Best video game levels of all time thread

Name your favorite video game levels! From "mystic caves" to "kraid's lair" to "phobos anomaly" to "kingdom of sorrow", name em, give us a lil description, and maybe why you like it so much.

One of my favorites is "Stardust Speedway", 6th of 7 zones in Sonic CD. Take a look at these pwnage maps of act one and act two. It really captures the nonlinearness and speed of the classic sonics, and also, ridiculously sweet backgrounds.

Probably my very favorite if I think hard enough is "What the Heck?" from Earthworm Jim. It's the second level, it's got a great background with a spirally spire of magma with an outline of the boss, evil the cat dancing on the peak. There's lawyers and scary violent black owls perched all over. The music starts off like night on bald mountain, then it switches abruptly to elevator music now and then. Here's a groovy wallpaper map I found, though it cuts off a lot of the top and other areas of the level. The background of the level is what you see on the middle of the right edge there. I loooove this level so much.

I'll just rattle some off too,

"Hang Castle" from Sonic Heroes,

"Your Worst Nightmare" and "Haunted House" from Gauntlet Dark Legacy,

fourth level of Halo-"The Silent Cartographer" and the second last level of Halo-"Keyes" were superb,

the ones I mentioned at the beginning of this post (betcha never heard of that 4rd one),

aaaaand I'll end with "Level Ate" from Earthworm Jim 2.

Doom1 E1M7

E1M7 is for emos, e1m1 is where its at.

Green Hill Zone-Sonic the Hedgehog

Keep your friends close-Vice City

The dream levels-Max Payne

Moskau levels-Hitman 2

Epyo said:

One of my favorites is "Stardust Speedway", 6th of 7 zones in Sonic CD. Take a look at these pwnage maps of act one and act two. It really captures the nonlinearness and speed of the classic sonics, and also, ridiculously sweet backgrounds.

That part is also one of my favorites out of any game. The music makes it even better (glad I have in my stereo).
The upsidedown place with the jelly-fish and that awesome song in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was great too. I always loved jumping around in that place, mindlessly slashing my sword, listening to the music.
The 5th level in Gunstar Heroes. That level is so much fun to play in multiplayer, and the awesome background and fantastic song make it even better.
In Super Metroid, the green Brinstar area was always fun, along with the first part in that game.
The 2nd last level in Battle Toads and Double Dragon was a blast too, especially in multiplayer.
And a few others:
Black panther last level (Arcade)
6 Player X Men last level (Arcade)
Desert Assault last level (Arcade)
TMNT... can't remember all the levels, so I can't pick a specific one... (Arcade)

There are tons of others, but I can't remember all my favorites over my whole life in 5 minutes. =P

Metal Slug 3 - Mission 2, Splinter Cell - CIA Headquarters, and Lorenzen's Soil from Earthworm Jim 2.

The first episode (and skill select) of Quake Mission Pack 1 are some of the finest FPS maps I've ever played, with the others not far behind. All are completed by a great CD soundtrack. One of the very few games I enjoy playing just to revel in its goodness. I make sure to play it at least twice a year.

Sonic 1 - Scrap Brain Zone

Sonic & Knuckles - The Death Egg Zone &
Lava Reef Zone

Sonic Adventure 2 - Eternal Engine & the two crazy levels Sonic and Shadow have to glide down rails nearly the entire way to the end.

Mario 3 - Anything in Giant World

Doom 64 - In the Void

Megaman 6 - The level before the last boss

Warcraft 3 - The entire Human/Undead campaign

Tron - Light cycles all the way. Tanks come in a close 2nd, but I DESPISE the grid walker level

Doom 3 - Hell

Xenphire said:

Warcraft 3 - The entire Human/Undead campaign

Yeah. Although my favorite wc3 map is a frozen throne undead map. I forget what it is called. You start with arthas, his lich buddy and a dark ranger each in separate corners of the map and you have to stop human peasants from escaping while trying to kill a bunch of paladins.

The recreation deck of system shock 2 beats anything else IMO. At least as far as fpsers.

Not including Doom pwads:

Battlezone (it only had one "level") - teh daddy
Five Alive (Lemmings) - well thought-out puzzle
Darkmere (Hexen) - atmospheric
Na Pali Haven (Unreal) - pretty
Bluff Eversmoking (Unreal) - grandiose
Blast Pit (Half-Life) - epic and imaginative

Edit: I should have mentioned something from Blood and/or Blood2 as well, but I'm not sure which individual level(s). Maybe the one on the Circus in Blood and one in Blood2 around the bit where you travel up to the craft (yeah, that's a bit vague, since it's ages since I played it).
Edit2: Added some links.

Quast said:

Yeah. Although my favorite wc3 map is a frozen throne undead map. I forget what it is called. You start with arthas, his lich buddy and a dark ranger each in separate corners of the map and you have to stop human peasants from escaping while trying to kill a bunch of paladins.

The recreation deck of system shock 2 beats anything else IMO. At least as far as fpsers.

That's the first map of the undead's FT levels.

But anyway,

E1M8 of Doom I
E3M8 of Heretic
Star Light Zone of Sonic 1
Stardust Speedway Act 3 from Sonic CD (One of the best boss "fights" ever)
Doomsday Zone from Sonic and Knuckles
Level 5 from Earthworm Jim

Return to Castle Wolfenstein - The church(the level where you first fight the nazi girls)
Halo - uhhh, the one where you're trying to rescue Keyes, but you're to late
Doom 3 - Hell
Doom 3 - Delta Labs

I'm sure there are others, I just can't remember them right now.

Lüt said:

The first episode (and skill select) of Quake Mission Pack 1 are some of the finest FPS maps I've ever played, with the others not far behind. All are completed by a great CD soundtrack. One of the very few games I enjoy playing just to revel in its goodness. I make sure to play it at least twice a year.

I lost mine :(

spank said:

I lost mine :(

I recently bought the Quake mission packs through amazon (one unopened, the other in good condition). You might be able to pick them up reasonably cheap if you don't mind second-hand, no box, etc.

I actually bought them just so I could watch the demos at speeddemosarchive.com/quake, but maybe I'll get round to playing them at some point, as they do look nice.

In no particular order:

Hexen, Darkmere. A swamp with animated fog and a fogmap... and at the end the castle looming over you. Very atmospheric. Too bad it was so short.

Unreal, "Bluff Eversmoking". A complete Na Pali monastery is layed out here. Simply stunning to look at, and gameplay is nice.

Blood, "The Haunting". Almost all of Blood's levels are top-notch, which makes this game still my all-time favorite. But "The Haunting" sticks out even above that... a sprawling mansion with surrounding gardens, with lots of non-linear goodness to explore.

The gameworld of the single-player RPG Gothic II is also a sight to behold. One lush world, in a single map without additional loading stuff... stand on top of a very large mountain and the entire island is layed out before you. Simply awesome stuff. And great gameplay too!

FarCry also had some amazing levels. Can't remember its name right now, but there was this big map with a couple of islands where you had to take out three radiomasts... loved to hijack a gunboat and just cruise around to look at teh pretties. That, and bombard the islands with my mounted mortar :)

I am enraged that No-one has mentioned the Icecap zone yet. Awesome levels.

Also, Scrambled Egg Zone from 8bit Sonic 2. Involed lots of tubes and fun stuff. Also had the best 8bit sonic music ever. EVER.

Also OMG Stardust Speedway. The boss for that Zone was insanely difficult. You had to race Metal Sonic across the entire zone while avoiding traps and stuff that he was immune to. Awesome boss but hard :(

Having said those i can't really think of a Sonic zone I don't like. From the Master System/Mega Drive games anyway.

As for non-soic games (as if those matter) Doom 3 Hell is awesome. and the Pale Realm (chess level), and uhh... The Mad Hatters place, I forget what it's called, from Alice. Most of Alice was awesome, really.

Edit: If Mordeth is gonna say Gothic II then I'm gonna say Cyrodiil as laid out in Oblivion. :P Its a great "level". :P

AirRaid said:

I am enraged that No-one has mentioned the Icecap zone yet. Awesome levels.

Actually that was one I forgot to add to my post :) I edited it a ton of times going back and forth on the Sonic zones :P

i've always loved the first level of Spear Of Destiny.

In order:

Doom II - 1.MAP30 2.MAP28 3.MAP11

Final Doom - 1.Plutonia MAP32 2. Evilution MAP30

Doom 3 - Hell

Serious Sam FE - Great Pyramid

Serious Sam 2 - 1.Mental Institution 2.Greendale

Unreal Tournament - 1.Liandri 2.Morpheus 3.Turbine 4.Peak

Contra: Shattered Soldier - Mission 6(I think? The one where you fight the multiple forms of the triumvirate)

Half-Life - The Xen levels

Half-Life 2 - Dark Energy

some others that come to mind:
-the haunted house level of ep1 and ep3 of monster bash
-alien city/cow level of earthworm jim 2
-conservatorium 'level' of zork nemesis
-diamond, marble, and industrial city worlds of jazz jackrabbit
-the plagued village level and the later overgrown plant levels of theif.
-forest levels of donkey kong country 2
-waterfall levels of donkey kong country 3
-alien city levels of keen6

Epyo said:

aaaaand I'll end with "Level Ate" from Earthworm Jim 2.

the annoying salt shaker always ruined it for me :(

Super Mario 3 - World 8 Mini-Fortress
Double Dragon 2 - Forest of Death
R-Type III - Final Level
Final Fantasy Adventure - Dime Tower dungeon
Doom - E2M2 (Yay, first crate maze ever)
Quake 2 - Q2DMx (That one with the huge circular room)
Unreal - Sunspire, ExtremeDark
Carmageddon 2 - Airport
Half Life - Surface Tension
HL2 - We Don't Go to Ravenholm
Gran Turismo - Trial Mountain
Black - Asylum

I know I'm missing some... oh well. I also have to mention a lot of great games that allow you to make your own levels out of the box: Timesplitters, Stunts, Excitebike and so on.

Foofoo said:

the annoying salt shaker always ruined it for me :(

aw dood the salt shaker chasing you is the best part, just gotta shoot it when you get scared, and sic a snail on it whenever you see one.

I just remembered Shadowfang Keep from world of warcraft, definitely the greatest RPG dungeon of all time. Just the way all the quests and lore in Silverpine Forest leading up to the epic conclusion in shadowfang made it awesome, it looks awesome outside how it perches ominously on the cliff above Pyrewood village, the village of werewolves, and also has a great view of the ocean in the back. Here's some screens: From pyrewood, from on the drawbridge, from pyrewood again but you can see me on the drawbridge!, and the view from atop the castle walls, if I would have turned right more I could have seen the ocean too. The boss, Arugal, was a badass mage, one of my favorite boss battles.

Ummm, Build the Moon in Katamari Damacy rules,

The 2 moon city levels in Klonoa 1 were great,

the spooky pass place in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness kicks butt,

and um, the 2 music levels, Planet Sonata I believe, in Ristar were funderful.

Bucket said:

Stunts

Heh, I used to play that until I got win2k. Shame I could never get dosbox working. I still have some of my tracks uploaded.

Bucket also said:

Carmageddon 2 - Airport

Agreed. The fairground level is good too. It was great when I finally figured out how to play the regular levels over LAN against a friend instead of the default multiplayer maps.

Tango said:

The 5th level in Gunstar Heroes. That level is so much fun to play in multiplayer

Heh, I can't pick a favourite in Gunstar Heroes, they're all good.

Tango also said:

TMNT... can't remember all the levels, so I can't pick a specific one... (Arcade)

I'm not sure how similar (if at all) it is to the NES version, but the skateboard one, level 7, was my favourite.

AirRaid said:

I am enraged that No-one has mentioned the Icecap zone yet. Awesome levels.

I forgot about that but I agree. Act 1 was much better that Act 2 but Act 2 was still awesome nonetheless.

Also, Scrambled Egg Zone from 8bit Sonic 2. Involed lots of tubes and fun stuff. Also had the best 8bit sonic music ever. EVER.

Apart from the music bit (I prefer Crystal Eggs music), I'd say so. 8-bit Sonic 2 was a really good game save Green Hills Act 3 which relied on luck to get past.

Doom - E2M6

The fake exit is gold.

Battletoads - Turbo Tunnel (level 3, in which I especially like the racing bit)
Doom II - map01 & 02 (gunning down groups of troopers and sergeants in map02 with the SSG is fun)
Fallout 2 - New Reno
GTA 2 - Residential District (area 2)
Rollcage - Daytona
Super Metroid - Brinstar (I like the coloring, monsters & music)
Unreal Tournament series - Morpheus (looks nice, plays equally well)

In addition the following games are full of outstanding levels: Earthworm Jim series, Flashback, Max Payne series, No One Lives Forever series, TMNT 2 & 3, The Incredible Machine, Tie Fighter, Time Crisis 2 and UT2004's Alien Swarm mod.

Agreeing with many already said, just adding a few:

Quake - DM3 "The Abandoned Base" (I shudder thinking about how many hours of my life have been spent in this same level playing FFA, CA, TDM, or even 1v1).

Painkiller - C3L1 "Train Station" (Favorite level to go berserk in... lots of low level targets)

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter - Level 11 "Land Of The Damned" (Amazing level... never seemed to end, had some truly excellent looking areas, and the crazy jingle bells segment)

Castlevania IV - Block A "Clock Tower" (Several amazing levels like the Catacombs and the Treasury prior to this, but this was the pinnacle to me, and Bloody Tears from CV2 coming back as the music)

Metal Slug 2/X - Mission 4 (Just too damn fun).


And my personal preference of favorite levels from Doom:

Doom - E1M7
Doom 2 - MAP11
TNT - MAP01 (fun to tyson, but no other maps stood out as favorites to me... don't get me wrong, I enjoy the wad, though).
Plutonia - MAP32

That MINE level from Quake: Scourge of Armagon...

That was amazing.

The Mechwarrior 2 trilogy was awesome.

Mechwarrior 2 itself had superbly atmospheric and etheral environments. When you got off the dropship it felt like you were really a soldier stepping into hostile territory with just a few navigation points and some vague instructions and warnings on what to do.

The Morges segment for the Falcons was really tops. The first mission's backstory is that the primary assault has gone badly and you need to defend an airfield from Wolf troops so that your compatriots can be pulled out. The atmosphere was really spooky, as it is dusk or something and you are in the middle of a giant snowstorm. You can see where your sensors are painting the enemy but it still is chilling to see enemies materialze out of the fog.

The next mission you are caught behind enemy lines in a captured city called Broken Hope. Broken Hope has these huge walls that surround it, so you are trapped inside. You have to strategically hunt enemy mechs and engage them one or two at a time or you are dead, as there are like 20 enemies in the city.

The last Falcon mission happens when the storm has cleared, and it is early morning. Aerospace fighters were able to damage the Wolf command center, so they are evacuating with trucks. You have to fight past their rear guard and then catch up with the convoy, identifying which trucks are carrying command personell and elimintating them.


Ghost Bear's Legacy was good, but not to the level of the original game.

Mercenaries had a whole different feel. Rather than being etheral and alien, it had a very gritty and grungy feel, as you are fighting for the highest bidder in machines that aren't even close to the top of the line, for the most part.

The Gravenhauge mission really captured that. You're on a desert planet, hunting down rogue mercenaries. You have to defend the town you are using as a base's water tanks, intercept a pirate dropship, and the last mission takes place in the hull of a gigantic old ocean liner sitting on the desert floor. Inside is a cache of high technology weapons, which your employer wants you to capture. You recieve a transmission from the rogue mercs that they will pay you double if you walk away. In the end you can make the choice.

As a whole the series really was able to give you a feeling of scale that is missing from the more modern sequels. In these games you aren't the center of the universe, you aren't mankind's savior. Your just a soldier either fighting for your honor or for cash. When you talk about immersive games, these are it. Its a shame they don't run on XP.

There was this one level in Tron 2.0 that was so beautiful, I had to stop and just stare at the screen. I don't remember the name, but it was when you first get to the internet in order to find a compiler.