The Best Starting Missions in Games

Current entertainment industry rules dictate that you must capture your viewer's attention in a maximum of 15 seconds, or you'll lose them to other media, like mobile phones.

That's why, when we start a book or watch a movie, the first scene tends to be something impactful or attention-grabbing, like an explosion, a chase, or a tense situation. The intention is to capture our attention so we don't go see or read something else.

Some games do this very well, and others not so much. Some start with long introductions, intrusive tutorials, and try to introduce us to many characters who may or may not be important later on. Others, however, jump straight into the action, explain nothing, blow everything up in our faces, and only after a long time do they give us a chance to breathe and try to absorb what happened.

And it's these games that we're going to talk about. Games with unforgettable, memorable initial missions that everyone loves! And if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments.

Let's be honest: in their time, both the famous Green Hill Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog and World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. weren't anything special. They were the introduction to a platform game that set the pace for the rest of the adventure, but beyond that, they were just another level like any other. If you ask the fans, they'll probably tell you that there are other, much more memorable levels.

However, over the years, these levels have become iconic and have reappeared in their games numerous times. It's impossible to count how many Sonic games feature Green Hill Zone, or how many times Super Mario's World 1-1 has been reproduced, in whole or in part, in other games. But there's something about these two games that stands out much more than their level design or difficulty: the music!

I'm sure you know the songs that play in these levels and that they're playing in your head right now. Admit it. Green Hill Zone and World 1-1 may not seem like "anything special" as initial missions, but they’re legendary and the fundamental basis for games and characters that are now icons of pop culture.

At the beginning of Resident Evil 4, you already know that Leon S. Kennedy's mission won't be easy. He arrives in an isolated village in Spain looking for clues about Ashley Graham, the daughter of the President of the United States, but is immediately met by people infected and aggressive due to the Las Plagas parasite.

And when you arrive at the town square, that's when things get even worse, as residents start appearing from all sides wanting a piece of you! In the midst of all this, a guy with a chainsaw, Dr. Salvador, shows up, making everything even more tense. Until the bell rings and Leon utters the famous line: “Where did everyone go? Bingo?”

The mission here isn't to kill everyone, but to hold out long enough until the church bell rings and everyone leaves. There are specific places in the environment where you can even shoot the bell and end the attack sooner. The cool thing is that this opening is memorable because it immediately showcases the series' new style, with an over-the-shoulder camera, more intense combat, and the constant feeling of fighting to survive.

Right at the beginning of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the player participates in a historical battle that will set the tone for the entire game. It takes place in the middle of the Battle of Thermopylae, where the Spartan king Leonidas (the one from the movie 300) leads a small army against the Persian forces.

The player controls Leonidas himself in the middle of the battlefield, fighting against several enemies at the same time and cutting his way through them with his famous spear, which will be one of the most important items in the entire game.

The sequence serves as a tutorial for the combat system: strikes, dodges, parries, and spear abilities. We know how this fight ends, and it became very famous because of the movie. Therefore, being able to play this fight is one of the most memorable moments of the entire game! This opening helps to introduce the epic atmosphere of the game in Ancient Greece before the main story begins.

The beginning of Detroit: Become Human isn't just cinematic. It's tense and immediately puts you in a situation that will make you want to restart the game several times just to see what happens differently in each ending.

In "The Hostage", the android Connor is sent to negotiate with Daniel, an android who killed the homeowner and is holding his daughter hostage on the roof of a building. Before speaking with the kidnapper, the player can investigate the apartment, analyze clues, reconstruct what happened, and talk to the police officers on the scene (who despise you for being an android).

Each discovery increases or decreases the chances of a successful negotiation, with tension building (you see a police officer being shot as soon as you reach the balcony door) until the moment of the conversation, where everything depends on the choices made by the player.

The outcome could be the android dying, saving the girl, you dying, or the girl dying. The point is that the initial mission makes it clear that choices have consequences. Whether it's lying to the android or putting a fish back in the aquarium, everything you do or don't do will have an impact throughout the game.

The opening of The Last of Us is still remembered today as one of the most memorable in gaming. The game begins peacefully, with Sarah, Joel's daughter, at home, unaware that the world is about to end. Soon, news of violence and chaos in the streets emerges, and Joel decides to flee the city with his daughter as chaos takes over everything.

At this point, you control the characters and try to escape from infected people, try to escape from people desperate to flee like you, try to escape from soldiers who can't afford to wait to find out if they're dealing with someone infected or not before shooting. In short, the whole world is in despair, and you, like many others, just want to survive.

The scene ends with a soldier who, on orders, tries to kill Joel, but ends up hitting and killing young Sarah, an event that changes Joel's life forever and sets the tone for how our protagonist is marked by the loss of his daughter and how this will reflect on Ellie in the future.

In the story of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, after defeating the Fire-Breathing Dragon, our hero is transformed into a lizard, and now it's up to several different heroes to save her. The initial mission was basically an easier and shorter version of the final fight against the Dragon from the previous game. Upon defeating the monster, a blue flame touches us and… we turn into the lizard!

This game had a remake for the brazilian version of Master System in which characters from Monica’s Gang were the heroes and had to defeat the Dragon to rescue the main character, Monica herself.

“For England, James?”, says Agent 006, Alec Trevelyan, before you think he’s dead, right at the beginning of GoldenEye 007. The player takes on the role of James Bond on an infiltration mission into a Soviet base. The level begins atop a gigantic dam in Arkhangelsk, creating a memorable opening for a Nintendo 64 shooter.

The task is to enter the military installation, sabotage equipment, and then escape the area. Interestingly, the mission isn't just about shooting as you advance; the game presents several different objectives to complete. Depending on the difficulty, the player also needs to install tracking devices, destroy computers, or free hostages, culminating in the epic scene of James jumping off the dam.

The game was a landmark FPS on the console, and the initial mission gives an idea of ​​how the rest of the game will unfold, with missions separated into small objectives, and it fit perfectly with the Nintendo 64's unusual joystick with that trigger on the back.

Not every game lets you play as a baby, right? The introduction of Fallout 3 begins inside Vault 101, an underground shelter where the protagonist was born and raised after the nuclear war that devastated the world.

Instead of starting with immediate action, the game shows various moments from the character's childhood, from birth to situations like the first school test, a birthday party, and even the first contact with weapons. Everything is playable and serves to build the character and present the choices that will define their personality.

Gradually, the player understands how life works inside the shelter and how that place controls every detail of the residents' routine. The situation changes when the protagonist's father mysteriously disappears. From then on, the escape from the Vault begins, starting the journey through the post-apocalyptic world that defines the entire adventure.

The opening of BioShock Infinite begins mysteriously, with Booker DeWitt being dropped off by boat at an isolated lighthouse in the middle of the ocean by two figures who disappear without explanation.

While exploring the interior of the lighthouse, the player finds strange clues, such as religious quotes on the walls, maps showing routes to Columbia, and signs that someone was tortured there. At the top of the building, there’s a bell system that functions as a code and, once activated, reveals a mechanical chair that transforms into a launch capsule.

Booker is launched into the sky and through the clouds to reach Columbia, the floating city full of suspended buildings, airships, and aerial tracks. And the city scene unfolds...

At first, everything seems like a perfect place, with music, parties, and flags everywhere. But little by little, the game reveals the city's dark side, with extreme nationalist propaganda, racial segregation, and a cult of personality surrounding leader Zachary Comstock.