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[sonicmj1]

I absolutely hated the Tarzan jungle in Kingdom Hearts.
Not many things can call that sort of base anger from me but that shit ass design did.
I basically swore off the entire series because of it. lol

Yeah, I quit the game after that level. Though pretty much every level in the game to that point sucks.

 

[Gonzo The Great]

There's nothing worse than badly designed levels in games that actually feel good to play, and Sonic 2 is chock full of them in my opinion, inspiring some of the most cheap level design ideas that persists into even modern Sonic games. But none of them are as bad as Metropolis Zone, which is a reason enough for me to consider it the worst Classic Sonic game in the entire trilogy.

The entire zone is a clusterfuck of a maze with bad artistic design and awful platforming gimmicks, as well as terrible enemies such as the preying mantis robots, the stars that explode or worst of all the shellcrackers that you can't attack in any area when they have their claws exposed. To add more salt to the wound, it is the ONLY stage in the game that has three acts, as if the designers were deliberately stretching it in order to laugh at the misery. If I don't have Super Sonic by the time I get to this level I pretty much restart the game since I can't be bothered to go through with it.

Also the boss is fucking retarded too.

Most Sonic platformers have terrible level design, but people are more forgiving of the Genesis games due to nostalgia. The first Sonic game is still my favorite because it actually felt like a platformer.

 

[Akira_83]

I never knew Gran Pulse was a straight line.

I never knew we should be expected to play through 15+ hours of linear shit before getting to the good part

 

[RPGCrazied]

Dragon Age II, and all of its 3 environments.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Having played around in level 2 for nearly 500 hours total (it's my top favorite level of all), I discovered many bugs and secrets during all that time. Ever wonder how you can get on top of that rocket? Want to know the very highest point you can stand on or the highest point you can get to? Care for some mountain climbing or some other side challenges? I demonstrate 5 of my 9 main secrets in this video. No cheat codes are required either (the position cheat is used, but even that is not required). The left speaker has me speaking to explain the various secrets along with a few other remarks. The right speaker plays the original sound track.

...wait...

This is like the best thing ever. You can't imagine how much time I've wasted doing shit like this in MMOs.

I kinda wanna say my vote would be for the X-men Genesis game where you have to reset the Genesis to progress, but that was also kinda awesome in a trollish sorta way.

 

[robovanburen]

The scene in Star Wars: Force Unleashed where you're supposed to pull a Star Destroyer from the sky. What a goddamn mess.

 

[DJ_Lae]

I actually replayed Halo recently and hated the Library far less than I remembered.

The surrounding levels with the bridge-corridor-room-bridge-corridor-room structure were far more offensive, doubly so as you have to play backwards through the same thing a few levels later.

I don't remember the level names, though.

Also agreed with everyone who mentions Kingdom Hearts levels, although I would say that every single level in that game is pretty godawful.

 

[Roto13]

The Guitar Hero thread reminded me that Metallica's One in Guitar Hero III is pure shit. Huge stretches of random notes with no thought behind them. Plus, you have to listen to Metallica while you play it, so that sucks too.

 

[True Underdog]

Cortana:Halo 3

Damn, didn't think this one would get posted so quick.

It certainly is frustrating.

 

[-PXG-]

Sonic CD in it's entirety. Great music though.

Edit

Metropolis Zone in Sonic 2 was terrible as well. A lot of cheap deaths and enemy placement.

 

[Jake Tower]

A Red Letter Day, from Half-Life 2.

Because you basically follow Alyx into a room, you walk around and fiddle with bits, people exposit a LOT (which goes counter to the AMAZING intro where there WAS no exposition) and it's mostly useless shit (essentially: 'here's backstory, now go to Eli who will tell you why you're here'), then there's a contrived reason for you to go through the excessively-boring Canals.

Being locked in a room so people can talk at you but not tell you anything worth knowing? Bullshit level design, right there.

Lots of bad level shit in that game, though. The final level is awful because it presents no challenge--it's like suddenly playing a game with a gun that's been modded with 999 dmg. Ravenholm, while GREAT from an audiovisual standpoint, showcases the game's reduced ammo count, forcing players to rely on the game's physics (Half-Life 2 is pretty much just a contrived physics tech demo, anyways). Sandtraps was a bunch of needless physics stuff, with really fucked up pacing (Half-Life 2 is basically 'bad pacing, da gaem').

I could pick on a game like Legendary or something, but, hey, why not a 'great' game? Don't get me wrong; there are good levels, which I genuinely enjoy, like Ravenholm (yeah, I know what I said above), Nova Prospekt, Anticitizen One (I think?), and Highway 17, but the game's first few hours, and occasional bits throughout really, really irk me.

Also, I may sound nuts, but you know when I stopped liking Nova Prospekt? When Alyx showed up. In fact, as I look back on the game, I realize that I don't like a single bit where I'm hanging with her.



Wow, I love that level. Sure you don't just hate it 'cause it's a Flood level?

The first time through, I got kinda confused by it, but ever since then, I've had a blast going through it with multiple loadout types (just like every Flood level other than Keyes, which is awful because of the infinite Flood and too-narrow corridors), just trying to see what I can do. The only part of the level I actually hate is the corridor section with the ranged Flood forms, because it really sucks on Legendary, and kinda on Heroic. The hiddenish flamethrower seems pointless.



Uh, could be Two Betrayals, Assault on the Control Room, The Library, or 343 Guilty Spark.

Personally, I think The Library is amazing. It's the level that weeds out people who don't know how to play first person shooters. I could wax eloquent on this, but I'm tired. The basic idea is that FPSes are easy to pick up and play, but because of that ease, they're kind of hard to come to grips with. There's not so much a skill curve as there are two distinct skill levels--one for everyone, and one for people with really good spatial skills. The Library is the level that really forces you out of your comfort zone. Halo has an insanely wide variety of ways to play, not just with the sandboxy levels, but the massive enemy gamut and the weapon sandbox. Unfortunately, players seem to get fairly comfortable playing just one way--they tend to find Halo boring as a result, and hate The Library because of this. It's a game that forces you out of your comfort zone. You go from popping out of cover and picking guys off to suddenly being forced forward, nonstop. If you're stuck playing one specific playstyle, then, well, the Library will fucking destroy you. It's a work of genius, and only bad players hate it.

Two Betrayals and Assault on the Control Room are the same level, in reverse. I used to hate 'em, because they were repetitive, but when I returned to Halo, after years of playing video games and actually becoming somewhat good at them, I discovered that, holy shit, they're actually pretty fucking awesome. They're a series of nigh-identical arenas with varying setups of enemies and weapons. Here, Halo is trying to encourage the player to try different things. It's like "hey, hey, hey, you there, try new things!" So it presents you with a lot of superficially similar situations, then remixes them. So first, you go through it with increasing difficulty (iirc, the last room before the gauntlet up the tower to the control room proper) until this room with some hunters, and then you're sent back through, but this time, in increasing difficulty with Flood. It comes directly after The Library, IIRC, which is a 'pure' Flood level.

Basically, Halo's structure is like: covenant + getting used to driving --> covenant but more focused (and hunters, hi) --> ultimate covenant sandbox that is SILENT CARTOGRAPHER (I love this level) --> 'now let's have fun with covenant' --> meet the flood and phase out covenant --> pure flood level --> reintroducing flood + covenant --> full-on flood + covenant (fuck Keyes, though, seriously) --> now put it all together and you have The Maw.

The levels are repetitive in part because the game wants you to feel comfortable with navigating spaces so you only have to think about combating the AI, rather than being enamored with the level spacing. So it's all about encounters with enemies and changing that up across playthroughs, rather than having a lot of unique corridors.

Then there's 343 Guilty Spark, which I tend to get lost in. I enjoy playing it, but it's hard to navigate--easily the hardest to navigate level in the entire series.

Halo is basically a mirrored game. I mean, your journey is bookended on the Pillar of Autumn, Assault on the Control Room/Two Betrayals is a thing, and then there's Truth & Reconciliation/Keyes. But, given how complex Halo's AI and weapons are, I'm pretty sure I'd be insanely satisfied just playing a randomly-generated selection of enemies and weapons inside a cube.

This post sums up why no one should take your game criticism seriously ever again.

 

[Chief Icaroc]

Blighttown from Dark Souls.

This is when I realized how much the creators of dark souls really hated me personally.

 

[Alo81]

Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls just felt like "Okay we've used most of our cool stuff for all these other awesome levels. How about we just make it pitch black?" It's sucky.

I think they used as a way of gating you but not making you feel completely restricted. You shouldn't do the level until you have a method of light, BUT if you really want to continue you're free to.

It was a cool section that was incredibly scary and tense and made you genuinely scared when you'd see a skeleton dog pop out of the empty darkness.

Also I'd like to add:

The hospital section of Hotline Miami.

 

[Manu]

Most Sonic platformers have terrible level design, but people are more forgiving of the Genesis games due to nostalgia.

What? No. This is a lie.

There's a few stinkers but Genesis Sonic level design is consistently good.

Sonic CD is terrible.

 

[Not Spaceghost]

This whole fucking game. This particular scene I linked, I accidentally saved in the middle of that instead of loading and guess what, I would die just like that every time I loaded there was nothing I could do to stop it except restart the whole game.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

I remember the Lodestone Cavern in FFIV DS being pretty miserable because of some infrequent save points, unskippable and lengthy cinematics, and high difficultly but I haven't played it in a while so I may be remembering wrong.

 

[Akuun]

Halo 1 Library. Fight bullet sponges that crawl on the ground while progressing forward in a long, straight line! That's not fun, but let's copy paste that one floor multiple times to add length to the level!

 

[Sixfortyfive]

What? No. This is a lie.

There's a few stinkers but Genesis Sonic level design is consistently good.

Sonic CD is terrible.

I'd take Sonic CD over Sonic 2 any day, easily. Metropolis Zone really is just that miserable.

Might take it over S3K too, depending on whether I'm in the mood for a short game or a long game. 3K is epic, but it has a bit too much padding.

#teamsonic1

 

[Dawg]

Having played around in level 2 for nearly 500 hours total (it's my top favorite level of all), I discovered many bugs and secrets during all that time. Ever wonder how you can get on top of that rocket? Want to know the very highest point you can stand on or the highest point you can get to? Care for some mountain climbing or some other side challenges? I demonstrate 5 of my 9 main secrets in this video. No cheat codes are required either (the position cheat is used, but even that is not required). The left speaker has me speaking to explain the various secrets along with a few other remarks. The right speaker plays the original sound track.

Ulillillia is amazing and insane at the same time. I feel bad for him, because he sounds a little dead inside. I mean, he played that exact level for 500 hours, which is amazing if he can show off stuff like those "secrets", but it's also sad. I believe he played other games for like... 3700 hours or something.

I also believe he suffers from OCD? It's noticeable (I suffer from it as well) because he keeps playing the same thing over and over trying to find stuff like that.

This is funny as well:

At age 18, he found himself to weigh approximately 220 lbs. And what did Ulillillia do about this? Rather than doing something normal and exercising for the first time ever, he began using a technique he calls "degreasing." From then on, before consuming his pizza, he would take several napkins and use them to absorb the grease from the pizza. Through some miracle, Ulillillia lost 85 pounds from this process.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Take your pick from Kingdom Hearts 1's levels. Completely laughable how bad each played - utter nonsense at times.

 

[Mister Wilhelm]

Halo. Library. Bullshit.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Sonic CD's levels are all godawful and look like the result of corrupt graphics.

 

[Vidpixel]

Pretty much every level in this game, especially Storm's horrific underwater section. Little did my 7-year-old mind know what I was in for when my parents picked this up for my brother and I. I'm pretty positive that this game is impossible to complete without the use of an emulator.

 

[EsotericManiac]

Zelda : OoT Water Temple

Hate the game to this day because of that stupid level

 

[Weltall Zero]

Something that reeks of utterly bad design are leaps of faith; i.e. pits/falls where the camera won't scroll further down and force you to take a guess as to whether or not you'll die if you drop down. This is different from having optional secrets hidden in a seemingly deadly fall (even though that in itself is not exactly stellar design). Sonic games tend to do this by their own nature, but thankfully rarely feature deadly pits either. I remember Bubsy the Bobcat being a terrible offender in this regard (as it tried to ape both Mario and Sonic and mixed the bottomless pits of the former with the wider areas and fast movement of the latter).

GTF out of here. It doesn't have terrible design, it's just hard as hell; and that frame rate.

Indeed. Hell, with the frame rate issues removed, it's not even particularly harder than most Dark Souls segments. It's really awesome how it becomes an actual, enjoyable level rather than a chore.

Yeah, I quit the game after that level. Though pretty much every level in the game to that point sucks.

Wow, same here. Doesn't help that I got stuck; after traversing the same three bland locations for the 20th time, I just quit.
Oddly enough I loved KH2, which may be the only KH game I have truly enjoyed, and the only one I've completed,. I guess they just lucked out with that one.

That level design doesn't even meaningfully affect the game's combat mechanics. Hardly the worst you've seen if you are being honest with yourself.

The appeal of that is solely the indirect player vs player. Most people, especially now, won't get to experience it that way.

It could have been better, but the whole point is that it is a gun ping-pong match between players.

You sure love to tell people why their opinions are wrong, don't you?

 

[Roto13]

Ulillillia is amazing and insane at the same time. I feel bad for him, because he sounds a little dead inside. I mean, he played that exact level for 500 hours, which is amazing if he can show off stuff like those "secrets", but it's also sad. I believe he played other games for like... 3700 hours or something.

I also believe he suffers from OCD? It's noticeable (I suffer from it as well) because he keeps playing the same thing over and over trying to find stuff like that.

Seems more like autism to me.

 

[Chronoja]

A Game of Thrones Genesis: Battle of the Bells level. The game is bad but this level took the biscuit, I hated it so much.

 

[Akuun]

Oh, I just remembered another one.

That fucking level in SMT: Strange Journey where the entire level had all these teleport pads that sent you everywhere. You had to pretty much trial-and-error your way through the entire map to figure out where you needed to go. IIRC some parts of the map were not visible too, so you had to grope your way through those.

It would be terrible design if the devs expected it to be fun, but it would be brilliant design if they just wanted to troll me.

 

[Mupod]

I immediately thought of Lost Izalith, not because it's particularly the worst level I've played (I have played some horrible shit) but because it FEELS like it when you get there. It's such a contrast from the rest of the game which has some of the most incredible 3D world design ever.

That sea of eye-bleeding orange. Those haphazardly placed dinosaur asses. The ruins area filled with harmless boring statue enemies. And that labyrinth side area, one of the few places in the game where it's easy to get lost due to everything looking the same...plus the floor is poison.

But the Bed of Chaos is the worst part. A boss this godawful doesn't even belong in a game this good. It's trivial once you know what to do but even then you'll probably experience some janky arm hitbox pitfall deaths. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

 

[jeremy1456]

What? No. This is a lie.

There's a few stinkers but Genesis Sonic level design is consistently good.

Sonic CD is terrible.

I can't even think of a single well designed Sonic level.

My theory is that the reason they designed Sonic to run fast is so that the terrible level designs would be less apparent.

 

[LakeEarth]

The only thing badly designed about OoT's Water Temple was that you had to play the song to make the water level rise up and down. When your lost (and you will get lost), you end up playing that song dozens of times. Should've just been a button.

 

[sn00zer]

Pretty much every level in this game, especially Storm's horrific underwater section. Little did my 7-year-old mind know what I was in for when my parents picked this up for my brother and I. I'm pretty positive that this game is impossible to complete without the use of an emulator.

wat

 

[Chief Icaroc]

Final level of Lost Planet. The mech moves and shoots a certain way the entire game, and then for the last level they take everything you learned and throw that in the garbage, and the mech can fly and also instead of shooting you have a sword.

 

[Kageshinzo]

I fucking hate that dam level in the NES TMNT. Stupid seaweeds. Why the fuck do you have seaweeds in a water dam anyway?

 

[Vidpixel]

wat

Yep. It's completely nonsensical and frustrating beyond belief.

 

[Mike M]

wat

I think the point of that game was that all the characters were placed in scenarios to neutralize their powers

 

[Kageshinzo]

I think the point of that game was that all the characters were placed in scenarios to neutralize their powers

I don't really know how mobster jack-in-the-boxes, toy soldiers, and clowns with water pistols are supposed to neutralize Wolverine's powers but okay. Personally, I just chalk it up to Arcade being fucking insane.

 

[Clemsontigers35]

For a serious answer, the power plant level in Enter the Matrix. It goes on forever, and everything looks the same. Its a slog to get through. It basically goes like this: Enter the scene, fight 2 or 3 baddies, die, reset, beat the baddies and move to the next part. For everyone saying Sonic 2 and HL2, you guys must not play any truly bad games. Though if ETM had a few more months of being worked on, it could have been amazing. I guess I can rest on the fact that I was playing GTA: Vice City at the same time.

 

[Mike M]

I don't really know how mobster jack-in-the-boxes, toy soldiers, and clowns with water pistols are supposed to neutralize Wolverine's powers but okay. Personally, I just chalk it up to Arcade being fucking insane.

All I remember was Storm being in water, and Cyclops being in a mine of the one mineral that stops his optic blasts or something.

It was a pretty shit game all around.

 

[.GqueB.]

This JOKE of a level. This part in particular.

Another JOKE of a level. Water levels in general need to die.

 

[whatsinaname]

Personally, I think The Library is amazing. It's the level that weeds out people who don't know how to play first person shooters. I could wax eloquent on this, but I'm tired. The basic idea is that FPSes are easy to pick up and play, but because of that ease, they're kind of hard to come to grips with. There's not so much a skill curve as there are two distinct skill levels--one for everyone, and one for people with really good spatial skills. The Library is the level that really forces you out of your comfort zone. Halo has an insanely wide variety of ways to play, not just with the sandboxy levels, but the massive enemy gamut and the weapon sandbox. Unfortunately, players seem to get fairly comfortable playing just one way--they tend to find Halo boring as a result, and hate The Library because of this. It's a game that forces you out of your comfort zone. You go from popping out of cover and picking guys off to suddenly being forced forward, nonstop. If you're stuck playing one specific playstyle, then, well, the Library will fucking destroy you. It's a work of genius, and only bad players hate it.

I played it on the PC. Had no trouble with controls or playing or finishing the level. It was just such a chore while the rest of the game was such fun.

 

[Aggrotek]

 

[Deified Data]

Any large-ish dungeon in Daggerfall.

WHERE AM I?

Haha, oh god, this. This is how not to do randomized dungeons.

 

[Mike M]

Water levels in general need to die.

Mega Man's water levels are awesome, because it's the one franchise where being underwater enhances your mobility.

 

[Vamphuntr]

In recent games I played? I would say RE6 and AC3 are both strong candidates for the worst levels.

All of the vehicles and kill wall chase levels in RE6 are awful and there's way too many of them. In coop it made the game a nightmare to play as either you or your partner die and it's game over again and again and the window for success is quite small. That chase with Chris and Piers from that awfully designed monster near the end of their sotry was awful in coop. We probably died 20 times there since you have to time your slide and take into account the timing of your partner.

It doesn't help that many levels end up being a stand your ground against waves of monsters type of gameplay.

Assassin's Creed 3 issue is that it makes you go through chase sequence in a game where one button does everything and where you auto stick/climb through props and walls. The part where you run after the guy in the burning ship is truly terrible since you can get stuck in the flames, you have a time limit to reach the guy and you will probably auto stick/climb on the wrong things.

 

[Roto13]

I think the point of that game was that all the characters were placed in scenarios to neutralize their powers

I remember thinking "Oh shit, I get to play as Storm! She can fly and shoot lighting and stuff! Then I started her level and she was under water. Fuck. Just leave her out of the game if you're going to do that to her.

 

[Surface of Me]

both from Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward HAS LOST IT!)

Worse than abysmal. I can't find the proper word for these two.

The top map was straight up broken at launch. There was literally no where to take cover from airstrikes and helicopters. Pissed me and my buds off.

 

[viewtiful_dru]

that one part in Super Paper Mario where you just walk from left to right on a blank background for 10 minutes

 

[Tuck]

The final level of "Secret Agent Clank" was cool at first.

Except it keeps going, and going, and going, and going. And the rooms which were clever at first started being reused again and again with little to no variation. Felt like they were making you replay the level like 10 times just to get to the final boss.

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

Most of the levels in Oni were pretty bad. They were, well, large and empty. A design that works for real world design, but is very boring to game in.