10 Convoluted Video Game Levels Everyone Got Lost In

The art of video game level design absolutely cannot be understated, because while great level design often feels intuitive and garners little direct attention, we all instantly know terrible design we see it - and vocally complain about it.

Whether or not you consider these 10 levels badly designed, each nevertheless offered up a deeply complex, tangled, labyrinthine web for players to navigate - whether a maze in the most literal sense or simply a wilfully confusing mass of tunnels, doors, and pathways intended to leave players totally lost.

There will always be those players who relish a challenge no matter how tough it might be, but for most, these impossibly convoluted levels were simply irritating brick-walls that slowed progress and actively sucked the joy out of the overall experience.

Needless to say, if you resorted to using a guide for any of these sections, you shouldn't feel any shame whatsoever, because life's just too damn short and there too many great games worth playing to squander an entire day on a single level...

The Dark Souls franchise and FromSoftware games in general are renowned for their densely-packed, tricksy level design, and this arguably never grates worse than it does in Dark Souls III's infamous Irithyll Dungeon.

Though not strictly the toughest Dark Souls area from a pure combat difficulty perspective, the dungeon is infuriating to navigate for even well-honed Souls players.

The confusing layout, combined with the brutal bonfire distance, and tendency for those damn jailers to get the drop on you, makes Irithyll Dungeon a stamina-draining slog of a level.

The sheer repetition of traversing the dungeon will test the patience of even the most ardent fans of gothic architecture and neo-romantic art styles, ensuring the mere utterance of the area's name will make most shudder if not groan.