I was playing Mafia, and it’s a pretty cool game, then suddenly they drop in an F1 racing level where you need to grab first place against a bunch of AIs that never make a mistake.
The worst bit is, in the previous mission you did a lot of work to sabotage the rival’s car ahead of the race. So you shouldn’t even need to drive all that well to win against him, but it just forgets that.
I just never beat the race, so the game came to a halt for me.
That’s like game design 101 – if you’re introducing a new gameplay paradigm that isn’t part of the core experience, make it really really easy.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I recall the Warthog escape sequence at the end of Halo getting this right. It felt epic, but was actually very doable based on the limited driving skills required by rest of the game.
That’s why many of us are so fond of the warthog. Many games at the time introduced a vehicle and suddenly the game is ludicrously hard (… That fucking BattleToad battle bike…). But the Warthog is introduced as a helpful aid, and then it actually does it’s job with minimal fuss.
shouldn’t even need to drive all that well to win against him, but it just forgets that.
His car breaks down right at the start, which ironically makes the mission harder as you have to dodge the car as everyone passes it.
That said, the hard part was not tipping over, you could get quite a few places by just not giving a shit and flying over the chicane after the first turn.
“that fucking helicopter level”, for me, refers to the rc heli missions in gta vice city
Man, fuck those levels. I literally could not progress in the game because I was stuck on one of those. That experience lowered my opinion of the entire game, and I’ve never gone back because of it.
Same! I even played it on multiple platforms, no good
There’s a level in one of the Battlefield: Bad Company games where you’re ambushed by two attack helicopters in the desert and the only cover is a small building. Did I mention Bad Company has fully destructible environments and you’ve already fought in said building so it’s full of holes before the helicopters start blowing it apart? Or that a third helicopter shows up mid-battle?
It’s not too bad if you know what’s coming and preserve some cover, but if the building is in bad shape when they show up then you’re not going to have a fun time.
Any game with a mandatory stealth section all of a sudden
I had an opposite situation with Death Stranding. Was enjoying the “stealth” till suddenly had to fight Mads Mikkelsen guns blazing. The forced change in approach made me drop the game.
The opposite is obviously quite frustrating too.
I’ve heard the same issue with one of the possible endings in Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, where you’re forced to kill dozens of enemies (if you didn’t pick the narrative choice that forces you into a forced stealth section à la Alien Isolation). Both choices can derail from the rest of the gameplay (100+ hours)
Great DLC nonetheless
After MGS blew up EVERY GAME had to have a stealth section all of the sudden, even if it made no sense in the narrative and clashed with the existing game mechanics.
And now it’s the era of Darksouls, where every game have to make you puke blood instead of having fun
OG FF7 did it right.
I don’t mind shaking the gameplay up, but if I fail the stealth a couple times, just go ahead and let me go in guns blazing.
Fucking ff14, doesn’t do stealth well at all, why is it in so many main story quests ugh
Deadpool.
Big reason I never finished Witcher 2
I remember frustrating parts in the Witcher 2 but I don’t remember a stealth section
For years this was MAP16 (“suburbs”) of Doom 2, but over the years I’ve grown to appreciate the more chaotic/abstract levels.
See also TEETH.WAD (“express elevator to hell”) from the master levels. Punishing and IMO tedious.
Wolfenstein’s fucking helicopter level on impossible.
I’m sure I could beat the piano guy in Luigi’s Mansion 3 if I played it enough times, but it’s not nearly fun enough for me to stick to it
Every time its the same
„I wonder why I havent played Elite in a while“, then proceed to find myself in the outer rim of the galaxy in enemy powerplay territory with a sidewinder
I mean, catch a taxi? How’d you manage to fuck up Rule 1 so hard you ended up in a sidewinder with no way to import cash in enemy powerplay (which btw got redone and probably doesn’t apply anymore)
NES Adams Family game.
My cousins had it, so I couldn’t try later.
The freezer level.
I suck at platformers, always have, but the slippery change to traction fucked me over hard and I could not adapt.
Then their dog got out and that crisis took over.
Psi Ops the Mindgate conspiracy.
Could not beat that pyro removed
That game was so much fun though! I remember it having a really weird 2 player mode where you each get to control half of the guy.
Kingdom Come Deliverance is the most notable example of this. The monastery mission is absolutely brutal both by how difficult it’s intended to be, and by how broke it is, on a technical level.
It’s definitely interesting, but it’s so difficult.
Helicopter level is nowhere near as bad as everyone says it is.
I remembered it as being hard from being a kid. But every time I’ve played it since as an adult I’ve been very surprised that i was able to do it either my first try for that playthrough or at the second or third at most.
Tutorial.
Maybe I’m an idiot, but I can’t get the stupid mini game in Astral Chain where I have to balance a bunch of boxes and take them to someone without dropping them all. It adds nothing to the story afaik and it pissed me off to a point I just stopped playing altogether.
I think it was the crab boss on the original S/NES blaster master. 3rd or 4th boss. They’ve since made the game a little more forgiving.
