Game Level: Difference between revisions

Shows utilizing [[Pac-Man Fever]] will often show video games using the "linear" type of level movement, regardless of whether or not the game actually has this kind of progression - or levels at all.

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* ''[[Metroid]]'' plays down the separation between levels by allowing the player to visit them in any order and as often as she likes, but each level is self-contained, and only accessible via an elevator ride (which also serves as a [[Check Point]]).

* Spy games tend to have radically different styles of play between levels: ''Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode'' had several different types of level, ''Spy Hunter'' had both driving- and boating- type levels, and many of the recent James Bond games alternate between First or Third Person Shooter and Driving.

* [[Adventure Game|Adventure Games]] tend to use levels (often called "Chapters" or "Days") as an organizational unit, and may or may not have specific effects from the previous level carry over. Unlike most other genres, the ordering of levels is most often linear, while events within a level tend to be far less linear. Before the emergence of DVD-ROM, these chapter breaks tended to be where disc changes were required.

** To be more precise, the first several stages of each game were freeform, then they switched to a linear structure for the few leading to the final boss.

* ''[[Soul Calibur]] II'' has a Network style arrangment for it's ''Weapon Master'' story mode.

* The SNES space shooter ''Darius Twin'' explicitly displays the level lattice and lets the player decide based on that. The lattice is cross-connected, unlike the one in ''[[Soul Calibur]] III'', but the lattice is narrow enough that it generally boils down to a choice of one or two levels.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' provides a broad, cross-connected level lattice and keeps track of which paths through the lattice the player has ever taken on a winning playthrough. Lattice paths are taken based on whether the Hero, Neutral, or Dark mission was accomplished.

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' has a linear level progression, but as most of the actual levels are in reality just biographical stories in a book, any magick spells the various characters learned in their own chapters are automatically learned by anybody else who picks up the book later.

** ''Command'' also has a ''Lattice'' system and no less than ''nine'' different endings, although you're restricted to one path on the first time through.

* The Sega driving game ''[[Out Run]]'' used a seamless lattice system. At the end of each stage the road would fork, the direction chosen would determine the next level. This spread of road would then lead to multiple endings.

** In general, forking right would give an easier level and forking left would give a harder level.

** ''[[Legacy of Kain|Soul Reaver]]'' did the single, seamlessly loading game world thing two years before Dungeon Siege was released.

* At least the [[PS 1]] ''[[Spyro the Dragon|Spyro]]'' games used a ''freeform'' mechanic, where multiple levels were accessible from the hub in no particular order-you could even do the boss levels first in some hubs in the first game. Also in the first game, to get to the next hub you had to fulfill a requirement-dragons rescued, gems found, etc.-which, if you work hard enough, you could sometimes have complete ''as soon as you entered'' a new hub, letting you skip ''all'' of its levels.

* The original [[Kingdom Hearts]] uses the node system with the Gummi Ship stages in between worlds. The worlds were the nodes and could be explored freely, while the Gummi Ship stages were divided into linear levels that could be accessed depending on the world where you begin the level. It is averted later (but still near the beginning) in the game when you obtain the warp Gummi that allows you bypass Gummi Ship stages as long as you have been to the destination world before.

** The sequel ''Bug Too!'' had levels that consisted of different scenes that had to be completed before fighting the level boss, but you could choose the order of scenes to play although you could not backtrack an entire level once it was complete.