10 Worst Opening Levels That Almost Ruined Great Video Games

7. Intro Sequence - Okami

Capcom
Capcom

The beautiful, painterly platformer Okami is one of the most under-appreciated games on the PlayStation 2, and only recently has started receiving the acknowledgement it deserves. While this list teaches us that a bad intro doesn't result in a bad game, Okami's stop-start prologue, which constantly jumps between moments of gameplay and large, un-skippable segments of story exposure can be pretty hard to take.

Not that there's anything wrong with either the story or the gameplay, but it does feel jarring when you're trying to get the hang of a game's controls to be sucked out of it into reading chunks upon chunks of story text. The characters aren't voiced either, so the text is vocalised using sound effects, which are fine in short bursts, but start to make you feel a bit twitchy after 20 minutes.

The protracted opening sequence is a fitting reflection of Okami's slow-burning nature, but stick with it (and make sure to take in the lovely story, hard though it may be at the start), because it eventually picks up to be one of the greatest games of its generation.

Contributor
Contributor

Gamer, Researcher of strange things. I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.