FPS games with intresting levels

[Xeogred]

Not UT, but Unreal Gold (the real single player) has fabulous level design and environments. Think Halo, but more varied and old school corridor/dungeon design. I always say it but it basically feels like it's Doom/Quake evolved. It's got that different sole level designer per "level" yet it all flows together perfectly. Talk about some of the best music ever too (Deus Ex composer).

Hard to beat Thief too. I like System Shock 2 more as a whole, but I'd say I liked Thief's level design more and the atmosphere was just insane. Lots of outdoor stuff in this one too. I seriously don't even know how to describe Thief's world. A very good take on strange neo-gothic tech. I even loved the levels that were just like, weird caves or temples with almost no combat or sneaking at all. The environments were just so damn weird and were quite an experience.

There was a few sections of System Shock 2 that definitely reminded me of Bioshock (yes I played them in reversed order, haha). That was pretty neat. System Shock 2 also kind of has the Metroid-esque thing going on with the whole ship for the most part being seamless and one huge place, whereas Thief is strictly level based and Unreal is broken up into huge areas, but still seamless.

[Menegrothx]

Ugh, every time I talk about Quake/UT I get both annoyed and sad that there aren't any popular fast paced FPS games anymore (not sure how popular Tribes: Ascend is though). It would be so awesome to have a game like that as an eSport as popular as SC2 with more players than COD or BF. Multilayered levels with a lot of jumping+risk/reward stuff, power ups and better guns surrounded by traps. Loads of precise timing; guns that can be charged up for a more powerful shot, richocheting shots off surfaces, using correct timing to kill other players by traps and so on. Oh and levels with cool themes like medieval castles, pyramids and stuff like that.
http://www.quantumrarity.com/wp-content ... Worlds.jpg

It hurts to say it but I guess we need to blame Counter Strike for the more "realistic" FPS games.

Thief indeed has a very intresting world but I wouldn't count it as a FPS game though. You don't really shoot with your bow that often, and you use it most of the time to make sneaking easier via different elemental arrows, rather than for killing enemies with broadhead arrows.

As good as the level design in the System Shock games is, the whole scifi/spaceship theme/look itself is quite bland.

[isiolia]

Ugh, every time I talk about Quake/UT I get both annoyed and sad that there aren't any popular fast paced FPS games anymore (not sure how popular Tribes: Ascend is though).

Think I linked it before when it was brought up, but maybe when ShootMania Storm gets released. They showcased it as kind of an eSport thing at E3.

[ExedExes]

I play a lot of FPS, and aside from the modern/WWII type settings, I always enjoyed Serious Sam 1.1 (Egypt) and 1.2 (Mexico/South America), they were some interesting locales.

[Hobie-wan]

Good calls. How's Painkiller? It's supposed to be a lot like Serious Sam

There are some military levels, but there is also a train station, some temples, old European town, a graveyard, and a mixed up 'limbo' level.

[J T]

Zeno Clash

[Ack]

I love the "level" design of games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Far Cry 2. I've learned to appreciate the openness of these games, though I realize that this is not necessarily what folks in this thread desire. Also, the caverns and ruins of The Ball are quite nice.

[BoringSupreez]

I never had more fun exploring and looking at the level designs than I did in Quake 1. It had a certain atmosphere that no other game has ever captured to my knowledge.

Halo 1 had a certain mysteriousness to it that I loved, and the '80s-style violent, rundown version of LA featured in Duke Nukem 3D was cool.

Hmm, I just realized that all the FPS games with interesting design are old. Even today's good shooters aren't really very interesting to look at or explore.

[J T]

Are we talking about interesting level design, or interesting/unique level environments?

If we are talking level design, I want to give proper credit to DOOM, for reasons mentioned here:

[Menegrothx]

Are we talking about interesting level design, or interesting/unique level environments?

Unique (or atleast unconventional) level environments. So themes like scifi, World war 2, Vietnam War, Urban warfare and Desert warfare (and all other realistic&modern day scenarios) are out.