Games which do have some great leveldesign but no real terrains are in my opinion "beyond good and evil" and "half life 2". Both do have outdoorlevels which aren´t blocky, but they aren´t very complex and not very big. But I think that those games do show that it could be possible to have great level design even with terrain.
I think terrains, as in the vast modern plains with some hills here and there is vastly overrated content anyways. At least in most games.
Did I enjoy running through some hills, seeing a lot of the same trees nearly all the time in Oblivion? Well.. it had it's charms as there was sóme design to it, but I think the level design could have been a lot better still.
I definitely prefer real hardcore 'level-designed' games like Tombraider, God of War, Max Payne and so on.
Do games really have to have huge terrains now, just because hardware can handle it now? I don't know..
it can be. but that's reality: do a job in stalker/oblivion/gothic3 in level/town xyz and run all the way back to your boss, which can take 10 minutes and even more, depending on the game.
get a job in quake4 (shutdown terminal/gun/xyz), and a door opens where you can see your squad and regroup, so there is no traveling back over hill and dale.
Excellent point. When it comes to scenery it can be nice to look at, but when it comes to gameplay... there's so much pointless travel in some games nowadays. In fact, nowadays developers think of 'clever' ways to make this more bearable, like adding horses or teleports.. But the sheer irony of that is of course that the vast size of the terrains then suddenly becomes even less important to the game.
Cheers
