Most memorable level you've played.

I have been playing 1st person shooters since wolfenstien3d came out.. but when I think about it, only 1 level made such an impact upon me that I think I will always think fondly of it..

Level 17 in doom II "Tenements"
My friend and I were playing it cooperative, by serial cable, it took us 2 hours to finish the one level.. I cannot recall the real name but we called him "Bazooka Joe", i think it was cyber demon or some such.. Anyways, with only pistols, and 10,000 respawns we finally defeated him.. If you recall, you begin level 17 on the ledge, with a tiny path leading away over a lava pit.. the bodies were piles so high, we had to move away from the spawn point just to see him :biggrin:

You shoulda heard us, screaming obscenities at each other for dying before leading him away from the room .. anyways, I am curious, has any of you been so impressed, that you can recall a certain level in a game and name it?

My FPS experience is not nearly so extensive. I played some quake 2 etc, but Half-Life is the only one I've ever completed.

If I had to pick one level that's had the biggest impact on me it would have to be Torrent. I can't really say why, I think it was the first DM map I've ever played that was of that visual quality.

The "Halo" chapter in, funnily enough, Halo, was a great level. The
Pillar of Autumn was a nice introduction but Halo really got you into
what the game was all about - driving around in a warthog (or should
that be puma?) while your mate desperately tries to catch you so he can
jump in the back :biggrin: The very final level in "The Maw" chapter was also
another defining moment of Halo and one hell of a way to end a game,
but I won't spoil it for anyone yet to play it :smile:

EDIT: Wow, thanks Tracer, glad you liked it!

Anything from Natural Selection, especially KFS's stuff. Those were the first extremely detailed and high-quality levels I'd seen. Now of course I realize how much great HLDM and CS stuff I missed out on, but NS really sucked me back into level design.

It's not all poorly textured boxes!

My intentions were not to turn another thread into a petting zoo fellas :biggrin:

yes, i have HLDM maps i love too, but i was really talking about single-player levels that were part of the game you purchaced..

pet if you must, hell some silly fools still like my maps, but seriously, i was referring only to original releases..

hope that cleared up any misunderstandings.. :smile:

I could never narrow it down to one. So...

Q3DM17 - Quake III

This was the first map I played in the old Q3 Test and always my favorite. Even as recent as this last summer, my friends and I would play it non-stop for hours at LAN parties, rack up 100+ frags each, etc. Great times.

Pedestrian District - Beyond Good and Evil

All of BG&E is great. You must all play it. But the Pedestrian district in particular contains a number of blocked routes early in the game that, later in the game, turn into some exciting sequences, particularly the big mega-chase sequence, which left my jaw hanging to the floor as I tried to escape (and yes, the game just got better after that, too :wink: ). The varied gameplay was awesome - most of it was friendly town-type stuff, but in the blocked off routes you could get into the more tense stealth, stealing, and creeping.

Chapter 1 - Ikaruga

You might discount Ikaruga as being a scrolling shooter, but it still involved a hell of a lot of art content for the backdrop design, and the timing and scripting of enemies is also a part of that level, so it counts. Nyeh! As good as the whole game is, Chapter 1 is the chapter that really introduces you to the two key concepts of the game - dark vs. light, chains of 3. The thought going into this level to get all the chains to add up as well as keeping the challenging polarity (color) switching is just staggering. The more you learn about the game, the more incredible the undertaking becomes.

I didn't misunderstand, I just have very limited SP experience to draw from so I picked a DM map. While HL was a great SP game, I was never very impressed by the levels, except maybe the tram-ride at the very beginning.

I'd have to say my best levels from games are...

Surface Tension- Half Life: This was amazing and was one of the best parts of half life. You really got the adrenaline running through you when fighting the aliens and marines on a military base.

Halo- Halo: what ReNo said.

River Styx- Turok 2: This was a great level and gave a great atmosphereric feeling.

There are some other levels from other games that I enjoyed but I can't think of anymore right now.

Call of Duty - Stalingrad Shore

The beginning of the Russian campaign, featuring a humorous satire of
Red Army practices, sailing across the river to certain oblivion. Then
you finally land on shore, and all you get is a clip of ammo and you
can't even pick up a gun from your dead comrades! It just felt really
epic, with the music, particle effects, and dozens upon dozens of
troops running up the slope to their death. Just a great beginning in
general.

No One Lives Forever 2 - India

The climax of the game. At first, the city layout appears a bit forced
and linear, but over time you have to double back under different
conditions (stealth, escape) and the layout really shines as a result.
The variety of activities and events just combines to create a
wonderful example of design in general. Plus, some great humor and
writing with all the HARM Indian guards, putting out fires for old
wrinkled men, trademark NOLF humor, etc.

Orpheus said:
I have been playing 1st person shooters since wolfenstien3d came out.. but when I think about it, only 1 level made such an impact upon me that I think I will always think fondly of it..

Level 17 in doom II "Tenements"
My friend and I were playing it cooperative, by serial cable, it took us 2 hours to finish the one level.. I cannot recall the real name but we called him "Bazooka Joe", i think it was cyber demon or some such.. Anyways, with only pistols, and 10,000 respawns we finally defeated him.. If you recall, you begin level 17 on the ledge, with a tiny path leading away over a lava pit.. the bodies were piles so high, we had to move away from the spawn point just to see him :biggrin:

You shoulda heard us, screaming obscenities at each other for dying before leading him away from the room .. anyways, I am curious, has any of you been so impressed, that you can recall a certain level in a game and name it?

Been playing FPS since I was... 3. Started out with sitting on mommy's lap and watching her play DOOM. By age 5, I was slaughtering demons all by myself :biggrin:

Oddly, most memorable level I think I've ever played was E1M2, from DOOM -- Nuclear Plant. The shotgun on the elevator... the out side area with the chain gun... the spooky slime walk way... the "room that revolutionized doom" (no joke!)... The Imp's Song....

I hear a song....

http://www.doomworld.com/music/d_e1m2.mid

and for a little lore, here's John Romero's Alpha E1M2 -- the room that revolutionized doom:

Goldeneye - Silo

It's just too damn fun, and I will probably never get bored running through it.

Halo - Assault on the Control Room
Halo - Two Betrayals

Playing these on legendary is awesome. They are both incredibly difficult, but it's a fun challenge and rarely frustrating. I always felt I accomplished something big whenever I beat them. It's even better when you play them co-op and bring a friend along for Covenant-stomping.

Half-Life - Second Garg Sighting

This happens right before "Forget about Freeman!", but I can't remember what chaper it is. The first time I saw the bastard knock those jeeps around I freaked and sprinted to the exit, only to have the Garg chase me down and beat me before the airstrike map. Simply awesome, and more surprising and unexpected to me than all of D3. If this section was the end of Surface Tension, then that just cements it as the greatest SP map ever made.

Hey orph, I though you said you were going somewhere else, not that im saying you should go away.

Spartan 34 said:
Surface Tension- Half Life: This was amazing and was one of the best parts of half life. You really got the adrenaline running through you when fighting the aliens and marines on a military base.

Ill agree there with you surface tension and power up were what got me intersted in mapping for Half-Life, kindda a coincidence that they are made by the same guy: Dario. And Halo-Halo is good, also curse # in the UT series. And if this counts: MGS3 the tanker (as a whole).

so, if you remove the reference as to my location, i won't call you a worthless piece of s**t?

[edit] forgot to make it lightblue [/edit]

blushes

Call of Duty - Stalingrad Shore

The beginning of the Russian campaign, featuring a humorous satire of
Red Army practices, sailing across the river to certain oblivion. Then
you finally land on shore, and all you get is a clip of ammo and you
can't even pick up a gun from your dead comrades! It just felt really
epic, with the music, particle effects, and dozens upon dozens of
troops running up the slope to their death. Just a great beginning in
general.

Yeah, the "Enemy at the Gates" part of CoD was awesome, but by far NOT my favorite part of the game.

Computer:

Call of Duty:
Entire US campaign is wonderful

Medal Of Honor Breakthrough:
Most of the game really, but more or less, Mission 1 and the level where the boat tips over ... from you blowing it to hell.
And the 'sabotage the planes' part.

Enter the Matrix:
The first mission, basically the only part of the game that REALLY felt like the first movie (running across those roof tops will do that).

Hitman:
Assassination at the Fish Restaurant

Freedom Fighters:
Pretty much the whole game. But more or less the middle missions after you assassinate Tatarin.

There's more, but I can't really think of them.

Consoles:

ICO (PS2):
ALL OF IT

Lunar SSSC (PSX):
Ghalleon, final fight

Chrono Trigger (SNES):
I love this game so much.
Pretty much everything after you learn Luminar is the most memorable/fun (Lavos is such a pain in the ass, yet fun)

D (Saturn):
The 'Gears' puzzle

Metal Gear Solid (PSX):
Psycho Mantis fight

River City Ransom (NES):
the whole game, being that its the same thing over and over.

Batman: Revenge of the Joker (Genesis):
Gold Batman flying level thing.

The memories go on.

Interloper from HLSP. That level was alive.

Questionable Ethics from HL - I love that lab!

The Battle between the two gardens in FFVIII is one of the craziest sequences/levels I've ever really come across. There have been many good, but none that made me really go "whoa..."

Half-Life: Anomalous materials

This really set the pace and level design quality of the whole game for
me, having seen it before hand before the accident, as a futuristic lab
and then later as the destroyed lab, it really epitimised for me what
half-life is about.

Goldeneye: Faculty in my opinion the best FPS on any console,
this level really shines through as both an excellent single player
level and an astounding Death match level

All of CoD was great, but Stalingrad was the best of it.

Surface tension is also up there.

Omaha Beach (the Saving Private Ryan one) in Medal Of Honor, obviously. And I'll always remember every little detail about Super Mario Brothers I level 1

apparently, i either have a very narrow opinion on "most memorable level" or level is plural when it comes to video games

i have been very impressed with many-o-games, but nothin will top that experience.. sadly it may be due to the fact that coop play is no longer available.. clearing a level with your bud, thats priceless :smile:

<DIV>The best level I have ever played would have to be "The Cradle", from Thief: Deadly Shadows. It's set in an abandoned mental institution/orphanage (yes, this might seem like a weird combination, but it really fits), and has the creepiest atmosphere I've ever played in, especially at higher difficulties. This effect is created by a combination of the very well-suited visuals (sporadically flickering lights, shaking enemies), the odd sounds, and the various stories relating to the history of the building. Not only that, but the gameplay itself for this level (as for the entire game) is the top niche of stealth singleplayer.</DIV>
<DIV>.</DIV>
<DIV>Apart from Thief, one of the maps from Opposing Force really got me involved. I can't quite remember its name at the moment, but it was the first really decent FPS experience I had.</DIV>

apparently, i either have a very narrow opinion on "most memorable level" or level is plural when it comes to video games

i have been very impressed with many-o-games, but nothin will top that experience.. sadly it may be due to the fact that coop play is no longer available.. clearing a level with your bud, thats priceless :smile:

I believe more games have coop modes now then they did five or ten years ago...

Not to mention practically any game you could like (and is popular) has a 3rd party (free) addon/plug in to make it coop.

By the way, you can't just choose one. Its impossible. If you do, you're lying ... Orph, You're a liar. Why would you lie like that ... lying bastard. :smile:

ICO would be my most memorable level - and since the entire game is one big seamless level, I would think that the game itself could be classed as such :smile:

Crono said:
Orph, You're a liar. Why would you lie like that ... lying bastard. :smile:

have i mentioned, just how much i value you as a snarkpit member crono?

seriously though, in spite of the fact that i own a s**tload of games, my repertoire is still small when compare to avid gamers.

No

and

Probably

Crono said:
No

surprise of surprises.. you can be rated now.. behold, EXACTLY how i value you s**thead :smile:

err...moving swiftly along...

FFVII(PSX) - When you are sent into the desert by Dio in the Gold Saucer.

This wasn't the greatest part of the game obviously, but it always sticks in my mind. I rented a copy of FFVII because I hadnt recieved my copy from a mail order company and I couldnt wait any longer. I only got as far as the desert part, when I had to return the game (I rented it for three nights and played it solid!). When I FINALLY got my copy through the post 4 days later, I had to go to school that morning, so only got to play it for about 10 minutes. When I returned from school, to my horror, I realised that the game froze when you tried to execute Tifas Limit Break. Rather than wait another thousand years for the game to be returned and get a working copy, I rented it again and swapped the discs, straight away returning the 'faulty goods' they had rented me. They apologised and I got Parappa the Rappa out instead. After all that I finally got to continue the game!

For Half Life - Surface Tension was fantastic, but for some reason, the tentacles in the Blast Furnace Level always sticks in my mind, THAT was the scariest part for me

Orpheus said:
apparently, i either have a very narrow opinion on "most memorable level" or level is plural when it comes to video games

i have been very impressed with many-o-games, but nothin will top that experience.. sadly it may be due to the fact that coop play is no longer available.. clearing a level with your bud, thats priceless :smile:

Sven-Coop is what you want.

G.Ballblue said:
Sven-Coop is what you want.

has it been so long, that no one remembers the excitement of clearing a single player episode in coop play?

correct me if i err, but isn't sven-coop a multiplayer mod? i am talking about playing side-by-side and taking on the baddies to the end :biggrin:

That's what svencoop is, its a co-op game over the internet where you join together with other players to fight the HL enemies. They are making svencoop2 for HL2, and hopefully it'll be awesome.

Decay was a good coop for HL on ps2 (I never finished it with my brother, so hl on ps2 is my next purchase, ive seen a preowned one for around ?7 in Game). Pity about the shameful, shameful deathmatch mode!

That's what svencoop is, its a co-op game over the internet where you join together with other players to fight the HL enemies. They are making svencoop2 for HL2, and hopefully it'll be awesome.

But that's still not -true- co-op where you start at the beginning of the game with your buddies and end at the end of the game. It's just user-created MP maps with support for monsters. Being able to take on the Garg in Power up with two people, or running through Surface tension with a friend providing cover fire, that's coop. :smile:

System Shock 2... has very good co-op. :smile: Sadly missing from a lot of games. A ton of players want it, but not enough developers try to risk it.

[pimp]X-Men Legends is up to 4 player coop, by the way. Pretty casual, but the support is still there :wink: [/pimp]

Yak_Fighter said:
That's what svencoop is, its a co-op game over the internet where you join together with other players to fight the HL enemies. They are making svencoop2 for HL2, and hopefully it'll be awesome.

well, i'll be dammed.. :smile:

what would be nice? andrew informs us that they have corrected the oversight, and reinstate coop play for quake 4.. quake dropped several notches in my book when they removed the option.. i did however hear that the texture artists for quake four have found at least a half dozen more shades of brown for use with the new levels.. /me hopes andrew puts them to optimum usage.

Jedi Knight: Knights Of The Old Republic - Jedi Base (those wide open areas with the sunset ... yummie)

Metal Gear Solid - Ocelot Challenge

few things can beat the good old days with duke nukem 3D and doom2, playing coop over a serial cable with my bro lol :biggrin:

i recently rejoyced playing doomsday ( http://www.doomsdayhq.com/files.php?class=4 ) , a revamped 3D version in coop with my gf

http://www.svencoop.com/index2.php

Have a look orph :smile:

I respect Joesph, so I took his answer because I really didn't know, but Andrews reply fits what I have heard.. coop play and sven coop are two different ideologies..

If you ever get to play in single-player coop mode you'll know what I mean :smile:

Well they tried to allow people to play the SP maps with svencoop, but I believe it turned out that there were too many entities per map and they would have to remake them or somesuch. Whatever. If it had been possible to run the sp maps in a row with other players you could have. I fail to see how svencoop isn't coop just because nobody wanted to decompile and then recreate chunks of Surface Tension...

pats joe on back

now now joe, i am not insulting the idea of sven coop, i am only making a point that its not the coop i was describing.. i suppose one could argue that team deathmatch is a form of coop play too, wouldn't you agree?

my idea, is true "in the code" cooperative playing option that comes with the release..

sighs

Quite a few games come with that these days, most memorable of which
being Halo in my mind. Serious Sam was renowned for it also. At the
moment me and my flatmates are playing through Conflict Desert Storm 2
on the Xbox in 4 player coop...again. We really need to get around to
getting Conflict Vietnam, but not until we have completed C:DS2 on hard
:smile:

so... if i want to play cooperative, i need to either..

1) expand my buying options, or

2) pick games i don't really like..

neither option seems appropriate ATM.

t'woulda been nice had the games i liked, kept the option available.

Doom 1 & 2
Heretic 1
Duke3d
Hexen 1
Quake 1

all awesome games and coop.

You could play any Tom Clancy game (except Splinter Cell).

Such as Ghost Recon, you can play the single player game within multiplayer mode.

That or you could break out just about any NES game ever made. OR Oh, man, how'd I forget, play Ikaruga ... except that gets harder with two people. (You shoot everything that isn't your color ... that includeds if your cooper is a different color too)

Crono said:
That or you could break out just about any NES game ever made.

console games, make me woozy.. I know they are popular, but seriously, they will never compare to a PC game, even if they have the same name :sad:

perhaps, I am too picky, or just silly for wishing.

now lets not forget non-FPS games.. i dearly love Empire Earth, and other such similar games, they could be considered coop, assuming you pit yourselves against an appropriate number of AI opponents :biggrin:

<div>The best level I have ever played would have to be "The Cradle", from Thief: Deadly Shadows.

</div>

CRADLE!! How did I forget?! Oh god!! That's the best damn FPS level
I've ever played, EVER! If you haven't played the Cradle, you haven't
truly lived. Absolutely one of the best in Thief and everything in
general. I swear, Cradle is the favorite level of ~90% Thief 3 players.
Everything just comes together so masterfully... I love it.

console games, make me woozy.. I know they are popular, but seriously, they will never compare to a PC game, even if they have the same name :sad:

Thats not true. Most consoles have WAY better architecture then home computers (Dreamcast and Gamecube are wonderful examples).

As for the actual games, You can't compare games that are exclusive on either machine. And technically when you use your computer to play games it is a console ... more specifically I suppose you could call it an x-box with better controls.

On a side note, a friend of mine and I had an idea to buy a desktop case (the type that you can sit your monitor on) and moding it to look exactly like an oversized X-Box ... but it'd be a normal computer, then I could tell everyone I have an X-Box too ... Because honestly, that fancy (ugly) outside is the only difference between a home computer :razz:

Crono said:

console games, make me woozy.. I know they are popular, but seriously, they will never compare to a PC game, even if they have the same name :sad:

Thats not true. Most consoles have WAY better architecture then home computers (Dreamcast and Gamecube are wonderful examples).

As for the actual games, You can't compare games that are exclusive on either machine. And technically when you use your computer to play games it is a console ... more specifically I suppose you could call it an x-box with better controls.

On a side note, a friend of mine and I had an idea to buy a desktop case (the type that you can sit your monitor on) and moding it to look exactly like an oversized X-Box ... but it'd be a normal computer, then I could tell everyone I have an X-Box too ... Because honestly, that fancy (ugly) outside is the only difference between a home computer :razz:

WHERE IS THE QUOTE?!?

2 seconds later

Oh there it is :razz:

Anyway. Console games will usually always look better than a pc. PC game developers have to "balance" the graphics, so people with minimal pc power can play the game, and anyone with ass loads of pc power get 0 lag. This is mainly because PC game developers have to build the game inside of multiple "power ranges" that people have for their computers :smile:

Console games though, the developers know exactly what the limits are, so the game can be pushed to the max.

Here's an example: On the PS1 Driver, the cars have good detail -- good looking bumpers, cars have a unique look to them, etc . The pc version of driver though, had some pretty plain and bland cars to drive. They were the same cars, but with about half the detail.

*and the pc version came later :razz:

** exclude the resolution from the console version, since all ps1 res's were like... 300x200.

Not this again Crono :razz: I'll agree that the Xbox is essentially a PC in
terms of hardware, but the difference comes from the games and
interface - it is THOSE that make up the experience, not the CPU or
graphics card powering them.

Anyway. Console games will usually always look better than a pc. PC game developers have to "balance" the graphics, so people with minimal pc power can play the game, and anyone with ass loads of pc power get 0 lag. This is mainly because PC game developers have to build the game inside of multiple "power ranges" that people have for their computers :smile:

Well... no. Consoles are locked hardware, this is true, but the PC hardware, however varied, still is far more powerful. If you see a console game looking better than the PC version, that's taking effort on the part of the PC developer (if not the same company) to do that poorly. If nothing else, texture memory is always far more plentiful on the PC than on any console (PS2 is downright ugly, heh). Recent example - Full Spectrum Warrior PC port includes higher-res textures and other improvements to expand the visuals. The Xbox is the closest to the PC in terms of graphics power, but even then, the base resolution is lower than what most games default to these days. Add on the ability to crank up in-game resolutions to 1600x1200 32 bit color with 4, 8, 16, or whatever AA and AF, as well as pixel shader support and other crazy graphical features expanding on the PC (which is, you know, not possible for console hardware :smile: ), there's just no contest.

Anywho. That went on a tangent.

Crono, seen the Ikaruga art form videos? :smile: Best person to control player two is yourself :biggrin: I'll dig up the link if you haven't seen it.

KFS, No I haven't, That would be much appreciated.

Reno, I'm talking about architecture of the entire working system, in that aspect, yes, an X-Box is a computer and a computer is an X-Box. The only difference is that the built in OS or Bios that the X-Box uses isn't available for computer. If it were, there would be absolutely no difference, I assure you.

On the other hand, the GC is beautiful. Purely speaking on a hardware aspect, it has an IBM Gecko processor (64-bit), that has a clock speed very close to 500Mhz (its a little under. It has the x86 equivalent to probably about a 1-1.2 Ghz processor). It has specifically places RAM pools for specific things, Such as fmvs or graphics. Also, with the GC they haven't abandoned the idea of pre-rendered items as the ps2 pretty much has (besides ICO, obviously). And the overall appearance and runtime abilities are nothing short of amazing. It is basically the Dreamcast 2 by the way. The hardware setup and architecture is rather similar. However, I believe there are more ram pools on GC.

Also, you know seeing a real computer made to look like an X-Box is funny.

BallBlue ... shut up. The reason why is because they're straight ports. The reason why it looks better on a console is simply because you're looking at it on a TV. (640 x 480 @ 60hz NTSC). Now, with ANY monitor, the pixels are smaller then the pixels on a TV, that right there means it will look worse. But I assure you, the computer is running it faster, simply because consoles have very old, well optimized hardware. (Except the X-Box, to be plainly honest ... I'm seriously not trying to piss you off, Reno, its just such a bad CONSOLE, its a pretty average computer though). Also, try hooking your computer to a TV (with a out card of course), play some computer game on the TV, You'll notice is looks beautiful.

Also, the argument of difference between computer and console is ridiculous, since any console, and I do mean ANY, can be transformed into a computer and have software written for it, by anyone. Its just ... on non-CD consoles its a little more expensive.

I believe I've rambled enough.