Notable game levels of this generation

nokori3byo

nokori3byo

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Okay, so the last 12 months have seen a slew of tripple A titles, many of which have been touted as some of the best ever. Some of these games deserve the praise, but the vast majority are only good in parts. Even exceptional titles like Bioshock often don't manage to spead high quality across the whole 20 hour plus gaming experience, but serve them up in pockets of brilliance, that make me and other like minded players appreciate them more as a whole.

What are some of the stand out areas/chapters/levels for you?
 
Some hater DooM 3, but i thought the entirety of Delta Labs was exquisitely creepy and entertaining. There are some parts, especially the first chapter, that I think about when I'm not even doing anything related to gaming.
 
Three Leaf Clover - GTA4

All Ghillied Up - COD4

Those are the first two that come to mind.
 
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - the last level with the teleports, around the actual reactor.
Bioshock - Arcadia. Fort Frolic was funner to play, but the level design wasn't anything to write home about.
Portal - the whole game. It probably has to do with the fact that you interact with the levels in a different manner entirely.
Tron 2.0 - the fCON mobile server engine.
Painkiller - Hell. The level design was pretty wide open, but it's depiction of historical/future war zones frozen in time really wowed me.
 
AmishSlayer said:
All Ghillied Up - COD4
Click to expand...

Agreed. One of my favourite moments in gaming ever, where I actually felt like being stealthy did something.

I'd also add "All in" and "No fighting in the War Room", and maybe "Shock and Awe" - but Shock and Awe not for its gameplay but for its twist.
 
We should post reasons, lest this thread degenerates into spamming and personal insults.

All Ghillied Up (Call of Duty 4) - brilliant atmosphere, art style (washed out memory filter? AWESOME.), not to mention tense scripted moments and very, very faithful recreation of Pripyat.

Vengard (Gothic 3) - again, brilliant street warfare atmosphere, intense fighting and, well, the feeling of fighting in a capital destroyed by months of warfare. Thumbs up!

Silo (Episode 2) - I'm a sucker for military installations, and to see one recreated so faithfully and with such style... it's like an orgasm. A VALVegasm.

Medical Section (Bioshock) - while ultimately a tedious, boring game, the medical section was quite well done, with an appropriately eerie atmosphere, decor (including human one) and, of course, doctor Steinman.

"He's ugly! Ugly! UGLYYYYY*DADADADADADADADAM*!"

Can't think of anything else, though.
 
Hitman 1 - 3 / Traditions of Trade
Deus Ex / Hong Kong levels
Unreal / All open areas
Medal of Honor: Underground / Hunting the Desert Fox (Casablanca)

Edit: Sorry, but I prefer playing old video games.
 
Max Payne 2: The fun house
Psychonauts: Milkman Conspiracy

EDIT: Didn't realize you wanted recent games, but most of the memorable levels from those I've played have already been mentioned.
 
BioShock - Fort Frolic, Arcadia and Welcome to Rapture: I thought it was impossible for me to be scared by games anymore, until I met Sander Cohen's statues in Fort Frolic. F***ing terrified me, especially when you turn around to find they've disappeared. And Cohen himself wasn't just a marvel in games, his exploits were the most staggering of any character from any media in that year. Arcadia was a breathe of fresh air just when I thought the levels were getting a bit bland, such a beautiful level that became even better once it was destroyed by that dastardly Ryan. And welcome to Rapture I replay many, many times as it's such a perfect introduction to Rapture.

Mass Effect - Ilos: After an already fantastic Virmire had restored my faith in the game, Ilos sealed it. The atmosphere is so thick and oppressive it feels like a nightmare, with a real sense that something ancient once dwelt amongst the colossal towers and ghostly statues. And the bit where you drive deep into the ruins and a certain piece of music starts playing was a perfect moment for me.

The Witcher - Lakeside: After the narrow streets of Vizima and the depressing look of the swamps it was incredibly refreshing to reach an open, relaxed setting made even better by sheer beauty. Crushing Oblivion's previous record for scenic countryside, with sprawling fields, ancient ruins and swampy shoreline. A truly impressive technical feat for such an old engine and a joy to play in.

COD4 - All Ghillied Up, Shock and Awe and Death from Above: There's little point me explaining why All Ghillied Up is such a fine level, as everything that can be said has been, and it's impossible to truly understand it's praise without playing through it. Shock and Awe surprised me far more than I thought the franchise possibly could and the only thing that stopped Death from Above being my favourite moment of the gaming year was that it was too short. I could've spent hours bombing away at the little glowing men thousands of metres below.

Half-Life 2 Episode 2 - The Whole Damn Thing: Perfect. Simply perfect. I know people say perfection isn't possible but those people clearly haven't played Episode 2. From every possible angle Valve achieved a constant 6 hours of the best gaming ever crafted in 3D. Right up until that ending I was thinking "Holy shit this cannot possibly get any better" and was proved wrong with every new load. If Episode 3 manages to top this, I'll be writing a much longer paragraph next year.
 
GreatBlackthorn said:
COD4 - All Ghillied Up, Shock and Awe and Death from Above: There's little point me explaining why All Ghillied Up is such a fine level, as everything that can be said has been, and it's impossible to truly understand it's praise without playing through it. Shock and Awe surprised me far more than I thought the franchise possibly could and the only thing that stopped Death from Above being my favourite moment of the gaming year was that it was too short. I could've spent hours bombing away at the little glowing men thousands of metres below.
Click to expand...

I forgot about Death from above. A simple on-rails shooter that was still one of the most entertaining levels I'd played for a long time. What made it more interesting is that apparently the lingo is based off what crews of those planes actually have been recorded saying - treating the people they're killing as, well, video-game victims.
 
Goldrush - TF2

I didn't like All Ghillied Up. Couldn't sneak past that huge search party despite many attempts, different strategies etc., got fed up and haven't played the game since. :(
 
Dude. Find a good position, and just sit there.

They'll walk right past you. It's the thrill not of the chase, but of the standing still. It is an experience I thought I would never find in a video game.
 
Jintor said:
Dude. Find a good position, and just sit there.

They'll walk right past you. It's the thrill not of the chase, but of the standing still. It is an experience I thought I would never find in a video game.
Click to expand...

You think I didn't try that in over a dozen different places?
 
AmishSlayer said:
Three Leaf Clover - GTA4

All Ghillied Up - COD4

Those are the first two that come to mind.
Click to expand...

Nice. You picked two of my faves.

Clover was great for it's note-perfect emulation of the long action sequence in the film Heat. It really got good when the gang made its escape down the subway tunnel, I thought.

I played "Ghillied" for the first time last Thursday. It's what inspired me to start this thread, actually. Great atmosphere, great tension throughout. Fundementally, it tackles the whole sniper theme better than any action film ever could, and from a first person perspective! Also, as with HL2's Nova Prospekt, the level is at its most brilliant when you're not doing anything at all. The whole sequence with the patrol passing within a meter of you was intense like few other moments in gaming and a real design coup. If only the rest of the game had reached that level of artistic achievement.

EDIT: Eejit, just crawl over to your left and you'll avoid them with ease, as the soldiers don't go further than the first tree to come across on that side.

To these two, I would add "Our Mutual Friend" for its high tension gameplay and excellent design and the final thrid of Portal, particularly the sequence that concludes the game.

Fort Frolic was good, but in terms of its overall design, it shared the same go off in different directions, the return to the nerve centre structure that I'm not wild about. Actually the part of the game that blew my mind the most was the brief sequnce in Rapture Central Control.

I have a few other odd-ball faves, like that insanely long frozen track in PGR 4, a truly masochistic gaming experience. The final stage of Mass Effect was good too, though not really on par with other levels mentioned here.
 
Actually my favourite part of Mass Effect was the tropical island planet, everything from meeting the Stealth team onwards until you finally got off the planet. The epic FMV space war at the Citadel was cool and all, but not really gameplaywise.
 
Crysis. Chapter 5: Onslaught - both levels. One of the most awesome experiences I've had recently. Really felt like a huge war and very much like Vietnam.

Too bad the rest of the game didn't hold up to this chapter.

Countless of levels from MGS4 that I can't be bothered to bring up. Just play the game and see for yourself.
 
Jintor said:
The epic FMV space war at the Citadel was cool and all, but not really gameplaywise.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I thought it was great cinematically, but the final boss left me cold. Even on "Insanity," he's a breeze. Game bosses these days generally are, come to think of it. I defeated nealy all the end bosses in recent gaming history on the first go, I think.
 
Fort Frolic is one level I particularly enjoyed. Sure, it was a gopher level, (go here, kill him, come back etc), but the overall grandeur of the area was brilliant.

Even though Rapture is falling apart, there's this one metropolis of bright lights and energy. There was also something just fantastic about the set-piece when Cohen sends out an absolute legion of SPLOICERS to kill you. By this time though, you're beefed up on two sports tonics and wrench jockey which allows you to batter the living shite out of everything in one hit, all to the classical music which I forget the name of. Brilliant.

In Fort Frolic there's also the piano set-piece, the paper-mache SPLOICERS and the iceman ****ing cometh. Awesome. I do indeed <3 BioShock.
 
Bioshock - the entire game, but most notably Fort Frolic. Medical Pavillion had a brilliant eerie atmosphere, but nothing will ever make me as tense as much as the Spider Splicers and statue Splicers did.

Halo 3 - Ghost Town. I don't think I've come across a more beautiful looking MP map. I'm a huge fan of the Halo art leads and environmental designers but this map takes the cake for being so wonderfully crafted. It isn't just generic building after building placed for the player to move around, it's every single object unique and individual from the rest with a ridiculous amount of detail put into each and every structure or peice of scenary.

Episode Two - I gotta say, as much as Freeman Prontifix was more or less a showcasing of HL2's dull combat against even more braindead enemies than the Combine, I rather enjoyed the fiction and aesthetic around the rebel outpost and I'm a sucker for areas that have fell under headcrab infection (see also: lower levels of Nova Prospekt) so I really enjoyed the descent throughout the outpost. Also, trapped in a small room with a poison zombie on the other side of a door with little ammo and barely any space to move? Frantic.

Mass Effect - what was the level with the facility that had all the bugs roaming around it? I loved the level. From the quiet corridors to the meeting with the other survivors who had barricaded themself in at some of the science labs. I love finding survivors at creepy places. The entire level reminded me of Aliens, too, which is a bonus.

COD4 - all of what's already been said.

More later.
 
Use FRAPS and record it, then post here so that we can laug-- err, help you.
 
Not new, but I really took a deep breath of fresh air reaching the surface of Black Mesa in Half-Life 1. My heart was pumping. Awesome.
 
Oddly enough, I can't think of many levels that make me go "I LOVE THIS PART!!"

The best ones I can think of are Blast Pit in Half-Life, due to the fact that it is embedded in my head as a scary fkn place.

Although the closest to awesome in a level would be Starcraft - New Gettysburg. That level had a lot of emotional value to me.
 
I really liked the antlion caves in Episode 2.
 
Half-Life 1 - Blast Pit and Power Up

I've never really been afraid of big monsters in games, but these things are still kind of frightening because they can kill you so easily. I remember the first time I played through I was too scared to go around the monsters, which was what you have to do, and that leaves an impact.

Half-Life 2 - Nova Prospekt and Ravenholm

Just amazing atmosphere

Starcraft - New Gettysburg

I love putting in Staying Alive at the end and killing millions of zerglings until time ends. ^^

Half-Life 1 - Surface Tension

The whole level is just insanely fun, and Valve shows, once again, their expertise at creating an amazing atmosphere.

Duke Nukem 3D - The last secret level before the cyclops boss

I just love the dual boss fight on this map. For some reason, hiding inside the tall buildings while shooting down at the monsters just makes me incredibly tense and excited.
 
Psychonauts - Milkman Conspiracy
Vampire Bloodlines - Ocean House Hotel
Bioshock - Fort Frolic
Chronicles of Riddick - the highest security block, where they keep you in cryo except for a few minutes of excercise
Elite Beat Agents - Christmas Gift (You're the Inspiration)
Portal - Pretty much all of it. Especially notable is the perfect training ramp in the test chambers, and how different everything is in the escape.
Half-life series - Too consistently excellent to choose a small number of great parts.
 
Portal - all of it
Half life series - alot of it
Deus Ex - alot of it
Psychonauts - milkman conspiracy
Bioshock - fort frolic
call of duty 4 - all ghillied up
crysis - the ending parts (I know lots of people didn't like them but I did)
 
For some reason, I was just picking levels from the last year or so. In general...

Half Life 2 - Nova Prospekt/Entanglement

Halo 2 - Coagulation. The perfect infantry and vehicular combat map, balanced to hell and always very sandboxey in it's play.

Damnit, I've gone blank again.
 
Half-Life 2 - Ravenholm
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - Final Strider battle
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - Any level with Snorks and Bloodsuckers =O
Crysis: None, the whole game sucked :naughty:
 
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