I recently beat an upcoming game I can’t talk about, but I can say this: It’s got at least one exceedingly good, incredibly well-designed level. Some of the others actually suffer a bit in comparison. But I’d definitely run that one level again...and probably more than once. That's not terribly unusual for me.

See, while I’ve made my position on replaying entire games pretty clear, I often dive back into specific experiences. I cut out the one or two pieces that knocked me on my ass with a deft mix of challenge, variety, exhilaration, imagination, and accomplishment, and I play them repeatedly.

Cool! I get to shoot James Cameron on the set of Avatar!

Long after I’ve memorized every nuance and every trick, I still can’t get over how amazing these sequences are. I wouldn’t necessarily qualify them as the BEST LEVELS EVAR! but more a recommended reading list where a lot of people get shot. Because whatever your loyalties or preferences, if you appreciate stellar game design, you owe yourself a hyper-violent trip through these little slices of heaven.

The Bog -- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

You probably don't think about the placement, number, and tactics of enemies in shooters too much, but when a developer executes those elements with surgical precision and sets the whole thing in four massive (and very different) firefights, you get something like The Bog. You assault a building filled with terrorists shooting at you from every window, secure the building in pitch darkness using night vision, defend it from another wave of baddies, and then go from close quarters to an open field. By the time you reach a stuck-in-the-mud tank, you've already been through the most harrowing combat imaginable...and you've still got to hold that position against all comers. Every second feels like you're about to be overwhelmed.

It can’t match the gleeful exuberance of Mile High Club, the clinical execution of Death From Above, or One Shot, One Kill's nail-biting trade offs, but for pure intensity, good luck finding any level in any shooter as well thought out as The Bog.

A Murder of Crows -- Hitman: Blood Money

Well before Dead Rising put a few hundred zombies on-screen, developer Io Interactive used some clever fakery to recreate the jam-packed streets of Mardi Gras. Then they tasked you with eliminating three people in bird costumes...without leaving any witnesses.

You tail bagmen through thick crowds and empty alleys, methodically scratch moving targets via “accidents,” steal vital information to locate more targets, and sneak past heavily armed guards to liquidate their boss. You're on the clock, too...one of your marks generates in a random location every time you play, and you've got to ice him before he assassinates some politico riding around on a parade float. Blood Money showcases a number of deliciously evil levels, but few require such an ever-changing skill set or provide such a visual feast. Plus, you drop a piano on someone’s head. That never gets old.

Always recycle, kids.
 

Truth and Reconciliation -- Halo: Combat Evolved

Haters gonna hate, but any shooter you care to name should take a cue from Truth and Reconciliation's superb pacing. Halo’s study in snipering begins on a quiet note (though it’s curious how nobody wakes up when you start firing an unsuppressed rifle), then ebbs and flows between silently picking off unsuspecting Covenant schmucks and massive firefights that erupt when somebody raises the alarm. You'll find yourself trapped in a maze of overlapping enemy fire, racing to take out entrenched positions before reinforcements arrive.

The escalation feels so smooth, you won't even notice the point where you've ditched that sniper rifle for anything with lots of bullets. And after you’ve ripped through most of your ammo, the level rounds off the fun by dropping two massive Hunters on you. Hey, nobody said infiltrating a Covenant warship would be easy.


The Milkman Conspiracy -- Psychonauts

Really, just about every level in Psychonauts qualifies as a psychotic treat that forces you to do new things with new powers, but The Milkman Conspiracy still stands out from the demented pack. Our hero, Raz, enters the delusional, conspiracy-fueled mind of Boyd the Milkman and finds a (literally) twisted suburbia inhabited by hidden cameras, mailboxes that follow you when you're not looking, secret agents in highly unconvincing undercover roles, and Girl Scout cultists.

Raz's clairvoyance takes center stage as he uses it to solve puzzles (watching an agent enter a security code) and even defeats a boss in pitch darkness by seeing the fight through her eyes. But the agents' monotone dialogue provides the real charm of Boyd's insanity, offering such gems as "I am in charge of assassinating important figures," and "Plants need water poured on them because they have no hands to hold glasses of water."

Polly want an arrow?

The Fifth Colossus -- Shadow of the Colossus

After wasting four gigantic beasts with your funny glow-sword and those cute little arrows, you probably think you’ve got the colossicide down pat. Thing is, those chumps never left the ground. Number five never touches it.

We're talking a magnificent winged creature who's content to gently cruise over a lake, and he’s just not very interested in you. So you’ve got to pester Rodan off his perch and piss him off until he dives at you. That’s when the fight of your life actually starts. Jump up, grab hold, and hang on for dear life as he banks and tries to shake you off. If that wasn't enough, you've got to crawl out onto both flapping wings and stab them, which prompts a few barrel rolls. Fun!

And if you don't feel like a complete asshole for killing this colossus -- who wasn't bothering anybody before you showed up -- you have no soul. Birdy doesn't just make for a spectacular fight...it marks the first point in the story where you start to sense the darker motivations in your "noble" quest.

Holy crap, I left Goldeneye’s Facility off the list! So tell us what game levels stick with you and why everybody should go play them right now.