The Best Level 1's in Video Games.

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
10,852
5,370
118
Infinite is probably the definition of wasted potential. They have so many cool things and then kinda do very little with them.
Infinite was a waste? I thought that was easily the best game in ther series. The twist of the story got me.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,244
7,023
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
I tried to show my girlfriend the intro to this game, and it didn't really work out too well.

Shot into the sky. Beautiful scenery. Intriguing offshoot of American culture. A carnival to explore. A few songs out of time. A couple of weird interactions with the Luttece's. What is going on here?

Then the game remembers that it has to be an FPS, and suddenly everything is racist, you're the devil, and now you must gun down 100's of police officers and soldiers with your fireball hands.

The most jarring 0-to-100 that I have ever seen in a game.
Yeah, I really kinda loved the slow parts in that game where you could soak in the atmosphere. It's a shame the more gamey part of the isn't nearly as good.

Infinite was a waste? I thought that was easily the best game in ther series. The twist of the story got me.
I like infinite more then most, if nothing else for it's ambition and setting. It does feel like it gets super fucking messy the further you get into it though and kinda loses whatever message it was trying to impart.

It's clear from watching some of the early trailers that they ended up scrapping and then redoing a lot of the game before it came out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,493
3,443
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
Infinite was a waste? I thought that was easily the best game in ther series. The twist of the story got me.
Wait, what was the twist again? I mainly remember how the tears, both story wise and mechanic wise were wasted along with the blue bird and even the game world itself since they put all this work into making a believable world, then made your only interaction with it shooting.
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
10,852
5,370
118
Wait, what was the twist again? I mainly remember how the tears, both story wise and mechanic wise were wasted along with the blue bird and even the game world itself since they put all this work into making a believable world, then made your only interaction with it shooting.
She was your daughter and you were the bad guy the whole time. I think.

I feel like a lot of people get disappointed when a game doesn't have interactions that it was never meant to have. Bioshock games have always been FPS games and nothing more. No talent trees, no customization outside of what weapons or magic are you using, and that's really it. So the idea of being sad that the nice world could only be shot at doesn't make sense because that's what the game is, a good fps with a fantastic story and world. There isn't really anything to be disappointed with because anything further would have been a different game entirely.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,244
7,023
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
She was your daughter and you were the bad guy the whole time. I think.
More or less. Basically doing an interesting take on the multi-verse where, due a particular Point of Divergence(the baptism), one version of booker gets uber religious, forms his own cult that creates Columbia that is basically an even more hardline xenophobic version of early 1900's USA(Comstock) and the other, Booker we play as, became a waste of a human being who did a lot of shitty thug work for the Pinkertons and sold his kid for booze money.

The interaction thing probably stems from the fact you do have parts of the game where you alter reality per the plot, but this doesn't affect gameplay very much in practice. Elizabeth can spawn a turret or some ammo if you ask her too but it feels very limited. And the early gameplay trailers indicate they had a lot more in mind.

Also the fact the skyrail system is showed off like once or twice but doesn't really much beyond that. Yeah, this is very scripted but clearly they had big ambitions here.

 

Dreiko

Elite Member
Legacy
May 1, 2020
2,736
917
118
CT
Country
usa
Gender
male, pronouns: your majesty/my lord/daddy
It's kinda hard to define things as levels in some of the games I play since it's all one continuous thing, maybe chapters would be better but those I think are too big so neither really fits.

But out of those that do fit, Symphony of the Night is prolly my fav, that part with Richter was so cool and they even made it affect how you do in the main game which is awesome. No BS just straight into a fight with Dracula from the get.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hanselthecaretaker

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,493
3,443
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
She was your daughter and you were the bad guy the whole time. I think.

I feel like a lot of people get disappointed when a game doesn't have interactions that it was never meant to have. Bioshock games have always been FPS games and nothing more. No talent trees, no customization outside of what weapons or magic are you using, and that's really it. So the idea of being sad that the nice world could only be shot at doesn't make sense because that's what the game is, a good fps with a fantastic story and world. There isn't really anything to be disappointed with because anything further would have been a different game entirely.
That was neat, but still not up there with what Bioshock 1 did.

Bioshock didn't need to have a ton of interactions, you were in a crumbling underwater city in habited by blitzed out addicts who all wanted your blood. Infinite takes place in what is essentially just a city that happens to be floating. So that means that despite being racist the cops are still just cops and the stores and homes are inhabited by normal if racist people. You're not black or anything like that, you could easily blend into that environment. Plus the tears, they could have done so much with them, but outside of a couple story moments they are largely forgotten or just used to make ammo or cover in combat, not even anything interesting like calling in a tank from a different reality or a subway to hit enemies or anything like that. Not to mention the vigors just feel out of place, they are cheap and plentiful enough to be giving them out for free, yet only like 1 or 2 enemies uses them against you, its like they were just added because the other games had something similar.
 

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
Legacy
Sep 23, 2010
5,472
1,920
118
Just off-screen
Country
Canada
Gender
Male
You can get level 1 I think it's called like penal colony resident evil revelations for free download
Yeah, this post isn't suspicious at all.

Can you make a coherent response about why Resident Evil: Revelations has one of the best first levels in gaming?
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,244
7,023
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
That was neat, but still not up there with what Bioshock 1 did.

Bioshock didn't need to have a ton of interactions, you were in a crumbling underwater city in habited by blitzed out addicts who all wanted your blood. Infinite takes place in what is essentially just a city that happens to be floating. So that means that despite being racist the cops are still just cops and the stores and homes are inhabited by normal if racist people. You're not black or anything like that, you could easily blend into that environment. Plus the tears, they could have done so much with them, but outside of a couple story moments they are largely forgotten or just used to make ammo or cover in combat, not even anything interesting like calling in a tank from a different reality or a subway to hit enemies or anything like that. Not to mention the vigors just feel out of place, they are cheap and plentiful enough to be giving them out for free, yet only like 1 or 2 enemies uses them against you, its like they were just added because the other games had something similar.
I love how Booker just digs through trash cans for food despite the fact that....it's just really wierd to do that when the city hasn't gone completely to shit yet. Rapture, yeah, everything has gotten pretty bad, but in Columbia, it's actually fairly stable for most of the game. Booker even gets a few bits to walk around without being harrassed....and he still digs for food out of the trash. Why Booker? Are you really that hard up for money because you're a hopeless drunk who sold your kid for booze money....actually don't answer that. I mean, maybe it's supposed to be a commentary on just how bad Booker's life has gotten that he's just used to digging food out ot the garbage and scarfing it down without a 2nd though. OTOH(and more likely), that's what Jack did in Bioshock and why change it now?
 
Last edited:

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
10,852
5,370
118
To be fair, none of their posts have been coherent that I've noticed.
Yeah I thought it was weird, they posted on a ton of threads back to back and none of the responses made a whole lot of sense. But english might not be the first language so i didn't take much notice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
Legacy
Sep 23, 2010
5,472
1,920
118
Just off-screen
Country
Canada
Gender
Male
Yeah I thought it was weird, they posted on a ton of threads back to back and none of the responses made a whole lot of sense. But english might not be the first language so i didn't take much notice.
English isn't the first language of most spambots. I'd wager they'd be more comfortable with Java or Python.
 

Specter Von Baren

Annoying Green Gadfly
Legacy
Aug 25, 2013
5,632
2,849
118
I don't know, send help!
Country
USA
Gender
Cuttlefish
Brave Fencer Musashi.

First half of the first level is pretty typical; Musashi is told he needs to get a sword called Lumina from the top of a tower, so you go through the woods and up the tower, and get the sword. Now is when it gets good. There was a giant stone head creating a barrier around the sword before you smashed it (The barrier) and now it starts rolling after Musashi... right off of the tower.
Now you start running down the side of the tower, jumping over gaps and other obstacles until you make it to the bottom, with the giant head landing behind you.
Yaaay, jump for victory, we made it!- Psych! The stone head starts rolling after you again. Now you're running down the path you took to get to the tower, running past enemies that are also trying to run away and getting rolled over, jumping over downed trees, and jumping over pits like you're a bandicoot until finally you make it through the stone wall around the castle and town and the head gets stuck.
So you run into the castle to tell the princess you've successfully retrieved Lumina, only to find some bozo in a gas mask has her and is kidnapping her. After some talking he leaves with her and sics a two story tall mechanical knight with a mace as big as your body. Then you start fighting this thing, hitting its weak point, dodging its attacks, the usual, and once you bring it low enough, you then pick it up and hurl it through the castle wall into the courtyard *BOOM* *BASH* *CRASH* and then you go at it again and throw it again through a wall and into the town where you dodge its attacks and eventually maneuver it to one last wall which you throw it into and it falls off the cliff behind that wall. Then, as it's laying on the ground at the foot of the cliff, Musashi picks up the mace that fell off of it during the fight and says, "Hey you forgot something!" and hurls it at the knight, making it explode! Musashi then talks about how he showed him but just as he remembers he needs to find the princess he ends up falling asleep from exhaustion.

And that's the first level of Brace Fencer Muasashi! Not much that tops that in terms of nonstop action starts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CriticalGaming

Offworlder

Elite Member
Jan 31, 2021
136
123
48
Country
Australia
Halo's first level will always be ingrained in my brain, such an iconic intro to an iconic franchise.
 

Specter Von Baren

Annoying Green Gadfly
Legacy
Aug 25, 2013
5,632
2,849
118
I don't know, send help!
Country
USA
Gender
Cuttlefish
I haven't thought of this game in ages. It only stands out to me because it had a demo if FF8 that came with it.
It was ingrained into my brain as a child because of a Pizza Hut demo disc that it and Silent Hill came on. Silent Hill had the start of the game (Which I detailed here) and BFM had right when you start getting chased by the giant stone head all the way up till you beat the mechanical knight. I always wanted to play it but never found it in stores or Block Buster. It wasn't until over a decade later that I would finally get the chance to play it.
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
10,852
5,370
118
It was ingrained into my brain as a child because of a Pizza Hut demo disc that it and Silent Hill came on. Silent Hill had the start of the game (Which I detailed here) and BFM had right when you start getting chased by the giant stone head all the way up till you beat the mechanical knight. I always wanted to play it but never found it in stores or Block Buster. It wasn't until over a decade later that I would finally get the chance to play it.
BFM is one of those game that I remember playing, but I remember very little about it unfortunately. Kind of one of those games that got loss in the shuffle catalog of my brain. Not bad enough to remember for being bad, but not good enough to remember playing for any length of time either.
 

Specter Von Baren

Annoying Green Gadfly
Legacy
Aug 25, 2013
5,632
2,849
118
I don't know, send help!
Country
USA
Gender
Cuttlefish
BFM is one of those game that I remember playing, but I remember very little about it unfortunately. Kind of one of those games that got loss in the shuffle catalog of my brain. Not bad enough to remember for being bad, but not good enough to remember playing for any length of time either.
It's good. I wouldn't say it's an amazing game, but it has character (As an example, one of the boss battles is a mouse girl challenging you to a DDR death match) and I would have especially loved playing it as a kid if I had had the chance to. I guess a really rough way to describe it is if you stapled Croc and Ocarina of Time together and injected the charm of Megaman Legends into them.
 

thebobmaster

Elite Member
Legacy
Apr 5, 2020
2,064
2,051
118
Country
United States
One that always stands out for me is Mass Effect 2. After the first game, you feel like you know what you are in for, fighting against the Reapers. You managed to defeat one at the end of the first game. It was tough, but you did it.

And now here comes this new enemy, who effortlessly blows your ship apart. Cue you stumbling through that same ship that you spent hours navigating in the previous game to make your way to the cockpit to save the pilot, who's being a stubborn jackass in denial about his ability to save the ship, and getting him into an escape pod before the ship gets hit one last time and blown apart.

The reason the level stands out to me is multi-layered. First, as I said, you know this ship if you've played the first game. You probably spent hours running around it, talking to crew members...but that was when it was pristine, undamaged. It hits pretty hard to see those same setpieces on fire, or floating in the failing gravity fields, or floating while on fire.

The other big reason is the tone it sets. Yes, fighting the Reaper at the end of the first game was tough, and required sacrifices, but ultimately, everyone you were familiar with made it through unscathed (unless you intentionally let the Council die, but that was your choice, and again, you had a choice on Virmire). This time wouldn't go so easily. You wouldn't be able to make it through this fight with everyone intact unless you went out of your way to make sure you were as prepared as possible, and even then, one wrong choice and that would be that.
 
Last edited: