If I'm being 100% honest with myself, this opening is perhaps the greatest achievement of the I Expect You To Die franchise in my opinion. I am constantly blown away by how incredible the whole thing is; the song itself by Puddles Pity Party is one of my favourite songs of all time, I listen to it constantly whether I'm at college, out on a walk or just shopping I've got this thing on repeat.
The way it's from the perspective of John Juniper, the main villain of the second game, who you'll be facing off against gives it this feeling of having a personal beef with Juniper before you've even met him. Like a rivalry is born between you, the player, and the villain right away just by how vindicate and snide the lyrics are and how they're directed at you. The first opening had a similar type beat with an unseen antagonist berating you, but in that case it was (and still kind of is) a little vague as to who was actually singing. In this case it's undeniable who you're meant to defeat and just how effortlessly it sets up the central gimmick of Juniper and his sadistic narcissism it's just so good.
It's especially interesting how Juniper seems to want Pheonix to act as their co-star in a way, talking about their battle of wits like it's a production they're playing their respective roles in; that being the hero and the villain. (Curious how Juniper seems to view himself as a villain, at least he's semi self aware, I guess) It acts in contrast to the first game's song in which it's clear the singer thinks nothing of you, here Juniper really seems to want to share the spotlight with Pheonix.
The visuals are incredibly memorable, where the first game used red, black, and white as its three colour atheistic this game uses green, gold, and black and I love how both tell you something about the villains; red used in the context of Zoraxis is a violent and sinister colour with connotations of blood whereas green and gold bring to mind wealth and privilege. Green also has a sickly connotation, like while Juniper is incredibly well off, he's also unwell and has a toxic relationship to his own status and sense of ego.
I also love the use of classic symbols associated with film and the theatre all throughout this opening, it almost feels like each of these title sequences step into the mind of the villain and you get to see their perspective of you and of the world. For Juniper, that's a world of adoring fans who are blind to his true intentions, all except for you. It almost feels like a classic "We're not so different) kind of thing except a bit more subtle. My favourite visual in the whole thing has to be the nukes flying towards Earth that's just so unbelievably cool.
I just absolutely adore this opening, and while I think the opening to Cog in the Machine has improved visuals, this game has a banger of a song that will go down as one of the all time greats in spy media. It's amazing how they took arguably the best part of the first game and made it 100× better in every way. It evokes images of classic spy films like Goldfinger and the whole vibe is impeccable.
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