The new Valve intro in its trailer for Artifact is pretty neat – and, as you’ll soon see, also looks really familiar to fans of a certain comic book company’s movies.
The beginning of the latest trailer for the studio’s latest game includes a brand new Valve intro that looks suspiciously similar to the one used by Marvel in its cinematic universe. A bunch of images showing off games from Valve’s catalog rapidly flash on the screen as the company’s logo slowly move in towards the center of the screen. The new Valve intro can charitably be described as “a homage” and less-charitably described as “a rip-off”.
The previous intro sequence used by the company featured an overweight bald man with a literal valve stuck in the back of his head. A thundering bass line was well-known in the gaming community for testing your volume levels as well as how full your bladder was. The first iteration simply featured a man with a valve over his left eye. Both of these gentlemen had been known as “Mr. Valve” or “The Valve Guy”.
Strangely, Artifact is a relatively low-key release to tack on a new intro. It’s a digital card game based on the world of Dota 2 made in collaboration with the card designer Richard Garfield. You might not be familiar with Mr. Garfield himself, but you’re almost certainly familiar with one of the card games he created: Magic: The Gathering.
While the new Valve intro certainly looks cool, it’s also a tad heartbreaking – we’re taken on a five-second tour of the entirety of Valve’s history. While it’s great to remember some of their finest digital games, it also makes for a sad reminder of all of the wonderful franchises that have effectively been abandoned. One can only hope that the new Valve intro is a sign that they’ll be developing more games so they can recoup their investment on the intro’s creation.
[via Reddit]
