This thread is not a discussion of why game mechanics make fighting over stuff so much fun, but why the stuff we're supposed to fight over is so intriguing. Levels really do make or break games, so it's important to discuss which levels from what games make you feel "at home" in them, and why. After all, what good is fighting over virtual space, if it doesn't appeal to you anyway?

Mine would be (in no order):

League of Legends / DOTA / DOTA 2 (The reason why I posted this thread)

There's something about how a perfectly balanced map allows players to play some 118 asymmetrically balanced characters in mostly random combinations and can do it consistently for almost a decade. - 2k wins and counting means something right? Treatment? Yeah, probably.

World of Warcraft - Alterac Valley & Northrend.

For 9 years, this game has been my addiction and curse for the sole reason that this battleground is a masterpiece of combat oriented level design. I love World of Warcraft, because of this battleground - especially the old school version. I hate just about everything else in the game, but the enjoyment I got out of AV pushed me to snort the warp dust and relapse again and again.

Side note - I really like the scenery of Northrend, i.e the mountains, the aurora borealis, the ice, and especially the colors of the Bloodspore Plains. Equally grimdark and colorful - a rare treat in a normally very drab color palate of death and destruction.

Metro - Battlefield 3

There was just something about this map in the beta when I was able to play with a friend on his xbox 360. I know that this map has a certain quality about it that divides the BF fans in half. Some love it. Some absolutely hate it. On the game mode Rush however, this map was probably the best in the franchise. Maybe it was the sound of shrieking RPG's screaming past your head in train cars. Maybe it was the close quarters of savage, inhuman fighting that drove players insane months later after the beta to almost boycot the map itself. Maybe it was the darkness permeated by the bulbous flashes of merciless death and destruction. For me however, it was the most glorious experience I had in the game without the use of vehicles.

What are your top 3 levels? Why are you so fond of them? I am also interested in what the devs have to say about this topic - especially their reasons why.

Even if narrative isn't a particularly strong point in the game (although that couldn't be true if they're engaging one of the Black Library authors), I'd like each level to make some sort of sense to the larger conflict and even if they don't force the story down our throats, I'd like for the level itself to tease some possibilities.

To me, story is the largest reason I play games. It's why I go back to games. EC may not immediately rub that itch, but 40k does.

I don't really have a top 3 levels though to be honest for that reason. I enjoy each level on it's own merit as long as it just 'makes sense.'

Boarding Action - Halo Combat Evolved.
This map featured 2 exposed vessels with teleporters to traverse between a large gap in space. There were enough teleporters within reach at a given time to escape fire from a single enemy as well as several covered segments to utilize.

Operation Locker - Battlefield 4
This map features 64 players in a prison facility. There were 3 routes that ran throughout the map: Underground hallway, main floor, and outside. Each had pro's and cons. If you were outside, your vision was limited by snow glare/snow fall. The underground hall featured the tightest corridors. The main hall had 3 juxtaposed small corridors into a large circular room. Operation Locker featured a large, detailed, exciting, immersive, dynamic battle field that gives very personal engagements.

Overgrown - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
An urban arena with a farm house, shed, field, gas station, and several marred buildings separated by a riverbed yet connected by 2 bridges and a blown out wall / fence in the center. This map is chosen because of its detail in level design in favor for the thinker. While there are obvious points for cover as well as high points, many less obvious shooting positions exist. I distinctly remember being able to press a sniper's scope between a barnhouse's sliding gate and the barn's wall itself and have a clear shot at the obvious lookout points across a bridge! Whether it's between fence boards, rubble, blades of grass, or windows, there were firing positions that both concealed (you would not notice a figure between fence boards while sprinting the river bed, nor someone's elbow sticking out of a barn house) the rifleman and gave enough vision for a marksman to have a viable line of fire. Either level designers have abandoned such details or I've been oblivious since dropping the time I spend on video games; regardless, I had great experiences over discovering those properties in video game arena.


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edit- I want to give mention to Tyro Station in Gears of War as well as every Mortal Komat arena with environmental executions. ^_^

Kashan Desert, Project Reality BF2:


An excellent blend of open fields, mountains, and urban terrain that allows a dynamic, constantly-changing battle and incredible strategic depth. Whether hunting enemy tanks from a mountaintop FOB, escorting a convoy across the open desert, or bitterly holding the bunkers against an overwhelming enemy force while you wait for reinforcements, Kashan Desert rarely failed to provide epic fights.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8GJb5Cl29U

I feel at home at these type of battles, if this was a setting in the warhammer 40k it would be in overdrive better, the gothic structures, the immerse looks, the details, the wrecked stoned floor and buildings around it blood spattered everywhere, enemies shouting at each other, the Grim dark outlook of it all, then we add rain from time to time to mix it up a bit for more immersion and thunder strikes at random. Bridge battles are not done in games that often and i feel as if they are forgotten but yet they can bring a lot of immersion and the battles favour strategy and tactics.

Heck could even make it dynamic and have the ability to destroy certain parts of the bridge making it not passable so you can call in one of the bridge laying tanks in order to pass.

Blood Gulch, Halo (Coagulation Canyon, etc.)
Alterac Valley, WoW (Blizzard killed it after vanilla WoW)
Brecourt, Call of Duty (think Band of Brothers, Sgt. Winters leads the assault of the german guns)



Edit: Why?
Blood Gulch was 1 of 2 levels with vehicles in Halo 1. It was also just an amazing level design; there were ledges, caves, open areas and hills. It was brilliant.
Alterac Valley encompassed what a battleground should be, a large scale conflict, that makes you feel like a warrior in a battle, not a Hero, unless you were awesome! (had an orc warrior with 70 kills, 0 deaths one time)
Brecourt was great in both single and multiplayer, but I chose this map because of all the Call of Duty maps, it gives you the best experience in both. Some maps were better when playing in single player, others in multiplayer, and some were exclusive to single player (Pegasus Bridge).

disappointed you chose CoD over BF series. I feel BF captured the full spectrum war aspect with massive maps and air/ground vehicles. While CoD felt like it was just fighting in two back yard.

oh dear god, so many to choose from and 2 decades of miss-spent time to recall.

BF2142 - Camp Gibraltar. Maybe not the best ever 2142 map or even the best Battlefield but this map more than any other defined the essence of great map design for me at the time. There were many battles across this map that left you raging at the screen because of a complete lack of team work and the inevitable loss that followed. The sort of douchebaggery and ineptitude that can only allow defeat to be snatched from the jaws of certain victory. But those games that had two sides balanced meant pitched battles and running gun fights through the streets for hours. If you took the city after a solid gold battle you really felt a sense of achievement.

Another Battlefield, this time Bad Company 2 and a selection because I honestly can't pick between them. Arica Harbour, Nelson Bay, Panama Canal, Port Valdez & White Pass. These maps on Conquest and Rush pretty much ran without interruption until we turned the server off.

A real oldie now but bare with me. I'm also picking a game and game mode in its entirety because I can't remember the names of individual maps (hinting at how far back I'm going). Delta Force : Black Hawk Down and the game type Team King of the Hill. It was a precursor to the the Battlefield objective style of game play but done very simply. Each map had an objective, you had to get a team member into it and start the timer that would count to a timer goal and victory. That was it. Just keep one team member alive in that zone for the time limit (10 minutes was the typical average) and you won. Thing is, if you all got killed that timer didn't just pause, it reset to zero. This game mode was epic for several reasons. First the maps were huge and allowed for attacking the zone from any angle. Second you went from determined attacker to desperate defender with the success or failure of each action and that forced you to play as a team. It was never dull and often funny.

I know technically not 3 maps per-say but I just couldn't bring myself to pick just 3.

I like that idea of a time reset for objective camping. It'll stretch the time requirement significantly, and be quite entertaining in massive battles consisting of 100's of players.

Blood Gulch - Just a perfect asymmetrical map which featured cave network, open land, cliffs and vehicle warfare. I believe this map. I believe sidewinder did a good job at this as well but, didn't capture the moment like BG. BG was fine 2v2 all the way to 8v8 while on Sidewinder you had to play 8v8 in order to just see some action.

Gridlock- from GoW did a great job as well of displacement of weapons and dividing the map up.

BFBC2 - Tied at Arica Harbour and Laguna Presa(for Rush). This game did a really great job and balancing out the defenders and the attacking forces. The total destruction made the game fun with how to explore different ways to assault the OBJ. Again, being able to have air support and armor support sets this game above and beyond the CoD series. It's a full spectrum war vs fighting in 2 streets.