10 Video Games With The Tightest Timed Sections

Like stealth, water, and escort missions, timed missions in video games are good or bad depending on how they're implemented.

With the right design they can certainly ratchet up the tension when the game needs it most, but it's also fair to say that time constraints for their own sake tend to leave many players frustrated.

For many, timed missions are nothing more than a lazy way for developers to artificially inflate a level's difficulty without actually doing anything creative or unique. Slap an unreasonable timer on the task at hand and extend the play-time by another half-hour.

And so, we come to these 10 timed missions, which whether ultimately enjoyable or not, absolutely left the majority of players frustrated for a time.

With their brutally strict, even flat-out unfair time windows, players had to practise and practise to get things done in the allotted time.

While in some cases the levels at least weren't mandatory for the main story, in every instance they served as infuriating provocations to players who just wanted to kick back and have some fun...

Though you don't need to beat "Mile High Club" to complete Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's campaign, the optional post-credits bonus mission has earned an enduring rep as arguably the series' toughest-ever level.

On paper, the objective is simple - you need to shoot your way through a terrorist-filled aircraft and rescue a hostage at the end.

But the game imposes a brutal time limit on players: especially those playing on Veteran difficulty, who will have just a minute to reach the hostage and pop a bullet in his captor's head.

The sheer number of enemies you need to dispatch inside of 60 seconds is nothing short of a nightmare, such that rote memorisation of their locations is really the only way to get through it.

You can waste literally hours of your life trying to beat this thing, though doing so will at least pop a much-coveted achievement.