Mass Effect 2 – Biggest earthquake? Death. Games with best beginnings and openin sequences

The invincible Normandy getting absolutely shattered within the first 15 minutes of the game was an utterly powerful moment.

If you've completed the prequel, the beginning of Mass Effect 2 was likely a very powerful moment for you. Throughout the first game, players got used to Commander Shepard and Normandy's invincibility. It was as strong a combination as Enterprise and Captain Kirk or Picard. So when in the first moments of the sequel, the undetectable ship comes under sudden attack from an unknown vessel, we're turned from predator to prey.

The sight of Normandy burning and our crew getting banged around the wreckage was as unexpected as it was unsettling. Then, towards the end of the catastrophe, right before the ship finally becomes decimated in a huge explosion, we enter a portion of the deck with a huge, gaping hole revealing a nearby planet, the soon-to-be graveyard of our state-of-the art ship, and the sounds of explosions and fires are smothered in the silence of the void – it is a moment to remember. From there, it goes downhill. Normandy explodes and Shepard, with his suit damaged, slowly suffocating, is lost in the nothingness of space. Then, there's silence again; the title screen appears, and the player, left in complete awe, knows not what to expect next.

1. Mass Effect 2 in our encyclopedia