12 Greatest Opening Video Game Sequences Since 2000

6. Half-Life 2

Part of the reason the fan-fervour around a third main instalment in the Half-Life canon is always so tenacious is down to sensory-arresting experiences like this one, being they run the gamut from relaxed, atmospheric dialogue-heavy exchanges through to white knuckle thrill-rides at the drop of a hat. Few developers can script characters quite like Valve, and following a very up close and personal face-to-face reprisal with the staccato-speaking G-Man, you're dropped right back into gameplay, only for Valve to let the pace be dictated by you, with a very Orwellian-feel permeating every inch of the compound you find yourself in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91uWeqArrok It's all in the mastery of a mute protagonist too, as by having a blank-slate with a sense of backstory surrounding him it frees up the characters to provide expository dialogue to you, leading to a great introductory life-save when renegade helper Alyx appears out of nowhere to save you. The respite is short-lived though, as a broken warping machine ends up transporting you through a variety of locales before settling on the expansive industrial setting we've all come to know and love.