The article lost all credibility with me with the deus ex mention. That level is horrific. As much as I hate that game, I can atleast admit that the game has some great level design but that first mission was not one of them.
It may not count but that level was brilliant.

Tell me why you think so so I can tell you why you're wrong :-P

Well it's seriously, seriously, seeeeriously boring for a start. Circle the area, climb on top and run up the stairs. Big whoop!

I do agree with the inclusion of Robbing the Cradle from Thief: Deadly Shadows. That is one of my all time favourite levels to hate to play because of how well made it is. It never fails to scare the hell out of me.

I disagree with including Our Mutual Fiend from HL2: E2 though. It was just contrived and annoying.

Two that were not in that list that I like playing are the Shipping, and Receiving and Framed! levels in Thief: The Metal Age. Great scope and I thought they were really got into the spirit of being a thief.

That describes any level ever created in the history of gaming. Some don't have stairs, those are even more boring.

I really love Dromund Kaas levels from Mysteries of the Sith.

With the exception there is nothing interesting to fidget with, no interesting scenery or characters to mingle with. Not including the piss poor controls and actual gameplay. As a whole it is dire, very dire. But who am I to argue with nostalgia.

Of course it contains about 4 paths to get to the staircase itself alone + several secret locations and a bunch of ways of getting trough the level itself. That's what makes it popular, all the options it gives you right from the getgo - as far as I'm concerned, quality of level design in the original Deus Ex was dropping constantly since like the third big location.

And that's how you know good FPS level design - granting player interesting options and challenges at any given time. Everywhere you looked in the Statue of Liberty level in the original Deus Ex, there were these options and challenges and if you opted to go out of your way to explore, it granted you more small challenges to obtain more equipment and experience. It was extremely clever in the fact that if you didn't care about most of that, you could finish the level extremely fast, even stealthily - all you needed to do was to keep your eyes open. However, if you wanted to finish the side objective and find all the secrets, it gave you a lot more to do. It was a fantastic display of how to create big levels giving players huge amount of agency.

That's completely unrelated to level design.

That's not a real argument ;-)

Does that mean you have played it recently?

Favorite FPS levels... hmmm...

Pretty much every first level for every FPS I've ever played. Because the first level is the one we always end up playing over and over again because of endless murder-death-kill ratios.

Think about it. When someone mentions Doom, Quake, Half Life, Duke Nuke 'Em, Rise of the Triad, or a million other shooters, what's the first thing that pops in your head? Could be lots of things, but I bet for most of us it's the images and sounds of that very first level.

E1M1... any game. Always E1M1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibHWpCTfsfs

it is true, for me the first level of half life 1, just leave the little cart alone dammit

and also facing worlds from the original unreal tournament. is not a stage is an arena i know but stil, worth mentioning

Speaking of Deus Ex, I can barely wait for Revision to be released. It is getting so close now it is almost tangible!
That is the mark of a well loved game - that there are still people around so long after its initial release that willing to put so much time into bringing it back to life.

On topic, while the first mission was good in terms of teaching the ropes it still wasn't as good as many of the later levels because it was a little bit too loose and unfocused. That said, once you know what you are doing in it then you can go through it pretty quickly and get to the rest of the game.

For me, one of the most entertaining levels was Hell's Kitchen; also had a lot of variation, but the actual tasks made it feel tighter and more goal oriented.

Indeed. I can still remember the surprise and terror I felt when that lab blew and the portal to hell opened up at Black Mesa. Head crabs and everything else that came with it. And who else didn't feel just a little overconfident when you got that crowbar?

Pretty good list from PC Gamer considering these kind of lists usually suck
1.Quake Gloom Keep
The Crypt Of Decay
Castle Of The Damned
The Tomb Of Terror
2.Unreal Chizra-Nali Water God Temple
ISV-Kran Deck 4
Nali Castle
Mothership Core
2.Half-Life Anomalous Materials
Office Complex
We've got Hostiles
Power Up
Lambda Core
4.Half-Life 2 Route Kanal
We Don't Go To Ravenholm
Nova Prospekt
5.Medal Of Honor Omaha Beach
Sniper's Last Stand
6.Call Of Duty Stalingrad
Ste. Mere-Eglise Day
7.FEAR Heavy Resistance
Blindside
8.STALKER Agroprom
Yantar
Lab X-16
Wild Territory

Wish they had written more than a 2-3 sentences for each level or at least made it a single-page list, but whatever. Page clicks and ad revenue. :-/

Anyway, from Quake 1 I would choose E1M6 (The Door to Chthon). I don't know why I like the level that much. Maybe it's because it's a labirynth that feels packed thighter into a smaller space than most of the levels? Maybe it's the fact that while I like playing it, I can skip most of it if I know why? Maybe it's dat Shambler encounter?

Dunno, but it all makes my probably most liked level of Quake 1 and probably of all FPSs.