, there isn't really terrian. It's *hilarious* that intro-makers know what people want out of games, whether they're going to get it or not. For instance, if DoW was like the intro (not that it's really that great, wow, some machine guns) it would be a better game.

But yes it's your thread. All the intros I can think of off the top of my head showcased 'things that are cool but impossible ingame', though, hence the rant.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2006-08-31 05:57pm

Claire's intro video from Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-31 06:03pm

Space Rangers 2! 'I've got a surprise for you!', 'Let's listen to our favourite song', and drink driving, euro-trash techno style. Unintentionally hilarious AND poorly translated from Russian.

Hey, maybe I should get someone here to tell me what it's ACTUALLY about...

I can't believe I forgot the Thief thing. The whole style of those intros was just the ruling. I remember really liking the first one too.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-08-31 06:07pm

My favorites (I really can't decide):

Red Alert 2 - Hell March 2! Soviets, tanks, kaboom!

MechWarrior 2 - One the most memorable piece of gaming from my younger days. The intro, at the time, was quite spectacular, and I still love it.

Dawn of War - Screw WoW's! Objectively, I found this far more interesting than its blatantly showing off chief competitor, and more personally it's a bit of a proof-of-concept for a 40K movie. I must've watched it nearly 40 times.

Battlefield: 1942 - I love the music, and the video itself is well done, yielding an intro I enjoyed watching for its own sake.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-08-31 06:07pm

Stark wrote:
I can't believe I forgot the Thief thing. The whole style of those intros was just the ruling. I remember really liking the first one too.

It's when Looking Glass still existed, sad to say. EVERYTHING they had just reeked of polish.

Not to mention as I said, both Thief trailers were just "artise" gameplay. Likewise GTA2 (Which is what I hope GTA6 looks like)

(BTW, Full GTA2 movie link, 8+ minutes long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDV-lkOV ... ed&search= )

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-31 06:19pm

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Dawn of War - Screw WoW's! Objectively, I found this far more interesting than its blatantly showing off chief competitor, and more personally it's a bit of a proof-of-concept for a 40K movie. I must've watched it nearly 40 times.

BCG, you've got problems. I know plenty of people who creamed their jeans over the DoW intro... funny, they're all 40k fanboys. Hmmmm....

Still, better than the uninspired game... but you think that shows what a movie should be like?

Bean, yeah, Thief had great intros and cutscenes without magically giving anyone new powers or showcasing stuff you couldn't actually do. SHIT, did I just explode the lazy intro industry? No, Looking Glass did. They were better than all of us.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-08-31 06:30pm

Stark wrote:but you think that shows what a movie should be like?

I think he means it's how a 40K movie should look like.

Jade Falcon · Post by **Jade Falcon** » 2006-08-31 06:38pm

Okay, I'll try and think of a few.

Already mentioned

Freespace 1, but I also liked Freespace 2.

Wing Commander IV, showing you what cold blooded SOB's the Black Lance were.

Fahrenheit, maybe not the flashiest, but the music set the mood as well.

Blade Runner. Nuff said.

Mechwarrior 3.

Mechwarrior 4. Pity the game wasn't as cool as the intro, especially the last stand of that Vulture pilot.

Battlefield Vietnam.

Discworld 2. A blast from the past.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-08-31 06:45pm

Was Fahrenheit that magic chroma murder thing? That intro was pretty neat.