8 Worst Time Limit Sections In Video Games
These timed missions were peak gaming anxiety.
There are some very obvious mission types that a lot of people hate in video games, yet somehow even more groan-worthy than the typical likes of escort missions and water puzzles, there’s the widely-loathed time-limited gameplay.
Though in theory a time limit can heighten the tension of a given level and leave players feeling satisfied when they skate through by the skin of their teeth, often developers just don’t get the balance right at all. It’s a tricky one to strike.
A nasty, unfair time limit can leave players bashing their heads against the wall in despair, questioning who hurt the person responsible for including it in the game in the first place.
And that’s certainly the case with each of these time-sensitive gameplay sequences, which tested the player’s tolerance for being jerked around rather than just, y’know, playing something else - literally anything else - instead.
Developers: we love you for all your hard work, but for all that is good in this world, the majority of players don’t enjoy playing the same time-restricted mission ad nauseum for the sake of digital bragging rights. This just ain’t it…
8. Demolition Man - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Though Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' hellish RC mission "Supply Lines..." is often held up as the toughest timed mission in the series' history, at least it's entirely optional.
The same can't be said for Vice City's migraine-inducingly difficult Demolition Man, which requires players to pilot an RC helicopter to pick up four bombs and deliver each to a set point at Avery Carrington's construction site.
A seven-minute time limit might sound like a generous amount to pull this off, but consider that the bombs need to be delivered to different floors on the construction site and you'll also have to contend with Avery's workers trying their damnedest to grab hold of the copter. Add to this the dodgy camera and RC physics and Demolition Man is a recipe for rage-quitting - or in the very least, ditching the main story and just messing around in Vice City's sandbox forever more.
Thankfully the Definitive Edition re-release of Vice City added 30 seconds to the game timer, which combined with the ability to instantly restart the mission upon failure - rather than having to return to the mission marker - cuts down on a lot of the frustration.
In its original flavour, though, this one was horrid.