10. Blowing the Dam (Duke Nukem Forever)
Duke Nukem Forever serves as an unholy amalgamation of the gaming industrys progress during its notorious fifteen year development. Its like the Frankensteins monster of the gaming world: theres platforming, nineties quality FPS gunplay, Valve style vehicle sections and even a dated water section. Glorious.
So, why is it infuriating? Water sections in previous Duke games were generally enjoyable because you often had scuba gear, which made exploring a little more reasonable (while still retaining the tension). Here, you have an O2 meter that runs out rather quickly which you replenish by swimming to a source of oxygen. Sure, there are more than enough of these bubble streams', but the level is confusing to navigate and rather dark (you can use light vision but remarkably this makes it harder to see the streams), so finding them can be trickier than finding the Holy Grail in the Vatican edition of hoarders. Playing on Damn, I'm Good difficulty youre practically guaranteed to throw your controller at the wall after getting decimated by an Octobrain you didnt see for umpteenth time. To top it all off, the level ends with a fight with a leech boss thats as exciting as dry Weetabix eating contest.