Games with That One Exceptional Level?

[Esquilax]

The Sword in Thief 1 was an exceptional level in a game with exceptional level design.
I loved all the "exotic" levels, like Clagscreft, Bonehoard (moaning zombies and the haunting sound of the Horn of Quintus was fantastic) and The Lost City. Too bad the most vocal Thief fans disagreed and got what they wanted in Thief 2.

Life of the Party in Thief 2 was an exceptional level in a game with too many mediocre (compared to Thief 1) levels.
Playing Life of the Party was also the only time a computer game gave me motion sickness.
The Bank was another really great level in that game.

Bluff Eversmoking was my favourite Unreal level. It was big, unlinear and with some epic sights.

I think you and SB aren't giving the Thief II level design enough credit. It lacked the variety in terms of enemies and atmosphere of some Thief I missions, but they were also more sprawling and had more variety with regards to objectives and how to approach them. The first too missions aren't particularly unique, just some solid thieving, though admittedly it lacked the style of Lord Bafford's Manor. But then look at a great mission like "Framed" - the entire step-by-step of sneaking in, avoiding the mechanical eyes, ghosting through the place, finding the vault code, then planting the strongbox; beautiful stuff right there. Completing that mission felt awesome.

"Ambush!" also had a pretty intense experience with trying to avoid patrols, sneaking into your own apartment. "Eavesdropping" is fucking fantastic too - the huge well-lit church lobby is very challenging to traverse through. One of my favourite Thief II moments was sneaking into the crypt underneath, pissing off the Haunts residing there until they chase me, then as soon as I lure them into the church lobby above, I quaff an Invisibility potion and sic them on the Mechanists. Thing is, the Haunts are so fucking tough that the two of them can take out all four Mechanists in the church and end up winning. Then you listen into that incredibly creepy Karras/Truart conversation (a nice touch here was that the location of the deposit box here is randomised, so on subsequent replays, the key is in a different place).

First City Bank and Trust and Blackmail are fucking gems and can stand toe-to-toe with the best of the original game. Trace the Courier is short, but the novelty of how the mission is presented is very nice. The aforementioned Trail of Blood/Life of the Party are hands-down the best in Thief II. I'll admit Precious Cargo is a bit of a let-down after that series of great missions, but IMO it's still very solid and I liked the exposed environment of the submarine (difficult to sneak in). Also I liked the fact that the Mechanist Divers were immune to gas arrows/KO.

Kidnap is criminally underrated and was pretty unique too. It had that thrill of hunting your well-protected target, following around and trying to pick him off without alerting his entourage. The situation is made difficult because of Cavador's immunity to gas arrows, meaning you have to plan things out in case he suddenly bolts after you've picked his bodyguards off. The tension of hauling his body around a well-guarded, well-lit installation made things exciting. Piecing together Karras' New Scripture of the Master Builder over several missions was also cool.

Casing the Joint is the worst map of the series and should simply have been folded into Masks because it felt nonsensical and the lead-up to the end was way too abrupt. There needed to be something in-between Masks and Soulforge to connect the plot a bit better - it was clearly a rush job. That being said, there were some nice parts, such as the haunted library and the Mission Impossible-style rappelling from the ceiling with rope arrows to steal the precursor masks located below.

I might be in the minority here, but I liked Sabotage at Soulforge and I thought it was creepy in a way that Maw of Chaos wasn't. It felt System Shocky, and while I could see how the process of collecting items for the guiding beacon could be irritating, I thought that the size and atmosphere of the mission made it enjoyable. While the game definitely started losing some steam near the end, I think it's still every bit as good as Thief I.

I think it's also important to remember that Thief I also had a few misses here and there (Maw of Chaos, Haunted Cathedral*)

* NOT Return to the Cathedral, that one is godly.
tl;dr Even Thief I/II at their worst are still pretty fucking good.

 

[Gragt]

Hm, you can still shoot the snorks and poltergeist in X18, or do you refer to something else?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

You can, but it takes some time to figure out what the fuck is even going on. When you enter the second floor, the first thing you see is literally a barrel floating up to the ceiling and then hitting you in the face. That's before you've even glimpsed a Poltergeist. It's not that scary once you figure out that they can't really hurt you, and just fly around in an annoying way. But they do establish a feeling of "What the fuck is this shit?" that lasts till the very end of the level.

Personally, I found Yantar to be the creepiest part of SoC. I got there before the plot required me to, and the increasingly powerful mindfuck as you get closer to the entrance gate was awesome. What a letdown X16 was after that, darn it. Coincindentally, that was roughly where the whole game started going downhill, culminating in confusing itself with Call of Duty in the endgame. Damn it GSC, just damn it.

 

[Aldebaran]

Blood - The Haunting
While I find it hard to pick a best level in the game, The Haunting has always stood out for me. First off, it is the only level without cultists (boss levels excluded). Given that they infest this game, The Haunting has a very different atmosphere from what came before and after. It is difficult to explain how strange it is to play this game without having to hear "MARANA INFIRMUX" every time you pass through a door. With the disappearance of long range threats, the level relies on small rooms, tight corridors, lots of turns, lower lighting, and Phantasms to deal damage. This is quite effective as Phantasms blend into the dark and only really represent a threat at close range, while the remainder of the design choices help the level stand out.

Metroid Prime - Phendrana Drifts
A very good blend of setting and music. The first time a Metroid game ever tackled an ice setting, and it easily beat out everything else in the game without relying on nostalgia. It handles the Chozo better than the Chozo Ruins, and Tallon IV better than Tallon Overworld. Most importantly, it creates a decent feeling of loneliness, which is absolutely crucial for a Metroid game. Unfortunately, the level itself is quite a bit more linear than I would like (without sequence breaking) if looking at an overall map, and ignoring the connections to other levels.

D&D - The Tomb of Horrors
Maybe it is not fair for me to say this, as I have never actually played it, but I have read the module a few times. What my eyes gazed upon was pure evil.

I can not think of anything else that hasn't already been said.

 

[SoupNazi]

The second to last section of the original Far Cry where you're weaponless and have to get through an entire island full of mutants with no way to defend yourself. Never in gaming history have I felt more helpless and struggling for survival than in that game, in that level - it's not frustrating because it's actually fairly easy, but my heart starts pounding whenever I start that level up and fall down the waterfall. Sneaking past a monster only for it to turn at you and the world freezes. It's freaking amazing.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The second to last section of the original Far Cry where you're weaponless and have to get through an entire island full of mutants with no way to defend yourself. Never in gaming history have I felt more helpless and struggling for survival than in that game, in that level - it's not frustrating because it's actually fairly easy, but my heart starts pounding whenever I start that level up and fall down the waterfall. Sneaking past a monster only for it to turn at you and the world freezes. It's freaking amazing.

Whoah, I remember that, but this was 8 years ago for me. Almost slipped my mind. Your memory is better than mine, but it was indeed a memorable level in its own right.

From what I remember, the very next level has you getting much much more powerful weapons, making the loss of weapons irrelevant. There was a rapid fire heavy gun with very low recoil and very high accuracy at the end, which takes down all giant mutants quickly.

 

[SoupNazi]

Yeah, the next level is going to the volcano and getting all guns back, and then some, and then there's the boss fight.

 

[Peter]

Mentions of Thief and Deus Ex levels, and The Glow and Vault 11 are brofist-worthy.

The Milkman Conspiracy in Psychonauts. Almost every level in that game was great, but Lungfishopolis and The Milkman Conspiracy really stand out, with the later ramping the insanity up to 11. First off, the actual layout of the level is incredible: a torn apart suburban neighborhood floating in a void. Add to that the conpiracy theory and paranoia stuff, like hidden cameras popping out of fire hydrans and trees, black cars with satellite dishes poking out of their trunks, the agents disguised as housewives, road crew workers etc ("You guys are road crew workers?" "Yes, we work on the road. With these red signs. Look at that woman's breasts."). This also plays nicely into the mechanic of having to find different objects (a tolling pin, a red sign) for them to consider you one of their own and allow you to pass through restricted areas. Using clairvoyance on the agents and seeing how you change in their eyes depending on what you're holding is hilarious.

Also, some people probably aren't gonna like this, but I think the Tai Yong Medical building in Human Revolution deserves a mention. Not to say it's on par with the aforementioned levels, but it really does stand out in Human Revolution as an excellent mission. You start in the industrial lower levels, seeing the 'roof' of lower Hengsha outside, and, continuing upwards, find yourself in the beautiful labs of Upper Hengsha doing some good old corporate espionage. What was really cool was how you kept slipping in and out of unauthorized areas, and it was one of the more open levels in HR. The climactic showdown in the penthouse was also quite tense, although there's actually a rather simple way to stealth out of there.

 

[Kz3r0]

Fatal Frame 1, the whole game.
I think that game that are a single level broken down in separate parts, like a puzzle, are the peak of level design if done right.
Code Veronica comes to mind too.
Another little gem, Extermination, one of the first title for PS2 , and one of the best still.
Gameplay wise I can't really pick a single level about the games I have played, in general if I like the game I tend to notice the not so good parts, like the final boss battle in Undying, a great game with great atmosphere but of which I couldn't really indicate a single level per sè.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Blackthorn's Castle

 

[Infinitron]

I thought Dragon's Eye and the Severed Hand in IWD were very memorable. The devs must have agreed with me, since we got to return to them in the sequel.

 

[DraQ]

Bluff Eversmoking was my favourite Unreal level. It was big, unlinear and with some epic sights.

For some reason I never really liked bluff that much. And I don't even know why - it's large, nonlinear, starts out with some epic sights and includes a nice conclusion to one of the backplots. I think it might be because of the music (I'm not that fond of this particular track). Lack of any sort of central superstructure dominating the level thematically and the fact you spend quite a lot of time traversing corridors/pipes might also be a factor.

Note that I don't hate it, I still like it, it's just I don't really know why I don't love it.

Hm, you can still shoot the snorks and poltergeist in X18, or do you refer to something else?

What Cowboy Moment said:

You can, but it takes some time to figure out what the fuck is even going on. When you enter the second floor, the first thing you see is literally a barrel floating up to the ceiling and then hitting you in the face. That's before you've even glimpsed a Poltergeist. It's not that scary once you figure out that they can't really hurt you, and just fly around in an annoying way. But they do establish a feeling of "What the fuck is this shit?" that lasts till the very end of the level.

The thing is you don't really know what's happening and the game also introduces moving anomaly (comet) in this level, so it's easy to overlook poltergeist and keep freaking out all the time. Then there are the noises and environmental events.

X18 is probably the only time a game has successfully pulled off scare through the unknown on me.

Personally, I found Yantar to be the creepiest part of SoC. I got there before the plot required me to, and the increasingly powerful mindfuck as you get closer to the entrance gate was awesome. What a letdown X16 was after that, darn it. Coincindentally, that was roughly where the whole game started going downhill, culminating in confusing itself with Call of Duty in the endgame. Damn it GSC, just damn it.

Well, yeah, Yantar exterior area was spooky. X16 wasn't bad, but after X18 it was a huge letdown. You *knew* what the fuck was happening this time.

The shit part for me started with monolith dominated map and went full retard with Pripyat - goodbye alienation, mindfucks and the Unknown, hello cultist shootfests.

Also, Clear Sky had one stellar freaky location - the Red Forest.

Blood - The Haunting
While I find it hard to pick a best level in the game, The Haunting has always stood out for me. First off, it is the only level without cultists (boss levels excluded). Given that they infest this game, The Haunting has a very different atmosphere from what came before and after. It is difficult to explain how strange it is to play this game without having to hear "MARANA INFIRMUX" every time you pass through a door. With the disappearance of long range threats, the level relies on small rooms, tight corridors, lots of turns, lower lighting, and Phantasms to deal damage. This is quite effective as Phantasms blend into the dark and only really represent a threat at close range, while the remainder of the design choices help the level stand out.

Well, the entire Ep.2. was mostly excellent (apart from the boss fight ), so it's hard to favour one map over the other here. My problem with lack of cultists is that they are a very important threat in Blood, while Phantasms are just annoying, for the exact same reason as Clear Sky Bloodsuckers. They just go around for quite a while while invulnerable, appear, get two doses of buckshot in the face, repeat. Boring, annoying and not really a threat.

Also, some people probably aren't gonna like this, but I think the Tai Yong Medical building in Human Revolution deserves a mention. Not to say it's on par with the aforementioned levels, but it really does stand out in Human Revolution as an excellent mission. You start in the industrial lower levels, seeing the 'roof' of lower Hengsha outside, and, continuing upwards, find yourself in the beautiful labs of Upper Hengsha doing some good old corporate espionage. What was really cool was how you kept slipping in and out of unauthorized areas, and it was one of the more open levels in HR. The climactic showdown in the penthouse was also quite tense, although there's actually a rather simple way to stealth out of there.

Well, yeah, I quite liked that section. Would have worked better if it didn't culminate in a cutscene relying on protagonist's stupidity, but left player in control and use something mechanically plausible instead.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I think it's also important to remember that Thief I also had a few misses here and there (Maw of Chaos, Haunted Cathedral*)

I completely agree with you in regards to Thief 2, even with the last level bit. Sabotage at Soulforge was incredibly creepy in its own way, I remember being freaked out as hell when I met the mechanists-turned-servants, or the spider bots. However, the level gets a lot less cool on further playthroughs. I had a Thief marathon lately, and I didn't finish the last level, simply because I couldn't bother with the gigantic fetch quest in disguise that it generally is, knowing what happens inside and after it.

As for the quoted section - Haunted Cathedral is not a 'missed' level. The sealed-off part of the Old Quarter is atmospheric as hell, with the derelict streets and buildings that 'come to life' as you explore them and turn on the power in the district. Not to mention the shitloads of hidden stuff, like that manor with hammerhaunts and the serpent band. I was genuinely surprised when I found that place, given how inconspicuous was the entrance to the whole area.


Also, on topic - the Peragus mining facility in Kotor2 was very good... for the first time you play. Shame it's so tedious on subsequent playthroughs. Pretty much like Sabotage at Soulforge.

Prince of Persia - Sands of Time - climbing the Tower of Dawn. Not only is it tense because you have to be extra-careful since you don't have the dagger of time, but the whole section also has really cool music and some of the best looking and designed jumping puzzles in the game. Sands of Time was so cool, shame the later games :declined: so severely

 

[Infinitron]

Hey, what's wrong with the Maw of Chaos? It was a quick mindfuck of an endgame level, it wasn't trying to be anything more than that. Backwards-flowing waterfalls and giant trees for the win.

 

[Destroid]

Dark ForcesII:Jedi Knight. A particular level were you get stuck in a big cargo ship, while the ship slowly falls into a deep canon, gravity in the ship is fucked up, turning the floor into the ceiling and viceversa. Limited time to escape, and the interiors were quite difficult to navigate. Hell of a claustrofobic level, and one of the most dangerous.

The Glow. No much to tell, a good examples that dungeons don't need filler mobs to be great.

Dark Forces 2 had a lot of great levels, it was an exceptional game in this regard.

 

[Gragt]

The thing is you don't really know what's happening and the game also introduces moving anomaly (comet) in this level, so it's easy to overlook poltergeist and keep freaking out all the time. Then there are the noises and environmental events.

Ah ok, I see what you mean now. For the record, I wasn't disagreeing with the creepy part because it is creepy and really well-done. I'm a sucker for scary atmosphere in games, even from mediocre one, but X18 takes the prize from what I have played so far. It did scare me the first time, and subsequent playthroughs always made me feel uneasy when I knew that this part was coming, but I still decided to shoot the polteirgeists because fuck those creepy lights! It actually scared me even more when I saw that light turn into some humanoid form and fall dead on the floor. Definitely a big "WTF is this shit and WTF am I doing here?" moment.

 

[Infinitron]

Hey, what's wrong the Maw of Chaos?

Nothing, it was an excellent ending and to blame it for its linearity is rather nonsensical. After 14 huge missions with complex level design and many ways to enter the buildings, you end up in front of this huge, steep path that leads to a chaotic hell. It was a somewhat simple path that served as a quick way for the Trickster's minions to go upwards and through the portal to assault The City. The whole level is fantastic in its surreal and bizarre atmosphere and structure, it really feels like you're going into a completely different place, and this is fantastic because even after The Sword, Thief was still able to amaze the player with even more crazy places.

LG's level designers were not in this field just to achieve their childish dreams or to fill their bank accounts with money, you can clearly see they had talent to work with this. So much talent in fact that I haven't seen yet anything remotely close to their accomplishments. The Metal Age is as good as Dark Project and has the undisputed, undoubtedly best level in videogame's history, Life of the Party. That mission is the highest point of this media as a form of entertainment, it has everything a great game should have, compressed in a single level. I doubt we'll ever see something like that again, and the success of the likes of Uncharted is proof enough.

The explanation is simple: LGS was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was, I believe, almost entirely staffed by MIT graduates.
I know that the Codex is anti-elitist and no doubt prizes intangibles like inspiration and creativity over easily-quantified credentials, but the case of LGS shows what heights can be attained with a massive concentration of IQ & brainpower.

EDIT: Wait, anti-elitist? WTF am I saying? But I think you know what I meant.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also, one more thing regarding Life of the Party - I remember something that amazed me during my first playthrough. There are actually city watchmen and robots going through the streets way down below the rooftops. There is absolutely no reason for them to be there, since the player doesn't interact with them in any way. But they are just there, as a simple matter of attention to detail. A simple and meaningless thing, but it managed to get a 'hey, that's cool' out of me.

Also, can you imagine Life of the Party today? Either 75% of its content cut, or with a gazillion of loading screens. 'Technological limitations of the past' my arse.

 

[Gragt]

Well, Invisible War and Deadly Shadows were a revelation in how developping a game with consoles in mind can really castrate a good design. Both were supposed to be technologically superior but had smaller levels than their predecessors, and in Thief's case the levels could be huge. We all remember the surprise when a modestly sized map had to be cut in half with a loading screen in the middle.

 

[sea]

I'll try to stay away from the stuff already mentioned.

Call of Duty 4 - the nuke scene. For a game that was all about shooting brown people in the face, they did a pretty moving job at capturing the sheer devestation of nuclear warfare by putting you right in the middle of it. I don't think anyone expected that to happen, and for what it's worth I think it elevated Call of Duty 4 in a way beyond simple modern military shooter. Stumbling around as your legs give out and slowly succumbing to your injuries was a great piece of interactive storytelling. Too bad the rest of the series completely lost it, instead de-evolving into stupid Michael Bay chest-pumping crap.

Deus Ex - the VersaLife building, as well as a few bits and pieces of Paris, including meeting Morgan Everett. I know not all will agree with me but those sections were where the game really "got real" as far as the story and conspiracy stuff was concerned, lots of great characters to talk to and secrets to find, good level design, etc. It's what defined Deus Ex for me, even if Liberty Island is the obvious memorable sequence.

Dragon Age: Origins - Orzammar. Not really a "level" but the dwarven culture and architecture was very well realized even if it was a little cheesy at times. By far my favourite part of that game when put up against the generic human cities and the forests. It even had the power struggle between the two prospective rulers, who were actually set up well and it made sense that the player was able to influence the outcome for reasons beyond "you are the player character." Ruined only by the two-times-too-long Deep Roads crap, and the "you get to choose who you want to win no matter what you alread did" stuff at the end.

Fallout - the Glow. Duh. For me this was the section that defined Fallout. Lethal radiation everywhere, deadly enemies, a mini-mystery and story to solve within the location, strong risk and reward for exploration, and good use of multiple types of skill builds. A lot of small touches like being able to switch off power and smash the robots as they lay dormant on the ground, or the conversation with ZAX if you can repair the power, really add to what would already be a very atmospheric dungeon crawl.

Fallout 2 - I actually think Fallout 2 had a lot of really interesting locations, but Vault City takes the cake as one of the things in it that really stands out and should be well-remembered in the series canon. It was a great case study of how the Vault lifestyle and paradigm might be applied were those people to actually start their own community above-ground. Great and memorable characters, good quests, lots of interaction with the rest of the game world, awesome (if slightly out-of-character for the series) music, and that level of plausibility all really helped make it stand out for me.

Half-Life - Surface Tension. Although Black Mesa is the most iconic part of Half-Life, going up on the surface towards the endgame and contending with the military, the tougher aliens, and really harsh geography was a lot of fun and really stands out from the rest of it. That section where you scale the cliffside while under attack by enemies will probably be burned into my memory as one of the most harrowing gaming moments ever.

Half-Life 2 - Nova Prospekt. An extremely bleak atmosphere, nice variety in gameplay, cool level design with some great firefights, effective environmental storytelling, and genuine forward direction with the plot all made it my favourite section from what was already an awesome game.

Metro 2033 - I forget the name of the level, but it's the one where you go up onto the surface in earnest for the first time. Metro was a beautiful game but this part really impressed me. They did such a good job with storytelling, created a fantastic feeling of tension that could very quickly turn to panic if your oxygen started to run out, and the level design is somewhat convoluted while still being fair and forward-moving. They also reward the exploration you can do rather nicely.

Portal - when you finish up the test chambers and find yourself in the bowels of the facility. It's a great "I broke the game" feeling, and it puts all the skills you learned up until that point to the test, without the same level of hand-holding the rest of the game had.

Portal 2 - same thing more or less, except when you come across the ruins of the previous Aperture facility for the first time. The massive cavern environment is pretty cool to look at and, like the first Portal, kind of takes the training wheels off. Only unfortunate part is that I found the puzzles much, much easier from that point on, but it was still the most memorable moment of the game for me.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - scaling the huge tower towards the game's final boss is one of the few cases where I can say "epic" accurately describes the mood and journey. The whole thing is a grueling exercise in combat and platforming that puts all your abilities to the test.

Psychonauts - The Milkman Conspiracy. Enough said.

Quake - the huge fire demon boss at the end of the first chapter. Maybe kind of a graphics whore moment, but I think I can safely say that this part blew the mind of just about every player when this game came out. It's easy to look at it and say "eh, nothing special", but frankly you just did not see such massive characters in 3D games up until that point. The only thing I can think of that even came close to it at that time was the battle against two-screen-tall Kraid in Super Metroid.

Star Wars: KotOR - stupid setup aside, I thought Korriban was quite cool. A lot of great quests, multiple outcomes in handling the Sith Academy, fun dungeons to stomp through complete with a few puzzles etc., and it was nice to actually be able to play a Dark Side character and have it feel appropriate, instead of just, you know, really fucking stupid and counter-productive. If it wasn't for my meta-gaming knowledge that I could act Light Side and still come out okay, I would have been tempted to do some nasty things in order to keep my cover.

KotOR II - the ruins of Dantooine were great. Its destruction in the first game was fairly powerful (if not entirely unexpected) and coming back to it to see the aftermath and explore the ruined temple was pretty interesting. It's also the point where the links in the story to the first game really start making sense, Kreia becomes more explicitly defined as a villain, and the stakes are genuinely raised. It's not too common for games to link back to their predecessors intelligently, and The Sith Lords managed it very well.

System Shock 2 - this one's tough, but I'll say Hydroponics. That was the point in the game where shit really started to get real and many of the game's more memorable enemies (Cyborg Midwives!) appeared. Fantastic atmosphere, open-ended goals to complete and a big non-linear level to explore that still had strong structure and a ton of secrets to find. Recreation deck is a close second just for being so damn cool.

The Witcher - some people may not like it, but I loved Chapter IV in The Witcher. It had a distinctly more personal bent after the "epic" stuff in Vizima during Chapters II and III, with the resolution of the long-running quest to find Berengar being a high point. It also had fantastic atmosphere, brought back a certain simplicity to the story that really helped form the necessary connection to the people and location needed for the act's conclusion to carry its weight. I guess it loses points for being largely unrelated to the main story and sort of a big collection of side-quests, but as someone who loves that sort of thing I didn't really mind.

 

[DraQ]

The thing is you don't really know what's happening and the game also introduces moving anomaly (comet) in this level, so it's easy to overlook poltergeist and keep freaking out all the time. Then there are the noises and environmental events.

Ah ok, I see what you mean now. For the record, I wasn't disagreeing with the creepy part because it is creepy and really well-done. I'm a sucker for scary atmosphere in games, even from mediocre one, but X18 takes the prize from what I have played so far. It did scare me the first time, and subsequent playthroughs always made me feel uneasy when I knew that this part was coming, but I still decided to shoot the polteirgeists because fuck those creepy lights! It actually scared me even more when I saw that light turn into some humanoid form and fall dead on the floor.

Well, the thing about X18 is the way it introduces stuff.

First you just walk around in the dark and hear noises. Then stuff starts floating around and hitting you in the face displaying malicious intent suggesting that it's not a mere anomaly, but something actually throws junk at you, but this something is nowhere to be found. Then you kill a couple of mindless snorks (new enemy!) see a floating fireball (new anomaly!) zigzagging around a room, encounter stationary burners for the first time (new anomaly!), then find the code, open the door and encounter floating lightning balls for a change (and soon a pseudogiant, scary door and so on). They don't seem to be attacking you or anything, they just float around looking rather intangible AND their appearance occurs way after the moment the stuff started to hit you, with a new mutant (or two if you reach pseudogiant before meeting floating sparklies), about two or three new artefacts, and two to three new anomalies introduced in between, with one of them also looking like floaty ball, except fiery rather than arcing. It's natural that you try to simply step out of the way of poltergeists thinking they are floating electros while being pummeled by junk. It's also natural that you'll eventually start breaking down and shooting them because you'll desperately need to shoot something, and then you will notice that they react by sparkling and BLEEDING a little, so you eventually kill one and it explodes into a miniature lightning storm and drops dead malformed humanoid with no legs and the sense of revelation turns into another mindfuck:

Definitely a big "WTF is this shit and WTF am I doing here?" moment.

Precisely.

The entire level keeps you scared out of your mind and incapable of understanding what the fuck is happening and why. Fucking masterful.


And after that you beat a pyrotergeist that holds the door closed and tries to fry you, get knocked out by psi burst and have a freaky dream.

I wonder what a real human rather than proxy of a player would do when exposed to something like x18. Apart from dying, that is. And going insane.

Then, for change perfectly mundane, but very deadly spetznaz with good weapons, AP ammo and full body armour comes to whup your ass and you have to fight your way out.

 

[The Boring Incarnation]

I also enjoyed "Follow Freeman" in Half-Life 2. Seeing City 17 getting torn apart by Combine Forces as you make your way to the Citadel, watching as places you visited before descend into chaos.

 

[Machocruz]

Maybe not exceptional, but memorable to me is the guardhouse in Resident Evil. The bathtub, the wasps, the spiders, the "killer klown" music, the sharks, the chemistry, the Plant. It was like the greatest collection of B horror movies condensed into one location. This is the kind of game I would have lost my mind over when I was a kid watching Svengoolie,

Tower of Latria in Demon's Souls. The level that inspired the sentiment that the game captured the spirit of "survival horror" better than the games that now pass for survival horror. Incredible atmosphere of dread; demonic, otherwordly - perfectly manufactured through sound, color, enemy design, and lighting. Lovecraft would be proud. Capped by one of the most infamous boss fights of the last few years.

 

[RK47]

X-Wing Alliance - The Battle of Endor

 

[Infinitron]

Casing the Joint is the worst map of the series and should simply have been folded into Masks because it felt nonsensical and the lead-up to the end was way too abrupt. There needed to be something in-between Masks and Soulforge to connect the plot a bit better - it was clearly a rush job. That being said, there were some nice parts, such as the haunted library and the Mission Impossible-style rappelling from the ceiling with rope arrows to steal the precursor masks located below.

There was supposed to be something in between them. Remember, they had a Thief 2 Gold planned...