What are your most favorite/best video game levels?

[Midlife Sperglord]

The Lust stage in Dante's Inferno. Demonic futanaris. Unbaptized babies crawling out of Cleopatra's nipples. It deserves praise for its audacity. Or ridicule. Make your choice.

 

[WEEDle]

Forest of Illusion from Super Mario World is one of my favorite overworlds in the game visually and musically. All the levels are a blast as well. Loved it as a kid, got super nostalgic over it as a teen and now as an adult.

 

[Violence Jack]

Shrine of storms from demon's souls is amazing. The atmosphere is better than most of the later games and the mini-vignette that goes on there is very interesting. Basically you've arrived at this forsaken spit of an island used by pagans to offer their dead heroes to the god of storms whatever that means. It almost broaches into dumb metal territory, but it has this perverse calm that makes you feel like you've stumbled upon something you're not supposed to be seeing.

Tower of Latria is a close second. Every aspect of that level is dedicated to making you feel uncomfortable. The claustrophobic hallways, the vertigo inducing stairs without railings, or the fact that you can barely see 6 feet ahead of you. All these aspects come together to keep you on your toes. It's some par excellence level design. The Demon's souls levels all try to tackle a theme with their worlds and Tower of Latria is definitely indicative of that philosophy.

 

[Overcast]

Rupture Farms from Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee always holds a special place in my heart.

The place is all grimy, oppressive, and has danger at every turn.

You find Sligs patrolling around and beating the mudokon slaves, meat chunks falling from above and into unseen saw blades from below, blood splatters on the floors, worn out posters of the products the company sells, piles of barrels with the Rupture Farms logo on them in the background, ect.

The place is huge and also has lots of secret areas hidden away by the stuff in the foreground.

It's very atmospheric, but it has a lot of personality to it as well. You have LED signs which have random messages like "A little hard work never killed anyone important." and "The profits justify the means." The game has a very poigant message, but it never takes itself too seriously either.

 

[WEEDle]

Autumn Plains from Spyro 2 is another of my favorite levels. I tried to find pictures of the PS1 version but none of them really do justice, so here's a couple of videos.

The music

Gameplay

Again, it's another one I played as a child, so nostalgia is a factor. Still one of the most relaxing areas in gaming that comes to mind and somewhere I'd definitely fall asleep.

The whole game is great really. I had it on a demo I played over and over, it just had Skelos Badlands and Sunny Beach which have been burned into my memory also.

 

[NARPASSWORD]

Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy. AKA...

T O U C H F U Z Z Y , G E T H I G H

 

[Borzoi]

Siberia from Timesplitters 2 is probably the most memorable level for me because as a kid I played the demo about a billion times to the point where the Xbox magazine disk was scratched and fucked.

 

[Chin of Campbell]

Torvus Bog from Metroid Prime 2 is an atmospheric treasure. The Prime series in general has some of the best atmosphere in the business, due in no small part to Kenji Yamamoto's masterful soundtrack, but Torvus Bog in particular has always stuck out to me. Other standouts include Skytown from Prime 3 and, of course, Phendrana from Prime 1.

 

[Red Hood]

The stretch of Bioshock Infinite from Battleship Bay until you get to Finkton was pretty great. Had some nice character development moments and some fun scenery, especially within the Hall of Heroes.

Also, the Battle of Hoth in Shadows of the Empire. It's quite probably the best part of the game, all up front.

 

[WEEDle]

At least it was before I fucked everything up.

 

[Megaroad]

Love the final "level" of Parasite Eve II. The writing in that game is still some of Squares best and when you're reading the sales pitches to why you should mutate into a savage monster is great. The journal you find from one scientist describing what they're seeing over the course of time in these holding cells was top tier creepshow stuff.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Blood is easily my favorite FPS title and the Carnival is probably the best level in the entire game.

I also enjoy the level that has a reference to Se7en.

 

[PL 001]

Ocean House Hotel - VtM: Bloodlines

Shalebridge Cradle - Thief: Deadly Shadows

Lakeview Hotel - Silent Hill 2

Forest Temple - Ocarina of Time

Carceri - Planescape Torment

 

[c-no]

VtMB - Hollywood and Chinatown. With the former, it's the sidequest that made it memorable such as killing a hunter disguised as a stripper or convincing a food critic to give a bad review, more so if you play as Malkavian. Same goes for the latter with quest such as a killing a fish demon but also its first-half in the main quest was fun, such as getting into a fight at a night club.

Morrowind - Last part of the main quest was always best. No being forced into cutscenes as you face the final boss, just asking him some questions before fighting him and making him go from a smug god to a despondent guy who knows you pretty much won after you destroy the mystical mcguffin he used to keep immortality.

Blood is easily my favorite FPS title and the Carnival is probably the best level in the entire game.

I also enjoy the level that has a reference to Se7en.

It's definitely the best of the Build engine games though for me, I enjoyed the train level from the first episode more than the carnival. Just going through a train and gunning down zombies and cultist before blowing it up and derailing the thing to finish the level.

 

[BrunoMattei]

VtMB - Hollywood and Chinatown. With the former, it's the sidequest that made it memorable such as killing a hunter disguised as a stripper or convincing a food critic to give a bad review, more so if you play as Malkavian. Same goes for the latter with quest such as a killing a fish demon but also its first-half in the main quest was fun, such as getting into a fight at a night club.

Morrowind - Last part of the main quest was always best. No being forced into cutscenes as you face the final boss, just asking him some questions before fighting him and making him go from a smug god to a despondent guy who knows you pretty much won after you destroy the mystical mcguffin he used to keep immortality.


It's definitely the best of the Build engine games though for me, I enjoyed the train level from the first episode more than the carnival. Just going through a train and gunning down zombies and cultist before blowing it up and derailing the thing to finish the level.

The entire first episode of Blood is fucking amazing and on par with Doom's first episode. The rest of the Blood episodes are almost as good. The feeling of grabbing a Guns Akimbo powerup and laying waste to hordes of Cultists with dual Tommy Guns is fucking euphoric.

 

[c-no]

The entire first episode of Blood is fucking amazing and on par with Doom's first episode. The rest of the Blood episodes are almost as good. The feeling of grabbing a Guns Akimbo powerup and laying waste to hordes of Cultists with dual Tommy Guns is fucking euphoric.

I'd agree with all but Tommy guns. Dual sawed-offs are much better IMO, especially in clearing the last room on the train with all the cultist.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I'd agree with all but Tommy guns. Dual sawed-offs are much better IMO, especially in clearing the last room on the train with all the cultist.

To each his own. It's equally fun using dual shotty's and alt-firing everything. That's one of the glorious things about Blood: Just about every single weapon is useful. Unlike Doom where once you get the chaingun there's no reason to ever use the pistol ever again and the same thing in Doom 2 when you grab the super shotty. Pretty much every single weapon retains some kind of use in Blood. Even the pitchfork when it comes to killing zombies or slowly killing the gargoyles.

 

[Teri-Teri]

Hail Sithis! quest in Skyrim.

 

[Tetra]

I really enjoyed alpine skyline in a hat in time, but if I have to pick just one level I have to pick the lava cake one:

if you mean a concept, then pretty much all of the dream world levels in a hat in time works:

 

[Furina]

One videogame level that will always stand out to me as an absolute work of art is the Shalebridge Cradle from Thief: Deadly Shadows. I first played it when I was about 12 or 13 and it scared the shit out of me. I don't think any game since has given me the levels of dread, anxiety, and pant-shitting terror as that one fucking level. Everything about it, the music, the environmental noises, the back story of the place, the monsters that lurk it... all of it just plays so well together that I was honestly trembling half the time I played it. I even had to ask my brother to sit in the room with me so I wouldn't be alone.
I replayed it a few months ago and yeah, still spooky beyond compare.

For those who don't know, the Shalebridge Cradle was an orphanage that doubled as an insane asylum until a fire gutted the building.

Spoiler: A YouTuber does a blind play of the level