This week on Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee talks about the importance of a good monster introduction. Support us on Patreon: / secondwindgroup Second Wind Merch Store: sharkrobot.com...
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Suprised Shadow of the Colossus wasn't also an example here, since the intro for the first colossus is just it walking past you being big and it works pretty well.
Absolutely a memory-branding moment perfectly executed. You know going into the game that you're going to fight some big lads, but it's at this moment with an excellent framing of scale that the game really sells *how* big the lads are going to be.
I remember that moment so clearly in my mind. My brother and I were playing it, and as soon as that Colossus walked into frame, I said, "We have to kill THAT thing?!", to which we both turned to each and in sync asked: "HOW?!?!" The feeling of being a very small boy facing a literal walking mountain was done very well indeed.
Halo's intro to the Flood was so good. You start in a creepy jungle and head into an alien structure and find a marine who's obviously 'seen some shit' shooting at you screaming about not being turned into one of those things. Then deeper into the structure you find a dead soldier and check a nearby helmet cam footage and see what wiped out the whole squad and realize your in the same room with it. After fighting Covenant the whole game the build up and tension for the Flood was awesome.
Yes. What really made it stand out to me is there's almost no foreshadowing of The Flood until 343 Guilty Spark. On the second (and third, 100th) playthrough there are lots of little things that hint something is very wrong on Halo (like why The Covenant expend so little effort on the UNSC as they tramp around Halo), but on a first playthrough it's such a jarring shift in the tone and stakes. It's brilliant.
Halo CE also is another example of a game that that sets up its enemies super well. You see random blips on your radar in the jungle itself and observant players can see unknown silhouettes in the trees. Getting close to the facility the Covenant retreat from human gunfire... even though they normally charge blindly against humans at all costs. When you get in, not only do you not find the source of the gunfire but the Covenant have barricades set up to keep whatever's there trapped inside. It's strong environmental storytelling throughout. It's a very effective mission through these elements. I don't think I've ever seen an FPS ever set up an enemy force quite as well as the Flood.
Yeah, I think it’s important to remember as well that absolutely none of the marketing, trailers, box art, manual, etc. even hinted that this was actually a zombie game. I remember playing it as a wee lad and being absolutely blown away. After building up the Covenant as this massive threat, then introducing an enemy that they’re afraid of was awesome.
Oh yeah, Prey is arguably strongest during the first couple hours after you break out and the game turns into an inpromptu prop hunt, when all you have is a wrench and every single coffe mug, packet of chips or material is potentially a brain sucking little gremlin.
There’s such a good cinematic moment with that where you see a trash can rolling down the stairs as you’re goin up and then you see another can. Or three shoes.
BioShock - both for the introduction of the Splicers and the Big Daddies. Initially you're powerless when you see them and are at the mercy of whatever terrifying shit they're up to, but you don't have to fight them right away. Then the game gives you a wrench and is like 'okay go get 'em champ!'
Bioshock sets such a good mood at the start! Later it loses some of its charm, but not all of it by far, and plenty of story parts manage to rekindle the immersion.
@@The6thMessenger Doing a full replay of the games now, and mostly agree. I will say, B1 is still a fun playthrough, but B2 has it beat in terms of refinements on just about every level. It's a shame back in the day B2 got buried under 'It's more of the same with minor improvements' when Bioshock But With Much Better Combat, Hacking, And Level Designs should have been praised to high heavens.
@bramvanduijn8086 I agree, I enjoy that it loses out on that feeling though cause I think of it as the character and by extension myself becoming desensitised to Rapture. Nothing scares me anymore cause I've already changed my pants a couple of times. By the time we face good ol' Frank, he doesn't feel like a threat cause we've taken down the nastiest Splicers and *many* Big Daddies.
Not sure if it counts, but I'll always love the re-intro of GLaDOS in Portal 2. It's largely the scripting that carries it, but it does an excellent job of re-establishing the character dynamic (and cranking the sense of loathing to 11).
I think Bioshock did a pretty good job with introducing the splicers, you kind of hear them talking and see their shadows before you actually fight them. And the game doesn't take control away from you. Also there's Sekiro, which forces you to sneak past the enemies first until you get your weapon, and then let's you go back through the same area and slice them up (although it does do the annoying thing with pop--up windows).
Bioshock had two great examples of that. First, where you're helplessly watching a splicer eviscerate someone from the safety of the bathysphere before being thrown out into the darkness with it. Then later, when you think that splicers are the most dangerous thing in Rapture you're shown that there's always a bigger fish, as you watch the hunter become the hunted when a Big Daddy shows up to absolutely destroy a splicer going after the little sisters.
Oh that's a good one. Bioshock has probably my favorite introduction scene ever. The splicers in that game are also well done since I don't know where they are but their voices get louder the closer I get. Just excellent atmosphere in that game
@@YorkJonhsonAnd when the player is given control, the first splicer you meet comes close to the Doom 2 trap while skirting it nicely. I honestly thought that old man would be a helpful NPC, someone who would explain how to survive or at least give some support while shouting at his wife to open the door. Watching him turn on me reinforced the warning: you are alone down here and that voice on the radio wasn't joking.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent has the study scene that always sticks out in my mind. It isn't the first "appearance" of the monsters in the game, but it's the first time you're put in danger (if you're a coward like me). You're just casually exploring a cozy, well-lit study looking for items to progress to the next area, when suddenly the music turns ominous, you hear the door to the adjacent room open, and the monster gives a raspy groan as it shambles toward the door you just came through. You're trapped, you have no weapon, and this room is empty save for a desk and a wardrobe. The word "HIDE" appears at the bottom of the screen, and you are now on your own as the monster starts slashing through the door.
The first appearance where he turns up behind you and disappears after a second is pretty good at getting you to flee in terror without needing instruction.
I was going to comment this exact scene. In the Archives, you can *glimpse* the Grunt, but he never really becomes a gameplay element until the Guest Room (Which I think is what you meant) What's hilarious about the encounter is, if you play the game correctly, you won't actually see the monster because he'll leave without you ever seeing him, so it then makes you even LESS prepared for one of the worst early areas in the game, the Storage, where you can literally throw open a door and he will be walking towards you only 10 feet away.
super metroid's intro where ridley suddenly appears and attacks you, steals the baby metroid and flies off, and then you have to escape the station. it sets the tone for the whole game, then it kinda does it again when the space pirates suddenly appear. exploring feels more rewarding when danger could be around any corner
The first encounter with a licker in RE2, and I'm not talking about the actual reveal of the monster here- but rather walking into a hallway and suddenly the camera POV is from outside looking in through a window. So simple and one of the most effective dread-building instances I've seen in a game.
Also, that shot comes seconds after we see... something run past the window. It's so quick that we might question whether we saw anything at all, and the camera-POV-from-outside reinforces that feeling of uncertainty. *Is* there a monster outside looking at Leon? Dramatic irony is hard to pull off in gaming -- generally, the player knows what the character knows -- but this is a rare moment where we feel simultaneously like an oblivious horror movie character *and* an audience member shouting at him to turn around. A++ atmosphere.
also on the note of RE2, I love just how simple the introduction to Mr X is in the remake. Just going about your business trying to figure out how to get this flaming plane out of your way when this big hulking beast in a trenchcoat just LIFTS IT WITH ONE ARM... then starts stomping towards you.
Devil May Cry 3 with the opening cutscene being a sort of character tutorial that tells you that you can be the biggest threat in a room if you're unhinged enough to surf a demon's corpse in circles firing guns akimbo without aiming
Super Smash Bros. Melee has my favourite “monster intro” in the “WARNING CHALLENGER APPROACHING”. The silhouette is ominous, the screen is there, but it’s short and temporary, and the reward for winning is clear: you unlock the fighter. If you asked me my favourite sandwich I probably just gave you the answer “pulled pork taco”, but I stand by my choice
I particularly like Amnesia: The Dark Descent's intro to the first "real" monster. At first the game plays a lot of tricks on you with sound design and "hallucinations" of a sort. Just when you think you're playing a walking sim with little substance though - there in the distance is your first actual foe. You can imagine my surprise turning to horror when I left the safety of the crate I was hiding behind to confidently stride towards the first monster because "this thing probably isn't even real".
Sort of similar experience for me with Amnesia the Bunker, but this was more me getting my deserved comeuppance when I was being chased by the monster and ran into the safe room, leaving the door wide open as it plodded around outside. I was basically holding my hands up to my ears and blowing raspberries in its face singing "neener neener" at it, thinking it worked like Mr X in Resident Evil 2 where he forgets you exist the moment you enter a safe room. Spoiler alert: the monster let me bathe in this notion for just long enough before charging into the safe room and ripping my head off xD
I was looking for this comment exactly lol. When I first played, I didn't actually run into any of the hallucinations (apparently just ran past without realizing lol), but when I saw some shambling figure going around a corner as it gurgled like a drain backed up with chunks of meat, I was determined to spend as little time as possible being anywhere even remotely near those things. Didn't see it in full (good thing too, because it's kinda goofy up close), but the sound design and the little tease of its figure was enough to burn the moment into my brain.
The sound hallucinations are funny to me because one of my buddies had a roommate walk in while he was playing it in the dark with headphones, and the roommate stood behind him making a weird breathing noise that got closer and louder as my buddy was frantically looking around in the game. He finally realized (after the third time) that it wasn't from the headphones and turned around in reality.
I really like borderlands intro. It feels right. First, they show off the monster design in the intro cutscene with a skag. It looks cool, imposing, and then... they set the tone by immediately running it the f*@# over. They introduce the enemies in-game with bandits, which is a good choice as it immediately adds variety. Within that, they: 1. Never take control away 2. Show them behind a gate from a safe distance 3. Establish clearly that they are bad and can be killed without remorse 4. Showcase exactly how the rest of the game will go, by having them sort of walk out from nowhere and shoot at you 3-5 at a time while you gun them down like the awesome vault hunter you're meant to be. Compared to destiny 2. Which... 1. Introduce them one v one for your first shots, 2v1, then all at freakin once in a crazy 10v1. Which is actually what the game will play like. 2. Build up the monsters like a horror game which does not take the appropriate tone, none of the game is like a horror game 3. To their credit, never take control away 4. Establish that they are sympathetic, and simply want their old life back, so you can feel really weird about gunning them down
RE4 (2005). The first enemy encounter is a single Ganados--it's tense, the music is throbbing, you're in an enclosed space, and you have a tiny gun. It's enough to induce some slight tension, but the brilliant part is that it gives you a false sense of control. You're left thinking "oh, this is not great, but it's totally manageable." Even successive encounters before the village are all one or two enemies. And once Capcom has successfully set the expectation based on your first few encounters, they completely subvert them by having an entire village come after you. It's terrifying because they've deliberately misled you on what to expect--and once the Chainsaw guy appears, you know you're doomed. I always felt it was a tremendously effective way to dump the player into the RE4 gameplay loop.
It's also good because it's not immediately obvious that it's a combat encounter. RE players were used to zombies and monsters, and here's a seemingly normal local that looks and talks like a human being. And then it escalates.
I would add that I does that again when the Plagas are introduced. Your first RE instinct was always "shoot the head, move on" and now shooting the head is usually more trouble than it's worth...
@@raphaelkox Small correction, but headshots actually don't make the Plagas any more likely to burst. I think that the only ways to prevent it from happening are by killing enemies with grenades, an environmental kill, or maybe certain types of context kills (suplex and certain kicks, but I could be wrong about that one)
I love the introduction of Hunters (reptile-human hybrid monsters) in Resident Evil 1. It's a cutscene from Hunter's POV. You don't first see what the thing even looks like. Only that it's chasing you and it's fast and has big claws. What makes it especially effective is how fast it moves. You've mostly fought against slow zombies until that point, so seeing an enemy move that fast is terrifying. And the cutscene ends with the Hunter opening the door that you just closed.
What I remember is getting the controls back, and the Hunter just leaps across the room and lops my head off. Truly a teachable moment when you've mostly been dealing with zombies.
I played (mostly watched my friends play tbf) a lot of Resident Evil as a kid, so when the remake came out and the first crimson head got up I almost had a heart attack. It was the same level as the Hunter showing up to me, but I was much older
I enjoyed how the kamikazes in the original Serious Sam were introduced. You hear a sound that lizard brain recognizes as an enemy throwing caution to the wind well before the enemy crests a hill and you easily dispatch it. Then you think to yourself, "that is an interesting development that could prove lethal in larger numbers." Then you hear the sound of tens of enemies throwing caution to the wind and you have a little panic attack.
Unreal's first Skaarj. You run up to the switch at the end of the twisty corridor, You turn off the generators, the path back gets barred, but not entirely, the lights start to go off one by one horror movie style until you are in complete darkness, then emergency generator kicks in and everything is basked in pulsing crimson light as a alien silhouette you can't clearly see jumps at you and starts tearing you apart. Skaarj have bot AI so they are the first enemy that actively dodges, rolls and jumps to close the distance, the fight with one is confined spaces is terrifying the first dozen times. And the control is never taken away.
The first Unreal had one of my favourite monster intros of all time. There is a long corridor, it is quiet and the lights turn off one by one. Then a wall lowers, the monster enters the tunnel and hard industrial music starts playing. It fucking rocked!
I guess it counts, in a fashion. Even if you already had combat in the previous level, that Skaarj is the first actual _threat_ in the game. Until you learn the sheer power of the Automag's alt-fire against them, but that's details.
I'd go one before that. As you escape the Vortex Rikers prison deck before you have found weapons, I think, there is a blast door that partially opens, slams shut and then springs open allowing you to escape. In the intervening time a Skaarj warrior attacks a screaming human beyond the door, and all you catch a glimpse of as the door opens is a fleeing shadow and a now-detached head obeying gravity.
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o The AI in that game sure was something. It blew all our minds back in the day. "What do you mean, the enemies actually make decisions?"
I think the alien reveal works really well because it's not actually the introduction of combat that had already been introduced previously in the game with the Androids and the survivors, so the player already knows the basics of defending themselves and thus, the alien is allowed to be an actual threat that's scarier than anything you faced yet
Subnautica's introduction of the Reaper Leviathan is excellent in my opinion. First you hear it off in the distance and then if you are lucky you catch a glimps of it in the distance or you are unlucky and get a real close look at it,
I was unlucky and my first look was when it grabbed my Seaglider and shook it arond as I screamed in surprise and fright. Did not go back to the ship for a while after that.
So, underwater stuff in video games is pretty intense for me, but I was doing pretty decently in Subnautica, but I couldn't find the last part for the Seamoth, so I was like, "Time to check out the ship!" I uninstalled shortly thereafter.
Fun fact about hearing the Reaper's roar: They canonically use it as a form of echolocation. What this means in gameplay terms is that once you hear it, the leviathan will know your rough location and begin to home in on it (indirectly, since it likes to take a circuitous route and get you from behind).
When I first saw a Reaper in the dark distance I thought its pincers were arms, like a giant mermaid reaching out to me. Then I heard it and realized I was swimming towards Hell itself. Hahah
I know it has already been said but I have to second the Mimic from Prey. You can see this monster, you get shown via a windowed door it has the ability to become literally anything, then it goes off screen and the door opens. Never before have I played a game that had me shouting "WHERE IS IT WHERE IS IT OH GOD!" before. For that, it takes the top prize in my mind. Also, props to the intro to kickstart the mystery. You start to get the feeling the nightmare was all a dream until you smash the glass of your balcony to reveal a sound stage. I was hooked.
The Pyramidhead introduction in SH2 is the best I've seen, but that's if you spot it. No, not him getting jiggy with the excessively limbed nurse; a few minutes before when he's just standing behind some bars, facing unerringly in your direction. Still gives me chills some 20 years on
A subtle first introduction, just a faceless, vaguely humanoid apparation staring at you beyond reach, impossible to tell what it's motives are right now.
I do remember the monster intro for Ocarina of Time being pretty good. Link is told they must see the Great Deku Tree, the guy guarding the path to the Deku Tree demands Link obtain a sword and shield first. Link does, then, on the path to the tree, Link is attacked by plant monsters that spring up from the ground. There's tension as the player is likely expecting the first enemy to appear after meeting the tree, not before it, the enemies are extremely simple, and the fact that they spring up from the ground tells the player to expect enemies appearing from anywhere, which was important to establish since this was the first 3D Zelda game.
@@Materialist39 I honestly think that, besides graphics and the lack of free camera while moving (as the N64 didn't have a second control stick), there's almost nothing about Ocarina of Time that really is "clunky" in retrospect. I say this as someone who replayed Ocarina of Time a couple years ago. Incidentally, one thing I discovered during that replay: the gohma larvae that act as the mini-boss of the first dungeon hang from cocoons on the ceiling, and the cocoons can be destroyed by the slingshot, so an observant player can easily defeat the larvae without having to fight them.
Hi-Fi RUSH made me smile. In its devil-may-care style, the first robots are just kinda standing there, realize Chai is a defect, and unflinchingly do their job as security even while sounding frustrated about it. You get to whale on some weak robots before it even gives you a tutorial!
Yeah, almost every enemy introduction in Hi-Fi RUSH is comical yet concise. Oh, fire fists! Gets hit in the head. Oh, shoots from air! Hit each other. Oh, has a big sword! He can't balance it, stupid.
I liked that one too! It is a cutscene so you do lose control, but I feel like Hi-Fi Rush is a cartoon-game combo anyway, so it actually works rather than games that give you 3 cutscenes in its entirety that don't fit as well.
I was just thinking of Hi fi rush actually from the video. It introduces now enemies and mechanics, but lets you have time to figure it out before it explains it to you
I unironically love how they introduced the first alien in XCOM Enemy Unknown’s tutorial. Because it set up this really intense, creepy as hell atmosphere followed by a pulse pounding firefight where everything goes tits up, but is salvaged by a soldier getting the nail biting final shot. It’s honestly one of the most perfect primers for what to expect from the rest of the game IMO
Something I do like is how Warframe introduces three of its enemy factions: the Infested, the Sentients and the Murmur, as well as some other unique enemies like Void Angels. The Grineer are your first enemies and you’re introduced to them in the tutorial, but don’t really have the same wow factor. Same with the Corpus, since your introduction is you going to a base of theirs and stealing some items. The Infested are hyped up as some mysterious bioweapon that a Grineer professor is trying to crack open, only for containment to fail mid-mission and the Infested start breaking out. You see them fighting what remains of the Grineer and winning (with one of their main units being a visibly mutated Grineer soldier twisted horribly into a quadruped) and your mission turns into fleeing like hell, before the next mission has you deliberately detonate an explosive to try and contain it (to limited success, since the Infested are the main third faction of the game). Despite being the weakest of the three gameplay wise, their introduction is probably the best. The Sentients are set up in lore as the ones who destroyed the precursor civilization the Orokin, and what you and other players were created to fight. While TECHNICALLY they first show up in person on Uranus surrounded by Grineer corpses, the ones you see are nonhostile and invincible, with your normally unflappable Mission Control freaking out upon recognizing what they are. The very next quest has you fight one of the enemy units you’ve previously seen in cutscenes, and it’s more durable than anything you’ve fought before, with it gaining massive damage reduction against your attacks. It turns out that enemy’s basically a generic grunt to the Sentients, and you better start preparing for the inevitable war with them again. Finally, the Murmur are only introduced far later (like, after the whole Sentient ordeal is mostly wrapped up). Initially, you’re led to believe it’s just old robots that went rogue. Tough robots, but they have obvious weakpoints and their strongest unit is something you’ve faced before on the surface of Deimos. Then Wally shows up, literally pulls part of the labs you’re in into some Void hellscape, and you meet the other half of the Murmur literally grow out of the very ground as the rocks rupture, grow metallic limbs and shuffle after you, with some even forming into larger and even stronger formations. None of which even barely resemble anything human despite the humanoid limbs. Void Angels are sneakily introduced during the New War, where you see the void corruption of the Zariman litter the place with odd flowing metal, with some vaguely humanoid shapes coming out of them. Then it turns out in a later quest that those growths used to be humans, with the first one you face being recognized as the lost member of the Holdfasts as it shambles towards you in an attempt to kill you and feast on something you need to protect or the whole solar system will be ravaged by the Void.
i do love undertale and its even twice first against flowey where the tutorial is deceiving you and its not a tutorial. instantly showing you the meta elements this game will have and great storytelling in setting the main "villain" second the real combat tutorial against the dummy. where toriel tells you what too do but you can decide too just do something else for the funsies and there is dialogue for that
I love how the monsters in SOMA are introduced. most of them just pop in on you with no cutscene or anything, but my favourite is Jin Yoshida the diving suit. The doors in Tau take ages to open and after going through a couple of them with nothing eventful happening, the next one you open just has the diving suit standing there waiting for you.
Not sure if it counts, but Sovereign in Mass Effect 1. Especially in the remaster, just turning a corner and seeing the horizon dominated by this vast metal squid monster, wreathed in red lightning as it ascends back into the sky, is really well done.
I'd say it counts. Especially when you learn that _he's_ the real villain of the game. *"RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF BLOOD AND FLESH, YOU TOUCH MY MIND, FUMBLING IN IGNORANCE. I AM BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION. I, AM SOVEREIGN. I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION."*
When I was a kid I remember the intro to Halo 2 (I think) being fun - it’s not the very first encounter, but the moment you see the phantom pull up to the ship you’re on and attach their big raiding pipes has really stuck in my mind
The opening of Metro: Last Light when you play as the guy hallucinating after he's exposed to the Dark Ones. It both sets the grim tone of the Metro games and underlines the total other-ness of the Dark Ones. From your point of view it's a vicious and merciless attack, forcing an innocent man to turn against his buddies and destroying his mind. It's a great way to set the stakes, but also sets up the subversion that the Dark One was literally trying to say hi, they're not malicious, but are so alien that even being near a human is dangerous. That one's always stuck with me.
The first Licker encounter in the OG Resi Evil 2 is what springs to mind for me. You first glimpse it crawling briefly across a window as you turn a corner, then you walk through a door and into the next area. The camera angle changes to show Leon through another window, beside the first (so you already know you're following whatever the hell THAT thing was, which is unsettling since this mystery creature seems to have a lot more going on than the usual shambly undead lads you've faced so far.) There's also a very faint dripping sound in this new area, and as you advance through the corridor you come across the corpse of a zombie that wasn't killed by you - immediate 'there's always a bigger fish' vibes. The suspense takes a bit of a nosedive at this point, to be fair, as not far past the corpse control is taken away from you and a cutscene plays of the Licker crawling toward you across the ceiling. Then bam, control is returned, there's a horrifying inside-out-brain-monster standing in front of you, and it makes no secret of its ambition to wear Leon S. Kennedy as a novelty condom. Not perfect, but solid execution imo.
The first bokoblin in Breath of the Wild. You either have nothing to fight it or a stick that will break before you can beat it. You hang back and try to predict when it’ll attack then it just jumps towards you, closes the distance, and whacks you on the head. Basically forces you to find an actual sword nearby and come back. Captures the entire core appeal of leaving, exploring, getting stronger, and returning in a single 15 second encounter
As well as what the other comments said, if you hit the bokoblin with a full stick combo, it goes flying and its weapon falls out of its hand. That said, I do think that all of that makes it a better first encounter. It really highlights the freedom you have to approach the situation with the weird little goblin. You can brute force it with multiple sticks, smack his weapon away and steal it, go find a pot or a rock to throw at it, or go around the island and find a weapon to come back and fight it.
I will say that while the bokoblin is easy, even with the pathetic starting equipment, that does make it ideal for a starting enemy. You want the first enemy to give you a taste of how things work without being difficult to deal with, at least compared to the rest of the game's challenges. And the starting bokoblin does that very well, and manages to do it without EVER taking control away from you.
I quite like the way the Tyrant is introduced in Resident Evil 2 (the remake). You just go down a corridor and he pushes apart the helicopter, starts approaching and changes the objective from "walk down this corridor" to "run". It's a little silly that you can shoot away his hat and get an achievement, but I like how it shows a scary monster by keeping you in control. Cutscenes can be fun to introduce a monster, but they make you feel safe. But if it's during gameplay, you immediately need to deal with it. The tyrant is also quite slow, so while he's established as a threat, during a time in which you are vulnerable, you have enough time to run away, so he won't kill you and the tension so far.
He's like the Snail That Will Kill You. He's always hunting, always on the move, but always at walking speed. He isn't fast and can be outrun, but he is relentless and untiring. He WILL catch up to you. It's all a matter of when, not if.
You showed it in the footage Dead Space. The introduction of them coming down wiping out part of the team and forcing you to run is great. The sense of urgency as Hammond screams at kendra to get the doors open and both of them telling you to just run. Add in the simple find the weapon on the bench with the words ‘cut the limbs off’ scrawled above it makes for an amazing moment of realisation as the first enemy attacks you. Oh I can’t just shoot it I’ve got to full dismember it
I really like Dead Space 2 as well, where you have to break out of the restraint chair and cobble together an improvised weapon while the monster is turning the other people in the room into giblets. There isn't any ACTUAL tension, but you get the feeling of it. Good balance between flavor and mechanics in my mind
It Came From The Desert is a graphic adventure game based on old 50s monster movies, focusing on giant ants attacking a small town. There are a few different locations where you can encounter the ants for the first time, but in each case it goes from your existing first person view to the same perspective with you holding a gun, and the ant slowly ambles in from the side of the screen. You can't die to the ants- the worst they can do is put you in the hospital for a while- but the first time one rears up close to you is pretty stunning. Fun little game.
The first time you encounter a wolf in the Long Dark. Even in a hundredth run a thousand hours of gameplay later, that first bark next to you when you are early days and under-prepared is always an absolute heart stopper!
Dragon’s Dogma 1 had two good monster intros. The first one being the Chimera boss fight in the tutorial, it was teased with a quick cutaway, and then it’s introduced properly when it shows up and mercs a soldier and we have to fight it, which is also where we learn the importance of climbing on monsters to get to specific points. The other one is when the dragon shows up to your home village and torches the place. The fight against it is very brief with the dragon deciding to make you the Arisen. That was fantastic as it demonstrated the peak of power you would have to climb and it established a personal reason as to why you would want to kill the dragon.
There's something I find quite interesting in Metroid Fusion's first enemy encounter. The opening cutscene introduces us to the X, a slimey parasite that floats about on the screen and latches onto Samus, almost devouring her in the process. She's only saved by her power suit slowing down the process, and a doctor finding a vaccine that destroys the X. Then, she's sent to the station where parts of her infected suits and samples from the planet where she was infected got sent, but learns upon arrival that a mysterious explosion rocked the station. When she investigates, she finds that the X can not only kill their victims, but also mimic their appearance afterwards, and therefore turn into all kinds of monsters. As she kills one of them, it turns back into a floating slime and starts floating around. Now, the vaccine has immunized Samus to the X, and because it was based off of Metroids, the natural predators of the X, it even allows her to absorb the X slimes to regain health and missiles. But at that point, the player doesn't know that. So even though this is the game introducing its healing mechanic, I feel like the first instinct of most players would be to book it in the other direction so as not to get almost dissolved again. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I find it very funny.
This also works as part of the tutorial, because avoiding or ignoring the x for long enough will allow it to reform into whatever monster it wants (usually the one you just killed) so the player has to organically learn both how to use the x to heal and why they want to collect x parasites instead of just blasting and booking it
I think Ultrakill's monster intro was pretty cool, you're walking through all these dark passageways and then you come to a room with one lone pistol on a pedestal lit by a solitary light, the music cuts as you enter and then bombastically starts up again once you pick it up and the title is shown, then immediately afterwards the first few basic enemies teleport in and it's all on your reflexes to survive the first encounter. It works really well imo since it immediately puts you on edge before the enemies get there, a nice brief bout of tension as you're anxiously waiting to see why the boss music started which is quickly followed by the threat you were looking around for. The fact that this all happens in the space of a few seconds also sets the tone for the rest of the game and gets you primed for the battles ahead.
Resident Evil 4. It's a fake out initially to show he's not a zombie, then he swings an axe at you after cursing you in Spanish. You can even extrapolate that encounter where you think you understand what you're about to experience in a house surrounded by enemies and see that they do it again but bigger once you get to the village and a man with a chainsaw breaks the door down in the shotgun house. Most of the Resident Evils have good first combat encounters and they usually explain to you what to do. RE1 and 2 start off with you vs 1 single zombie, you unload your entire clip into them and they keep coming and you have to run away. Brilliant, beautiful, perfect tutorial.
Note that you can actually see the nastier version of the asylum demon in Dark Souls much earlier, if you listen to the sound cues and see through the bars in one of the first hallways in the lower level. You can watch it prowl around the basement cell. Also, the progression from passive hollows to weak hollows to soldiers to full on asylum demon showcases the games progression nicely.
I imagine other folks have said this, but the introduction for El Gigante in the original RE4. Seeing the Ganados forcibly pulling a giant monster out by huge chains before being flung away by El Gigante is incredible. You can also hear him breathing if you stand quietly next to the gates he comes through.
I always loved that the project zomboid tutorial tells you to press q to sneak but really that is the shout button and a horde of zombies starts running towards you.
I always really liked the introductions in Monster Hunter, those little cutscenes depicting the monsters in their natural habitat before they even notice you
The player's first encounter with a Tarr in Slime is a pretty good example. It occurs entirely within gameplay, and doesn't care if you see it before it attacks you.
The intro of Alan Wake 2 - it serves both as a plot device and mechanic introduction. It shows you the enemies, how strong they are, and that running away is an option in the game. All without a single text or audio hint, or anything else of the sort.
Another older game I feel did it very well is Aliens vs. Predator 2 (the Marine campaign). An entire mission of increasingly creepy buildup and then boom, suddenly you're in a dark room with an alien bursting out of the wall, pissing your pants. No cutscene, no big monster presentation, it just comes at you in the dark and you have to shoot it with your gun until it dies. And then more start coming out of the vents. Such a brilliant game.
Once again, a game that Yahtzee likes. But the introduction of the Kraken in Return of the Obra Dinn. Up until that point you think you're solving just a normal maritime murder mystery and then bam: Giant Octopus. Sets the stage pretty well for the rest of the game's fantastical elements
Agreed, that moment for me was the perfect blend of "Oh shoot so we're doing this? I see where you're at, game", and "AAAAAAAA WHAT THIS IS TERRIFYING!"
I prefer where it introduces the riders. You are in a tight corridor like area and initially just see a dead guy. As you are underwhelmed and forced to wait an entire minute, you explore a little. And in a small slit in the wall you see them.
@@henke37 gotta say that is one of the best narrative moments, few first person games truly make you feel like you are the one experiencing what's happening but that did it
Honestly, the first flashback with the Captain sets an excellent precedent for a brilliant game mechanic. You listen to an argument for a bit in total darkness, wondering what kind of game you signed up for, then _BANG!_ You're staring at a dude with his brains blown out and looking down the muzzle of the gun. Great framing.
Also your first look at Pyramid Head in SH2 is through the bars in the hallway to the clock puzzle room. Your radio starts emanating static as you approach and he's just watching you. It was a great moment for me because I panicked and thought I saw something standing there, so I came back out through the door and saw he wasn't there anymore and thought it was just my imagination. On my next playthrough I took a look and he was indeed there
The GTAIV Mission "It's Your Call." It introduces you to the game mechanics and gives you an enemy that, really, you have more incentive to flee from than fight.
For combat intro, I think "Star Wars: the Force Unleashed" earns some kudos... one of the most effective examples of Tutorial/ Teasing Endgame Abilities I've run into. Having you play as Vader immediately was an interesting call, but gets your feet wet while showing off endgame mechanics early (as a slow, immortal powerhouse) to entice you to progress for yourself. Not necessarily my favorite opening method, but very WELL executed and (surprisingly) still unique, since a lot of games don't try that tactic... The few that do start you as "fully competent professional but demote you before handing over full control" feel much less organic, or feel like even the pro's hand is being held way too strictly & feels artificial.
Since you mentioned Outlast 2, Outlast does a fantastic job with the intro of Chris Walker. He's not *technically* a monster but a guy who needs help, but he does chase you around to try and rip your head off (for good reason) so he qualifies. You get spooky glimpses of what's happening in the asylum when you first enter and see very brief moments of random dudes running by or locking doors and such, and then you see a dude straight up impaled on a spike. Then you see Chris from afar and get really scared to move forward. Finally you have to shimmy between two bookshelves and he suddenly grabs you from behind and throws you out a window.
I think the first bokoblin encounter in Breath of the Wild is pretty good. You walk down the path from the start and he’s just there on the side, prepping you to get used to monsters to just be out in the world at random instead of being in scripted encounters. You’ve probably picked up a few “weapons” at this point, so this gives you a good chance to see how they work; sticks swing fast but do little damage and break easy, the woodcutter axe hits hard but swings slowly. This teaches you everything about how all of the weapons in 2 of the 3 melee types function. And he’s by himself, so you don’t immediately get overwhelmed, thus allowing you to get to terms with fighting with the lock-on easily, in case this is your first Zelda game.
Though it's a little way into the game, Silent Hill 4's introduction to the Twin Victims monster is unforgettable. You come around the corner and there it is, standing perfectly still, pointing directly at Henry. After a few seconds, it charges. No cutscene, no build up, just turn the corner and there it is. The fact that its design is also unsettling helps sell the whole thing.
I quite like the first fight in _Beyond Good and Evil_ where the gribblies show up and start assaulting your house and at first you have no way to fight back. Then your _teammate_ gets a cutscene smash-through-window introduction and hands you your... whatever that weapon is. Electric plasma-shooting staff thingy.
Condemned: Criminal Origins. when you have your gun, and they spend all that time building it up, when he responds to the detective's demand to surrender with an insult, and then, unceremoniously, no cutscene needed, he just charges you. absolutely unforgettable
In FPS games, I like it when they chuck you in the deep end with minimal introduction or tutorial, like in Resistance: Fall of Man or Wolfenstein New Order. It helps set the tone when the setting has you in an uphill battle and can be kind of chaotic fun.
Even though it starts as a cutscene I liked the introduction of the necromorphs in Dead Space 2. Dropping from the vent to turn that guy and then having to scurry away still in a straight jacket was pretty great.
I just realized that the EMMI encounters in Metroid Dread are like that, each has a cutscene when you encounter them for the first time. On the flip side, Ridley in Super Metroid has a cool introduction, he materializes in the middle of the room, fights you for a bit, then fucks off so you can fight him again later.
The first generation of Pokemon games (Red/Blue/Yellow/Green) is quite effective at introducing the combat mechanics very early and in a very simple, straightfoward way. The tutorial campaign for Age of Empires 2 (William Wallace) likewise is a very good introduction, not just to the combat but the game's mechanics in general.
I liked Bioshock 1's introduction to splicers. You're stuck in a bathysphere, one of the buggers stabs the poor bloke Atlas sent to greet you, and it then proceeds to tear into the bathysphere and there's nothing you can do to stop it until runs off. Nothing quite like being in control of the character, but being unable to do anything as the monster tears into your very cramped standing spot.
I really like how patient the original Metroid Prime is before it properly introduces the Space Pirates. In the opening you find a couple of wounded ones, you see a couple of them flying away at some point. There's a lot of signs of them but it takes until like the fourth world or so before you get to fight them properly.
Super Mario Brothers - it’s a Goomba walking from right to left, so you know it’s evil because Mario is walking left to right - it has angry eyes but no arms so you know it’s an easy enemy - And the controller has so few buttons that even if you haven’t jumped yet you’re bound to hit the correct button to avoid death.
Prey (2016), I love that you can see the mimic become a mug if your looking in the right spot. That's how they work IG too. If your on the swivel for any movement you'll usually see them first, usually.
The Crater Queen from Scorn. Enormous, looming so close and observing me, harmless. It gave me a uniquely small feeling that will stick with me forever.
One monster introduction that still sticks with me is in Metroid Prime. In similar vain to Half-Life you are introduced to the titular Metroids by entering a research lab filled with a bunch of them in containment. Following a boss fight you backtrack to the same room, only the power is out and all the containers have been unlocked. I just love how the game gives just enough time for the dread to set in before you hear the chittering and one flies straight at your face. Sure, the scan logs stand as a surrogate for a combat tutorial against them but for people who have played a Metroid game before it doesn't really bear repeating anyway how to kill the energy-sucking bastards.
The two monster introductions that stand out to me as some of my absolute favorites are probably the Wendigo from Dusk and the Kamikaze from Serious Sam (...aaaaaaAAAAAAAAH-BOOM!). Neither are the first instance of combat in the game, but are both probably the most iconic monsters in their respective series. There are definitely some good instances of monsters being set up before their actual introduction through cutscenes and environmental stuff before combat starts (the Flood in Halo CE comes to mind, as does one of the first bosses in Metroid Dread who you see glimpses of moving though the background a few times pre-battle. I know there are other great examples, but I can't think of them off the top of my head at the moment). There are also some instances of the 'take control away from the player and show a cutscene' that do actually work; my favorite (perhaps only incidentally a 'monster introduction' as it's really about introducing the tone and character) being the opening of Devil May Cry 3; which is still one of the best cheesily-over-the-top fight scenes out there. Undertale has a great double subversion with first giving us this happy little tutorial guy who turns out to be an evil monstrous villain, and then several monster encounters who turn out to be just friendly little creatures who you can talk to or hug or flex at or whatever.
4:21 now I'm imagining a game with a secret where each time you lose to the monster introduction, on subsequent attempts it gets pushed further and further into the game's progression and becomes more difficult to lose to each time to the point of absurdity, just so that you never know when to expect it, but also for comedic effect. Imagine finally facing down the big baddy with climactic banter when suddenly the monster introduces itself and then falls down and confuses everyone in the room.
The introduction of both the weepers in Dishonored and the nest-keepers in Dishonored 2 were both handled well. We knew about the rat plague long before we saw a weeper and we weren't really sure how dangerous they were, we had already seen rats strip bodies to the bone and we had encountered the City Watch, Overseers, and common criminal thugs before we even saw a weeper, and when we finally encountered them in an actual mission we got to see how dangerous they were. The nest-keepers and blood-flies in 2 didn't have nearly that much build up but it was still handled quite nicely.
Might be too recent, but Helldivers 2, when you see your first bile titan looming over in the distance it's very much "oh jesus, we have to kill that thing?" moment and that felt pretty good
Though not the first monster intro nor how combat mechanics are introduced, but the build up and reveal of The Flood in the original Halo I feel is good enough to push it into horror territory
I have too many to pick from so I will enjoy posit the mystery and significant scene of your first encounter with the MOLD in the form of what you think is your significant other in Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. I love that this scene builts up the tension by making you search for her only for you to realize that she has already changed and that she is only the first of several creatures you will come into contact with. Bonus points for this being the moment where videogame logic betrayed you and made us all think that being able to serve being stabbed would not have consequences.
My absolute favourite monster intro comes from The Forest's cannibals (NOT Sons of The Forest!). There is no cutscene, information, or anything. The cannibals go through an "investigation" stage if they find you along their pre-generated travel routes and will generally hide, watch for a time, and only attack if they witness something "bad" that you do, such as cutting a tree, acting aggressively towards them, or chopping up a body. It's entirely missable except for that they usually scream at some point during their investigation. And at night there's usually one with torches on their back. Combined with the "fuzzy logic" AI it creates a really great experience even on repeat playthroughs since you never actually know exactly what they're going to do next. Also thanks for giving me a chance to ramble about one of my favourite games. Now I wanna do another hardmode run
Using another example from the Resident Evil series I'd say the introduction of the Nemesis in the original RE3 was a great monster introduction. You already know zombies from the first two games so they whilst still a serious threat are nothing new. Then you have Brad talk about something that's after STARs very close to the start of the game only for him in a cutscene to stumble into the RPD courtyard badly hurt and then this massive hulking monster jumps down, kills him and you are left to face off with this thing. Such an iconic introduction to one of RE most loved and feared monsters.
I feel Halo CE's introduction to the covenant was great. You not only get to see bits of the enemies as you head to the bridge to get your first gun, but along the way see how the marines struggle. The following moments show how strong MC is, how different enemy types behave in combat all the while being a fairly solid tutorial for the games core mechanics and letting players experiment with a majority of the standard UNSC and Covenant gear.
for a recent example: i think lethal company can be either incredible or terrible in this regard. for the best case scenario: you're with a crew who's also new to the game, you're chatting and joking around but then you get separated. you walk off to carry scrap back to the ship... and then you see a message flash on screen: "new creature data sent to terminal". you hear a slow stomping in the background, the voice of your crewmate mysteriously gone as you slowly trudge towards the distant lights of your ship, burdened by the weight of the scrap you're carrying. suddenly, your entire screen goes dark and a quiet shrill plays in your ears as the stomping gets faster, and you just BARELY manage to make it to your ship before your eyes are met with the hulking mass that was chasing you. worst case scenario: you get killed by something you didn't even see.
Shalebridge Cradle level in Thief 3. You're already acclimated to how to play the game, so when a new type of enemy pops up, you're already primed to hide from it
The original Resident Evil 4 intro villager ticks all those boxes. Gives control to the player, instant game play feel, teaches about hitboxes and enemy reactivity, and it is difficult to die from despite the tension from the scene.
Not a monster/combat reveal specifically, but I recently started the Starship Damrey on 3DS. The opening has you control a robot with a faint torch in a dark room. There was a genuine moment of horror as I searched the room for a way out, turned right and saw the dimly lit silhouette of a body laying limp on the ground. Then, as I crept up to it, the game took away control and gave me a jumpscare cut scene "revealing" the body, complete with generic surprise sound effect. It was like a comedy beat, it completely ruined the tension. If I had control to approach it myself it would've genuinely been quite scary.
Calling back to Resident Evil, there's the introduction of the Hunter monster about halfway through the game. You head back to the main house of the estate to search a few locked rooms, you're packing more guns and think you're ready for a handful of zombies or maybe a big, empty house if you killed them already, but just as you enter it jumps to a cutscene of something racing out of the underground and reaching for the door you just entered. Your character whirls around to see a five foot lizard gorilla thing take a step your way, and then control is handed back to you. You have exactly half a second to react before it either takes a swipe at your leg, or pulls off that one-hit decapitation move. It's sudden, and aside from the infamous '4 itchy tasty' journal you pick up earlier in the game, there's nothing to suggest it's even around.
I gotta say, Baldur from the God of War game 2018 was a pretty effective monster intro. You learn the basic combat mechanics of the game immediately while being shown just how much of a threat the bad guy is. I liked it a lot.
Genuinely for me, it was Skyrim's intro to fighting Dragons: Your very first encounter was when you had your hands tied together and were about to be beheaded for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a massive flying lizard lands next to you and starts destroying everything in view, and you barely escape with your life. You then go to the nearest city to tell them that you saw a dragon and also they may want to update their maps when news comes in that a dragon was spotted near the city, and seeing as you're the only one in the city to have actually seen a dragon let alone live to tell the tale you're drafted in to take some men and attack it. You arrive at where it was last spotted, the men around you are much more battle-hardened than you but range from scared to skeptical when all of a sudden in a blur of brown scales one of the men is scooped up and flung into the air like a paper bag and suddenly you have to find cover and also some way of killing this thing that looks similar to (but luckily not the same as) the one you watched effortlessly turn a town into a smouldering rock pile. You're in control of your character the whole time, you're barely into the game so still trying to learn how to do everything including fight and your gear is pretty damned basic even if you raided Bleakfalls Barrow before arriving at the city. The fight is a slog, even with the help of a swuad of city guards but never feels unduly so and when you do manage to defeat the dragon it feels, rightly, like a relief anda victory. Then light and magic starts noisily streaming from the dragon's body into you and you start running away in an exhausted panic because what the fuck is the dead dino-bat doing to you now?!
While it's not the first enemy you encounter, I love the introduction of the Guardians from Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You're just walking along or riding on horseback, then suddenly that panicked piano music kicks in
A monster intro that is almost entirely story relevant more so than gameplay relevant (and also from a game on that bingo card) the introduction of the Kraken from “Return of the Obra Dinn.” It’s the first sign in that game that something supernatural happened to the ship, a huge wham moment when you realize that this game is going to have a very strange story. Given the way the game handles it’s fate exploration system, the immediate cut to the Kraken ravaging the ship uses the standard formula for the fates and uses it to deliver a very intense scene.
Legend of Legia, when it introduces the primary antagonist force it's by breaking the sense safety your home village had and lighting all of it on fire before you can drive them off.
I have a love/hate relationship with how BPM: Barracuda Possum Manatee does monster introductions. No hoo-ha, no cutscenes, just, you walk into a room and now there's something terrifying which you have never seen before that will kill you. So far so good. And then you realize you have no idea how any of its attacks works, and it kills you. And because it's a roguelike dungeoncrawler or whatever the flimflam you want to call it, that means you now have to go aaaaaalll the way back to start and try again.
I was thinking about how this video was hitting all the typical yahtzee check boxes and when you pulled out the bingo card I absolutely lost it lmao. Respect on that awareness.
The point about dying early absolutely killing the tension is an important one. The first one and a half episodes of The Walking Dead were genuinely thrilling for me, but the first time I died halfway through the second episode, it really let the air out of the tension once I'd seen the Game Over screen and reloaded. I do, however, know this is an absolutely impossible problem.
For me, I fell utterly in love with the opening level of Destiny's The taken king expansion. It had a marvelous buildup and sinister, uncharacteristic undertones (previously immovable enemy getting it's butt handed to it by an unknown force) before throwing the Taken at you full force. I wish I could experience that again for the first time.
SCP Containment Breach has some good in media res intros. For instance, when SCP-049 comes in, you're almost cornered and you have to do a little run around to avoid its death touch like you're playing tag with your little brother and you're dodging around the table to slow him down.
