Gaming can often be a double-edged sword. You’ve heard of the rage-quit for example, right? How can a medium that’s supposed to give us pleasure and satisfaction birth such a concept? Well, to put it simply, while nothing is more satisfying than clicking with a great game, suddenly realising that you know exactly what you’re doing and sailing from then on, nothing is quite as indescribably frustrating as getting stuck, failing repeatedly or otherwise having your progress abruptly halted for whatever reason.
If you’re not a gamer, you just can’t know what I’m talking about. You won’t understand. But since you decided to click on an article entitled 10 Terrible Levels That Almost Derailed Great Games, I’m going to assume that you are in fact a gamer and can share my distaste. In my experience, the most common source of video game failure is borne from singular moments; not from a game’s overall difficulty level or design, but from that one ‘WTF’ level, mission or quest.
Great games come along few and far between and when they do it’s cause for excitement. But even great games often make you suffer frustrating levels. That’s what this article aims to discuss; those levels that almost made you hate your favourite games. That nigh on forced you to rage-quit, for fear that the next failure would bring a red mist down on you which’d see you awaken in a field days later with a trail of death and destruction in your wake.
So, let’s get right down to it shall we?
We are currently seeking Gaming contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Gaming contributor, click here.
31 Comments
So many of these are “controller breakers”, but I would disagree with The End being one of them, it’s one of the best and most original boss battles I’ve played IMO. If anything from Snake Eater wasn’t up to the standard of the rest- It was escorting EVE. Excruciatingly frustrating!
Agreed on The End, I had skipped him the first 2 or 3 times I tried Snake Eater, but when I got the HD collection I decided I was finally gonna try it… and it was awesome. A very tense, fun fight, even if it can take over 20 minutes if you’re uninitiated to the mechanics. Definitely an unforgettable, if admittedly infuriating, experience.
The Driver; as soon as I saw the title of the game I knew it had to be this mission. I remember breaking my control pad in frustration AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
Totally agree with ‘The Driver’.
I never touched Vice City after that bloody mission! Shame how one level, and the rage that comes with it, can put you off an overall fantastic gaming experience.
There was one level in the original Syphon Filter that was in an underground labryinth. It was dark and everything looked exactly the same, so you could never remember where to go to do anything. You were required to accomplish several different tasks. It was nuts, and took me DAYS.
Most water levels, particularly Dr Robotnik on Labyrinth Zone from the original Sonic, easily the hardest part of the game at about half way through.
Sean, I remember that one as well.
The one where you had to sneak around and not be seen. It was infuriatingly difficult.
Well, the whole game was since my copy was in French so I never understood anything.. :D
Also, in the original Driver game, the final mission where you drive the president and get chased my a fucton of police and FBI cars trying to ram you off the road, now that was difficult!
The prison is meant to make you feel bleak. That’s why its called prison…
did i seriously just see someone say the end fight was boring?…wtf…that was one of the most fun,original,and iconic boss battles of the entire mgs series(which is definitely saying something)….i dont know whether to just click my red x and delete this from my memory…go chug bleach…or petition whataculture to throw this stuart joker off the nearest bridge…decisions decisions…..
that was the whole point of d-district prison in ffviii it was meant to be a depressing hopeless prison because the crew was captured and it looked like they weren’t going to be allowed to escape. I like that they were able to instill that sense of hopelessness into the player. that’s what’s missing from this Gens games
Races were easy in GTA VC. Just get a bus and park it in front of your opponent before you start the race.
I would add the Tower of Babel from Xenogears I never finished that game because i couldn’t get past that one jump lol
learning to fly wasn’t hard in san andreas, the driver was hard but not that bad.
victory road in pokemon games isn’t hard either, sounds like you are bad at games.
All you had to do was fallow the damn train CJ!
Im sorry but i cant understand why The final level in lotr the two towers on ps2 where you have to get through the gate isnt on here, like seriously i thought about slitting my wrists on that level and i was playing co op.
You forgot thetutorial mission in Driver on the PS1. Hardest tutorial of all time!
no battle toads? really? the MGS mission was super easy. learning to fly was beyond easy too… no ps1,ps2,ps3 games should be on this list, no gaming is harder than what we used to play as kids.
What a terrible article. Not only are they milking it with 10 page clicks, but the editor seems to have the attention span of a toddler, mentioning in nearly every piece that the level is “boring.”
In GTA San Andreas the mission Supply Lines where you had to fly the little RC plane and destroy Berkley’s delivery vans was the hardest in the game to me.
Also, on of the final missions in Driver 2 where you had to chase some guy who just shot at you and Jones was probably one of the hardest moments in gaming of all time (kanye voice)
Thank you B_Rian, for mentioning “Supply Lines”, one of the most irritating levels in anything. Another notable mention: “Just Business”.
Meh. For me the absolute worst GTA level is the San Adreas mission where you used a remote controlled plane to destroy vehicles and then there was the vice city (pc version) level which had the helicopter. Both had horriterrible controls and I’m absolutely certain the former is impossible because there simply is not enough fuel in the plane.
you idiot, the end from mgs3 is one of the best moments in any game ever!!
Gonna have to agree with this fine commenter. If you didn’t ‘get’ the End’s battle, you are probably the same person that complains that MGS has a bad story because it requires you to not kill something for 4 minutes.
The End is still my favorite boss battle ever, in any game, to date. Such a brilliant break of pace. Such crazy drastic differences in tactics. No ‘Boss Music’, nothing but all your survival skills put to the test.
there a mission in vice city that you must use a toy plane to put explosive on a building that was pain in the ass -_-
Remember mafia formula racing part?
Viewtiful Joe gamecube, last level impossible, gave up on the game time and time again at the end
I remember that a mission in Vice City where you had to race with a boat was the most frustrating moment in my videogame life.
The End boss battle is not boring at all, it is the most realistic boss battle to date and it may be fustrating the first, second or third time but is pretty fun and one of the best moments in gaming.
LittleBigPlanet 1 , “The Bunker” level pissed me off sooo much.
Um. I found the driver mission to be quite easy. But you should have put GTA: Vice City Stories; Turn on, Tune in, Bug out. That mission required you to take out all police station radio towers. Each tower you blow up adds 2 stars to your wanted level. There are 4 radio towers. And guess what…. Entering in the cheat to lower your wanted level doesn’t work. They literally made this level damn near close to broken really. I completed it after 45 minutes of flying around in a helicopter and managed to dodge 4 army hummers and 2 sentinels as I crash landed in the God damn pay n spray. No matter what cheat code you entered it was the most frustrating mission ever created. And this was on the PSP version.
The End Was Easying Just get on your belly and crawl wait about 5-15 min then start moving then your i microphone thing to see if hes talking or snoreing if hes snore slowly make you move twords him then when you get to him take out the svd and unload the hole clip and you can kill him in three shots 1 then he starts to move then 2 more as hes running xD that what i did