Getting to experience the first level of a video game is always an exciting moment and often your first impression of whether you think it's worth putting in more time. While most games today are less structured around levels, there were many classic opening levels throughout game history whose brilliant designs offer a more compelling way of easing you into the controls.
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Whether it be a story-driven game, platformer, or shooter, the opening sections provide you with the necessary mechanics you'll use in sometimes more cinematic and memorably original styles that can hook you right in. Here we look at some of those that deserve such recognition.
10 Max Payne 3
The opening section of the third Max Payne installment features a hungover Max acting as a bodyguard for an influential Brazilian family until masked thugs infiltrate their penthouse party to kidnap them. After watching the visually stylish cinematic, there's a smooth transition where you're instantly thrown into the action.
The objectives appear on-screen in sync with Max's noir-style narration, and the bullet time meter is filled to teach you the glorious shoot-dodge mechanic straightaway for your first pair of enemies. Even with the pressure of the situation, you can still interact with objects around the environment, like stopping to play piano, but you carry on with the slow-motion shoot-outs and prevent capture.
9 Super Mario Bros.
World 1-1 of the original 1985 Super Mario Bros. is the iconic first level appearing in the first-ever Super Mario game developed for consoles and is what truly paved the way for the series to reach the coveted status it holds today. From the classic theme music, sound effects, characters, and environment pieces. All of these elements that got introduced defined the concept of Mario.
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The level also omits any tutorial and drops you right into the platformer world, almost adding a whimsical sense for you to play around with the environment and experiment with some trial and error. Ultimately you learn that hopping gets you places, such as making it over platforms, defeating Goombas, earning coins, and acquiring some abilities from mystery blocks like Super Star or Fire Flower.
8 GoldenEye 007
An adaptation of the 1995 film starring Pierce Brosnan, Rare's GoldenEye 007, is hailed as one of the best James Bond games for a reason. The first level stays faithful to the movie's opening scene, putting Agent 007 on the outskirts of a facility near a Soviet Union Dam. Immediately, an effective camera transition shows a portion of the layout and then goes behind Bond to be in the first person.
And the FPS action starts the moment you turn the first corner to shoot a guard, which you then learn you can pick up new weapons that enemies dropped. Other phenomenal elements include the mechanic of using your watch interface to monitor health and select weapons and spy gadgets, and the conclusion being a nod to the bungee jump from the Dam.
7 Spec Ops: The Line
Even before the initial chapter can commence in Spec Ops: The Line, you already have a massive set piece that involves you shooting down enemy helicopters using a minigun. Following this brief sequence, the final helicopter will crash into yours and then take you to the game's first level, where Captain Walker and his squad traverse the storm-ravaged Dubai landscape.
The conventions of a third-person shooter are represented as the combat ensues, having you shoot enemy combatants from behind cover and give your squad special attack commands. And you also start to see the chemistry forming between Walker and his squadmates through the dialogue they exchange. It comes off as a straightforward shooter, a perfect setup for the dark storyline it soon pivots to.
6 Battlefield 1
In 2016, Battlefield tried something different with its formula and went the historical route, sending you into the brutal trenches of WWI. It also had one of the most immersive openers of the series. Before gaining access to the main menu and selecting from the campaign war stories, you must complete an intense tutorial level where you play through the multiple perspectives of random soldiers.
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There's a warning from the start that you're not expected to survive, and your characters will automatically switch off once they're dead. This transition style showcases the many weapons, detailed sound design, future enemies that await, and the harrowing mayhem of what it felt like being on a battlefield during WWI.
5 Call Of Duty: Ghosts
The opening missions of Call of Duty games always tend to set the stage and offer some riveting set pieces, but 2012's Call of Duty: Ghosts majorly shook things up. You're walking back home with your brother and veteran father after sharing a war story in the woods when suddenly it looks like the apocalypse has begun to rain down on Earth.
Midway through your escape, there's a transition to outer space where you're now an astronaut posted at the ODIN satellite. You get to experience zero gravity inside the corridors of the space station and engage in firefights with enemy astronauts trying to hijack the satellite. Ultimately, you must explode ODIN and sacrifice the lives of your astronaut characters.
4 Metro 2033
Metro 2033 starts with a prologue level that sees the series protagonist Artyom and his partner Miller venturing into the frozen wasteland through the titular network of Russian tunnels. Right within the opening minutes, you already know how to climb ladders, scavenge supplies like ammo and medical kits, and equip your gas mask.
The first-person shooter action kicks off right when the mask comes on as you walk into an ambush of mutated watcher enemies you must clear out. When you regroup with the other rangers outside, an even greater swarm of watchers surrounds you in a last-stand battle you're destined to lose, also giving you a glimpse of some other creatures you'll eventually encounter, like the winged demons.
During his decades with Konami, and long before his switch to independently develop Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima created and helmed the pivotal series known as Metal Gear, which had a lasting impact on the stealth genre. And for Metal Gear Solid to have been released in the late 90s era, it's the closest to a cinematic opening level you can achieve.
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After a backstory cut scene explaining Snake's covert operation and details on the Fox-Hound group, the opening credits continue displaying on your screen throughout the level. Your objective is to make your way toward an elevator while using the environment to your advantage in keeping hidden from enemy guards, tracking their trajectory with the help of a radar map.
2 Detroit: Become Human
The introductory level of Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human captured one of the tensest and most gripping starts to a game. A hostage negotiator android named Connor arrives at a homicide scene inside an apartment unit, as the suspected deviant is still at large and holding the victim's daughter over a ledge.
If you haven't played any previous titles from Quantic Dream, the tutorial UI here has a way of guiding you toward their style and encouraging you to interact with everything you can without losing its cinematic quality. The music playing throughout builds the tense atmosphere, and you learn the mechanics of Connor's ability to analyze evidence and replay events to increase your chances of success.
1 Shovel Knight
Although having launched in 2014, Shovel Knight certainly brings back the nostalgia of the finest 8-bit era games with its top-notch level design that may even rival some of those classics. Following a few short panels providing some backstory to your character, you're transported into the fantasy Plains setting of the first level that features waterfalls and the menacing Tower of Fate in the background.
You soon discover that your shovel is quite a versatile tool needed for digging up treasure, scooping enemies, platforming, and clearing blocks of debris. The music and sounds evoke a perfect retro aesthetic, and you gain some experience with the game's checkpoint system and enemies like bubble-breathing dragons and the boss fight with the Black Knight.
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