10 Awesome Video Game Levels That Ended Painfully Soon

Up until The Sword mission, Thief: The Dark Project has a grounded tone that revolves around sneaking through mansions and breaking into castles. Being a stealth-based title, players shouldn't expect anything else.

However, all of that is thrown out the window upon entering Constantine's home. What begins as another basic infiltration quickly descends into a surreal scenario, involving inverted rooms, optional gravity, and staircases that loop back on themselves. 

Rather than throwing you into the deep end, the topsy-turvy structure is introduced subtly, making you initially believe your senses are deceiving you.

This bold shift from realism to the otherworldly is shocking, especially when players realise they can't rely on their memory or navigation skills to get around. The nightmarish surreality catches you off-guard because it feels like you were plucked out of a realistic adventure and dumped in the middle of a horror story with little warning.

The Sword is such a heavy departure from every other level, it could've ruined the gaming experience in theory. Instead, the lucid assignment is a wondrous experience and is only let down by the fact that there should've been more of it.