While I don't think the example used is the greatest, I see where you're going with this. A screen from BioShock or Fallout 3 may have worked a little better.
As for me, I'll take the subtle clues to a backstory over a trite explanation of the happenings any day of the week. Let the viewer figure things out over time and on their own. Movies like A New Hope or Children of Men are perfect examples of how the viewer/player doesn't need longwinded exposition to start enjoying something right off the bat. Games like Portal or BioShock (at least the first half of the game) also do a good job of this. Things can be slowly unraveled over time and through visual cues instead of lengthy dialogue (Kojima being, by far, the worst offender in the industry when it comes to this idea).
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