Opening levels in games that made an impression and are well remembered
You can't make a first impression twice. Skilled video game developers understand this perfectly and strive to make the first half-hour of gameplay in their projects as engaging as possible, so that the player is sure to want to continue playing. Not everyone succeeds in this, but some game creators exceed all expectations of gamers and create truly memorable opening levels. I stirred up the waves of my memory and gathered in this article a little list whose beginnings particularly impressed.
F.E.A.R. (2005)
The game begins with an atmospheric cutscene in which the main villain, the telepath Paxton Fettel, escapes from custody, activates an army of clone soldiers, and "feasts" on one of the laboratory employees.
We play as a member of the special F.E.A.R. unit tasked with eliminating the rogue telepath. According to intelligence, Fettel is holed up in an abandoned building, where we head with our teammates.
We gain control of our character in a dirty alley. The overall atmosphere and surroundings don't bode well. A chilly wind blows, the sky is gray and gloomy, and ominous music plays in the background.
In the building where the insane telepath is hiding, rats scurry, lights flicker, and doors slam on their own. To make matters worse, we are separated from our teammates and must act alone. Additional fear is instilled by visual and auditory hallucinations.
After a few minutes of wandering through the dark corridors, we discover a freshly gnawed corpse. This means that Paxton Fettel is somewhere nearby...
Indeed, a couple of minutes later, upon reaching the roof, we encounter him, but this meeting will be very brief. Our hero's head won't withstand the encounter with the "bat" that Fettel unexpectedly hits him with. After the villain's mysterious speech over the "stunned" protagonist and a minute of running around the roof, the first level ends.
Fahrenheit (2005)
This isn't just a game; it's a true interactive movie that grabs you with its gripping claws from the very first seconds and doesn't let go until the very end! In the opening cutscene, the deathly pale protagonist Lucas Kane reflects on the nature of things and his difficult fate against the backdrop of heavy snowfall.
Then we are transported a few weeks back, to the restroom of a diner, where an older man is attacked by our protagonist. Thanks to cool parallel editing, we see that Lucas's body is being controlled by a mysterious robed and hooded figure from an unknown place. The tension of the situation is emphasized by the ominous music and the virtuoso work of the virtual camera operator, with an abundance of interesting angles and "Dutch angles."
After delivering several knife blows, Lucas Kane awakens from hypnosis and control passes to the player. In a panic, we hide the body in a stall, try to erase the traces of the crime and leave the diner. Then, control shifts to a pair of police officers who begin the most important investigation of their lives.
We are in for several hours of a convoluted plot, excellent direction, atmospheric music and interactions with vivid characters!
Despite the fact that Fahrenheit's plot descends into outright nonsense in the second half, I still believe that this game surpasses David Cage's next project, Heavy Rain! In my opinion, even over-the-top fantasy is better than the absolutely illogical, unjustified, and idiotic "plot twist" at the end of the Origami Master's story.
Bioshock (2007)
This game is beautiful from start to finish, and the opening half-hour perfectly sets the player in the right mood, immersing them in the atmosphere of a fairy-tale utopian city that has become a true underwater hell...
The protagonist named Jack is flying in a plane over the Atlantic. Comfortably seated in his chair, he examines a gift box. After a cut and a fade to black, we see that the plane has crashed and the protagonist barely swims to the surface of the ocean amidst burning wreckage.
Ahead, he notices a lifesaving lighthouse, enters it, and sees a huge bust of a man with a banner that reads:
"No Gods or Kings. Only Man"
With this phrase, the game's developers seem to hint that the plot is inspired by Ayn Rand's famous novel "Atlas Shrugged." And, as we progress, we will see that this is indeed the case.
In the lighthouse, our hero finds a bathysphere and descends to the ocean floor in it. At the beginning of the descent, a short film is shown to him, in which a certain Andrew Ryan (an anagram of Ayn Rand's name) shares his views on various forms of political systems.
Then, we are treated to a magnificent view of the monumental underwater city of Rapture, where we will spend a couple of dozen unforgettable hours. There, we are immediately greeted by an ugly mutant killing a local resident, and via radio, we connect with the mysterious "friend" Atlas, who will be our guide in the dying city.
The introductory level ends after, at Atlas's insistence, the protagonist injects himself with a dose of the miraculous substance ADAM and loses consciousness.
