Examples of ingenious level design

[Sleuth Semanticist]

All three Metroid Primes, and I can't wait to see the fourth. Echoes is divisive though it had some of the most complex and dense levels of any game I've played. I remember the map being of little use in a few of the more complex junctions, haha.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga admirably blended platforming with the top-down map. You got new abilities which opened up some old areas and had to be creative and quick to access some harder areas or secrets. A lot of fun. Need to get a copy of the remake for all those chortles.

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

One that hasn't been mentioned:

Toki Tori 2.

You're a flightless bird. You can walk, on a 2D plane through interconnected areas. You can chirp. And you can stomp. That's all. But creatures and objects in the world interact with each other and with your stomping and chirping in different ways. The world is structured like a Metroidvania, but areas aren't locked out because you don't yet have the right ability or item yet: the only barrier is your knowledge of how everything in the world interacts with each other and yourself. You can discover things outside of the expected/usual order if you're observant and clever and lucky enough.

Here's a video with some spoilers to the game's systems and how to solve puzzles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=084BUNlI7Gk

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Mark Brown , who does Game Makers Toolkit, is a big fan of this game, and that's quite an endorsement as far as I'm concerned.

For me, even after so many years, Eagles Tower fro Zelda: Link's awakening, still stands as my favourite Zelda dungeon. It has you using a huge metal ball to destroy pillars which bring the upper levels down to the current level, changing the overall layout in the process. The main challenge is figuring out how to get the ball to all the places it needs to be.

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

Was about to type Prey, but you beat me to it. It's brilliant, not just in the way it's interconnected and has tons of traversal options, but it has great environmental storytelling as well, with some ingenious solutions to quests or ways of entering a room you don't have a keycard for.

It's the one game this year that I wished sold better. We need more games like this.

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Bloodborne avatar and praise for Prey?

My man, you've earned a follow.

 

[Transistor]

I'd say Titanfall 2, if only for the Effect and Cause mission. Seamlessly jumping back and forth in time to progress is just so damn fun

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Whoof, where does it even end?

In terms of horror games:
REmake's Mansion.
Resident Evil 2's Police Station & Lab.
Resident Evil 3's Raccoon City.
Resident Evil 4's Village & Castle.
Fatal Frame 3's Manor of Sleep.
Fatal Frame 4's Haibara Hospital.
Silent Hill 2's version of Silent Hill is my favourite in the series.

For the immersive sims/adventure/PC games:
Shenmue's Dobuita & Harbor.
Shenmue 2's Kowloon. (Perfection, still the best Shenmue area in the series).
Killer7's Target05: Smile (Hotel Union & Coburn Elementary School).
Deus Ex's Hong Kong.
Human Revolution's Detroit. Also remember Omega Ranch being a good level.
Max Payne's Roscoe Street Station, Ragna Rock & Punchinello Mansion.
Dark Souls 1's interconnected worlds from top to bottom. Same goes for the rest of the Dark Souls series (for the most part), Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.
Metal Gear Solid 1's levels were perfectly crafted, I think. I loved MGS2's Tanker & Big Shell as well as MGS3's semi-open world but MGS1 has the best crafted levels for me.
I enjoyed pretty much all of the dungeons in Ocarina of Time (yes even the Water Temple).
Alpha Protocol's Taipei level was underrated.

Atlus are great at level design from the PS2 era onwards for the most part, in my opinion:
SMT4's areas (although the lack of dungeons was a detriment, the actual areasoutsid eof the badly designed overworld map was really good and the end game had a couple of well designed dungeons)
Shin Megami Tensei 3's dungeons like Amala Temple, Tower of Kagutsuchi and the masterpiece Labyrinth of Amala. All fantastic.
Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 had some great level design as well. Loved the weird dungeons.
The Raidou games had some really well designed towns and dungeons.
Persona 5 has a few really good dungeons with some nice level design.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions looks to continue the trend so far from what I've played of it.

Gunstar Heroes and Mischief Makers both have fantastic level design from beginning to end.
Surprised by the lack of Super Mario 64 & Sonic Mania mentions to be honest or Mario or Sonic games in general...
Oh yeah and Ristar - some of my favourite 16 bit platforming levels right there.

I love a game with good level design.

 

[blinky]

Dark Souls really sets the bar here. TFW you get halfway through Blighttown and realize how far away you are from Firelink.

 

[gcwy]

Most Zelda dungeons have incredible level design, some titles have more impressive level design than others, though.

I'll let Mark Brown's Boss Keys series do the talking for me:

 

[TylersProphecy]

Resident Evil REmake's Mansion.

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Oh man, i agree overtly. The original game was already a meticulous masterpiece as far as item/enemy placement, camera angles, and just the overall map design but holy jeeze, the remake is god tier. Every single pre-rendered backdrop is just OOOZING atmosphere and an attention to detail so very very rarely seen in anything outside of full-fledged art while somehow avoiding being too busy (imo). It's a game that feels like every person working on it was aligned in planning and level of passion. Resident Evil's high watermark for me. On a similar note, I hope lightning strikes twice for REmake 2 but already rumblings of indecisiveness surround the game. I suppose its appropriate for a remake of a game that in itself had a troubled dev history.

GREAT choice.

 

[Deleted member 419]

Haven't seen this mentioned yet - Pitioss Ruins from Final Fantasy XV.

The best Zelda dungeon this generation (a generation that includes the best Zelda game, BotW) is in Final Fantasy XV. Who would've thought.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Legend of Grimrock II (which is 66% off for this nigh-flawless masterpiece) has a wonderful denseness to its secrets, about 5 or 6 in plain sight in even between zones. Tempting, taunting, driving you forward.

Enemies, those "how do I get that" secrets, hidden treasure, puzzles, traps, safe loot, locked doors, dungeons, and safe objectives are just so damn DENSE in this, and perfectly paced.

 

[Elshoelace]

Bloodborne - central Yharnam in particular is amazing. Feels like a city I am prowling around in plus it all wraps around and interconnects so well.

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

I'd say Titanfall 2, if only for the Effect and Cause mission. Seamlessly jumping back and forth in time to progress is just so damn fun

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If you liked that mission you'll love A Crack in the Slab from Dishonored 2.

 

[MonsterMech]

To give a recent example, I really enjoy Cupheads level design. We've played plenty of 2D shooter boss fights. But none of them change/evolve like cuphead does, in that you are using a bunch of different strategies and play styles all on one level.

 

[demosthenes]

Dishonored 2.

 

[Deleted member 13131]

I'm on my 3rd playthrough of Steamworld Dig 2, and I'm coming to the conclusion it's one of the best designed games I've ever played. The abilities you accumulate over the course of the game grant mobility to go literally anywhere, and you're constantly revisiting older areas to go to new places. In concept, that's not anything new, of course.

But what really does it is the Sequence Break achievement, which challenges you to explore all of the main world before you go to a certain location and obtain a particular mobility-granting ability, which is normally about the middle of the game. So you have to think outside the box and use a smaller set of tools to find alternate ways around choke points that, on the surface, look like hard gear checks. In a way they are - just not the gear they first appear to be checking. It's a brilliant bit of world design and the epiphanies that come from finding yes, you can go that direction anyways were quite delightful on my first play. Those continue as you push further and further into the different corners of the game world.

 

[BuBu Jenkins]

God of War 3's opening level where your fighting monsters and enemies while riding on top of gaia while shes climbing up mount olympus and having fucking poseidon as the final boss of the stage. The sheer epicness of it all is still unmatched in any game to this day imo

 

[Bishop89]

God of war series.
"oh wow I'm back here and I didn't even backtrack"

 

[Snagret]

Legend of Grimrock II (which is 66% off for this nigh-flawless masterpiece) has a wonderful denseness to its secrets, about 5 or 6 in plain sight in even between zones. Tempting, taunting, driving you forward.

Enemies, those "how do I get that" secrets, hidden treasure, puzzles, traps, safe loot, locked doors, dungeons, and safe objectives are just so damn DENSE in this, and perfectly paced.

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Seconding this one, super underrated game. The combat isn't great (most enemies can be cheesed by just circling around them and taking potshots) but the exploration, environmental puzzles, and atmosphere more than make up for it. It reminded me a lot of Myst/Riven, interestingly enough.

 

[JLP101]

How could I forget Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Thief 1,2,3, Dishonored, all classics in terms of level design.

 

[KDC720]

Talos 1 in Prey was what I wanted out of the Baker Estate in RE7 from a design perspective.

Not that RE7's locale is bad, its just very condensed. Talos 1 reminded me a lot of the Spencer Mansion from REmake in a good way.

 

[Deleted member 8674]

No Toki Tori 2 mention?

Disappointed.

Edit: okay it was mentioned but here a video to show the brilliance of that game design.

Edit 2: okay so even the video was posted. Not bad Reseters. Not bad.

Here

 

[Cola]

Every level in Sonic Mania, tbh.

Spoiler

I can't wait for the fifteen replies screeching about how Sonic level design sucks

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Sonic's level design is rather hit and miss in my eyes, honestly.
Best case example of a clear-cut miss would be Sonic CD I'd say.

Hoo boy.
Getting back on track though, I do indeed second that almost all of Sonic Mania's level layouts are incredibly ingenious and well wove; what-not with Sonic 3's seemingly seamless shifts from act-to-act, (and from time-to-time zone-to-zone), a modest magnification of level height perhaps plucked away from one of Sonic CD's more preferable properties, sugar, spice, and everything noice out of each and every other nook and cranny of the blue blur's earlier excursions all upon Sonic Mania's side, it's as straightforward as could be though that Mania's designs are some of the series's most magnificent to date.

 

[ilium]

Good to see Prey mentioned already.
From the messy rooms to the moment you realize the station slowly rotating in distanct sun light - and even being able to go out - adds such a fantastic sense of place and scale. Exploring the station very rarely felt like a chore, it all came very naturally through reasoned interior design and the sheer curiosity of what was around the corner.
Basically waiting for a survival mode to begin a new playthrough

 

[Dr. Caroll]

Perfect Dark's level design is exceptionally good, for the most part, and someone wrote an article a few years ago talking about it:

http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/2014/07/27/perfect-dark-retrospective-2/

Interlocking 3D spaces where every single door leads somewhere, even if its purpose isn't immediately apparent. Instead of plastering giant arrows everywhere, there's an immense amount of subtle signposting. Colour coding is common. Using different shaped doors to indicate different areas is another common trick. The levels generally make architectural sense, too, in a stylized way, so that once you understand a general level layout, navigating it becomes second nature.

Perfect Dark: Zero screwed up really, really badly in this area. The game messed up in a lot of areas, but confusing level design was the most immediately obvious problem.

 

[Deleted member 7756]

E1M1 from Doom (1993). Perfect step-by-step introduction to the game's mechanics. Also: secrets!

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Absolutely this.

 

[MechanicalWall]

Not level design in the gameplay sense (because I don't really like most of Mario Sunshine's level design), but visually, I thought being able to see other levels was really cool and gave the game the kind of cohesion no other Mario platformer has even attempted to evoke

 

[Capt_Shanu]

There's a level later on in Dishonored 2 that had me feeling like a monster from an episode of Doctor Who. So much fun. If you haven't played Dishonored 2 yet, this level alone was worth the price of admission IMO.

 

[More_Badass]

I'm on my 3rd playthrough of Steamworld Dig 2, and I'm coming to the conclusion it's one of the best designed games I've ever played. The abilities you accumulate over the course of the game grant mobility to go literally anywhere, and you're constantly revisiting older areas to go to new places. In concept, that's not anything new, of course.

But what really does it is the Sequence Break achievement, which challenges you to explore all of the main world before you go to a certain location and obtain a particular mobility-granting ability, which is normally about the middle of the game. So you have to think outside the box and use a smaller set of tools to find alternate ways around choke points that, on the surface, look like hard gear checks. In a way they are - just not the gear they first appear to be checking. It's a brilliant bit of world design and the epiphanies that come from finding yes, you can go that direction anyways were quite delightful on my first play. Those continue as you push further and further into the different corners of the game world.

Click to shrink...

Sounds like I really need to check out Dig 2. Didn't like Dig 1 as much compared to Heist (I know, completely different games), but sounds like 2 is a big improvement

 

[Deleted member 13628]

Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne to a lesser extent.

That moment when you get off the elevator and find yourself in firelink shrine...

 

[Deleted member 419]

Sonic's level design is rather hit and miss in my eyes, honestly.
Best case example of a clear-cut miss would be Sonic CD I'd say.

Hoo boy.
Getting back on track though, I do indeed second that almost all of Sonic Mania's level layouts are incredibly ingenious and well wove; what-not with Sonic 3's seemingly seamless shifts from act-to-act, (and from time-to-time zone-to-zone), a modest magnification of level height perhaps plucked away from one of Sonic CD's more preferable properties, sugar, spice, and everything noice out of each and every other nook and cranny of the blue blur's earlier excursions all upon Sonic Mania's side, it's as straightforward as could be though that Mania's designs are some of the series's most magnificent to date.

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Is this real? Looks like a Kaizo fanhack lol, sheesh.

 

[Cola]

Is this real? Looks like a Kaizo fanhack lol, sheesh.

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Somewhat sadly, yes.



Fun fact, this here bottomless pit is the only of its kind within CD.

 

[SDR-UK]

Central Yharnam is absolutely amazing to me, it is the quintessential opening area to a game in my opinion. I adore everything it does to acclimatise players to the world that is Bloodborne. It is a definite shame that some of the rest of the game never reaches the highs of Central Yharnam.

 

[helium121]

I was always impressed with Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox. The levels interconnect perfectly so there is very minimal backtracking.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

Somewhat sadly, yes.



Fun fact, this here bottomless pit is the only of its kind within CD.

Click to shrink...

This level is so bad.

 

[Hitomi J-Scrub]

Areas in Soulsborne games where the designers restrict themselves to one or at least very few bonfires that you keep finding your way back to. Those are the ones I tend to enjoy the most. That's a more conceptual thing, I guess, but The Painted World of Ariamis is a good example of this: One bonfire at the start, but a ton of ways to find yourself back to it from the various routes through that level. Something about finding a familiar place of safety feels better than some new bonfire, especially if you've lost track of where you are and your brain starts figuring out the layout of the often confusing maps as you re-discover an old checkpoint.

It's great.

 

[ODD]

This level is so bad.

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Sonic CD in general has terrible level designs, which is weird, since the Genesis/Mega Drive games used to be great. It seems like they went "hey, we can push more shit on the screen, so let's clutter all this crap together"

 

[ApeEscaper]

To start off with a well analyzed example: Super Metroid.

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/HugoBille/20120114/90903/The_Invisible_Hand_of_Super_Metroid.php

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Yep came to say this. Super Metroid great level design stood out

 

[witty_mittie3]

Most recently? Titanfall 2's "Effect and Cause."

 

[JackBauer24]

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2's co-op mission with the AC-130. Have yet to play anything quite like it since.

 

[Vadara]

This level is so bad.

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The Mania version is great tho

 

[Fancy Clown]

Resident Evil REmake's mansion is maybe the best example I can think of. You have to actively plan and consider routes in a way that none of the other Resident Evil games have managed. Brilliant details like a shortcut that can only be used a limited amount of times before the doorknob breaks off forever add so much to the tension and the way you navigate the space.