9 Terrible Openings That Almost Killed Great Video Games

6. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V's opening level plays nothing like the rest of the game. Entirely linear in its design, you're forced to crawl around a besieged hospital as you evade guards and attempt to mount an escape, all the while suffering debilitating injuries from a helicopter crash.

The opening is supposed to make you feel powerless, and in all honesty that would be fine if it didn't go on for so long. This introductory mission can last up to an hour, and while it's thematically rich and an evocative start to the game, it's marred by how frustrating it can be - especially on a second or third playthrough.

Things improve from there as MGS V slowly unveils its open world, but even then the drip-feed introduction of gameplay elements and the Mother Base hub world makes this lengthy introductory sequence drag on even longer as you're shuffled into tutorial after tutorial.