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#4329035 - 01/17/17 12:00 PM Truly unique level designs in first person shooters  
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PanzerMeyer Offline
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I'm currently playing Dishonored 2 and Mission #7 is titled "A Crack in the Slab" and it has to be hands down the most creative and unique level I've ever played in any first person shooter. I won't spoil anything but let's just say it involves some really interesting interactions with Einstein's theories. smile

Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 01/17/17 12:01 PM.

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#4329057 - 01/17/17 01:08 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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I heard about it, but only through a non-spoiler review smile

The same review said it's not capitalised on frown


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#4329124 - 01/17/17 05:01 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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The level "Effect and Cause" in Titanfall 2's single player campaign is a masterpiece.


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#4329130 - 01/17/17 05:33 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: sinner6]  
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Originally Posted By: sinner6
The level "Effect and Cause" in Titanfall 2's single player campaign is a masterpiece.


that mission was a #%&*$#!


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#4329365 - 01/18/17 02:16 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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One of the most memorable levels I've played is the Shalebridge Cradle level for the 'Robbing the Cradle' mission in Thief Deadly Shadows.

For me it was a masterpiece. The way it played with your head, and let your imagination run wild. There's were some scary missions in the first two Thief games, the Cathedral missions come to mind. Truly hair-raising stuff. But the climb up the stairs in Shalebridge Cradle to open the door where the pounding noises were coming from was something that I actually had to muster the courage to do.


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#4329390 - 01/18/17 03:20 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Yes, that was a good one. I admit it loses something in repeat playthroughs, though that first time was super spooky.

I also remember that one level in Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 where you come out of a sewer drain by an aqueduct, follow it into a town, take a secret passage you find hidden in the back of a shop and come out in front of a GIANT tower-like Imperial base patrolled by AT-STs and dozens of troopers and turrets, then you have to get into it.



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#4329391 - 01/18/17 03:22 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: Jedi Master]  
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Originally Posted By: Jedi Master
Yes, that was a good one. I admit it loses something in repeat playthroughs, though that first time was super spooky.

I also remember that one level in Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 where you come out of a sewer drain by an aqueduct, follow it into a town, take a secret passage you find hidden in the back of a shop and come out in front of a GIANT tower-like Imperial base patrolled by AT-STs and dozens of troopers and turrets, then you have to get into it.



The Jedi Master
That was a great level indeed. I'd pay big bucks for a remake of Dark Forces 2 with current day graphics and some coop MP modes added. smile


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4329414 - 01/18/17 05:11 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: Jedi Master]  
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Originally Posted By: Jedi Master
Yes, that was a good one. I admit it loses something in repeat playthroughs, though that first time was super spooky.


I'm sure that's true. Once you know what is there (or in some ways more accurately what is not there) it wouldn't be the same. I've just played it the one time, and I still remember it vividly 13 years later. That's true of many of the levels in the Thief series. The Bank, The Bonehoard, the Cathedral, the rooftops on the Life of the Party level. On and on.

I guess I shouldn't concern myself with spoilers on a game that's 13 years old. In the Cradle the sound design was exceptional. Lots of games have good sound, but Looking Glass and Eric Brosius took it to another level. System Shock is another great example. The entire first half of the Cradle had nothing threatening in it. At all. The fear, or dread perhaps, is simply a construct of your own mind, brought on by the fantastic sound design and other tricks that they used. I don't recall noticing it when I played the mission. Maybe I did and just forget. But the devs had programmed the lights to slowly, almost imperceptibly, dim and brighten, to impart the sensation that the building breathed, it was alive in some sense.

The second half was tense as I recall. Not as scary for me, in part because you could see the threats.

I recall sneaking slowly through the first half (the Outer Cradle), peeking around every corner, sure that something was there ready to tear me to shreds. If only I could get some light everything would be better. Get the generator fired up and suddenly I wished for nothing other than the soothing calm of a shadow to hide in. It was pure genius, and for me remains so to this day. I think that individual player's perceptions of the Cradle mission is a function of their ability to imagine. The player finds clues. And uses them to create his own story. Yes the building was an orphanage. Then it was an insane asylum. But then you discover through these clues that it had actually been both -- at the same time. That couldn't have ended well. And you fill in the blanks with imagination.

For me it was one of those epic gaming experiences when the whole of the design clicked in to something more. And it was mostly all in my head.


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#4329483 - 01/18/17 10:25 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Oh yes, there are like 3 locations in Dishonored 2 where the level design really sets it apart. I wish their story writer was on par with the level designer.

By the way, the same guy is designing the levels on the new Prey game.


Most recently, I was very impressed with the design in the Hokkaido chapter in the new Hitman.

Last edited by Bib4Tuna; 01/18/17 10:26 PM.
#4329664 - 01/19/17 03:49 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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I remember The Bank. smile

Thief II was an amazing game, and frankly still my favorite of the series. Thief 3 and the recent one look far better, and some of the gameplay elements are improved, but T2 still had the most "magic".



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The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
#4329681 - 01/19/17 04:39 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Agreed Jedi. Metal Age is my favorite as well. I can still recall my first playthrough. I kind of fumbled my way through the opening Basso mission. That lead to the second, Shipping and Receiving. I can recall sneaking around the perimeter looking for a way in. Climbed to the rooftops where there is a glass ceiling over the office. Fired a rope arrow into the overhead beams and lowered myself in. Got that so-sweet sound that plays in Thief when you complete an objective and I was hooked right then and there.

I really enjoyed the Bank, the mission in police station (Blackmail?), Life of the party and many others. That conversation between the two archers on the rooftops in Life of the party is classic. The drunk guard Benny is hilarious. Didn't care for a few missions like the Maw. But overall it's a fantastic game.

I had to google the archers. Here's the convo

Archer: And im telling you that the only stench hardier than your rotting burrick of a master, is the liquor on his fetid breath! If he comes near lady van vernon again, we'll boil his knickers!

Archer2: Ho-ho! mighty fine words comming from a knock kneed inbred page boy such as yourself. Our good master willie wouldn't be caught near that frumpy little trollop, unless he were holding her back at the end of a halberd.

Archer: How dare you defile the name of someone so good and virtuous as the lady van vernon? Our lady is a saint among mortal women; an angel so pure the heavens couldn't hold her.

Archer2: Wuahahah! Your lady, an angel? Your lucky the dark side whorekeeps aren't bashing down her door for stealing their clientele. Why just last night I saw her out back warming up the stable boy.

Archer: Such slander will not be tolerated while we're on watch. You'd best run and rescue your helpless limp lord, before he founders in his own vomit... or wakes up naked in a hen coop. Scurry off! Or you'll acquire some unneccessary ventilation!

Archer2: Is that a threat you shriveled old mage! You gonna prick us with your sewing needles? On this side of the street we shoot like soldiers, so don't make promises your arrows cant keep!

Archer: You've gone!- You've gone too far this time you camel mannered, tunic wetting, mollie coddle. An arrow in the throat outta shut you up!"


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#4329685 - 01/19/17 04:51 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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I've noticed that it's usually the stealth games that have the better level design whereas the run-n-gun first person shooters have more linear and less creative levels.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4329749 - 01/19/17 09:43 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Well, if the level is designed for combat it will have different requirements than ones that are looking to give you lots of ways to get around unseen.

Open combat in Splinter Cell and Thief usually is really underwhelming, when you survive that is. Meanwhile sneaking around in a game like Doom is just sad.



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The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
#4329755 - 01/19/17 10:27 PM Re: Truly unique level designs in first person shooters [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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I wouldn't call it a shooter, as Jedi was saying, but Splinter Cell Chaos theory started out with the Lighthouse mission and lead into the cargo ship. I still love those mission. Extremely atmospheric maps. The excellent environmental sounds are part of it.

I also agree with the new Hitman episodic game having some incredible levels. I haven't gotten to Hokkaido yet, but I'm looking forward to it.


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