Cordeos

Favorite Level in a video game

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Glacier on ME3 MP - by far the fastest map for speed running, which means I've spent dozens of hours on it. 

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Maybe not my favorite level, because i'm a scrub and i suck at this level, but seeing it played well is mesmerizing.

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For multiplayer, Gasworks in Half-Life: Opposing Force. For me it stands out as the best example of this alternative FPS multiplayer experience I like that is very distinct from games that are actually played competitively. I loved playing this large map 1 on 1 which was quite slow, but always led to intense long-range sniper duels, laser traps and barnacle ambushes (yes, you could pick up and use the hanging barnacle monster as a weapon in OF). Somehow the layout combined with all the goofy OF weapons always caused people to try to outsmart others in interesting and funny ways.

 

I've found some footage here, however the people there play the map in a more traditional Quake-y manner because it's the vanilla HL version and there's a lot of players.

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Multiplayer map is Headlong from Halo 2. It never really came up much in match making but I loved it so much. Used to play it a lot in custom games with school friends and my uncle.

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For multiplayer, Great Bay Temple in Super Smash Bros. Melee. 

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I will always have fond memories of the Deserted Island from Monster Hunter Tri.

 

+1 to whoever said Carentan from CoD. Such a good map.

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Maybe not my favorite level, because i'm a scrub and i suck at this level, but seeing it played well is mesmerizing.

 

Oh wow. My immediate reaction upon seeing the thread title was stage one of Ikaruga, it's utterly perfect. A microcosm of simple and effective game design. I played little else for months, just gradually getting better at chaining, more confident about flitting in between tiny wee spaces, learning to absorb bullets for as long as possible before destroying enemies. And for no reason other than to see my score improve. I've never really been a shmup guy and no other game has made me obsessively chase a score like that but I have very fond memories of it and would rank it amongst my all-time top ten despite never having got past stage three on one credit.

 

Second choice is Flashback on the MegaDrive/SNES, the level where you do the Running Man-style gameshow to earn money for a ticket home. It's been twenty years but I can tell you the password for it is RSVP. The main game is great anyway but this level distills it into a series of individual encounters and puzzles with no backtracking or story bits or flab and I used to keep running through it trying to do it as slickly as possible for no reason other than it was great fun to pull it off perfectly and stylishly once you knew your way around.

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Of recent games I loved the Nova Scotia mission from XCOM: Enemy Within. Of course it only

Really works when you play it for the first time, and it helps if you aren't too tech'ed up. But that map only just felt like it was truly forefilling the potential of that game.

Other levels that stick in the mind are 'death from above' in CoD: MW (mainly because it was an exercise in God like destructive capability), the level in the tunnel from half life 2: episode 1 where you shine the light and Alex does the shooting and the level with the poltergeists in S.T.A.L.K.E.R, probably because I though it was an in game glitch before I realised that, no those things were meant to be where they were. Finally de_inferno from Counter Strike which remains my favourite CS map. Does that count as a level?

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On the original RockPaperShotgun thread, I nominated Ziggurat Vertigo (Quake E1M8) for the nostalgia and low-g deathmatch memories as much as the single-player design, and Cannon Fodder's Mission 10 Phase 4 ("If It Moves, Kill It") because it has a bunch nice Cannon Fodder tactics in it (getting enemies you can't kill to kill themselves with splash damage etc).

Every time I think about this, I think of a different map or level from a different game, though.

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Oh wow. My immediate reaction upon seeing the thread title was stage one of Ikaruga, it's utterly perfect. A microcosm of simple and effective game design. I played little else for months, just gradually getting better at chaining, more confident about flitting in between tiny wee spaces, learning to absorb bullets for as long as possible before destroying enemies. And for no reason other than to see my score improve. I've never really been a shmup guy and no other game has made me obsessively chase a score like that but I have very fond memories of it and would rank it amongst my all-time top ten despite never having got past stage three on one credit.

 

For another Treasure shmup, i love, love, love what they did with Gradius V:

 

 

This level always stood out to me as an especially cool and inventive stage.

 

if you're curious, the asteroid stage is another standout, especially its bossfight.

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I own that and I've never played it and having just watched that I have no idea why. Think I might finally set the PS2 back up this week.

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Yoshi's Island - Raven boss fight, Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy.

 

Yus! A million times yussss.

 

 

Multiplayer: Grid from Perfect Dark. Had some great stand-offs in the Matrix-esque lobby, and nothing felt better than blowing the glass floor out from under people.

 

So many great levels already mentioned! Nostalgiasm. 

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Is that when the military showed up? Good stuff!

 

A bit later!  Surface Tension comes right after Questionable Ethics, which is where Freeman makes it back to the lab complex after the ambush.  The military shows up first in "We've Got Hostiles!", a few chapters before.  

 

Surface Tension is the one that takes place almost exclusively outdoors, starting with the dam and ending with the air strike.  I love the variety of the environments and the variety of the dangers.  You face all kinds of enemies, there are good puzzles to solve, and it just generally has a good flow to it.  You feel close to escaping, but by the end of it, you realize you can't get out and you need to keep fighting through it.  By this point, you're capable enough to take on groups of enemies, so you feel confident, but not cocky.

 

Yoshi's Island - Raven boss fight, Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy.

 

 

Oh man, the Raven boss was amazing.  Such a simple idea, fixing the player as the reference point rather than the environment, and it was just fabulous.  One of the best boss fights I've played in gaming.

 

Hell's Kitchen from Deus Ex for all the reasons said in the linked article.

 

Come to think of it, all of the urban hubs in DE were a lot of fun.  There's a lot to do in NYC, Hong Kong has the canals with the creepy music and the mazes and the sense that something is hiding around a dark corner (not to mention the cool little escapade to Jock's apartment), and Paris had a wonderful tone of resistance and defiance to it.  It's also the only urban area with enemies that default to attacking you in a regular non-combat zone, so trying to subdue them without alerting the police was actually quite tough!

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First thing that came to mind was the Independence Day style level in Starfox 64 - haring around*, chasing stray enemies, it really felt like being part of bigger battle. It was just such there was no level select.

* that pun just slipped out

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Mine isn't a level, instead it's a boss fight in WoW. The 4 ponies (horsemen) fight in Naxxramas. (I never played it when in eastern plaguelands,only in WotLK) It is such a gratifying experience completing this fight, especially as a healer.

 

That was definitely a fun fight. Especially because I was a Hunter and it was my only chance to really tank something, or be useful in any way other than just blasting stuff.

 

If we're talking about WoW though, I want to bring up Ulduar. Hands down it's one of the best raids they've ever done. It was the biggest raid in the game at that point (and maybe even still the biggest). The boss mechanics were all really fun and unique, it was full of optional bosses, and the hard mode versions of each fight were actually part of the world instead of just being a toggle in the UI. It was the kind of scale and depth that all the raids should've had. Trials of the Crusader was a huge letdown after Ulduar.

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That was definitely a fun fight. Especially because I was a Hunter and it was my only chance to really tank something, or be useful in any way other than just blasting stuff.

 

If we're talking about WoW though, I want to bring up Ulduar. Hands down it's one of the best raids they've ever done. It was the biggest raid in the game at that point (and maybe even still the biggest). The boss mechanics were all really fun and unique, it was full of optional bosses, and the hard mode versions of each fight were actually part of the world instead of just being a toggle in the UI. It was the kind of scale and depth that all the raids should've had. Trials of the Crusader was a huge letdown after Ulduar.

 

Ulduar was the first raid I was a core healer for progression 10 mans and that was so fun. I would consistently top the DPS charts in the Flame Leviathan fight and then link overall dps charts the rest of the night as real DPS worked to make up the ground that the vehicle damage did, as it looked pretty silly for a holy priest to be at the top of the charts.

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I really like the hub area in Halo 3: ODST.  It's one of the few instances in Halo where I prefer playing solo.  I like the mood and atmosphere (gotta love smokey sax) as you wander the dark streets alone.  I also really loved the use of various elements to give you hints and warnings about what's around.  I liked the idea of the vignettes for each character as you find the various pieces of their gear in the hub, although I didn't really care for the actual side levels themselves.

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The Sword from Thief has already been mentioned, so I won't say much about it. Another game that had amazing, intricate, free-roaming levels was Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, but I think my favorite level from that one is a slightly less open one: Falling Ship.

I mean come on, what a ridiculous level. I almost couldn't believe that this was in the game the first time I played it.

Another memorable level is the nebula in Freespace 2. I love how mysterious everything feels. It's one of the few times FS2 recaptures the mystery of the original game.

Citadel Station from System Shock is one giant, intricate, very well conceived level. The elevators are sort of load screens, but you can go back and forth whenever you want, so effectively it's all one level and I love how the layout makes sense and matches up with how the station looks from the outside.

I don't know what was in the water at Lucasarts when they were making FPS games but the Train from Outlaws also blew me away with the fact that this was happening. I mean, it's hardly the most impressive thing in the world, but I had never been on a train or anything like that in a shooter!

The nightclub from Slave of God is a place I'll never forget.

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I don't know what was in the water at Lucasarts when they were making FPS games but the Train from Outlaws also blew me away with the fact that this was happening. I mean, it's hardly the most impressive thing in the world, but I had never been on a train or anything like that in a shooter!

The nightclub from Slave of God is a place I'll never forget.

 

Quoting you to embed the last two vids

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I have so many favourite levels, it would take me a while to think of all of them and long lists are boring. I love all the classic CS maps, but I have a special fondness for de_nuke because it's so unorthodox. It's from a time when people didn't understand what made a good map yet, and it's from one of the earliest betas which was a completely different game. Had it been introduced later in the game's life people would've torn it to shreds. Not because it's a bad map, communities aren't afraid to drop bad maps, but because it just plays so differently.

 

Another favourite of mine, that's basically the complete opposite, is Q3DM6. Specifically in CPM Clan Arena. That just flows so well, it's perfect for building up speed:

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Another game that had amazing, intricate, free-roaming levels was Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, but I think my favorite level from that one is a slightly less open one: Falling Ship.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fO1v7ML3D8I mean come on, what a ridiculous level. I almost couldn't believe that this was in the game the first time I played it.

It is honestly absurd that level was made when it was. Replayed through that a few years back and was shocked.

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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?

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