Top 10 WORST Video Game Openings of All Time

There was a lot for players to love about “The Phantom Pain,” but the opening level was like a test of patience to make sure you were worthy of seeing it all. Nine years after being nearly killed and put into a coma, you awake in a hospital. An unknown agent tries to take your life, but you’re saved by a heavily-bandaged man named Ishmael. The engaging cinematic throws you in the deep end, but the actual gameplay during the escape is anything but riveting. Due to your legs being atrophied, you’re forced to slowly crawl and limp your way through the lenghty level. We get it’s realistic, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s utterly boring.

When you have a great intro like “Skyrim,” it becomes one of video game’s most famous moments. When you have a boring intro like “Oblivion,” it ends up forgotten or in videos like this. You begin as an unnamed prisoner set free by the Emperor and his men, who you follow through a secret passage to freedom. Not only is the setting incredibly drab and lifeless, but it’s also very linear for a series that usually promotes the opposite. We might be able to forgive some of that if it didn’t drag on for a good 40 minutes. We’d expect a fantasy RPG to whisk us away on an adventure. This certainly isn’t that.

“Oblivion” isn’t the only game Bethesda failed to give an interesting intro. Following the expository opening cutscene, you control your character at several points during their childhood growing up inside a Vault. You’ll wander around a play pen as a toddler, celebrate your 10th birthday, take an exam, all before you make your escape to the outside world. We know the opening is meant to convey how this is the only life you’ve ever known, but it is an exceptionally monotonous one. The majority of the NPCs here are uninteresting, and the setting is so bland that when things finally do go South, we find it hard to care. All the intro does is make us yearn for a way to speed things up.

One of the worst things a video game opening can do is fail you during the tutorial. “Jet Set Radio” puts you in the shoes, or rather skates, of a member of a Tokyo-based gang. The vibrant art style paired well with the lighthearted mechanics as you tagged walls and avoided getting caught. Unfortunately, there was a major difficulty hump to get over first. The tutorial requires you to complete 21 different tasks before you can move on. Each one grows in ridiculousness, and if you mess a single thing up, you have to start that task over. The final one forces you to complete a 50-trick combo before landing, and you’ll have to memorize the level’s layout just to stand a chance.

We understand that many JRPGs take their sweet time in getting the ball rolling. But the majority of them still have openings that are far more interesting than the one in “Kingdom Hearts II.” Many players understandably took issue with Sora, the main character of the series, being nowhere to be seen in the game’s opening hours. Instead, you play as Roxas. This wouldn’t be so bad if the intro didn’t last a ridiculous amount of time, or if there was any fun to be had. As Roxas, you must complete mundane objectives and various jobs just to move forward. It wasn’t the rush back to adventure we were hoping for, but rather unnecessary padding.

We aren’t just limiting ourselves to bad intros in good games. This “Mortal Kombat” spin-off sought to transition the franchise’s mechanics to an action sidescroller. It’s now considered one of the worst games in the series, something that might be evident even in its opening moments. The series’ traditional gameplay feels incredibly awkward in the new design. The opening level feels flat and uninspired, unlike the arenas of past entries. Plus, it seems any player would rather have the vast roster than only play as Sub-Zero. All of these awful choices are capped off by a live-action cutscene with laughably bad costumes and cringe-inducing acting. It only grows worse with each passing year.

Back in the heyday of arcades, home console ports naturally had to cut some things in order to work. It was the unfortunate but necessary way of things, though it could sometimes lead to instances like this. The sequel to the original “Ikari Warriors” released in arcades in 1986, and was ported to the NES two years later. In order to set up the plot, players were met with a handful of opening text screens. The text is unveiled at slower than a snail’s pace, which would be enough to dissuade a player from paying attention. Worse than that, the team behind the port thought it would be a good idea if it was accompanied by loud beeps in morse code. For every. Single. Word.

As an undercover cop, “Driver” has you start by proving your skills during an interview as a getaway driver. While that sounds simple enough, it is anything but. You’re given a list of moves to pull off, some of which are straightforward while others aren’t. How many players knew what a slalom was in 1999!? As if that wasn’t bad enough, you had to complete the list in 60 seconds. And if you hit any of the other cars in the parking garage too many times, you’d fail outright. It forced many to move fast, only to make mistakes and get frustrated. Players complained so much that it was made easier in the PC port, released just a few months later.

The opening level of this infamously bad game is so well-known now, that it’s the only part most of us have ever seen. When Lex Luthor traps Superman’s allies inside a virtual reality, it’s up to you to complete the villain’s tests and save them. But who could’ve guessed that Luthor’s plans involved flying through a bunch of rings? As far as supervillain plans go, that’s one of the most boring we’ve ever heard. However, the flight controls are abysmal and you’re only given a short time to fly through the rings before you lose. Each group of rings is divided by other tasks with awful controls and a time limit, making for a maddening experience. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad plan after all.

If one of the most common things said about a game is that it gets better after the first 20 hours, you know the creators messed up. “Final Fantasy XIII” is often considered one of the weaker main entries, and the fact that it takes forever and a day to stop giving you tutorials is one of the bigger reasons. The first few hours are set on a highway, meaning the only direction to move is forward. There’s no room for exploration or variety of any kind as this isn’t exactly an engaging setting. That level of dull linearity made it a slog to get through. Everything was stretched exceptionally thin, which did nothing to get players interested in its characters, world, or gameplay.