Worst Sewer Level

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I'm sure this has been done before but anyway, sewer levels, they're strangely common in games. Often times sewer levels are awful, possibly the worst part of the entire game. So what's the worst sewer level you've ever played in a game and why?

For me it's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Like many sewer levels everything looks boring and samey making it easy to get turned around. It's pretty long, think it took me about an hour. Nothing story related happens down there, it could be one room of sewer and it would have the same impact story wise. It's all combat focused and up to this point the game had allowed for other approaches. The enemies are really annoying, they're tricky to hit and hurt like hell. At one point it introduces a boss only to have 3 of the very same creature show up in the next room. To top this all off you have very limited resources, you just took part in a boss fight before entering the sewers and will find little in the way of blood or bullets down there, good luck if you're playing a Ventrue as you can't even drink from the occasional rat.

 

[Neverhoodian]

The "Anoat Sewers" level in Dark Forces. Not only is the architecture a frustrating maze of switch hunting, but the dianogas freaked me out as a kid:

Spoiler

"Aww, aren't you a cute widdle-"

"JESUS FUCK NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE"

They still give me the jibblies. Thank God for the level skip cheat code.

On a related note, Wookieepedia states that these creatures can fit through all sorts of small passages, meaning they can crop up in...unexpected places.

Spoiler

Suddenly I'm not so keen on living in the Star Wars universe anymore.

 

[Barbas]

That one from Dead Island. Runners in the steam clouds, bloats in the toxic sludge. Nope.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I'm not sure if it counts as a "sewer" level, but the subway tunnels in Fallout 3. I'd avoid them as best as I possibly could. They were fairly boring and samey, the enemies in them weren't particularly interesting, and there wasn't even much in the way of decent loot down there to scavenge.

I also tend to dislike sewer levels in ARPGs like Diablo 2/Diablo 3 and Path of Exile. They tend to have particularly nasty mobs, and because of the tight quarters it's easy to get boxed in and killed. My first death in Diablo 3 for example was in a tight sewer area. A spawn of enemies with the Fast/Horde/Invulnerable Minions/Arcane Enchanted affixes popped up. Because of their speed they were right on top of me before I could even react, because of the large number of invulnerable minions I couldn't properly target the main mob, and each of them dropped one of those ridiculous arcane laser beams all over the place and I had nowhere to move to get out of them in time.

 

[Evonisia]

While not so much an entire "level" given that it lacks mission structure, the (incredibly brief) sewer section in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories just bewilders me with its existence.

I understand that we can't just follow the road, but it really seemed like putting in a sewer bit for the sake of it. All you do is just walk through it. No enemies, and only one collectible which could have gone anywhere else in the game. No contribution to the story that couldn't have been done anywhere else. The music is nice, granted, but there is literally no point to it being a sewer level. At least with most games the sewer level is meant to add challenge. All I'm left wondering is why the water in the sewer didn't freeze over as well.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Level called "Poisonous Pipeline" from Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, which combines the worst parts of sewer levels and underwater levels. The level consists of a series of labyrinthine sewer lines that are completely flooded with a kind of poison that completely reverses the directional commands of the D-pad, so that up is down, left is right and so on. First and only time this happens in the game (in any Donkey Kong Country game, really). Underwater controls are usually a ***** to begin with, since you're always fighting gravity and mometum. On top of that throw the control reversal gimmick, and the fact that the place is tightly packed with one-hit DEATH. Have fun.

 

[Username Redacted]

I'm sure this has been done before but anyway, sewer levels, they're strangely common in games. Often times sewer levels are awful, possibly the worst part of the entire game. So what's the worst sewer level you've ever played in a game and why?

For me it's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Like many sewer levels everything looks boring and samey making it easy to get turned around. It's pretty long, think it took me about an hour. Nothing story related happens down there, it could be one room of sewer and it would have the same impact story wise. It's all combat focused and up to this point the game had allowed for other approaches. The enemies are really annoying, they're tricky to hit and hurt like hell. At one point it introduces a boss only to have 3 of the very same creature show up in the next room. To top this all off you have very limited resources, you just took part in a boss fight before entering the sewers and will find little in the way of blood or bullets down there, good luck if you're playing a Ventrue as you can't even drink from the occasional rat.

Bloodlines was going to be my answer to this. That said it's very possible to stealth your way through the entire area and avoid the combat except for the one boos fight you mentioned. That said the (as you mentioned) ease with which you can get turned around is fucking irritating for as long as the area is. Still the sewer level is just a minor turd in the punch bowl for an otherwise excellent game.

I guess a close second if we're counting tunnels in general would be the numerous samey subway tunnels encountered in Fallout 3. They all look the same. They're populated by varying degrees of obnoxious enemies. Fuck 'em.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Star Wars just has no luck with sewers, probably because they always seem to have Dianogas or worse in them.

Shadows of the Empire had you dealing with both oxygen and jet pack fuel limits in a vast submerged tunnel (which is why you need the jetpack) with dirty water and darkness impeding your vision the whole way plus an underwater boss with a mouth that could eat an X-Wing.

But my least favourite is the one in Mysteries of the Sith, the expansion to Jedi Knight, because it has all of the above and all your weapons have been taken from you except the Lightsaber. But a true Jedi is never without a weapon, right? Except that no Light-side force power can kill a Dianoga or a Water Cyc (jellyfish things that latch onto you and leech your health), and even Force Lightning takes forever while the whole time you're burning through oxygen and dodging tentacles.

So thank you SWTOR, for not giving us a Dianoga sewer level... Yet.

 

[aozgolo]

Wow, these terrible things, okay I guess I have several:

Morrowind had some really bland copy-pasted sewers underneath Vivec City, to be honest Vivec City was just a terrible design anyway, the whole city was a nightmare to traverse, but the sewers underneath the cantons were just filled with diseased creatures, almost no valuable loot, and horrible water pits that were a chore to get out of.

Final Fantasy XII has the Garamsythe Waterway which is just a painful exercise in backtracking and door puzzles. Though I seem to recall FFVIII's Sewer level being way worse.

By far the WORST Sewer Levels though are found in Secret of Evermore. There are 3, all of them are mazes, and 2 have running water that carries you to a preset destination with you only being able to control whether to take a turn or not. The second sewer, under Ivor Tower actually has poisonous water as well. Oh and there's hidden passages through the walls you need to find if you want to unlock all the alchemy spells in the game.

 

[El Camino of Rampage]

One sewer level that haunts me to this day is the one from Enter the Matrix. Yeah, you could have made a game about cool slomo gunfights in brightly lit cool buildings, or even outside, but why do that when like 1/3 of the game can take place in a dark sewer? Where it's impossible to see anything because it's so dark (this was a problem throughout the game, but especially in the sewer), and impossible to find your way because everything looks the same? Not to mention the cramped quarters make it impossible to pull off the cool moves that the game was supposedly designed for.

 

[necromanzer52]

One sewer level that haunts me to this day is the one from Enter the Matrix. Yeah, you could have made a game about cool slomo gunfights in brightly lit cool buildings, or even outside, but why do that when like 1/3 of the game can take place in a dark sewer? Where it's impossible to see anything because it's so dark (this was a problem throughout the game, but especially in the sewer), and impossible to find your way because everything looks the same? Not to mention the cramped quarters make it impossible to pull off the cool moves that the game was supposedly designed for.

Oh god. The endless copy-pasted hallways that leave you constantly wondering if you got turned around and are going back in the wrong direction. And then there was that bit with the fan, where you had to blow it up, but if you ran out of grenades then the level becomes unwinnable.

Also, welcome to the escapist. Enjoy your stay, and stay put of the basement. (I finally get to say that to someone ).

 

[Islandbuffilo]

Beat me to the Warrens. They sucked major on my ranged/social characters, but it's not that bad on my melee characters, the boss turned grunt enemies were still a pain to deal with though. I usually just run through that part seeing as its the final room.

 

[El Camino of Rampage]

@necromanzer52

Thanks for the welcome!

I remember there were a few sections of the game that were very square geometric layouts, and those were the only times you could really take advantage of the wall-running and crazy stunts. Most of the game was oddly designed, so it was hard to do that stuff. The sewer was all pipes and curved edges with little cover, so you basically just had to spam the bullet-time button to get through.

 

[lacktheknack]

Freaking Tomb Raider 2013's "Under the Shantytown" bit.

You know, the part where Lara now has multiple gaping holes in her, but still has to crawl through the underside of the shantytown, squelching through sewage and decomposing bodies? NO THANKS. I cringed so hard I nearly shattered my teeth.

If that doesn't count, since it was about five minutes long, then let's go with "Under The Louvre" from Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness. Not only does the level function on some high-grade non-logic, but it's just so BLAND that it becomes one of the low points of an already-very-low game.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Star Wars just has no luck with sewers, probably because they always seem to have Dianogas or worse in them.

Shadows of the Empire had you dealing with both oxygen and jet pack fuel limits in a vast submerged tunnel (which is why you need the jetpack) with dirty water and darkness impeding your vision the whole way plus an underwater boss with a mouth that could eat an X-Wing.

*cringes so hard*

came in here just to say this. only beat this game once because of the fucking sewer level, would NEVER attempt it again after that, hated it so much.

 

[Seishisha]

Surprised there has been no mention of blight town from darksouls yet, wobbly narrow passages that falling from will kill you, loads of enemies that poison you and just hound you in general, quite confusing navigation with many ladders leading to dead ends, a realy trolly enemey that'll pretty much kill you unless you attack it from behind and all of that is in just the upper level.

There is also a bunch of toxic dart shooting enemies, the toxic effect is extremely dangerous as it drains your HP rapidly, the darts themselves are tiny and hard to see in all the murk, even when blocking with a shield will still inflict toxic on your character. (a special shield will block it fully)

The lower level is less trecherous to travel around since falling to your death is less likley, however this is replaced by a poison swamp that slows and damages you, constantly respawning fly enemies that spit blood all over you, giant fire breathing spider-things and giant boulder wielding mofo's that'll fuck up your day like no tomorrow.

Not to even mention all the performance issues that plague many players in that general area.

Although with all things dark souls, it is by far worse the first time round and as you learn the area you can breeze through it with little hastle later on. The area design is actualy quite smart it just seems overwhelming when you go there for the first time.

Probably not the worst sewer in a game, to be fair it might not even qualify as a sewer considering the area that directly preceeds it, certainly a worthy mention though.

 

[Abomination]

For me it's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

Off the bat you list my worst. It was just such a slap in the face as to how the rest of the game had been progressing. It felt entirely like "we need to stretch the playtime out, so here's a combat maze".

Kills the mood of the game.