10 Precise Video Game Mechanics That Made You Rage Quit
3. Checkpoints - Hitman: Absolution
Hitman: Absolution's more linear gameplay style proved underwhelming enough that it led to the series being rebooted in 2016, but the thing that stung the most? That horrific checkpoint system.
Though most prior games in the series allowed players to save anywhere, Absolution threw this out and replaced it with a new system where you could only save progress at set checkpoints.
More to the point, reloading from a checkpoint effectively "reset" the level outside of any completed objectives, bringing any dead NPCs back to life and getting rid of the disguise you were wearing when first using the checkpoint.
Naturally, for a game so intently focused on trial-and-error, it pissed a lot of people off by working against Hitman's ethos of playful experimentation.
The near-universal disdain for the checkpointing mechanic ensured that Hitman 2016 restored manual saves and overall persistence to the game world.