Bad parts in great games.

CastletonSnob

Weaksauce
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Apr 12, 2021
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113
Even the best games ever made have THAT part, whether it's a level, a boss, puzzle, whatever, that are so annoying and frustrating that it brings the rest of the game down.

For me, it's the Anor Londo Silver Knights in Dark Souls 1. If you try to block the arrows, you'll get knocked back, usually falling off the ledge and to your death. You just have to get lucky and make the Knight on the right fall off the ledge.
 
Batman arkham city had this section where you have to fly a really long way and the mechanic was challenging. Finally after watching playthoughs and trying a lot i got past it but it goes straight from there into a boss fight and i died. After that you have to start from the flying part again and i stopped playing the game in frusteration.

Edit this was the "Ra's Al Ghul" section that I am talking about.
 
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I get annoyed easily at boss fights in general, but the final battle with
that f**king bear
in the Taiga level in Metro Exodus really takes the cake for me. The end sequence is difficult to initiate, sometimes bugs out and won't happen, looks just like dying at first so it's easy to miss by reloading a save thinking Artyom got unalived, and is complex enough behind the scenes with the game scripts that it's difficult to metagame through once I finally get tired of pretending to fight and just want to move on. It's too bad because I mostly love the boss fights in that level but that last one just feels broken to me. Like when it works it really works and feels cinematic but the triggers are so specific that once you know that it's all smoke and mirrors, the seemingly-intended effect ("run around shooting, die, run around shooting, die, repeat 10x, accidentally get the cutscene, go "WHOA! Cool") turns into an annoying game of "ok I've been letting Artyom get chased around for awhile, maybe if I kite over that way now the script will finally..."
Not that I've actually gotten fully progression locked there but the past couple playthrus I have gotten unreasonably annoyed at the mechanics.

honorable mentions to the laser tripwires in Oni, the lack of save points in certain sections of Metro 2033, and especially to the
goddamn clock demon
in Control that as designed was actually about the right difficulty IMO but in practice can be ridiculously difficult for some people because it spawns so many
goddamn clocks
that it crashes otherwise-stable computers- especially fun when that happens towards the end of the battle!
 
In the original Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox when you use a higher sensitivity and turn too fast your body doesn't keep up with your actual aimed position, so for example you do a quick 180 and shoot a rocket, it doesn't go where you're aiming it shoots the wall to the side of you and kills you.
 
The sniping section of Modern Warfare.

The game never gave you any way to practice, the shooting was basically random anyway, and that long-ass speech you had to sit through eight times before finally clicking on the magical invisible spot to get to the next part of the game.

It could easily take an hour to get done and it was totally pointless. Worst combination of cutscene and quick-time event ever conceived.
 
The sniping section of Modern Warfare.

The game never gave you any way to practice, the shooting was basically random anyway, and that long-ass speech you had to sit through eight times before finally clicking on the magical invisible spot to get to the next part of the game.

It could easily take an hour to get done and it was totally pointless. Worst combination of cutscene and quick-time event ever conceived.
I found that part to be rather easy. Now, holding out at the amusement park for extraction on the harder difficulty settings could get a bit rough at times.
 
I found that part to be rather easy. Now, holding out at the amusement park for extraction on the harder difficulty settings could get a bit rough at times.

That's funny, I would have said the complete opposite. But I like sneaky-sneaky games, that stuff really gets me going.

Especially if it's in multiplayer games. I love getting around people and catching them off-guard. Particularly when you have to alternate between sneaky-sneaky and full-on gonzo mayhem. It's what made Verdun such an addictive shooter. Run. Shoot. Hide. Repeat.
 
That's funny, I would have said the complete opposite. But I like sneaky-sneaky games, that stuff really gets me going.

Especially if it's in multiplayer games. I love getting around people and catching them off-guard. Particularly when you have to alternate between sneaky-sneaky and full-on gonzo mayhem. It's what made Verdun such an addictive shooter. Run. Shoot. Hide. Repeat.
I typically have zero patience for that sneaking around bullshit.
 
I get annoyed easily at boss fights in general, but the final battle with
that f**king bear
in the Taiga level in Metro Exodus really takes the cake for me. The end sequence is difficult to initiate, sometimes bugs out and won't happen, looks just like dying at first so it's easy to miss by reloading a save thinking Artyom got unalived, and is complex enough behind the scenes with the game scripts that it's difficult to metagame through once I finally get tired of pretending to fight and just want to move on. It's too bad because I mostly love the boss fights in that level but that last one just feels broken to me. Like when it works it really works and feels cinematic but the triggers are so specific that once you know that it's all smoke and mirrors, the seemingly-intended effect ("run around shooting, die, run around shooting, die, repeat 10x, accidentally get the cutscene, go "WHOA! Cool") turns into an annoying game of "ok I've been letting Artyom get chased around for awhile, maybe if I kite over that way now the script will finally..."
Not that I've actually gotten fully progression locked there but the past couple playthrus I have gotten unreasonably annoyed at the mechanics.

honorable mentions to the laser tripwires in Oni, the lack of save points in certain sections of Metro 2033, and especially to the
goddamn clock demon
in Control that as designed was actually about the right difficulty IMO but in practice can be ridiculously difficult for some people because it spawns so many
goddamn clocks
that it crashes otherwise-stable computers- especially fun when that happens towards the end of the battle!

I completely forgot about that, if you hadnt mentioned that part I would have probably said GTA IV had a mission (ivan the terrible?) where you had to chase a guy up a ladder, but as soon as you touched the ladder (locked in the animation) multiple guys with full autos come out and immediately blow you away. I have broken exactly 2 controllers out of frustration in my entire life, both in the same sitting, both from that specific mission.

But that bear in Exodus........it might objectively be the worst mechanic I have ever seen in a game. You arent supposed to win the fight, its a scripted fight that you need to lose in order to proceed, BUT, you cant lose TOO badly or else you fail. The real problems start when I was doing my Ranger hardcore run with all of the NG+ nerfs enabled (single gun, only the starting pistol, nerfed backpack, tougher enemies etc..) and I was physically NOT capable of holding enough ammunition/molotovs to do enough damage to trigger the cutscene. I literally had to download a trainer just to turn on infinite ammo so I could get past this stupid fight, absolute garbage mechanic in an otherwise decent game. The worst part is I technically did cheat, so I dont even know if I can say that ive "beaten" it on RHC, all because of this stupid fucking bear :(
 
Wait, I've got a better one.

Rare%2BReplay%2B3.jpg

You have any idea how many hours straight it took me to beat that level when I was like...9? jesus
 
Wait, I've got a better one.

View attachment 375216

You have any idea how many hours straight it took me to beat that level when I was like...9? jesus

That final stretch of the course was wild. Basically no time to react, it's all memorization. I would usually just cut it short and take the warp.

It was quite the realization for a young Seymour that after finally completing that level - the game only gets harder.
 
That final stretch of the course was wild. Basically no time to react, it's all memorization. I would usually just cut it short and take the warp.

It was quite the realization for a young Seymour that after finally completing that level - the game only gets harder.
Kids nowadays have no idea how easy they have it. XD
 
Anor Londo was definitely rough. Especially on your first time playing Dark Souls. Even on subsequent replays I usually die at least once to that final knight on the ledge.

The first thing that came to mind for me was the first mission in Uncharted 2. The stealth mission in the Turkish museum. It has a different flow and pace compared to the rest of the entire series and it's annoying as hell.

Another one is the final mission in GTA4. The first 2/3 of the mission is great, but there's a sequence in a helicopter where you're supposed to dodge missiles and fly to the island with the statue of happiness. Trick is, you can't actually dodge anything and you're supposed to get hit by a missile eventually. The only way to survive is to fly as high as possible instead of to the goal, though. The game doesn't tell you that and it's counter-intuitive. The first 2/3 of that mission also takes forever and you have to do the whole thing over if you die. It's stupid and actually reminds me of landing on the aircraft carrier in the NES version of Top Gun.
 
StarLancer...

The final mission is a 2-parter that starts with you having to fly in a tight formation with your wingman, and if you stary out of formation (which is SUPER EASY to do), you fail. After a lot of retries that nearly made me burst a blood vessel, I got past it and directly into the second part where you have to simultaneously fight off enemy fighters AND intercept incoming stealth torpedoes targeting your carrier... and if you fail THIS part, guess where you start. AFTER that, you have a end-game dogfight with a large number of adversaries. It's freaking brutal and it took me two solid 6 hour days to beat it.

An otherwise very good space combat game in a similar vein to Wing Commander, designed by Eric Roberts (brother of Chris Roberts) and pure joystick "military" space combat sim sister of Chris Robert's own Freelancer. I really miss these games. Kickstarted Star Citizen many (MANY) years ago solely for Squadron 42... Couldn't give a shit less about actual Star Citizen itself.
 
Even the best games ever made have THAT part, whether it's a level, a boss, puzzle, whatever, that are so annoying and frustrating that it brings the rest of the game down.

For me, it's the Anor Londo Silver Knights in Dark Souls 1. If you try to block the arrows, you'll get knocked back, usually falling off the ledge and to your death. You just have to get lucky and make the Knight on the right fall off the ledge.
Nothing lucky about it. You just have to keep running at the knight on the right without stopping. Once on the ledge roll through the arrows until he pulls his sword out, then it's just a parry and reposte to take him down. I understand it can be frustrating the first time because most people are really timid about approaching anything in the game, but this part is straightforward. The more frustrating part is immediately before this with the two demons in the enclosed space. You can lure them to chase you back up the bridge, but it can take a very long time for one of them to fall off. It is much easier if you're spec'd for any ranged attacks.

The part that I have always hated and still hate in the game is The Duke's Archive. Whenever I have to go through the zone I just wince at the thought of it. Nothing is really tough about it, it's just the layout and enemies are all annoying as hell.
I found that part to be rather easy. Now, holding out at the amusement park for extraction on the harder difficulty settings could get a bit rough at times.
I actually recently played through the game and found that part a lot easier than I remembered it. I was even playing the game on Veteran. I recall the last time I played the game 13 years earlier and grinding this part for several hours before getting lucky. It only took me 3 times most recently. The part I hate more is the mission prior to the AC-130 gunner part. The dogs and the stealth sections are quite annoying. The Ghillie Suit mission at least feels intelligently created while this mission feels like it is designed to annoy the hell out of you at every turn.
 
Seems like Modern Warfare was a memorable game all around. Ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, though.

Shame they never made a sequel.
 
There there, mate : )

Actually you can skip that bear fight by going straight to the ladder. It's weird that you don't even have to fight it, lol

Thanks Taco, I did not know that the fight could be skipped :)

That's the first battle with that boss that can be ended right away (even without fighting) by getting to the ladder as fast as possible. That encounter is fine, fun even and works well. I (and I assume Smoblikat) was talking about the second and final battle at the end of the level which definitely does require fighting (even though you still can't actually defeat the boss with weapons alone) and can't always be reliability ended at all because the encounter-completing cutscene doesn't always want to trigger unless Artyom has dealt (and received?) a certain amount of damage.
 
That's the first battle with that boss that can be ended right away (even without fighting) by getting to the ladder as fast as possible. That encounter is fine, fun even and works well. I (and I assume Smoblikat) was talking about the second and final battle at the end of the level which definitely does require fighting (even though you still can't actually defeat the boss with weapons alone) and can't always be reliability ended at all because the encounter-completing cutscene doesn't always want to trigger unless Artyom has dealt (and received?) a certain amount of damage.

Ah yes, I had forgotten you fight the bear twice. I am referring to the second fight, the one with all the destroyable structures the bear likes to smash up. I tried that fight for at least a week, and even spending 5 minutes per shot to make sure theyre all critical headshots (plus you can get a few melee hits on the bear as it enters the enflamed state) I was never able to trigger the cutscene in ranger hardcore :(
 
Even the best games ever made have THAT part, whether it's a level, a boss, puzzle, whatever, that are so annoying and frustrating that it brings the rest of the game down.

For me, it's the Anor Londo Silver Knights in Dark Souls 1. If you try to block the arrows, you'll get knocked back, usually falling off the ledge and to your death. You just have to get lucky and make the Knight on the right fall off the ledge.
The game offers several ways to pass that part. Its a good section, in general. Because fairly late in the game it has you sweating and probably forces you to mixup your usual routine and gear.
 
The first thing that came to mind for me was the first mission in Uncharted 2. The stealth mission in the Turkish museum. It has a different flow and pace compared to the rest of the entire series and it's annoying as hell.
Yeah, its a whole section of very simple, uncompelling "stealth" gameplay. The Last of Us continued that in its early sections, too. I found myself just running through a few of the early stealth parts of The Last of Us. Nobody learned from Snake Eater.
 
Yeah, its a whole section of very simple, uncompelling "stealth" gameplay. The Last of Us continued that in its early sections, too. I found myself just running through a few of the early stealth parts of The Last of Us. Nobody learned from Snake Eater.
I honestly hate the first 1/4 of the original Last of Us. I get that it's supposed to make the game tense, but it's more just annoying since the clickers bob and weave like Mike Tyson in 1988. It's a lot of waiting and random movement. The game doesn't get out of that rut until you hit Pittsburgh.
 
Everything that came after Modern Warfare was so bad it's easier to think that it never got made.

Well lets not get hasty there........CoD WaW came after MW1 and that game introduced the zombie game mode, different grenade types (MW1 might have had more than frag, i dont remember) and was actually really fun. MW2 came out and introduced multi weapon attachments for guns plus a bunch of brand new attachments (akimbo 1887's pre-nerf were teh best CoD guns ever), MW2 also had that mode where you have a bunch of missions to do (alpha, beta etc..) and you can complete them with friends, ive had lots of fun doing those missions with my buddies (local coop!). I dont know what happened after MW2 as I was wrongfully VAC banned and actively refuse to purchase another cod ever again until they make that situation right, 3893 day(s) since last ban, still waiting :D
 
Well lets not get hasty there...

Games can have great gameplay but that doesn't make up for horrible plots and bad storytelling. After Modern Warfare COD just stopped making any sense. And Modern Warfare's plot wasn't all that great, but it mostly worked to get you from place to place.

I'm not saying I need a story with the vision and scale of the Halo series to enjoy a shooter, but if it's so weird I'm confused as to why I'm doing what it is that I'm doing ... well I'd probably join the military.
 
Games can have great gameplay but that doesn't make up for horrible plots and bad storytelling. After Modern Warfare COD just stopped making any sense. And Modern Warfare's plot wasn't all that great, but it mostly worked to get you from place to place.

I'm not saying I need a story with the vision and scale of the Halo series to enjoy a shooter, but if it's so weird I'm confused as to why I'm doing what it is that I'm doing ... well I'd probably join the military.
I only felt that the plot in MW2 was nonsensical. They made sense in 1 and 3, even if 3 was out there and the campaign was just horrible to play through. 2 and 3 are also direct sequels to 1, which is why I didn't know if you were joking or not.
 
I only felt that the plot in MW2 was nonsensical. They made sense in 1 and 3, even if 3 was out there and the campaign was just horrible to play through. 2 and 3 are also direct sequels to 1, which is why I didn't know if you were joking or not.

To be honest, I didnt know anyone actually cared about the "story" in cod. I didnt even know it was a story, I just assumed it was some whatever filler for the people without xbox live :p

Ive read enterprise networking documentation that was more entertaining than whatever garbage cod calls a "story".
 
To be honest, I didnt know anyone actually cared about the "story" in cod. I didnt even know it was a story, I just assumed it was some whatever filler for the people without xbox live :p

Ive read enterprise networking documentation that was more entertaining than whatever garbage cod calls a "story".
The campaigns are all full of tense moments that drives the action, making them quite enjoyable to play through. The MP was always secondary to the campaigns for me. I couldn't care less about Warzone or zombies, but I still occasionally have fun in domination.
 
To be honest, I didnt know anyone actually cared about the "story" in cod. I didnt even know it was a story, I just assumed it was some whatever filler for the people without xbox live :p

Ive read enterprise networking documentation that was more entertaining than whatever garbage cod calls a "story".

COD campaigns are the opposite of this thread. They have some cool parts in them, but they're mostly boring.

The levels are filled with A LOT of infinitely spawned enemies that you just need to mindlessly charge through. Which isn't fun and just shitty design IMO. But they have a variety cool special gameplay things like shooting from a gunship, weird car chases, etc that are actually fun.
 
Noo!! Why did you have to ruin it for taco?!
The endless spawning was correct, but not the mindless charging part. That will just get you killed on Veteran, but it is designed to make you push forward. You just have to do it smartly.
 
2 and 3 are also direct sequels to 1, which is why I didn't know if you were joking or not.

They were so disconnected and unrelated, I'm saying that's too much of a stretch. They may as well have been made by different devs. And 3 was, because 2 was so bad.

There are three Star Wars movies, three Indiana Jones movies, two Old Republic games, and the last Star Trek property was Enterprise. Trust me, this is a better world.
 
I get annoyed easily at boss fights in general, but the final battle with
that f**king bear
in the Taiga level in Metro Exodus really takes the cake for me. The end sequence is difficult to initiate, sometimes bugs out and won't happen, looks just like dying at first so it's easy to miss by reloading a save thinking Artyom got unalived, and is complex enough behind the scenes with the game scripts that it's difficult to metagame through once I finally get tired of pretending to fight and just want to move on. It's too bad because I mostly love the boss fights in that level but that last one just feels broken to me. Like when it works it really works and feels cinematic but the triggers are so specific that once you know that it's all smoke and mirrors, the seemingly-intended effect ("run around shooting, die, run around shooting, die, repeat 10x, accidentally get the cutscene, go "WHOA! Cool") turns into an annoying game of "ok I've been letting Artyom get chased around for awhile, maybe if I kite over that way now the script will finally..."
Not that I've actually gotten fully progression locked there but the past couple playthrus I have gotten unreasonably annoyed at the mechanics.

honorable mentions to the laser tripwires in Oni, the lack of save points in certain sections of Metro 2033, and especially to the
goddamn clock demon
in Control that as designed was actually about the right difficulty IMO but in practice can be ridiculously difficult for some people because it spawns so many
goddamn clocks
that it crashes otherwise-stable computers- especially fun when that happens towards the end of the battle!

Yeah that metro exodus part you are talking about sucks. Your goal is not the goal in every other fight, and there is ZERO reason to intuit that what you need to do is what you need to do.

As for Oni, that was just end to end shitting all over a mostly decent game and the player with bad decisions. Was there ANY save point in that game after ANY of the cut scenes? Oh here's a hard ass boss battle, and a 4.5 minute cut scene you will have to watch every time you restart.

I also hate old school platformers where they place a pixel perfect jump with perfect timing between you and like 2/3 of the game. The lost vikings really pissed me off. IT had a great mechanic and could be puzzles all day long but it has one of those in it at some point.
 
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