10 Bad Video Games With ONE Great Level
1. Escape Velocity - Prey (2006)
Prey (2006) is a mostly generic first-person shooter following Domasi "Tommy" Tawodi, a Cherokee handyman blasting aliens and trying to save his girlfriend. But despite featuring rarely-represented Native American leads and a unique resurrection mechanic, at the end of the day, it's mostly interchangeable with any other game where you blast aliens.
But, wow! What an opening level.
You start out at the bar where you work with your girlfriend and grandfather, talking and performing menial tasks, until an alien ship tractor-beams the entire bar and everything in it while a jukebox blasts out Blue Oyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper.
From there, the three of you are carted through some kind of human processing trolly. After some mysterious human benefactor sabotages the rail system, Tommy drops into the literal bowels of the techno-organic ship.
As you follow the track carrying your girlfriend and grandfather, you fend off various alien parasites living in the ship and observe other abducted humans being harvested for their biomass, until finally witnessing your grandfather meet the very same fate.
It's a bombastic, atmospheric intro that does a ton of visual world building in a very efficient amount of time. If only the rest of the game were as unique.