10 Seriously Underrated Video Game Intros That Deserve Another Look

Battletech does something very clever. For a game where you play as a merc, struggling to make ends meet in a mind blowingly vast and impersonal universe, orientating the player and more importantly, giving them a reason to care, is always going to be difficult.

But, using only lightly animated stills and a beautiful, sweeping soundtrack, Harebrained Schemes expertly condenses the epic tale of the Battletech universe, with all its greed, heroism and cut-throat politics, into an enthralling two minutes, giving you a firm foundation upon which to make sense of the world.

Then in another sublime two minutes, the game tells how the story finishes before it has even begun. You are introduced to the game’s central figure. A close and personal history is implied to exist between you, and it is revealed that in all that has happened, the tragedy, the sacrifice, the ultimate victory, you made it possible. You stand at the centre.

It is a brilliant, operatic way in which to give the player a sense of agency, importance, and instil a keen desire to see the story through to its conclusion.