10 Most Brutally Difficult Opening Levels In Video Games
How are you meant to play a game if you can't even complete the intro?
Challenge in video games has made a comeback, thanks to the rise of Dark Souls on the AAA scene, and roguelike-likes (yes, they're a thing) such as Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac. It seems that gamers don't crave hand-holding after all, and developers are now wising up to that fact.
But it's easy to forget that there was once a time when games seemed to not give two hoots about the player's comfort or convenience, and were designed in such a way that you'd barely be able to scrape past the first level - if that.
Opening levels should be a way to ease players into the game, and equip us for the tribulations that lay ahead, not frustrate us until we're twisting our analog sticks off in frustration. Despite that, there's been a ruthless pile of games over the years that did just that, battering us into the ground before we even learned the damn controls, pushing our faces into the sodden ground and saying "Eat it, you so-called 'gamer', EAT IT."
Or something like that. Here are 10 of the most brutally difficult opening levels in gaming history.
10. 1-1 - Demon's Souls
In hindsight, you can pit the opening level of Demon's Souls against any of the other games in the series and argue endlessly about which one really had the toughest opening level. But by being the first in the series, Demon's had the added element of surprise going for it, which completely overhauled our understanding of how challenging games should be.
Unlike many entries on this list, the difficulty of the clinically-titled '1-1' in Demon's Souls feels entirely intentional. Tough though it is, this bleak ramparts do actually ease you into the game, teaching you to be on guard for every corner you turn, never take enemies for granted, and play with patience. The now-famous Souls shortcuts that link up disparate parts of the level aren't too hard to find, popping up at just the right times to make you feel like you're progressing, and the Phalanx boss is a fitting taster of the gruelling challenges to come.
For those of us coming to Demon's Souls before its successors existed, this was an incredible eye-opener in what it means to be genuinely challenged.