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Favorite Level in a video game

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Is it weird that I don't know of over two-thirds of these levels? I'm 30 and all of a sudden I feel like I haven't played anything

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I remembered another good one, the arena level in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door. That game was generally a favorite of mine, but that level in particular stood out by having every fight be interesting and different. Plus the fact that you got to hang out with the other fighters in the locker rooms between matches.

 

On a related note, I never played the original because I didn't have an n64. Is there a good way to play that now? Was it ever released on virtual console or something?

 

Wikipedia tells me it's on the Wii/Wii U virtual console. Meeting a sketchier definition of "good", if you don't have a Wii, you can always download an N64 emulator for PC and the Paper Mario ROM.

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I played Paper Mario on the Wii Virtual Console and it was great.

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Is it weird that I don't know of over two-thirds of these levels? I'm 30 and all of a sudden I feel like I haven't played anything

 

Nah, there's a ton of them in here that I don't know.  I'm reading this and I'm like "Yes.  As long as there are no follow-up questions, I definitely played Halo :mellow:  "

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I'd probably know most of the levels if I saw them, but as it stands I don't recognize a lot because I was never the kind of person who learned the names of maps/levels so the name alone means almost nothing to me.

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Cleinhun, I beat Paper Mario last summer (maybe two summers ago now? Yeeesh...) on the Wii's VC. Felt good, no issues. Go ahead and pick it up. Works fine on Wii U too. One of my favourite games ever.

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I guess my favourite level is Thief 2's Shipping and Receiving level. As the game's second level, it introduced me to the concept of free-form, organic objectives and story lines outside of the critical path in a combat-averse stealth game. Up until that point I had largely been playing very focussed driving sims, and doom/duke nukem 3d, and then this level came along and said "Here's a large shipping yard with a bunch of guards. Steal some stuff to make this month's rent, don't kill anyone, don't get caught"

 

As a piece of level design I don't think it's all that special in comparison to what happened later in the game, or other games like it, but my experiences in that level became very influential in defining what I now prefer to play.

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This is interesting to me, because Shipping and Receiving is the level I stopped playing Thief 2 at. Not really a criticism of Thief 2, and I should probably go back and see if I react the same way now as I did then, but I didn't actually get past the opening set of crates, as I felt a really strong aversion to being anywhere in the open with the two immediately close-by patrolling guards. (In a sense, then, it's my least favourite level of Thief 2, but since I only played two of them, and only played a few moments of the second...). 

I've since completed Deus Ex: HR, and almost completed Dishonoured, so I think it's not so much the "fear of being discovered" as the relative helplessness which I felt I would have on discovery which caused this reaction - I get a similar reaction to trying to stealth in the original Deus Ex, though, so it can't simply be due to that.

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So, sure, intellectually, I know that the designers wouldn't make a map, one level into the game, where I couldn't just get past the guards by waiting until they're both walking away and then going past them.

Emotionally, I had such a strong aversion to leaving the safety of the crates that I spent about 15 loops of the guard patrol just sitting in the crates waiting, trying to psyche myself up to moving, and couldn't.

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I don't think I would ever go back to that level, but yeah, I had the opposite reaction to you. Then again, I was never that concerned by the guards. The giant spiders in that level though, they paralysed me out of fear. I took a lot of replays before I could comfortably go near that particular area.

 

Later levels in Thief 2 still stick out to me as being more closed off, but still incredibly well-designed heist missions. The bank robbery and mansion break-in are really good - but again, I don't think I could go back, those experiences are better off as nostalgic fragments of memory..

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Unreal Tournament: AS-HiSpeed

This was one of the assault maps where one team was defending an objective and another was assaulting. Someone already posted about the (awesome) train level from Outlaws. This too is a train level, only in a multiplayer environment. It was also one of the most direct in letting you know how far the assault team was in succeeding, but still allowed for those surprise drops from people climbing on the roof and entering train cars that way. Oh also you could fall off the train and instantly die.

 

Etrian Odyssey 3: The 5th Stratum

So while it's technically all one long dungeon, it's broken up into sections every few floors, and the last one (for story purposes) in part 3 was my favorite out of all the games thus far. Everything about it has a triumphant-return or home-coming feel to it. The aesthetic of the place isn't some crazy, outlandish castle or city or whatever; it's literally back in the original forest, but up higher. Most of the enemies are merely stronger versions of what you encountered at the start of the game. And the music reinforces it all. Plus, they introduce a black-out mechanic on the map that can really mess with you if you don't pay attention; which is to say, when you enter particular rooms, the map marker for where you and all the FOEs (crazy strong enemies) disappear. It's a mean middle-finger, and up 'til the most recent entry in the game it was the hardest exploration trick to overcome.

 

Lethal Enforcers 2: Gunfighters: The Train Robbery

What is it about trains? This is a shooter game and something about being on a horse and shooting fools that are on a train is pretty exciting. It was a simple scroll level but this game was pretty much hitting every western staple as far as settings go for gun fights. Only, obviously, way more guns and people involved and bullets flying.

 

Super Metroid: Brinstar

This isn't about the aesthetics of the area, but it's more or less the hub that links you between every area in the game (for the most part). On top of that, for speed running, it's one of the most critical places for getting things early or via bizarre trickery. A lot of the best time saving tricks happen here.

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Portal test chamber 16, the one with the turrets

 

It's just fun to fuck around with them

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A couple MP ones:

Quake 3 - The Longest Yard

 

I don't really have any overwrought justification for this one, I just think the map is a ton of fun. It's my favorite map in Q3A, perhaps simply because it was one of the Q3Test maps.

 

Halo 3 - The Pit

I think this is the best map in the best Halo game, 4v4 on this is fantastic. So many interesting sight lines, lots of cover to exploit, and probably the most competitive item spawns in Halo 3.

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Monaco: What's Yours is Mine - Discotheque Rouge

I'm pretty crazy about that game as it is but the disco club level is one of the best. Most of what you're having to deal with as far as 'security' goes is just the sheer amount of civilians present. I've written in the Idle Thumbs episode for this game before that you don't have to be 100% stealth-person to succeed at the game (and that's actually discouraged), and this level is more or less the best lesson in that. You can just run around being a crazy thief and shoving people around and who cares if people see you? Move around fast enough and you'll be hard to catch!

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Unreal Tournament: AS-HiSpeed

This was one of the assault maps where one team was defending an objective and another was assaulting. Someone already posted about the (awesome) train level from Outlaws. This too is a train level, only in a multiplayer environment. It was also one of the most direct in letting you know how far the assault team was in succeeding, but still allowed for those surprise drops from people climbing on the roof and entering train cars that way. Oh also you could fall off the train and instantly die.

Oh gosh that's an amazing level. I am shocked that I didn't include it when I was thinking through UT stuff. Assault was SUCH a cool game mode. I was really sad when it didn't show up in UT 2003. 

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Anachronox — Sunder

 

This is everything but a spectacular level. The airport part is even fairly repetitive. But it's all about establishing a wonderful atmosphere of tranquility and about the quirky exposition of an all scientist planet. In preparation for an emotional impact right at the end of the Sunder segment, of course. And of course, it introduces one of my favorite game characters ever as well.

 

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I can't believe I forgot this one. The original Hamidon raid in City of Heroes.

 

The raid wasn't that fun to actually do, but I love it because it was essentially a puzzle boss without prescribed solutions. The raid throws a ridiculously strong set of enemies at the players and challenges them not to win with sheer strength of arms, but with clever ways to mitigate the incoming damage. It took players weeks and four separate breakthroughs to figure the whole thing out, and the story of how the whole raid works is a great one.

Once the players finally beat it, the developers told us that we hadn't beaten it in the way they expected. We never did figure out what method the developers used. I still like to recall the raid and try to figure out how they might have done it differently.

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Personal favorite is Chapter 4 of MGS4.

 

Also think that Undead Burg and Anor Londo from Dark Souls may be the best levels from a design standpoint.

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Chrono Trigger's battle system is really something that needs to be revisited. It was pretty fun already, but if it leaned into the combo stuff, elemental magic and especially positioning, it would be truly great.

 

Basically, my ideal JRPG is a mashup of Chrono Trigger refined and Skies of Arcadia refined.

I just need to be Mr. I Grew Up With A Sega Genesis here for a moment; Phantasy Star IV did combo attacks before Chrono Trigger did. The positioning stuff though, yeah, that was a legit CT thing. Speaking of the Sega Genesis though, time to represent:

 

Beyond Oasis - The final dungeon

If anyone didn't play it, Beyond Oasis was a top-down action RPG that had a lot of puzzle elements to it. And literally elements. Basically your character was able to summon spirits from water, fire, plantlife, or shadows, and use those in combat or to surpass particular puzzles. And the final dungeon is a bit of a big culmination of that, testing your creativity in a lot of cases - throughout most of the game when you need an element to pass a puzzle or room, a source for that element is provided nearby. But in the final dungeon you have to rely on other sources, like you can summon the fire elemental from explosives enemies throw at you.

 

Gunstar Heroes - Dice Palace

Again if anyone didn't play it, first of all you should, but this game was a side-scrolling shooter that was goddamn bananas and fun. There's two characters you can play as; one lets you move while shooting, the other stays stationary while shooting but thus letting you aim more strategically. Both have their advantages throughout the game. Also, the weapons you pick up in the game can be combined with others for unique effects, like the flamethrower and laser creates what is essentially a lightsaber as long as you hold the trigger. ANYWAY, the Dice Palace is a part of one of the stages where you are put into a room with a board in the background and a single dice you throw. Each panel on the board takes you into a brief stage, most of them with a mini-boss you have to fight.

 

Gunstar Heroes - The Underground Mine

Yes this game again. The Underground Mine is unique in that you're on rails, and can transition from the bottom of the screen to the top by double jumping (both sides have electric rails). And some shafts that run top to bottom change that to transitioning from the left side of the screen to the right. But that's not what makes this stage great; it's all about the boss. The boss of this stage, a guy named Green, has several forms he will fight you in. If you're playing on easy you'll only take on three of those forms, chosen at random. As you go up in game difficulty though, not only are the attacks from the bosses getting faster / hit harder, you actually have to face more of them, culminating in having to fight all seven on the hardest difficulty. It is epic as fuck. Sorry for cursing so much but this game is too good.

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Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Chrono Trigger was the first game to do combo attacks. Just that those were my favourite part of the battle system.

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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.

 

Yeah, the ambush at the inn might be the most frantic and exciting moment I've experienced in a game. That was immediately what I thought of when I saw this thread.

 

Robert Yang wrote a great blog post on why the level "Assassins" in the original Thief is an amazing video game level: http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2012/07/thief-1s-assassins-and-environmental.html

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I have fond memories of that soup submarine in Mystical Ninja on the N64. I can't remember what it was like to actually play (maybe it was a royal pain in the arse) but it was weird, and came out of left-field and represented what I really love about that game

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