The art of the start: how the best games grab us immediately

What makes a great video game opening? With recency bias, you might say The Last of Us Part 1’s devastating introduction. But the best kind, I think, are able to successfully capture and distill the experience of the game as a whole.

It’s the feeling I got when I recently replayed Nier: Automata on Switch. Mostly, I was playing to test the port, and I didn’t have time to play more than the opening. But what an opening it is! Narratively, the stakes are high given 2B is the sole surviving android on a suicide mission against the enemy machines, but from this epic prologue, you get a taste of its combat that’s more like a feast, the way it changes between genres and perspectives, culminating in a multi-stage boss battle that could be the final boss in any other game.

Another game I recently replayed was Marvel’s Spider-Man, again just to test out the Steam Deck. I wouldn’t call it the better game but it arguably has a stronger game opening than Naughty Dog’s opus. That moment you first pull back the trigger and effortlessly take to the air as the web slinger himself is just electrifying, and as you go from swinging through Manhattan to taking down the Kingpin and his goons, it’s a fast-moving tutorial that breaks down the fundamentals of Spidey’s Arkham-inspired-but-playful combat. By the time Fisk is in cuffs, I’m happy to call it a day, just in time before the game’s open-world bloat materialises. But I’d take this over the literal cold opens of GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2 that are practically divorced from their open-world USP.