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What's the best dungeon in any game ever?
Recant
Member UncommonPosts: 1,586
So I was thinking about the concept of a dungeon and how the various RPGs over the years have portrayed them. For me personally, a dungeon should be scary and claustrophobic but also with some surprises such as unexpected cavernous expanses, truly terrifying monster placement and stuff like that.
Now I have not always been into RPGs, so I missed some of the classics such as The Bards Tale and Wizardry and the like. So I'm really curious as to what people think is the definitive dungeon, I did some google searches for 'best dungeon ever' and it didn't really point to much, mostly pen and paper games which I'm not concerned about.
So my experience for CRPGs begins in the early-mid 90s and beyond. My all time favourite has to be Velketor's Labyrinth in Everquest. It was an ice dungeon, with ice and crystalline spiders that was very popular during the Velious era. It had a pretty unique feel, and it was a great place to grind your end levels, with some interesting item drops - i'd say it was on par with the much lower level Crystalline Caverns which was also a Velious dungeon, but actually featured an entire dwarven city deep down inside it.
Ah memories.
Followed very closely by a dungeon in Morrowind which I forget the name of - it's part of the main storyline, possibly around the middle - and it had a very vertical feel, in that it seemed to get deeper and deeper into the earth; dungeons on top of dungeons. It's where I can recall finding my first pieces of glass armor, and I just kept going around corners and going 'coooool.... this place just keeps going and going'
I guess that would be followed by Stonekeep, but that game was basically one big dungeon, so I suppose that doesn't count, but it really captured the atmosphere of what a dungeon would probably feel like if we lived in a land of goblins and stuff like that.
So I'm interested in what other people think and I wanna find some cool dungeons. I'm trying to write a very basic CRPG for myself as a hobby, and I want to model that on a classic dungeon, but apart from that I'm just generally interested in the whole 'dungeon' idea at the moment.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
Comments
Hmmm, well i'm going to have to go with EQ as well....Befallen.
It was a rough place -always- had somebody pulling trains but i suppose that could be said for all EQ dungeons, it just always sticks with me because it was my first dungeon.
Good times.
I'm going to have to break with the fantasy loving RPG and call Anarchy Online's Inner Sanctum dungeon the best due to the weird religious overtones and 15 foot guy with an iron mask.
If you are not being responded to directly, you are probably on my ignore list.
Gotta go with the UO dungeons. Each one had a theme, and I can remember how freaked I'd get when someone would pull a fast one on me and throw up a gate to the inside of one of these instead of some city I was asking for. Especially the liche dungeon with their raspy laughter. Always gave me goosebumps. I especially like how the dungeons were dark unless you had a light source or used a night-sight spell/potion.
I know recalling and gating kind of made things a little too simple for the player, but I still remember feeling quite cut-off the deeper I'd get into a dungeon. Throw in the chance of encountering a PK and you have some good edge-of-your-seat fun,
My favorite was the elemental dungeon(1st level) and prob the liche dungeon. I spent the most time in these raising skills, but I also like the dragon dungeon 1st level for how really open and dangerous it was.
I think the elemental was Shame, the liche/undead was Deceit, and the Dragon was Destard. Those sound about right but I could be off.
For MMO's I would have to say Asheron's Call with DDO in second.
Fantasy MMO's, IMHO, generally do a pretty poor job at making decent dungeons. 90% of them are just straightforward tunnel systems with some mobs standing in them. You may as well stand in a field and kill 10 rats for all the work that goes into most of them.
Dark age of Camelot
Darkness Falls
'nuff said :P
One of the two Kobold mines in the Elwynn Forest in WoW, because it's in the same zone as HOGGER!
(feel free to flame away!)
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
:P
Geocaves in SWG
j/k lol
They were annoying as hell even before the NGE, I never went into those because they were boring.
"hey let's do a vette mission" ...nah, too boring.
Sanctum of the burning souls in AoC is decent, though nothing really stands out at me cept that blood defiler guy
Id ahve to say the best looking dungeons ive seen yet are the ones in guildwars. While its true that the graphics are not the best nowadays the art style and design of some of there dungeons [especially the big caverns with carved statue walls] is still up there with the besst and thats after being out for years.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
the dungeons in Diablo 2.
http://s11.gladiatus.com/game/c.php?uid=123451
Actually, the sex dungeon in Leather Goddesses of Phobos was a blast!
Dungeon Keeper no doubt. That game puts your into the role as the"dungeon keeper": instead of valiantly storming a dungeon like a hero, killing monsters, and taking the treasures, you builds the dungeons, recruits the monsters, sets the traps, and fends off the heroes that regularly attempt to breach the dungeon .
hmm actually all dungeons in atlantica online are the best hehe i cant choose one for there are many and all are cool and best for me.
Castle Mistmoore. Loved the spooky atmosphere, humanoid enemies and the sense of danger every time you zoned in. The only downside is it was so tough to get deep into the place that for literally years I never knew what exactly was going on in that bridge by the entrance.
It was buggy and druids made a habit of ruining the place for everyone else trying to hunt there but overall it was a great experience.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
Yep, good ol' anti-virtue dungeons.
Nothin' like trying to kill a dragon, while someone elses' rogue energy vortex is slaughtering them and possibly you next, and not to mention the constant threat of a PK recalling in.
O' the thrill of gating back to your tower with plenty of loot.
As someone else mentioned also, DAoC dungeons. Old school Darkness Fall for diamond runs, ESPECIALLY after the dungeon has changed hands and there's RvR. Or Avalon City for ice wizard PBAOE runs either with Power Regen 5 or a power font....or both.
Moria in LOTRO. Huge, creative, confusing, great dungeon.
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Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
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Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
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"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
OMG! i haven't thought about that game is ages, Infocom...good times, good times.
Got to love the humor of a company that will sell a lewd game boxed with a scratch-and-sniff card.
Ya Deceit FTW. I remember being there for hours on the bone knight wall.
KC - EQ1
followed by:
Dargun's Tomb - VG
Have to go back to EQ, which is still the best MMO ever made. And then have to go to Velious which is the best expansion in the EQ world.
Here's the breakdown:
Crystal Caverns is probably the best overall dungeon I've ever explored. Visually, it was stunning for its day. Also a very extensive dungeon. I'm still not sure I explored every knook and cranny of that place.
Kael Drakkal and Temple of Veeshan (both in Velious) I would say were the best high level dungeons. Almost every single moment in their halls was tense.
Old Sebilis (in Kunark) was probably the most versatile high level dungeon, and was also awesome. With a good character, you could solo a lot of mobs or go in with a small group and farm valuable gems for money. Kael and ToV were sweet, but they were pretty much raid dungeons. Them giants and dragons were tough.
UO had the best dungeons no doubt! i remember sittin in destard by the shadow wyrms spawn and open random gates to brit and just wait for people to come through and die almost instantly, and taking there loot!! lol fun times
gamertag - Swaffle House
Dead Mines in WoW.
Really it was the first dungeon I ever liked in an mmorpg and I played them since EQ. What amazed me was how much effort they put into it and how great it was for a lower leveled dungeon but its just a shame there wouldn't be another good one until the 50's.
People say the old EQ dungeons but I remember them being boring square rooms with bad textures and mobs standing in empty rooms. I liked some of the EQ2 ones but none of them were upto the standard of Dead Mines.
UBRS!!!
Meh...I ran that dungeon about 100 times, and not by choice, well, okay, i had a choice, but I really wanted my dreadmist robe...in retrospect it was a huge waste of time, and not just because WoW was a waste of time...this was on a whole different level of time wasting.
I'm actually gonna go with some of the levels of Starcraft. namely the Terran instillation where they were keeping and raising Zerg to be used as weapons. It's an unconventional view of what a level is, yes, but it was also a great deal of fun and had a lot of innovative use of scripted events, especially for the time that the game was released.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
WoW's Dead Mines. It was my first mmo dungeon ever entered so I guess that automatically gives me fond memories of it, but I think it was very polished and creative. Plus I love the story line that surrounds it.
hmm for me i'd have to say diablo and diablo 2. they have the best dungeons that are different every time u play although diablo 2 doesn't have as many diungeons it does have some great ones like act 1's andariel dungeon and the load of caves/dungeons in which it seems to be almost endless. basically the enitre elders scrolls series for me as well a fnatstci series with many great dungeons to explore in countless diffenrt ways. also baldurs gate had some fantastic dungeons to explore.
take what you can but not what isn't yours. "fight to the end and never give your enemy the satisfaction of victory"
World of Warcraft pre-expansions. Pretty much any of the dungeons were amazing. Some better than others but that would be like comparing a Ferrari to a Lambo. Most memorable dungeon experiance would be Black Wing Lair or the end Boss in EQ-20.
The kite on Razoregore was pretty awsome. I doubt it's anything special anymore.
*Two tanks, the MT- OT running a figure 8 kite on top of and off and around the platforms for the egg kite. Run up the ramp jump off the middle run up the other ramp jump off the middle.
*Something like 5 ( Sometimes more.) warriors doing circle kite in the middle.
*Rest of the groups in the corners or side picking up stragglers not in the kites. They were keeping them off squishy's, mainly healers.
Being one of the 2 healers that was always assigned to the top of each platform was fun. Eventually half way through we were kiting along with our tank because of dropped adds (heal aggro). 1/4 or more of the raid dead at end of this phase.
Razor coming out bbqing the slow pokes.
The MT- OT trying to establish aggro and get their aggro bounce going (not sure what you would call this. It was due to some special Razor did I think. Been awhile).
All the healers trying to keep the raid alive from that aoe fireball I think it was, while also keeping the tanks up.
Eventually seeing Razor face first.
Anarchy Online: Temple of Three Winds. I don't know which was funnier inside or just outside that place. Bored? Log a lvl 60 twink and go help random people get their stuff. Or you could gank/ pvp with the 40 other people outside and around the entrance. Personally, I just watched most of the time. It was rather amusing during prime times.