8 Beloved Video Game Levels That Have Aged Terribly
5. The PAL Key Backtrack - Metal Gear Solid
One of the major benefits of modern video game design is that it's generally far more respectful of the player's time, whether through checkpointing, autosaves, or just not forcing players to do quite so much boring busy-work.
Speaking of which, one of the most memorable sequences from the original Metal Gear Solid is the PAL card key activation, which requires players to backtrack to a cold location (the warehouse) and a hot location (the blast furnace) to change the shape of a key.
While some certainly complained about the backtracking when the game launched in 1998, on an initial playthrough this was mitigated somewhat by the lavishness of the game's locales and the excitement of racing to deactivate Metal Gear REX with the PAL key.
On repeat playthroughs, though, this whole segment feels like a colossal slog, enough that 2004's GameCube remake, The Twin Snakes, even included liquid nitrogen and a steam pipe near the control room so players could alter the key's shape without backtracking.
But with the original sequence being preserved in the recent Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection, fans got to experience the pain of hoofing it back to the warehouse and furnace all over again.
As creative and boundary-pushing as the game is in so many areas, this whole section sucks after you've done it once.