What was the worst Level You played in a game

[vallorn]

Y u always do this to me game.

May I just say that your avatar fits this to a T?

Also, my worst level ever... hmm... Crash Bandicoot 1's Road to Nowhere. The game was already hard but this level takes it to a new extreme. Linear level with tiny draw distance? check. Enemies? check. Planks that snap if you breathe on them? check. Ice ramps placed so you have to jump from one sliding you back to one sliding you forwards so you have to compensate in split seconds? check... Oh and early PS1 D-pad platforming, of course.

CB1 is hard as nails anyway but dear god that one level is a nightmare.

Spoiler

Believe it or not the image above is probably one of the easier sections of this level. (Yes that ice ramp he's jumping onto is sloped backwards)

 

[josemlopes]

Having just finished MGS2 few days ago I must say that underwater escort mission, in fact all that escort section is fucking mind numbingly boring.

 

[veggypoo]

the level in Gears of War 2 (well I think it is 2), where you have to go through some giant worm. I just....well, didn't like it that much actually

 

[seris]

The level in mercenaries 2 where you have to get the helicopter pilot.. I stopped playing that game because shooting the enemies and protecting the helicopter with that jerky camera was impossible.

 

[SuperSaiyanMajinBuu]

Duke Nukem's Titty City in Duke Nukem Forever
Murdelin's Slaughter Dome in Borderlands 2
Water Temple from Ocarina of Time
Lt. Surge's Gym on Pokemon Red and Blue
The Hot Spring level in Asura' Wrath
Just to name a few

 

[Quazimofo]

It's a toss up between the Fade and Deep Roads sections in Dragon Age: Origins: both INCREDIBLY boring, both drag on WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long and both fill me with a sense of weary dread whenever I come back to the game; "Oh God-Emperor, not these bits again."

Ever since my second playthrough I have kind of enjoyed the Deep Roads sections to be honest. The Fade is a strong contender for least exciting level though. It is not necessarily the worst, it is just so frustratingly designed that you either get lost and backpedal a lot or you memorize the optimal path to minimize exposure to it because it is so lackluster.

For worst design I'd put up the Council Mission where you have to rescue the general in XCom: Enemy Unknown. It is a long bridge full of cover with thin men as the only enemies. Depending on when you face it in the game it can either be unforgivingly hard or super-duper-mega-easy and either way it just isn't fun to play.

I actually quite enjoyed that mission because it mean't I was about to get a bunch of weapon parts, valuable thin-men corpses, and I can get some xp for rookies without much risk. Sure it wasn't a hard mission but it's fun to have one every now and again where you can just plaster the walls with your enemies rather than bleeding for every inch.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Acouple levels in dungeons the dark lord were crazy stupid hard.

 

[flying_whimsy]

Simply put, for me, It has to be the Cortana Level from Halo 3. Given how close-quarters the level was, and the fact that the Flood could constantly heal, Even on easy, the level was still frustrating and badly designed. So, what was the worst level you ever played? Doesn't matter if it was broken or made to challenging.

That level is what actually stopped me in the campaign mode; I got so annoyed with it I just watched a let's play of the rest of the game (I hadn't exactly been thrilled with it up until that point, so it was more of a last straw kind of thing).

OT: While others have mentioned some obvious candidates like underwater levels and escort missions (the fade from DA:O is something I will admit to having patched out), I can't believe the thread has reached two pages without anyone mentioning the meat circus from Psychonauts. It was hard, creepy, and more than a little broken (and while the stage after it was harder, the meat circus kind of came out of nowhere). Let me say that again:

MEAT CIRCUS.

 

[kasperbbs]

First thing that came to mind were those dream sequences in Max Payne where you run on red lines in total darkness and the second one would be The fade in DArigins, thank god for mods that made it possible to skip the whole thing on my second playthrough. And the last one would be the water level from Half life 2, just thinking about it puts me off from replaying it.

 

[OutcastBOS]

Simply put, for me, It has to be the Cortana Level from Halo 3. Given how close-quarters the level was, and the fact that the Flood could constantly heal, Even on easy, the level was still frustrating and badly designed. So, what was the worst level you ever played? Doesn't matter if it was broken or made to challenging.

Level 3 in Battletoads

I do not know what kind of being this level was designed for but I have never seen anyone finish it. (is there even a level 4?)

Spoiler: :3

(At around 6:58, but they start the level at like 5:30 )

OT: I always dreaded the Fade part of Origins, it's always so boring for me and always made me want to do the Circle Tower part last. And not that it was the worst, I also had a dislike for Blighttown through my first couple runthroughs of Dark Souls 1.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Level 3 in Battletoads

I do not know what kind of being this level was designed for but I have never seen anyone finish it. (is there even a level 4?)

Yes there is and yes, it does get worse. So much worse. For 12 levels:

Spoiler: NSFW

Though I noticed Jon is good enough to get 2/3rds of the way through even without infinite lives (didn't die 5 times until level 8).

 

[jademunky]

Level 3 in Battletoads

I do not know what kind of being this level was designed for but I have never seen anyone finish it. (is there even a level 4?)

Yes there is and yes, it does get worse. So much worse. For 12 levels:

Level 4 is ANOTHER vehicle section? Dude!

I know games on the original NES were hard but this is just insane. Who playested this?

 

[Autumnflame]

Final level of mass effect 3, specifically the return to the citadel

it just seemed to put a stain on the rest of the game

 

[Greymanelor]

It's a bit of a cheat, but any fight in Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal that involved mages. Which was most of the fights, really. That was the game that taught me to hate instant-death effects. Mages were always loaded down with tons of those, along with Time Stop to make sure they could cast them all at once. There was exactly one spell in the whole game that could protect you from death effects and it lasted maybe ten seconds. Add in that it was an instant game over if your main character died and it was a recipe for screaming in incoherent rage. Your whole party could get chunked in the first few moments of a fight, not due to some tactical error on your part, but because invisible dice rolled poorly for you when some namelss mook mage cast Wail of the Banshee.

 

[Ultress]

I always hated doing Twilight Town in Paper Mario:TTYD.The level was always scary as hell with the forced pigification especially those little kids who would probably die because their mother become a pig.Then you have to trek back and forth about 3 times across a fairly boring level with annoying enemies. To to it off the game makes you find the letter "p" for your name entry screen just to prevent you from skipping it on the next play through and saving a ton of time. THe only upside is that Doopliss is pretty funny.

 

[Strelok]

This damn fight!

The trailer made it look awesome, but the actual gameplay was just an endurance test for your thumbs.

Was simple with a gaming mouse on PC. I was all psyched for a brutal fight, beat on hard the first try, recorded it on my second. Still one of my favorite games, installing it againafter being reminded of it. XD


OnTopic: Worst or hardest level I ever beat was the unpatched race in Mafia,was brutal, had to be flawless the entire race. I remember keeping a floppy disk with a saved game on the level right after so I could replay a great game without ever having to do that again.

 

[the December King]

There was a level or two in Serious Sam that made me angry, and in Serious Sam II, there was a game show level that you had to run/rush/hurry to complete, and it was best to avoid all of the Kleer skeletons, or as many as possible.

And they just. Kept. Coming.

I eventually, eventually, beat it, but I was furious!

 

[MrBaskerville]

The Library from Halo: Combat Evolved. The game itself was littered with running through the same hallways over and over again, but The Library took it to a new extreme. Not only do you run through pretty much the exact same hallways again and again and again and again and again, but you also are fighting only slightly modified groups of enemies that are incredibly easy. The only real challenge is making sure you don't run out of ammo. Really, the level is just a boring trudge through the same boring hallways fighting the same boring enemies in an attempt by Bungie to secure the "Most Repetitive Level" award. To this day, The Library is the primary reason why I don't replay the campaign, because I just can't bare the thought of dealing with it again.

Everything said in this post, except that i found the level to be incredebly frustrating because the Flood is sometimes equipped with one hit kill rocket launchers...Aside from that i will say every turret sequence ever, the game doesn't get more fun because you limit the gameplay and there's nothing more frustrating than a good game where you have to stop playing because of some frustratingly hard turret sequence.

I also dislike the obligatory horror level in recent AAA games, you know, the ones where you walk through a hallway, see some flickering lights, a shadow creeping on the wall and eventually a barrage of enemies. It's almost always the same formula and it's never scary, not to mention that it is most often placed in non-horror games which makes you wonder why they even want to do half-hearted horror.

 

[Thyunda]

This damn fight!

The trailer made it look awesome, but the actual gameplay was just an endurance test for your thumbs.

Pulling down a Star Destroyer....epic on paper, hugely impractical otherwise.

 

[samwise970]

The carrier mission in Far Cry. Right when you climb the ladder onto the deck, a chopper comes out and immediately opens fire. On top of that, a turrent is right behind you. You need to get behind a crate, kill the gunner in the chopper, go back down the ladder to grab armor and health because you've for sure taken good damage, climb again, take out the two turrents, while not getting killed by the half dozen or so soldiers bum rushing you. So frustrating considering how quickly you die in that game.