History FirstContact / VideoGames

* Inverted in the first three ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' games, in which we focus on an alien species who learns that they are not alone in the Universe.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', background information reveals that years before the start of the story, humanity's first contact with an alien civilization nearly lead to full-scale war with the turians, an event referred to as the First Contact War. The casualties on both sides of the war have caused a great deal of animosity between both species. It was basically a perfect storm of ValuesDissonance, PoorCommunicationKills, and plain terrible judgement: a turian peacekeeping patrol found a human fleet of merchant ships opening a mass relay--something that's illegal by Citadel law, though at the time, humanity didn't even know the Citadel existed or had laws to follow. Because the act of randomly opening mass relays led to a costly BugWar in the past, rather than peaceful diplomacy, the turian patrol opened fire on the merchant ships, destroying all but one that got away. Several relatively minor skirmishes led to the Turians capturing the human colony of Shanxi and then themselves being caught by a human response fleet. It was at this point that the ''other'' Council members stepped in and pretty much diplomatically smacked the Turians upside the head for shooting before explaining themselves, apologized, and offered to let the humans join the Citadel the right way. Humanity's first contact being a war (albeit a small one by interstellar standards) has led to some mistrust between them and the rest of Citadel; the violent first impression the Turians made has led to multiple hardline human groups considering ''all'' aliens to be existential threats to humanity, and Citadel races who don't know the full context of the war tend to think of humans as aggressive interlopers who pick fights with everyone.
** Played with in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' with the geth. In the previous game, all the geth Shepard and company thought were worshipers of the Reapers, but as we come to learn from Legion, [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch they make up a minority of all geth, with the mainstream geth just wanting to be left the hell alone]]. Legion was created to act independently of the geth consensus in order to make contact with Shepard, and if Shepard lets Legion join his/her crew, it becomes the first geth to make peaceful contact with a human, as well as the first since their war with the quarians to make peaceful contact with any organic. [[spoiler:If Legion survives into ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', this becomes an important turning point for the geth, as Legion and Shepard's first meeting allowed them to start considering peaceful coexistance with organics.]]

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', background information reveals that years before the start of the story, humanity's first contact with an alien civilization nearly lead to full-scale war with the turians, an event referred to as the First Contact War. The casualties on both sides of the war have caused a great deal of animosity between both species. It was basically a classic example of PoorCommunicationKills coupled with an inability to communicate and horrible judgment: a turian peacekeeping patrol found a human fleet of merchant ships opening a mass relay--something that's illegal by Citadel law, though at the time, humanity didn't even know the Citadel existed or had laws to follow. Because the act of randomly opening mass relays led to a costly BugWar in the past, rather than peaceful diplomacy, the turian patrol opened fire on the merchant ships, destroying all but one that got away. Cue a short but heated conflict in which the number of casualties was altogether very low for an interstellar war, but still impactful. The First Contact War also allowed humanity to prove its military prowess despite having absolutely no experience with space combat. Hostilities ended when the Citadel Council stepped in and reprimanded the turians for shooting before asking questions. From this, humanity took its first steps onto the galactic stage.

* As mentioned under Literature, ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' doesn't have nice first contact. "Hello, our Prophets say that you are abominations to all that is holy. Our Gods demand your genocide." It goes downhill from there until ''VideoGame/Halo2'', set some twenty-seven years later.

* As mentioned under Literature, ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' doesn't have nice first contact. "Hello, our Prophets say that you are abominations to all that is holy. Our Gods demand your genocide." It goes downhill from there until ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', set some twenty-seven years later.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', background information reveals that years before the start of the story, humanity's first contact with an alien civilization nearly lead to full-scale war with the Turians, an event referred to as the First Contact War. The casualties on both sides of the war have caused a great deal of animosity between both species. It was basically a classic example of PoorCommunicationKills coupled with an inability to communicate and horrible judgment: a turian peacekeeping patrol found a human fleet of merchant ships opening a mass relay--something that's illegal by Citadel law, though at the time, humanity didn't even know the Citadel existed or had laws to follow. Because the act of randomly opening mass relays led to a costly BugWar in the past, rather than peaceful diplomacy, the turian patrol opened fire on the merchant ships, destroying all but one that got away. Cue a short but heated conflict in which the number of casualties was altogether very low for an interstellar war, but still impactful. The First Contact War also allowed humanity to prove its military prowess despite having absolutely no experience with space combat. Hostilities ended when the Citadel Council stepped in and reprimanded the Turians for shooting before asking questions. From this, humanity took its first steps onto the galactic stage.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' with the geth. In the previous game, all the geth Shepard and company thought were worshipers of the Reapers, but as we come to learn from Legion, [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch they make up a minority of all geth, with the mainstream geth just wanting to be left the hell alone]]. Legion was created to act independently of the geth consensus in order to make contact with Shepard, and if Shepard lets Legion join his/her crew, it becomes the first geth to make peaceful contact with a human, as well as the first since their war with the quarians to make peaceful contact with any organic. [[spoiler:If Legion survives into ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', this becomes an important turning point for the geth, as Legion and Shepard's first meeting allowed them to start considering peaceful coexistance with organics.]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'':
** The Andromeda Initiative's first meeting with the angara plays with the trope. At first, it ''seems'' like first contact between the bold explorers and the twitchy locals... only for the aliens to speak comprehensibly in English, because they've already ''met'' some humans. The idea is explored with the angara having wildly different opinions. Some are nervous (since the last alien species they met tricked them, and have spent the last eighty years trying to kill them), some overjoyed, some suspicious, some [[FantasticRacism violently disgusted]], and in one case, thinking humans made themselves look more "familiar" so as not to freak the angara out.
** Also approached with the kett. On first meeting, Ryder tries to look friendly and non-threatening, as the kett shout and beat another member of Ryder's scouting party for no identifiable reason, then open fire on Ryder and Liam. Later on, when Ryder has a chance to talk with one of the Andromeda Initiative's leaders, they'll ask what the plan for First Contact was. The person they ask retorts that Initiative expected someone who'd want to talk back, not just kill them on sight.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', first contact with aliens leads to a war with the turians, which is then dubbed the 'First Contact War' (though this happens several decades before the start of the game). The casualties on both sides of the war is the cause of much conflict between turians and humans. It was basically a classic example of PoorCommunicationKills coupled with an inability to communicate and horrible judgment. The turians found a human merchant group of ships opening a mass relay--something that's illegal by Citadel law, but also something that humanity would not know of. Because randomly opening mass relays led to a costly BugWar in the past, the turian patrol opened fire on the merchant ships, but one got away. Cue a short but heated conflict in which the number of casualties is altogether very low for an interstellar war, but allows humanity to prove its military prowess despite having absolutely no experience with space combat. Hostilities ended when the Citadel Council stepped in and reprimanded the turians for shooting before asking questions, and allowing humanity to step into the greater galaxy in peace.

* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'', humanity's first official contact with sapient alien species (the Scrin) occurred during the middle of the [[PhlebotinumWar Third Tiberium War]] between the Brotherhood of Nod and the Global Defense Initiative. Since the first [[AlienInvasion action of the Scrin]] is to [[KillEmAll attack every human encountered]], neither of the two human superpowers bothered to communicate and [[HumansAreWarriors just add them to their target list]]. [[EarthIsABattlefield While still fighting each other]]. It should be noted, though, that humans do fire the first shot, when Acting Director Boyle orders the [[KillSat ion cannon]] to target the incoming alien craft, but the Scrin weren't planning on chatting anyway.