Bioshock
Bioshock throws you in headfirst, with a cigarette in your hand.
“They told me ‘son, you’re special. You were born to do great things,’” protagonist Jack tells himself as you watch him wave around his cigarette in first person, a position that sets you deep in his skull. “They were right.” But then the screen turns black. And everyone on his plane, which was just gliding sleepily over the Atlantic, is screaming. Then they’re stuck under bubbling ocean waves…what’s happening?
“BIOSHOCK,” the screen informs. Alive, Jack cuts through waves, and, with no other choice, wanders into an ominous building. He descends deeper into it until he finds the secret city of Rapture. But there’s no time to rejoice in his continued survival—Jack watches someone get ripped apart with fish hooks moments after seeing paradise. It’s a short, evocative, and chillingly memorable intro. Something for the 2023 haircut mood board, perhaps.
