Games with That One Exceptional Level?

[procrastinator]

I liked the snow globe quest in NWN.

 

[Heresiarch]

Silent Hill 1 - The Hospital

That place fucking creeps me the fuck. The initial exploration there is...quiet. With really low "mumbling" kind of music and no monster other than a few roaches. Then took the elevator...and the surprise in it, although presented very simplistic, really made me feel cold in real life. Then all of sudden I'm back in a ruined hospital...the music's theme is the same, but became completely corrupted like the environment with rusted metal, and I could almost smell the (horrible) alcohol in the air. I hate (and fear) that smell in hospitals! :< Then there comes a twitching nurse...

 

[Mad Method]

Thief has been covered rather well.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II's "The Falling Ship" level. It may be because it was 1997, but playing a level where the entire map is constantly rotating (technically just the definition of the down direction, but hey) so you end up walking over walls and ceiling whenever gravity takes you there was rather fun.

I feel like I should mention American McGee's Alice in Wonderland as well but I'm not sure what levels to name.

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.

I'm not sure how Dragon Age: Origins made your list of exceptional levels. Personally, I liked the Ostagar camp better for the atmosphere, but it still felt lacking. I'd say Dragon Age on the whole was missing some proper world-building. As a Codex level pick in DAO, it would have to be Slim Couldry's Crime Wave quest line, since those quests actually have multiple solutions, but that wasn't "exceptional" either.

 

[Infinitron]

Noveria in Mass Effect

 

[sea]

I'm not sure how Dragon Age: Origins made your list of exceptional levels. Personally, I liked the Ostagar camp better for the atmosphere, but it still felt lacking. I'd say Dragon Age on the whole was missing some proper world-building. As a Codex level pick in DAO, it would have to be Slim Couldry's Crime Wave quest line, since those quests actually have multiple solutions, but that wasn't "exceptional" either.

I was talking mostly about atmosphere and art, not quest design. The setup is good and some of the Dwarven lore is great, and I really liked the architecture. Even some of the Deep Roads stuff looks quite cool, like the massive bridges. I agree that it's all under-developed, though, and the conclusion to it is a big let-down. Ostagar was definitely better as far as interesting stuff going on was concerned, and the location looked amazing, but I didn't really get a sense of history from it beyond a couple of codex entries. At least the Dwarves felt like a people.

 

[Sceptic]

I'd mention Morrowind, but it has no discrete locations and it's pretty much consistently atmospheric no matter where you go.

I was going to mention Urshilaku Burial Caverns but JF beat me to it. There's also that Dwemer ruin with the puzzle box, thanks to also being quite vertical (not as much as Urshilaku though) and very nonlinear in its design (lots of areas loop back to each other). Makes you really feel like you're exploring, rather than just following the yellow line. There was also one daedric ruin that was VERY vertical, to the point of being worthless to visit without Levitation, but the former two mentions are also special because they're among Morrowind's largest dungeons and among the few that I consider perfectly-sized (as opposed to the small ones, which are way too small).

Anyway let me try to do this more systematically:

Duke Nukem 3D: E1M5. Nonlinear at first, atmospheric as fuck later on, especially when you get inside the cavern and crane your neck (your REAL neck) to try and see what's down that shaft.

Daggerfall: Mantellan Crux, as mentioned earlier.

Battlespire: Chimera of Desolation. Completely open, lots of different ways of getting to your objective depending on the skills you have, one of the toughest levels but not unfairly so. Perfect.

Fallout: The Glow, duh.

Far Cry: level 14 (Boat). HUUUUUGE level, tons of open space, completely nonlinear, and easily one of the best outdoor levels ever made for an FPS. It's a distillation of the entire game's best features.

STALKER: X18.

Prey: any level with huge open spaces. There's one in particular with two planetoids in a HUUUUUUUUUUGE room, each with self-generated gravity and a pipe of sorts connecting them.

Doom: E2M8 is still one of the best boss fights I've ever done. E3M6 for quite possibly being the first open level in an FPS. E2M2 for awesome atmosphere and awesomer music. E1M5 for still being one of the most elegant and balanced deathmatch levels ever made.

Doom 2: M8 for sheer FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU. Plenty of others, including M22 (Barrels O'Fun) for taking gimmick level design past the breaking point.

NWN2 SOZ: final dungeon for being one of the most fun in any modern CRPG.

Terra Nova: no single level stands out. Once you get past the early tutorial-esque ones, they're all exceptional.

Dark Forces: lots of them, my favorite is M4 for having a great Ep4 atmosphere when inside the base.

Jed Knight: even more of them, including M8 for awesome atmosphere (inching your way across paper-thin ledges while the wind blows through your ears and tries to push you off to your death is quite memorable), M9 (running through exploding fuel pipes, trapdoors throwing you into more fuel pipes, lots of open areas at the beginning... this level has it all).

Klingon Honor Guard: Half the levels are memorable, but the exception among the exceptionals is M8: the space station. Jumping from one narrow walkway to another while trying to time your boots activation JUST right while being shot at by deadly turrets while your oxygen is running out...

TRON 2.0: the format read wall of advancing doom.

Descent: M7. The level itself is a lot of fun, but then the boss fight is one of the most fun I've had.

I'm forgetting lots more, no doubt.

 

[DraQ]

Terra Nova: no single level stands out. Once you get past the early tutorial-esque ones, they're all exceptional.

I really liked two missions:

The one where you had to assault the pirate base surrounded by mountains on Thatcher (IIRC) - official route was to be funneled through narrow canyon with turrets shooting at you. DraQ route was to jumpjet across the chasm, climb a bit, deploy a drone for better situational awareness, then rain grenades on pirates, buildings and shuttle from the mountain tops while using IR to better see black, but warm pirate exos against black, cold rocks.

Another one was where you had to destroy a convoy and pick off pirates hiding on the islands on the river. Instead of either flashing the convoy and hunting pirates one by one, or waiting for them to gather around the convoy for a huge clusterfuck of a battle, I ordered a demoman to mine the fuck out of the dock and GTFO before I even touched down. He barely slipped out unmolested but I could just stand there with visor on max zoom being all smug while oblivious pirates clustered around the transports. Then I ordered my demoman to press the button. He stayed on the top of the killboard for three more missions, I think. He didn't fight in them.

 

[Skittles]

I rather enjoyed the asylum level from Painkiller. I tried finding a video, but mostly I see ones where people play the level like spazzes and with the gamma too high.

 

[Jasede]

Terra Nova: no single level stands out. Once you get past the early tutorial-esque ones, they're all exceptional.

I really liked two missions:

The one where you had to assault the pirate base surrounded by mountains on Thatcher (IIRC) - official route was to be funneled through narrow canyon with turrets shooting at you. DraQ route was to jumpjet across the chasm, climb a bit, deploy a drone for better situational awareness, then rain grenades on pirates, buildings and shuttle from the mountain tops while using IR to better see black, but warm pirate exos against black, cold rocks.

Another one was where you had to destroy a convoy and pick off pirates hiding on the islands on the river. Instead of either flashing the convoy and hunting pirates one by one, or waiting for them to gather around the convoy for a huge clusterfuck of a battle, I ordered a demoman to mine the fuck out of the dock and GTFO before I even touched down. He barely slipped out unmolested but I could just stand there with visor on max zoom being all smug while oblivious pirates clustered around the transports. Then I ordered my demoman to press the button. He stayed on the top of the killboard for three more missions, I think. He didn't fight in them.

It's been way too long since I played that game, but does anyone remember that there was a scouting mission where all you do is try to take pictures of some enemy base? Blew my mind back in the day, not having to kill anyone.

 

[DraQ]

Yes. And you had to remain undetected.

In one of the later missions you went in to flash this base.

Then there were several missions that got aborted and one where you actually stumbled on huge enemy base.

 

[Carrion]

Many of my favorite levels have been mentioned already, but I didn't see these ones mentioned.

I remember when the Operation Flashpoint demo came out. It had one playable mission, Ambush, and even though it wasn't a part of the main campaign or anything, it was perhaps the most convincing introduction you could have to a game. Okay, the first half of the mission was mostly spent driving a car or sitting in one, but that was kind of awesome and really helped build up atmosphere. The actual mission was a pretty standard "seize the town" operation, but it did a great job of combining scripted events with open-ended gameplay and it also had multiple endings. My first attempt ended up in a total disaster (having to retreat from the battle due to enemy tanks arriving into town, boarding a helicopter and eventually getting shot down in the middle of enemy territory), and I was really surprised to find out later that it was actually possible to complete the mission as planned. It was also possible to return to the starting area of the mission and see destroyed fortifications and dead soldiers everywhere. OFP had tons of great missions, but Ambush was definitely the most memorable for me.

The first Hitman game only had a handful of good levels and lots of crap, but the Budapest Hotel was the definite highlight for me. It was big, had tons of interesting stuff and in general utilized the whole assassin theme almost perfectly. The first few assassination missions of the game were good too, but they were mostly just small puzzles that required good timing and some trial and error. On the other hand the hotel level was much more open-ended and offered more room for creativity.

 

[Jasede]

That game (Terra Nova) really was something. Pains me every time to think that it didn't sell well and killed Looking Glass.
Maybe it's for the best. The masses aren't good enough for their games anyway. :elite:

 

[DraQ]

That game (Terra Nova) really was something. Pains me every time to think that it didn't sell well and killed Looking Glass.
Maybe it's for the best. The masses aren't good enough for their games anyway. :elite:

Well it did have drawbacks - was short, a lot of sci-fi fluff was derpy with shitload of asspulled materials abound (actually seems to be a chronic problem in otherwise excellent LGS games - I actually cringed a few times in SS2), and simply backpedalling while firing particle beam was surprisingly often a viable tactics, but yeah, an excellent game overall and world would be much better off without Quake or DN3D if it could have TN2 in exchange.

I'd actually love to see a modern spiritual successor, with more tactcal gameplay, but general approach, PBAs, multitude of additional suit functions and subsystem damage left intact.

 

[sser]

Gardens of Kadesh is a good one from the game Homeworld. You get an eerie vibe arriving there. A stern warning comes from some cultists followed by an ultimatum. And then the level cracks open like a bee hive and turns into one of the biggest clusterfuck-fights in the entire game. All set in the glowing, somber spectra of space with kickass music to boot. It was always my favorite level from The Best RTS Ever.

 

[Eyeball]

The "Raz is Godzilla!" level in Psychonauts.

Actually, almost every level of Psychonauts was That One Exceptional Level, really. Same with the Alice games.

 

[DraQ]

Gardens of Kadesh is a good one from the game Homeworld. You get an eerie vibe arriving there. A stern warning comes from some cultists followed by an ultimatum. And then the level cracks open like a bee hive and turns into one of the biggest clusterfuck-fights in the entire game. All set in the glowing, somber spectra of space with kickass music to boot. It was always my favorite level from The Best RTS Ever.

Plus malfunctioning scanners.

Then again it's hard to find HW level that wasn't awesome.

 

[Darth Roxor]

How about Diamond Shoals

I heard you like playing glorified Asteroids

 

[Damned Registrations]

Hmmm. The 3rd level in Iji. The whole truce thing is awesome beyond words. The game in general is pretty awesome but that particular level really sets the game apart. Perfect example of how to tie game narrative into the gameplay itself.

 

[DraQ]

How about Diamond Shoals

I heard you like playing glorified Asteroids

It worked in the context and it provided nice change in gameplay.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I was gonna say the "Tree Room" in Majora's Mask, but Jasede already mentioned it. I like it mostly because it isn't explained. You can deduce some things by looking around, but it's ultimately a "...the fuck? Did I wander into someone else's acid trip?" kind of place. It's perfectly safe, yet you feel like it's best to get out once you're done. Just in case.

The Stone Tower from the same game is also pretty nice, as here too you aren't told outright about what happened, but if you look around you'll be able to come up with some theories. It's kinda what would have happened to the Tower of Babel if YHWH wasn't in a trolling mood that day (good thing he's always in a trolling mood).

Hmm. There's the Dead Sea in Chrono Cross. Gameplay-wise it's not exceptional, but the atmosphere is great. It's a sealed-off part of the world that, thanks to time-travel experiment shenanigans, shows a frozen still of the future, right at the moment where everything goes to the shitter. It's technically a mish-mash of several possibilities so it gets worse as you approach the center. The hero is responsible for this. In a way. Sorta.

 

[villain of the story]

Peak 15 Facility on Noveria in Mass Effect. One of the few places in the entire game that managed to retain a mystery adventure and sci-fi feel, with covert motivations from the personnel. I really enjoyed that part of the game. There wasn't much grind either.
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Peak_15

Call of Duty series had a few very exceptional levels, whether in level design or presentation. There's the Pripyat level in COD4 which was the only good part of the game. Amazing atmosphere.

 

[Phage]

Final Fantasy XIII-2, A Dying World 700 AF

 

[Crooked Bee]

Final Fantasy XIII-2, A Dying World 700 AF

Is the game any good, by the way? All linear as fuck, or have they pulled a FFX-2 again?

 

[Phage]

It's rather non-linear, actually. I'm one of the few people who actually, guiltily, enjoyed FFXIII for what it was, and I'm enjoying its sequel too. Though to be honest I rented both games through gamefly, so I can't say I'd pay full price for them.

 

[felipepepe]

It's rather non-linear, actually. I'm one of the few people who actually, guiltily, enjoyed FFXIII for what it was, and I'm enjoying its sequel too. Though to be honest I rented both games through gamefly, so I can't say I'd pay full price for them.

Humm....I enjoyed FF XIII too, maybe I'll pick this one up. How's the Pokemon part?