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Favorite Level in a video game

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I got the idea from this RPS article: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/28/best-game-level/

This is kind of a tricky question because your favorite level might not be from your favorite game. 

The first one that sprang to mind was the last level of Unreal II: The Awakening. Instead of a true final boss battle you are just trying to get off a ship that is about to crash into a star. The first time I played it I got into an escape pod with three seconds to spare, I remember being super tense. 

 

 

 

It is not my favorite level of all time, I will have to ponder this further.

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I think I'm stumped for this. To make it slightly easier I'll go with my favourite multiplayer map and say Summit from NS2.

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Sen's Fortress from Dark Souls. The real transition from 'oh I'm not wanted here' to 'oh Jesus I'm really not wanted here'. 

 

Other than that, the Damn level from Timesplitters 2 always sticks in my head as an amazing map. The scale is staggering, and the way it grows as you ramp up the difficulty is amazing. A really great, memorable level.

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The Tower of Latria from Demon's Souls is still one of the most oppressive, scary environments I've ever encountered.  And yeah, Sen's Fortress from DS1 is up there as well.

 

I have a real fondness for the run from the start of the game to the police station in Resident Evil 2.  That's a game that just dumps you into zombie infested streets, with crappy tank controls, a knife and a few ammo shots and expects you to figure it out.  Plus I ran that thing so many times to get it perfect to unlock some alternate costumes and weapons. 

 

Edited to add: The Napoleon level The Mailman level from Psychonauts as well, for the delicious absurdity of it. I retract the Napoleon level, if I had to pick just one from Psychonauts, it would be the Mailman.

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Magus' Castle from Chrono Trigger. Room 19 in Portal. The Mountain in Journey.

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Magus' Castle from Chrono Trigger.

 

For me, as much as I love Magus' castle, no other part of Chrono Trigger will ever top the portion that takes place in Zeal. That music still gives me the chills every time I hear it.

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Man, such a tough question.  It's really hard to pick from a list of some of the classics.  At any given time, it could be one of these:

 

  • Phendrana Drifts - Metroid Prime
  • Naval Yard/PRCS Wall Cloud - Deus Ex
  • Surface Tension - Half-Life
  • Mine Cart Madness - Donkey Kong Country
  • Bathhouse or Seoul - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
  • The Sandship - Zelda: Skyward Sword
  • BLIZZARD!!!, Yoshi's Island

It's funny though, it's hard for me to pick a favourite level from some of my favourite games of all time in Super Metroid, Zelda: LTTP or Illusion of Gaia.  Yet I would still have no trouble rating them as some of the best games I've ever played.  I'm sure I'm going to sit here all day, thinking of other awesome levels.

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For me, as much as I love Magus' castle, no other part of Chrono Trigger will ever top the portion that takes place in Zeal. That music still gives me the chills every time I hear it.

 

Funny enough, it's also the music that makes Magus' Castle for me.  It's just a few sombre tones, but it's incredibly eerie and effective.

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Funny enough, it's also the music that makes Magus' Castle for me.  It's just a few sombre tones, but it's incredibly eerie and effective.

 

Yeah, actually all the music in that game is pretty incredible and is an integral part of the experience. Yasunori Mitsuda may be one of my favorite composers of all time.

 

Another of my favorite "levels" is the segment in Chrono Cross where they reach the area that's frozen in time. It's so eery and full of mystery and again, is complemented really well by the music. I'm always bummed that nobody ever cared about Chrono Cross. It was a really good game and I played through it like half a dozen times in my later high school and early college years.

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I just remembered Anticitizen One - Half Life 2. The way that level opens, DOG on a rampage and an exciting little musical piece. It really did a great job building up to the nasty street fighting you would be doing until you reach the citadel. I played that level so much. The urban combat in HL2 was my favorite part.

 

 

Also Hoth - Star Wars Battlefront 2. They did a great job capturing the feel of the movie and making a fun level to play online or with bots.

 

Nevada Desert - Rainbow Six Vegas 2: After playing through most of the game with your two AI teammates you are suddenly on your own assaulting an Oil Refinery full of enemies. You have to change your tactics a lot to survive. When I played this level on the highest difficulty I was stuck for months on one spot, it was so rewarding to get past that and finish the level.  

This isn't exactly a level, but in the leadup to World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade there was a patch that had a one time demon invasion of major cities. I remember retaking Stormwind district by district with a mix of players of all levels, it was such a cool experience.

 

 

Surface Tension - Half-Life

 

Is that when the military showed up? Good stuff!

 

Facing Worlds

 

A classic!

 

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Omaha Beach (Single Player/Multiplayer)

 

I used to play that level all the time.

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The final level of Half-Life 2 Ep 2 is pretty great as well. And the Masquerade in Dishonored.

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The final level of Half-Life 2 Ep 2 is pretty great

I was going to say this too, but then I remembered my actual favorite part of that game, the ambush at the inn. I feel like that building was designed around the AI pathfinding so that no matter where you are something can sneak up on you.

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I really liked Waterloo World from Psychonauts. Almost every level in that game could be someone's favourite I'm sure, but that one has stuck with me because of the way it plays with scale. 

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Iziz in KOTOR 2. Dropping in via basilisk sending the population running in fear then proceeding to storm the Sith HQ on the world along the battlements.

So amazing. It's Jedi power trip at its best.

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Good question!

 

There are some levels from Doom which I'll probably never forget, like Mt. Erebus, and the first time you meet the Cyberdemon in The Tower of Babel. That's an extremely simple and quite plain level, but it absolutely terrified me as a kid. I would spend upwards of 20 minutes in the first (safe) room listening to the monster stamping around outside, just trying to pluck up the courage to go out and face it. That was tough.

 

Zombies on the SNES had some amazing levels, and some amazing names for those levels! Titanic Toddler was a pain in the arse to play, but a very cool idea. Mars Needs Cheerleaders was always fun and had great music. Dr. Tongues Castle of Terror had a lot of cool stuff going on - secrets galore, and some tough new enemies to try and beat/desperately flee from.

 

If Blighttown from Dark Souls can reasonably be called a level, then that. Encapsulates (almost) everything great about that game, in my opinion.

 

Probably more! I'll have a think and come back.

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I still can't think of any single player levels that strike me in the way that those multiplayer levels do! I am dumbstruck by this fact.

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Ocean House in VtM: Bloodlines

The Ocean Palace and Black Omen in Chrono Trigger (I love that people are coming up with so many different favorite areas from this game, a real testament to its imagination)

The Chapel in Symphony of the Night

The Phantom Train from Final Fantasy 6

 

... I dunno I can't think of anything else right now

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Overlord - MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries

 

Its the biggest battle in the game from what I remember. I wish there were more games like this, heavily customizable giant fighting robots, squad command FPS/sim.

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A lot of games I play don't really have sectioned out levels so I don't know how to answer that. But I guess I will pick Rayman 2's Cave of Bad Dreams.

There's not as much exploration as many of the other levels and it's pretty twitchy, but it was a fun diversion (it's a back track level, though required) and I generally like levels that ebb and flow with linear chase parts to open parts. Rayman 2 is still so amazing to me even though the controls and such are pretty dated.

 

Oh yeah and the end where you can choose to keep the gold and get the fake out Game Over had me cracking up first time through.

I really liked Waterloo World from Psychonauts. Almost every level in that game could be someone's favourite I'm sure, but that one has stuck with me because of the way it plays with scale. 

Yeah that was my favorite level (and sticks with me as one of the best) even though I'm not the biggest fan of Psychonauts. I think I heard on one of the Double Fine podcasts that something wasn't working or it was a initially very different and it was almost cut. I don't remember where I heard this so I might have it wrong. Maybe someone else can enlighten?

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Ocean House in VtM: Bloodlines

The Ocean Palace and Black Omen in Chrono Trigger (I love that people are coming up with so many different favorite areas from this game, a real testament to its imagination)

The Chapel in Symphony of the Night

The Phantom Train from Final Fantasy 6

 

... I dunno I can't think of anything else right now

 

Ocean Palace and Black Omen are so bittersweet for me. Some of the most tragic things and emotional moments in the game happen there but at the same time, I will forever remember Black Omen as the place where you periodically run into those snake/naga things that completely wreck your party if you aren't over-leveled a decent amount or if you haven't properly prepared for it.

 

Chrono Trigger would be such a great game for a group playthrough. There is just so much it gets right, I could probably bullshit about it for hours. I've been itching to play it again lately but I need to get around to replacing the save battery in my SNES Chrono Trigger cart. I could always boot up the PSone re-release but the load times were just too atrocious.

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Tempting...

 

Not that I have a problem with emulation, but I kind of feel obligated to play on my SNES. It just wouldn't feel quite right otherwise. Plus I hear it isn't really too hard to replace those save batteries. I just need to get a soldering iron and learn to not be terrible at soldering.

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