Greatest single player game mission

Post by **weemadando** » 2004-11-29 11:00pm

Pablo Sanchez wrote:DOOM
E2M8 -- The Tower of Babel

Awesome fucking level. You come out into one of the larger open spaces in the entire game, sprinkled with Lost Souls and large pillars, and there's this a horrendous clomping as of gigantic hooves... and then you see the motherfucker. The cyberdemon. Holy shit.

EDIT:
Come to think of it, the level design in all the Doom games is just awesome, especially in DOOM 2 where they apparently decided that they were going to go all out with the engine and you get levels like 15: The Industrial Zone and 28: The Spirit world. The levels in DOOM 2 are pretty much as far as you can go with the classic key-hunting early days of the FPS.

Was Industrial Zone the one with many many pinkies and nancubus'?

And was it lvl 16 "Suburbs" or "Downtown" with all the high-rises and too many zombies?

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2004-11-29 11:42pm

Also-

The entire later segments of Ace Combat 4 and 5. Nothing quite like hearing radio chatter of your enemies completely freaking out when they identify your plane.

Also mission 27 was wicked. A massive combined assault of forces from multiple nations, providing top cover for commandoes so they can seize control of the ground control station for a giant orbital railgun as it starts hammering the ground forces. Then a run down an 8 mile long tunnel just barely wide enough for your fighter in an attempt to blow out the control center, with enemy fighters coming from in front and an enemy ace chasing after you. Then you hit the controls and you have to make the tunnel run out the other end.. only now the shutters are closing so you have to pick up the pace or die.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-30 12:32am

Vertigo1 wrote:Freespace: Playing Judas (the one where you're in a shivan dragon-class fighter doing recon)

Freespace2: Into the Lion's Den (DIVE! DIVE! DIVE! HIT YOUR BURNERS PILOT! )

More like, what was that mission in FS1 before the marine boarding cutscene?

EDIT: and see my sig

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-11-30 12:42am

weemadando wrote:Was Industrial Zone the one with many many pinkies and nancubus'?

No, not sure which one you're talking about.

And was it lvl 16 "Suburbs" or "Downtown" with all the high-rises and too many zombies?

That would be Industrial Zone. It had really tall buildings, loads of zombies, and the exit that led to the secret levels.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-11-30 03:05am

Max Payne: the level with the flaming restaurant. Nasty suprise

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2004-11-30 10:33am

weemadando wrote:Was Industrial Zone the one with many many pinkies and nancubus'?

No mancubi in Industrial Zone. Industrial zone was the absolutely huge level with a bunch of open-air buildings, and the entrance to the secret Wolfenstein level.

And was it lvl 16 "Suburbs" or "Downtown" with all the high-rises and too many zombies?

Level 13 (Downtown) had all the high-rises. Level 16 (Suburbs) had the huge open areas, where if you grabbed the blue key, suddenly all hell breaks loose as a swarm of imps, cacodemons, and mancubi teleport in.

-Damien

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-11-30 11:03am

I previously forgot to mention another candidate for all-time favourite single-player mission, which would be the final mission of in X-Wing Alliance: the Battle of Endor.

Piloting the Millenium Falcon toward DS2 myself, hearing the voice saying "pull up! All craft pull up!" and swinging around to see those Star Destroyers bearing down on me with the movie music playing in the soundtrack and TIE fighters filling the sky ... that was fucking awesome.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-11-30 02:13pm

WC3: when Hobbs turns out to be a traitor I was soooo pissed at him. The opportunity to take vengeance was sattisfying

Freelancer: hmm pretty much everything thanks to the story and the beautiful space maps like the badlands, the alien dyson sphere, the neutron star,...

Starlancer: where the Krasnaya jumps infront of your carrier. (reminds me to reinstall that game sometime) edit: fuck it crashes right after intro

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2004-11-30 07:00pm

Silent Hill 1&2. I'd add 3&4 but I haven't played those sequels.

thecreech · Post by **thecreech** » 2004-11-30 07:31pm

When i was younger I loved playing Sonic 2 Chemical Factory. I Would play thrrough the first level just to play that one stage beat it reset the game and start all over again

JediToren · Post by **JediToren** » 2004-11-30 07:56pm

Half-Life: "Blast Pit" Nice and scary. Lots of tension. The constant clanging of the monster was awesome, and it felt incredibly satisfying to watch him get roasted when you fired the thruster on the ceiling.

Half-Life 2: The battle with the gunship at the lighthouse.

Halo: "The Silent Cartographer" the beach was awesome, and it was extremely open-ended.

Duke Nukem 3D: "Lunar Apocalypse: Dark Side" The maps design was just awesome. The cool airlock into the crater where you fought the Battlelord Sentry, the Monolith, the cool trams linking the two sections.

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II: "Palace Escape" This mission follows your battle with Yun, and man is it cool. Running around the top of the huge building while Stormtroopers and a TIE Bomber attempt to kill you.

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II: "The Falling Ship/Into the Darkside" Escape missions are usually pretty cool.

FreeSpace 2: Sathanas configuration!! Repeat, Sathanas configuration!!

Jedi Academy: The Corellian mission. Like "Hispeed" in Unreal Tournament except faster, several miles in the air, and very windy and rainy.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2004-11-30 08:02pm

Getting laid in Golgo 13.

Most of you guys are so PC oriented I'm lost on what your playing. However, console wise, I have so many to nominate. I'll just start with the ones I can remember.

Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Razor Rendezvous
Try this one on a big screen. It's fucking insane. Object. Take down a Star Destroyer. You have maybe two, three squadrons and a Neb-B Frigate. They have a mile long battleship, more TIEs then Anna Nicole has STDs and you've got to take it down. Just seeing the ISD like that was intense.

Metroid Prime
Meta Ridley
I don't care what anyone says about this game. Or any game in particular. After knowing how the Chozo cared for Samus and died away, and the pirates were desicrating thier sacred lands, I just wanted to rip him a new one.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Fighting the giant bird and saving your sister. By the time I got the sword, those devils caught 44 semi hell.

Let's get old school real quick.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Final Zone Act 2
Take that Robotnik. Take that. Pistons be damned, I'm a blue hog with a tude.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-12-01 03:16am

JediToren wrote:Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II: "The Falling Ship/Into the Darkside" Escape missions are usually pretty cool.

that was with the crasing/spinning ship right? Yeah that was pretty cool (original too)

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-12-01 12:05pm

Come to think of it, the end of the First Aribiter mission for Halo 2 is pretty kick ass

"Scare him out of hiding... what your DOING WHAT NOW?!"(Me on getting my mission briefing)

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2004-12-01 06:43pm

Trogdor wrote:I never played Halo much, so I never did this, but that sounds a lot like the escape from Zebes and then escape from the space pirate ship you have to do in Metroid Zero Mission.

The timed escape endgames are a staple of the Metroid series. I'm pretty sure that every game in the series has ended with the planet/ship/station/whatever that you're on being set to self-destruct, forcing you to rush to the exit.

Every level in Descent also ended that way. Not sure about the sequels.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-01 06:51pm

Gotta vote AGAINST the Sathanas punchout, that really killed SoD for me. Yeah...so there's this superwarship, right? And it's got a massive flight deck...and so does the superwarship that's desperately trying to kill it...but neither ship brings ANY screening elements for its respective superwarship, despite (especially in the GTVA case) substantial forces present. Oh, yeah, and both sides launch like...a couple flights of fingers, despite the Colly having, IIRC, sixty of them. And the Sathanas, despite being totally denutted if you whacked all four cannons, doesn't even try to depart. That mission had so much POTENTIAL, and yet...Volition fucked up by the numbers, badly.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-12-01 07:23pm

Darth Wong wrote:I previously forgot to mention another candidate for all-time favourite single-player mission, which would be the final mission of in X-Wing Alliance: the Battle of Endor.

Piloting the Millenium Falcon toward DS2 myself, hearing the voice saying "pull up! All craft pull up!" and swinging around to see those Star Destroyers bearing down on me with the movie music playing in the soundtrack and TIE fighters filling the sky ... that was fucking awesome.

Yes, that seems to have defined a goal for the entire genre: to create an engine which can handle battles of greater scale to even better effect. No one discusses large fleet engagements or hundreds of fighters without the words 'Battle of Endor' coming up. One thing that irritated me about that mission - first of 4 missions, technically - was that you had to put some effort into moving the Falcon into position to get the proper run-in with the TIEs, and even if you did the game just doesn't move fast enough to create the proper cinematic effect.

One of XvT's missions is also a big favorite of mine. In the Imperial side of the BoP campaign, your mission starts out with your commander saying something like, "Alright ladies, turn and burn, we've got a lot of ground to cover," and then something to the effect that one of the ships in the distance is running for it. Moments later, said ship is right on top of you and feeding your squad their DRA of whoop-ass. I think the first time that happend it hypered in so close to me and took me so by surprise that I didn't have a chance.

OTOH, I am a fan of levels that look difficult but have a shortcut. The one that best comes to mind is in Half Life, in a level you start more or less face-to-face with an unstoppable collosus of an enemy. You can work your way through the level and lure him into a trap - or you can just walk past him, scale the wall, and be done with it.

...say, did we have this thread previously? Like maybe last year?

Isil`Zha · Post by **Isil`Zha** » 2004-12-01 07:42pm

Halo: Assault on the Control Room and The Maw

ZOE2: The fight to against the BAHRAM armada ships, the music, the giant beams of death flying about.. it's awesome, then immediatly after that: The Aumaan Crevice battle, fucking.. INSANE. Then of course the final battle with N-Jehuty and A-Anubis - now THAT is an insane battle, especially on Hard or something. If you're just a spectator that's not playing and hasn't played the game (or even if you have played the original ZOE) you can't tell what the fuck is going on it's moving so fast.

But yeah, on that Aumaan Crevice, at least on Hard I got around 1300 kills.

In survival mode I've gone to over 2000. (which, BTW, after about 200-300 kills is total insanity.) So yeah, ZOE2 is all about insanity - and guess what? It's amazingly easy to control.

Several levels of Halo 2, but I can't be bothered to look up the names.. don't know em yet since there's virtually no loading whatsoever.

mauldooku · Post by **mauldooku** » 2004-12-01 09:31pm

Trogdor wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:I like the last level of Halo, if only for the fact that the game ended not with a "boss" or "fight your way through a gigantic horde to finish" scenario, but with an unconventional and somewhat refreshing race to escape a countdown that you can't stop.
I never played Halo much, so I never did this, but that sounds a lot like the escape from Zebes and then escape from the space pirate ship you have to do in Metroid Zero Mission.

The 'get the fuck out of there before the planet explodes' bit is a staple of Metroid. Hell, it was in the first one, released in 1986 on the NES!

Cal Wright wrote: Metroid Prime
Meta Ridley
I don't care what anyone says about this game. Or any game in particular. After knowing how the Chozo cared for Samus and died away, and the pirates were desicrating thier sacred lands, I just wanted to rip him a new one.

Seconded. That amazing remix of Ridley's theme blasting in the background as you're just blasting the living fuck out of him was a nice touch

And yes, anyone who bashes MP should be shot, killed, etc.

Cal Wright wrote: Sonic the Hedgehog
Final Zone Act 2
Take that Robotnik. Take that. Pistons be damned, I'm a blue hog with a tude.

For me, S3&K's final boss(es) take the cake here. After destroying that massive robot piece by piece as it tries to blast you with the Master Emerald Laser, and after destroying Robotnik's escape pod as the entire Death Egg is coming apart at the seams, you go into freakin' outer space, go Super, and hunt down his final ship while plowing through asteroids and racing the clock. Man, that was a trip.

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2004-12-01 10:30pm

the Final mission in the (Hil)Ton, and escaping from UNATCO headquarters in Deus Ex, both those were fun, just making it out the front door so your brother doesn't die can be a task, especially when he gets clipped by a White Phosphorus rocket that just killed 11 UNATCO soldiers and starts trying to kill you.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2004-12-01 10:56pm

Ima have to second GoldenEye's The Control here. God was that level hard on Secret Agent. Fuck Natalya for being such a slow ass. She must've died ten trillion times trying to hack the damn system while I valiantly kicked ass; once you got through that part though, it was you vs them, and with dual MP5K's I cleaned house with those fuckers. 'Cept those friggin' auto turrets. Those things gave me hell on 00 Agent.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-12-02 09:24am

White Haven wrote:Gotta vote AGAINST the Sathanas punchout, that really killed SoD for me. Yeah...so there's this superwarship, right? And it's got a massive flight deck...and so does the superwarship that's desperately trying to kill it...but neither ship brings ANY screening elements for its respective superwarship, despite (especially in the GTVA case) substantial forces present. Oh, yeah, and both sides launch like...a couple flights of fingers, despite the Colly having, IIRC, sixty of them. And the Sathanas, despite being totally denutted if you whacked all four cannons, doesn't even try to depart. That mission had so much POTENTIAL, and yet...Volition fucked up by the numbers, badly.

Theres a problem mentioned below, the "Battle at Endor" effect, where if you throw a gigantic number of objects at the player (friendlies or hostile), it gets too complicated, you get confused, enjoyment suffers.

Though your right, that mission should have some more stuff, but IIRC, the GTVA bigwigs flight deck gets knocked out, or was this the 2nd fight?

Again, problem of scale, its easy to deal with an attack on one object, or one concertration, but try dealing with multiple elements, massive ammounts of flying objects, you take time to understand the situation instead of playing it.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-12-02 09:30am

Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner

the mission in which you have to destroy the battleships. that was fucking cool.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2004-12-02 10:28am

Half-Life: Surface Tension, definitely.

Half-Life 2: We Don't Go to Ravenholm...

Halo: Silent Cartographer

Vampire Bloodlines: It's a toss-up between the haunted house mission for Therese Voerman (Cool as Hell), and the zombie-blasting mission in the cemetary (Fun as Hell, especially with the Colt Anaconda).

System Shock 2: Engineering

Age of Mythology: The mission on Circe's island.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-02 11:28am

So what you're telling me is that if the Collossus, pride of the GTVA fleet, doesn't get fighter cover dispatched for it if its flight deck takes damage. The one ship that can absolutely NOT be allowed to fall...gets no support at all from any other ship (beyond like two flights) when squaring off head-to-head against the one ship in space quite capable of tearing it in hand. I don't buy it.