Best Game Intros and Tutorials

Half-Life

The silent tram ride through Black Mesa is the intro that invented the modern immersive opening — no cutscene, no HUD lecture, just you riding past scientists and security guards into a facility about to go very wrong. It taught an entire industry that world-building could double

Release Year: 1998Genre: FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 5 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.5/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Portal

GLaDOS's test chambers are the tutorial as villain origin story — every button press and cube-drop is dripping with passive-aggressive menace long before you learn she's lying about the cake. It's the rare tutorial people replay for the writing, not the mechanics.

Release Year: 2007Genre: Puzzle-FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 20 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.7/10

added by IJRin 6 rankings

God of War (2018)

One unbroken shot from a tree-felling axe throw to a boss fight with a stranger in the woods reinvented Kratos without a single hard cut. The camera never blinks, and neither does the player, because the 'tutorial' is disguised as the best fight in the game.

Release Year: 2018Genre: Action-AdventureIntro/Tutorial Length: 15 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.6/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

A cold-open parachute drop into the jungle with a full briefing, a theme song, and a tutorial on camo and CQC woven into actual stealth gameplay against The Boss's crew. It's Kojima at his most operatic before you've even fought a real enemy.

Release Year: 2004Genre: Stealth-ActionIntro/Tutorial Length: 10 minSkippable: ✓Quality: 9/10

added by IJRin 4 rankingsMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Resident Evil 4

The village sequence where a chainsaw-wielding cultist chases Leon through a mob under a church bell is the horror genre's most efficient tutorial — you learn quick-turns, ammo conservation, and dread simultaneously. It's still the benchmark every RE game since has been measured

Release Year: 2005Genre: Survival HorrorIntro/Tutorial Length: 10 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

The Last of Us

Sarah's death in Joel's arms during the outbreak's first night is the sucker-punch that redefined what a game intro could emotionally cost you, teaching movement and stealth as an afterthought to grief. Twenty years later that opening still gets cited as the reason 'games as art'

Release Year: 2013Genre: Action-AdventureIntro/Tutorial Length: 15 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 13 rankings

Half-Life 2

Waking up on a train into City 17 under Dr. Breen's droning propaganda, getting harassed by Combine soldiers for jaywalking, is a masterclass in show-don't-tell dystopia. You learn to run, jump, and pick up cans while absorbing an entire oppressive regime's rules without a single

Release Year: 2004Genre: FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 10 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 8 rankingsHalf-Life 2

Bioshock

Surviving a plane crash only to descend in a bathysphere into the crumbling art-deco nightmare of Rapture, watching a Splicer get torn apart before you've fired a shot, sold the entire pitch of the game in eight silent minutes. 'Would you kindly' starts working on you before you

Release Year: 2007Genre: FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 10 minSkippable: —Quality: 9.1/10

added by IJRin 9 rankings

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Waking up bloodied in a train dangling off a cliff, climbing backward through a wrecked carriage while everything shifts and collapses, is the set-piece that made blockbuster games feel like summer movies. It's a flashback frame and a tutorial rolled into the single most quoted o

Release Year: 2009Genre: Action-AdventureIntro/Tutorial Length: 8 minSkippable: —Quality: 9/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsUncharted 2: Among Thieves

Titanfall 2

The 'Effect and Cause' chapter's tutorial with BT-7274 turns 'learn to double-jump and wall-run' into an actual bonding arc between pilot and Titan, complete with BT's deadpan one-liners. It's the tutorial that made people cry over a giant robot.

Release Year: 2016Genre: FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 20 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.8/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsTitanfall 2

Doom (2016)

There is no tutorial — the Doom Slayer rips his arms free from restraints and punches a demon's head off within the first ten seconds, and the message is instant: this game respects your time and intelligence. It's the anti-tutorial tutorial, and it's glorious.

Release Year: 2016Genre: FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 2 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.7/10

added by IJR

Dark Souls

The Undead Asylum demo teaches you to die, learn, and die again against a boss you're clearly not meant to beat yet, setting the tone for a franchise built on humbling its players immediately. No hand-holding, just a locked cell and a broken sword to figure it out with.

Release Year: 2011Genre: Action RPGIntro/Tutorial Length: 15 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.9/10

added by IJRin 7 rankings

Super Mario 64

Peach's castle grounds turned the 3D platformer tutorial into a playground, teaching triple jumps and camera control through open exploration rather than text boxes. It's the reason every 3D collect-a-thon since starts you in a hub world instead of a corridor.

Release Year: 1996Genre: PlatformerIntro/Tutorial Length: 10 minSkippable: ✓Quality: 8.5/10

added by IJRin 10 rankingsSuper Mario 64

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Escorting a handcuffed Joker through Arkham's gates while he needles Batman about the trap he's walking into is a tense, dialogue-driven tutorial that establishes detective vision and combat rhythm before the real horror show begins. Mark Hamill's Joker steals the intro before he

Release Year: 2009Genre: Action-AdventureIntro/Tutorial Length: 12 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.6/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsBatman: Arkham Asylum

Marvel's Spider-Man (2018)

Swinging across Manhattan toward Fisk Tower for a takedown that immediately turns into a full-building brawl is the tutorial that finally nailed web-swinging as pure joy, not just transport. You're mastering traversal and combat at once while the city itself sells the fantasy.

Release Year: 2018Genre: Action-AdventureIntro/Tutorial Length: 15 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.8/10

added by IJR

Half-Life: Alyx

Valve's return to Half-Life used VR's novelty as the perfect excuse for an extended, diegetic tutorial — every gravity glove trick and door-lock puzzle teaches itself through curiosity rather than prompts. It proved VR onboarding could be this game's whole first act and still fee

Release Year: 2020Genre: VR FPSIntro/Tutorial Length: 20 minSkippable: —Quality: 9/10

added by IJRin 5 rankingsHalf-Life: Alyx

Mass Effect 2

Opening with the Normandy getting torn apart and Shepard dying in the vacuum of space, only to be resurrected two years later, is a bold way to reboot a save-carrying sequel's mechanics and stakes simultaneously. It's a tutorial disguised as a funeral.

Release Year: 2010Genre: RPG-ShooterIntro/Tutorial Length: 20 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.7/10

added by IJRin 8 rankingsMass Effect 2

Grand Theft Auto V

The Ludendorff bank heist prologue lets you control three protagonists in a single tense job before the game even shows you Los Santos, teaching switching mechanics and heist structure through pure adrenaline. It's a flash-forward tutorial that makes the eventual open world feel

Release Year: 2013Genre: Action-AdventureIntro/Tutorial Length: 15 minSkippable: —Quality: 8.9/10

added by IJRin 8 rankingsGrand Theft Auto V