The best openings ever

2 weeks ago 6

Before the skill trees, the patch notes, the 100-plus-hour playtimes there is only... possibility. The opening seconds of a game. The first image of a movie. The title crawl. The tutorial you half-remember forever. Even the start screen can be something to revel in. To kick off the new year, Polygon is obsessing over those first beats. This is Dramatic Entrances.

Here you'll find a mix of essays, op-eds, short interviews, and a lovingly devious “name that opening shot” quiz, all dedicated to the art of starting strong. Because, as daunting as they can feel IRL, openings matter. This is why Stephen King spends "months and even years" rewriting his opening lines. They set expectations. They make promises. So let's smash that start button and celebrate the best of beginnings.

The five most influential debut games

Image: Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive

Going into 2025, you’d never have expected the gaming breakout of the year to be a turn-based RPG about French Instagram models grappling with the existential terror of turning 33. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold more than 5 million copies, shattered records for Game Awards nominations and awards (including Game of the Year), and flooded every nerd convention with a sea of berets and striped shirts. Talk about one hell of a debut for developer Sandfall Interactive.

Of course, debut games can be transcendent — Balatro, Blue Prince, Dredge, Gris, Neon White, Stray, and Viewfinder are stellar examples from the past few years alone. But few ascend to the same level as Clair Obscur, attaining instant success and notably altering the gaming landscape. Often, the games that define a studio to such a degree aren’t its freshman effort. Halo wasn’t Bungie’s first game. FromSoftware worked for years before converting everyone to the church of Soulslikes.

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Inside the helicopter that filmed the opening scene of The Shining

Image: Warner Brothers/Everett Collection

To capture those visuals, Kubrick turned to MacGillivray Freeman Films, an independent American film studio known for their documentaries and work with IMAX film (back when IMAX was more associated with sweeping nature films as opposed to summer blockbusters). More specifically, it was helicopter cameraman Jeff Blyth who would get the footage.

Speaking to Polygon, Blyth takes us back to 1978 in his own words: Up into the helicopter and through the entire process of capturing the opening shots of The Shining, including how the footage was captured despite strict rules from Montana’s Glacier National Park, the close calls which involved the helicopter just a few feet off of an active roadway, and even the notorious helicopter shadow that’s plagued him ever since.

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The 6th Yakuza game is still the best way into the series

Image: Sega / RGG Studio

Set in the economic boom period of late-’80s Japan, Yakuza 0 alternates between series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and his longtime best frenemy Goro Majima during their years as newbie gangsters. In the first two chapters, Kiryu roughs up a salaryman in a dingy alleyway to collect a debt, then gets framed for the guy’s murder. He goes from the bottom rung of the ladder to somewhere even worse. For Kiryu, being in the yakuza isn’t glamorous at all. But when we first meet Majima in Chapter 3, we’re suddenly awash in the luxurious extravagance of underworld life.

Smooth jazz plays as high-rollers in pinstripes fling fistfuls of money into the air. The expensive booze flows freely and beautiful girls in evening gowns giggle at drunk oafs, making them feel like the most charismatic men who ever lived. An out-of-town businessman enters the club, and though he’s initially leery of the tough-looking dudes he spots among the crowd, he’s soon swept away by the indulgent atmosphere. How could you not be? The Cabaret Grand looks like a helluva good time.

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