10 Recent Game Levels With INSANE GRAPHICS

In 2026, many games boast impressive graphics, but some specific levels or areas stand out for their exceptional visual quality. This summary will explore ten recent game levels that exemplify insane graphics, starting with Resident Evil Requiem at number 10. Resident Evil Requiem opens with what is described as the most impressive singular street seen in a game in a long time. Although players spend a brief moment in this area, it serves as a significant graphical showcase for the RE engine. Resident Evil games have a tradition of starting with bizarrely realistic scenes, as seen in Resident Evil 7's opening woods. However, Resident Evil 9 elevates this with its city street, which looks "damn good" whether played in first-person as Grace or as Leon. The ray tracing and ray reconstruction, an impressive Nvidia technology, make this dense city scene exceptionally crisp. Details like rain, steam, and various light sources—regular, street, car, and neon lights—are accurately reflected. The highly detailed shops lining the streets contribute to an almost photorealistic appearance, particularly the back alley leading to the hotel when playing as Grace. There's a notable absence of smearing or fuzziness, which is common in busy scenes. When playing as Leon, the full level part of this street segment unfolds at night, with crowds and cars cleared, offering a different, action-packed experience that remains extremely impressive. While the entire game features excellent lighting, shadows, and texture work, nothing quite matches the visual quality of that opening city street. Next, at number nine, is Doom: The Dark Ages and the Holy City of Aratam and Siege Part One. Modern Doom games are known for their cool skyboxes, and Dark Ages takes this further with two visually dynamic levels. The game not only looks impressive but also performs shockingly well. The first part of this entry introduces a flying mount. While the mission starts with baseline good graphics, the true visual spectacle begins upon reaching the titular city. Players are treated to a panoramic view of a massive floating city amidst chaos. The contrast between the heavily armored city and the assaulting demonic forces creates one of the most impressive visuals in the game, serving as a hell of an intro for the simple flying mechanics. Siege, the second part, is a more traditional Doom Dark Ages level, but with a flashy start that takes players from a busy port, through a castle interior, and down to a battleground. Despite simple level design, the stunning visuals, verticality of major locations, and background destruction make it captivating. This "very good-looking set dressing" demonstrates the developers' continued skill. At number eight, we have Routine, a game announced in 2012 that managed to release in 2025 with impressive visuals, despite flying under the radar. It might lack massive environments or perfect photogrammetry, but it excels in stark, moody lighting and atmosphere, committed to "unflinching realism." The environments are a retro-future space base, rendered with an "uncanny" realism. Excellent texture work, models, and environmental details depict an abandoned place on the edge of an abyss. The most detailed location is the mall, the second major area, which feels like a "dead future mall" despite being fictional. Some common spaces resemble Earth locations before the artificiality becomes apparent. Eerie lighting enhances the atmosphere. The game masterfully conveys that the station extends far beyond the explored areas, with long corridors disappearing into pitch-black darkness. This creates an "existential kind of claustrophobic space" that makes players feel both claustrophobic and fearful of open spaces—a rare phenomenon. The retro-90s aesthetics further amplify the abandoned feeling, making it a well-executed sci-fi horror environment. Number seven features Croissol Theater of Idols, another indie horror game with a different tone but equally shocking graphics for its price point. Unlike Routine's minimalism, Croissol is lush and specifically detailed. The mermaid district truly showcases the game's strengths, packed with world-building details and "crazy obsessive attention to detail," reminiscent of BioShock. The island's worship of the sea is evident in ubiquitous ocean motifs, from dining sets to starfish-handled faucets. Every major location has unique signage, art, and statues. Tables are set with food and silverware, and the kitchen is fully stocked and immaculately detailed with what appears to be 99% custom-made assets that adhere to the area's specific theme. The fidelity is described as superior to almost any other indie horror game, moving beyond common retro looks to operate at a much higher level, perhaps akin to an Xbox 360 game. Details like cigarette smoke wafting to the ceiling and blood effects are remarkably clean in art and animation, making it visually cool, even if not terrifying. At number six, Mafia: The Old Country is praised for its overall excellent visuals and open world. The mission to sneak into the opera house for an assassination is highlighted as a perfect example of the game's impressive details. While this mission doesn't offer the game's typical grand vistas, it compensates with "extremely impressive texture work" on even minor details and a "wild amount of variety" for a mission that can be completed quickly and isn't revisited. The fantastic soft lighting system in the caves leading to the opera house, with dripping water, detailed rock walls, and subtle lighting, is some of the best in the game. The opera house itself is excellent, filled with period-appropriate details. When chaos erupts and the stage catches fire, the crumbling structures and falling sandbags are "really well done," making it a "showstopper of a level." Number five is High on Life 2, an underrated sequel that significantly improves upon the first game's graphics. It maintains an expressive, high-contrast art style but with much higher fidelity. While pre-release trailers might have overstated its visual prowess, the game can be "really nice looking," especially on PC with maxed settings. The Con mission is considered the game's visual peak. Players infiltrate a convention filled with different conventions to assassinate a politician. This mission is a "wild, weird visual treat" from the start, throwing players into a battle for parking in a floating garage before the main objective of bouncing between various floating structures. Each convention is visually distinct, with goofy NPCs and trademark giant mascot heads. The massive view and detailed vignettes create a sense of scale, with each major area having its own unique "coat of paint." This huge level is filled with bespoke details that don't reappear, making it the most visually interesting and best level in the game, complete with unique boss fights, absurd twists, and comedic bits. Wu Chong Fallen Feathers comes in at number four. While it might be overlooked compared to Blacksmith Wukong or Kazan the First Berserker, it's an "incredibly impressive looking game" and in some ways, visually superior to Wukong, especially in level design, with no shortage of visual flourish or detail. The opening is incredible, mimicking the natural world, but the "most insane graphics flex" is saved for the final area: the "absolutely massive and grotesque Bow Capital." This labyrinthine "final nightmare zone" is twisted by corrupting forces, covered in "nasty red stuff," alien and weird, yet "all just looks incredible." Despite similar themes in other games, Wu Chong gives this place a "special grotesque beauty," with a giant glowing tree, a field of red flowers, and colossal bone walkways. The variety and detail of ancient ruins, bizarre Bloodborne-esque plant life, and alien elements make it work so well. Although not excelling in any single aspect, it is "pretty stunning when it wants to be." At number three, Battlefield 6 and Gibraltar. While the campaign isn't particularly memorable, it looks very good at times, with impressive moments of large-scale combat and destruction. Gibraltar is singled out as the "most graphically insane." From the start, players are wowed by an amphibious assault on the city amidst rolling waves and chaos. The Mediterranean beauty of the city, under a shining sun, is on full display as it falls apart. The level leverages the strengths of DICE's engine, showcasing a massive conflict with extensive player-caused destruction. The developers' ability to blow up buildings is unparalleled, and this destruction is seen multiple times as players fight from the beach, through the city, into the hills of old town, and finally to a public square. The seamless transitions and visual variety are an impressive achievement, making it perhaps the best campaign level, integrating Battlefield's gameplay mechanics into a linear mission with cool set pieces. Number two is Metroid Prime 4 Beyond. Despite some disappointing elements, the game's visuals in motion are "incredible." Retro Studios is commended for making the game look so good and run well on the Switch, proving that powerful hardware isn't always necessary for insane graphics; talent and visual style are key. The standout location is the Vault Forge, a "visual overload" compared to the game's more barren areas. It's an area split between three cylindrical, cyclopean towers, surrounded by an endless rain and lightning storm. Its brutal sci-fi design is fraternalike, yet it contains intimate details for scanning. The combination of lightning, water, and overall design creates one of the most memorable locations in the series, imposing and with a "wow factor." It shares some elements with Metroid Prime 2's Sanctuary Fortress but is distinguished by its sheer size while maintaining detail. Finally, at number one, Crimson Desert is highlighted as one of the most varied, detailed, and expansive open worlds seen in a long time. While main missions start basic, Chapter 6, the castle siege mission, reveals the game's true capabilities. It's a full-on invasion, showcasing the engine's power with a massive scale. The castle towers over the valley as players approach from the hills, featuring an impressive draw distance, soldiers in formation, archers firing, and cannons in volley. The sheer amount of activity before even joining the battle surpasses the scale and detail of war battles in many other open-world games. The entire chapter throws everything Crimson Desert has at players at once: giant swarms of enemies, battling tanks, burning fields, firing cannons, and collapsing guard towers. This level of detail and dynamic action is usually confined to heavily scripted games, but here it's rendered seamlessly in an open world, even with changing times of day. It's questioned why such a cool and fun introduction wasn't front-loaded in the game, given how slow the actual intro is. Nevertheless, this entire chapter is deemed "insane," fun, and visually cool. These ten levels represent recent peaks in video game graphics, demonstrating how specific areas can push visual boundaries and create memorable experiences, even within games that might not be perfect overall.