VOGONS


First post, by mombarak

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I always loved cut-scenes and intros because I saw them as reward for playing. Most of the time they added to the atmosphere and were another pushing element to move forward in the game. But, as always, some games did a really good job and others... not so much.

Awesome
- The Horde: catches the goofiness of the game great and has some nice cliche actors.
- C&C 1: Not so much the intro but all the great cut-scenes
- Blizzard games but everyone knows
- Stupid Invaders: there is a slot of great slapstick in the whole game

Not so great:
- Blood: Although the game is great and the atmosphere is awesome, the cut-scenes are just ridiculously cheap looking, especially when comparing to Duke Nukem 3D or other games of the era.
- FarCry 1: They look almost as bad as the entire movie and make almost no sense.
- Heroes of Might and Magic 3: It pains me to say but they look sooo bad. The games is awesome, although I prefer Heroes 2 because I do NOT like this "end of the 90s everything needs to be rendered style" because it ages very badly. Heroes 2 still looks cool.

Reply 1 of 20, by st31276a

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

There is something to be said about a game character that keeps quiet.

Valve figured that one out - Gordon stays quiet through the entire half-life series and that is good.

Unreal, on the other hand, was rushed out in 1998 with a quiet character, which imo contributes to the enigma around the game. (It provides latitude for different personalities to identify with the undefined parts of the character in different ways)

Then, when they had some more time to make Return to Na Pali they had time on hand to introduce cut scenes at the end of levels with all sorts of annoying yapping going on.

This contrast into regression makes these cut scenes the worst ones for me.

I agree the rendered stuff that does not look like the game do not age well.

Best cut scenes are like the end of level things in duke3d just showing stats and stuff.

Reply 2 of 20, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Final Fantasy 8 had an amazing opening cutscene for its time.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 3 of 20, by leileilol

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

GOOD!!!
Fallout
Full Throttle
Gooch Grundy's X-Decathlon
GTA2
Klingon Academy
MegaRace
LA Blaster
Outlaws
Out of this Another World
Sam &ampersand; Max: Hit The Road
Starship Titanic
Syndicate
Toons Truck
Top Gun Fire at Will
Total Annihilation
Under a Killing Moon
Wetlands
Wing Commander IV
Who Shot Johnny Rock?

BAD!!!
Burn/Cycle
Eradicator
Fork in the Tale, A
Fox Hunt
Frogger 2 Swampy's Revenge
Harvester
William Shatner's Tekwar
Spectre VR/CD
Star Trek: The Next Generation: a F U
The Town with No Name

UGLY!!!
Hell, a Cyberpunk Thriller
Flintstones Bedrock Bowling, The
Maabus
Dukes of Hazzard Racing for Home
Strife
Thunder in Paradise Interactive

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 5 of 20, by gerry

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I think several of the early C&C games are pretty much unbeaten for fmv type cutscenes

for game engine cutscenes i think GTA3/VC/SA are all high quality and memorable

leileilol wrote on 2025-09-16, 11:02:

William Shatner's Tekwar

so much Shatner in fmv 😀

Reply 6 of 20, by gaffa2002

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Good:
X-COM UFO Defense
Last Bronx

Bad:
Timeslaughter (so bad its good type of intro)

LO-RES, HI-FUN

Reply 7 of 20, by mombarak

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
leileilol wrote on 2025-09-16, 11:02:
GOOD!!! Fallout Full Throttle Gooch Grundy's X-Decathlon GTA2 Klingon Academy MegaRace LA Blaster Outlaws Out of this Another Wo […]
Show full quote

GOOD!!!
Fallout
Full Throttle
Gooch Grundy's X-Decathlon
GTA2
Klingon Academy
MegaRace
LA Blaster
Outlaws
Out of this Another World
Sam &ampersand; Max: Hit The Road
Starship Titanic
Syndicate
Toons Truck
Top Gun Fire at Will
Total Annihilation
Under a Killing Moon
Wetlands
Wing Commander IV
Who Shot Johnny Rock?

BAD!!!
Burn/Cycle
Eradicator
Fork in the Tale, A
Fox Hunt
Frogger 2 Swampy's Revenge
Harvester
William Shatner's Tekwar
Spectre VR/CD
Star Trek: The Next Generation: a F U
The Town with No Name

UGLY!!!
Hell, a Cyberpunk Thriller
Flintstones Bedrock Bowling, The
Maabus
Dukes of Hazzard Racing for Home
Strife
Thunder in Paradise Interactive

I need to try lots of these. I do not remember Dukes of Hazard being so bad...

Reply 8 of 20, by theelf

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
leileilol wrote on 2025-09-16, 11:02:
GOOD!!! Fallout Full Throttle Gooch Grundy's X-Decathlon GTA2 Klingon Academy MegaRace LA Blaster Outlaws Out of this Another Wo […]
Show full quote

GOOD!!!
Fallout
Full Throttle
Gooch Grundy's X-Decathlon
GTA2
Klingon Academy
MegaRace
LA Blaster
Outlaws
Out of this Another World
Sam &ampersand; Max: Hit The Road
Starship Titanic
Syndicate
Toons Truck
Top Gun Fire at Will
Total Annihilation
Under a Killing Moon
Wetlands
Wing Commander IV
Who Shot Johnny Rock?

BAD!!!
Burn/Cycle
Eradicator
Fork in the Tale, A
Fox Hunt
Frogger 2 Swampy's Revenge
Harvester
William Shatner's Tekwar
Spectre VR/CD
Star Trek: The Next Generation: a F U
The Town with No Name

UGLY!!!
Hell, a Cyberpunk Thriller
Flintstones Bedrock Bowling, The
Maabus
Dukes of Hazzard Racing for Home
Strife
Thunder in Paradise Interactive

Wait, when you say Strife, are you talking about this trife???¿?¿?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRD9323hjNQ

Reply 10 of 20, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
leileilol wrote on 2025-09-16, 11:02:

GOOD!!!
GTA2
MegaRace

I agree GTA 2's into was interesting, but it always felt disconnected to the game. It would have been a better intro for GTA 1 IMHO
MegaRace was also one that came off the top of my head.

GTA3,VC, SA were the first that came to mind as was C&C/RA1 Definity, even the installer is great.

Original Prince of Persia, but then that whole game is masterclass in story presentation.

Need for Speed Porsche and below, especially the earlier ones with the real cars but 4 and Porsche were still ok I thought.

Terminal Velocity's into added no real benefit to the game.
Same for Dark Reign, but that was forced on them last minute by management (I suspect true for most games around that time)

I found Quake 3's amusing. Intro's and storyline are unnecessary, but if you insist fine, this crosses both off.

Was never much of a fan of RTS's that used the game for cutscenes like AOE, or Empire Earth. Don't know why but it just felt cheap.
Even preferring warcraft 1 &2's very basic cutscenes (Which I do enjoy)

Reply 11 of 20, by sunkindly

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Some particular intros that immediately come to my mind:

Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Quake 2
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
The Witcher 1
Star Wars: Tie Fighter
Star Wars: Rebel Assault
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
No One Lives Forever

Reply 12 of 20, by mombarak

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I love this thread. I am watching more and more YT videos of these games. Thanks for these great recommendations.
Another gem is Shogo which has this awesome asian mech culture influence and the dialogues are so weird.

Reply 14 of 20, by bertrammatrix

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

C&C Tiberian Sun - could have ran as a standalone b grade cable miniseries, reminds me of Stargate SG1 and similar

Owtlaws - touching, very well done

Clive Barker's Undying - bizzare, whacked, leaves more questions then answers and more often then not does not help you understand the storyline

Reply 15 of 20, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Can I add a few more intro's after also watching some of above on youtube and making me think of others

Duke Nukem 2
Halloween Harry/ Alain Carnage
Zone 66

Reply 16 of 20, by mr.cat

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

IIRC Syndicate's intro was ripped from Logan's Run.
Wasn't a bad game but I think I liked that intro more than the actual gameplay tbh 😁
Logan's Run was made into a TV-series too, so if you're into Fallout maybe check that out (it's a similar premise).
Keep in mind that's 70s television, set your expectations accordingly 😁
AFAIK there's no real connections between these though, other than providing some inspriration.

Reply 17 of 20, by Hoping

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-16, 10:15:

Final Fantasy 8 had an amazing opening cutscene for its time.

I can't remember how many times I started a new game of Final Fantasy VIII just to watch that video, before the YouTube era, of course.
The intro to Final Fantasy VIII was more mature and serious than others, just like the game itself.
In fact, I'm currently playing Final Fantasy VIII again.
Final Fantasy IX (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5DcaC68Mjc) and Final Fantasy X-2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2e4_XChGwA&l … A&start_radio=1) are the next ones I liked the most at the time, although these didn't have a PC version until much later, as we know.

I didn't skip the ones for Full Throttle and The Dig, either.
But since Final Fantasy VIII, I've always preferred JRPs. JRPGs have always had well-crafted intros; in this genre, you have to look harder to find bad intros than good ones I think.

Reply 18 of 20, by BaronSFel001

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II deserves a place of honor: all greenscreen with B-list actors at best, but it IS LucasArts and the opening cutscene with the first real lightsaber duel since 1983 makes one want to get through the first levels ASAP to start Kyle Katarn wielding his.

System 20: PIII 600, LAPC-I, GUS PnP, S220, Voodoo3, SQ2500, R200, 3.0-Me
System 21: G2030 3.0, X-fi Fatal1ty, GTX 560, XP-Vista
Retro gaming (among other subjects): https://baronsfel001.wixsite.com/my-site

Reply 19 of 20, by Kerr Avon

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

If you'll allow a game released in 2005, then on the original XBox, there is a game called Unreal Championship 2, it's an Unreal Tournament type game, and it's really good. I mention it, because it's the first game I can remember where the cutscenes are inferior to the in-game graphics (though not noticeable enough to make me thing it was intended to be that way).

Also on console, Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001) on the Nintendo 64 had some excellent, hilarious cutscenes, made in the game engine, and the whole game felt (as it was meant to) like a cartoon, only with 'adult' humour that was emphasised all the more by the contrast between the adult themes (drunkenness, sexual allusions, corruption, death, vampires and other horror tropes, etc) and the cute cartoony graphics.

On PC and consoles, XIII (2003, NOT the 2002 remake) did a great job of making it's cutscenes (and actual gameplay) look like a comic book.

All three of these games, by the way, are really good.