I know it's been 2 years, but, honestly, that was by far the best part of the game for me. The rest of the game just seemed kinda ultimately pointless.
But any argument can sound good with a good speech and presentation. I played COD in the past enough to know there is none or VERY little innovation game design wise. This year there was a ton of new interesting games that (and this is just my opinion) deserves minutes of discussion on a channel like this (that again, in my opinion, is really good). Sorry for been all intense and passionate. I like this channel a lot. It's just a little thing that bugs me a little bit.
Call of Duty worked for a reason though. Infinity Ward was able to create some really good sequences that totally put you in the game Plus, names in video games means nothing. I don't know who did the game but I wouldn't surprised if they were different than the last game so no reason to assume it would be just as bad. That's why I wished we started to acknowledge who did the games instead of the companies or VA
I gotta say, I was suprised at the CoD level inclusion too, but you really sold it in the video. Can I dare to hope that they do this more often in future? In fact, I really loved all of the level breakdowns of stuff I didn't already know, the break down of this and the bank job+western ghats were all really interesting and nice.
What is interesting about is what it can do to hook people into other genres they normally wouldn't try like the Immersive Sims. Although Immersive Sims are popular anyway this has potential for other genres as well.
For me Prey's Talos 1 is by far the best level I have played this year, A logically thought out interconnected space station where all 200 of the crew can be found and accounted for. I felt like I was in a real lived in place.
One of my favorite levels this year was Hellblade's "blind" stage. Walking in the darkness having to relly on the outstanting sound and small glimpses of light to navigate really stuck with me. And, for some reason, i kept having silent hill vibes from the hole thing. It was good.
Man, I played the whole game with headphones on, but i couldn't do this one without speakers. Speakers and a well lit room. The whole trials chapter was great.
It might be cool in terms of atmosphere, (although imo it was nothing impressive) but in terms of level design it sucks just as much as all the other levels in Hellblade.
I've never heard of What Remains of Edith Finch before, but I think I'll check it out now, because holy shit, that's brilliant. Using the gameplay to put you in another character's shoes, to make you feel what he must have felt - that's using the medium to its fullest potential.
Definitely feels like one thing they all have in common is providing a little non-linearity and choice to scripted sequences. Even Edith Finch plays with the players attention to progress it's story. It's a trend I'm happy to see be proliferated this year - and hope to see more of it in the next.
" Definitely feels like one thing they all have in common is providing a little non-linearity and choice to scripted sequences " That's actually a trend I have come to dislike. Especially because of Bioware Games, I hate how every game must give you a big open-world with tons of stuff to do. Nothing wrong with a good linear game, that perfectly knows how to manage its pace to put you in or give you memorable sequence
@@tamaur8310 A little bit goes a long way. Ultimately that COD mission is the same linear Call of Duty we've always known, but just that touch of freedom makes it more engaging. Not everything needs to be a big open-world, just give the players a little bit of room to play different.
It's slightly different. In splatoon you can swim back and forth on the ink line, but in mario you commit to one direction until you reach the end. Either way, it's extremely useful for getting around, and both games pride themselves on having deep mechanisms for movement.
Ross Miller It's really a mix of that and the glass pipes from _3D World._ You can jump off the wires at any time, but always move automatically forward. There are specific challenges that are very reminiscent of ones found in _3D World,_ especially the parts involving the Fuzzy enemies.
Ben Hillman well, the wires allow you to travel to different paths and you can jump off in the middle. The stars in Galaxy are a set jump to the next location
Everyone raves about the daydream sequence in What Remains, but the bath scene was so beautiful and tragic it gave me a literal panic attack. Strongest emotional response to a game I've ever had.
These always makes me want to play the games I beat again with a different take on it. I feel like I appreciate them more when I hear Mark tenderly describes what makes these levels so great.
I just wanna say that I really appreciated how you said to check the desc for timestamps and skip any game you didn’t want spoiled. It’s the little things that count, and it also sounded much nicer and more caring than those you-tubers who just say, ‘Go play the game right now if you don’t want it spoiled!’, assuming we all just have buckets of endless money and time, and that we’ll wait to finish watching a damn video long enough to play an entire game. Keep it up.
It looks outstanding. I can't wait to play it now. It's exciting to see developers really getting creative with story telling and doing things that don't work in any other medium instead of relegating story to cut scenes or inexplicable audio logs.
One of my favorite levels this year is without a doubt the hike to Zora's Domain in Breath of the Wild. It's such a unique and dynamic area because it takes everything you've been doing the rest of the game and twists it. You can't climb anymore so the area is tackled section by section and it really stands out as a way of making Link feel genuinely powered down without also feeling contrived. Course nothing else in the game matches the quality of this area but as an isolated area it's fantastic.
Another really cool thing about that section is that in typical BoTW style, it lets you completely skip the section if you get creative with it. You can make a staircase up the waterfall on the sides of the domain, and use that to get in. There’s even a special cutscene to show that you did that! Zora’s Domain is definitely one of the best parts of BoTW, very well designed.
What dark magic allows you to both play all these games and make these videos as well as you do? I'd love to get my hands on some of it some day. Fantastic stuff as always.
I guess it is his full time job, but it's still impressive that he can make so many of these high quality videos and not just get trapped playing video games forever
at 1:06 there is a list supposed to look like it is all of the timestamps and names for the different levels listed in the video. If you actually look at it, it is a joke, with some of the levels being "Starwars Battlefront 2 - Loot Crate Store" and "Cuphead - Tutorial"
I always love how different your best of the year videos are. Man, I have got to play Mario Odyssey. New Donk City sounds delightful. Sadly I haven't played too many games released in 2017, but the best video game level I can recall from games I've played this year is the tower from episode 3 of the new King's Quest. Visually stunning, the game sets up anticipation to reach it, and getting to the top is an ordeal. Then you're stuck there until the end of the episode. Few rooms and all the puzzles have smart signposting that pushed me in the right direction, while I thought I was easily solving the puzzles. Memorable characters as well, and the interludes away from the tower help as a change of pace. I look forward to your video on the best game of the year.
I gotta give a shoutout to The Snow Kingdom in Mario Odyssey which I swear nobody talks about. The way the level starts with such a horrendous snowstorm with little visibility makes it seem like it's going to be an extremely hostile level. However, the moment you make it to Shiveria, it becomes the warmest, most lovable place you can be in the winter. As someone from Chicago who moved to LA this year, this level made me extremely homesick above all else.
Great video Mark. That Edith Finch level had me in tears, mainly because it so closely resembled my own life experiences in recent years. I love how indie developers are willing to take risks with game mechanics to tell a story. I thought that level was brave, engaging and incredibly moving.
Liberation really stood out to me in the COD WWII campaign as well. One detail I really like was fighting alongside Rousseau and the SAS guy as Daniels. For some reason playing alongside characters you've played as just feels really rewarding and engages me more in a game.
I am glad that you included persona 5 music in here because I would definitely include the hub world of that game in this list. The persona games do a fantastic job of creating a sense of a living world where there is always a different thing to do. I also think that there are levels in neir automata that I'd include like the robot circus level.
Mafia Town in A Hat in Time is one of my favourites. The way the different missions tie into one another and the number of collectables you can find in the level altogether. Just a great mix.
glad to see edith finch gettin some love i was so skeptical when i started on that, but hoo boy, they sure pushed the concept of a 'walking sim' / 'fpx' / 'digital interactive installation' to new heights
The White Palace from Hollow Knight Almost no enemies, just hard 2D plataforming challenges that will make full use of the wonderful movement mechanics of the game
Hollow knight is less impressive in the individual levels and much more interesting in the world as a whole, how memorable each location is and how well everything links together. I will admit, though, that the city of tears is a really great area.
VonSeux he specified in the video it's "however the game splices up its contents" I would argue Cuphead's bossfights counts, since they're not inside a broader level -- they are the level.
Rainbow lizard - for Hollow knight - haunting music in that area . I liked to travel through it just to hear it crescendo as the space opened up down there
I feel like you looked over Sonic Forces completely. It was a masterful blend of limiting the player's space of movement and letting them wear a hat that said 'Gamer' on it. Unsubbed.
Fans gotta stop acting like a sonic forces was some masterpiece because it wasn't. It had some good stages but it wasnt mind blowing amazing. Plus the terrible cutscenes, cringy dialogue, the terrible characters and "story" ruins the game as a whole. The same 3D Sonic nonsense.
6:32 and 6:52 - Seriously. It is 2017 and FINALLY someone caught on to how to make a linear story play out properly in a non-linear design structure! Glad to see this finally implemented!!
A part of the Lewis Finch level that I'm surprised you didn't mention is how the increasingly more colorful and whimsical daydream instills not happiness, but dread. Because based on the rest of the game, you know how it ends. Spoiler: Not happily ever after. For real though, I played that game in one sitting and it kinda fucked me up for a few days.
I don’t know if I’m crazy or just paranoid but the game along with bringing dread and sadness also stopped me from being paranoid about death and opened up my life. Each character reflects something about me, like Lewis and my imagination or Calvin and acting on that imagination
It's a shame Nier:Automata didn't end up being for you. I feel there were some quite interresting levels in the game. The hacking infiltration mission, the beginning mission of route c and the final level including its boss would come to mind, for me at least. I don't know whether they would have made the list, as i haven't played that many games this year, so my frame of reference is limited, but they were definetly interresting.
Kay play none of the gameplay is new or fun in that outside of the bullet hell, the hacking minigames are repetitive, and the bosses have been done better in previous plat games
Probably 3 years too late, but.... It’s actually a really fun campaign! Probably not *the best* cod campaign but it’s still pretty bloody good. My advice - ignore what you see or read on the internet. Maybe listen to a few trusted voices, for example Angry Joe has never done me wrong. But otherwise, fb, TH-cam, wherever else, just ignore what anyone has to say and form your own opinion.
Thank you very much sir. After seeing your videos and after 2 years working in the gaming industry, I am thinking of studying game designing and becoming a game designer. It seems so much challenging and fun to me
Fantastic watch. Even though I never really got into the franchise, it's good to see CoD getting back to its roots and finding at least some ways to mix up the formula. Also I absolutely KNEW New Donk City would be on the list. Hot damn what a tightly packed bundle of pure joy and variety. Anybody know if you can replay the Festival?
theunsungbard You can replay the festival! Just go into the town hall again. At the front of the crowd, on the left side, there's a guy you can talk to in order to replay the festival =)
6:00 That puzzle kind vaguely reminds me of the master sword puzzle in LoZ TP. Maybe it's just the giant stone statues and needing the main character to jump from grid based platform to platform. Another great video Mark I really enjoyed it.
Though maybe not technically considered "levels," Eventide Island, the Master Trials, the Divine Beasts, and Hyrule Castle were all excellent bits of design in Breath of the Wild.
For me the standout 'level' of BotW is either Eventide Island which is basically the entire game in miniature, at least the non dungeon portions of the game, though suffers from a poor arrival point can completely screw you over if you're replaying it on a second profile with three hearts especially, or the Tarrey Town questline which despite every step of it being some of the weakest quests in the game when taken in isolation - Go to this place and find a person with this skill who's name ends in son interwoven with collect a lot of wood - the act of gradually building up the town is just plain delicious and I really hope the follow up comes quickly by 3d Zelda standards and basically Majora's Masks the game with a smaller, more intimate, scope, and the opportunity to build up several settlements in that style with more engaging individual steps in the quest chains, maybe with some Dark Genie style simple, inconsequential except for side quests even, decision making on how to build up the town.
I wasn't comparing to past Zelda dungeons. I am comparing to games of 2017, which is what Mark is talking about in the video. But since you brought it up, I happen to think the areas I mentioned from Breath are among the best in the series in terms of being non-linear, 3D spacial puzzles that can be solved in a variety of different ways.
Which, based on the Boss Keys series so far, seems like exactly what Mark looks for in a good Zelda dungeon - puzzle boxes that you solve from the inside.
Its so funny how the metro kingdom was the biggest uncertainty Factor on initial reveal and now its favorite level of all Mario games and whatnot. Sonic 06 done right :-D
the invisible tutorial of great plateau is probably the best open world idea of the year. Yes other games did it (i think?) but the way BotW does it is almost perfect.
Dang it Mark, I checked out the time codes and I saw no fewer than 4 games I really want to play. It's one of those episodes it seems, where I can't actually watch it due to spoilers. I must say though, you do great work as always Mark. Keep it up. (Okay, 5 games, I saw that bit about Lewis Finch and realized how that describes me at work a lot of the time.)
New Donk kinda lacks the unique landmarks that other kingdoms in the game have, which might not get in the way of progressing through the game normally (as you can easily ignore most of the main map), but turns out to be a huge pain when going for 100%. It's easy to forget which areas you've checked for regional coins or which side areas you've completed, which can needlessly draw out the experience. Jumping between buildings is fun (I prefer doing it in the gritty rainy setting because it's more demanding and rewards by skipping part of the linear path), but as a world I prefer the more sprawling kingdoms in the game in which I can tell different areas apart easily.
My favorite level of 2017 is the Blindness Shard Trial in Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice. The level mechanics used in that game with the emphasis of sound, controller vibration, as well as the movements and reactions Senua makes as she brushes with danger, really adds to the atmosphere and feel.
So, I think my favorite level of this year was probably Nier's "tutorial"/demo... 5 hours and you're still repeating the same shit but die stupidly because you just wanted to play the game on hard really gives someone a good feeling when you finally see that giant ass explosion at the end... Ugh... It was so, easy to just, not die, but it arbitrarily just, feels off if you don't get that little win...
For me it was the "Become As Gods" escape from the factory. It doesn't add anything new to the gameplay (it still plays great of course) but the way how the camera, music, background and 2D-3D-shifts work here make this thing nearly unforgetable for me
Oh yeah, the tutorial level was definitly the best level in the game. Not because of the difficulty, but just because of the way it loops around itself. I'm really disappointed about the fact, that it's the only area with an interesting layout.
Great video and nice selection. Personally I've played three of them (Uncharted, Mario and Edith Finch) and I would also put them on a list of great levels. New Donk City was a joy, The Western Ghats perfectly takes Uncharted formula and makes more open and non-linear and Lewis Finch part (well, and all the game) for telling such an emotional story in a clever way.
Quiet as a mouse was the entire reason that made the level fun. Not being able to do any takedowns, and at the same time not get seen, was such a fun challenge
The COD was surprising, but you sold why it was there - but watching the assassinations in it made me queasy. "Visceral" is not a good thing in my book. How do people play these?
That Lewis Finch segment just sold me on the game. That was beautiful
yeah holy shit
Keep tissues near :)
I don't understand why there was a SPOILERS
guillotine though... His head wouldn't have fit under thr fish one so how did it happen in the real world?
Ben Wall
just my guess but if you actively lop off your forearm (his hand/wrist could’ve fit there) you’d absolutely bleed out and die.
I know it's been 2 years, but, honestly, that was by far the best part of the game for me. The rest of the game just seemed kinda ultimately pointless.
1:06
Thought I got some cheeky spoilers as to what's in this episode, but ended up giggling at a hilarious little detail!
i loved this part
So good!
green hill zone seriously again I laughted when I saw that
Didn't even notice lol.
Never thought you would make me appreciate game design in Call of Duty, Mark. You did the unthinkable
Same here
the level WAS outstanding though :D
But any argument can sound good with a good speech and presentation. I played COD in the past enough to know there is none or VERY little innovation game design wise. This year there was a ton of new interesting games that (and this is just my opinion) deserves minutes of discussion on a channel like this (that again, in my opinion, is really good).
Sorry for been all intense and passionate. I like this channel a lot. It's just a little thing that bugs me a little bit.
Call of Duty worked for a reason though. Infinity Ward was able to create some really good sequences that totally put you in the game
Plus, names in video games means nothing. I don't know who did the game but I wouldn't surprised if they were different than the last game so no reason to assume it would be just as bad. That's why I wished we started to acknowledge who did the games instead of the companies or VA
It's like a Easter basket haha
I gotta say, I was suprised at the CoD level inclusion too, but you really sold it in the video. Can I dare to hope that they do this more often in future? In fact, I really loved all of the level breakdowns of stuff I didn't already know, the break down of this and the bank job+western ghats were all really interesting and nice.
DroehnIng There are also no hobnails on the boots. More like slip of duty amiright?
What is interesting about is what it can do to hook people into other genres they normally wouldn't try like the Immersive Sims.
Although Immersive Sims are popular anyway this has potential for other genres as well.
I don't think he sold it at all. I felt like he was describing ANY old-school Medal of Honor level.
Tiago dos Reis Rodrigues i mean he is talking about levels from 2017
don't think that was cod but I don't know my fish
1:05
That list is beautiful.
I saw Battlefield II loot boxes something and had to go back and paused to laugh. ahahahahahh
Hahaha didn't even notice that!
totally missed that.
Very good video man!
Thanks dude!
For me Prey's Talos 1 is by far the best level I have played this year, A logically thought out interconnected space station where all 200 of the crew can be found and accounted for. I felt like I was in a real lived in place.
One of my favorite levels this year was Hellblade's "blind" stage. Walking in the darkness having to relly on the outstanting sound and small glimpses of light to navigate really stuck with me. And, for some reason, i kept having silent hill vibes from the hole thing. It was good.
Man, I played the whole game with headphones on, but i couldn't do this one without speakers. Speakers and a well lit room. The whole trials chapter was great.
It might be cool in terms of atmosphere, (although imo it was nothing impressive) but in terms of level design it sucks just as much as all the other levels in Hellblade.
@@nikitas1841 Well...that's just like your opinion man
My dream is to make an amazing game to be featured by Mark Brown.
you and me both
@@Day13May yup
10:25 GODDAMNIT
ikr XD
FAIL xD
lol
EVERY TIME
What am I missing here?
I've never heard of What Remains of Edith Finch before, but I think I'll check it out now, because holy shit, that's brilliant. Using the gameplay to put you in another character's shoes, to make you feel what he must have felt - that's using the medium to its fullest potential.
1:06 those joke timestamps haha.
11/10 lootbox store very atmospheric.
Can't forget 1-2 switch milk minigame!
I had to pause and check to see if those were real, hahaha
@@JohnDoe-ys1vb you mean 9/11?
Gosh darn it I was going to f r i c k i n g say that
Definitely feels like one thing they all have in common is providing a little non-linearity and choice to scripted sequences. Even Edith Finch plays with the players attention to progress it's story. It's a trend I'm happy to see be proliferated this year - and hope to see more of it in the next.
" Definitely feels like one thing they all have in common is providing a little non-linearity and choice to scripted sequences "
That's actually a trend I have come to dislike. Especially because of Bioware Games, I hate how every game must give you a big open-world with tons of stuff to do. Nothing wrong with a good linear game, that perfectly knows how to manage its pace to put you in or give you memorable sequence
@@tamaur8310 A little bit goes a long way. Ultimately that COD mission is the same linear Call of Duty we've always known, but just that touch of freedom makes it more engaging. Not everything needs to be a big open-world, just give the players a little bit of room to play different.
You tease us with the Persona 5 OST in the beginning and end. You've got to have enough to say about that game for one video.
Yeah, bugging me haha.
We know it would be Nijima's Palace anyway.
I agree, it's why I watched this video!
The spacewalk from Prey stands out to me as one of the most memorable moments I've played for years. It was absolutely terrifying.
That sticks out in my mind as well. The entire world design in that game is great, as are all of the individual sections/levels.
Excellent video Mark.
excellent mark
I swear when I finish my game you are going to get a special thanks credit. These videos are better than my degree.
That description in the video is solid gold.
I like how Nintendo just took the wire travel out of splatoon and put it directly into Mario.
It's slightly different. In splatoon you can swim back and forth on the ink line, but in mario you commit to one direction until you reach the end. Either way, it's extremely useful for getting around, and both games pride themselves on having deep mechanisms for movement.
Ross Miller
It's really a mix of that and the glass pipes from _3D World._ You can jump off the wires at any time, but always move automatically forward. There are specific challenges that are very reminiscent of ones found in _3D World,_ especially the parts involving the Fuzzy enemies.
Is the wire travel really that dissimilar to being launched along paths between planetoids in Mario galaxy?
Ben Hillman well, the wires allow you to travel to different paths and you can jump off in the middle. The stars in Galaxy are a set jump to the next location
Well Splatoon was a Mario game before it became the Splatoon that we know.
You got me with the Time Stamp screenshot.
Everyone raves about the daydream sequence in What Remains, but the bath scene was so beautiful and tragic it gave me a literal panic attack. Strongest emotional response to a game I've ever had.
These always makes me want to play the games I beat again with a different take on it. I feel like I appreciate them more when I hear Mark tenderly describes what makes these levels so great.
this gone be good. My favourite show about video games. Clicking the like before watching, because all of marks GMTK videos are good!
I love your timestamps in the description for avoiding spoilers. Best feature in the video and I'll be coming back after I play Lost Legacy.
lol at the fake list in 1:05
I didn't catch that at first lol
oh...i get it now
I just wanna say that I really appreciated how you said to check the desc for timestamps and skip any game you didn’t want spoiled.
It’s the little things that count, and it also sounded much nicer and more caring than those you-tubers who just say, ‘Go play the game right now if you don’t want it spoiled!’, assuming we all just have buckets of endless money and time, and that we’ll wait to finish watching a damn video long enough to play an entire game.
Keep it up.
Had to skip the first three, but now I think I need to play What Remains of Edith Finch.
It's good. But it's a tragedy
Do. Its a very clever game.
It looks outstanding. I can't wait to play it now. It's exciting to see developers really getting creative with story telling and doing things that don't work in any other medium instead of relegating story to cut scenes or inexplicable audio logs.
same
yup
Great work Mark, I am so glad that I discovered your work this year.
One of my favorite levels this year is without a doubt the hike to Zora's Domain in Breath of the Wild. It's such a unique and dynamic area because it takes everything you've been doing the rest of the game and twists it. You can't climb anymore so the area is tackled section by section and it really stands out as a way of making Link feel genuinely powered down without also feeling contrived. Course nothing else in the game matches the quality of this area but as an isolated area it's fantastic.
Another really cool thing about that section is that in typical BoTW style, it lets you completely skip the section if you get creative with it. You can make a staircase up the waterfall on the sides of the domain, and use that to get in. There’s even a special cutscene to show that you did that!
Zora’s Domain is definitely one of the best parts of BoTW, very well designed.
Why do I read all these comments in Mark's voice?
+100
The hike into Zora's Domain just flowed so naturally, even the way you could easily stumble into that questline early into the game.
Eeeeeexcept with Revali's Gale which allows you to ignore the rain because you can just fly up wherever you want
The little area on top of the peak above the falls with the Lynel and lightning arrows might be my favorite part of the game.
I look forward to these videos every week. Dude’s voice is so articulate. Seems like a decent chap and the subject matter is always top notch.
What dark magic allows you to both play all these games and make these videos as well as you do? I'd love to get my hands on some of it some day. Fantastic stuff as always.
Obviously at least one Time-Turner survived the Department of Mysteries battle...
I guess it is his full time job, but it's still impressive that he can make so many of these high quality videos and not just get trapped playing video games forever
He also writes (or at least wrote) game reviews for a living. So that helps, I guess
Hardcore gamer, god-tier video editor, and insanely clever journalist.
Yep, my favorite TH-camr.
That fake list a minute in is A+ nonsense
i don't get it.... explain?
at 1:06 there is a list supposed to look like it is all of the timestamps and names for the different levels listed in the video. If you actually look at it, it is a joke, with some of the levels being "Starwars Battlefront 2 - Loot Crate Store" and "Cuphead - Tutorial"
I always love how different your best of the year videos are. Man, I have got to play Mario Odyssey. New Donk City sounds delightful.
Sadly I haven't played too many games released in 2017, but the best video game level I can recall from games I've played this year is the tower from episode 3 of the new King's Quest. Visually stunning, the game sets up anticipation to reach it, and getting to the top is an ordeal. Then you're stuck there until the end of the episode. Few rooms and all the puzzles have smart signposting that pushed me in the right direction, while I thought I was easily solving the puzzles. Memorable characters as well, and the interludes away from the tower help as a change of pace.
I look forward to your video on the best game of the year.
That timestamp joke was lovely.
Mark I just gotta say thank you for making this channel it means a lot to me!
I gotta give a shoutout to The Snow Kingdom in Mario Odyssey which I swear nobody talks about.
The way the level starts with such a horrendous snowstorm with little visibility makes it seem like it's going to be an extremely hostile level. However, the moment you make it to Shiveria, it becomes the warmest, most lovable place you can be in the winter.
As someone from Chicago who moved to LA this year, this level made me extremely homesick above all else.
Great video Mark. That Edith Finch level had me in tears, mainly because it so closely resembled my own life experiences in recent years. I love how indie developers are willing to take risks with game mechanics to tell a story. I thought that level was brave, engaging and incredibly moving.
That persona music in the intro. So good.
YES! So happy to see another GMTK video. And 20min long! Thanks, Mark. Best early Christmas present ever.
Hey Tim.
Hello, fellow Tim.
Not even joking, I had to hold back tears when I realized what was happening at that point of What Remains of Edith Finch.
I always look forward to these every year now and this one did not disappoint.
It's about time bubsy made it into a Game Maker's Toolkit episode, even if it is through easter egg.
Liberation really stood out to me in the COD WWII campaign as well. One detail I really like was fighting alongside Rousseau and the SAS guy as Daniels.
For some reason playing alongside characters you've played as just feels really rewarding and engages me more in a game.
I am glad that you included persona 5 music in here because I would definitely include the hub world of that game in this list. The persona games do a fantastic job of creating a sense of a living world where there is always a different thing to do. I also think that there are levels in neir automata that I'd include like the robot circus level.
Nastigracea the casino palace was way better
Duuuuude your videos are so gooood. Very nice editing and background music choices, well done.
Glad Edith Finch got some love. One of my GOTY.
Mafia Town in A Hat in Time is one of my favourites. The way the different missions tie into one another and the number of collectables you can find in the level altogether. Just a great mix.
1:06
TH-cam gold
glad to see edith finch gettin some love
i was so skeptical when i started on that, but hoo boy, they sure pushed the concept of a 'walking sim' / 'fpx' / 'digital interactive installation' to new heights
Persona music on point in the intro.
MrAssukka and the outro
I wonder if that’s a hint to what the innovative game of 2017 might be... ;)
Little1Cave persona 5 is far from being innovative
John Johnson I wouldn’t know. Never played it. I never thought I’d see him mention CoD in regards to level design, yet here we are. Lol
Never saw it coming too.
Really glad you gave A Hat In Time a shoutout, easily one of my favorite games this year.
The White Palace from Hollow Knight
Almost no enemies, just hard 2D plataforming challenges that will make full use of the wonderful movement mechanics of the game
That fish sequence is brilliant. I can’t believe I haven’t heard of it until now
Surprised there was no mention of cuphead or hollow knight, but every entry clearly earned it's place!
Hollow knight is less impressive in the individual levels and much more interesting in the world as a whole, how memorable each location is and how well everything links together. I will admit, though, that the city of tears is a really great area.
I want to see more videos on the boss design, specially
Basically I love the game and I want to know more about why that is the case xD
Cuphead is focused on boss battles, not levels
VonSeux he specified in the video it's "however the game splices up its contents"
I would argue Cuphead's bossfights counts, since they're not inside a broader level -- they are the level.
Rainbow lizard - for Hollow knight - haunting music in that area . I liked to travel through it just to hear it crescendo as the space opened up down there
please - never, ever stop doing your thing mark. so good!
I feel like you looked over Sonic Forces completely. It was a masterful blend of limiting the player's space of movement and letting them wear a hat that said 'Gamer' on it. Unsubbed.
Davi Long True dat
how could you forget the sanic shirt, and you're willing to call yourself a sonic fan? for shame
He didn't: look closely at the 1:06 mark.
Check out SupaGoGoMan's videos of Forces. He does a solid analysis of the stages.
Fans gotta stop acting like a sonic forces was some masterpiece because it wasn't. It had some good stages but it wasnt mind blowing amazing. Plus the terrible cutscenes, cringy dialogue, the terrible characters and "story" ruins the game as a whole. The same 3D Sonic nonsense.
Mark, i was not planing on playing the campagn of CODWW2, but you convinced me to go and play it :) i love me some good underdog story
My favorite... Great plateau, Zelda BotW. Just see the reaction at E3 2016 to understand.
Man, I love your channel. Your videos are really inspiring to me as a guy who wants to write stories and make games. Keep it up!
A video about level design and *Prey* isn't in it.
The whole game is one giant masterful level :/
6:32 and 6:52 - Seriously. It is 2017 and FINALLY someone caught on to how to make a linear story play out properly in a non-linear design structure! Glad to see this finally implemented!!
A part of the Lewis Finch level that I'm surprised you didn't mention is how the increasingly more colorful and whimsical daydream instills not happiness, but dread. Because based on the rest of the game, you know how it ends. Spoiler: Not happily ever after.
For real though, I played that game in one sitting and it kinda fucked me up for a few days.
I don’t know if I’m crazy or just paranoid but the game along with bringing dread and sadness also stopped me from being paranoid about death and opened up my life. Each character reflects something about me, like Lewis and my imagination or Calvin and acting on that imagination
Love your work Mark, consistently enjoyable and professional. Hope you continue to find success.
It's a shame Nier:Automata didn't end up being for you. I feel there were some quite interresting levels in the game. The hacking infiltration mission, the beginning mission of route c and the final level including its boss would come to mind, for me at least. I don't know whether they would have made the list, as i haven't played that many games this year, so my frame of reference is limited, but they were definetly interresting.
Kay play none of the gameplay is new or fun in that outside of the bullet hell, the hacking minigames are repetitive, and the bosses have been done better in previous plat games
One of the most enjoyable channels on youtube.
The COD level sounds great! Wonder why I haven't heard more about it. I got the sentiment that the campaign was really boring/stale.
Probably 3 years too late, but....
It’s actually a really fun campaign! Probably not *the best* cod campaign but it’s still pretty bloody good.
My advice - ignore what you see or read on the internet. Maybe listen to a few trusted voices, for example Angry Joe has never done me wrong.
But otherwise, fb, TH-cam, wherever else, just ignore what anyone has to say and form your own opinion.
Thank you very much sir. After seeing your videos and after 2 years working in the gaming industry, I am thinking of studying game designing and becoming a game designer. It seems so much challenging and fun to me
Fantastic watch. Even though I never really got into the franchise, it's good to see CoD getting back to its roots and finding at least some ways to mix up the formula. Also I absolutely KNEW New Donk City would be on the list. Hot damn what a tightly packed bundle of pure joy and variety. Anybody know if you can replay the Festival?
theunsungbard yeah, just go back into concert room and talk to a guy on the left.
theunsungbard You can replay the festival! Just go into the town hall again. At the front of the crowd, on the left side, there's a guy you can talk to in order to replay the festival =)
You can! I think you talk to someone inside the townhall to replay it.
Nope, it's impossible.
6:00 That puzzle kind vaguely reminds me of the master sword puzzle in LoZ TP. Maybe it's just the giant stone statues and needing the main character to jump from grid based platform to platform.
Another great video Mark I really enjoyed it.
Though maybe not technically considered "levels," Eventide Island, the Master Trials, the Divine Beasts, and Hyrule Castle were all excellent bits of design in Breath of the Wild.
jadimich they were good but you're comparing that to the Past Zelda dungeons, they aren't too good
For me the standout 'level' of BotW is either Eventide Island which is basically the entire game in miniature, at least the non dungeon portions of the game, though suffers from a poor arrival point can completely screw you over if you're replaying it on a second profile with three hearts especially, or the Tarrey Town questline which despite every step of it being some of the weakest quests in the game when taken in isolation - Go to this place and find a person with this skill who's name ends in son interwoven with collect a lot of wood - the act of gradually building up the town is just plain delicious and I really hope the follow up comes quickly by 3d Zelda standards and basically Majora's Masks the game with a smaller, more intimate, scope, and the opportunity to build up several settlements in that style with more engaging individual steps in the quest chains, maybe with some Dark Genie style simple, inconsequential except for side quests even, decision making on how to build up the town.
I wasn't comparing to past Zelda dungeons. I am comparing to games of 2017, which is what Mark is talking about in the video. But since you brought it up, I happen to think the areas I mentioned from Breath are among the best in the series in terms of being non-linear, 3D spacial puzzles that can be solved in a variety of different ways.
Which, based on the Boss Keys series so far, seems like exactly what Mark looks for in a good Zelda dungeon - puzzle boxes that you solve from the inside.
Yeah, I suspect he's just saving it because he knows it's going to be the focus of his final Boss Keys video.
the bank job was so great. it nails the feeling of heists with the unique options and moving vault.
Its so funny how the metro kingdom was the biggest uncertainty Factor on initial reveal and now its favorite level of all Mario games and whatnot. Sonic 06 done right :-D
Outstanding video! Love the closer in-depth analysis of certain parts of games :3
I quite liked studiopolos from sonic mania
Great to watch while I wait for my job to start. Nice to think about design while I do simple tasks.
1:06 I had to pause but just to check that fake description XD
your channel is brilliant and i hate that im just now finding it.. cheers mate!!! great job
I skipped the entire video :(
Just watch Uncharted and Mario. The spoilers aren't too big. Also watch Call of Duty, 'cause we all know who wins :P
Insert spicy modern day zesty political commentary meme about nazis here.
Man your videos are always such an awesome treat. Love your work!
where’s great plateau from zelda,
the invisible tutorial of great plateau is probably the best open world idea of the year.
Yes other games did it (i think?) but the way BotW does it is almost perfect.
Dang it Mark, I checked out the time codes and I saw no fewer than 4 games I really want to play. It's one of those episodes it seems, where I can't actually watch it due to spoilers.
I must say though, you do great work as always Mark. Keep it up.
(Okay, 5 games, I saw that bit about Lewis Finch and realized how that describes me at work a lot of the time.)
New Donk kinda lacks the unique landmarks that other kingdoms in the game have, which might not get in the way of progressing through the game normally (as you can easily ignore most of the main map), but turns out to be a huge pain when going for 100%. It's easy to forget which areas you've checked for regional coins or which side areas you've completed, which can needlessly draw out the experience. Jumping between buildings is fun (I prefer doing it in the gritty rainy setting because it's more demanding and rewards by skipping part of the linear path), but as a world I prefer the more sprawling kingdoms in the game in which I can tell different areas apart easily.
You have convinced me to go play What Remains of Edith Finch!
the persona 5 soundtrack is SO fucking good
My favorite level of 2017 is the Blindness Shard Trial in Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice. The level mechanics used in that game with the emphasis of sound, controller vibration, as well as the movements and reactions Senua makes as she brushes with danger, really adds to the atmosphere and feel.
So, I think my favorite level of this year was probably Nier's "tutorial"/demo...
5 hours and you're still repeating the same shit but die stupidly because you just wanted to play the game on hard really gives someone a good feeling when you finally see that giant ass explosion at the end... Ugh... It was so, easy to just, not die, but it arbitrarily just, feels off if you don't get that little win...
For me it was the "Become As Gods" escape from the factory. It doesn't add anything new to the gameplay (it still plays great of course) but the way how the camera, music, background and 2D-3D-shifts work here make this thing nearly unforgetable for me
Oh yeah, the tutorial level was definitly the best level in the game. Not because of the difficulty, but just because of the way it loops around itself. I'm really disappointed about the fact, that it's the only area with an interesting layout.
After the credits rolled I immediately deleted it. That should explain how I felt about the game.
+LOL Icon
Well, every good player deleted parts of it after the credits ;)
+LOL Icon the question is, which credits?
So glad A Hat in Time got mentioned at the end there
That COD level is ordinary compared to great levels from other games. It only stands out from the pure brainless linearity of its usual level design.
Great video and nice selection. Personally I've played three of them (Uncharted, Mario and Edith Finch) and I would also put them on a list of great levels. New Donk City was a joy, The Western Ghats perfectly takes Uncharted formula and makes more open and non-linear and Lewis Finch part (well, and all the game) for telling such an emotional story in a clever way.
all the persona 5 music and it isnt on the list, ts ts ts.
jks aside, great video! :D
Awesome video. I'm really into pretty much anything level design, so it was great to see this.
Good list, but the CoD level is only amazing for CoD's standards. I would've put something else.
Wow. I gave up on COD about 6 games ago, but Mark has sold me on giving WWII a shot.
1st place was a COD level?
get in the bunker now!
Just played What Remains of Edith Finch yesterday and it's such a great experience.
8:27 What was that word, lunch-e-on Kingdom? Aren't you a grown ass man?! You should know how to say the word luncheon!
Quiet as a mouse was the entire reason that made the level fun. Not being able to do any takedowns, and at the same time not get seen, was such a fun challenge
The COD was surprising, but you sold why it was there - but watching the assassinations in it made me queasy. "Visceral" is not a good thing in my book. How do people play these?
Trapfly's Magicka Compendium I get most of that - it's just the last bit (where it stops) that doesn't process for me.
You added my favorite level from Edith Finch, this makes me so happy, lol.