5. Burnt Rubber - Gears Of War
It's always a bit of a crapshoot, the idea of having a vehicle sequence in amongst an experience geared towards another style entirely. It seems everyone saw the lightning Halo managed to capture in a bottle back in 2001 and thought "We can do that too!", leading to levels like this, where you're left controlling a lumbering four-wheeler as a never-ending swarm of death-dealing Kryll descend on you and your crew. Burnt Rubber is another victim of the 'It just needed one checkpoint' crew, as although controlling the vehicle itself is weighty and responsive enough, the fact that you've got to ward off the flying bat-like beasts with a forever-draining spotlight just means there'll be times where you're left to the mercy of their inevitable onslaught regardless. The stretch of road you've got to get down is pretty lengthy too, meaning if you've mistimed the spotlight attack and lost a chunk of your health, you might as well just try again anyway. There's something exponentially more annoying about a level that feels as though it 'shouldn't belong' thanks to a contrasting genre twist, and Gears' attempt to branch out was one of the worst.