The Elite Forum
The Big Three Plus One => GoldenEye 007 => Topic started by: narcissawright on September 03, 2020, 01:25:42 pm
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What, in your opinion, is the best GE/PD level (including difficulty) for speedrunning, and why?
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I think the best Goldeneye stage is Silo.
Silo is hard but it's really fun, you can play it on 2.x (even in 2.x CC) but it's not one of thoses level like Archives or Runway SA where if you don't play 2.x you can't get the WR.
Silo rewards skill and there's no RNG involved in this stage (you need some luck to not get troll guards, but if you're really good you can deal with them easily most of the time). The records are insane but they can still be lowered on SA and especially 00A. Silo Agent is the level i enjoy the most watching on stream (when played by a top player). It's definetly not a repetitive level too since there's 50+ guards in the level and they each react differently on every single run. And there's a lot of variety bewteen A/SA/00A, Agent is a rush and 00A is totally different in therms of pace (you can't just brute force your way through the guards like on agent, and you also have to pause 5 times).
I like all 3 difficulties (even LTK and DLTK runs are insane on this stage) but Agent is just so fun to play/watch.
For PD i like Chicago and Infiltration Agent, but that's just my personal preference.
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Defection SA has everything. Short, essentially zero RNG, several neat tricks, looks cool to people who don't know what's going on, and no cinema wait.
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B2 SA (old 0:44 strat) will always be my favorite. To me, nothing beats going full speed through a level nailing cameras and kills without auto aim. The most fun level to me, although it's hard on the hands, and you have to reset 1/3 runs due to a bad cutscene.
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GE: Train A (Surprise) - Very fun, high skill, low rng, no downtime, clutch ending etc... (though it gets frustrating very quickly when you try to optimize it)
PD: Defection SA - Same argument as MW basically.
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I mostly agree with Irie, B2 SA is satisfying and extremely reliant on skill. Not only is it a non auto aim level, a great deal of what makes it difficult is keeping noise to a minimum and taking risky fast shots without breaking speed. Any time you try to take extra shots you get punished but if you are precise and push your pace hard you can get insane looking runs. Very addicting. I'd rate Facility highly as well but it's almost pure movement and little shooting; also it's even harder on the hands IMO. I give an honorable mention for Aztec with mainframe glass since it's a high octane and demanding level on all difficulties but you can still get good completion odds.
My other choice would be Depot SA; not because it's the only level I'm any good at. Since it's underplayed I can make a real contribution on it over any other level. Also even though there are currently a decent number of ties, every run looks fairly different from the others (including mine which might contain the most horrendous errors of any WR on the ranks). There will be a future run that becomes the prototype for future runners, or maybe when 38 happens the stage will be ignored forever, but so far the strats used vary greatly which is fairly unique.
It has a major clutch factor and the movement at a high level becomes really precise and satisfying, but it's not a nonstop input fest like Fac or Silo. There are a couple intense bits where you have to react to guards and navigate tight areas cleanly but it lets you breathe in the open sections in between. I do wish boost luck were a little more reasonable though.
For PD: The Duel. I don't think it needs any further explanation.
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GE: Archives SA/00A. Very enjoyable. Honourable mentions: Silo A, Aztec, Train A, Dam SA.
PD: Escape. Great fun and very addicting level. Extraction SA and Pelagic II SA/PA are also great levels.
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GE: All of Facility, B2 00A, S1 SA/00A
PD: Invest PA, All of G5, Air Base Agent
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As a relative beginner I find myself repeatedly thinking: “Someday I’ll be good and running Bunker 2 00!” I think it comes from the fact that I was fascinated by Bunker 2 00 at a CASUAL level when I was a kid. It’s a pretty difficult puzzle with so many possible solutions. It allows for a lot of creativity. And it it adds the cruel challenge of being the most stealth-based level even though you’re forced to play most of it with loud guns. I still basically CAN’T speedrun it. It’s the one of the few levels that I’m not even capable of approximating the world record route. No matter how many times I try, I pass away in a moshpit of enemies like DoomGuy at the end of the original shareware Doom game (90s kids will understand). But I’ve watched a ton of videos of Bunker 2 00 being run at a high level, and I think it’s a beautiful run to watch.
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To watch and probably to play too it's gotta be B2 00a (preferably played by Green), I just find it mesmerising. The level design is perfect, and the strat is cool too. Plus it's pretty laggy which is very GE :nesquik:
Obviously I like Frig because there's so much going on in the background, and ending the level where you started is cool. In reality speedrunning takes a very non-linear level and straightens it out, and the hostage odds are a bit too low.
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B2 SA (old 0:44 strat) will always be my favorite. To me, nothing beats going full speed through a level nailing cameras and kills without auto aim. The most fun level to me, although it's hard on the hands, and you have to reset 1/3 runs due to a bad cutscene.
This hands down, same arguments. Most addicting level on GE for me, for sure. 00A is right there but the lure strat makes it kinda frustrating.
For PD I would say P2 SA since it's tight movement and very skill-based, for a broader audience I guess, but for me Deep Sea A was specially good, both for skill necessary on the first part of the level (kinda feel like a nice "motion" to do repeatedly), but mostly because of the high adrenaline peak you get at the 2nd part (have to play basically ~1:30 under intense nerves if you are at wr pace on Elvis). Very addicting. Villa Agent old strat is always going to be right there too, very intense strafe-based level.
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^ agreed. I have 1:02 B2 SA, which sucks. Would like to sub 1 or even sub 55 but it's tough for me.
I also have 2:01 P2 SA which is better (worth a chunk of points, at least) but probably won't improve this one. Was a smokin hot run for my skillset :v
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For GE: Silo Agent for sure. It's fast paced and contains a nice balance between RNG/raw skill. I also think this is one of the best (if not the best) level for building a feel for pace with the music, which makes it even more fun and exiting to make progress on. It is somewhat troll though but you can usually prevent most of it by increasing your raw skill on the level.
Other levels that I also think is very good:
Bunker 2 SA/00. Skill heavy and fast paced. 00 requires a little RNG with one guard though.
Facility Agent. High skill and super fast paced. Might be the level that requries the most amount of raw skill. Trev sucks though :(
Train (A/SA/00). Moderate skill and fast paced and low RNG. Sucks on NTSC though so PAL is kinda "required" if you wanna get a decent time (if your name isn't David Clemens or Marc Rützou).
I actually love playing Frigate SA/00 becuase the level is fast paced and technical but is super fucked because of the hostages.
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Silo A/SA/00 It teaches you OCB and as other have said you can deal with the guard placement so there is no RGN.
Train A for being straight forward and fast paced I get a rush every time I do the locks.
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deep sea perfect agent
you get to actually shoot enemies in the shooting game, getting a bunch of headshots with the shotgun in a row feels great, and you also get to shoot giant explosive canisters through walls and each one feels extremely satisfying when you hit one, both from the lag spike and the noise. RNG is definitely there, but not to bad. All of the shots on guards are 95% skill, and the shots on the canisters are 100% skill. Elvis max speed is random but unless you're going for a top 5 time its not really relevant. The threat of death is very really at the ending and it makes your heart race even more on a pb-pace run. It is probably the best level in either game IMO.
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Facility Agent is one of, if not THE level that improves your OCB the most. It's fun, the luck factors are relatively low, and it's great at all levels of play.
Defection Special Agent is also gonna have to be my pick. Pretty much zero RNG aside from necklace drop, the skips are fun, the strafing is fun. It maybe doesn't have all the high technicalities that a "normal" level would have with all the strafing and shooting and stuff, but for how short it is, i could play it for hours.
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(https://i.gyazo.com/378410af3e4ab7e642d7d2fdf03aa0d3.jpg)