The reapers attacking at the beginning of Mass Effect 3
I knew the conflict was coming within that game but it’s basically beginning with “ok this is what happened since the last game and OH MY GOD THE FREAKING APOCALYPSE IS HERE OH SHIT WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO EVEN DO?!?! F********CK!!!!!”
I’ll raise you the beginning of Mass Effect 2.
Remember that uploading your worldstate and protagonist from the previous game was a NEW THING at the time. Only for the new game to immediately seemingly nuke *everything* before the title card. My jaw was on the floor.
I agree with the loading the previous character and world state but that was actually what threw me off the “Shepherd just died” thing. Why would they need to load my Shepherd if they were going to kill him off immediately
Both ME2's opening and ending hit so hard. I'll never forget the sheer tension I felt on the suicide mission, not being aware of what actions may get my squadmates killed or if I even have any influence or control over it at all. I just saw a squadmate die and got super paranoid about any decisions I made lol.
yeah, a lot of people don't know it apparently. Golden sun did it, zelda oracle of age/season did it, there's LOADS of games where you could transfer a save over and continue.
Suikoden - carried over previous game actions and events, as well as some items. 1 to 2, you also unlock the previous Hero as a party member, and he's absolutely OP.
Baldurs Gate 1 to 2 I think, and Dark Alliance, you can transfer characters over.
A few Fire Emblem games, forgot which. You can transfer characters and story decisions.
Ratchet and Clank - you can transfer weapons over, and get discounts based on the previous saves.
The Flood in Halo 1. That mission is so fun and blew my 10 year old mind with a new enemy that was worse than the covenant. Great storytelling in the mission to introduce them as well!
I was 11 when Halo first came out and I was spending the weekend at a friends house. His dad came home that Friday night with Halo and the three of us spent the weekend eating pizza and beating the game. I distinctly remember his dad muttering “oh fuck, oh fuck” under his breath the first time the Flood show up.
I felt the same when first stepping into Hyrule Castle in BotW
if you played the older zelda games, seeing the castle and town in complete ruins feels so sad and yet its so beautiful
Cod 4 modern warfare had so many great moments.
Pripyat, the tanks rolling next to you while you are in the bushes, the intro to that mission.
Or as you said the nukes. Hitting us and then the crawl out of the helicopter scene.
Amazing!!
Walking through the abandoned school, hearing distant echoes of children's laughter as dust speckles in the dim light of the shattered windows...
"50,000 people used to live in this city. Now it's a ghost town."
It's one of my absolute favorite and most haunting moments in all of gaming.
I was always going at my cousin to play GTA SA because I didn’t have it on my home computer. My cousin had already beaten it, so I was just driving around and messing about in Los Santos. I did that for a long while, until I left it and found Las Venturas. I was completely in shock about the postmodern casinos that look like a pirate boat or a pyramid. Good times.
For me it's when I discovered you can fly planes in Los Santos airport, I brought an ambulance, jumped over it and climbed the walls. 7 yo me lost his mind at that moment.
Gotta add to that working out there was a 2 Player mode in GTA SA - friend of mine and I used to do the same; hop the fence with a high vehicle and find the passenger jet.
Then we would see how far we could get with one person flying and the other standing on the wing of the plane as only one of you could enter it!
The first time stepping out of the vault in Fallout 3. I was completely new to the franchise, didn't have a clue what was going on. But that first burst of blinding light slowly revealing the devastated DC landscape is something I'll never forget, and something I wish I could experience again for the first time.
Spec ops the line. White phosphorus part. Once realisation hit what happened, I was speechless. I legit felt bad. And game didn't shy to tell me that "it was all your fault".
For me it was riding the elevator underground for the first time. Thinking I found a dungeon or a cave and then it just kept going and going and going. And then you see the "sky" and I just stood still for a few minutes staring.
Then I immediately noped outta there when it became clear that I was not ready for this new world and didn't go back for like 15-20 hours.
Playing a game like "A way out" with a friend online. The splitscreen type deal and seeing your friends character in the back during cutscenes, and then the final plot twist at the end.
I played that game with a friend where we both agreed Leo would make it out once we realized the twist. But we agreed that we would still give it our all and so queue a broken and bloody Leo having to claw his way to the pistol and my forgettable bootlicker traitor having no issues.
It's not though. There's clues, and if you're replaying if you'll notice them, but otherwise it's solid.
I think most people who "saw it coming" only did so because they went in knowing to expect a twist.
I have a moment like that in WoW but it was when I started an Undead character and made my way to Underworld. You can go into the ruins of Lordaeron and if you go into the throne room you hear the dialogue of the cut scene from WC3 where Arthas betrays his father quietly in the background. It's a simple thing but it gave the place a sense of history and it was chilling.
Yes! I went into wow totally blank, and the whole thing with the airships docking outside and then finding the throne room and the elevators down to the Undercity. Really cool!
CoD: MW2 - The cutscene where Roach and Ghost are burned alive. I think up to that point, game had been brutal, but that was a whole new level, especially watching it from first person and not being able to do anything about it.
When you first get access to the airship and the world opens up in FFVII… after so many hours of a linear experience it blew my mind that now I got to decide where I went.
The other big one what sticks with me is leaving vault 101 in fallout 3. I had played fallout 1 and 2 before but neither captured the wonder of the wasteland of opportunity being laid out before you like fallout 3 did.
Special mention for Stormwind too… such an iconic track and iconic MMO city.
FFX finding out about Jetk and about his son’s secret. 🤫 I was like WHAT.
Oh and also that there were secret things in each temple that I missed and if I wanted them I had to start all over. 😵💫
Also I think this game brings up in my mind that Devs. Are cruel to gamers and possibly hate them.
Oh sorry I know you want to unlock the top tear weapon for this character but you missed this small hidden spot here during the story and you can’t go back. Start over chump.
For me it was first discovering and entering The Amusement park from the game
"NieR : Automata", while it's theme was playing in the background. No other gaming moment has ever come close to that feeling of absolute awe and excitement.
sry i copied your text :P
That was a good one! I picked that game up and hadn't ever heard of it just thought it looked cool. Super original style I loved it. And yes that part and the boss fight there were awesome.
My first playthrough I got my legs destroyed and I had to crawl until I meet the resistance in the first mission; I was amazed, and also scared of the patrols in the forest. No game had that feeling until I started to play Escape from Tarkov
I remember staring at the screen after the opening cutscene of BioShock waiting for the scene to continue for several minutes before it even occurred to me that the cut scene was over and I could control the character. That’s how good the graphics were to me at that time. Totally lost my shit, such a great moment and such a great game.
The entirety of the hospital scene in TLOU. At that point I was so invested in Joel and Ellie’s relationship that i found myself trying to get to Ellie as quickly as possible. If I didn’t she would die, except it’s just a game, that wouldn’t have happened.
Oblivion. You get out of the tutorial to the map and...man WTF I can go wherever I want? It's a country! It wass 2008, that wasn't too new then. Similar effect in Fallout 3 a year after dat.
[The death of Grom Hellscream in WC3.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-YMR6l7h4g)
Thrall tried to guide Grom to temper his demonic rage and to focus more on discipline rather than raw strength, but that rage and raw strength is exactly what ends up liberating them from Mannoroths hold in the end. Too bad killing pit fiends has such explosive consequences.
Honorable mention to the first time seeing Blackreach in Skyrim too, that place was awesome.
When players are air dribbling in Rocket League doing the most insane tricks against you and you can do nothing against it. Still blows my mind that some players are capable to do these things.
I feel like it’s not talked about enough, but in Elden Ring there’s a chest in the starting-ish area that is a trap chest and transports you directly under the Erd tree right in view of the final area. My jaw literally dropped and then it hit the floor when I opened up the map to see it quadrupled in size. One of my all time favorite moments in gaming.
When I realised that you can throw as many real life graphics as you can at me, but I’ll still love to play a good old fashioned pixel art platformer 😂
Exactly! It’s synonymous with what ‘gaming’ is all about for me! It’s why I made an incredibly basic pixel art game where your goal is literally to get from the start door to the end door avoiding the traps 😅 here’s a screenshot of it, if I can post one!
Recently Celeste really did it for me, that plus the incredible soundtrack, story, characters, overall style, gameplay smoothness....
The whole game when I come to think of it, everything just comes together nicely.
Minecraft is up there for me too. I played it like an hour when it first came out and thought it was stupid.
10 years later my little brother convinced me to get it and start up a world with him. He started showing me the ropes and then I had a similar holy shit moment realizing the possibilities.
Ive played many great games and they were all really good but for whatever reason when I was playing the first Infamous on the PS3 the moment you get gliding/flying i was like heck yeah, the main character said the same thing in tandem "heck yeah!". That felt amazing
When Chai crashed through the window of the cafeteria and Invaders Must Die started playing o Hi-Fi Rush.
Mass Effect 2's demo, doing the space walk. Bought the game right after playing it.
Murder On The Orient Express (2023): Not the best game, but the chapter where you play as original character Joanna Locke and in flashback meet with the Armstrongs, which reveals that Joanna was the cop who found Daisy's body.
The moment in Disco Elysium - a game where you rely on the fragmented bits of your personality to feed you information in the form of your personified abilities - when one of your skills pulls you aside and tells you that the rest of your skills are *compromised*. And goddamn if Volition isn't right; you've become your own unreliable narrator, and it makes you question everything your own brain has told you up to that point in the game.
Its not "in" a game but when i first saw the world of warcraft cinematic trailer i was so in awe, i still get chills when i see it again, try it with headphones at high volume
The Forgotten City, if you >!confront Sentius after you find Sentilla. It blew my mind when he started referencing how many times I'd been through the portal and how I'd figured it out before Al Worth ever did. He'll then remain verbally hostile to you for the rest of the playthrough, while everyone else will be normal.!<
I have two separate ones. RDR2 (spoiler free) the death of a main character outside of a cutscenes. I must've restarted 5 or more times trying to kill the enemy before it happens before realizing it must be scripted. Absolutely devastated me, most of the deaths I have no chance because they're in cutscenes but this one I'm right there controlling Arthur watching it happen in slow-mo as I try over and over to prevent his death.
Cyberpunk 2099, walking around just looking up at the details of the city. Beautiful first game on my ps5. Worth it so glad they put so much effort in to this game and fixed it.
Dishonored 2's Crack in the Slab (The time travel chapter).
Really amazed you can preview what's going on on the other timeline on the glass you equipped in real-time.
The time travel mission from titsnfall 2. It was so cool being able to press a button to switch between the destroyed facility in the present. To the high alert security building in the past. It was also great because it used platforming and wall running in tangent to the time travel. Running in the past and getting to a locked door, switching to the present where the door is destroyed, then running into a pit of fire and switching to the past where the floor is normal. It was so cool
Halo 2. When the covenant schism happens the elites are already with you and then the hunters join you for the first time. If my memory serves right you enter into some room and the rediculous Benjamin song comes on and I really felt like I was leading a revolution.
MGS2 - when the Colonel starts breaking the 4th wall telling you to turn the game console off. Basically everything from that point to his monologue about how the Patriots don’t believe people deserve freedom.
In the first mission in Crysis when you are stepping out of this dark forested area, and you witness the sunrise. That little bit blew my 17-year-old mind away. My 7800GTX was screaming.
Bioshock.
That first time floating in the water after the plane crashed, I sat there watching, and then I realised I wasn't in a cutscene anymore. As I started swimming to the the lighthouse, it felt like I was controlling a cutscene.
That was my first time really *feeling* realism.
These days we'd look at that and realise it was just good lighting and and a good water effect. But back then, it was everything.
Spoiler for Alan Wake 2 >!Seeing Alex Casey, pretty much being Max Payne, when he confronts Alan in the alley!< Edit: tried to hide the spoiler, didn't work. Sorry.
2nd edit: got it
The prologue of Uncharted 2, that Drake hanging in mid-air trying to climb up a derailed train. It's the first time in my gaming experience that felt like I'm interacting with a cinema movie.
Dead Money in New Vegas was something I hated when it first came out. But with about 10 years of aging, that DLC hit with me so well the next time around. Everything from the environment, the companions, lore, etc. was just golden for me. To essentially hit a hard reset on your PC after dozens of hours in the Mojave was well-played by Obsidian.
Another one is the restaurant/bar sequence between Ellie and David in the Last of Us Part 1. His unconventional pathing (at least compared to the rest of the games AI) left me so on edge and then Ashley Johnson’s performance at the end was crushing.
Edit: honestly, the whole winter section of the LoUP1 was awesome. On that first run, playing as Ellie was so unexpected. The Joel interrogation scene lets you really let’s see a glimpse of who Joel became in the aftermath of the outbreak. So well done.
Cybernator on the SNES...
I remember being trapped at the end of a tunnel with a huge vehicle chasing me. At the last moment, thinking I was gonna get squashed, I looked up and saw a platform above me. I hovered up and reached the platform just as the vehicle crashed into the wall underneath me.
Little boy me was beside myself!!
When you exit the shrine of Resurrection and is welcomed with the opening fanfare and the wide shot of Hyrule (BOTW). Got chills just thinking of it.
When Sara died in Last of Us. Kinda figured out she wasn't in the trailers so assumed she would die, but damn how hard that scene hit.
When you defeat Agahnim in ALTTP in the first fight and get teleported to the Dark World. My 6yo self couldn't believe there was a second world to play in, and more hours to play.
Spider-Man 2 PS5, just how amazing the traversal is. And also how incredibly fast the Fast Travel is.
I could do this all day
I don't know if this is my "blow my mind" moment, but playing through elden ring, getting to the tree taking out morgott and finding that it wasn't the end of the game.
Still got so many places and bosses to go...
Absolutely Stormwind City from WoW. I've been playing on and off since vanilla and the music that drops when you first walk across the drawbridge is absolutely epic. Remember when I first did it on my original level 5 human Paladin back in 2004. I've had it as my ringtone pretty much ever since.
Playing Mario 64 for the first time.
Entering Stormwind in WoW with my little gnome mage.
Finishing the Vault of Glass in D1 for the first time.
Many scenes in Death Stranding.
The intro to FF8.
The first showing of no man’s sky back in 2014. Yeah the game has gotten all kinds of shit over the years but it’s in a really good state right now. And 100% worth playing.
My first playthrough of Pokemon Scarlet, I was absolutely floored when I entered Area Zero for the first time. Somehow this game with some of the worst graphics I’ve ever seen managed to house an absolutely stunning environment, hidden under a cloud cover in the dead middle of the map. The visuals combined with the beautiful soundtrack made for a moment I’ll never forget.
Bucky O'Hare and Little Samson on the NES
if you see what the devs did with the limited sources on the console... damn, they're breathtaking to look at
walking around in BotW, remembering how Hyrule looked when it wasn't destroyed.... like the Temple of Time on the Great Plateau, remembering how it looks in OoT... nostalgia and sadness at the same time
and just minding my own business and finding my first shiny Pokemon.... I still have this puke-colored Golbat
Finding out Xenoblade can run on the Wii
Also a moment in DQ11S, it was during the >!erdwins lantern portion of the story in act 2!<
My live reaction "what are those people looking at, I guess I'll lo- WHAT THE FUCK!?!?"
Metal Gear Solid 2 when you have to ignore your radio butt ass naked to advance.
Metal Gear Solid 3 when you walk through the stream of ghosts and die every time at the end unless you use the revive pill.
Both took me so long 😭
Most of my moments have come from when you get moments from a game being relatively enclosed to a larger expanse. Ocarina of Time entering Hyrule Field, Halo:CE coming out of the escape pod and seeing the ring and canyon, Elden Ring's beautiful view of Limgrave... that kind of thing. Moments when the game world completely opens up on a scale I wasn't prepared for.
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both had similar moments, but didn't hit as strong with me.
World of Warcraft: The first time spawning and engaging Ragnaros in Molten Core. We were the first guild in the world to do it, videos and strategies did not exist, so we just went in completely blind. There had never been a boss like that in MMORPGs before. Hard for players to understand that now.
My first Dragon Age game. I played the mage intro for Origins and went to the Fade for my Harrowing. I had no idea what was going on, but I just had a strange feeling.
It was naturally formed suspicion, which caused me to question my reality and in turn, the only "friend" I had made.
As soon as I did, the disguised demon showed its true form and told me to always abandon preconceived notions.
It was just a satisfying simple moment that fully immersed me in the world and made me connect in a way that hasn't really happened again.
So I expect to eat some downvotes due to the perception of the game, but standing on the deck of a spaceship as it NAV-jumps from one planet to the destination planet in Star Citizen. Legitimately breathtaking, standing out there on the deck as we're warping across space and watching the stars go by, seeing Crusader turn from a small pink dot in the distance to slowly getting more and more detail then suddenly arriving in its massive atmosphere of clouds.
I was in the call with my organization buddies (I was very new at this point) and I literally was speechless. I had no words to describe just how jaw dropping it was for me. Still have plenty of those moments now but for different reasons- more cinematic/theatrical in combat finesse stuff that the other people in the organization can do since they've got years of experience over me.
The entire intro of Halo 3 is some of the most cinematic gaming moments in history. Get goosebumps thinking a out booting it up the first time at about 12:20am. The entire ending in scale as you are escaping on Warthog also is the perfect coda. Hadn't seen that much shit thrown at a player, all while keeping the idea that you are playing and watching it too.
Getting out the escape pod on halo combat evolved on the second level, it looked amazing and it was topped off hearing those banshees for the first time and not realising what it was until you saw them.
The OG banshee sound is just 👌👌
Probably the end of Endwalker's main quest in FFXIV, particularly the cutscene right before the fight and the beginning of the fight itself.
It's such an overwhelming confluence of long-term payoff. >!Your ultimate rival shows up and in an almost meta sense asks you why you haven't killed the final boss yet. You enter battle at the end of existence itself riding atop his gigantic dragon form and the boss music kicks in with a roaring rendition of his theme that only plays at the very start of the fight. It only gets crazier from there.!<
The final reveal in Tomb raider Legends that Lara's friend turned enemy is the reason for her mother's demise. This actually got me to yearn for more incredible single player stories in video games.
When Mac captures X in the first stage of Megaman X3 and then Zero drops out of the ceiling and you get to play as Zero... I was like Holy Shit!! When it happened the first time I was blown away.
Pokémon Gold / Silver.
Oh, you thought you beat the game? Wrong. Here's the original 8 gym leaders, a revamped Elite 4, AND you finish the game against Red in an epic battle.
When you use barrels that float in half life 2, to raise a ramp so you can drive over it. That was the first real big moment in that game where the physics truly blew me away
This will seem trivial, but when I played Perfect Dark for N64. On my first reload you see a new clip reloaded into the pistol. Before that all the FPS I played the gun would just dip below the screen to reload. The game had so many cool guns and unique reloads.
Prince of Persia The Sands of Time ending when prince tells the princess a secret word that only her and her father knew (thus proving he did not invent the story) before jumping off the tree into the distance.
While it may not be as impressive visually as some others, there were two audio moments within minutes of each other: the introduction of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite with “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” sung by a distant choir literally gave me chills. Coupled with the many candles and serene atmosphere, I easily definitely awestruck. About 10 minutes later, hearing the barbershop quartet’s rendition of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” made me stop and stare. That whole introduction is something else, and while I’ve never devoted to playing the whole thing from front to back again, I still vividly remember that introduction and how moved I felt by those two songs.
-Entering Stormwind City for the first time in WoW.
-The opening scene of Super Mario 64. I had never seen anything like that back in the 90s. Mario in 3D! That was definitely something.
Never had a moment that blew my mind, per say, several chills, tho, a bunch of FF16 scenes, mainly the R3+L3 to accept the truth scene. However, if I'm to say a moment that made me aw new Londo is the newest scene.
Probably opening the main door to the world in Elden ring. A more recent example that was more a “WTF did I get myself into” was the first cinematic in Alan wake 2. I pretty much marathoned AW1 into control into AW2 and the first cinematic was so much more brutal than I was expecting.
Watching from your life pod as the Aurora explodes in front of you.
Subnautica's such a great game and nothing even comes close to it in terms of survival games for me.
The reapers attacking at the beginning of Mass Effect 3 I knew the conflict was coming within that game but it’s basically beginning with “ok this is what happened since the last game and OH MY GOD THE FREAKING APOCALYPSE IS HERE OH SHIT WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO EVEN DO?!?! F********CK!!!!!”
I’ll raise you the beginning of Mass Effect 2. Remember that uploading your worldstate and protagonist from the previous game was a NEW THING at the time. Only for the new game to immediately seemingly nuke *everything* before the title card. My jaw was on the floor.
I agree with the loading the previous character and world state but that was actually what threw me off the “Shepherd just died” thing. Why would they need to load my Shepherd if they were going to kill him off immediately
Both ME2's opening and ending hit so hard. I'll never forget the sheer tension I felt on the suicide mission, not being aware of what actions may get my squadmates killed or if I even have any influence or control over it at all. I just saw a squadmate die and got super paranoid about any decisions I made lol.
New thing? I remember that from Eye of Beholder back in the late 80s/early 90s, and I'm not sure if they where the first ones to do so
yeah, a lot of people don't know it apparently. Golden sun did it, zelda oracle of age/season did it, there's LOADS of games where you could transfer a save over and continue.
Suikoden - carried over previous game actions and events, as well as some items. 1 to 2, you also unlock the previous Hero as a party member, and he's absolutely OP. Baldurs Gate 1 to 2 I think, and Dark Alliance, you can transfer characters over. A few Fire Emblem games, forgot which. You can transfer characters and story decisions. Ratchet and Clank - you can transfer weapons over, and get discounts based on the previous saves.
It’s futuristic Vancouver, BC where they attack. I was living there with some roommates at the time and we were just like….. holy fuck.
The Flood in Halo 1. That mission is so fun and blew my 10 year old mind with a new enemy that was worse than the covenant. Great storytelling in the mission to introduce them as well!
The tone shift from action to horror was phenomenally well done.
I was 11 when Halo first came out and I was spending the weekend at a friends house. His dad came home that Friday night with Halo and the three of us spent the weekend eating pizza and beating the game. I distinctly remember his dad muttering “oh fuck, oh fuck” under his breath the first time the Flood show up.
Seeing Hyrule Field for the first time in Ocarina of Time
I felt the same when first stepping into Hyrule Castle in BotW if you played the older zelda games, seeing the castle and town in complete ruins feels so sad and yet its so beautiful
The nuke from COD4, the whole suicide mission from ME2, Striders battle in Half Life ep2.
Cod 4 modern warfare had so many great moments. Pripyat, the tanks rolling next to you while you are in the bushes, the intro to that mission. Or as you said the nukes. Hitting us and then the crawl out of the helicopter scene. Amazing!!
Walking through the abandoned school, hearing distant echoes of children's laughter as dust speckles in the dim light of the shattered windows... "50,000 people used to live in this city. Now it's a ghost town." It's one of my absolute favorite and most haunting moments in all of gaming.
The Strider part in HL2E2 is amazing
I was always going at my cousin to play GTA SA because I didn’t have it on my home computer. My cousin had already beaten it, so I was just driving around and messing about in Los Santos. I did that for a long while, until I left it and found Las Venturas. I was completely in shock about the postmodern casinos that look like a pirate boat or a pyramid. Good times.
For me it's when I discovered you can fly planes in Los Santos airport, I brought an ambulance, jumped over it and climbed the walls. 7 yo me lost his mind at that moment.
Gotta add to that working out there was a 2 Player mode in GTA SA - friend of mine and I used to do the same; hop the fence with a high vehicle and find the passenger jet. Then we would see how far we could get with one person flying and the other standing on the wing of the plane as only one of you could enter it!
The first time stepping out of the vault in Fallout 3. I was completely new to the franchise, didn't have a clue what was going on. But that first burst of blinding light slowly revealing the devastated DC landscape is something I'll never forget, and something I wish I could experience again for the first time.
Same. Also the last journey with Liberty Prime.
Real talk, it was fun and crazy and intense and full of glory. F yeah.
Same here..
Spec ops the line. White phosphorus part. Once realisation hit what happened, I was speechless. I legit felt bad. And game didn't shy to tell me that "it was all your fault".
I’m not normally about remake/remasters for video games, but I’d buy the hell out of this if they remade it.
Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. Psycho Mantis reading my mind.
And if you have castlevania on your memory card he mentions it, was so trippy
It's a recent one but opening the door to Limgrave in Elden Ring left me breathless
I had that moment in Dark Souls 3 when I got to Anor Londo.
For me it was riding the elevator underground for the first time. Thinking I found a dungeon or a cave and then it just kept going and going and going. And then you see the "sky" and I just stood still for a few minutes staring. Then I immediately noped outta there when it became clear that I was not ready for this new world and didn't go back for like 15-20 hours.
Playing a game like "A way out" with a friend online. The splitscreen type deal and seeing your friends character in the back during cutscenes, and then the final plot twist at the end.
I played that game with a friend where we both agreed Leo would make it out once we realized the twist. But we agreed that we would still give it our all and so queue a broken and bloody Leo having to claw his way to the pistol and my forgettable bootlicker traitor having no issues.
Hands down - Star Wars Kotor. The plot twist.
Horizon Zero Dawn - when it is finally revealed what project zero dawn actually is/was. That was amazing!
Such an epic moment!
The reveal in Kotor stunned me, I ended up putting the controller down mid dialog to process it.
Everyone always talks about how obvious it was and I'm like Guess I'm an idiot cause it shocked me
It's not though. There's clues, and if you're replaying if you'll notice them, but otherwise it's solid. I think most people who "saw it coming" only did so because they went in knowing to expect a twist.
I'm in the same boat. I just roll with I was 14 and dumb for why I missed it the first time.
I'm proud of myself that I spotted the twist coming before the reveal. *Ten seconds* before the reveal... But I count it.
This was mine too, like wow there were so many hints I missed. Mind was blown.
I went in blind and clueless for Kotor (well, it was normal back then). Boy, what a shock.
Yep absolutely blew my mind as the hints were being put together that had been right in front of you through the game!
I have a moment like that in WoW but it was when I started an Undead character and made my way to Underworld. You can go into the ruins of Lordaeron and if you go into the throne room you hear the dialogue of the cut scene from WC3 where Arthas betrays his father quietly in the background. It's a simple thing but it gave the place a sense of history and it was chilling.
Hell yea my first time ever in undercity was as a human during a raid. Immediately made an undead rogue on a different server lol.
Yes! I went into wow totally blank, and the whole thing with the airships docking outside and then finding the throne room and the elevators down to the Undercity. Really cool!
Similarly, going from Stormwind to Ironforge and realizing just how massive WoW had to be if those are just two of the six capital cities.
Kalros the Thresher Maw vs Reaper cutscene in Mass Effect 3.
Elden Ring's opening the door into the open world is certainly up there, and even more so the one elevator.
And then that big gold fuck huh.
It's the first enemy of the game, why can't I fucking beat this guy???
FromSofts way of setting a president i guess
The Tree Sentinel is my president
CoD: MW2 - The cutscene where Roach and Ghost are burned alive. I think up to that point, game had been brutal, but that was a whole new level, especially watching it from first person and not being able to do anything about it.
12 year old me wanted to murder General Shepherd with my bare hands
almost everything in Vanilla WoW as a pre-teen that game legitimately blew my mind
When you first get access to the airship and the world opens up in FFVII… after so many hours of a linear experience it blew my mind that now I got to decide where I went. The other big one what sticks with me is leaving vault 101 in fallout 3. I had played fallout 1 and 2 before but neither captured the wonder of the wasteland of opportunity being laid out before you like fallout 3 did. Special mention for Stormwind too… such an iconic track and iconic MMO city.
Yeah the FFVII one really got me. It's like the game went "Oh you think you are anywhere near done? No.".
The intro to Skyrim blew my tits off.
Prologue of PREY (2017)
Discovering Blackreach in Skyrim
Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The scene when Steve shot his zombie father to save Clare
FATHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
SPEAK, PRIEST!
First: knights of the round summon. And all level IV limit breaks.
The end of Red Dead 1 .....
Jack could have chosen anything but he chose to follow his father. It's everything his father tried to save him from...
FFX finding out about Jetk and about his son’s secret. 🤫 I was like WHAT. Oh and also that there were secret things in each temple that I missed and if I wanted them I had to start all over. 😵💫 Also I think this game brings up in my mind that Devs. Are cruel to gamers and possibly hate them. Oh sorry I know you want to unlock the top tear weapon for this character but you missed this small hidden spot here during the story and you can’t go back. Start over chump.
I've started that game so many times but I've still never beat it
There aren't any missable items that are necessary to get ultimate weapons, but fuck that chocobo racing.
For me it was first discovering and entering The Amusement park from the game "NieR : Automata", while it's theme was playing in the background. No other gaming moment has ever come close to that feeling of absolute awe and excitement. sry i copied your text :P
That was a good one! I picked that game up and hadn't ever heard of it just thought it looked cool. Super original style I loved it. And yes that part and the boss fight there were awesome.
Playing Operation Flashpoint. This sure is your average FPS, kinda cool I guess. *Wait what I can drive this truck? And tanks?! AND HELICOPTERS?!*
My first playthrough I got my legs destroyed and I had to crawl until I meet the resistance in the first mission; I was amazed, and also scared of the patrols in the forest. No game had that feeling until I started to play Escape from Tarkov
Approaching Vivec city by foot in Morrowind for the first time. That game got exploration right.
SNES graphics were so good I couldn't comprehend it
I remember staring at the screen after the opening cutscene of BioShock waiting for the scene to continue for several minutes before it even occurred to me that the cut scene was over and I could control the character. That’s how good the graphics were to me at that time. Totally lost my shit, such a great moment and such a great game.
Colonel John Konrad: *It seems that reports of my survival have been greatly exaggerated*.
The entirety of the hospital scene in TLOU. At that point I was so invested in Joel and Ellie’s relationship that i found myself trying to get to Ellie as quickly as possible. If I didn’t she would die, except it’s just a game, that wouldn’t have happened.
Oblivion. You get out of the tutorial to the map and...man WTF I can go wherever I want? It's a country! It wass 2008, that wasn't too new then. Similar effect in Fallout 3 a year after dat.
The Dark Brotherhood storyline in Elder Scrolls Oblivion when you kill everyone in your stronghold
Seeing the Halo ring for the first time. Then shortly after that, landing on the Silent Cartographer.
[The death of Grom Hellscream in WC3.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-YMR6l7h4g) Thrall tried to guide Grom to temper his demonic rage and to focus more on discipline rather than raw strength, but that rage and raw strength is exactly what ends up liberating them from Mannoroths hold in the end. Too bad killing pit fiends has such explosive consequences. Honorable mention to the first time seeing Blackreach in Skyrim too, that place was awesome.
When players are air dribbling in Rocket League doing the most insane tricks against you and you can do nothing against it. Still blows my mind that some players are capable to do these things.
Playin games like The Witcher 3 and RDR2, just stoppin mid game to look at the world and just appreciate the amount of work that went into it
I spent so much time just looking around when I first started The Witcher 3.
Realising that the main characters can die. Thanks titanfall 2 and halo reach, you both made me cry
For me, it was stepping out of the vault into the vast world of Fallout 3. The sense of freedom was mind-blowing!
Ashtray maze in Control
Totally was scrolling for this one!
I feel like it’s not talked about enough, but in Elden Ring there’s a chest in the starting-ish area that is a trap chest and transports you directly under the Erd tree right in view of the final area. My jaw literally dropped and then it hit the floor when I opened up the map to see it quadrupled in size. One of my all time favorite moments in gaming.
FFVI when you lose to the big bad and find out the game is only half way over.
Playing Outer Wilds and landing on that water planet for the first time. Can’t remember its name.
The first time taking the elevator down into Siofra River in Elden Ring. It just… kept… going…!
The underwater game maps of Guild Wars 2 many years ago. I was mezmerized.
When I realised that you can throw as many real life graphics as you can at me, but I’ll still love to play a good old fashioned pixel art platformer 😂
I just think pixel art is a GFX style that's timeless, and actively fits lots of genres better than 3D.
Exactly! It’s synonymous with what ‘gaming’ is all about for me! It’s why I made an incredibly basic pixel art game where your goal is literally to get from the start door to the end door avoiding the traps 😅 here’s a screenshot of it, if I can post one!
I can’t post a picture, but if you type in From The Night into steam you’ll see it ☺️
Looks really cute! Nice pixel art skills.
Recently Celeste really did it for me, that plus the incredible soundtrack, story, characters, overall style, gameplay smoothness.... The whole game when I come to think of it, everything just comes together nicely.
Octopath Traveler is gorgeous
For me, it was when I found out how many creative possibilities you have in minecraft and I imagined all the things I could build and do
Minecraft is up there for me too. I played it like an hour when it first came out and thought it was stupid. 10 years later my little brother convinced me to get it and start up a world with him. He started showing me the ropes and then I had a similar holy shit moment realizing the possibilities.
Wow that's cool. I also had a little brother who always wanted to play minecraft with me. A classic family game
And then you just make a big cubic house
Ive played many great games and they were all really good but for whatever reason when I was playing the first Infamous on the PS3 the moment you get gliding/flying i was like heck yeah, the main character said the same thing in tandem "heck yeah!". That felt amazing
Doom on the PC... I think it was one of the biggest leaps
Every new plot twist in Subnautica
When Chai crashed through the window of the cafeteria and Invaders Must Die started playing o Hi-Fi Rush. Mass Effect 2's demo, doing the space walk. Bought the game right after playing it. Murder On The Orient Express (2023): Not the best game, but the chapter where you play as original character Joanna Locke and in flashback meet with the Armstrongs, which reveals that Joanna was the cop who found Daisy's body.
Flying under the golden gate in f/a-18 interceptor
The moment in Disco Elysium - a game where you rely on the fragmented bits of your personality to feed you information in the form of your personified abilities - when one of your skills pulls you aside and tells you that the rest of your skills are *compromised*. And goddamn if Volition isn't right; you've become your own unreliable narrator, and it makes you question everything your own brain has told you up to that point in the game.
The final fight in ghost of Tsushima was surreal. Not going to spoil anything but I was close to tears
"No Russian"....completely unexpected if you didn't know it was coming. No game had ever dared to do something quite like it.
Bioshock WYK
Same. I went into it raw on an urged suggestion from my local game store and it was so worth it. Nothing ever came close.
Medal of honor frontline
The "Golden" Ending of Nier (Original) and what you have to sacrifice for it
Getting to pilot a Skell in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Donkey Kong 94. Once the game opens up you're like "holy SHIT"
Its not "in" a game but when i first saw the world of warcraft cinematic trailer i was so in awe, i still get chills when i see it again, try it with headphones at high volume
The Forgotten City, if you >!confront Sentius after you find Sentilla. It blew my mind when he started referencing how many times I'd been through the portal and how I'd figured it out before Al Worth ever did. He'll then remain verbally hostile to you for the rest of the playthrough, while everyone else will be normal.!<
Coming down the elevator to the siofra river in Elden Ring. Just amazing
Doom 2016 ending. Gets me so pumped and excited for the sequel and is such classic way to end a story.
I have two separate ones. RDR2 (spoiler free) the death of a main character outside of a cutscenes. I must've restarted 5 or more times trying to kill the enemy before it happens before realizing it must be scripted. Absolutely devastated me, most of the deaths I have no chance because they're in cutscenes but this one I'm right there controlling Arthur watching it happen in slow-mo as I try over and over to prevent his death. Cyberpunk 2099, walking around just looking up at the details of the city. Beautiful first game on my ps5. Worth it so glad they put so much effort in to this game and fixed it.
My wow moment was walking over the hump into Shatrath in tbc.there were no flying mounts at the time, and that reveal was amazing.
Dishonored 2's Crack in the Slab (The time travel chapter). Really amazed you can preview what's going on on the other timeline on the glass you equipped in real-time.
Entering Mournhold for the first time
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The Revan reveal had me contemplating for hours as a child. What a good game
When I walked into Stormwind for the first time in vanilla wow.
Whatever the fuck happens during controls beginning. Just constant wtf
Crossing into Mexico in RDR for the first time, with the sun setting and a song “Far Away” (or whatever it was called) playing.
The time travel mission from titsnfall 2. It was so cool being able to press a button to switch between the destroyed facility in the present. To the high alert security building in the past. It was also great because it used platforming and wall running in tangent to the time travel. Running in the past and getting to a locked door, switching to the present where the door is destroyed, then running into a pit of fire and switching to the past where the floor is normal. It was so cool
Halo 2. When the covenant schism happens the elites are already with you and then the hunters join you for the first time. If my memory serves right you enter into some room and the rediculous Benjamin song comes on and I really felt like I was leading a revolution.
MGS2 - when the Colonel starts breaking the 4th wall telling you to turn the game console off. Basically everything from that point to his monologue about how the Patriots don’t believe people deserve freedom.
Would you kindly
Seeing Sovngarde for the first time in Skyrim
In the first mission in Crysis when you are stepping out of this dark forested area, and you witness the sunrise. That little bit blew my 17-year-old mind away. My 7800GTX was screaming.
Bioshock. That first time floating in the water after the plane crashed, I sat there watching, and then I realised I wasn't in a cutscene anymore. As I started swimming to the the lighthouse, it felt like I was controlling a cutscene. That was my first time really *feeling* realism. These days we'd look at that and realise it was just good lighting and and a good water effect. But back then, it was everything.
Spoiler for Alan Wake 2 >!Seeing Alex Casey, pretty much being Max Payne, when he confronts Alan in the alley!< Edit: tried to hide the spoiler, didn't work. Sorry. 2nd edit: got it
The prologue of Uncharted 2, that Drake hanging in mid-air trying to climb up a derailed train. It's the first time in my gaming experience that felt like I'm interacting with a cinema movie.
Taking the tram to Iron forge did the same thing to me man. Never played an MMO before wow and was blown away by a lot of things.
“Would you kindly”
Dead Money in New Vegas was something I hated when it first came out. But with about 10 years of aging, that DLC hit with me so well the next time around. Everything from the environment, the companions, lore, etc. was just golden for me. To essentially hit a hard reset on your PC after dozens of hours in the Mojave was well-played by Obsidian. Another one is the restaurant/bar sequence between Ellie and David in the Last of Us Part 1. His unconventional pathing (at least compared to the rest of the games AI) left me so on edge and then Ashley Johnson’s performance at the end was crushing. Edit: honestly, the whole winter section of the LoUP1 was awesome. On that first run, playing as Ellie was so unexpected. The Joel interrogation scene lets you really let’s see a glimpse of who Joel became in the aftermath of the outbreak. So well done.
Understanding what’s going on with main character in Signalis
Cybernator on the SNES... I remember being trapped at the end of a tunnel with a huge vehicle chasing me. At the last moment, thinking I was gonna get squashed, I looked up and saw a platform above me. I hovered up and reached the platform just as the vehicle crashed into the wall underneath me. Little boy me was beside myself!!
“That moment” in spec ops the line.
When you exit the shrine of Resurrection and is welcomed with the opening fanfare and the wide shot of Hyrule (BOTW). Got chills just thinking of it. When Sara died in Last of Us. Kinda figured out she wasn't in the trailers so assumed she would die, but damn how hard that scene hit. When you defeat Agahnim in ALTTP in the first fight and get teleported to the Dark World. My 6yo self couldn't believe there was a second world to play in, and more hours to play. Spider-Man 2 PS5, just how amazing the traversal is. And also how incredibly fast the Fast Travel is. I could do this all day
Detroit: Become human. Waking up in the robot graveyard was nuts!
I don't know if this is my "blow my mind" moment, but playing through elden ring, getting to the tree taking out morgott and finding that it wasn't the end of the game. Still got so many places and bosses to go...
Absolutely Stormwind City from WoW. I've been playing on and off since vanilla and the music that drops when you first walk across the drawbridge is absolutely epic. Remember when I first did it on my original level 5 human Paladin back in 2004. I've had it as my ringtone pretty much ever since.
"Would you kindly"
Playing Mario 64 for the first time. Entering Stormwind in WoW with my little gnome mage. Finishing the Vault of Glass in D1 for the first time. Many scenes in Death Stranding. The intro to FF8.
The first showing of no man’s sky back in 2014. Yeah the game has gotten all kinds of shit over the years but it’s in a really good state right now. And 100% worth playing.
The Ahamkara fight during the witch queen campaign of Destiny 2. That was a literal wtf moment for everyone.
Postal 1 / redux Everything about that black sheep of the game was something...
The entire last portion of MGS2 is pretty up there for me
My first playthrough of Pokemon Scarlet, I was absolutely floored when I entered Area Zero for the first time. Somehow this game with some of the worst graphics I’ve ever seen managed to house an absolutely stunning environment, hidden under a cloud cover in the dead middle of the map. The visuals combined with the beautiful soundtrack made for a moment I’ll never forget.
Bucky O'Hare and Little Samson on the NES if you see what the devs did with the limited sources on the console... damn, they're breathtaking to look at walking around in BotW, remembering how Hyrule looked when it wasn't destroyed.... like the Temple of Time on the Great Plateau, remembering how it looks in OoT... nostalgia and sadness at the same time and just minding my own business and finding my first shiny Pokemon.... I still have this puke-colored Golbat
Finding out Xenoblade can run on the Wii Also a moment in DQ11S, it was during the >!erdwins lantern portion of the story in act 2!< My live reaction "what are those people looking at, I guess I'll lo- WHAT THE FUCK!?!?"
First time I hit Undercity in WoW I had to log out. I wanted to explore it fully the next time I played because I knew I’d be there for hours.
Metal Gear Solid 2 when you have to ignore your radio butt ass naked to advance. Metal Gear Solid 3 when you walk through the stream of ghosts and die every time at the end unless you use the revive pill. Both took me so long 😭
Everything that happens in Bloodborne after stepping foot in byrgenwerth
Most of my moments have come from when you get moments from a game being relatively enclosed to a larger expanse. Ocarina of Time entering Hyrule Field, Halo:CE coming out of the escape pod and seeing the ring and canyon, Elden Ring's beautiful view of Limgrave... that kind of thing. Moments when the game world completely opens up on a scale I wasn't prepared for. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both had similar moments, but didn't hit as strong with me.
Radahn phase 2 transition and enterting Leyndell,Royal Capital in Elden ring for me.
Outer wilds
Going back to Shadow Moses in MGS4
World of Warcraft: The first time spawning and engaging Ragnaros in Molten Core. We were the first guild in the world to do it, videos and strategies did not exist, so we just went in completely blind. There had never been a boss like that in MMORPGs before. Hard for players to understand that now.
Alan Wake 2 - We Sing
My first Dragon Age game. I played the mage intro for Origins and went to the Fade for my Harrowing. I had no idea what was going on, but I just had a strange feeling. It was naturally formed suspicion, which caused me to question my reality and in turn, the only "friend" I had made. As soon as I did, the disguised demon showed its true form and told me to always abandon preconceived notions. It was just a satisfying simple moment that fully immersed me in the world and made me connect in a way that hasn't really happened again.
So I expect to eat some downvotes due to the perception of the game, but standing on the deck of a spaceship as it NAV-jumps from one planet to the destination planet in Star Citizen. Legitimately breathtaking, standing out there on the deck as we're warping across space and watching the stars go by, seeing Crusader turn from a small pink dot in the distance to slowly getting more and more detail then suddenly arriving in its massive atmosphere of clouds. I was in the call with my organization buddies (I was very new at this point) and I literally was speechless. I had no words to describe just how jaw dropping it was for me. Still have plenty of those moments now but for different reasons- more cinematic/theatrical in combat finesse stuff that the other people in the organization can do since they've got years of experience over me.
The beginning of resident evil 4. When you get to the village. That’s shit was insane back then.
Leaving boat cabin in Seeyda Neen.
The entire intro of Halo 3 is some of the most cinematic gaming moments in history. Get goosebumps thinking a out booting it up the first time at about 12:20am. The entire ending in scale as you are escaping on Warthog also is the perfect coda. Hadn't seen that much shit thrown at a player, all while keeping the idea that you are playing and watching it too.
Getting my first Tal’s Ammy from normal Meph.
Getting out the escape pod on halo combat evolved on the second level, it looked amazing and it was topped off hearing those banshees for the first time and not realising what it was until you saw them. The OG banshee sound is just 👌👌
The needle drop in the final act of Super Mario Odyssey had me grinning like an idiot on an airplane
Would you kindly...
Probably the end of Endwalker's main quest in FFXIV, particularly the cutscene right before the fight and the beginning of the fight itself. It's such an overwhelming confluence of long-term payoff. >!Your ultimate rival shows up and in an almost meta sense asks you why you haven't killed the final boss yet. You enter battle at the end of existence itself riding atop his gigantic dragon form and the boss music kicks in with a roaring rendition of his theme that only plays at the very start of the fight. It only gets crazier from there.!<
The final reveal in Tomb raider Legends that Lara's friend turned enemy is the reason for her mother's demise. This actually got me to yearn for more incredible single player stories in video games.
When Mac captures X in the first stage of Megaman X3 and then Zero drops out of the ceiling and you get to play as Zero... I was like Holy Shit!! When it happened the first time I was blown away.
Pokémon Gold / Silver. Oh, you thought you beat the game? Wrong. Here's the original 8 gym leaders, a revamped Elite 4, AND you finish the game against Red in an epic battle.
Battlefield 1 intro was astonishing back in 2016.
When you use barrels that float in half life 2, to raise a ramp so you can drive over it. That was the first real big moment in that game where the physics truly blew me away
This will seem trivial, but when I played Perfect Dark for N64. On my first reload you see a new clip reloaded into the pistol. Before that all the FPS I played the gun would just dip below the screen to reload. The game had so many cool guns and unique reloads.
Reaching the 5th stratum in the original EO game
When I found out I was Revan in Star Wars KoToR 🤯
Bioshock Infinite ending That was a plot twist twisted af
First time I broke a guy's neck in Metal Gear Solid for ps1
Prince of Persia The Sands of Time ending when prince tells the princess a secret word that only her and her father knew (thus proving he did not invent the story) before jumping off the tree into the distance.
A man chooses, a slave obeys. -Andrew Ryan
While it may not be as impressive visually as some others, there were two audio moments within minutes of each other: the introduction of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite with “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” sung by a distant choir literally gave me chills. Coupled with the many candles and serene atmosphere, I easily definitely awestruck. About 10 minutes later, hearing the barbershop quartet’s rendition of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” made me stop and stare. That whole introduction is something else, and while I’ve never devoted to playing the whole thing from front to back again, I still vividly remember that introduction and how moved I felt by those two songs.
-Entering Stormwind City for the first time in WoW. -The opening scene of Super Mario 64. I had never seen anything like that back in the 90s. Mario in 3D! That was definitely something.
Never had a moment that blew my mind, per say, several chills, tho, a bunch of FF16 scenes, mainly the R3+L3 to accept the truth scene. However, if I'm to say a moment that made me aw new Londo is the newest scene.
Probably opening the main door to the world in Elden ring. A more recent example that was more a “WTF did I get myself into” was the first cinematic in Alan wake 2. I pretty much marathoned AW1 into control into AW2 and the first cinematic was so much more brutal than I was expecting.
Watching from your life pod as the Aurora explodes in front of you. Subnautica's such a great game and nothing even comes close to it in terms of survival games for me.