Good Egg Galaxy

Bayonetta

Bioshock

Bioshock Infinite

Dive to the Heart - Kingdom Hearts

It's such a hook. It works both as a tutorial and an introduction to the deepest side of the game's lore. It provides a good amount of mystery to the player and sets up many questions about the nature of the world and the plot. It's thanks to the Dive to the Heart segment that people are willing to play through the Destiny Islands part later. They want to know what that was all a about.

It's just impossible to not mention the first Doom in a thread like this. I don't know if it's particularly good, but it's definitely good. However, I've definitely seen/played it enough times to not mention it here. Here, you can even play it in a browser: https://dos.zone/doom-dec-1993/ (it feels a bit janky in a browser but it's OK).

Agreed, that was the pinnacle of game intros.

For me it is mario 64 castle. Mostly because it was my first 3D game with analog. I was just blown away by the freedom of running around and exploring. The castle secrets were amazing too.

Crew Expendable for CoD 4 Modern Warfare was pretty epic!

Taking over the ship to then having it sink and you’re running sideways to extract since the ship is moving on its side, to jumping in the helicopter. Then watching the ship sink while the screen fades to black and the logo appears with this great espionage thriller music starts playing. Love it!

The coolest one is Bayonetta for me.

Besides some of the ones already mentioned, FF6 attack on Narshe and FF7 mako reactor bombing are pretty iconic to me

The Train opening of Uncharted 2 is pretty great

Megaman X's intro was pretty recognizable back in the day

And i love me some SOTN intro. What a fantastically cheesy iconic moment the whole "What is a man" dialogue is.

I did really love the opening level of Battlefield 1, with itsa sombere tone reflecting on the impact and cost of World War 1, followed by a demonstration of its brutality as you fight until you're overrun and see the epitaphs of the soldiers you played as.

It hits hard and brilliantly sets the tone for what follows.

"What follow is front line combat. You are not expected to survive."

I thought there was a thread on this very recently? I remember giving my usual response: The Great Plateau, The Great Sky Islands, and Bob-Bomb Battlefield.

To add: Sonic has an incredible track record when it comes to opening levels— Green Hill Zone, Palm Beach Panic, Emerald Hill Zone, City Escape, Emerald Coast, etc.