nice thing about Mario water levels is that they’re a chance to play Balloon Fight, which, as a Joust knockoff, derives from one of the best games ever made and the purest panic-to-outcome input scheme
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I like Megaman water levels because you can jump high.
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Can’t stand the water levels in Ecco tho
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fish gamers are looking at this thread and using their fins to try to scratch theirs heads in confusion
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Damn now that you mention it, I quit Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines in a sewer level and never went back.
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Also, I never played too far in Metroid Prime 2 becuase it felt like one big water level to me?
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I bounced right off the first Grimrock but really enjoyed the sequel and beat it. Grimrock 2 has a fantastic sense of humor and drama. I would come up with absurd ways to make progress in otherwise intractable areas, thinking I was probably doing some kind of sequence break, then later would realize actually no, I just did the intended solution.
Like speaking of water levels, it makes you plop your entire party blob into the water and then walk around at the bottom at normal speed instead of swimming. The only thing that makes it water mechanically is you only have like 10 seconds to find a ladder before you start rapidly losing health. Also you can click on fish and drag them to your inventory
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walking around on the bottom is still water level! It’s part of the hated water temple in the n64 zelda title and even without the drowning aspect it is a joyless level
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What about low-gravity levels? I kind of hate those a lot too, and I think they’re related to water levels. Getting stuck on the ceiling just feels like the dumbest way to lose control of my character.
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I feel like from first principles SB ought to be pro-water-level with rationales like friction and negative space.
I’d hazard the main issue is not the “water” part but the “level” part. A pool of water here and there breaking up the monotony is just fine. But a whole level of water introduces a worse type of monotony.
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You’re right, I adored the underwater segments that punctuated the action in powerslave because of how they acted as texture against the normal movement mechanics, but an entire water level would’ve been hellish
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It just occurred to me that Maridia in Super Metroid is, in practical terms, not a water level — the effective key to explore the area is an item that negates the water entirely. Sector 4, Burenia, and Torvus Bog are all proper water levels. In contrast, Maridia is actually a sand level, and that’s probably an even more commonly detested category.
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banger nite on the fort. 1st victory royal and I finally unlocked The Cat
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Love a sewer level.
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no, I am so anti-water that I am pro-sand because it’s not wet
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I just learned that there is a sewer level map jamp that’s just getting started in the quake mapping community
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quake sewer levels are built different. Actually, Quake might be the answer (as it is in terms of all dungeon design) because going underwater in Quake rocks
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Play Moonscars, a low-quality Blasphemous, too much no-sense system, cloned enemies and too many bugs
not recommend
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Water levels typically place too many time (air breathing) and space (location of air, aggressively valved level design since the player must raise water levels or find ways to sink to progress) restrictions. They are basically big modular maze puzzles but the maze is full of tedious swimming.
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Perhaps most damning of all is that a typical goal of water levels is draining away the water, to turn the water level into a more plain one.
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