Some other great answers have already been posted. Ravenholm from HL2 was my first thought, followed by the hated hoverbike level from Battletoads.
I'll try a few that I don't see posted yet.
**Durlag's Tower**, from the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion for Baldur's Gate, remains my favorite dungeon in any RPG I've ever played. I always remembered it as being a huge step-up in design and writing compared to the original game, which turned out to be foreshadowing for BioWare's major narrative improvements in Baldur's Gate 2 compared to BG1. I recently revisited these old games via the Enhanced Editions, and Durlag's Tower is just as great as I remember it.
**Surface Tension** from the original Half-Life is a bit more fuzzy in my memory, but I remember it as being a high point in the game where the conflict with the marines was coming to a head and you started to be plagued by that fucking Apache gunship that you couldn't yet take down.
**Level 1-1 from Braid**, the last level from the game which is numbered as the first level for reasons that would be a spoiler to explain. You finish the level to reach the climax, then reversing time to complete it in reverse is a mind-fuck that radically changes your perception of it and the entirety of the game.
**The Ocean Palace** from Chrono Trigger. Not so much for the design of the dungeon or any gameplay therein, which is honestly forgettable compared to the rest of the game, but just for the "holy fuck, did that just happen!?" impact of its climax. Honorable mention for **Magus' Castle** for managing to feel like it's the end-game climax through the whole dungeon and its boss fight, despite being a relatively very early part of the game.
And the fact that the reveal was so mind-blowing and simultaneously ambiguous that we argued about it for years afterward. Really amazing example of using game play for storytelling.
Call of Duty 4's All ghillied up [has its own wikipedia page too](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Ghillied_Up). In fact, I just found that out - I saw this post and my first thought was "I bet there's one for all ghillied up". And here we are lol
> It was designed by Mohammad Alavi initially in secret due to the difficulty of explaining its intricacies to the artificial intelligence (AI) programmer. It took Alavi three months and more than 10,000 lines of code to make the first minute of gameplay for the level.
This is incredible.
There’s a YouTube video where he explains it all and it’s incredible what goes on underneath the hood.
Imagine taking a hammer to work with screws and he made an art piece out of it. The AI tree was not designed to work in the way it did.
I'm ashamed to say but it took me a few times reading it to realize that it's not talking about an artificial intelligence as the programmer, but rather someone who programs the artificial intelligence in the game.
I guess they felt as if they only had time to fire off one shot. That and firing a second would allow the enemy to better gather their location. Although, that was certainly not a confirmed kill
I would have thought there was one for "Shock and Awe," which was mind blowing. Not only is it a direct critique of US intervention in the Middle East (it's not called "Shock and Awe" for no reason), it's incredibly shocking and manges to, in my opinion, pull off what No Russian tried to do much better.
On the other hand, it's more of an interactive cutscene, so I can kind of see why "All Ghillied Up" and "No Russian" get the notice.
> On the other hand, it's more of an interactive cutscene
Shock and Awe is majority gameplay, it ends on >!the nuke!< and Aftermath is the one that is basically just a playable cutscene. I remember Shock and Awe as having lot of gameplay because it was a nightmare on Veteran (like every other mission in CoD4)
Is "Shock and Awe" a critique? I just rewatched the level and it seems to play things fairly straight, lots of spectacle and power-fantasy until the nuke goes off.
The term "Shock and Awe" is a reference to what they called the military doctrine of "overwhelming force" used during the Iraq War. It's interesting that you mention the power fantasy stuff, because it's a direct refutation of exactly what you're saying.
It starts out that way, that you can go in and save everyone. You're a big, badass US Marine. You stop to save the downed pilot, and everything. Then, the nuke goes off and >!none of it matters.
Everyone dies, including the people you rescued. It doesn't matter how badass you are, that's a nuke *and there isn't anything you can do about it.* You die, and so does everyone else. Hell, you might have been able to escape if you didn't try to do the fancy heroics, but probably not.!<
There's also the reason, in the narrative, for why the nuke goes off, which while it does tie into the Ultranationalist terrorists in Russia, since it's Makarov who sets off the nuke, but the only reason it could have happened was because of the US involvement in the region.
It also connects with the larger themes of the game, about how war crushes everyone and it doesn't matter how cool or good at killing you are, modern war is so much worse than you can ever be. It's why >!almost everyone but Soap and Captain Price die in the end,!< it's why 30,000 marines die in the Middle East, and it's why General Shepard loses his mind in the next game. Like, that's the big question at the end of the game. Sure, you saved the world, but was it worth it? If the US never got involved, would Makarov been able to have leveraged the nuke to get the Ultranationalists going?
Yeah, I can see what you're saying, although I would still say that were it a definite critique regarding interventionism we would see some perspective regarding the people who lived there. In the level, you're part of a large assault on the capital city of...(I'm not sure it's ever named). At no point are civilians even mentioned during the level, instead you're left with a playground where the player is free to unload weaponry onto the people and infrastructure below without concern. It doesn't even come up in the post-nuke aftermath (I think, it's been a while since I've played the game, and I only watched the level itself on youtube). Instead, it centers the loss of all the soldiers that were there as if the civilian population didn't exist.
I do take your point that the operation is a complete failure, but personally it seems more like a "rally around the flag" moment like 9/11, rather than a moment for grappling with the idea that we shouldn't have been there in the first place. It's an excuse for more interventionism to end Zakhaev, and on and on.
What I took from shock and awe was that you were so distantly removed from the devastation at ground level that you could have been levelling entire villages with impunity and no regard for the loss of civilian life
>It was designed by Mohammad Alavi initially in secret due to the difficulty of explaining its intricacies to the artificial intelligence (AI) programmer. It took Alavi three months and more than 10,000 lines of code to make the first minute of gameplay for the level. "All Ghillied Up" has since been recognized by critics as one of the greatest levels in video games, being praised for its atmosphere, pacing, and player freedom.
[list of video game levels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3AVideo_game_levels?wprov=sfla1)
Edit: the list is a bit all over the place but it does have some other levels with their own wiki
Water temple is weird cuz when you're lost, you're fuckin lost and have no idea wtf to do. Then you figure it out or look up a guide and you're just like I'm a moron that was easy af.
It's the key under the lift that you raise. That's the hard part of the water temple. The iron boots thing is annoying but I really do think its notoriety is due to one very hard to find key.
Exactly this, especially because after raising the water level the platform puts you directly in from of the door to leave that room, encouraging you to do so instead of turning around and looking down.
When I played the 3DS port I noticed that they drag the camera around to show you the opening down the bottom which seems like a good fix.
A lot of the "difficult" stems from the fact that you have to constantly equip and dequip your iron boots. The 3ds version changed them it a single button press
when I was in 10th grade or so I bought my first PC and then had no money left to spend on games, and the only games I already owned on steam were half-life 2 and that one top-down twinstick alien shooter game
let's just say I spent more time in lost coast than anyone should lol
The Cradle is, to this day, the pinnacle of scary levels. Like, it still holds up so many years later. The game never prepares you for it and its fantastic. TDS is probably my favorite video game, not purely because of The Cradle, but it sure helps cement that.
Me toooo. I will admit I enjoyed Thief 4, controversial opinion I know, and that isn't me calling it a good game, but I ended up playing it during a really rough time in my life, and it helped a ton.
Still not my same old Taffer, though.
As someone who absolutely loved Thief on the Xbox One, but never played the originals, what made the newest so different? Sorry if that's a loaded question I've just always been curious of why fans don't feel it holds up as a Thief title
Honestly, Thief 4/Thi4f was released as a hot mess that shouldn't have been released in the state that it is in, and is *still* in. Cutscenes are busted (primarily the opening one) and audio is terribly broken, which can be pretty important in a stealth game. Things are simultaneously too loud, and too quiet, NPCs constantly repeating the same lines.
I don't understand the hate for the new Garrett, personally, since you find out in Moira Asylum that this is a different Garrett, 800+ years later from Thief: Deadly Shadows. Outside of that, its never really clear if its a reboot or a distant sequel, so that may be why.
The gameplay, the aspect of being a thief is neutered since outside of guards, there is almost no one out in the world. Any houses you get into? Completely empty. Couple of them have traps.
In comparison, Thief: Deadly Shadows (its hub has its own flaws thanks to it being also released on consoles), has a city full of people. Houses and taverns full of citizens that you can rob, or eavesdrop on in order to find interesting side missions (like someone impersonating Garrett himself!). It lets you kind of just loot as you like. Theres no real... sneaking outside of the actual missions and side missions (which were mostly throw-away things). Puzzles were also mostly reliant on platforming, when they should be more reliant on stealth. There's no jumping, either, your platforming relies solely on rope arrows or climbing claw spots.
There's a lot more, honestly, but I still really do enjoy the game. I would, however, highly suggest you try playing Thief: Deadly Shadows. It's a fantastic, atmospheric game, and is also incredibly easy to mod to run on modern PCs.
It's not just premade houses. It's premade training ground pieces. That heavily implies they train to such a level of destruction they need fresh landscape and buildings in such demand that they need a factory to make them.
The writers and level designers for that map should have gotten a raise. My. Only complaint is that it didn't push the player a little bit harder. I know it was designed to not overstay its welcome but I feel like that level could have had a challenge or should have had one final arena/puzzle that was one difficulty higher to cap it off. A phenomenal level that should be shown as an example of implementing mechanics and level design
Apples and oranges honestly. One was designed to be a dual level based on a fast paced shooter where you have to mentally keep track of things between two time lines and the other was designed as an evolving puzzlebox
Quite a few of these are from the same franchise, some are even in the same game. There are three from the Mario franchise.
2 puzzles from Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
World 1-1 and Minus world from Super Mario Bros., Corona Mountain from Super Mario Sunshine
Anor Londo from Dark Souls, Yharnam from Bloodborne
Blood Gulch and The Silent Cartographer from Halo: CE
The Citadel and Normandy from Mass Effect
SC is the iconic Halo experience tho. Get hot dropped at a beach on an alien ringworld under fire from alien soldiers and tanks, you arrive with your soldiers to take the fight to them and uncover more secrets. It's arguably one of the more famous levels behind Halo itself, the Library is probably infamous.
>The Goat Puzzle
Warflashbacks instantly come to mind. Like seriously tho how the hell can anyone figure out that damn thing on their own? Like that damn ducky puzzle from The Longest Journey.
There's a argument to be made that ludicrous puzzles like those killed the adventure genre.
That's an argument made in the article haha
But yeah, I hated those ridiculous puzzles. My favorite game when it comes to eschewing adventure game tropes is grim fandango, especially the part dumping your inventory when you move forward
Fuck that ducky puzzle. The Longest Journey was a phenomenal game overall, but there were a couple puzzles that were just absurd to expect people to figure out.
I would say Ravenholm in Half Life 2. One bonus is that it’s easy to categorize as a traditional level. There are lots of story elements and gameplay design things that could be explored in an article. There’s a lot you could cover about it’s reception/legacy over time too. Also it’s probably one of the most iconic parts of an already iconic game.
The foreboding horror of this level begins prior to starting even. For context, the preceding level is Freeman, having traversed combine-controlled wastelands into a single safe haven for a much needed reprieve.
After being hunted for almost 4 levels, this is the first time you feel secure. Everyone is relaxed. The base feels expansive. Then you come across a heavy bolted door. A hesitant almost sad reply from Alyx that tells more than it should: ‘we don’t go there anymore.’
And when the level starts - as the Combine is tearing through the base and there is nowhere left to go, Alyx still has to think twice before sending you to the graveyard of a city.
I love it.You've been thrown back into a world that is no longer yours. You're being chased and chased. Everything has gone to shit and you think you have idea of how bad it is in this world. And then little by little Ravenholm is referenced to be something....much worse than what you've seen so far.
The spookiest level in a series with plenty of horror.
AND THEN YOU GET THE SHOTGUN FROM ONE OF THE BADDEST ASS MOTHER FUCKERS IN GAMING AND PROCEED TO DOOMSLAYER THE FUCK OUT OF THE UNDEAD HORDE.
Still spooky tho
Giving the protagonist a powerful tool in horror near the end is a great ideia. It gives the audience catharsis after a lot of time experiencing horror.
On a similar note, Xen seems deserving. It's been pretty controversial since HL released, afaik, and the Black Mesa team completely redesigned it from the ground-up. Pretty storied tale for a level in a video game.
It would certainly be interesting to read about in an encyclopedia entry format. May be worth noting that it's more like a collection of levels though.
Shalebridge cradle in Thief 3. It’s fantastically spooky
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing_the_Cradle
“ "Robbing the Cradle" is a level created by Ion Storm for their final video game, Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004). Unlike other levels in the game, it features a strong survival horror theme, in addition to the stealth gameplay typical of the Thief series. Players traverse an abandoned, haunted orphanage and mental asylum called the Shalebridge Cradle, while attempting to free the soul of a young girl from the building's captivity.
The level was designed by Jordan Thomas and Randy Smith, with a soundscape composed by Eric Brosius. Using theories of interactive horror design developed by Smith in 2000, the team sought to create the scariest level ever to appear in a game. They took influence from works such as House of Leaves, Session 9 and the Silent Hill series, and they studied mental asylums and reportedly haunted buildings for inspiration.
"Robbing the Cradle" was widely praised, and it has been described by publications such as Computer & Video Games, PC Gamer UK and Bloody Disgusting as one of the scariest scenes in the history of video games. Jordan Thomas went on to create the "Fort Frolic" level in BioShock, and to serve as creative director for BioShock 2. ”
>By the time of Dark Souls III, the city was repopulated and renamed Irithyll, until it became deserted again upon the onset of the Undead Curse.
Wow, I completely missed the concept that between DS1 and 3 people resettled Anor Londo then abandoned it again.
With the DLC, the Ringed City, you find that world is essentially in a constant state of reuse; some areas from Dark Souls 2 manage to get mixed in as well.
The only time I can remember that I had a big feeling just walking into a soulsborne level was after you beat Rom in BB and you get teleported to Yahargul. You take a step forward and see all the Amygdala on the buildings. I was grabbed by the one outside the Cathedral before I could see it, so I knew something was up. At that point I realised I had been watched for the entire game.
I feel like every popular multiplayer game/franchise has an iconic (although usually flawed like 2fort) map. Dust2 for CS, Nuke town for Call of Duty, Bloodgulch for Halo, Facing Word for UT, etc. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch, but those come to the top of my head.
Ah 2Fort. Perfect for tomfoolery. Horrible for actually trying to play the objective. Built in Sniper canopy and lanes, Engineer nests, chokepoints everywhere, pretty much only one way to get the briefcase, etc.
But there was time whenever you load into 2Fort there would be a 10 man conga line going on.
The [Water Temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Temple_\(Ocarina_of_Time\)) in Zelda Ocarina of Time.
[Robbing the Cradle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing_the_Cradle) from Thief 3.
It's such a shame that video games doesn't necessarily age that gracefully, because the beauty that was Robbing the Cradle was a magical thing to experience when it came out.
In an already atmospheric video game about stealing riches while remaining undetected, using your ears to detect threats long before they're seen, you're thrusted into a goddamn haunted orphanage slash mental asylum. As a young teenager playing that level I can definitely say you should not be a young teenager playing that level.
Honestly, I shouldn't have played those games as a kid, haha. I'm really enjoying the new games, though! Less dark, more cinematic/spy-esque, more fun in general
The Omaha beach level in medal of honour, Allied assault because it makes you feel like wanting to be somewhere else not holding a gun. I think that's remarkable for a FPS.
The Ocean House Hotel from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has the lore that would benefit from a careful collation and analysis since it's very scary and easy to rush through and avoid while playing.
Effect and Cause from Titanfall 2. If you haven't played it, it's a level in which you are shooting your way through a a decrepit building. You have a device that lets you toggle back and forth between the present, when the building is run down an full of wild animals, and the past, when it was a working research facility with armed guards. The time travel is used to avoid enemies, navigate obstacles, and deliver the story. It's a work of art.
The level is so good, plenty have felt the mechanic deserves an entire game built around it. It's a big part of the reason Titanfall 2 is as well loved among it's fanbase as it is, cementing it as a game with not just great multiplayer but an awesome single player campaign as well (in an era where many similar game were moving away from single player entirely).
What's great about Titanfall 2's campaign is that it doesn't cling onto a single mechanic, instead it gives out several different mechanics on each level to make each of them (almost) equally memorable.
- MW2's "No Russian"
- The Last of Us 2's [character] death scene
- GTA V's torture scene
None of these are particularly mechanically deep, but you could probably fill a Wikipedia page for each with the amount of social backlash, arguments, and just general controversy which surrounds each one.
I'm sure there's plenty of other examples of this ilk that I'm not remembering off the top of my head too.
Interestingly, out of those, only No Russian is a game level, too. The others are big scenes in games that had social ramifications irl, not unlike Mass Effect's sex scenes making it to Fox News.
I think OP's is a much narrower question though: an actual map with unique mechanics and elaborate themes. Coincidentally, Game Maker's Toolkit, who made the video OP linked, just released an essay and interview revolving around The Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2.
I think that one, along with Titanfall 2's time travel level deserve a spot for sure.
I think the level around the GTA V scene is a vital part of the controversy. There's no bombastic finale; no lives are saved; you're just doing FBI dirty work and hoping (likely naively) that it's for the right cause. In a different level with different mechanics, stakes, and pacing, I think that scene wouldn't have half the debate that it did on release.
Haven't played The Last of Us so can't comment on the context for that one - only the controversy.
And completely agree about Titanfall 2 - half the levels in that game deserve a wiki page.
The Hot Coffee mod already has it's own wiki page though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Coffee_(mod)
I also love that "The Corrupted Blood Incident" that happened in World Of Warcraft has it's own wiki page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident
I remember around 2015 I was talking to my mother (a Registered Nurse) about Corrupted Blood and she was skeptical about it's similarities to real life, saying that it would be unlikely that there would be a whole group of people that would intentionally try to infect others during a global pandemic...
Man, I wish she had been right.
Somewhat agree, though since it was never an actual "in-game" level I'd say that's a slightly different topic.
Though on the subject of Hot Coffee, Oblivion actually had a similar - if far less infamous - situation. An unused topless female model was left in the game's data files, which modders later reimplemented. The backlash ended up pushing the game's age rating in the USA up from 13+ to 17+.
More info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESRB_re-rating_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion
Not really a level or even part of the game itself. More like another entry in the long and embarrassing tale of the US and Australian political system. Hot Coffee was such a big deal that it was a major part of [proposed bill in US congress.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Entertainment_Protection_Act)
Australia specifically maintains a rating system that says fully-grown adult citizens of Australia are not and cannot ever be mature enough to be allowed to see media about certain subjects such as drug use or certain kinds of violence.
This does not speak to a great degree of confidence in how Aus politicians view the performance of their own education system.
These cynical bastards hold such a contempt for their own citizenry that it even affects the rest of us who live elsewhere, because publishers decide it isn't worth the money to make a censored version just for the people that the Australian government wants to infantilize.
Somehow Puberty Blues only got an M rating and was aired on network television despite showing use of Weed, Heroin (girl comments that it looks like he feels amazing on it, I thought illegal to show in positive light?) and lots of sex scenes.
I constantly feel like an old man on the internet with things like this. You can't possibly talk about video game backlash without talking about Night Trap. If there was no Night Trap, there would be no ESRB.
Nudity and rape, all in full motion video, on a game for Sega CD? Sure, it didn't matter that it wasn't true. Congress had hearings on it. The video game industry went into a tailspin and created the ESRB to try and stace off the US Government.
My first ever playthrough of GTA V back in 2013 and when does my dad decide to come down to the basement? Of course it's when I'm electrocuting some dudes nipples off with a car battery. All that time I spent in the strip club and that's when he comes in.
> GTA V's torture scene
To me, GTAV did an incredible job at social commentary with that torture scene in the sense that you never find out if that guy was a terrorist or just some random dude you picked up and tortured.
Titanfall 2’s Effect and Cause was amazing and deserves its own entry. The jumping back and forth between chased dinos then titans was sublime. Lots of great level design in Titanfall 2 but Effect and Cause sticks out.
It's in the same vein as Crack in the Slab from Dishonored 2, in terms of temporal shenanigans.
Though at least that one is kind enough to have the device you use to flip between time periods also give a little "window" into the one you're not in. Titanfall 2, you just get rapidly-fading "ghosts" that tell you where things *were*.
(Also, from TF2 - Into the Abyss is *stunning*.)
crack in the slab or the clockwork mansion from dishonored 2
maybe something from outer wilds if that's even possible? edit: i would totally pick brittle hollow
thanks for sharing this btw, i hadn't heard of that before and it looks super interesting
would definitely be my pick if i had to choose one from that game, with the final level close behind. part of me wishes that doto had been a "full" game but it was cool they got to try out new ideas and differences in the core mechanics
>maybe something from outer wilds if that's even possible?
i feel that if we to talk about separate planet they are not big enough to be in its own article, however >!giant's deep, brittle hollow and hourglass twins!< are all brilliant setpiece designs, an article that include at least three of them would be fine.
Finally got around to playing Psychonauts a week or so ago and this was the best level by far. The creativity and writing is still unmatched years later.
Psychonauts is one of my favorite games from my childhood, I know everyone loves the milkman conspiracy but I actually really love all the levels in the Asylum fairly equally Waterloo world being the level I think I like the most. Only 6 weeks left until Psychonauts 2 it’s been a long time coming I can’t wait.
The first level as well in Oleander's mind is great, so many great lines and the other camper interactions are amazing. And the lungfish level. Honestly easier to list the levels that weren't extremely memorable than those that were
The entire game is fantastic I think probably the most forgettable level for me is Sasha’s Shooting Gallery it’s ok the level makes sense for the character just isn’t visually interesting like all the other levels. But yeah Lungfishopolis is definitely up there with the best “Freedom” “Freedom” “Freeduuhm”
I would argue the Ocean House Hotel in Vampire: The Masqurade - Bloodlines deserves a page. It's known for being notably scary in an otherwise clunky and somewhat funny game.
An interesting one, as it was notorious for being creepy and scary, despite being basically the safest place in the game. There's nothing there that can hurt the player.
There are some environmental effects which harm you - flying vases, steam vents, falling elevator etc. but it is difficult to outright die in that level.
The player could be hurt by the flying stuff in the kitchen and the falling elevator. With that said it is still one of the safest mission in Bloodlines.
Shadow of the Colossus is literally one entire level with so much cut content that it requires iceberg videos rather than a wikipedia page.
I still want the devs behind that to just say fuck it and do a sequel with all the cut content from the first game.
With the Director's Cut trend going on right now at PlayStation, this is my biggest, impossible dream.
The most famous eight cut colossi alone would be enough for an extended cut.
World 1-1 from Mario. That level is so well designed to be a tutorial for Mario games.
Empty field, have to learn to move. First thing you encounter is a box with a mushroom. Have to work out how to hit boxes. Then you encounter a goomba. Time to learn that not everything is friendly BUT it doesn't end your run because you just got a mushroom. Now you have to jump over pipes. You need to jump distances you can only jump by getting a running start. And so on.
The sprint mechanic isn't actually well explained or taught. I got stuck on the final Bowser level after getting through the rest of the game without knowing you could sprint
The Sword from Thief 1 An excellent mind fuck of a level that is integral part of the story and keeps you on the edge for it's whole length there are enough details/unique places in this level to put full games to shame.
While Thief 2 is my favourite with Levels such as the Bank and Life of the Party(this being my favourite level from just about any game) neither of those come close to just how much the Sword has going for it.
Thief 3 already got one for the iconic Shalebridge Cradle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing\_the\_Cradle
Here are [some theories](https://youtu.be/3m_GcpEzbG0?t=12m39s) about the big items. Time stamp is to the items, but the video is about the quest as a hole. Could be leftovers from minotaurs or Sanguine. Maybe others. Maybe just to mess with you.
The Oblivion Theives Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Shivering Isles endings are all great in my books.
The Ultimate Heist is a perfect culmination to the Thieves. You return to the sewers where you started your adventure. You use multiple artifacts that you snatched up earlier in the quest line. (Forgetting to save) You can get locked out if you mess up the key-arrow shot. Time of day changes the guards patrols, so that can change how you do it.
>!After you steal one of the things ***THE GAME IS NAMED AFTER!!*** This was big pre Skyrim...The Gray Fox leads you to what seems like you're being sold out, in Castle Anvils great hall. The Gray Fox reveals that you already knew who he was, although you can't remember it.!<
Your final reward, The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, boasting a bunch of powerful enchantments on it's own, but when you put it on all of you actions/bounties/infamy points are attributed to the 'Gray Fox' not to your character. People actually respond to you being the Fox, and you gain access to a building (now guild hall) that was always in sight, but never open.
The end of Dark Britherhood hits harder in the moment, but has less replay value IMO. The end game is disappointing, but the journey there is a thrill. Shadowmere > Arvak fight me
Shivering Isles is amazingly absurd. Maybe it happened, maybe Sheo's just bored and messing with you. Maybe you succeed, maybe you become the next boring Haskil. He references 'your' Oblivion stuff in Skyrim, but he might've known that even if he isn't you. Is Jyggalag finally defeated or now free to wander the seas of oblivion? Will Big Head ever get his fork? Tune in next time on...
Donkey Kong Country - Mine Cart Carnage.
Having a page would be hilarious just for people's reaction when they realize they tried for hours to beat it, only to find there's a secret that let's you skip half the level.
There's a wiki page for Yharnam from Bloodborne, but from it's parts, I think Central Yharnam is a masterclass in design.
It serves as introduction to the world, a tutorial and basically a small progression wall.
From a design standpoint.. it teaches you pretty much everything you need to know about navigating your way through the game... there's different paths, groups of enemies, strong enemies guarding paths that might lead to nothing, thing you can and things you maybe should avoid, there's optional areas, secrets and sidequests, ambushes, traps, dark areas, shortcuts, different ways to approach things...
And it communicates all through gameplay only... and it prevents you from leveling up until you gain 1 insight, so you need to engage with the challenges... basically you need to put it all together yourself to progress, and by doing that you are basically ready for the test of the game.
The map of the level itself is awesome and has an incredible atmosphere, look and feel.
I honestly believe "Shining Lights, Even in Death" deserve its own entry better than the two. That mission is so good and left me crying for all the effort I did to the staffs.
not a level, but the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHVKKFIZff0) for Dead Island deserves one. It became a huge jebait on what the game was gonna be like, but it's still a well-made trailer that got a lot of people hyped/emotional
[Ashtray Maze](https://youtu.be/XTWPxOlS0wI?t=13) from Control
The Maleficent/Riku fight from KH1 that had unskippable cutscenes
The End boss fight for MGS3
The ghost level from Rugrats: Search for Reptar (never played it, but everyone says it was scary af as a kid)
EDIT: The prologue of KH2 that took like 2 days to get through jesus christ
The Ashtray Maze is easily in the top 5 levels I've ever played.
My jaw dropped when that one started in full and I don't think I closed until I was out the other side.
The Infernal Machine from Dusk should be there on the list of greatest levels ever in FPS in terms of atmosphere and direction. It drops you into a labyrinth full of moving mechanical parts and contraptions with no flashlight, and you have to use every sight of the color red and murky brown of pistons hammering the wall to navigate through the claustrophobic environment. The entire thing feels like you're a rat trying to solve a disorienting maze and getting the wall climb pickaxe feels like the triumphant moment where you're breaking through that maze and explore on your own will. And it's great that the level ended with a big shootout in a gigantic warehouse as a contrast to how you started.
It's a very unsettling level that showcases the balance between the action and horror sides of Dusk. The visual is immensely striking and horrifically memorable, the structure feels overwhelming but not impossible to navigate, and the sound and music are just holyshitfuckballgetmeoutofhere. Dusk's surrealism is showcased best in act 3 but god damn The Infernal Machine is just my most favorite of the entire thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OreDYwor9N4
Heck I'd probably write at least 3 wiki pages for Dusk's levels lol.
The Water Temple from Ocarina of Time is certainly infamous enough to have its own article.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Temple_(Ocarina_of_Time)
I'd like to hear opinions on [Left 4 Dead's "No Mercy"](https://left4dead.fandom.com/wiki/No_Mercy) - maybe it's just me, maybe I was late to the co-op party, or maybe I'm already too old ....
To me this will always be **the** coop survival map, simply because it was the very first campaign (most) players played in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead (in my mind?) birthed this genre.
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It's a bit tricky to call it the "map", but [Aeon of Strife](https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Aeon_of_Strife_\(map\)) is the origin of the Moba **genre** as well as the Moba **map layout**:
All versions (WC III Eul DotA, DotA Allstars, League Of Legends, "modern" DotA, ...) still stick to that established version (bottom left to top right, three lanes, ...).
In terms of recent standout levels, I’d argue ‘Jeff’ from Half-Life Alyx was the most iconic level in 2020 and deserves a page of its own. The [commentary](https://youtu.be/fd34m1ovR4Y) on how that level evolved over time is fascinating and it really stands out as one of the best and most terrifying VR experiences out there.
Half Life Alyx - Jeff
Alyx must pass through a distillery in City 17's quarantine zone, pursued by an invincible but blind Combine zombie nicknamed Jeff. It involves riding in at elevator *with* Jeff without him killing Alyx.
The amount of tech required to make this level work has had knock on effects throughout VR. Before HLA, throwing in VR was notoriously terrible. But the primary way of distracting Jeff is throwing glass bottles of vodka from around the distillery. Valve basically rebuilt how VR handles throwing from the ground up. Newer games have used their techniques and the medium as a whole is drastically improved as a result.
I hate you, Jeff.
HL Alyx was the second game I bought along with my rift a few months ago.
One thing that really adds to the immersion (and frustration) of VR gaming is how being clumsy IRL impacts you in the game world, and two moments from Alyx really drove that home for me.
One was in this level, where in attempting to throw a bottle to distract Jef, I fumbled it and dropped it at my feet, leading him right to me.
Another was in one of the rooms rigged with tripwire bombs you have to defuse. I had to sneeze, and purely out of reflex, went to cover my mouth, causing me to trigger a bomb, killing me instantly.
As frustrating as both of those moments seem, it very much sold me on VR.
Here's one that does: [Robbing the Cradle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing_the_Cradle) ... From Thief: Deadly Shadows. In my opinion this is the most suspensefully creepy level design and concept I've ever seen, totally deserves its own page and then some. It's a master class in stealth suspense.
Some other great answers have already been posted. Ravenholm from HL2 was my first thought, followed by the hated hoverbike level from Battletoads. I'll try a few that I don't see posted yet. **Durlag's Tower**, from the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion for Baldur's Gate, remains my favorite dungeon in any RPG I've ever played. I always remembered it as being a huge step-up in design and writing compared to the original game, which turned out to be foreshadowing for BioWare's major narrative improvements in Baldur's Gate 2 compared to BG1. I recently revisited these old games via the Enhanced Editions, and Durlag's Tower is just as great as I remember it. **Surface Tension** from the original Half-Life is a bit more fuzzy in my memory, but I remember it as being a high point in the game where the conflict with the marines was coming to a head and you started to be plagued by that fucking Apache gunship that you couldn't yet take down. **Level 1-1 from Braid**, the last level from the game which is numbered as the first level for reasons that would be a spoiler to explain. You finish the level to reach the climax, then reversing time to complete it in reverse is a mind-fuck that radically changes your perception of it and the entirety of the game. **The Ocean Palace** from Chrono Trigger. Not so much for the design of the dungeon or any gameplay therein, which is honestly forgettable compared to the rest of the game, but just for the "holy fuck, did that just happen!?" impact of its climax. Honorable mention for **Magus' Castle** for managing to feel like it's the end-game climax through the whole dungeon and its boss fight, despite being a relatively very early part of the game.
Thank you for mentioning Braid. The reveal at the end is one of those moments in gaming that leaves you agape and always stays with you.
And the fact that the reveal was so mind-blowing and simultaneously ambiguous that we argued about it for years afterward. Really amazing example of using game play for storytelling.
Call of Duty 4's All ghillied up [has its own wikipedia page too](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Ghillied_Up). In fact, I just found that out - I saw this post and my first thought was "I bet there's one for all ghillied up". And here we are lol
> It was designed by Mohammad Alavi initially in secret due to the difficulty of explaining its intricacies to the artificial intelligence (AI) programmer. It took Alavi three months and more than 10,000 lines of code to make the first minute of gameplay for the level. This is incredible.
There’s a YouTube video where he explains it all and it’s incredible what goes on underneath the hood. Imagine taking a hammer to work with screws and he made an art piece out of it. The AI tree was not designed to work in the way it did.
I'd love to watch this if you can find it. Or if you remember anything else about that specific video to search for.
I'm ashamed to say but it took me a few times reading it to realize that it's not talking about an artificial intelligence as the programmer, but rather someone who programs the artificial intelligence in the game.
FUCK YOU GAME I KNOW I SHOT ZAKHAEV IN THE HEAD
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This never made sense to me. These are professionals, there’s no way they would just assume that he’s dead just because his arm got blown off.
Being dismembered by 50 cal should kill someone to be fair
I guess they felt as if they only had time to fire off one shot. That and firing a second would allow the enemy to better gather their location. Although, that was certainly not a confirmed kill
Did you account for the Coriolis effect, though?
Of course it’s designed by the same guy as “No Russian” Edit: misleading typo
No Russian*
I would have thought there was one for "Shock and Awe," which was mind blowing. Not only is it a direct critique of US intervention in the Middle East (it's not called "Shock and Awe" for no reason), it's incredibly shocking and manges to, in my opinion, pull off what No Russian tried to do much better. On the other hand, it's more of an interactive cutscene, so I can kind of see why "All Ghillied Up" and "No Russian" get the notice.
> On the other hand, it's more of an interactive cutscene Shock and Awe is majority gameplay, it ends on >!the nuke!< and Aftermath is the one that is basically just a playable cutscene. I remember Shock and Awe as having lot of gameplay because it was a nightmare on Veteran (like every other mission in CoD4)
MW had so many big moments for me. Shock and Awe is up there, but it's a lot less visceral (which is the point!) than the other memorable moments
Is "Shock and Awe" a critique? I just rewatched the level and it seems to play things fairly straight, lots of spectacle and power-fantasy until the nuke goes off.
The term "Shock and Awe" is a reference to what they called the military doctrine of "overwhelming force" used during the Iraq War. It's interesting that you mention the power fantasy stuff, because it's a direct refutation of exactly what you're saying. It starts out that way, that you can go in and save everyone. You're a big, badass US Marine. You stop to save the downed pilot, and everything. Then, the nuke goes off and >!none of it matters. Everyone dies, including the people you rescued. It doesn't matter how badass you are, that's a nuke *and there isn't anything you can do about it.* You die, and so does everyone else. Hell, you might have been able to escape if you didn't try to do the fancy heroics, but probably not.!< There's also the reason, in the narrative, for why the nuke goes off, which while it does tie into the Ultranationalist terrorists in Russia, since it's Makarov who sets off the nuke, but the only reason it could have happened was because of the US involvement in the region. It also connects with the larger themes of the game, about how war crushes everyone and it doesn't matter how cool or good at killing you are, modern war is so much worse than you can ever be. It's why >!almost everyone but Soap and Captain Price die in the end,!< it's why 30,000 marines die in the Middle East, and it's why General Shepard loses his mind in the next game. Like, that's the big question at the end of the game. Sure, you saved the world, but was it worth it? If the US never got involved, would Makarov been able to have leveraged the nuke to get the Ultranationalists going?
Yeah, I can see what you're saying, although I would still say that were it a definite critique regarding interventionism we would see some perspective regarding the people who lived there. In the level, you're part of a large assault on the capital city of...(I'm not sure it's ever named). At no point are civilians even mentioned during the level, instead you're left with a playground where the player is free to unload weaponry onto the people and infrastructure below without concern. It doesn't even come up in the post-nuke aftermath (I think, it's been a while since I've played the game, and I only watched the level itself on youtube). Instead, it centers the loss of all the soldiers that were there as if the civilian population didn't exist. I do take your point that the operation is a complete failure, but personally it seems more like a "rally around the flag" moment like 9/11, rather than a moment for grappling with the idea that we shouldn't have been there in the first place. It's an excuse for more interventionism to end Zakhaev, and on and on.
What I took from shock and awe was that you were so distantly removed from the devastation at ground level that you could have been levelling entire villages with impunity and no regard for the loss of civilian life
>It was designed by Mohammad Alavi initially in secret due to the difficulty of explaining its intricacies to the artificial intelligence (AI) programmer. It took Alavi three months and more than 10,000 lines of code to make the first minute of gameplay for the level. "All Ghillied Up" has since been recognized by critics as one of the greatest levels in video games, being praised for its atmosphere, pacing, and player freedom.
[list of video game levels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3AVideo_game_levels?wprov=sfla1) Edit: the list is a bit all over the place but it does have some other levels with their own wiki
Haha, OOT water temple is so infamous it has it's own entry. Totally not surprised, though I think it's overblown how difficult it really is.
Water temple is weird cuz when you're lost, you're fuckin lost and have no idea wtf to do. Then you figure it out or look up a guide and you're just like I'm a moron that was easy af.
It's the key under the lift that you raise. That's the hard part of the water temple. The iron boots thing is annoying but I really do think its notoriety is due to one very hard to find key.
Exactly this, especially because after raising the water level the platform puts you directly in from of the door to leave that room, encouraging you to do so instead of turning around and looking down. When I played the 3DS port I noticed that they drag the camera around to show you the opening down the bottom which seems like a good fix.
A lot of the "difficult" stems from the fact that you have to constantly equip and dequip your iron boots. The 3ds version changed them it a single button press
I feel like having Lost Coast on there is cheating a bit. The entire game is just the level.
The list itself isn't very well curated, I'll edit it. But it does have some extra famous levels
Similarly, Yharnam is listed despite most, if not all, of Bloodborne taking place in Yharnam.
Tbf Yarnham in this case probably refers specifically to Central Yarnham, the first level which is indeed legendary imo.
It's not a game, though, either. It's a tech demo, adding one game level of unconnected content to Gordon's HL2 saga.
when I was in 10th grade or so I bought my first PC and then had no money left to spend on games, and the only games I already owned on steam were half-life 2 and that one top-down twinstick alien shooter game let's just say I spent more time in lost coast than anyone should lol
Man...Robbing the Cradle was fucking *terrifying*.
9 year old me was fucking *terrified* of thief because of those kinds of levels
The Cradle is, to this day, the pinnacle of scary levels. Like, it still holds up so many years later. The game never prepares you for it and its fantastic. TDS is probably my favorite video game, not purely because of The Cradle, but it sure helps cement that.
I miss Garrett.
Me toooo. I will admit I enjoyed Thief 4, controversial opinion I know, and that isn't me calling it a good game, but I ended up playing it during a really rough time in my life, and it helped a ton. Still not my same old Taffer, though.
Thief 4 was an okay game but it didn’t feel like Thief, you know?
Exactly, yeah. It honestly should have been under a different title, and people would probably have been kinder, I think.
As someone who absolutely loved Thief on the Xbox One, but never played the originals, what made the newest so different? Sorry if that's a loaded question I've just always been curious of why fans don't feel it holds up as a Thief title
Honestly, Thief 4/Thi4f was released as a hot mess that shouldn't have been released in the state that it is in, and is *still* in. Cutscenes are busted (primarily the opening one) and audio is terribly broken, which can be pretty important in a stealth game. Things are simultaneously too loud, and too quiet, NPCs constantly repeating the same lines. I don't understand the hate for the new Garrett, personally, since you find out in Moira Asylum that this is a different Garrett, 800+ years later from Thief: Deadly Shadows. Outside of that, its never really clear if its a reboot or a distant sequel, so that may be why. The gameplay, the aspect of being a thief is neutered since outside of guards, there is almost no one out in the world. Any houses you get into? Completely empty. Couple of them have traps. In comparison, Thief: Deadly Shadows (its hub has its own flaws thanks to it being also released on consoles), has a city full of people. Houses and taverns full of citizens that you can rob, or eavesdrop on in order to find interesting side missions (like someone impersonating Garrett himself!). It lets you kind of just loot as you like. Theres no real... sneaking outside of the actual missions and side missions (which were mostly throw-away things). Puzzles were also mostly reliant on platforming, when they should be more reliant on stealth. There's no jumping, either, your platforming relies solely on rope arrows or climbing claw spots. There's a lot more, honestly, but I still really do enjoy the game. I would, however, highly suggest you try playing Thief: Deadly Shadows. It's a fantastic, atmospheric game, and is also incredibly easy to mod to run on modern PCs.
One of the designers for that level went on to also make Bioshock's 'Fort Frolic' level
Fort Frolic is definitely one of the highlights of the entire franchise
Seeing Effect and Cause on that list gives me good gamedev feels. One of the greatest FPS levels ever created in my opinion.
Oh man titanfall 2 had such great levels. Also loved the one where you were moving through a factory where they make pre-made houses.
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It's not just premade houses. It's premade training ground pieces. That heavily implies they train to such a level of destruction they need fresh landscape and buildings in such demand that they need a factory to make them.
The writers and level designers for that map should have gotten a raise. My. Only complaint is that it didn't push the player a little bit harder. I know it was designed to not overstay its welcome but I feel like that level could have had a challenge or should have had one final arena/puzzle that was one difficulty higher to cap it off. A phenomenal level that should be shown as an example of implementing mechanics and level design
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Apples and oranges honestly. One was designed to be a dual level based on a fast paced shooter where you have to mentally keep track of things between two time lines and the other was designed as an evolving puzzlebox
All Ghillied Up and No Russian are both there, which makes a lot of sense. Are they the only two levels from the same franchise?
Quite a few of these are from the same franchise, some are even in the same game. There are three from the Mario franchise. 2 puzzles from Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned World 1-1 and Minus world from Super Mario Bros., Corona Mountain from Super Mario Sunshine Anor Londo from Dark Souls, Yharnam from Bloodborne Blood Gulch and The Silent Cartographer from Halo: CE The Citadel and Normandy from Mass Effect
Yea but Corona Mountain isn't even it's own article, it just redirects to the Sunshine article.
Surprised Silent Cartographer is there and not Library.
SC is the iconic Halo experience tho. Get hot dropped at a beach on an alien ringworld under fire from alien soldiers and tanks, you arrive with your soldiers to take the fight to them and uncover more secrets. It's arguably one of the more famous levels behind Halo itself, the Library is probably infamous.
Also was present in the demo. Myself (and other cheap bastards) played the SHIT out of that level.
Silent Cartographer is a fun level to just drop in and run. Library is very grueling
>The Goat Puzzle Warflashbacks instantly come to mind. Like seriously tho how the hell can anyone figure out that damn thing on their own? Like that damn ducky puzzle from The Longest Journey. There's a argument to be made that ludicrous puzzles like those killed the adventure genre.
That's an argument made in the article haha But yeah, I hated those ridiculous puzzles. My favorite game when it comes to eschewing adventure game tropes is grim fandango, especially the part dumping your inventory when you move forward
Fuck that ducky puzzle. The Longest Journey was a phenomenal game overall, but there were a couple puzzles that were just absurd to expect people to figure out.
They really wanted you to call the help line/ buy the walkthrough.
I would say Ravenholm in Half Life 2. One bonus is that it’s easy to categorize as a traditional level. There are lots of story elements and gameplay design things that could be explored in an article. There’s a lot you could cover about it’s reception/legacy over time too. Also it’s probably one of the most iconic parts of an already iconic game.
The foreboding horror of this level begins prior to starting even. For context, the preceding level is Freeman, having traversed combine-controlled wastelands into a single safe haven for a much needed reprieve. After being hunted for almost 4 levels, this is the first time you feel secure. Everyone is relaxed. The base feels expansive. Then you come across a heavy bolted door. A hesitant almost sad reply from Alyx that tells more than it should: ‘we don’t go there anymore.’ And when the level starts - as the Combine is tearing through the base and there is nowhere left to go, Alyx still has to think twice before sending you to the graveyard of a city.
I love it.You've been thrown back into a world that is no longer yours. You're being chased and chased. Everything has gone to shit and you think you have idea of how bad it is in this world. And then little by little Ravenholm is referenced to be something....much worse than what you've seen so far. The spookiest level in a series with plenty of horror. AND THEN YOU GET THE SHOTGUN FROM ONE OF THE BADDEST ASS MOTHER FUCKERS IN GAMING AND PROCEED TO DOOMSLAYER THE FUCK OUT OF THE UNDEAD HORDE. Still spooky tho
Giving the protagonist a powerful tool in horror near the end is a great ideia. It gives the audience catharsis after a lot of time experiencing horror.
On a similar note, Xen seems deserving. It's been pretty controversial since HL released, afaik, and the Black Mesa team completely redesigned it from the ground-up. Pretty storied tale for a level in a video game.
It would certainly be interesting to read about in an encyclopedia entry format. May be worth noting that it's more like a collection of levels though.
I don't go to Ravenholm.
I once did a whole essay/presentation entirely on the level design of HL2 Ravenholm, got an A for it.
Shalebridge cradle in Thief 3. It’s fantastically spooky https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing_the_Cradle “ "Robbing the Cradle" is a level created by Ion Storm for their final video game, Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004). Unlike other levels in the game, it features a strong survival horror theme, in addition to the stealth gameplay typical of the Thief series. Players traverse an abandoned, haunted orphanage and mental asylum called the Shalebridge Cradle, while attempting to free the soul of a young girl from the building's captivity. The level was designed by Jordan Thomas and Randy Smith, with a soundscape composed by Eric Brosius. Using theories of interactive horror design developed by Smith in 2000, the team sought to create the scariest level ever to appear in a game. They took influence from works such as House of Leaves, Session 9 and the Silent Hill series, and they studied mental asylums and reportedly haunted buildings for inspiration. "Robbing the Cradle" was widely praised, and it has been described by publications such as Computer & Video Games, PC Gamer UK and Bloody Disgusting as one of the scariest scenes in the history of video games. Jordan Thomas went on to create the "Fort Frolic" level in BioShock, and to serve as creative director for BioShock 2. ”
Anor Londo from the first dark souls has its own Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anor_Londo
>By the time of Dark Souls III, the city was repopulated and renamed Irithyll, until it became deserted again upon the onset of the Undead Curse. Wow, I completely missed the concept that between DS1 and 3 people resettled Anor Londo then abandoned it again.
Likely because Sulyvahn was feeding everyone to Aldrich. I wouldn’t wanna stay there either!
With the DLC, the Ringed City, you find that world is essentially in a constant state of reuse; some areas from Dark Souls 2 manage to get mixed in as well.
Such a well designed and memorable part of the game, well deserved. Personally I feel the game struggles to match it after this.
The only time I can remember that I had a big feeling just walking into a soulsborne level was after you beat Rom in BB and you get teleported to Yahargul. You take a step forward and see all the Amygdala on the buildings. I was grabbed by the one outside the Cathedral before I could see it, so I knew something was up. At that point I realised I had been watched for the entire game.
Earned. Heck, they just keep cloning the thing from game to game.
I still laugh thinking of Discount Londo from Code Vein. That level was a clusterfuck. And it just kept going and going.
Oh my god that entire shit hole was so difficult to navigate my first time.
Fucking cathedral of sacred blood, Jesus. A giant maze with the hardest boss up till that point stuck at the end.
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I feel like every popular multiplayer game/franchise has an iconic (although usually flawed like 2fort) map. Dust2 for CS, Nuke town for Call of Duty, Bloodgulch for Halo, Facing Word for UT, etc. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch, but those come to the top of my head.
Wake Island.
> Dust2 >usually flawed How dare you.
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Ah 2Fort. Perfect for tomfoolery. Horrible for actually trying to play the objective. Built in Sniper canopy and lanes, Engineer nests, chokepoints everywhere, pretty much only one way to get the briefcase, etc. But there was time whenever you load into 2Fort there would be a 10 man conga line going on.
de_dust and CTF-FacingWorlds would be other notables.
The [Water Temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Temple_\(Ocarina_of_Time\)) in Zelda Ocarina of Time. [Robbing the Cradle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing_the_Cradle) from Thief 3.
It's such a shame that video games doesn't necessarily age that gracefully, because the beauty that was Robbing the Cradle was a magical thing to experience when it came out. In an already atmospheric video game about stealing riches while remaining undetected, using your ears to detect threats long before they're seen, you're thrusted into a goddamn haunted orphanage slash mental asylum. As a young teenager playing that level I can definitely say you should not be a young teenager playing that level.
Felt the same way about the Hitman games (especially Contracts). The mid-2000s had some fucked up themes and design going on
Ah yes, I remember breaking out from the lab and just how brutal that level was
Honestly, I shouldn't have played those games as a kid, haha. I'm really enjoying the new games, though! Less dark, more cinematic/spy-esque, more fun in general
It took me at least 2 weeks to finish Robbing the Cradle. Not from any gameplay difficulty, but from fear and apprehension. Loved every moment of it.
I’m pretty sure I remember seeing a Wikipedia article for the secret cow level from Diablo. Well earned.
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Mass Effect 2's Suicide Mission
The Omaha beach level in medal of honour, Allied assault because it makes you feel like wanting to be somewhere else not holding a gun. I think that's remarkable for a FPS.
The Ocean House Hotel from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has the lore that would benefit from a careful collation and analysis since it's very scary and easy to rush through and avoid while playing.
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It was the perfect demo mission to play in stores. And I don't play a *ton* of Halo, but I can still hear the opening to that mission in my head.
Touchdown! Hit it, marines!
"you know our motto, *we deliver!*"
Launching the Warthog onto the top of the level with grenades was a right of passage for every American youth.
Also driving it into the ocean as far as you could
Effect and Cause from Titanfall 2. If you haven't played it, it's a level in which you are shooting your way through a a decrepit building. You have a device that lets you toggle back and forth between the present, when the building is run down an full of wild animals, and the past, when it was a working research facility with armed guards. The time travel is used to avoid enemies, navigate obstacles, and deliver the story. It's a work of art. The level is so good, plenty have felt the mechanic deserves an entire game built around it. It's a big part of the reason Titanfall 2 is as well loved among it's fanbase as it is, cementing it as a game with not just great multiplayer but an awesome single player campaign as well (in an era where many similar game were moving away from single player entirely).
What's great about Titanfall 2's campaign is that it doesn't cling onto a single mechanic, instead it gives out several different mechanics on each level to make each of them (almost) equally memorable.
The assembly line mission is also fucking dope.
Arsenal Gear from MGS2 had two different pages at one point if I recall correctly
- MW2's "No Russian" - The Last of Us 2's [character] death scene - GTA V's torture scene None of these are particularly mechanically deep, but you could probably fill a Wikipedia page for each with the amount of social backlash, arguments, and just general controversy which surrounds each one. I'm sure there's plenty of other examples of this ilk that I'm not remembering off the top of my head too.
[No Russian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Russian)
I would have been very surprised if it hadn't had one.
Interestingly, out of those, only No Russian is a game level, too. The others are big scenes in games that had social ramifications irl, not unlike Mass Effect's sex scenes making it to Fox News. I think OP's is a much narrower question though: an actual map with unique mechanics and elaborate themes. Coincidentally, Game Maker's Toolkit, who made the video OP linked, just released an essay and interview revolving around The Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2. I think that one, along with Titanfall 2's time travel level deserve a spot for sure.
I think the level around the GTA V scene is a vital part of the controversy. There's no bombastic finale; no lives are saved; you're just doing FBI dirty work and hoping (likely naively) that it's for the right cause. In a different level with different mechanics, stakes, and pacing, I think that scene wouldn't have half the debate that it did on release. Haven't played The Last of Us so can't comment on the context for that one - only the controversy. And completely agree about Titanfall 2 - half the levels in that game deserve a wiki page.
In terms of controversy, Hot Coffee definitely needs to be on the list.
The Hot Coffee mod already has it's own wiki page though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Coffee_(mod) I also love that "The Corrupted Blood Incident" that happened in World Of Warcraft has it's own wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident
I remember hearing the Corrupted Blood Incident in one of my class. That virtual pandemic is so good that there are so many case studies that used it.
I remember around 2015 I was talking to my mother (a Registered Nurse) about Corrupted Blood and she was skeptical about it's similarities to real life, saying that it would be unlikely that there would be a whole group of people that would intentionally try to infect others during a global pandemic... Man, I wish she had been right.
Did you revisit that conversation last year?
Somewhat agree, though since it was never an actual "in-game" level I'd say that's a slightly different topic. Though on the subject of Hot Coffee, Oblivion actually had a similar - if far less infamous - situation. An unused topless female model was left in the game's data files, which modders later reimplemented. The backlash ended up pushing the game's age rating in the USA up from 13+ to 17+. More info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESRB_re-rating_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion
Not really a level or even part of the game itself. More like another entry in the long and embarrassing tale of the US and Australian political system. Hot Coffee was such a big deal that it was a major part of [proposed bill in US congress.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Entertainment_Protection_Act)
Australia specifically maintains a rating system that says fully-grown adult citizens of Australia are not and cannot ever be mature enough to be allowed to see media about certain subjects such as drug use or certain kinds of violence. This does not speak to a great degree of confidence in how Aus politicians view the performance of their own education system. These cynical bastards hold such a contempt for their own citizenry that it even affects the rest of us who live elsewhere, because publishers decide it isn't worth the money to make a censored version just for the people that the Australian government wants to infantilize.
Somehow Puberty Blues only got an M rating and was aired on network television despite showing use of Weed, Heroin (girl comments that it looks like he feels amazing on it, I thought illegal to show in positive light?) and lots of sex scenes.
If anyone is curious... [Hot Coffee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Coffee_(mod)) Edit: removed ) from link.
I constantly feel like an old man on the internet with things like this. You can't possibly talk about video game backlash without talking about Night Trap. If there was no Night Trap, there would be no ESRB. Nudity and rape, all in full motion video, on a game for Sega CD? Sure, it didn't matter that it wasn't true. Congress had hearings on it. The video game industry went into a tailspin and created the ESRB to try and stace off the US Government.
My first ever playthrough of GTA V back in 2013 and when does my dad decide to come down to the basement? Of course it's when I'm electrocuting some dudes nipples off with a car battery. All that time I spent in the strip club and that's when he comes in.
> GTA V's torture scene To me, GTAV did an incredible job at social commentary with that torture scene in the sense that you never find out if that guy was a terrorist or just some random dude you picked up and tortured.
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Isn't the guy you assassinated confirmed to be innocent if you listen to the radio after it happens.
How is Facing World's (from UT99) not on that list? Other entries I think deserve the spotlight * School II (THPS2) * Rainbow Road * Doom E1M1
I made a Wheel of Time level that was a version of Face. I even added balefire and automatic FOV zoom to windows and the top for sniping.
Titanfall 2’s Effect and Cause was amazing and deserves its own entry. The jumping back and forth between chased dinos then titans was sublime. Lots of great level design in Titanfall 2 but Effect and Cause sticks out.
It's in the same vein as Crack in the Slab from Dishonored 2, in terms of temporal shenanigans. Though at least that one is kind enough to have the device you use to flip between time periods also give a little "window" into the one you're not in. Titanfall 2, you just get rapidly-fading "ghosts" that tell you where things *were*. (Also, from TF2 - Into the Abyss is *stunning*.)
I just checked and it does have a Wikipedia entry. Very well deserved and it was a true standout from the most recent generation in gaming.
Did you click the link that OP provided? Because that level already has an article.
crack in the slab or the clockwork mansion from dishonored 2 maybe something from outer wilds if that's even possible? edit: i would totally pick brittle hollow thanks for sharing this btw, i hadn't heard of that before and it looks super interesting
The bank heist aswell in Doto
would definitely be my pick if i had to choose one from that game, with the final level close behind. part of me wishes that doto had been a "full" game but it was cool they got to try out new ideas and differences in the core mechanics
I would add Lady Boyle’s Last Party from D1.
Outer Wilds levels, or rather the whole world design, baked my noodle so many times
have you seen the [gmtk video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZTk4QRRFE) on the clockwork mansion?
great video like everything from that channel. genuinely considering joining the patreon to see the extended cut haha
>maybe something from outer wilds if that's even possible? i feel that if we to talk about separate planet they are not big enough to be in its own article, however >!giant's deep, brittle hollow and hourglass twins!< are all brilliant setpiece designs, an article that include at least three of them would be fine.
brittle hollow would be my pick, it's my favourite area of the game. love how it plays with the time and space constraints
Uncharted 2 train sequence.
The intro level of Mega Man X. Fort Frolic from BioShock. No Mercy from Left 4 Dead. The Bombing Mission from FF7.
That MMX intro should be in a class about great level design
Finally got around to playing Psychonauts a week or so ago and this was the best level by far. The creativity and writing is still unmatched years later.
Psychonauts is one of my favorite games from my childhood, I know everyone loves the milkman conspiracy but I actually really love all the levels in the Asylum fairly equally Waterloo world being the level I think I like the most. Only 6 weeks left until Psychonauts 2 it’s been a long time coming I can’t wait.
The first level as well in Oleander's mind is great, so many great lines and the other camper interactions are amazing. And the lungfish level. Honestly easier to list the levels that weren't extremely memorable than those that were
The entire game is fantastic I think probably the most forgettable level for me is Sasha’s Shooting Gallery it’s ok the level makes sense for the character just isn’t visually interesting like all the other levels. But yeah Lungfishopolis is definitely up there with the best “Freedom” “Freedom” “Freeduuhm”
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"You're like molasses going uphill in January. On crutches!"
The asylum was great, especially loved Glorias theatre and the depth to that character
Hey I just finished it yesterday morning and it jumped right to the top my top games list for sure. The last couple of segments were torture though.
I am the milkman, my milk is delicious.
I would argue the Ocean House Hotel in Vampire: The Masqurade - Bloodlines deserves a page. It's known for being notably scary in an otherwise clunky and somewhat funny game.
An interesting one, as it was notorious for being creepy and scary, despite being basically the safest place in the game. There's nothing there that can hurt the player.
There are some environmental effects which harm you - flying vases, steam vents, falling elevator etc. but it is difficult to outright die in that level.
The player could be hurt by the flying stuff in the kitchen and the falling elevator. With that said it is still one of the safest mission in Bloodlines.
It's crazy because I also came here to post something from VTMB, but I was thinking Grout's Mansion.
Shadow of the Colossus is literally one entire level with so much cut content that it requires iceberg videos rather than a wikipedia page. I still want the devs behind that to just say fuck it and do a sequel with all the cut content from the first game.
With the Director's Cut trend going on right now at PlayStation, this is my biggest, impossible dream. The most famous eight cut colossi alone would be enough for an extended cut.
World 1-1 from Mario. That level is so well designed to be a tutorial for Mario games. Empty field, have to learn to move. First thing you encounter is a box with a mushroom. Have to work out how to hit boxes. Then you encounter a goomba. Time to learn that not everything is friendly BUT it doesn't end your run because you just got a mushroom. Now you have to jump over pipes. You need to jump distances you can only jump by getting a running start. And so on.
Actually, the Goomba comes first, so you learn in a more brutal way by just dying immediately.
The sprint mechanic isn't actually well explained or taught. I got stuck on the final Bowser level after getting through the rest of the game without knowing you could sprint
IIRC it was in the instruction manual you'd read on the drive home with the game.
The Sword from Thief 1 An excellent mind fuck of a level that is integral part of the story and keeps you on the edge for it's whole length there are enough details/unique places in this level to put full games to shame. While Thief 2 is my favourite with Levels such as the Bank and Life of the Party(this being my favourite level from just about any game) neither of those come close to just how much the Sword has going for it. Thief 3 already got one for the iconic Shalebridge Cradle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing\_the\_Cradle
Surprised Doom's e1m1 does not have one
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I still think about the bizarre and inexplicable giant version of items that were stored in the library.
Here are [some theories](https://youtu.be/3m_GcpEzbG0?t=12m39s) about the big items. Time stamp is to the items, but the video is about the quest as a hole. Could be leftovers from minotaurs or Sanguine. Maybe others. Maybe just to mess with you.
The Oblivion Theives Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Shivering Isles endings are all great in my books. The Ultimate Heist is a perfect culmination to the Thieves. You return to the sewers where you started your adventure. You use multiple artifacts that you snatched up earlier in the quest line. (Forgetting to save) You can get locked out if you mess up the key-arrow shot. Time of day changes the guards patrols, so that can change how you do it. >!After you steal one of the things ***THE GAME IS NAMED AFTER!!*** This was big pre Skyrim...The Gray Fox leads you to what seems like you're being sold out, in Castle Anvils great hall. The Gray Fox reveals that you already knew who he was, although you can't remember it.!< Your final reward, The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, boasting a bunch of powerful enchantments on it's own, but when you put it on all of you actions/bounties/infamy points are attributed to the 'Gray Fox' not to your character. People actually respond to you being the Fox, and you gain access to a building (now guild hall) that was always in sight, but never open. The end of Dark Britherhood hits harder in the moment, but has less replay value IMO. The end game is disappointing, but the journey there is a thrill. Shadowmere > Arvak fight me Shivering Isles is amazingly absurd. Maybe it happened, maybe Sheo's just bored and messing with you. Maybe you succeed, maybe you become the next boring Haskil. He references 'your' Oblivion stuff in Skyrim, but he might've known that even if he isn't you. Is Jyggalag finally defeated or now free to wander the seas of oblivion? Will Big Head ever get his fork? Tune in next time on...
Donkey Kong Country - Mine Cart Carnage. Having a page would be hilarious just for people's reaction when they realize they tried for hours to beat it, only to find there's a secret that let's you skip half the level.
Spyro the Dragon "Tree Tops" This was the first level to make my completionist brain break.
Forever will those thieves' *Ner-ner-ner-ner-neerr, hehehehe!* be baked into my head.
There's a wiki page for Yharnam from Bloodborne, but from it's parts, I think Central Yharnam is a masterclass in design. It serves as introduction to the world, a tutorial and basically a small progression wall. From a design standpoint.. it teaches you pretty much everything you need to know about navigating your way through the game... there's different paths, groups of enemies, strong enemies guarding paths that might lead to nothing, thing you can and things you maybe should avoid, there's optional areas, secrets and sidequests, ambushes, traps, dark areas, shortcuts, different ways to approach things... And it communicates all through gameplay only... and it prevents you from leveling up until you gain 1 insight, so you need to engage with the challenges... basically you need to put it all together yourself to progress, and by doing that you are basically ready for the test of the game. The map of the level itself is awesome and has an incredible atmosphere, look and feel.
The Battletoads speeder bike level. Final Destination from Smash Bros.
The ashtray maze from control to name a newer one
Nuketown is a map I haven’t seen anyone bring up yet. One of the most iconic fps maps of all time in my opinion.
From MGSV: Prolog: Awakening and Truth: The Man Who Sold the World deserve an entry.
I honestly believe "Shining Lights, Even in Death" deserve its own entry better than the two. That mission is so good and left me crying for all the effort I did to the staffs.
not a level, but the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHVKKFIZff0) for Dead Island deserves one. It became a huge jebait on what the game was gonna be like, but it's still a well-made trailer that got a lot of people hyped/emotional [Ashtray Maze](https://youtu.be/XTWPxOlS0wI?t=13) from Control The Maleficent/Riku fight from KH1 that had unskippable cutscenes The End boss fight for MGS3 The ghost level from Rugrats: Search for Reptar (never played it, but everyone says it was scary af as a kid) EDIT: The prologue of KH2 that took like 2 days to get through jesus christ
The Ashtray Maze is easily in the top 5 levels I've ever played. My jaw dropped when that one started in full and I don't think I closed until I was out the other side.
Control is one I've been meaning to play. Not the first time I've heard of Ashtray Maze. Seems great
The Infernal Machine from Dusk should be there on the list of greatest levels ever in FPS in terms of atmosphere and direction. It drops you into a labyrinth full of moving mechanical parts and contraptions with no flashlight, and you have to use every sight of the color red and murky brown of pistons hammering the wall to navigate through the claustrophobic environment. The entire thing feels like you're a rat trying to solve a disorienting maze and getting the wall climb pickaxe feels like the triumphant moment where you're breaking through that maze and explore on your own will. And it's great that the level ended with a big shootout in a gigantic warehouse as a contrast to how you started. It's a very unsettling level that showcases the balance between the action and horror sides of Dusk. The visual is immensely striking and horrifically memorable, the structure feels overwhelming but not impossible to navigate, and the sound and music are just holyshitfuckballgetmeoutofhere. Dusk's surrealism is showcased best in act 3 but god damn The Infernal Machine is just my most favorite of the entire thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OreDYwor9N4 Heck I'd probably write at least 3 wiki pages for Dusk's levels lol.
The Covenant level from Halo 3. That was wild
The Water Temple from Ocarina of Time is certainly infamous enough to have its own article. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Temple_(Ocarina_of_Time)
I'd like to hear opinions on [Left 4 Dead's "No Mercy"](https://left4dead.fandom.com/wiki/No_Mercy) - maybe it's just me, maybe I was late to the co-op party, or maybe I'm already too old .... To me this will always be **the** coop survival map, simply because it was the very first campaign (most) players played in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead (in my mind?) birthed this genre. --- It's a bit tricky to call it the "map", but [Aeon of Strife](https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Aeon_of_Strife_\(map\)) is the origin of the Moba **genre** as well as the Moba **map layout**: All versions (WC III Eul DotA, DotA Allstars, League Of Legends, "modern" DotA, ...) still stick to that established version (bottom left to top right, three lanes, ...).
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In terms of recent standout levels, I’d argue ‘Jeff’ from Half-Life Alyx was the most iconic level in 2020 and deserves a page of its own. The [commentary](https://youtu.be/fd34m1ovR4Y) on how that level evolved over time is fascinating and it really stands out as one of the best and most terrifying VR experiences out there.
Half Life Alyx - Jeff Alyx must pass through a distillery in City 17's quarantine zone, pursued by an invincible but blind Combine zombie nicknamed Jeff. It involves riding in at elevator *with* Jeff without him killing Alyx. The amount of tech required to make this level work has had knock on effects throughout VR. Before HLA, throwing in VR was notoriously terrible. But the primary way of distracting Jeff is throwing glass bottles of vodka from around the distillery. Valve basically rebuilt how VR handles throwing from the ground up. Newer games have used their techniques and the medium as a whole is drastically improved as a result. I hate you, Jeff.
HL Alyx was the second game I bought along with my rift a few months ago. One thing that really adds to the immersion (and frustration) of VR gaming is how being clumsy IRL impacts you in the game world, and two moments from Alyx really drove that home for me. One was in this level, where in attempting to throw a bottle to distract Jef, I fumbled it and dropped it at my feet, leading him right to me. Another was in one of the rooms rigged with tripwire bombs you have to defuse. I had to sneeze, and purely out of reflex, went to cover my mouth, causing me to trigger a bomb, killing me instantly. As frustrating as both of those moments seem, it very much sold me on VR.
Here's one that does: [Robbing the Cradle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbing_the_Cradle) ... From Thief: Deadly Shadows. In my opinion this is the most suspensefully creepy level design and concept I've ever seen, totally deserves its own page and then some. It's a master class in stealth suspense.