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Level of the Year

 
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:25 am    Post subject: Level of the Year Reply with quote

This is an unnecessary thread, but it's for a good cause: the chance to remember and record the finest single levels in games of 2008. It seems to me that levels do not receive their propers often enough, considering they are often the bricks (to borrow Braid's well-implemented metaphor) of game design and experience. Too often their virtues are ignored (the passive voice here implies a guilty "everyone") under the banner of holisticism. So let's offer laurels to the apogees of the "great" games, or the surprising high points of bad ones, or just any level that deserves distinction.

So, which were the best?

(For the purposes of this thread, may we define "level" akin to the way Greeks defined "atom" in those pre-sub-atomic days? An indivisible, consistent material that constitutes a part of (but not an entire) whole?***)



I'll get specific soon, but for now I will say that if I had to pick my ten favorites from this year, 7 or 8 of them would be from World of Goo.




(***I realize that not all games feature what someone would call a level. That's fine. This thread does not matter, and it means no disrespect to any such game. Furthermore, this thread does not matter.)
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dhex
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ghoolie suit level from cod4. tense, claustrophobic and then it's boom, off to the races.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Giant Cloverfield monster in Chicago level from Resistance 2.

Inside of giant worm cutting arteries and ending up in pool of blood level from Gears 2.

Tranquility Lane in Fallout 3.

-Wes
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Swimmy
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shame, I think this is such a good idea for a thread, but I don't have any modern consoles or a PC worth playing anything, so I can hardly participate.

Some of the zero-g stuff in Dead Space looked amazing. Whatever the best of those levels was. I only casually watched a roommate play bits and pieces.

Edit: I asked for Bangai-O Spirits for Christmas, after which I'm sure I'll be able to offer more, because I know it has some wonderful levels.
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Cycle
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wish I could contribute more to this thread too, but I've only been playing games from this year recently (mainly because good games only really started coming out about a month ago, in my opinion). Great thread idea though!! Maybe I can add stuff later.
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dmauro
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

FINAL DESTINATION

Razz
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 1:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Of all the Brawl stages, of course you pick the most boring one.
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simplicio
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 2:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A couple from Left 4 Dead:

Stage 3 in No Mercy, with the gas station, which by the sewer section gets punishing, and then you have to jump out of the manhole outside the hospital where you're suddenly surrounded and alone.

and of course stage 5 in Blood Harvest, where you have to drop down into the cornfield and know you'll immediately be set upon by a horde you can barely see coming.
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would add Stage 3 from Dead Air: Start up the van, climb through the baggage handling machines, out into the open, and then between two floors of an enormous parking deck. The tank always knows just where to be to take you out.


The Spyware, Fame, and Mother stages of World of Goo. Oh, and the final stage of the first world (from inside the beast's belly, to the eyeball balloons on top).

Elevator Action and, of course, the final stage in Braid.


Frigate: Orpheon (the Metroid Prime one) might be the best Brawl level, or maybe the Great Maze in general.
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simplicio
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I need to play more Dead Air. I always play random levels and it's only come up for me a couple times.
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Intentionally Wrong
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really enjoyed the Magician's Palace and Killdozer levels in the campaign world of Little Big Planet.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dhex wrote:
ghoolie suit level from cod4. tense, claustrophobic and then it's boom, off to the races.


I would agree with this, except for the chronology problem of CoD4 coming out last year.

That was mostly a joke.

Anyhow, the only reason I actually disagree is a few of the missteps of the level that annoyed me. SPOILERS AND SUCH First, no matter how well you aim and shoot the bad dude, his hand gets hit. This just made me feel really annoyingly scripted and such, and I don't like feeling like that. Basically, I cam away from the episode thinking "oh, so I can die, but he can't? Eff that."

Secondly, and it has been awhile, certain parts of the level needed a bit more structure, oddly. The dogs were annoying, and induced a trial and error aspect to parts of it that I was not fond of. Also, the final fight, while a lot of fun, also felt oddly both constricting (in what I could do) and guideless (In that the enemies spawned from certain locations, but it also seemed kinda random and like there wasn't a good space for cover a lot of the time, and that they would spawn behind you, no matter where you were).

This is not a big knock against CoD4, as that game did have some fucking spectacular level design. It's just occasionally seams showed.

If we can nominate levels from 2007, the level in Halo 3 that ended with the fight against the two giant robots was a lot of fun, just for how many different ways you could tackle it with 4 people.

I will have to think about games from this year.
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a little while ago, I wrote:
I would add Stage 3 from Dead Air: Start up the van, climb through the baggage handling machines, out into the open, and then between two floors of an enormous parking deck. The tank always knows just where to be to take you out.



Realized later that I combined elements of Stage 3 and Stage 4 in this description. Hey perfection has always been overrated.
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dhex
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yeah yer right about cod4. i played it in 2008 so...yeah!

actually i would consider nominating the giant robot bit from fallout 3, even though that wasn't a level so much as a setpiece.
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Cossix
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The whole Letz Shake part from No More Heroes is pretty up there probably.
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daphaknee
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rhythm dungeon
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sediment
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i'd like to posit my support for tranquility lane.

also, i thought dead space as a whole was really fun, but the medical deck really captured that... you know... action game version of system shock 2 vibe they were shooting for.

on its own merit, on the other hand, is chapter... 3? or maybe 6. i'll have to consult a walkthrough or something to jog my memory and get back to youse mugs.

fable II's Hero of Will quest was pretty good but not "level of the year" material.

I haven't played many games this year and it makes me very sad.
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What's rhythm dungeon?
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Winged Assassins (1984)
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nsoe6 from Soul Of Evil: Indian Summer. Let's go back in time and play new maps for old games.
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 9:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great thread idea. Mine came to me immediately: the crane stage in Mirror's Edge, hands down. That jump alone was worth sixty dollars.
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Cycle
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like turning on bullet time just before doing that jump while looking down and saying HOOLLLYYYY SHIIITTTTT in my best slow motion voice, it makes the experience a million times more awesome.
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Lestrade
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Agreed. Bonus points for coil jumping, so you can see your legs for extra verisimilitude. Damn, why can't that be an achievement/trophy?
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Swimmy
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Because people besides Valve get to decide achievements.

I got Bangi-O Spirits. Hard to pick a level from this that's really extremely noteworthy. They're all such tiny ideas, one-at-a-time. Also it's balls fucking hard and I can't do most of them.
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dmauro
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In order:

Liberty City (GTAIV)
Blood Harvest stage 4 (Left 4 Dead)
WarioWare Inc. (SSB:Brawl)
Torlan [still awesome] (UT3)
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purplechair
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That mission in GTA IV where you chase the gay-basher around Central Park on a pink moped.

Possibly the Lets Shake level from No More Heroes, but I dunno. I mean, it only really works when you put it in the middle of the other levels.
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helicopterp
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Two from Condemned 2:

-Grizzly Bear
-hallucination in the police center
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wanted to pick something from Banjo -Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.
Maybe that one level where you have to keep pool ballls away from Gruntilda.
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