can you name any moments in a game where the level design in that game was really remarkable. my vote would have to be for that level in HL2 ep.2 where you have to get from the sniper place to car. i really liked how you could see everywhere you were going to go in order to get to the car.
how about you?

This one is kind of old-school, but Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear had a Kosovo level. A bombed-out city a night in the rain. Sniper-tower and all. It dripped with atmosphere.

The first half of "All Ghilied Up" in CoD4 is epic(Chernobyl sniper mission). Again, it's all about the atmosphere. It's extremely scripted, but it's done so unbelievably well that I actually dislike the action-packed second half.

Anything by Looking Glass Studios was amazing. Thief 1&2, System Shock 2. It's all good. Just give me atmosphere and I'll purr like a kitten.

When Medal of Honor: Allied Assault came out I was blown away by the D-Day sequence. It was a rush to jump into a game like that and I ended up playing that level many times and playing the game online for quite a long time.

genauguy:
can you name any moments in a game where the level design in that game was really remarkable. my vote would have to be for that level in HL2 ep.2 where you have to get from the sniper place to car. i really liked how you could see everywhere you were going to go in order to get to the car.
how about you?

Freeman BridgebuilderPontiflex? I loved that chapter. But I would say that the pinnacle of level design was the impeccable feeling of unease and discordance of everyone's favorite Unknowniasburg Post-High Security Prison: Nova Prospekt.

That's the highest point in my opinion of the unprecedented quality of all of the Half-Life 2 games.
The doomed far-cry of social equality that is City 17, what used to be all equals in Soviet Territories are all now Fascist locales dominated by unfeeling aliens.
The foul and uncaring shapes of the Citadel and Nova Prospekt Depot, seemingly built with human (or otherwise) occupation as an afterthought.
The grimacing howls and abandonment of Ravenholm.
The utilitarian hope inspired by Black Mesa East, and so it goes.

As I exited the hyper space jump and found my self in the Karos Graveyard I looked and said "wow"

Ultimecia's Castle in Final Fantasy 8: The music was exceptional and atmospheric, but more importantly the area was designed in a way that seemed natural, and not like a forced linear dungeon.

I'll have to agree with EnzoHonda on "all guilied up." Crawling under the trucks is fucking unbelievable. Not to mention, hearing the echoes of the schoolchildren when walking through the ruined classrooms. Amazing.

My favorite sequence of all time is probably Ravenholm in HL2. I can't think of a scarier monster than the fast zombie, or a better level to put it in.

Keep your lights on.

That first crystal cavern section of the alien ship in Crysis (The big mechanical rooms were boring and confusing to navigate, but the crystal caves were gravy!)

Serious Sam The Second Encounter; the room that was a big cylindrical tunnel, could walk up the walls over the ceiling and back to where you started, one of my first escher-esque moments in gaming.

+1 for All Ghillied Up in CoD4, yes heavily linear, but so damn interesting every snake-crawled inch of the way.

Just a few I can think of

The Citadel(Half-Life 2): A beautiful masterpiece of SciFi architecture. The rooms are large enough to fit armies and there are many ledges to throw enemies off of.

Pandora's Temple(God of War): Epic! Many fun puzzles with great battles. One of my favorite parts is sacrificing someone just to open a door!

All of them(Mario64): Too lazy to explain, everything!

I'm torn between the Antlion nursery that gets all glowy when Mr. Vortigaunt does his thing, and the first area with the big portal in the distance and the cliffs to the back... Both from Ep2.

Bah, I'm just going with the school level from Condemned 1. Ugh. That place really got to me.

I would agree with any already suggested area from Half-Life 2, the whole games is very well designed.

In Tenchu Z there is a level which is a big Japanese castle, complete with secret passages, high rooftops to stand on top of and feel like a badass and a moat to throw bodies in to.
Can't find any screenshots but it's exactly the type of level I was hoping to find in a game about Ninja.

The part in Half-Life 2: Episode One (or maybe it was Ep. 2?) where you're underground, waiting for the elevator, and suddenly all the lights go out and you're swarmed by zombies with no way to escape until the elevator comes. MENTAL.

Fraser.J.A:
The part in Half-Life 2: Episode One (or maybe it was Ep. 2?) where you're underground, waiting for the elevator, and suddenly all the lights go out and you're swarmed by zombies with no way to escape until the elevator comes. MENTAL.

Definitely Episode One. Famously, that part of the game was too hard for many players and was made easier (too easy, I think) with a patch.

I have to second the Citadel from Half-Life 2. Okay, so it's not really much for gameplay, but aesthetically it's probably one of the most impressing, haunting things I've ever seen. The ride inside the cage transport thingy, seeing just how massive, otherwordly, cold, mechanical yet organic, and forboding the thing was, coupled with no noise except for that constant metal clanking, has to be one of the most awe-inspiring scenes in media in the last several years.

In fact, really everything about Half-Life 2 is awesome. I particularly like the subtle changes in daylight to denote the passage of time in the story (it's all based on the map, not done in real-time, but it's still very effective as a narrative device) coupled with using both the Citadel and the rail system throughout the entire game as a way of guiding the player (i.e. following the trains to Nova Prospekt, the game gradually leading you towards the Citadel at the centre of City 17), as well as serving as a constant grounding for the game world and a visual metaphor for the game's structure/theme. It's the sort of stuff a lot of people don't really notice, but it's obvious that the amount of care and effort that went into figuring it out was pretty extreme. Hell, even the Combine's colour scheme - combining organic yellows and blacks (danger colours) with cold whites and blues (peace/safety colours) - is fantastic.

Asylum map in Zombie Panic...Well actually 90% of the maps in that mod are extremly well done. Since Steam put that on my account for free (along with some others) I've already spent 14hrs on it. I'm seriously beat exhuasted right now because I did an all nighter of Zombie Panic: Source

I HAVE NO REGRETS

Something a little more esoteric - does anyone here remember that Shadows of the Empire or whatever it was called for N64. The one that had the first stage on Hoth that was really, really fun? The one that had absolutely nothing else going for it whatsoever? (well, there were two stages that were semi-similar that were *playable*). That would have to be the example i can think of which the greatest disparity between the quality of one stage and the rest of a game - eventually they made rogue squadron which was meant to be like the Hoth stage turned into a giant game but they removed multiplayer and nobody cared any more.

The other fine example i can think of is Fallout 2's Vault City and New Reno stages. I believe they were done by the same person. Those stages *made* that game.

Metroid Prime!
The snow drifts area was awesome....

Freelancer: The part where you have to meet with the red pirate guy, the entire "zone" was just fun to explore and you didn't get that random debree sitting infont of you while the enemy shoved a missile up your ass at any point.

Portal. The whole game.

MGS4

Apart from all of it, a huge Kudos to the arena for your battle with Crying Wolf.

Blizzard blind, looming structures, hordes of troops Railgun sniper battle

I think we can all see why this rules.

I think the best levels come from the MGS series, however, nothing really sticks out about them, which is a shame. There's nothing really AMAZING about them... they are just incredibly well made and thought out.

The level that sticks out the most to me is the Ravenholm level... that and the sniper mission from CoD4. Both are incredible.

Silent Hill games ALL have amazing level design.

Metroid Prime 3: the Sky city; actually all Metroid Prime games have amizing level design.

Pretty much anything in Oblivion.
When i first walked out into the wilderness, i was in awe!

The Ark, mission in Halo 3. That is just amazing.

Same with The Silent Cartographer in Halo: CE

The whole Prince of Persia series had incredible level design.
Especially Sands of Time though.

BioShock, the entire game was so wonderful and made me go "Wow".

Too Human, Ice Forest level.

The very first Flood level in Halo: CE. (Can't remember the name of the level) I loved how scared I was when the cut scene was playing with the dead marines helm cam playing on screen. Showing the last moments, and you happened to be in that same room he died in...

That's all I can think of off the bat.

The Opera House(starts at 3:20) in Painkiller has to be one of the most awesome levels ever made for a game.

Ice Storm:

The very first Flood level in Halo: CE. (Can't remember the name of the level) I loved how scared I was when the cut scene was playing with the dead marines helm cam playing on screen. Showing the last moments, and you happened to be in that same room he died in...

343 Guilty Spark

The area where you assassinate the guy doing the executions in Assassin's Creed is very well designed. It actually gives you multiple viable options.

Count_de_Monet:
When Medal of Honor: Allied Assault came out I was blown away by the D-Day sequence. It was a rush to jump into a game like that and I ended up playing that level many times and playing the game online for quite a long time.

I'm going to go with Snipertown, from the same game.

It was genuinely hard, and satisfying to get through. Let anyone who started playing FPS'es after Halo, play this level, and they'll definitely whine for their regenerative health. Wussies.

The Metroid Zero Mission map. On my very first playthrough(on Easy, even. Heh.), I had already broken the story by unknowingly skipping a boss. I saw a hole in the ceiling and bombjumped up there (my nephew taught me how to do it in Metroid Fusion), skipping some kind of big bug-boss. Imagine my surprise when I only discovered it during my third run-through.