10 Brutal Video Game Opening Levels That GUARANTEED Game Over

Generally speaking, opening levels in video games tend to be pretty simple affairs which acquaint players with a game's given controls and mechanics, whether an outright tutorial or not.

This allows a gradual ramp-up of difficulty throughout the game to test players' skills, but not all developers are quite so keen to follow this formula - or patient enough to hold off punishing their own customers.

And so, we have these 10 games which, for whatever reason, decided to dish up a shockingly challenging level right out of the gate.

It may well have been an conscious attempt to bamboozle players and prepare them for the rest of the game, or an actual mistake in development, whereby player aptitude was fatally overestimated.

Either way, players absolutely weren't ready to be tested quite like this within mere minutes of turning these games on, and so were forced to either get their game faces on or just give up entirely.

If you somehow made it through these opening passages without kicking the bucket even once, give yourself a firm pat on the back (you liar)...

The second Tomb Raider marked an unexpectedly large step-up in difficulty from its predecessor, as became abundantly, painfully clear in the game's very first level, The Great Wall.

Basically, Tomb Raider II's opening level is as challenging and demanding as the later Atlantis levels in the original, pitting Lara against tigers, ravens, giant spiders, and freaking two T-rexes.

That's not to forget an array of tricky traps and platforming sections which make The Great Wall the definition of being thrown in at the deep end - with lead shoes on.

Even if you were smart enough to practise your platforming and traversal skills in Lara's mansion before starting the game proper, Tomb Raider II makes few concessions to new players, while even those who beat the original might've found themselves struggling to get through it.