Top 10 levels from gaming's golden age

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

More of my substack shiat

Console gaming peaked in the timespan from 2001. to 2007. PC purists have their own perspective, that’s not for me to talk about, but console and console-style game design is healing from its nadir of 2008.-2016ish, so it is a good time to reestablish the ideal. A craft with a past is a craft with a future, after all. If we know what we’re doing, we may yet peak again.

This list will only include levels from games I’ve personally played, and despite my best efforts, there are some classics from this period I’ve missed. Jet Set Radio Future, Metroid Prime, F.E.A.R., and Super Mario Galaxy, primarily. It is also tragic that no level from Jak 2 managed to cut it, but it is my favourite game from this time period, so it deserves this mention nonetheless. There are a lot of other games I wish I could’ve honoured on here, but when you get down to it, a top 10 must be the best of the best, and the best of the best are:


10. Garden Tower
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004.)



Just goes to show: never stick your **** in a pudding. It might still be perfectly good pudding, and you can spend all day explaining that, but nobody’s gonna eat it because you stuck your **** in it!

-Ben ‘‘Yahtzee’’ Croshaw

Ok, but what if it’s the best pudding?

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, if you don’t know, was part of Ubisoft’s excellent Sands of Time trilogy, but had its reputation marred by an embarrasing new edgy style. Detractors would admit that the gameplay is still good, but they’re wrong: the gameplay is the best. Easily the best in the series.

What sets it apart from its immediate predecessor and successor is the non-linearity. Warrior Within is structured like a 3d metroidvania, which meshes so well with its platforming and Indiana Jones-esque level premises, but it’s shown in the more self-contained levels too. You can see it in the screenshot above: the way forward is not immediately obvious. The Garden Tower is concieved around shifting irrigation channels, meaning the way forward will change with every lever pulled. It forces you to think five-dimensionally. While you could say Tomb Raider tried something similar before, the speed of Prince of Persia’s platforming makes a big difference. Besides just solving puzzles, you’re encouraged to do it quickly and seamlessly, and keep the adrenaline going. Most puzzle games will want you to slow down, while most platformers will have you relying on pure reflexes, but this game, and the Garden Tower level in particular, will provide the best of both worlds. A good test of spatial intelligence, and a burst of soaring acrobatics. The gameplay of Warrior Within is Focus, Unravel, Navigate, and what’s that spell? F.U.N. And F.U.N. is For U, *****.


#9. - Gigantic Fleet
Panzer Dragoon Orta (2002.)



Panzer Dragoon Orta is that Xbox game that’s most famous for being obscure. Many will say it’s a great game, but the specifics of it will rarely ever be discussed, and that’s not because it doesn’t deserve it. That’s because the Xbox is hard to emulate, so nobody has actually played it. As one of the two, maybe three people who actually did, it is my duty to address that injustice.

This is one of those games that’s easy to learn, but hard to master. It’s an on-rails shooter, like Space Harrier or Star Fox. Those games work off the premise that you’re on a fixed trajectory, and must rack up points by killing as many enemies in the limited time you’re given. Orta took it to a level of complexity that it has never seen, and probably will never see again. Mid-flight form shifting, multiple types of attacks, a 360 degree view, enemies that require mastery thereof. Gigantic Fleet stands out as the moment the game takes off its training wheels; it is refelcted in the story as the first head-on confrontation with the evil empire, and in the gameplay as level/enemy design that nakedly dares you to improve. For example, the first encounter will have a big warship in the background - worth lots of points, but too beefy to be felled by your basic form. You have to use the Heavy Wing - the offensive form; just be careful not to get hit too much. Soon after you’ll encounter swarms of little pursuit planes, flying shields that can be destroyed with the dash move, walls of turrets that will teach you to swerve the aiming reticle skullfully. It’s not that Gigantic Fleet is particularly hard to beat, but you don’t want to just beat it. You want that high score; the dare is so clear, and so attainable, that you can’t not want it. If you’d only twist your fingers a little more, make it through this one section without getting hit.

The moral of the story is: it’s not enough to be easy to learn, and hard to master. You have to be fun to master as well.


#8. - Planet Damosel - Allgon City
Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando (2003.)



What do you get when you mix Spyro the Dragon with Duke Nukem? You get Ratchet and Clank 2, and specifically, Allgon City, one of the most underrated levels ever. Call it a rare feat that a mascot platformer would ever be comparable to a classic shooter. Maybe Ratchet and Clank was already skewing more towards TPS gameplay than Ratchet 1, but that’s not all there is to the Duke comparison. A big part of his appeal is in the alive, reactive environments, which provide believable scenery for the action to take place in. Allgon City matches that with its portrayal of a suburban robot town, infested with little, but vicious self-replicating beasts. Animal control is sent out, and programmed to attack anything with fur, including you. That leads to one of my favourite tropes in shooters: three-way battles. Added to that, there are destructible trash cans, houses, mailboxes, and boxes of food on store shelves, leading to an overall feeling of absolute mayhem. A perfect fit for Ratchet’s core gameplay loop of nuking everything in sight.

Added to that is the fact that the enemies can keep up. On one hand, the beasts can self-replicate, meaning you have to clear them out fast, lest they pump their numbers back up. The animal control are tough, requiring you to destroy them multiple times. You can blow off their entire top halves, but their legs will still move on their own and kick you.

That’s the core of the level, anyway. There are extras, which was common at the time, and that’s part of the reason why this era of gaming was the best. One of the paths is a visually elaborate and intense rail-grinding section. You have an NPC who’ll sell you a hypnotizer tool - he’s some weird guy controlled by his sock puppet, and despite his brief screentime, is one of the funniest characters in the series. Finally, there is an optional puzzle where you can freeze a fountain with your ice weapon, then ride the frozen stream to a hidden collectible. That is insanely cool, and the kind of creative thinking I wish Insomniac could have kept up through their whole opus.


#7. - MCAS Banco de Panama
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005.)



Remember stealth games? If any indie devs happen to be listening, I really would like one of these again. And if you need a template, here it is. Banco de Panama, and really Chaos Theory on the whole is what happens when everything goes right. It makes you feel precisely how games like this should strive to make you feel - like an unstoppable infiltrator. You’re effortlessly slipping through all the cracks like a gas leak.

This is still relatively early in the game, so it’s not the hardest level, but it is the one where the game takes off its training wheels, as well as the one whose design tells the most coherent narrative. And one that fits a stealth game too; what could be cooler to break into than a bank? The first two levels are simple and self-explanatory, they let you get used to the controls. But this one is where the game breaks out the cool toys: proximity light switches, laser grids, remote computer hacking. There is a segment where the guards have electronic beacons in their uniforms, which disable the laser grids in their immediate vicinity, and you can tail them - or knock them out and carry their bodies around. Even the usual gameplay of eavesdropping, skulking, picking locks, is made better by a believable environment. Again, just like in Duke Nukem - it never feels like this bank was only made for a video game.

The sky-high production value is worth a mention too. I’m not just talking about the tech here - it’s a triple-A game from before those became a laughing stock. That means it had polish, class, and cohesion in addition to at-the-time impressive tech. Some games emanate that like an aura, and Chaos Theory is one of those games.


#6. - Final Rush
Sonic Adventure 2 (2001.)



Ooo, 3d Sonic! Contentious topic, I know. Well here’s a contentious opinion: Final Rush is the only 10/10 3d Sonic level. Hence, it is the best Sonic level of all time.

A lot of stink is made over whether or not the 3d Sonics stayed true to the spirit of the Sega Genesis classics. Fans love to correct Sega on this front in ways that usually involve making 3d Sonic engines where the only level is Green Hill, and while I respect the autism, they all make the same mistake of trying to make a game that’s equal to the classics. That’s such a crock - when you’re adding a whole new dimension, being equal doesn’t cut it. You have to be incomparably better. Mario understood that going to 3d, Metroid understood that, and about 30% of the time1, Sonic understood that.

The core tenets of classic Sonic are momentum-based platforming and alternate routes. Your goal is to finish the level super fast, and you do that by building up blunt speed, and reaching quicker, but harder-to-reach routes. 3d Sonic would sometimes get the first right, but would frequently fumble with the second. Often times, he’s too linear. Final Rush is anything but linear. It’s a level centred around rail-grinding, and the possibilities are endless. You’re meant to play Sonic levels over and over again, looking around for sequence-breaking potential and routes you may not have taken yet, and this level has the best ones by far. There are multiple parts where you have to grind up a rail, and if you build up enough speed and jump at the right moment, you’ll reach routes that are hard to even see. There’s so much room for out-the-box thinking, experimenting with ways to make mr. Fast ***** go even faster.

And let’s be real, it is for kids, but… this is just so cool. You’re Sonic the Hedgehog, speeding through space on grindrails, to the tune of electric guitar riffs that sound like car engines. If you don’t think that’s awesome, then you…

…don’t have autism.

Reee.


#5. - Tarant
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (2001.)



Just because this is a console-centric list, doesn’t mean we don’t have time for a PC classic or two. If you’re not familiar with Arcanum, it’s a Fallout 1-style RPG in a ‘‘Tolkien fantasy meets the industrial revolution’’ setting, and is a darling in RPG enthusiast circles for being incredibly high-effort and detailed. The sky’s the limit when it comes to build variety and world reactivity. Such a game will want to have one big city that you can really sink your teeth into. Baldur’s Gate 2 opened in Athkatla, Fallout 2 has New Reno, Arcanum has… Tarant. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things you can do in this metropolis:

Discover a family business of jewelers who do necromancy in their basement

Meet the inventor of the steam engine

Negotiate deals between an anarchist workers’ union and the factory owner

Find secret rooms in the sewers, guarded by robot spiders

Dig through the trash for crafting components like some sort of gypsy

See your feats reported in the newspaper, peddled by a little boy yelling ‘‘Extra! Extra!’’

Hear a guy talk **** about a dwarf for being a city boy, using this exact line: ‘‘He’s probably got a manicure.’’

Discuss teas with Gar, the world’s most intelligent orc2

Go to a brothel

**** a sheep

Get mugged if you walk around at night, and are playing a good character

Join said theives if you’re playing an evil character. I never did that myself, mind you.

…and much, much more.


#4. - Grand Cathedral
Serious Sam: the Second Encounter (2002.)



Two references to Duke Nukem, and now we have an FPS with a main character who’s exactly like Duke Nukem, and yet, the games play nothing alike. Serious Sam is built more like an arcade game, with arena-to-arena progression, and combat that’s more about bullet hell and skillful target prioritization than about dashing in and out of cover. That lead to the level design being a lot more spacious, and with that in mind, what better way to end the game than to lay itself bare - give you a big fat wide corridoor, and a motherfucking onslaught of enemies.

To be fair, that is only the first third of the Grand Cathedral. The later parts spice it up with dashing plates, randomly striking meteors, and a fort with respawning powerups you have to defend. If you know how to look for them, there are some of the funniest and most elaborate secrets in the series. But at its heart, Grand Cathedral is all about being a bloodbath; the very first wave is all cannon fodder, and it’s designed so you’d run out of ammo. It’s not hard to stay well-armed if you’re prudent with your ammo use, but it is hard to not die. When you start facing the tough enemies, the bulls, the rocket mechs, the reptiloids, the sheer numbers easily become overwhelming. There’s a sense of naked directness to this level, the earth-shaking amount of violence, like the game has nothing left to hide, and you’re to handle it at its least restrained. That’s bolstered by how it uses music - most Sam levels have a calm track used for exploration, and a more energetic remix used for combat. Grand Cathedral is just this majestic organ number on loop, which is revered within the Serious Sam fandom. Great job, Croteam. Franjo Tuđman was smiling down at you.


#3. - Pandora’s Temple
God of War (2005.)



Many games seek to make you feel like Indiana Jones. God of War did that; God of War still kinda does that, but as opposed to the glorified therapy session that the series had become, God of War 1 understood the power of silence. It also understood the power of scale; Pandora’s Temple is so long, it makes the typical Zelda dungeon look like going downstairs to get a glass of water.

The twelve labours of Hercules may have been an inspiration. This level is all about Kratos’ quest for Pandora’s Box, which contains the power to let him slay Ares. The location is made clear right away, in the centre of the big room where you have to shift walls with a crank, but the way inside is as elaborate as they come. Platforming segments with tightropes and spinning sawblades, walls smashing together, a room where the floor collapses if you let too many enemies spawn, mazes, big wall-smashing puzzles, door switches with timers, swimming, plenty of combat encounters, a boss battle against a giant armoured bull, all rendered with GoW 1’s confident swagger and gravitas. This is the kind of game where you find yourself unconsciously puffing your chest out while playing. Again, a triple-A game from back when they were good.

This is also a level that knows how to make a good exit. You finally attain Pandora’s Box, and it doesn’t just end there. You get to push it outside, taking in all the scenery you had been trying to conquer for the past 3 hours, taking in the sense of a job well-done. But in a show of formidabble villainy, Ares impales you with a spear from miles away, revealing that he knew you were there. What follows is an escape from Hades, rushing to have that grudge match against the God of War. That **** is art.


#2. - The Den
Crackdown (2007.)



Crackdown, despite being a somewhat early game in the open world genre, is still one of the best. It was one of the first to intelligently incorporate character progression into the design. You are basically a cop with superpowers - strength, speed, jumping, shooting - and you increase them with experience and collectible upgrade points. That means the scale of the world can naturally increase with your abilities. There are three major areas that follow this pattern - a squat mexican district, an industrial russian district, and a metropolitan chinese district. The Den is the second of the two, and it just happens to be the best-designed.

By the time you reach it, you’re already familiar with how the game works. You have this or that many mafiosi to take on, you have to find their hideouts organically, but the whiplash of the increased scale will be exhillerating. It strides that thin line of making you feel both chellenged and unstoppable. You have many nooks and crannies, many smokestacks and hard-to-reach places, which you’ll have to use a little bit of outside-the-box thinking to get to. You need those mobility upgrades, after all. This is also the first place you’ll encounter rocket launchers, the biggest pain in the *** this game has to offer, but also the most useful weapon. The scenery you’ll be fighting in is not as ‘‘civil’’ as the other two areas, less resorts or palaces or office buildings, more quarries, caves, and oil rigs. This may just be a me thing, but I think those make for better combat arenas, both design-wise and aesthetically.

Like Pandora’s Temple, the Den is another level that takes about 3 hours and makes up a significant part of the game. That’s rather short for an open world title, to be sure, but it’s so well-done. This gradual natural transition from insignificant flea to unstoppable superhero. If any developers are listening: can we please get open world games like this again?


#1. - Gates of the Abyss
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003.)



Where do I even begin with Warcraft 3? It truly feels like the only RTS game made for single player first, and multiplayer second. It also shows the utter juice-dripping potential the genre has for storytelling through gameplay. RTS games will often rely on factions as a core design philosophy - nations or races with distinct playstyles. That reflects in the story as these big war scenarios, taken right out of history books in the case of AoE 2, but more often than not being more fantastical, inspired by Tolkien. What Warcraft 3, specifically Frozen Throne, specifically the Blood Elf campaign, specifically Gates of the Abyss, has over the competition, is how they portray power imbalance.

What I mean by that is, in any other RTS, the factions are built for multiplayer, so their power is balanced. How can I buy that my Cybrans are the underdogs, when they can match the Aeon just fine? Warcraft 3 does this thing where it basically jury rigs a whole new faction out of existing armies, mixed in with modded and remodelled neutral monsters, remakes of Warcraft 2 units, and even new tailor-made stuff not available in MP. The Blood Elf campaign has you playing as Prince Kael’thalas and his gimped variation on the core human faction. You feel those limitations in the first missions, but this mission has you controlling something resembling a decent army. The Blood Elves and the Naga are united, playing in a way that has you running two tech trees at the same time. But you’ve gotten the hang of Warcraft 3, you can figure it out. Your enemies are remnants of the demon-posessed Orcs from Warcraft 2, and they’re not to be taken lightly. They have ******* dragons.

Through intrepid exploration, quick adaptation, and wise use of your resources, you’re able to build up enough of an army to stand a chance. Through an optional quest, you’re able to get a small NPC faction, the Draenei, to join the ranks of your franken-army. You can send forces to bolster their assaults, or leave them to clean up whichever Orc outpost you two just kicked to the curb. You may destroy orcish defense towers to clear the way for them, you may let them play cannon fodder.

Overall, this level is all about uniting these disparate incompatible races under Illidan’s leadership. Nobodies individually - unstoppable together3. You’re made to adapt to the awkwardness in real time, simulating what their leadership would have to do. You’re made to feel your disadvantage, you’re demanded ingenuity and fearlessness, and your reward is a rise to power. A rise from chump to champ, where every step is taken by you, the player.