10 Gaming Opening Levels Which Surprised Us All
5. Battlefield 1
It's absolutely fair to say that the Battlefield campaigns have invited consistently low expectations over the years, due to their forgettable characters, generic storytelling, and by-the-numbers set-pieces.
But DICE made it clear that they wanted to upend that perception within the first few minutes of Battlefield 1's "War Stories" campaign mode.
The story begins with a prologue in which players control a member of the Harlem Hellfighters as they attempt to fend off a German onslaught in France.
For a few moments it might seem like a totally standard Battlefield set-piece, until you're eventually killed by an enemy combatant.
Rather than reload the game from the previous checkpoint, though, your soldier's randomised name, along with their year of birth and death, will flash up on the screen, before you're transported into the body of another nearby soldier to continue the fight.
Each time you die you'll be hurled into the body of another different type of soldier until making your way through the prologue and starting the game proper.
It's easily the most creative part of the entire campaign, and immediately made players with low expectations sit up and pay attention.
Owing to the more intimate, character-driven stories of the rest of the campaign, though, this soldier-hopping ability sadly couldn't carry on past the prologue.