No, I don't mean levels as in leveling a character up. I mean levels such as Green Hill Zone, Gangplank Galleon, Final Destination, etc.
So I ask you, what's some of your favorite levels/stages/dungeons from all the video games that you have played and why?
I love platformers that don't use the same tired level design tropes as SMB3. Grassy plains, Desert, Beach, Snowy mountain, Cave, Volcano. These are levels that I don't care about. But I'll overlook the trope if the levels are very atmospheric.
-Spyro has Dark Hollow, Town Square, Idol Springs, Frozen Altars, Midnight Mountain, and Crocovile Swamp. The music that accompanied these levels made them all the more memorable.
-There wasn't a single level I disliked in LittleBigPlanet 1's Story Mode. They were all so unique and memorable. The charm came from the fact that you were a plush toy exploring someone's backyard. It's a charm that future LBP games shamefully neglected.
-Sly Cooper has those comfy Mesa City levels. Metropolitan levels are criminally underused in platformers.
-Crash Twinsanity had the entrance to Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil and the Ice Lab because of the music and atmosphere.
I like the labyrinth of Tartarus in Persona 3.
also, Metal Man's stage in Mega Man 2, Spongebob's dreams in Battle for Bikini Bottom, and Vault 112 of Fallout 3.
"Death upon death... Nothing but death in this barren land. Who can we pray to? There are only demons and fiends here."
~The Journal of a Man Who Wandered into Another World
Military bases if done well and have great atmosphere can be really good. The Grand Fortress in Skies of Arcadia being a prime example. A huge invulnerable rotating wall laced with cannons which you first barely escape from while it is rotating to seal your airship off early in the game. Then later in the game you break out of prison in while your allies bombard the fortress as a diversion from their airships. You sabotage a cannon to destroy it when it tries to fire and while the fortress begins to rotate, and you make your way to the docks to steal a prototype flagship and use it to break through the wall at the exploded canon point and become known as the only people not only able to escape it (twice) but also break it being really satisfying as well as the dungeon itself being fun with a good boss fight and atmosphere since the bombardment is happening while you are escaping it on the outside being able to see the fight since you are effectively escaping between both sides. Since it builds up the fact it is invulnerable through the game and escaping before being sealed in was vital earlier it makes the point when you get sealed in and need to bust through it even more satisfying and "epic" which is a great thing to do with returning to areas in games.
The Grand Fortress is one of multiple examples of a recurring area done well in RPGs. Another more well known one is the Junon cannon in Final Fantasy 7 with how you first see the giant cannon early on and only see it fired later and then it gets transported to Midgar and used again and then you need to put an end to it and effectively destroy the cannon (sure you are only stopping Hojo from firing it but the way it sets up the Junon Cannon through the game the emotional response the player ends up getting is more about putting an end to that recurring cannon as a character itself as well as Hojo). A lot of the time reusing areas can be sort of lame, but if done well like these two examples it is incredibly good.
Honestly, there's way too many potential favourite levels/dungeons/locations/etc to list them all, but I'll list some that pop straight to mind.
Possibly one of my favourite locations in a game is tied between Anor Londo and Sen's Fortress in Dark Souls - Anor Londo is just teeming with secrets, lore and areas where impatient movement will just cause you to fall to your death. Anor Londo is also hosted by one of the most difficult boss fights in the Souls' franchise (for me personally). Sen's Fortress is a smaller part of the game but still a blast: it's full of traps and some neat little secrets too. It used to frustrate me, being hit by the oscillating axes or being knocked from bridges by snake-people attacks, but once you get used to the area, it becomes such a cinch (pro tip: run naked past everything).
Always been fond of the theme park in Silent Hill 3 too, especially when Heather is forced to go into the haunted house. It all feels off-kilter and a little tongue-in-cheek until shit really hits the fan.
The ones that are littered with naked corpses.
The old Diablo games come to mind.
A truly prophetic sig...
