Most Memorable Dungeons List

The dungeon crawl is often stygmatized as a boring grind or a mindless hack n slash event that is merely endured to score loot and level characters. But IMO the dungeon can often make the game.

There may be great rpgs out there without great dungeons, but I haven't played any lately. I thought we might reminisce in this thread over the dungeon crawls that were a success and not a boring interlude to be endured. How and why did they enliven the game and which have stayed in your mind over the years for one reason or another?

My short list is as follows:

1. The Temple of Baa (Might & Magic 6)
My first and never to be forgotten. A relatively easy dungeon, but not one to forgive the mistakes of rash overconfidance either. There was no boss fight and meager loot, but acres of tunnels full of rats, spiders, and nasty undead, mixed in with some puzzles and that aura that just says 'you are now an adventurer"

2. The Severed Hand (Icewind Dale)
An upside down dungeon, with levels twisting into the upper regions instead of the abyss, full of hordes of Undead, ghostly not-really-there bar patrons, horrific battles and terrifying monsters(the large skeletal Boneguards in particular creeped me out). I thought the dead shopkeepers were a nice touch.

3. Ravels Maze/the Modron Maze (Planescape:Torment)
These tie in my affections. Two very different dungeons, The modron maze was like an ever changing rubic's cube, baffling and complex and full of challenges in terms of combat and puzzle-unraveling. Ravel's Maze is probably the only dungeon on record that ends in a boss fight conducted almost entirely through the dialogue tree, where at times the adversary heals and rewards you. One of the many facets of this jewel of an rpg.

4. The Asylum/Asylum Dungeons (Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn)
A well-named dungeon, because it could have the effect of making you wish you were in one. The hallmark here is deception, and in many layers. An intricate combination of all the rpg archetypes, the arch-villain Irenicus, the not so harmless crazies, NPC's and plot, combat and confusion.

I know there's many more I've missed. I'm thinking crpgs, but if you have a great one from another genre, feel free to pitch it in the pile.

Also, if you hate and loathe dungeons, feel free to put in the ones you hated and loathed the most.

Neat topic.

MM6- the final temple with all the Cuisinarts. Until that point, I had largely stomped my way thru the game. A pack of those Egyptian critters (protector of the dead?) actually would threaten me with a visit to the death screen.

MM7- Tunnel to Nighon. A nice long romp, and working thru the behemoths was fun.

W&W- First temple with the snake worshippers. Hugely disappointing game, but several dungeons were very well done. The opening dungeon in the graveyard was quite good, but I thought the atmosphere of the temple was superior.

Wiz8- Ascension Peak. Not sure if you call this a dungeon, although functionally it is. What a gauntlet run. A huge variety of critters, and some reasonably tough battles to work thru.

Durlags Tower in Baldurs Gate 1 - the Visions of the Dwarves, the hard and bitter Riddles, the sad journals and the Size of the Dungeon are really great.

The Dwarf-Mines in Wizardry 6... this Dungeon is so small and yet so horrible hard to navigate through with the well placed Darkness-Zones and the many Stairs... I couldn't believe how small it was, after I mapped the Place .

River Styx from Wizardry 6... especially the isle of minos and the isle of the sirens... oh and the isle of the dead...

The Vampire-Castle and the Lich-Fortress in Dark Sun 1 because of the interesting Boss-Fights.

Dungeon Master 1 - a really cool big Dungeon with slowly raising Challenges.

Chaos strikes back - meanest Dungeon ever...

The Hotel (Ocean House ?) and the House of the malkavian Patriach in Vampire Bloodlines

The Cathedral in Diablo 1 just for the Atmosphere

The dwarven Mines in Startrail for some good riddles and interesting enemies.

Bloodwych... the first multi-player Dungeon I played with my Brother back in the Days... a cool new experience back then...

Black Crypt... again the Enemys and the Riddles were something special...

Eye of the Beholder had very nice Dungeons, and Darkmoon in EoB 2 was a really great Dungeon... it had a "realistic" Feeling to it... Lands of Lore I had great locations and there was a dungeon in Pools of Darkness, that was a body of a dead God .

Cassidia, the town of the mad wizards in Fate - Gates of Dawn, just for the endless hard battles...

The endless and dangerous tunnels of Secret of the Silver-Blades come to my Mind now, I guess there are much more I just can't remember right now

dteowner said:

MM7- Tunnel to Nighon. A nice long romp, and working thru the behemoths was fun.

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1) MM VII Nighon Tunnel = seconded. That one was crazy looong .

2) Otherwise, as someone who pretty much hates dungeon-crawling... hmmm... the maze at the end of Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva was pretty memorable. Mostly because I sooo wanted to finish the game and then that stupid maze puts you into full stop mode (made even worse by my rather terrible orientation skills ).

3) The sleeper temple in Gothic was awesome.

4) Then in Dungeon Siege there was this (dwarven or gnome/goblin... don't remember... definitely something small though ) dungeon that was not really memorable per se but there was a certain fight that occurred when you used one of those cable car thingies to cross an abyss and there were hordes of baddies waiting on the other side. I think it was that memorable to me because the Dungeon Siege engine was really innovative back then since it was the first game to offer up a quasi-isometric 3D view of the party-based action. And that fight was insane... hack'n'slash at its best.


Otherwise, I'm really just glad when dungeon crawls are over. My no. 1 target of "hate" would have to be sewers since I have never ever had any fun in a sewer level in any game (i.e. cross genre, not just RPGs... sewers have always sucked IMHO - from JK II: Outcast to Oblivion... sewer suckiness all around ).

Ultima 4 and 5's dungeons were connected at the deepest levels. That was really neat. You could plunge into one dungeon and come out from another.

The best dungeon was Wizardry I. It was so massive it required 2 disks..both sides! And it was permanent. Never had anything this large been persitant before. Also, unlike the Ultima dungeons it had "thin" walls. Even today the cheat maps don't tell tell you all the features each of those 10 levels had. Instead of creating a world it was as dungeon crawl and a great one.

The Crypt in Arx was excellent, and for something completely different, but similar, every level on System Shock!!

Durlags Tower in Baldurs Gate 1, as previously mentioned by Fenris.

The Crypt in Arx Fatalis, as previously mentioned by Corwin.

The Old Mine in Gothic 1.

i thought one of the better parts of ultima ix was the dungeons. but like Lucky Day said the ones in 4 and 5 were great. i can't remember which had the pirate ship you found in it that had an npc 'john' something i think. might of been the same one with the hot air ballon.

gothic did have some great dungeons as well as arx too.

summoner i recall had some unique dungeons as well.

but the dungeons i remember most were the one's in bard's tale as i spent hours lost in them before i learned of the best use for graphing paper.

Of those mentioned before the Arx Crypt and Ravel's Maze hold a special place in my heart; some of the bigger Daggerfall dungeons made we want to scream and tear out my hair, though, especially with all the holes one could fall through. I also loathed the monster dungeons in Thief 1because they just didn't fit the game's atmosphere too well.
The White Tower in LoL was another great memory, I liked that one. It was so clean and... white, not exactly your regular, musty dungeon.
Other dungeons I liked include the Shalebridge Cradle from Thief: DS for the paranoid atmosphere, *the* caves from Kyrandia 1 because they made me feel small and lost, the Dracoid Ruins from LoL 2 for their spooky atmoshere, and all the 'Dome of D'Sparil' (~underwater) levels from Heretic because I liked the look and feel of those. I also loved the Templar-infested basement of the house in RotH because of their unique colors and the sense of wonder I felt when I came doen the stairs for the first time. At the same time I didn't like the brain-puzzle dungeon at all - it just didn't fit in with the rest of the game.

Ultima underworld. Smog raising from underground rivers, lizards fishing, etc. Its a memorably dungeon allright. I remember every level of it.

The Imperial Tower in Oblivion (the last main Thief Guild Quest) was excellent - really had my heart racing as I made my escape.

Lots of excellent mentions - I'll not duplicate, suffice it to say that I agree

- Haunted Hotel in VtM: Bloodlines - ok, perhaps not great as a dungeon, but the atmosphere ...

- Shadow Ruins in Dungeon Lords (yes I know) - the tons of puzzles and the overall design of the dungeon is really good, despite the idiotic respawning ...

Best memory from a dungeon:
Killing the red dragon Firkraag in the final room of his dungeon in BG2, and getting the holy sword Carsomyr.

Most scary dungeon:
Various dungeons in Might and Magic 6 with spiders and snakes in them. I always jump when these creatures come out of nowhere with a loud HISSSS.

Best overall dungeon:
The temple of the Sleeper in Gothic 1. Not too long, not too short. Not overly complicated, nor too simple. It's a solid dungeon with eveything a dungeon needs.

I'm not terribly fond of dungeons, but the temple of the Sleeper (Gothic), Durlags Tower (Baldurs Gate) and Watchers Keep (Baldurs Gate II expansion) were fun.

The few handmade ones (of which all others were random permutations) in Daggerfall werent that bad either. Castle Sentinel and Castle Wayrest, or the bloody Shedungent where the person you are looking for is just behind the first door but I spent hours due to keeping right all the time

by todays standards could be considered an action rpg though i don't think it was ever labeled one but severance:blade of darkness had some great 'dungeon' levels.

dteowner said:

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MM6- the final temple with all the Cuisinarts. Until that point, I had largely stomped my way thru the game. A pack of those Egyptian critters (protector of the dead?) actually would threaten me with a visit to the death screen...

Click to expand...

Ah, yes--the Warlord's Castle in Silver Cove--the Cuisinarts are ungodly. My wussy band of spellcasters with only one beefy fighter was having a rough time there till in desparation I cast a Berzerk spell. Worked like a charm(no pun intended)--then just sat back in the corner and sniped away while one of their own hacked up the opposition. They dropped some of the best stuff in the game, too,IIRC.

Moriendor, I agree 100% on the sewer syndrome. Those are some of the most tedious dungeons ever invented in every game out there.

I'm trying to remember some of the others listed-I know I've played them but it's that age thing....I do remember fighting Firkraag and getting the sword, but it seems to blend in with fighting a bunch of Fire Giants and a female mage who pulverized my party...I think I'm confusing infinity engine games...

Pretty much every dungeon in Thief 1 and 2... Not sure if it counts as a dungeon, but I found "the sword" level especially impressive.

I know they've been mentioned already, but the dungeons from Dungeon Master and its add-on Chaos Strikes Back really made an impression on me. Also, the dungeon 'rooms' in Ultima IV were really cool. If you were imaginative you could figure out why certain monsters were in a room together and what they were doing there!

Daggerfall. Scariest dungeons ever in an totally insane sort-of-way. I thought
I loose my mind trying to finish them. No logic anywhere. Felt like crazy
people had designed every meter of it. Miles and miles of nothing but purely random passages. Once you found what you were looking for (if you were that lucky) it could take hour(s) to just find the way back out of the gigantic maze. Im quite proud to finish that game.

Might and Magic Three: The Arachnoid Cave. You had a nice little math puzzle that made this dungeon quite a treat.

Exile: The whole game was one big dungeon.

System Shock 2: The Many level. It just creeped me out for days.