• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Jaw Dropping Moments in Games

Red Dead Redemption - First trip into Mexico over that song

Mass Effect - Stepping outside on the citadel

Mass Effect 2 - the whole intro

Deus Ex Human Rev. Preview Build - It's Deus Ex
 
I think there has been a thread like this before, but i will never forget the first time i saw...

Just Cause 2 sky-diving. My mouth literally dropped and i might have even drooled a bit. The game looked fucking amazing and i was getting vertigo from the pure kinetic bliss of rico flying through the air. I made sure to buy the game day one and did.
 
I'll just stick to a recent one as I don't quite find my jaw on floors as much as it used to.

Portal 2, when you make start making your escape attempt. I felt a genuine rush of adrenaline when that happened out of nowhere.
 
uncharted2_1.jpg


Uncharted 2: Opening Train level
 
Taking that first look/step into Hyrule field was pretty full on for me.

Fighting the Hydra in God of War. At the time I literally yelled "Holy FUCK!"

Stepping onto Halo for the first time after landing

Sonic Adventure Orca run.

First moment in Gears of War.
 
Fallout 3: Leaving the vault and being overwhelmed by the size of the map, then I continued to get lost in the capital wasteland for weeks.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Visiting Throwback Galaxy and saying hello to old friends. Retrogasm!
 
God Of War 2: Seeing the colossus roaming around the level, going inside his body, and taking him apart from the inside. Insanely cool.
 
Oblivion/Fallout 3- Leaving the cramped starting area and being exposed to the world. I've had friends who quit less than 30 minutes after that because they couldn't get over the overwhelming feeling.

God of War 3- The Chronos fight and the beginning of the game were both amazing. I was really impressed to see that being pulled off with those graphics on ancient console tech.

Just Cause 2- The entire game.
 
I'll go with a semi-recent one and SPOILER FOR TFU2:

Dropping the ship on Kamino and the chaos that ensues.
I mean yeah, the game was short but it's a great ride.
 
First time approaching Afterlife in ME2. WHOA.
 
KOTOR: The plot twist

FFX: Zanarkand for the first time and the Sin Spawn battle and overdrives for the first time.

Elder Scrolls IV: The demos shown before the game released. The forest shown for the first time along with Todd saying "This was not possible in our previous generation". My jaw was dropped. The scene was perfect, the forest, the animals running around, the music...
 
nomoreheroesendrh5.jpg


The whole goddamn ending, from the Henry fight to this picture to the credits music to the after credits scene.

And to repeat some of the other ones:

Baten Kaitos: Kalas turning on everyone (Best. Twist. Ever.)
BioShock: Would you kindly?
Okami: Orochi wasn't the end
Portal 2: Seeing old Aperture Science
Fallout 3: First time leaving the Vault
Assassin's Creed II: Just playing it for the first time blew me away. I hadn't played AC1, so I really had no idea what I was getting into.
 
There are tons that I love but 2 of my Favorites come from Fallout 3.

The first time you exit the vault after the intro parts amazed me, the light blinding you when you first step out of the vault and you see that everything around you is a wasteland!

Also when you go to Megaton and the end of the main questline that goes through the town.
Blowing up Megaton and seeing that mushroom cloud while sipping my wine with the old dude was AWWWESOME!
 
Tutorial of Demons Souls.

Finding out there are two maneaters, in Demons Souls.

Building up confidence and then facing Tower Knight. In Demons Souls.

Being shocked by those monster in 3-1 for the first time.

Finding out red just wiped out my entire Elite team in Pokemon.
 
Holy shit how could I forget "Would you kindly?"

My jaw literally dropped. My mouth was open for minutes. I was blown away.
 
Second area of Journey.
Everything in Shadow of the Colossus.
The windmill in ICO.
The end of the 3rd level in Flower.
The ending of Braid.
The almost everything in Uncharted 2.
 
BioShock - Would You Kindly?

That moment made my spine tingle and no matter how many times I replay that game (which is a lot) it always makes me grin.
 
A few months ago when a fellow gaffer posted a link implying "Squall is dead".

Reading the content of that link and thinking back on the game floored my jaw. A must read for people who dislike the story, Squall's personality and the orphanage scene. I don't have the link but a Google search should help.
 
Final Fantasy VII - Leaving Midgar and realizing that there is a whole world to explore beyond the city. Also, compulsory mention of Aeris' death scene. Especially if you didn't know it was going to happen.

Shadow Of The Colossus - The bird colossus. I guess it was the same scenario for everyone, but I looking up at him thinking how for the life of me I was going to get on it. And then that slow realization as it was swooping towards me - I HAD TO JUMP ON IT! Such a thrill.

Fear Effect - Chapter 3 at the whore house, where everything goes horribly wrong.
Two of the three controllable leads meet grisly ends, with Deke getting horribly slaughtered by the brothel owner, though the killer moment was seeing Glas step out of a room just after a boss battle and having his arm sliced off by the villain, lying in a pool of his own blood and quietly weeping.

Heavy Rain - The game is packed with standout moments, but
the shootout with Shelby at the mansion was a highlight for me. Yeah it's outrageous, and you really have to suspend your disbelief when witnessing a tubby, middle-aged asmatic gunning down waves of bodyguards with the balletic grace of Chow Yun Fat in a John Woo movie. But the scene is firmly rooted in pulp all the same, and there's such a sense of triumph in seeing Shelby exact his own dose of revenge...I just couldn't help but love it.

Red Dead Redemption -
John Marston being mercilessly gunned down by the government agents he'd been the errand boy for throughout the duration of the game. It left me genuinely upset.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories -
Being stuck in a sinking SUV and watching the whole thing play out in realtime from a first-person viewpoint.
The game was rarely scary but that moment instilled very real panic in me. Ingenious stuff.

Sonic Adventure - Sonic pursued by the killer whale. Obligatory.
 
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow had a ton of moments like this. Like when you walk up to the frozen castle or when you're climbing the mountains.

Also Portal 2
the basement labs of Cave Johnson, awesome
 
This probably comes across like me being wilfully obscure, but the first time I fought Xiga at the end of Radiant Silvergun, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The graphics, the music. My jaw hit the goddamn floor.

More recently, the entire first hour of Bioshock. Sold me on the HD era.
 
Deadly premonition - the extent of his scar... You know what I mean if you've played it through...


OOT - remember being pumped at ganons final reveal...

Also suicide run in ME2.
 
Final Fantasy X - SIN battle head on.
Super Mario RPG - Finally beating the final boss after so many tries.
Final Fantasy XI - Finally beating the Shadow Lord but made it better with friends that came with me.
Red Dead Redemption - ='( you know which.
Halo - beautiful scenery on a ringed world. I love it.
 
Clock Tower 3 - Corroder's entry. Freaked the hell out of me back in the day.
Phantasy Star Online - Fighting pretty much any of the bosses for the first time ever.
Odin Sphere - The final two Armageddon Book battles are the stuff that dreams are made of.
Super Mario Galaxy - Way too many to mention, but using the Red Star for the first time sticks out most.
ICO - That bit inbetween when you start the game and when it ends.
 
I would have to say...

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots -
Crawling through the microwave in Outer Haven... such an emotionally engaging and hard to watch scene let alone play. Absolutely blew me away."

Final Fantasy VII - Aerith...

Mass Effect -
Driving around on the Moon (Luna) and coming out of a crater and seeing a beautiful bright Earth.

Killzone 2 -
Taking the bridge. The visuals, the amazing music, the sheer volume of shit happening on the screen just made my jaw drop. Still one of the most amazing moments ever for me.

Red Dead Redemption -
Crossing into Mexico.. specifically when Jose Gonzales "Far Away" fades in.
 
The twist near the end of Silent Hill 2.
James killed his wife.
That threw me for a loop back in the day.
 
taking off some free shareware disk from a magazine I bought and installing this Doom game I've never heard about. Then seeing this

HIFYv.jpg


it was amazing.

Apart from that it could only be the original MGS2 trailer
 
Portal 2 Ending is the most recent one.

Mexico + Ending + REAL ending... Hell the entire game of RDR.

Bunch of set pieces in Bulletstorm

Halo Games
 
CoD4 Nuke.
and Portal 2's
shooting the moon
. Also, when I realized I would never see Sonic Adventure DX's true ending/final boss because, well, fuck big the cat's levels.
 
the only times I can think where I was taking a back by something in games was

Portal 2 ending.

MGS4 Microwave hallway.

GTA 4 "that special someone"


Portal 2 was awesome and clever and a real "fuck yeah" moment

MGS4's was tense as any game moment had been for me and I was pounding that triangle button like crazy.

for GTA4.... I dont know I guess all the planets aligned and that moment really worked for me. in game I remember there was a lot of rain and a lightning storm when I did that mission and it really added something to the whole thing. When your driving home and Nico turns the radio off and you just here the rain hitting against the car it was really..... something.
 
Battlefront 2 space battles- I remember thinking how awesome it was that you could fly to the other teams mainship and sabotage it from the inside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rJ_JLb2cHE

Red Faction Guerilla demo- When you get that mech and can literally run right through a building... I remember booting that up whenever a friend came by just to show them something awesome.
http://youtu.be/xBscUBEpLas?t=2m6s

Battlefield: Bad Company demo multiplayer- I have never seen a better demo than this. Running through a building with a tank seemed so impossible for a game to pull off...
 
PSO
First time you encounter the Dragon boss.

Heavy Rain
"Invincible Scott"

Shining the Holy Ark > Shining Force 3
Realizing that Julian was the little boy in the Enrich capital
 
A jaw dropping moment for me (it's probably been mentioned to death) is the opening boss fight in God of War 3. I'm fighting ghouls off while on the back of a Titan! Then I proceed to fight Poseidon as I'm on said Titan's back. The sense of scale is epic.
 
Top Bottom