| BasilZero said: City Escape in Sonic Adventure 2. |
Oh yes, great choice, this might actually be it. The game as a whole is too uneven to really be great, but that first level is phenomenal. There are some other really good ones late in the game, but none that tops the opening level.
A bit similar to Sonic 1, which also suffers from uneven level design, but Green Hill Zone is definitely great.
Another game that has a great first level, but fails to keep the high quality throughout I think is Halo 4.
Then there are some games, that are just great throughout, but also happen to start on a high note - Doom (1993), helped a lot by the killer soundtrack, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, if it counts, has pretty great opening, it is a tutorial, that is a solid dungeon in its own right, with some storytelling in there, it is just long enough to get you used to the basics, without dragging in the least. Super Mario 64 has a great first level, that delivers on the sand box style gameplay from the get go. The Last of Us has a very strong prologue.
The openings for any of the first three God of War games are perfection, imo.
