Another 10 Weird Levels and Locations From Computer Games (Part 1)
Previously, I published a post that described 10 weird levels and locations from computer games. As I completed the post, however, I realised that there were more than 10 locations that could feature. This post, therefore, listed another 10 strange levels and locations that appeared in computer games. The entries were a mix of unexpectedly strange levels and locations found in grounded games and extreme ideas used in bizarre games. The list only included levels from computer games I have personally played and thought were weird. The items in the list were not placed in any particular order.
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10. End of Mission Impossible
The story for the Mission Impossible game ended with Ethan Hunt (the hero) escaping a terrorist base by piloting a gun boat (from the American Civil War) along a river. After exiting the perimeter of the base, Ethan reached a large, black submarine, which he boarded. At the top of the submarine, Ethan met Candace Parker (another hero) and she congratulated him on completing the mission. Ethan and Candace then embraced. The credits for the game then appeared.
The hero then appeared in the luxurious corridors and grand ballroom of an embassy that had appeared earlier in the game. Throughout the area, groups of people, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, stood together, seemingly sharing conversations. Some of the people were dressed in t-shirts that were decorated with the Infogrames logo (which was the company that produced the game). The player then had to speak to every person who was standing in the rooms, who told the player their name, their role in the company that developed Mission Impossible and said an extra sentence.
It was unusual for a game to end this way, but it was also an interesting way to introduce the various members of staff involved in it’s creation. Some of the sentences that the people said after being introduced were also very strange. As well as meeting the staff, the player could also punch them and fight them. Weirdly, talking to a member of staff regenerated some of Ethan’s health, so it seemed like the developers were aware that some players would prefer to attack the people. It was also possible to enter codes so Ethan could possess weapons during the final level of the game, which he kept when he entered the final area, therefore, it was possible for the player to arm Ethan with guns that he could use to shoot the members of staff.
9. Mysterio’s Flat from Spiderman 2
The Spiderman 2 game was based on the Spiderman 2 film, although there were elements of the game that did not feature in the film. One of the aspects of the game, that was not used in the film, was a subplot about Mysterio.
During the story of the game, Quentin Beck challenged Spiderman to a series of challenges, which Spiderman completed. Later, a crowd of journalists were invited to a theatre, where a strange character announced himself as Mysterio and created an illusion of the theatre being engulfed in fire, followed by another illusion of an alien invasion. After fighting the fake attack, Spiderman then located Quentin Beck’s flat.
The player entered the flat through an open window, which shut after Spiderman entered. The flat itself was slightly strange, as it seemed to be intended to be a small, single bedroom property, but it consisted of a large bedroom (which contained a bed, TV, posters, desk with a computer and a lot of space) and a small kitchen. A bookcase was moved to reveal a secret caged lift.
The player entered the lift, which slowly descended into darkness. Spiderman then fell onto a clearing, that was enclosed by a fence and surrounded by darkness. At the other end of the clearing stood a fun house. The entrance to the fun house was set in the mouth of a huge, human head, with a row of bottom teeth moving up and down in front of it. Clumps of mist moved across the ground and a brightly lit funfair was visible in the distance. Entering the fun house led to a luxurious dining room, that was decorated with a lit fire in a fireplace and portraits of Mysterio, which turned upside down. A huge Mysterio was visible through a grating in the floor/ ceiling of the room, which seemed to turn so that it could watch Spiderman. After the dining room, Spiderman fell into a very strange room. The walls of the room were covered in pink and yellow stripes and a giant, red eye was visible on the floor, which followed Spiderman’s position as he walked around the room. Placed along the walls were curved mirrors, which issued distorted Spidermen that attacked Spiderman. Throughout the fun house, Spiderman was attacked by jumping rubber objects, which resembled clowns, that wielded cleavers and knives and giggled continuously.
Despite being based on a superhero film, the locations that featured in Spiderman 2 were fairly grounded. It was strange, therefore, for the player to suddenly enter such an unusual place. The luxurious and old-fashioned building seemed to contrast with the modern New York city setting and the horror atmosphere (with the scary clown enemies and darkened mirror room) was also an aspect that contrasted with the remainder of the game. It was also difficult to determine how Quentin Beck was able to install such a complex structure in the block of flats where he lived or even where the fun house was actually located. Interestingly, the actual flat seemed to be a representation of the graphics of games at the time that the game was released, whereby rooms contained a small amount of objects and unrealistic wide, open spaces.
8. Skedar Ruins from Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark was created by the same company that developed Goldeneye and, while it was not intended to be a direct sequel, it did greatly resemble the earlier game. There were, however, some interesting differences to the older game.
Perfect Dark used a futuristic setting, but, when the player first started the game, it seemed like a grounded thriller, until more science-fiction elements were encountered. The game began with the hero (Joanna Dark) infiltrating a skyscraper, using advanced guns, to rescue a whistle blowing scientist. The hero then discovered that the scientist was actually a floating computer that had an artificial intelligence personality. The game ended with the player fighting the leader of a hostile alien civilisation on an alien planet during the Skedar Ruins level.
According to the story of the game, the Maians and Skedar had been engaged in a war that had lasted many years. The Maians were an alien species that were short, grey-skinned and had large heads, while the Skedar were large, green and had large claws, therefore, it was not explained how the war had been fought for so long considering that the Skedar seemed to be much fiercer warriors than the Maians.
The design for the Skedar Ruins level was a weird mixture of futuristic and old, as it was set among the ruins of an advanced civilisation. The structure was made of a dark grey metal and light brown stone and consisted of curved corridors and a few open spaces. Weirdly, most of the ruins did not have a ceiling, so a sky (that was coloured orange and purple) was visible and the area was lit by 3 suns, while large gaps in the ceiling of other rooms allowed light to enter. The ruins also seemed to exhibit an ornate design, as elaborate symbols were carved into the walls, five-stranded statues were present, flags decorated some pillars and some wide staircases led to platforms, however, the ruins also seemed to be derelict, as some corridors seemed to be twisted, the ground was not level in places, fallen masonry and pillars blocked paths and different areas were separated by ravines, as if the ruins were an extravagant building that had been wrecked by a powerful earthquake.
Exploring the ruins led to a location called the Inner Sanctum, which was more decrepit than the rest of the structure. The inner area could only be accessed by detonating explosives to create a hole in a wall, which allowed entry to a maze of corridors that were built from metal and contained moving machinery. There was very little power inside the inner area, so the corridors were dark and lit only by flickering lights. The doors did not open properly, so they would either open part way and then the player needed to open them again to walk through or only one of the double doors opened. The combination of low lighting, slowly opening doors and attacks by small Skedar created a horror atmosphere. Power could be restored to the inner sanctum by sacrificing a weapon on a small altar to the “God of War”, which seemed to suggest a religious aspect to the level. The end of the level was a grand room, lit by sunlight entering through a wide gap in the roof, which contained a platform where the Skedar King stood, along with a large statue of the five-pointed symbol.
The Skedar Ruins appeared in 2 levels. The first level (called Skedar Ruins) featured Joanna infiltrating the ruins to assassinate the Skedar King. When the player reached the villain, he was protected by powerful shields and the only clue to defeat him that the player received was “Cut off the head and the body will perish”, which was not very clear. The second level (War) was a secret level, which required the player to complete the game on the most difficult difficulty. During the level, the player controlled the commander of a force that were completing a mission on the planet. The force consisted of Maian soldiers, who used strange weapons that fired laser bolts and were made of a weird light blue material that seemed to absorb ammunition, while the Skedar used black weapons that fired laser bolts. This level was set after the Skedar King was killed and the player had to fight a series of clones of the Skedar King, which seemed to be slightly lazy.
In addition to the design of the location and the presence of strange characters and weapons, the setting was also unusual because of it’s role in the story of the game. The Skedar Ruins were described as an extremely holy location for the Skedar, which the Maians had never found (although it was easily discovered during the game), which seemed to function as the Skedar’s main base. It was strange that the centre of the Skedar civilisation was a relatively basic ruin, with little advanced technology (compared to the vehicles the Skedar possessed), where the Skedar King seemed to live without lighting or functional equipment.
7. Good Advice from Age of Mythology
In the game Age of Mythology, there were 3 major Gods that players, who chose to simulate the Greek civilisation, could select from: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. During many levels in the story, the heroes worshiped Zeus and Poseidon and the villains followed Hades, however, because the heroes could not follow the same major God as their enemies, the developers needed a reason for the player to be able to complete a level while worshiping Hades. The solution to this problem appeared to be the level Good Advice.
During the story, the heroes reached a safe area to build a settlement and the protagonist (Arkantos) fell asleep underneath a palm tree. Arkantos then dreamed about meeting the goddess Athena in a mysterious place where a number of burning torches were placed on a ground covered with fog. Athena told Arkantos that Zeus (the leader of the gods worshiped by the ancient Greeks) was not always all powerful and that the titans (led by Kronos) used to be in control. Kastor (Arkantos’ son) then appeared.
Arkantos then appeared among a collection of stone columns during sunset. Arkantos then followed Kastor along fog-covered ground to a temple surrounded by statues of Zeus. Cyclopes and manticores then appeared, including Gargarensis (the cyclops that functioned as the villain), which the player killed with the help of other heroes (who also suddenly appeared). Arkantos then suddenly appeared in Tartarus (the underworld that the ancient Greeks believed in), which consisted of a landscape of volcanic rocks and pools of lava, and the player had to use a huge army to destroy a wall of rocks to escape.
Arkantos then appeared on a shore with Kastor and 2 soldiers. Kastor told him that his enemy was across the sea and that his fleet (which consisted of some ships floating of the coast) was waiting. The soldiers turned into minotaurs and the heroes’ clothes and ship’s sails turned red and black in colour, which was the same colours that the villains wore. The level seemed to be set at dusk and fog covered the ground in parts, which added to the dreamlike atmosphere. The rest of the level consisted of controlling Arkantos, Kastor, Gargarensis and Kamos (a secondary villain) to lead an army to defeat a city, called the Evil Empire, along with some of the heroes of the story.
The level was intended to allow Athena to describe the villain’s plan and demonstrate how they would destroy Atlantis (Arkantos’ home), however, it seemed that the plan involved Arkantos attacking the city because he believed it was the Evil Empire, which did not seem likely. It was also strange for the player to use Arkantos to fulfill the enemy’s objectives in a number of disconnected scenarios, rather than just show Athena describing their plan. As this was the only level in the story where the hero worshiped Hades, it seemed like this level was also intended to give the player the opportunity to complete a battle while following Hades.
To add to the surreal aspects of the level, elements of the game emphasised that the level was a weird dream. During each level of the game, the player was able to access a list of their objectives, along with hints. During Good Advice, the hints include “Next time, don’t drink so much wine before dozing off by a palm tree” and “This dream is getting stranger”.
A weird element was also created by the design of the level. During the first 2 parts of the level, Arkantos fought some mythological creatures on the surface before appearing in Tartarus. These 2 areas appeared on the same map, despite being set in very different locations, therefore, it seemed like the characters were able to travel between the 2 areas, but this was not possible.
6. Blue Hell from Grand Theft Auto games
I once entered a strange location while playing Grand Theft Auto III. During a mission, I had accumulated 4 wanted stars and was being ferociously hunted by the police. I was driving at a fast speed in a car while being rammed by police cars, until my vehicle caught fire and I had to abandon it. I left the car and, while it exploded behind me, I made the character jog through a grassy wasteland near Kenji’s Casino on Staunton Island. After the explosion, I could hear loud sirens, that emphasised the incoming police, and I made the character jump to try to increase his speed and reach safety sooner.
The character jumped off a small cliff, but, instead of hitting the ground, he fell through it. He sank into the ground and emerged underneath it, with an inverted version of the island, between the area he fell through and the sea, visible from below. The ground rose out of sight as the character kept falling through the space, while surrounded by a dark blue background. As he fell, his flailing arms seemed to multiply, as a number of copies of his arms followed the same movements with different timings, like a character in a psychaedelic film. A strange feeling of calm seemed to fill this area, as the sound of loud sirens was replaced by silence and the bustling city was replaced by the endless blue.
Suddenly, the top of Kenji’s Casino appeared and the character seemed to be falling through the air next to the building. The character continued to slowly fall to the ground until he landed at the same position on the ledge that he had leapt off from. The relaxing atmosphere was quickly punctuated by violence and aggression after a speeding police car drove into the character and killed him.
The blue hell seemed to be a common feature of Grand Theft Auto games, with several portals identified that allowed the player to enter this strange area. It was not clear what this effect actually was, whether it was a mistake in the game design that caused the character to fall through the ground and enter an area that was not included in the design or if it was a mistake that removed the character from the game’s location and they saw the environment’s design from a point of view that the game’s creators did not intend to show. Regardless of how it was created, entering the blue hell was a surreal experience.
The blue hell was also strange because the calm and surreal atmosphere of the location contrasted with the action-filled and grounded manner of the rest of the game. The character slipping through the ground and falling down through the blue hell reminded me, personally, of the beginning of the novel Alice in Wonderland, whereby the hero (Alice) entered a large hole in the ground and seemed to slowly fall down the hole until she gently landed at the bottom and entered the surreal Wonderland, therefore, the violent Grand Theft Auto games seemed to have something in common with the playful and eccentric Alice in Wonderland novel.
What levels should be entered in the second half of the list? Should Moonside from Earthbound be included? Or Atlantis from Tomb Raider?
moresleepneeded 