Games that ramped up difficulty and dang near destroyed the experience

[peruvianskys]

I love Psychonauts but definitely the meat circus level was a pain in the ass. Shame it left the game with a bit of a sour end note.

 

[As Seen On 360]

I'm playing Arkham City with a buddy (we take turns: one drinks, the other controls, etc.) and we like fairly casual games.

I think we're at the end of Arkham City and the thing is close to GOTY for me (Saints Row 3 wins though) excpet that, all of a sudden, it's damn near impossible. We're (Batman is) facing a bunch o snipers. I slowly took out a number of them, and then the thing aparantly had a time limit, saved the game automatically, and the next go round gave less and less time! You would think they'd realize, gamer failed, make it easier! This game, so close to the end, may go unfinished. We just gave up for now and started Force Unleashed 2, a game criticized as too easy (no such thing).

Ever run into a situation like this?

Any advice about Batman?

It's due to time limits that I have not and most likely will never gain all the challenge medals on the original game, Arkham Asylum. I either did a flawless combo and ran out of time, or I finished in time and was lackluster with combos. This is on a very specific challenge map, the name eludes me and I don't own the game anymore, maybe "Shock and Awe". Inevitably someone will see this and say I should have kept trying, eventually you get lucky, blah blah blah, but my patience has its threshold.

As for your situation, is that in the main story? I only played the story and I'm a bit foggy on being caught in a sniper situation that kept taking time away.

I played on the highest difficulty and the only thing I found challenging was failing at the boss fights a few times until I figured out what I was doing wrong. Even the boss fights were generous though, in most cases you'd restart during the phase of the fight you died in without having to start all over.

 

[Mike Richards]

Assassin's Creed 1 got really annoying near the end. I never got passed the fight with Robort de Sable, I just pulled up the rest on youtube. Shame too, cause the end was fantastic.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

At the end of the third level of Serious Sam 3: BFE, the boss is a Major Biomechanoid. It's about twice the size of you, has twin rocket launchers which do quite ridiculous splash damage (and the rockets aren't easy to shoot down), and all you have is a pistol, single-barreled shotgun and a very drained health bar from the preceding fight. I had to knock myself down a difficulty level after trying to beat that thing about 20 times and only once ever getting close...

And the worst part is, those things appear later on in the game. As basic infantry. But by then you have a rocket launcher of your own.

 

[DustyDrB]

I still feel like I only beat the Flamelurker in Demon's Souls by luck. Not a fun fight for strength-based weapons (it just attacks so fast, it's hard to find a moment to get a hit in). But at least it was quick getting back to that boss.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Prototype.

The beginning of the game is both piss easy and extremely boring because you have no powers. The middle of the game is the best part, there's a good bit of challenge, and you get the majority of your powers so you have a fun sandbox to run around in and cause trouble and devastation without massive hindrances. Then you get 2/3 through the game and suddenly the military is everywhere and it's impossible to get from one side of the map to the other without alerting the entire goddamn army. It also doesn't help that this makes it almost impossible to freely absorb people for health, yet every time you fail a mission you start with only HALF HEALTH making the entire thing even harder. Yeah, fuck the end of this game.

 

[daveman247]

Prototype.

The beginning of the game is both piss easy and extremely boring because you have no powers. The middle of the game is the best part, there's a good bit of challenge, and you get the majority of your powers so you have a fun sandbox to run around in and cause trouble and devastation without massive hindrances. Then you get 2/3 through the game and suddenly the military is everywhere and it's impossible to get from one side of the map to the other without alerting the entire goddamn army. It also doesn't help that this makes it almost impossible to freely absorb people for health, yet every time you fail a mission you start with only HALF HEALTH making the entire thing even harder. Yeah, fuck the end of this game.

You dont know the half of it. The final boss? Goddamn it.

OP: hmmm, the first time through dead rising was pretty tough. Difficulty was allover the place. Once i had leveled up though the second time through was well easy.
- still feel cheated i didnt get the "proper" ending and unlock extended mode, managed to claw my way through the whole story mode on my first playthrough. I WAS AT THE HELIPAD but for some reason isabella suddenly wanted to talk about 2 minutes before time over. Not enough time to get there. AND it gave me the ending where frank just disappears

The splinter cell games usually spike in difficulty when it wants to pretend its a shooter for a bit.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Uncharted 3, mainly because I was thrown off by past experiences and previous Uncharted games.

I've played Uncharted 2 on Crushing, and while fucking annoying, it was still beatable. I turn on Uncharted 3 on Normal and holy shit, I wasn't expecting Drake to be that much of a knockover. In Uncharted 2 Normal, it played like an action movie -- find cover, jump on this, shoot this dude, run to cover, beat this guy up, throw a grenade. And playing co-op on Normal, it's regular Uncharted Normal, Drake surviving massive amounts of shots at once while easily punching out a thug. In Uncharted 3 Normal, it goes -- find cover, jump on this, get shot twice by some guy with a machine pistol from eighty feet away, die.

It's pissing me off, playing half of the game from cover instead of running around like Drake has ants in his shoes while shooting everyone with a shotgun.

 

[CrashBang]

Some of Dragon Age Origins' random encounters with bandits when travelling were tougher than the final boss. I found that pretty damn game-breaking. Still love it, though.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I've recently been playing Half-Life 2 again, and damn if that difficulty doesn't leap up at Nova Prospekt. I am playing on the highest difficulty, but still - it's crazy.

Really? Nova Prospekt? When you can just trololo ant lions against damn near everything? Well sure, there's the turrets, but those are nothing a gravity gun with a radiator can't fix.

At the end of the third level of Serious Sam 3: BFE, the boss is a Major Biomechanoid. It's about twice the size of you, has twin rocket launchers which do quite ridiculous splash damage (and the rockets aren't easy to shoot down), and all you have is a pistol, single-barreled shotgun and a very drained health bar from the preceding fight. I had to knock myself down a difficulty level after trying to beat that thing about 20 times and only once ever getting close...

And the worst part is, those things appear later on in the game. As basic infantry. But by then you have a rocket launcher of your own.

Actually, at first I thought that was impossible as well, but then I just used the shotgun. Really, that thing is like a flak cannon against those rockets, worked like a charm. Did pretty sweet damage too, considering the range.

 

[Morti]

Uncharted 3, mainly because I was thrown off by past experiences and previous Uncharted games.

I've played Uncharted 2 on Crushing, and while fucking annoying, it was still beatable. I turn on Uncharted 3 on Normal and holy shit, I wasn't expecting Drake to be that much of a knockover. In Uncharted 2 Normal, it played like an action movie -- find cover, jump on this, shoot this dude, run to cover, beat this guy up, throw a grenade. And playing co-op on Normal, it's regular Uncharted Normal, Drake surviving massive amounts of shots at once while easily punching out a thug. In Uncharted 3 Normal, it goes -- find cover, jump on this, get shot twice by some guy with a machine pistol from eighty feet away, die.

It's pissing me off, playing half of the game from cover instead of running around like Drake has ants in his shoes while shooting everyone with a shotgun.

Wait till you meet the fire guys, they would be my nomination for this thread.

 

[Arkvoodle]

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows


After a couple basic training missions there's this one open area combat thing where you have to take out a dozen snipers in under two minutes. REALLY hated that part.

 

[Sagacious Zhu]

I love Psychonauts but definitely the meat circus level was a pain in the ass. Shame it left the game with a bit of a sour end note.

THIS

Timed escort mission combined with sadistic platforming and followed by the rail grind sequence from the Ninth Circle of hell made this game nigh impossible to finish

 

[Nyaoku]

All I have to say is New Londo Ruins ...
And not a single bonfire was found.

 

[AlternatePFG]

I still feel like I only beat the Flamelurker in Demon's Souls by luck. Not a fun fight for strength-based weapons (it just attacks so fast, it's hard to find a moment to get a hit in). But at least it was quick getting back to that boss.

He's really tough for slower, heavier characters. With a fast, dexterity focused character he was fairly easy, in my opinion.

OT: The final boss in Dragon Age 2: Legacy. I enjoyed the DLC a decent amount, I didn't like the game a whole lot in general but I found the DLC to be rather entertaining. Anyway, the final boss for that is bullshit, even on normal. When your camera is rather poor, and the party controls/UI even poorer, having a fight that relies on you constantly moving is not a good idea. I put the difficulty down to easy, beat it and never wanted to play that DLC again, just because of that.

 

[Kyr Knightbane]

The Last Remnant. If you fail to notice a flanking maneuver coming up, and you get Raid locked. Set the controller down and walk away. Its got a solid story, but screw the random difficulty spikes.

Another game that was unfairly tough and ruined it for me was Dark Souls. 30 Repeat deaths on the 2nd boss? Losing around 130k souls? No thanks. I beat Demon's Souls as a knight with the mother humping starting gear, and after wasting 100 arrows on the drake, getting his tail as a sword, dropping that big ass metal boar and taking his head for a helm. I fucking die to a giant with 2 dogs after 3 hits? No thank you

 

[DustyDrB]

I still feel like I only beat the Flamelurker in Demon's Souls by luck. Not a fun fight for strength-based weapons (it just attacks so fast, it's hard to find a moment to get a hit in). But at least it was quick getting back to that boss.

He's really tough for slower, heavier characters. With a fast, dexterity focused character he was fairly easy, in my opinion.

OT: The final boss in Dragon Age 2: Legacy. I enjoyed the DLC a decent amount, I didn't like the game a whole lot in general but I found the DLC to be rather entertaining. Anyway, the final boss for that is bullshit, even on normal. When your camera is rather poor, and the party controls/UI even poorer, having a fight that relies on you constantly moving is not a good idea. I put the difficulty down to easy, beat it and never wanted to play that DLC again, just because of that.

That's what I was thinking while I was fighting him. It was very odd that I went with a slow, heavy-hitting character, as I'm usually the lightning-quick rogue in RPGs. I think I just wanted to use the Meat Cleaver that bad. But getting a hit in on Flamelurker was extremely difficult, and I was already too deep in the Strength-based build at that point to use a different tactic. The rest of the game didn't give me much trouble at all (knockdowns make everything rather easy). Just Flamelurker (and Old King Allant until I figured out his moveset well enough to plan the fight out).

I will agree with you on Legacy's final boss. I always just turn down the difficulty to casual for it, as I do not enjoy that battle at all. Micro-managing your entire party's movement is a headache. I did enjoy the few tough fights in Mark of the Assassin, though.

 

[lacktheknack]

I guess I'm the only guy who adored the Meat Circus? ;_;

Anyways, if you didn't aggressively plan your leveling and indulge in a bit of grinding in The Shining Force, you simply didn't get past chapter six. End of.

(WHO'S IDEA WAS IT TO MAKE THE CHAPTER SIX BOSS HARDER THAN ALL THE OTHER BOSSES MINUS THE FINAL ONE?)

 

[AlternatePFG]

The rest of the game didn't give me much trouble at all (knockdowns make everything rather easy). Just Flamelurker (and Old King Allant until I figured out his moveset well enough to plan the fight out).

Yeah, the bosses in that game were pretty easy. (Especially the Valley of Defilement bosses, not a single difficult one throughout the whole area) Never understood the problems people had with Old King Allant, on both of my successful playthroughs I beat him on my first try. Maybe because I had a huge stock of healing items on hand.

Dark Souls on the other hand is a whole other story. Capra Demon (At least until you figure out the trick to the fight, but it's still bullshit), Orstein and Smough, the final boss were all particularly difficult for me the first time through.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Final Fantasy XII. But to me, it DID destroy the Experience. I loved the game up until I got to a point to where I was getting face-rolled by a boss. You might say "Oh, well duh you're going to get stuck on bosses eventually in RPGs and have to level up a bit!" Well, I Spent the majority of TWO days grinding up to where it was just taking too long to level in my area and the next. I decide to fight the boss again, utterly DESTROYED it, then move on. Next boss: I get smashed. Basically three 'screens' past the last boss and I'd have to spend almost the same amount of time grinding as I did before. I'll get back to it eventually but after like five tries I stopped. Haven't touched it since.

Really? Where?

I was probably pretty strong throughout the game from exploring so much and doing the hunt missions, but I'm curious. I loved that game so much.