The dreaded water level

[1Life0Continues]

Half-Life.
Get to level with cage and water.
Fall in said Water.
Encounter Icthyosaur.
Stop playing game for 6 months.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Ever since I was unsuspectingly sucked into an fan's propellers at a tender young age in Tomb Raider II, I've had gaming hydrophobia and have approached any water section in games with a palpable sense of dread.

In general, swimming in Tomb Raider was always terrifying, mostly because her drowning animation was so upsetting. I particularly remember the bit just after the bear in the second level of the very first Tomb Raider, because it was such a short way into the game and it was really confusing - I died so many times and had to kill that damn bear every time it restarted.

Urgh.

For me, it was my terrified pawing at the controller to no avail as Lara was slowly and helplessly pulled into the blades that freaked me out so much. You know how bad this phobia is? Even in games where I can breath underwater and thus can stay in one place, assessing all possible threats, I get nervous at water bits!

 

[Foolery]

I love water levels. And I'm a sucker for any game that has an aquatic setting. Windwaker. Asscreed IV. I even bought a diving sim for my PC.

 

[MCerberus]

I don't mind water levels.

But lava levels were drilled into my head as the bane of all good things due to Rocket Knight Adventure. For those of you that don't know, the level requires you to use your reflection in the lava pool to navigate. One slip up and you have... that scream.

That bloody scream.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Oh yer, Hyrdocity is totally my favourite level in all the 2D Sonic games. Water levels done right, son!

I can't access Youtube aT work, but look up 'Walk on Water Project Chaos' on Youtube.

Best remix of that track ever.

You ever noticed how every zone in Sonic 3 has water in it, except for Marble Garden? Granted most of it is completely avoidable. Still makes me wonder what went through the level designer's head when making that decision. I imagine it was some Gollum-esque schizophrenic monologue.

Spoiler: Kinda like this

Hirokazu Yasuhara: We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious water. But playerses hates it. Sneaky little playerses. Wicked. Tricksy. False.

Yasuhara Hirokazu: No. Not water's fault.

Hirokazu Yasuhara: Yes, water. False. Playerses will cheat you, hurt you, lie!

Yasuhara Hirokazu: Water's my friend.

Hirokazu Yasuhara: Water doesn't have any friends. Nobody likes water.

Yasuhara Hirokazu: (with his hands over his ears) Not listening. I'm not listening.

Oh, and I know that remix. It's a mainstay on my playlist alongside a bunch of other OC remixes.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

ITT; Not a single person ever played Deus Ex and thought; "You know what? Swimming sounds like a really useful skill, I better get that mastered asap!" And later, "Aqualung you say? Install that shit!"

Because if you did, you were mental.

 

[aozgolo]

The Water Zone (Vashj'ir) in the World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion I thought was well designed for a water level which came as quite a welcome change from previous subzones where diving underwater was a terrible chore that was quite often interupted by having to surface for air.

Water levels are really only bad when you start including REAL water physics.

Oxygen Meters
Dim Blurry Vision
Very Restrictive Movement
Aquatic enemies that outclass you in maneuverability
Slow swim speed
Lack of substantial content
Lack of attack ability
Bland environments
No aquatic upgrades (mounts, diving helmets, etc.)

Any of these things can make a water level BAD, but not exclusively. Oxygen meters just make sense in most games with water, but the rest just serves as a hindrance to fun gameplay, Sonic 2 comes to mind, in a game with generally fast paced levels, the Aquatic Ruins level just threw all the pacing out the window with clumsy sudden stops and bubble-oxygen management.

 

[Weaver]

To me, water levels suck just because swimming mechanics are almost always bad.
On land your character moves smooth and fluently; in water you're dropped to like 1/4 speed, jumping is janky as fuck; or it's one of those games where you have to mash a button to "swim" in an irritating way.

 

[gorfias]

Conker's Bad Fir-day.

I had cheats that made a lot of it very playable on the N64. But I hit the underwater level and that was all she wrote. Into the dustbin.

 

[144_v1legacy]

...but water levels are my favorite ones... maybe I'm just playing the wrong games. Or actually, the right ones.

There is a lot that water can do. And the ability to change a set of gameplay mechanics while keeping them in context is (if done correctly) a neat way to make a game varied.

To use oxygen meters can successfully give a time limit.
To impact speed can give the requirement to foresight in attack evasiveness (rather than reflexes).
Water puzzles are plentiful and can allow for lots of stuff (depending on the developers' creativity).
Impacting visuals can add the requirement for the player to give extra room, or know movement patterns of objects better.
Swimming can enable a character that would otherwise move predominantly on a flat plane to move in all directions.
It can provide differentiation in mechanics between the ability to float and sink.
Varying levels of reflection can add to an area's sense of depth or environmental illusions.
Varying levels of turbulence can indicate weather changes, and give dramatic changes in feel to a place.
It can require more perception, should one have to retrieve something from water when outside.
It can provide a new range of baddies (or goodies).
And so on.

And because of all this, I imagine that developers get very excited by the production of a water zone, at the expense of the player if not properly examined. Kind of like when an indie movie sucks, but the maker says that you, as the viewer, just don't get the message.

Although, in terms of complexity/puzzles, I think the Ice Ruins in the new Zelda:aLBW could give OoT's Water Temple a run for its money.

 

[Rolaoi]

I only hate water levels with either a breath meter or insta-kill traps. I remember being really frustrated with Conker's Bad Fur Day with the underwater propellers. The camera angle made it difficult to judge the depth of blades which lead to me dying a lot. It doesn't help that the slow and ponderous movements underwater make it hard on my patience to take the time to properly avoid traps.

 

[SirNerd]

Anyone here play Megaman Legends 2? The water level in that took hours to beat if you got lost, you're character moved slow as hell, your buster weapon and half of your special weapons became garbage when you were submerged. If you didn't bring the drill weapon, you missed out on several really good items and the ability to kill the dungeon boss in 5 seconds. The best part was that visibility was cut down 10 feet in front of your character.

 

[Bad Jim]

I have a new, easy test for people to gauge their map reading and comprehension ability: the Water Temple test. It consists of 1 question:
Did you get lost/stuck and/or found the Water Temple too big/difficult?
A. Yes
B. No
If you answered A, then congratulations! You don't know how to read a motherfucking map.

I suppose you also enjoyed having to change your shoes about fifty thousand times then?

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I don't mind water levels.

But lava levels were drilled into my head as the bane of all good things due to Rocket Knight Adventure. For those of you that don't know, the level requires you to use your reflection in the lava pool to navigate. One slip up and you have... that scream.

That bloody scream.

I thought that bit was really clever :'] It was followed by a surprisingly decent water section, too.

God, I love that game. I'm gonna go beat it again now.

 

[sXeth]

It's often poorly done, and generally is a weird interruption in a game's gameplay when it suddenly changes from the 95% of the game that was jumping and fighting to suddenly swimming an obstacle course. The early 3d era was also really bad for having horrendous controls when you got into water (the few games that attempted zero-g space levels were just as bad too).

The commonplace addition of a breath timer and air pocket/checkpoits is a bit grating, and many games also neuter your combat options (if any) when immersed in water.

 

[COMaestro]

I think the worst water level I ever played was the original NES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was the 2nd of 7 levels, and it was likely to be the level that made you give up in frustration. You had a little over 2 minutes to disarm 7 bombs placed all over the map where kelp hurt you if you got near it and often pulled you towards it and every bomb is behind an electric barrier that you have to time just right to avoid damage. It was really easy to nearly kill all four of the turtles just getting through the level, and if I remember correctly, they didn't get fully healed automatically going into the next level, so they'd likely die quickly. It just sucked.

I don't think I've ever had another experience with a water level that was that bad.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

here's an example of a game that got the water level down right: Rayman Origins. No slow, cumbersome movement, no air restricion, no horrible, barely manageable control scheme. They simply changed the colours a bit and switched to a surprisingly precise and intuitive 8-directional movement system. It was wonderful. Coupled with the music and a few ingenious touches like floods of colourful fish that sing the soundtrack and you've got some of my favourite levels in that game.

 

[Olas]

I think the problem with water levels is they always operate with dramatically different mechanics from normal levels, and since those mechanics always get much less attention than the regular one there's less pressure to design them well.

That being said the Mario series has always gotten water levels about as good as anyone else. I remember the water levels in Super Mario World being bearable mostly because of the fire flower and the fact that Mario somehow had infinite lung capacity, and Super Mario Sunshine was almost entirely built around water yet worked pretty well.

I love water levels. And I'm a sucker for any game that has an aquatic setting. Windwaker. Asscreed IV. I even bought a diving sim for my PC.

Windwaker, ironically, doesn't have a water level (since your swimming ability is highly limited). Unless you count the first part of the Temple of the Gods which is one of the worst parts of the game IMO.

Donkey Kong Country had some bloody fantastic water levels, from gameplay to soundtrack. Ahh, good memories...

They were okay, but if I remember correctly you were incredibly vulnerable in those levels from not being able to jump on enemies. The swordfish you could ride was their saving grace.