Best single mission in a game

[WrongSprite]

The first Russian level from the original Call of Duty stands out. They crafted the atmosphere perfectly, charging up the banks of the Volga without a gun is something I still haven't forgotten.

 

[Sectan]

Forget what it's called. It's from CoD 4.(Obviously All Ghillied Up is the best evar, but it's been mentioned a bit). Beginning is a rail shooter in a US helicoptor. Ending is watching an Apache pilot get shot out of the sky. Being my excitable self I got goosebumps. "If you don't leave now you won't be out of the blast radius of that nuke goes off." "JACKSON, GET THE PILOT! NOBODY GET'S LEFT BEHIND!" Of course that lead to every single game ever having a "Nuke" type scene.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

The mission where you finally get control of Bruticus because nothing is more awesome than getting to play as a behemoth of a combined Transformer.

 

[RJ 17]

I don't know if it'd be considered a "mission", but the Mr. Freeze fight in Arkham City. I guess you could say the mission would be "Return Ras al Gul's blood to Mr. Freeze to get the cure"

Anyways, I love how on the harder difficulties, the Mr. Freeze fight is like a final exam of Batman's stealth capabilities, requiring you to use every possible stealth take-down in order to beat him.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I can't remember the name of the mission but it's for the Dark Brotherhood. Basically, you are put into a mansion with an assortment of other people who think they're a part of a contest. Everyone believes that a large sum of gold is hidden in the manor and the one who finds it wins not only the gold but the key to the house. The twist however, is that there is no gold and you are charged with the task of killing everybody else in the mansion.

The people in the mansion with you are an old woman, a former blade, a huge-ass nord and, two other people who I don't remember too well. You're told to kill everyone without the others finding out and if your charismatic enough and good at bullshitting, you don't even have to kill everyone yourself! It basically gets to the point where you and 2 others remain...depending on who you are nicer two, they will vow to help you kill the murderer...so of course, I wait until the old woman and the huge ass nord are left over and convince Ingvar that Granny Goodness has been killing everyone off. I laugh when he kills the old bitty with a single stroke then murder him head-on.

But in looking through everyone else's response, I have to agree with this one. Really, the Dark Brotherhood quests were my favorite part of Oblivion, but this one in particular was just loads of fun. A murder mystery where you get to be the sinister murderer? In Stewie's words "It's so deliciously EVIL!" Another fun one that's similar to this is when you have to Purge the sanctuary and kill all your brethren.

On a related note, there's a mission where you have to kill some traveling merchant who happens to be a pretty powerful mage. If you're lucky, you can come across him while he's out on the road and just jump his ass, but more often than not you'll have to find a way to stealth-kill him while he's in a city. I found him sitting in a tavern once, surrounded by witnesses so I couldn't just shank his ass, so I tried the ol' waiting game by slipping a couple Poisoned Apples into his pouch. After that I never saw him again. Unable to proceed with the Brotherhood missions, I just moved on to doing something else. About three days (real life days) later, I was doing a quest for the Mage's Guild when all of a sudden I got a quest update saying to go back to the Brotherhood to get my reward. "Welp, guess he finally at one of those apples." I just got a kick out of how I wasn't even focused on that quest anymore but still managed to complete it because somewhere out there in that big world of Cyrodiil, some poor NPC finally used an item I had planted in his pouch. :3

 

[thetoddo]

Tuchanka in ME3, great mix of exploration, combat and cutscenes done well to create a sense of rising tension, then the ending that can make rocks weep.

Myth 2, Soulblighter: The level where the dwarves are introduced and the whole level is a fighting retreat through a canyon dropping land mines. So much fun.

Portal 1: The fight with GLADoS. You can finish it in less than a minute but I'll draw it out just for the dialogue.

The Walking Dead: Not really a "level" but Lee's final assault on the hotel through a crowd of walkers. The music was great and the story really gave you a sense of Lee's desperation and need that led to his suicide charge.

 

[Kyber]

The first Russian level from the original Call of Duty stands out. They crafted the atmosphere perfectly, charging up the banks of the Volga without a gun is something I still haven't forgotten.

You should watch Enemy at the Gates, that level is from the beginning of the movie, and most russian parts of CoD 1 and 2 are taken from that movie.
OT: Can't really specify one, a lot of Oblivion and Skyrim sidequests have a special place in my heart.

 

[Jabberwock King]

I'll go with Prototype 2's New Templar side quest. The ending to that was unexpected yet deliciously satisfying. Felt like one of the best moments in the game.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

I don't know if it'd be considered a "mission", but the Mr. Freeze fight in Arkham City. I guess you could say the mission would be "Return Ras al Gul's blood to Mr. Freeze to get the cure"

Anyways, I love how on the harder difficulties, the Mr. Freeze fight is like a final exam of Batman's stealth capabilities, requiring you to use every possible stealth take-down in order to beat him.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I can't remember the name of the mission but it's for the Dark Brotherhood. Basically, you are put into a mansion with an assortment of other people who think they're a part of a contest. Everyone believes that a large sum of gold is hidden in the manor and the one who finds it wins not only the gold but the key to the house. The twist however, is that there is no gold and you are charged with the task of killing everybody else in the mansion.

The people in the mansion with you are an old woman, a former blade, a huge-ass nord and, two other people who I don't remember too well. You're told to kill everyone without the others finding out and if your charismatic enough and good at bullshitting, you don't even have to kill everyone yourself! It basically gets to the point where you and 2 others remain...depending on who you are nicer two, they will vow to help you kill the murderer...so of course, I wait until the old woman and the huge ass nord are left over and convince Ingvar that Granny Goodness has been killing everyone off. I laugh when he kills the old bitty with a single stroke then murder him head-on.

But in looking through everyone else's response, I have to agree with this one. Really, the Dark Brotherhood quests were my favorite part of Oblivion, but this one in particular was just loads of fun. A murder mystery where you get to be the sinister murderer? In Stewie's words "It's so deliciously EVIL!" Another fun one that's similar to this is when you have to Purge the sanctuary and kill all your brethren.

On a related note, there's a mission where you have to kill some traveling merchant who happens to be a pretty powerful mage. If you're lucky, you can come across him while he's out on the road and just jump his ass, but more often than not you'll have to find a way to stealth-kill him while he's in a city. I found him sitting in a tavern once, surrounded by witnesses so I couldn't just shank his ass, so I tried the ol' waiting game by slipping a couple Poisoned Apples into his pouch. After that I never saw him again. Unable to proceed with the Brotherhood missions, I just moved on to doing something else. About three days (real life days) later, I was doing a quest for the Mage's Guild when all of a sudden I got a quest update saying to go back to the Brotherhood to get my reward. "Welp, guess he finally at one of those apples." I just got a kick out of how I wasn't even focused on that quest anymore but still managed to complete it because somewhere out there in that big world of Cyrodiil, some poor NPC finally used an item I had planted in his pouch. :3

That last bit reminded me of another bit in farcry 3. I was lining up my sniper rifle on a base and had just reloaded because the last time a tigar has snuck up and killed me while I was looking down the scope. I'm looking for the best way to silently take this base down, trying to mark targets and get some idea when all of a sudden I get a "base taken down without alerting anyone" achievement. Apparently a lepard had snuck into the camp and killed everyone. This was the 4th time I had tried to wipe these guys out and a random animal did it for me

 

[DragonKhan95]

the dark cave before you became king/queen. After an entire game of bright and colourful tongue in cheek sillyness, you enter a dark cave with your best friend and mentor Sir Walter. You stumble across an ancient evil, which torments you both with an army of shadow demon things. It focuses on Walter, and in the space of a few minutes torments and mind rapes the career soldier badass to the point where he is a quivering wreck. Then it tears out his eyes and eats his soul.

This is a game where the primary form of communication between the PC and other characters is farting.

I'm honestly surprised this isn't more talked about. This was probably the most legitimately unnerving moment in any game I've played, mainly because the individual in danger is not the player character, who for all intents and purposes might as well be invincible until the ending of the game plot-wise.

Another vote for blindness from me. Genuinely brilliant quest. To be honest, while Fable 3 massively dissapointed me, everything in Aurora was well done imo. The areas like the Shifting Sands, the puzzles in the Enigma, the art style, the characters etc. I would have loved a whole game set there.

 

[bentheiii]

the final scarecrow segment from batman arkham asylum. the mind-twisting that the player goes through is nearly what batman does.

 

[Panorama]

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I can't remember the name of the mission but it's for the Dark Brotherhood. Basically, you are put into a mansion with an assortment of other people who think they're a part of a contest. Everyone believes that a large sum of gold is hidden in the manor and the one who finds it wins not only the gold but the key to the house. The twist however, is that there is no gold and you are charged with the task of killing everybody else in the mansion.

The people in the mansion with you are an old woman, a former blade, a huge-ass nord and, two other people who I don't remember too well. You're told to kill everyone without the others finding out and if your charismatic enough and good at bullshitting, you don't even have to kill everyone yourself! It basically gets to the point where you and 2 others remain...depending on who you are nicer two, they will vow to help you kill the murderer...so of course, I wait until the old woman and the huge ass nord are left over and convince Ingvar that Granny Goodness has been killing everyone off. I laugh when he kills the old bitty with a single stroke then murder him head-on.

I Forgot how awesome this mission was, oblivion and skyrim had some amazing missions, getting the wabajack in skyrim is an awesomely weird mission, if you haven't done it i suggest find it, i think it is someone asks you to drink with them and you black out and go from their if i tell you more it will spoil it.

 

[William Dickbringer]

Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2.

It's such a shame that no missions in ME3 match that level of epicness, imo.

The Suicide Mission is definitely most memorable for me I haven't felt as stressed as that

-snip-

I kinda liked the other quest cata had where you talked to 3 guys that give you a story about what they did when deathwing arrived one of them was where you rode a motorcycle with one of the multiple babes (one of them a dude too) to deathwing and another a dwarf who ran up and punched deathwing in the face (there was a third one but the other two were more memorable)

 

[TheEvilCheese]

All Ghillied Up kind of goes without saying, playing that one mission from 2007 makes me wish CoD nowadays was... I dunno, more.

Robo's sidequest in Chrono Trigger is still probably one of the most heartwarming things in a game ever, especially when you consider the amount of time you spend with the character up until that point.

 

[Fox12]

Probably the Mass Effect 2 finale. Anything from Psychonauts would be a winner, because their all so distinct. More recently, I can't stop gushing over the winter section in TLoU.

 

[Easton Dark]

You Better Watch Out from Blood Money.

It's so pretty. So calm. So rich. They've got a sexy party going on. Hidden passageways. Empty Hallways. Big drops. PERFECT FOR MURDER.

 

[King Kazma]

Mercenaries Playground of Destruction. Ace of Diamonds mission.
You get plopped onto an island just spilling with enemies to kill and vehicles patrolling around, and radiation (Stay away). You go hoping from base to base wrecking the place up (Probably with a tank you would of stolen). So now you need to go destroy the Type 7 Supergun. This thing can lob radioactive shells down all the way to Tokyo, Japan. And you've two ways to take it out. A direct assault to take out it's jammer and air strike it, or the fun way and use the prototype Type 7 gun to destroy it. Nothing feels more satisfying than the power that gun commands.

 

[Anezay]

Half-life 2's Ravenholm is a fantastically atmospheric bit in the middle with a completely different pace from the rest of the game.
I've also come to the conclusion that I can never be friends with anyone who doesn't think the Winter chapter of The Last of Us is amazing.

 

[FoolKiller]

Borderlands 2
The mission is called Shoot This Guy in the Face as all Borderlands missions have amusing names. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't played but it is the one that just made me appreciate true creativity.

 

[Silvanus]

The whole underground prison section from Silent Hill 2; Ravenholm from HL2; Arah (Story Mode, bossfight notwithstanding) from Guild Wars 2.

Huh. I would have expected at least one Legend of Zelda dungeon to make the list.

 

[Lygus]

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis.

Mission called "After Montignac". Your squad dies in a forest full of Soviet infantry, you're alone, completely lost in a terrain never visited before and without any guidance...

Then you hear Papa Bear's report on the radio about evacuation point at a particular time. Your radio no longer functions.

Now, reach the evac position on your own, full of doubts what's really going to be up there.

Probably the most intense mission ever in a military game. Pure non-horror survival.