Hi guys, been on GoG a while, but my first post...
I've got a soft spot for the early levels of Syndicate (especially the first time you collected a crowd of people with the Persudatron - I think that was its name... - and had them following you as a human shield).
My top 10 list:
1) Guild Wars Prophecies (the first one) - the opening levels right up to and just after the Fall of Ascalon - this beautiful world you have been inhabiting totally ruined, and ripped apart. I loved that moment.
2) MOHAA - Omaha Beach - simply stunning and still a level I will go and replay
3) Call of Duty / CoD: UO - the last level of Pegasus Bridge, where you got slowly pushed back and back into the small concrete hut by the bridge, with the music masterfully swirling around you as the enemy advances on all sides.. and then BOOM! Allied fighters! It's one of the first times I jumped out of my chair during a game and cheered - I loved it! For United Offensive it's either the opening level (through the trees you see THE ENTIRE GERMAN ARMY!!!) or the WW2 action movie caper that is the British campaign in the expansion pack (taking out the clifftop guns, ending up in a boat chase out in the bay... so much fun!)
4) Doom - E1M1 - I remember ordering this game on 3 3.5" floppies - my Mum paid for it for me, we didn't even have a modem back then, and it was just a 386DX that could barely run it, but my God, that first room, when you looked through the window and you could see the mountains in the distance, and then the barrels exploded when you shot them, and the fireballs flew past you, and you could go up and down on platforms - wow! What a moment that was!
5) Doom - E1M2 - Two entries in the list I know, but the creepy flashing lights section with the Aliens-style wall decor and the imps hissing at you as you desperately tried to find a way out or the secret door to the chainsaw room... I can still picture it now - get yourself a copy of Ultimate Doom and the jDoom 3D engine and re-experience the way you remember it!
6) Homeworld - Missions 1 and 2 - incredibly hard, but the sheer beauty and complexity of this game was so well put forward by these first two missions, from the choral version of Canon in D, to the almost-surprised voice of Fleet Command - "We made it...".
7) Wing Commander 1 - Yes. The entire game. Loved it!
8) Half Life 2 - Nova Prospekt - Partially because of the fun factor returning after the hideous sand-buggy levels (I've never enjoyed the vehicle stuff in HL2 or the Episodes), but more because of the eerie level design, with those high vaulted ceilings, multiple levels for enemy snipers and hilariously a squad of Ant-lions backing you up!
9) Sam & Max Series 1 Episode 4 - with this episodic series I'll count the entire episode as a level, and this one is note-perfect. Just the thought of all the Mecha-Lincoln wisecracks is hilarious, but the bit that floors me every time (after that hilarious pre-credits joke with the voice bug) is when war is declared, and the Secret Service guys express their exhilaration through the medium of song, complete with OTT dance routines and silly in-jokes...
10) Portal - one of the few times I've actually enjoyed a Boss fight! And the payoff at the end is brilliant!
There are so many other fond memories - TIE Fighter being the first game I obsessively completed, Sonic on the Sega Master System just being so smooth and so much fun, the first time you free-run Altair up a tower in Assassin's Creed and then Leap of Faith of it, the Rogue Spear games and their obsessive planning, far more intricate than Rainbow 6 is now. Go back further, and we see F-19 Stealth Fighter, and keeping your radar profile low so that you popped up once, briefly, unleashed your bombs, and sped away. Or exiting the crashed ship for the first time in Unreal, getting your cape in City of Heroes, entering Hellfire Peninsula through the Dark Portal in WoW, winning your first space race in Civilzation,,,, I could go on, there are some really fond memories here!
P.S. Sorry for babbling on for so long - turned out I couldn't stop once I started thinking about it!