Why Do Games Still Have Levels?

[wraggster]

Elite, the Metroid series, Dungeon Siege, God of War I and II, Half-Life (but not Half-Life 2), Shadow of the Colossus, the Grand Theft Auto series; some of the best games ever (and Dungeon Siege) have done away with the level mechanic and created uninterrupted game spaces devoid of loading screens and artificial breaks between periods of play. Much like cut scenes, level loads are anathema to enjoyment of game play, and a throwback to the era of the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 - when games were stored on cassette tapes, and memory was measured in kilobytes. So in this era of multi-megabyte and gigabyte memory and fast access storage devices why do we continue to have games that are dominated by the level structure, be they commercial (Portal), independent (Darwinia) and amateur (Angband)? Why do games still have levels?

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../11/21/1858240

[bm4n]

'Cuz levels are fun...Sometimes you need to break up the action. How would you split up a game like Portal if it played straight through? The level mechanic provides an ability to play just a bit of a game at a time; in your spare time without having to devote the time you do every time you load up a game like Fable or Oblivion. Also, in Portal half the fun is breaking records on levels, levels can increase the playability of a game by ten times. Look at Metal Gear Solid; every time you want to play it you beat the game. Imagine if you could just pick your favorite part; you'd play the game more. Then in a game like Crash Bandicoot 2 and 3 you play each level over and over getting more out of them each time.

So some games are awesome without levels; some are not. The mechanic of having levels in a game can be used for good or bad and must be decided by each game's developers with a lot of discrepancy. I'm distracted now because I'm watching The 40 Year Old Virgin so I think I may have lost my point. I think the point is that levels are NOT bad, just not perfect for every type of game.

The End.

[stevo11185]

EVERYONE DO NOT ENTER IN YOUR PASSWORD AND USERNAME IF A BOX COMES UP.

[Shadowblind]

Stevo: yes that did happen. Exit out of it, whatever the heck it is.

Different note, more insane games don't have levels anymore. Oblivion, Mass Effect, bioshock (relatively) dont have levels anymore.

[Accordion]

The "jerk.eternalnoob.net:80" password request is a little scary…please fix. I have only noticed it on this page though.

as for this topic… all those games have levels, and quite tight structures.
how are missions, linear location progression and serial bosses any different.
The only way a game cannot have levels is if is does not follow a linear progression. how many people find games with no goals fun?

[Emeriastone]

If you may recall, portal has levels at first--to keep you in the mindset that the game is structured this way, in secret the game has no levels at all, it's a psychological trick, something you find out in the end if you actually play it .

[bullhead]

The "jerk.eternalnoob.net:80" password request is a little scary…please fix. I have only noticed it on this page though.

as for this topic… all those games have levels, and quite tight structures.
how are missions, linear location progression and serial bosses any different.
The only way a game cannot have levels is if is does not follow a linear progression. how many people find games with no goals fun?

Ever play Postal?

[bm4n]

I think that jerk.eternalnoob.net pw request is from me...In fact I'm sure of it since that's my site. I have no idea why that pw request would come up for all of you. I'll delete all my posts if you keep having that issue because it freaks me out as much as it does you...let me know.

bm4n

[Junixx]

how many people find games with no goals fun?

I find Gmod quite fun :thumbup:

And..... Half Life 1 was level based?...... I think not...

[gunntims0103]

Levels seem to break up the action like chapters in a book and it also gives the player a basis to progress through difficulty at a more "rigid" rate. With games that don't use levels to progress the difficulty progresses smoothly as you move on in the game.