The most intense level you have ever played

[lovestomooch]

The end of episode 2 with the strider battle.... I was shaking and laughing at the end with adrenaline, it was insanely fun

 

[Yossarian1507]

I have two:

'Nathaniel' in Heavy Rain. MAJOR character development for Jayden, creepy scenery, one religious maniac, one rabid cop, quasi-mexican standoff... And a tough decision - to shoot or to talk Nathaniel down. Very intense.

Haunted Hotel in Santa Monica in Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. V:TM:B is another of those flawed gems of RPG games, and the Haunted Hotel is definitely the highlight of it. Vampire vs a tricky ghost that tries to kill you in some creative ways using the furniture, while the spirit of the ghost's dead wife whispers advices to avoid death? Yes please. Perhaps you played Dragon Age II recently and made a haunted manor sidequest for Varric. Liked it? Then my friend, the Haunted Hotel is about million times better.

 

[Netrigan]

I'm sure if I could remember the details, a good 90% of my Top 20 would be from the Serious Sam franchise. That game had it all, hordes of baddies, low-health scenarios, and attacks coming from all directions (including the oft-ignored z-axis). But I can't for the life of me remember any single level.

 

[Saviordd1]

Thinking back on all those games you've played, some good, some not so good, has there been a single level, chapter, episode, whatever fancy name they can think of calling it these days, that you have played that you just simply enjoyed, either because it was exciting all the way through, could be a Halo level, or competitive, could be a Gran Turismo level or heck, just funny, could be a Timesplitters level. Maybe its an older game like the famous first level of Super Mario or a country in Tomb Raider. Either way, it has stuck with you because it was just AWESOME.

Brood mother, dragon age origins, nightmare, pre-patch

...need i say more?

 

[Tupolev]

"If I Had A Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay" from Marathon 2, on Total Carnage difficulty.

Not that I expect any of you to know what the hell I am talking about, but there's my two cents.

IIHARLIMSP is crazy.

I think the game itself sums it up nicely with the intro terminal:

Spoiler

If I Had a Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay
Terminal 1


The first Pfhor dropship landed twelve
minutes ago, and their troopers have
already penetrated the hull. It seems that
our standard operating procedure calls for
me to transport you into the worst
fighting. Maybe you can slow them down.
==
It may only seem like a matter of hours
since your last battle here, but remember
that seventeen years have passed for those
of us who did not spend the voyage from Tau
Ceti in a stasis chamber. A few things
have changed:
==
We're helpless on Lh'owon's second moon.
Our engines have been destroyed and all
primary weapons are off-line. Life support
has failed in most areas.

Enjoy yourself.

And then of course you're teleported into a series of wonky hallways and made to fight off huge armies of enemies that teleport in around you and storm off of ledges in huge numbers.

Meanwhile, Durandal teleports A LOT of ammunition your way.

 

[RollingThunder]

Ace Combat Unsung War and Zero, nothing like being supported by your comrade in arms, supported by our used to be enemies, listening to awesome singer singing song about freedom amidst hectic dogfight, seeing our trusted carrier ship sunk after so many service and support, getting the girl *wink* being called a demon by the enemies.

Also, John Woo style plane to plane duel.

 

[Epslion.Bear]

I hated the end fight oil rig in MW2 it was annoying

Also The start of "tip of the spear" on halo reach on legendary

I hate that fuel rod turret

 

[Leemaster777]

Probably the Sephiroth fight from Kingdom Hearts 1.

God damn, that's probably the BALLS HARDEST boss fight I had every undertaken.

If you've never had the "pleasure" of fighting him, let me break it down:

He has more health than any other enemy in the entire game. He has SO much health, in fact, that when you first start fighting him, his health bar doesn't even deplete. He actually has more health than the health system is designed to handle, so you have to beat 1 or 2 health bars out of him before he will even REGISTER damage.

His sword is frikin HUGE (seven feet long), and he can hit you from pretty much halfway across the screen... and that's BEFORE he starts randomly teleporting directly behind you to give you a steel suppository.

And, of course, there's the fact that he has his "Sin Heartless Angel" attack, which will Auto-Kill you if you don't interrupt it. And he likes to teleport to a random location on the battlefield right before he does it, breaking your target lock.

He's a tough freaking bastard. I was on the edge of my seat when I started trying to beat him for real (the first time I fought him, I was so shocked he was the secret boss that he killed me in 3 seconds, before I could react). Sweat, shaking, the whole nine yards. Now THAT'S intense.


Fucking hell.

 

[Cogwheel]

"If I Had A Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay" from Marathon 2, on Total Carnage difficulty.

Not that I expect any of you to know what the hell I am talking about, but there's my two cents.

Hey, some of us have played Marathon. Though admittedly not on high difficulties, I'm terrible at it.

Shalebridge Cradle. Genius level design, fantastic story, most genuinely frightening piece of interactive entertainment I've ever encountered. There are truly not enough superlatives to heap upon it.

Ah yes, I remember that. my favourite part of the series. And, yes, terrifying.

 

[Epslion.Bear]

I hated the end fight oil rig in MW2 it was annoying

Also The start of "tip of the spear" on halo reach on legendary

I hate that fuel rod turret

The oil rig was easy for me.
And the turret at the beginning? Just walk in circles and blast them.

Oh and if you try to go for the credit room or whatever on that level... the one where you hold out outside of Dr. Halsey's lab, you have to do it on legendary, then survive to the end. And that's not the worst part, you have to then go to the edge, jump off the side (you have 10 seconds to live), and hit a button. Oh, and btw, the ground kills you. AND THEN, 7 ELITE GENERALS appear. So hope you have a ghost and all the wraiths are faaaar away.

Thats "The Package"

The level im on is the one one before the space level

 

[Outright Villainy]

The penultimate stage "Area 6" in Starfox 64. It requires you to pay a bit more attention on Normal Mode, but on Expert Mode it help that you know all the techniques your Arwing can pull off if you want to earn the Medal on it. Braking and bombs help too.

The music helps a lot too, it's definitely the standout track.

Ot: For me, probably goldeneye in the control level, where you have to protect Natalya. Way back when I first played that, it was tense as fuck since it took me so many goes to get past it, and the level was long as hell.

Lately, it's been Heavy rain. Flawed as it was, the whole permadeath thing (even if it didn't really come into effect until much later) infused everything with a huge amount of tension.

 

[Slenn]

Ooooh, let's see... I think the fight with Duriel on Diablo 2 on Nightmare. I challenged myself by using only lightning spells on my sorceress, and I had to use Nova and Thunder Storm as guerilla warfare against that dude. I couldn't use Lightning or Chain Lightning because if I turned around to fire at him he'd beat the crap out of me. Freaking tedious as hell and I amazingly didn't die, albeit I had to use a ton of portals to get more potions.

Let's see... also think some of the Silent Line Armored Core fights were pretty crazy. The fight against Longspear in the Solar Power plant I hated so much because it was impossible to get a good score or any cash reward after the mission. The missions inside the satellite were also freaking insane, especially the final one where you're paired up with the leader of the arena fights against this AI controlled AC and you have to destroy all the power cells before you die.

 

[Cj Vanek]

Belly of the Beast from the 2010 Medal of Honor:


The mission starts off with your helicopter being attacked and forced into landing, which causes you to have to travel through the valleys with taliban hiding in the hills around you. It all leads up to a last stand in a small hut thats completely surrounded. Your radio operator cancels the request for an extraction because there is no way you will survive long enough for them to get there. Once you are out of ammo, two helicopters crest the ridge in front of you and proceed to blow up every last enemy in sight.

I could play that level fifty times and it would still be awesome.

 

[DaMullet]

Seriouis Sam 1 and 2 had the best intense levels I have ever played.

Let's review;
- Standing in ruins in the middle of a field being attacked on all sides while fire rains from the sky
- Trapped in a large area where suddenly hundreds of gallopping skeleton things turn the corner and charge at you all at once
- Running from a mountain sized monster through hordes of smaller guys towards the pyraminds

Yeah... Insane

 

[Epslion.Bear]

Serious sam 2 (xbox) + hardest difficulty = WHY?

Theres no boss you see so the developers just threw about 1000 more bad guys in there

(I hate the bulls on Serious sam 1. Fighting more that 3 at a time mean you will die a few times)

EDIT: I just remebered those frog things in serious sam 1 and how they would spam them while playing epic music

 

[CManator]

Action:
Sonic Adventure 2, I forget the name but it was one of Shadow's last stages. It was in space and there was a lot of rail grinding and running up anti-grav tubes to a badass techno-ish song.

Design:
Lots of Zelda dungeons could be here but my fav is probably the sky temple in Twilight Princess. Ziiping through a maze with a double hookshot had a very spiderman like feel and was very fun!

Competition:
Baby Mario's track in Double Dash. The limited track space and 7 laps and 2 items per player made it a virtual mine field. Never a dull moment!

God there are so many other games i'd like to give shout-outs to for level design, including Mega Man/X series, Demon's Souls, Mario 64, God of War series, Wild Arms, Metroid/Prime series, Final Fantasy 12, Resident Evil series... i could go on for hours really.