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Thread: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

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    Who the $%£# told you you could eat my cookies?! Oobie-'s Avatar
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    What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Just wondering what a bunch of other gamers enjoy in a level.

    Bare with me while I try tap in to what Im getting at.
    From a design POV what would you want to include, what is needed to make a level playable, and intuitive/fun?
    Bit vague I know, but for HL 1 + 2 you had the puzzles;stacking boxes, opening switches, and whatnot to progress further in the level.
    Things that were in Portal, where they blocked off part of a level to stop the user from missing out chunks of a room (been a while since I listened to the dev comm), heck you could even go back to doom2 where you had those damn keycards to get a hold of!

    Things like, navigating round the built level in a manner that seemed logical? Interesting?
    Rooms you had to enter in order to pick something up, focal points, and visual aids/signals which pointed you in the right direction.

    So just put whatever comes to your head.
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    Senyor Membre
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Well, you mentioned Portal, and that is pretty much a study in good level design. I'll try and number off a few things.

    1. It shouldn't be predictable. Portal is a great example: it is so formulaic, there is pretty much only one way to solve each level, but because you are forced to discover the method and use logic, you feel like you are discovering and contributing to the storyline.

    2. Levels should fit into the overall storyline. An example of how not to do this would be early in Halo 3 where you spend your time getting people off a base, then they fly off in their ship and leave you all alone. Well, I don't remember what happened after that because I was so pissed at the obvious setup of 'me against the aliens in a deserted base'.

    3. The enemies should not be regenerating/respawning/perpetual. It means nothing to kill one zombie when the game keeps sending them at you. On the other hand, if you know there are 25 bad guys, you know you are one step closer to success. Unfortunately, FPS makers prefer quantity of enemies over quality. Like we didn't love the mini boss battles in MGS1. And anyway, why must every video game "hero" finish a game with a body count sufficient to make him a mass murderer?

    4. Striking the proper balance between realism and fun. I hate one-bullet kills, because frankly you end up playing like a pussy. But I'm also not a huge fan of the Gears of War style 'run circles around each other shooting and nobody dies' scenario.

    5. No empty stupid rooms. I really don't want exploration as part of my FPS experience. Leave the junk collection to the RPG crowd and just have signs leading to the armoury rooms. I don't mind if I get a hundred locked doors, if I'm running around a hostile location with a big gun, my objective should be to use that gun rather than checking out what people keep in their desk drawers.

    5. b) No key collecting! Also, no backtracking ala MGS1 to pad out the playing time. What achievement is it of mine if I get a key and unlock a door? Nothing, compared to figuring out the advanced Portal puzzles. And why do they have more baddies guarding the key? Why not have all the baddies guarding the damn door?


    In summary, the major thing for me is the storyline making you feel involved. If I actually give a damn about the character and his goals, you could make me hunt down a donkey, then ride it through a sea of crocodiles with pterodactyls attacking me and I'd still love it.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Well basically, it needs to be an experience which I look back on and go 'that was cool'. Obviously there's no set formula for that, but I think HL2's various chapters are probably the perfect example of it - each one is a clearly separate 'cool' experience.

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    Master Of The Universe CaseyV9's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Something different or new. Something that catches you off guard.
    Take Postal 2. Every day you have a list of things to do. And every day you fall out with different groups. Like the one you fall out with Rednecks.

    On that day, the last thing on your list was to pee on your fathers grave. Since in Postal 2 you can pee on people. Anyway, You start having a wee on your fathers grave and a redneck sneaks up behind you and hits you on the back of your head.

    You wake up in a box with 2 rednecks arguing about who's turn it is next. You take them both out and notice yourself in the mirror. You are wearing a gimp suit
    The next day you find your pee is green and you have to go to the hospital to to get medicine to treat your STI.

    The point I'm making is, In Postal 2, being a FPS, it should have got very repetitve. Even though you can pee on people and stick your gun up a cats rectum as a silencer for your gun. It would get boaring after a while. But this game did not.

    I think making the level as memerable as possible will send you on a winner. Something that breaks the natural flow of things. Making it more than simply just shooting.

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    Senior Member Virtual Monkey's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Quote Originally Posted by transylvanic View Post
    5. No empty stupid rooms. I really don't want exploration as part of my FPS experience. Leave the junk collection to the RPG crowd and just have signs leading to the armoury rooms. I don't mind if I get a hundred locked doors, if I'm running around a hostile location with a big gun, my objective should be to use that gun rather than checking out what people keep in their desk drawers.
    Actually I disagree with that completely. One of the things that made Bioshock so enjoyable for me were the little touches that implied narrative (the remains of protests etc), as well as the more obvious tape recorders and stuff that fleshed the story out. Made it a lot more atmospheric.

    Although I suppose it depends on what sort of game you're playing - that sort of exploration would feel really out of place in something like COD 4 where the whole focus is on action and adrenaline.

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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Well rooms that genuinely are "empty" don't contribute to the atmosphere... that's the big problem. In some games, yes, it's all to improve the feel of the game, but in others charging down infinitely long corridors with infinite numbers of openable doors and standard office arrangements makes you feel like the level designers ran out of imagination and just added fifty of the same room to make the level take you longer.

    Which sucks. Portal is the epitomy of good level design as said before... surprising, and a perfect balance of puzzle and skill.

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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Thanks guys.
    Yea I was looking at portal as an example to go by. Wondering how they came up with these puzzles is something that made me respect the level designers/creators.

    I feel like trying to create something like those in hammer for half life2. Doesnt have to be big, but a fair few puzzles.
    Gotta start designing these.
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    Butter king GheeTsar's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Having the feeling of a powerful, yet believable weapon. Too little and it feels like the enemy are superhuman/cheating and too much and you're straight into the uncanny valley. I think CSS had the weapon power about right.

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    Zzzzzzz sleepyhead's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Online FPS (versus/team and co-op) level goodness:

    Versus:
    The levels should be simple to learn but have lots to master. One of the best maps I have played is WCA1 on Warsow; simple, not too open, a new guy wouldn't get instantly mullered everytime and just lots of routes to move around. You can camp or you can run around and it allows you, if you have the skill/intelligent play to be a one man army.

    Co-op:
    Multiple routes which forces team play; ie you can go one of many routes but it gives the enemy many vectors to attack you from.

    As for single player, everyone else has covered that really.

    In regards to weapons...I really enjoy the simplicity of L4D, a hunting rifle, sub machine gun, assault rifle, shotgun, auto shotgun and pistol. I also enjoy the classes in TF2, forcing you to have only certain guns/weapons means you're supposed to work as a team to cover each other's deficit.

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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    Quote Originally Posted by transylvanic View Post
    5. No empty stupid rooms. I really don't want exploration as part of my FPS experience. Leave the junk collection to the RPG crowd and just have signs leading to the armoury rooms. I don't mind if I get a hundred locked doors, if I'm running around a hostile location with a big gun, my objective should be to use that gun rather than checking out what people keep in their desk drawers.
    I think this is my main objection with Fallout 3 right now, which obviously isn't really an FPS as such. The problem is that I can't help but check all the stuff to see if I'm missing something really good (like a bobble head), and so I seem to spend most of my time rummaging through boxes and desks, etc, which frankly is as boring as ***k. I should just play it and ignore all the crap, but after 30 hours of play, right now the game seems pretty stale.

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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    For me it has to be something memorable.

    Like MoHAA on the very first level with the Omaha beach landing, FEAR where you are in the offices and the guys in the big robotic like suits attack you and there is glass flying everywhere.

    Looking back :

    Museum level on Blood 2 (2nd Level)

    The open area near the end of System Shock 2 just after you meet Shodan and then get attacked by the robots.

    Bioshock where you are in the theatre type area and get the pics of the people that you have to take out.

    TRON 2.0 where you are on the streets that are cracking open with viral infection

    Return to Castle Wolfenstein where you first fight the huge zombie thing in the lab

    Serious Sam when you go outside and are heading down a street and you get attacked by loads of bulls and skeletal horses

    Prey where you see the earth when you open the big blast doors

    There are so many really memorable parts in games. I have purposely not mentioned HL 1&2, granted they are both amazing games with some great set pieces but there are more decent FPS out there than just the HL series.

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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    There's lots as has been noted also changes depending on the type of fps
    online and off line is very different.

    Key collecting and other stuff collecting
    I don't mind "the door is locked you're going to need a key" it it's worked into the game, not like the old doom style, you wander half back across the map which is empty because you've killed everything already, find the one room you missed then go back through the empty map to the door.
    When done in structured way it's good, ie getting to the door, that opens a new area with the key, getting the key causes something else to happen so there are new monsters to fight to get back to the door, or the way back is blocked and you have to go another route.

    One thing I liked about the original HL was the recycling of maps, if you remember it, you go through black maser at the start then find yourself going back through later but a different route.

    one recent memorable bit of a game for me was quake4, stroggification.

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    Butter king GheeTsar's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a good, enjoyable level in an FPS game?

    I'm not usually one for stealth, but COD4 "All gillied up" mission was a real highlight of an excellent single player FPS (the unlock system in the multiplayer part is pretty ace too)

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