Best first level to a video game
What in your opinion is the greatest first level in gaming? Some first levels are really effective and intuitive at teaching you how to play the game, some are giant cinematic experiences, some are super impactful and important to the overall plot, some just stick with you.
For my money, and for all the reasons I listed above, I dont know if we as a species will ever top the prologue of Metal Gear Solid V. Everything about it. The production value, the tension, the absolute batshit insanity if you go in blind the first time, its just a masterpiece. I recently replayed it after finishing the whole game, and the prologue actually feels like an entirely different game. MGSV is not a bad game at all, although it is unfinished no matter what anyone else is going to tell you. But as good as it is the quality of the intro is like that meme where spongebob spends all his time writing the first "The", like they spent so much time on this. If you still have an opportunity to play MGSV, go in absolutely blind, it is just as good today as it was nine years eleven years ago.
Another obvious contender in my mind is the horse cart to Helgen in Skyrim. its obviously iconic on many levels, it speedruns introducing you to the major civil war and dragon plot, its chaotic, it quickly teaches you the basics, and then it dumps you out in the world. I have spent hundreds of hours playing skyrim, and I somehow still get a little chill the first time I approach the exit to the cave and see the text "To Skyrim". And the way that the game clearly wants you to follow Ralof or Hadvar to lead you to the story is done so gently. Idk this one doesnt hold up as much overall as the phantom pain but it is still very well done.
What other first levels really stand out to you? Not really necessarily your favorite ones but ones that are really well made or well done.
Posted Apr 3, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC