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If you said to me Sonic the Hedgehog, the first image that will pop into my mind's eye will be Sonic standing there ready to go on Green Hill Zone Act 1. After all, the opening level of a game is supposed to entice you and be so enjoyable that you want to play on to the next one. However, if you say to me Goldeneye, then the most iconic level to me, and probably most others, isn't the opening level of Dam, but rather Facility. This thread here is dedicated to those games where the second level might stand out a little for whatever reason.

Now as I said, my first contribution is Goldeneye with its second level Facility. Now don't get me wrong, Dam is just as memorable, so much so that in the game's 2010 reboot, they copied and pasted the first area of the N64's Dam, while the rest of the game more heavily deviated from the original game and in turn the film. But Facility is definitely what most people think of when you mention Goldeneye. It's hard to pin down a reason, but to name a few possibilities, there's the opening sequence where you start off in the vent shafts and you can shoot an unwitting enemy while he's on the toilet. There's also the fact that you can then choose how you play through the opening section, either with stealth using your silenced PP7 or picking up an enemy's KF7 Soviet and going guns blazing. There's a teeny bit of a puzzle aspect in opening some doors, and for fans of the film, there are some faithful recreations in the level, and plenty of new areas to explore.

My next contender will have to be the eponymous Halo level. Now apart from being the name of the game, the aspects that make this level so memorable to me can be found in the gameplay, the story, and the scenery. First of all, the opening level The Pillar of Autumn is a tutorial and more-or-less a straight-up shooter where you go from point A to point B. I like the little section where you have to get to the bridge unarmed and you running through the crossfire of NPC firefights, but Halo offers something a little different. The gameplay, story, and scenery as I mentioned are interlinked in a way. You get a real struggle-to-survive feel from the start of the level. Your allies are few compared to the enemy, and they're scattered a little thinly. You start off having to be careful to avoid enemy attention until you meet up with team-mates, and then when you do, you've got to face down waves of enemies. You also get your first go in a Warthog which can get you about the level quickly, especially towards the end where you get a little free-roaming to do to link up with survivors in different locations. Meanwhile, you're exploring a landscape that mixes the familiar with the alien. You've got grass, trees, cliffs, streams and rivers and a blue sky, yet in that sky is the Halo ring extending round. There are unusual buildings and you explore underground catacombs, which serve to get the characters and yourself asking the questions about mysteries that the game will reveal later on. All in all, a nice level which is worthy of being the eponymous level.

And just to finish off, I'll mention Sonic again. Now this may be cheating a little, but I'm going to offer up Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Now this could be cheating because very strictly speaking, the second level would be Emerald Hill Zone Act 2, but for the purpose of this thread, I'm going to consider the Zones as individual levels rather than the Acts in them. Now what makes Chemical Plant Zone stand out is that compared to Emerald Hill which is a bit of a re-hash of the kind of environment of Green Hill, Chemical Plant is quite original. The level offers you some good runways to really get Sonic's speed up (so much so that if you play the level as Super Sonic and run down some of the slopes, he can go so fast that the camera can't keep up with him), as well as some interesting branching pathways to get to the end of the Acts, and some challenges such as having to jump across moving blocks over death pits while underwater. So popular is this level that it got remade for Sonic Generations.

So what do you all think? Are there any games out there where level 2 sticks in your memory for some reason? Also, even if a game you're thinking of doesn't strictly have a level system, it would still be nice to contribute if you can justify how it's a second level. Also, please try to avoid second levels where level one is just a baby-steps tutorial.

First of, everyone knows level 5 is the best level in Halo.

As for other games... Doom 1-2 and duke nukem 3D spring to mind... It's just the first level I think of when remembering those games.

Second base is best second level.

I agree with sigvatr

 Sigvatr wrote:
Second base is best second level.

Highly over rated. I say I can get more joy from playing a good game then just feeling someone up once. Then again, I have the privilage of being able to do that whenever I'm at home, while playing the second level of a game.

Undead Burg from Dark Souls.

 curran12 wrote:
Undead Burg from Dark Souls.

Very very good point....

Though for some poor people new londo and catacombs were the second level.

 Soladrin wrote:
I say I can get more joy from playing a good game then just feeling someone up once. Then again, I have the privilage of being able to do that whenever I'm at home, while playing the second level of a game.

...you can't feel yourself up even once at home...?

More seriously...! Deus Ex. I know I keep banging on about the series, but a lot of people struggled with its first level, thinking it'd be like any other shooter, and getting gunned down by just running straight in. Persevere past that and you get to go inside the iconic UNATCO base, which plays a larger part in the story than you'd first think, and houses many of the main characters.

...am I cheating if I say original Super Mario Bros, world 4-1...?

Yuri's Revenge has the Allied mission in Hollywood with the three actors as bonus units. I think that was the second level, but it is by far the best one in the bunch. Clint was okay, Sly was fun, but when you finally got Arnie, bliss.

Does Ravenholm count? It was so fun to bisect zombies with with massive blades.

Ravenholm certainly was a turning point in HL2.

I don't know if you can really class Half Life's areas as "stages", but if so, you'd have to do it by location. In which case Ravenholm is way further than 2nd - it'd be making your way out of City 17 along the train tracks and sewer lines. Still, I do get where you're coming from.

That would make the original Half Life's 2nd stage the backtrack throughout the opening part, just after all hell breaks loose. I think *THAT* counts nicely.

Can I count the second mission you get in the original XCOM: Enemy Unknown? The one that will run on a toaster these days? The one that's considered an incredibly hard game even though it was broken for years and you could only play on beginner, yet it still kicks your butt?

The first mission is always a bloodbath, that's a given. You have 8, maybe 10 rookies with the worst gear in the game desperately trying to hit anything past 10 feet. If you're lucky maybe half will survive, maybe a couple even get promoted.

Then you get back, recover, recruit more guys, and then it hits you. You've got to do that all over again, and probably really soon.

That feeling of dread when the second mission comes in (usually a terror mission) was one of the worst feelings I've ever had in a game.

Arcade Battletoads, the snow level that involves beating the piss out of Rudolph. Pow. Top it boys!

 MrMoustaffa wrote:

That feeling of dread when the second mission comes in (usually a terror mission) was one of the worst feelings I've ever had in a game.

Terror from the Deep was worse. Like UFO defence, but harder. Terror missions on that were brutal, multi level affairs that I don't think I ever successfully completed. I got quite far on UFO defence but I didn't get past the first ship terror mission in Terror from the Deep.

To be honest I don't tend to play games with actually levels these days and I only remember good game play segments, not the order that they were played in

Oh TFTD was way worse, but by the time I played that first ship mission I knew what I was in for, so it doesn't carry quite the same level of fear the first did.

Instead, that fear was replaced with something I would refer to more as seething rage and frustration