10 Awesome Video Game Levels Nobody Remembers

8. The Virmire Assault - Mass Effect

Jessica, I hear you say, everyone remembers Mass Effect, it’s one of the biggest trilogies in gaming, why did you put it on this list? Well, yes, but being an enormous trilogy some excellent levels have ended up relatively overshadowed and among those is Virmire.

We all remember the suicide mission from Mass Effect 2, the final assault at the trilogy’s conclusion, and Mordin’s brave sacrifice to cure the Krogan genetic disease, the genophage, but the Virmire Assault from the game’s first outing is particularly special. Cast your mind back to 2007, or 2021 if you grabbed the legendary edition, and our hero had found themselves allying with the salarians to weed out primary antagonist Saren on Virmire. You quickly discover Saren has managed to cure the genophage intending to raise a Krogan army, and your friendship with your Krogan squadmate Wrex going forward will depend on whether you choose to destroy the cure or not.

As if that wasn’t intense enough, Virmire features the reveal of Sovereign, a Reaper who intends to harvest all organic life.

Your tense conversation with Saren, finally encountering Sovereign and facing the sinking reality of how big of a threat the Reapers truly are, and realising you need to sacrifice either Kaiden or Ashley and there is no way to save them both, makes this a stunning moment in the landmark sci-fi trilogy.