What are your favorite gaming zones or levels?

[DevilDancer]

I did a search and couldn't find a thread on this. What are some of your favorite gaming zones or levels?

I've been talking about Caelid in Elden Ring a lot lately. That's my favorite zone of the last few years.

The Bio-Systems Lab in Phantasy Star II has a strong nostalgia pull for me.

The brief open world section of Seattle in TLOU 2 was great.

As much as the Water Temple sucks in OOT, the miniboss fight against Shadow Link is excellent. It's in a Souls-like setting years before Souls was a thing.

Shinra Tower in the original FFVII.

Pytheas Labs in Prey: Mooncrash.

Fort Frolic in BioShock.

Good times.

 

[HotDoommaN]

When talking about zones I always think about the ones below. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the memories those zones are linked to but I have vivid memories of the following zones:

Elwyin Forest - World of Warcraft
Stormwind City - World of Warcraft
Western Plaguelands - World of Warcraft.
Stranglethorn Vale - Word of Warcraft (that sunset!)
Shadow Moses Island - Metal Gear Solid 1 and 4
Zanrarkand - Final Fantasy X

 

[deleted-4439668]

Tyrano Lair in Chrono Trigger - just when you fee l like you’re getting pretty powerful, this level presents a major challenge with hard hitting dinosaurs to find out who is king of prehistoric times. The music is epic and continues on through the battle scenes. The whole thing culminates with a battle vs a T-Rex and the intelligent dino kingpin. Plus the team you have for this place just has a fun move set. I always loved this level on multiple playthrus

Super Mario World - World 2 this place just kind of felt like home more than the first island. Going back to it so many times to get power ups and save by beating the ghost house. Finding all the secrets. Lots of fun memories in 2 player mode here

Starcraft- Blood Bath idk how many times my friends and I played this map, but it was a lot. It was the go to map for testing out new strategies and a fun quick match after school

Mario Kart 64 - Block Fort too much fun setting up your defenses and seeing who can outlast the others in 3-4 player mode. Lots of camping and opportunism when others were fighting

More to come, I think

 

[HotDoommaN]

a few more

Q3TOURNEY5 map - Quake 3 Arena (countless hours of MP )
Base (intro map)- Quake 2 - really fond memories.
Q2DM1 aka The Edge - Quake 2 MP - super fond memories of this one playing with my buddies in our LAN sessions.
Army base in Half-Life 1.

more to follow.

 

[DeadLazy]

Hotel - Vampire Bloodlines

4th level Halo CE and I can’t remember it’s name. “Touchdown pending Marines” no other shooter was remotely close.

THPS 2 - Venice Beach

SSX 2012 - Africa

Oblivion - Stepping out of the sewers

Shenmue - Ryo’s house

Resident Evil Code V - the mansion

JGR - Shibuyo or something …

Some of them right there.

That’s a lot of levels to think about. Minecraft, the first sunrise/sunset was strangely beautiful and one of the most compelling game experiences I’ve had.

 

[DeadLazy]

*Kind of the entire game of Sunset OD because it’s just one giant platforming world.

So I don’t feel I can list it. It’s a hard one to place. But I love the gameplay across the entire game and that city is just fun.

Along the same lines is Vice City.

 

[deleted-4439668]

Valheim - Meadows
Beautiful, didn’t want the zone to end. Kept coming back to it until the goblins showed up late game. I’d play a version of Valheim that was just building better stuff here

Sonic 2 - Casino night zone
Possibly most fun Sonic level ever

Infinifactory - Drone Maintenance
This is the level where it clicked that I loved this game, the type of thinking it requires and abilities it gives you is phenomenal, plus you get to make cool tanks

WoW - Zangarmarsh
Idk why this was just such a cool zone coming from Vanilla to this for the first time. When I went back and leveled some alts I spent extra time here and in Nagrand too.

 

[-Troopa-]

Starcraft- Blood Bath idk how many times my friends and I played this map, but it was a lot. It was the go to map for testing out new strategies and a fun quick match after school

YES! Oh wow, I don't think I would have remembered that but yeah it was definitely the go-to map with my friends.

Halo 2's Lockout map is a favorite of mine and many other Halo players.

The Uptown Funk level of Sackboy immediately came to mind:


The entire level is moving to the music. It's fun.

Oh, and how about the level with the boot in Mario Bros 3?

 

[deleted-4439668]

Diablo 1 - Tristram, this place is just dripping ambiance, from the music to the voice acting, Diablo 2 came close but I don’t think the series has matched exactly how it felt to be in the world of Diablo 1.

FF6 - Opera house
It’s the most iconic scene in the game certainly, the music sticks with you too. but there are dozens of other scenes I could have gone with from this one. Ghost train, Zozo, escaping the floating island, first visit to the castle or Narshe, the moogles, many more

 

[DeadLazy]

Scarlet Monastery -WoW

 

[mrpier]

The Bridge - Half-Life 2
Liurnia - Elden Ring
Deep Stone Crypt and Dreaming City - Destiny 2

 

[DeadLazy]

At this point, Guacamelee really wants to have some moments. I’m struggling with giving a side scrolling Metroidvenia such a high place in my pantheon, but I actually enjoy it that much.

It’s hard for me to rate a game that high, that is best played in 1 hour sessions. Not 11 hour sessions *cough* Elden Ring *cough*

 

[Andyster]

The original Elwynn Forest>Westfall>Redridge>Duskwood set of zones in World of Warcraft were just delightful. They had their shortcomings here and there but there was a lot of cool stuff to do in those zones and the aesthetic of them were really great at capturing the beginning of adventure feel.

Baldur's Gate: The first half of the game is dominated by a kind of semi-pointless exploring. A real low incidence segment of the game. Then you get to Baldur's Gate and there's something to do everywhere. The other thing I love about this game that sets it apart from Athkatala is I can like lay out the city in total. I know exactly how the zones fade into each other it has a much more organic feel than Athkatla which has something that goes between its 5 districts but not clear what.

Fort Joy: DOS2 There's a lot of amazing stuff here. The whole island is just awash in exposition in a pretty delightful way. Also the checkov's gun here is amazing.

 

[rastaban75]

I always think of Half Life 2 first when it comes to level design. Ravenholm and the whole Nova Prospekt complex are two of the best examples imo.

I need to think more about this. From the recent games I played, I just loved the Alushinyrra chapter from Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

 

[east1226]

Can I say the entire setting for Planescape: Torment? It was so weird for its time that I couldn't help but love it.

 

[deleted-4439668]

I always think of Half Life 2 first when it comes to level design. Ravenholm and the whole Nova Prospekt complex are two of the best examples imo.

I need to think more about this. From the recent games I played, I just loved the Alushinyrra chapter from Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

Nice I almost mentioned Ravenholm. The madman surviving there alone and sheer terror of the place definitely had an end of the world vibe, they did a great job of scripting it.

 

[Andyster]

.
I need to think more about this. From the recent games I played, I just loved the Alushinyrra chapter from Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

This one is pretty wild. The visual spectacle of it just shifting around makes it really more interesting than the typical underworld segment.

 

[japekto]

Lab X-8 in STALKER: Call of Pripyat plus the building above it.

 

[DeadLazy]

STALKER had its moments but I only finished the game once before my PC days were over. It’s hard for me to recall much of it. That was a great FPS.

 

[IgglooV2]

Such a hard choice. Liurnia of the Lakes in Elden Ring is far from the hardest but quite stunning when you first get into it.

 

[DeadLazy]

The Lakes in Elden Ring are stunning. Even on old hardware. It’s a fantasy painting … only more detailed.

 

[docSpock]

There's way too many to name. Here is a short list:

CounterStrike - de_dust

Half-Life 2 - Coastal drive and bridge

Forza Horizon 2 - France & Italy

Gran Turismo - Special Stage Route 11 -

Mass Effect 2 & 3 - Normandy SR2

Caslevania SotN - The whole castle

RayStorm - Earth Orbit

 

[DeadLazy]

There is a Super Market in the wonderfully terrible Blue Stinger for the Dreamcast launch that has stuck with me to this day. I actually remember vividly. It is what it is.

Silent Hill when you get to the school. Holy shit that game scared me. It’s psOne visuals are still terrifying to me. I played it a few years ago. Well, 6 or so.

 

[DeadLazy]

Playing Sunset OD I can be more specific.

Helping the Fargarthians siege the rollercoaster is an all time favorite mission. Glad I played it again.

 

[DeadLazy]

The last few “dungeons” of Xenoblade Chronicles definitive edition. They’re truly awesome. I’d post screens but just seeing them gives too much away, I think. Visually, their stunning; despite it being a gen 7 game; despite being a Wii game.

 

[docSpock]

How could I forget!

The Ashtray Maze - Control