9 Most Inventive Video Game Levels You Need To Play

4. Effect And Cause - Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2
EA

I’ve snuck in this one that I’m sure you’ve heard of before but it’s so darn good that it really deserved to be brought up again. Effect and Cause is the fifth level of Respawn’s 2016 first-person shooter Titanfall 2.

This particular level cleverly weaves time travel into the mix, requiring you to jump back and forth between the current day base and the very same base from the past.

You’ll swap between its dilapidated present state and the previous functioning version to progress. Curiously, this is even more complex than it first appears as Respawn achieved this level by rendering two identical environments on top of each other. The level also features enemy A.I. that reacts to you warping between time periods. Effect and Cause is a seriously impressive feat of level design, elevating the genre, and subverting player expectations in a really clever way.

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Contributor

Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.