10 Video Game Mistakes That Came Back To Haunt You
Forgot to get that upgrade, did you? Well, here's a boss that's built entirely around it!
Video games can consume your life. Especially in the modern era, players can find themselves sinking tens, if not hundreds, of hours into the latest release, learning the mechanics, levelling up, and taking on tough challenges.
While this has resulted in players being more invested than ever, the sheer length of titles means that one mistake early on can unknowingly snowball, with you only realising the ramifications hours later when you suddenly find yourself hit with the devastating consequences.
These mistakes can take many forms, but the common unifier is that they're not strictly telegraphed beforehand. Whether it's hidden choices the game is secretly tracking to judge you on later, moral choices you won't know the implications of until hours down the line, or something as simple as failing to learn a mechanic, only to encounter a boss built entirely around it, all of the following moments can make you regret hours and hours of playtime.
Everyone loves sowing in life, but being forced to reap what you sow tens of hours later? Well, that can sting.
10. Failing To Upgrade The Normandy - Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 has plenty of moral choices that can lead to fatal consequences. Characters can die, entire races can be wiped from existence, and players can be left regretting their dialogue choices.
This specific instance isn't quite as cut and dry though, and is rather an example of a feature that might seem throwaway, but is vitally important to the player's success.
See, in Mass Effect 2 you're building up to what the characters dub a "suicide mission". It involves player character Commander Shepard and their team attempting to make the jump through the Omega 4 relay - a jump that no ship has ever returned from.
Living up to its name, if the player isn't prepared this really can become a suicide mission, with everyone including Shepard dying. In order to keep the team alive, you need to make the right choices, complete all their individual missions and upgrade the team's ship, the Normandy, with weapons and armour to survive the jump.
It's this last bit that's the mistake players might make. Because this choice is tied to an upgrade screen you may forget about, and requires you to complete a mining mini-game everyone thought was deathly boring at the time, you may not view the upgrades as essential.
They are though, and if you make the jump without them, people will die before the suicide mission has even begun.