Worst moments in otherwise great games

[Battenberg]

I'm always seeing threads about people's favourite moments in gaming but what about good games that have one level or cutscene that you just can't stand?

For example Resident Evil 4 is my favourite game of all time, there is precious little I don't like about it but there is one level where you have to play as Ashley, the president's daughter. After spending a large portion of the game gathering and upgrading weapons you are suddenly thrown into the role of a character who is basically useless and for me it really kills the pacing at this point because this level isn't particularly scary so much as it is irritating. Imagine a stealth game where you have no weapons and every enemy already knows exactly where you. Now add some poor puzzles and quicktime events and you have the nuisance that is that level.

So what about the rest of the Escapist? Any other games you love that are tainted by terrible out of place scenes?

 

[WenisPagon]

The Bed of Chaos in Dark Souls is the one time in the entire game where the game doesn't play by its own rules, making the fight feel cheap and unfulfilled even if you manage to win.

 

[Catfood220]

Fighting Ghost Mum in Bioshock Infinate. Fighting her once is annoying enough, having to fight her 3 times is a real chore. In fact, that whole part of the game feels like padding before starting the run up to the end of the game. I like the rest of the game, just not that bit.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The stealth moments in the beginning of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth are an awful slog. Using stealth as a reward in combat in that game can be an absolute tide changer, but you can't force a stealth section in a first-person game that is poorly optimized for combat at all.

Three chapters of hiding behind corners, running quickly but not too quickly or else helpless instantkill around constant patrolling enemies, pulling off picture-perfect chase scenes that fail you at slowing down or hesitating for a second or will just kill you outright because of random chance of being shot and bleeding out, and the game's save system using checkpoints instead of something like autosave.

When you finally get a firearm, holy shit that game is fun and tense, as well as telling a great story. But when they take away your weapons around chapter eight, I gave up. I didn't beat Call of Cthulhu because the necessary stealth is so awful.

EDIT: Let me show you what I mean. One of the tensest moments in the game is a chase scene in the beginning of Chapter 2, where you are chased out of your hotel room and further into Innsmouth.


Looks intense, right? It's actually so cryptic and so full of trial and error that it's more annoying than anything. Every time you didn't immediately spot that tiny bolt on the door, that's a restart. If you didn't flip the bolt fast enough, that's a restart. If you spend three extra seconds shoving a shelf in front of a door, that's a restart. You didn't immediately know you had to open the window to get out? That's a restart. And there's a chance at the end you got shot by a random spray of bullets and you miss the jump at the end and have to restart. Each restart can be up to three minutes: I guarentee you won't get it your first time, I guarentee you'll get that picture perfect chase at the end of five or ten more attempts. So much hassle when the game could've given you a twenty second buffer instead of failing you for sometimes random chance.

 

[Gameguy20100]

Ummmmmmm *scratches head in thought"

The escort section in Bioshock.

Oh my nucleus I hate that part the Little sisters are so annoying.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

Atlantica in the original Kingdom Hearts.

Just...agh. 1.5 Remix brought back some unpleasant memories.

 

[spartandude]

The god damn Deep Roads from DragonAge Origins, it just goes on and on with little in the of supplies to help if you run out. The only reason i didnt count the Fade was because at least that can be modded out.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Fort Frolic in BioShock. It wasn't necessarily a bad level, but the infinitely spawning spider splicers that just wouldn't give you a break sure made it an annoying one. Also, although the story was great as a whole, the pacing was just awful most of the time.

In Super Mario Galaxy, there was one star where you had to find three bunnies while running around an area covered in snow. Yeah, that is easily one of the worst stars in the whole series, ranging from boring when you figure it out to downright annoying.

 

[Evonisia]

I really despised the first mission where you encounter Johnny Greenteeth in Remember Me. It's the only section of the game where I really felt like I was being forced down a corridor, and it also includes the only sewer section of the game. The 'fight' with Johnny himself is annoying as the enemies will continuously prevent you from shooting him, which is necessary as not shooting him causes a game over.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

The Natalia escort missions in Goldeneye 64. Worst, most incompetent AI ever. How those sections got approved for the game I'll never know.

 

[Mocmocman]

Boss level of Bioshock.
Final level of Bioshock Infinite.(The airship)
Combat/ gameplay of Brutal Legend.

 

[Battenberg]

Fighting Ghost Mum in Bioshock Infinate. Fighting her once is annoying enough, having to fight her 3 times is a real chore. In fact, that whole part of the game feels like padding before starting the run up to the end of the game. I like the rest of the game, just not that bit.

Lady Comstock's ghost, I totally forgot about her. Boss fights are usually my favourite bit of a game as well but that whole ghost fight is SUCH a pain, only bit of the game that felt like a chore rather than being fun. It wasn't necessary from a narrative point of view either and just didn't fit in with the rest of the game at all.

 

[aozgolo]

Hoo boy... okay I'm gonna say:

Moonside from Earthbound, some people loved it but it's so backwards and confusing to navigate without a guide.

The Nightmare Red Line levels from Max Payne

Those hands in Legend of Zelda that grab you and take you back to the beginning of the dungeon

The City Support missions at the end of Oblivion... seriously running through Oblivion realm after Oblivion realm becomes so stale when trying to get all the cities to back you in the big fight at Bruma.

The Flying Missions in GTA: San Andreas... ugh...

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver's block puzzles

Every single "Guide Dang It" moment in Final Fantasy XII where you can miss out on awesome loot due to RNGs or just opening a chest at the wrong time and there's absolutely NO in-game tips to tell you about this.

Several Word Walls in Skyrim being locked in dungeons that only open for Faction Quests, effectively barring you from certain shouts if you don't wish to join every faction.

Aging in Fable: TLC, there's no way to prevent it, whether you level up frequently or save up XP and blow it all at once you still age the same and will always be an old geezer by game's end unless you seriously exploit temple donations.


I'm sure I got more but this should be enough.

 

[Suave Charlie]

The entire middlesection of Bioshock: Infinite. The beginning is great, and the ending is great, but holy fuck does the middlesection drag on. You spend like 8 hours trying to revive somoe fucking Chinese Blacksmith. Ugh.

A couple days ago I did a quick runthrough for the 1999 mode achievement to finish things off and what really surprised me was how short the game is when you're not rifling through bins and eating everything in sight.

 

[DazZ.]

I'm amazed no water levels have been mentioned yet.

Can't think of any game that makes you slower when underwater that wasn't a chore.
Maybe Half Life but that's because that massive chode of a fish was terrifying.

 

[aozgolo]

I'm amazed no water levels have been mentioned yet.

Can't think of any game that makes you slower when underwater that wasn't a chore.
Maybe Half Life but that's because that massive chode of a fish was terrifying.

Actually in King's Quest II Redux, the Underwater part was my absolute favorite in the whole game. I do get what you're saying though.

Come to think of it I really enjoyed Vashj'ir in WoW: Cataclysm, unfortunately can't say the same for the other zones in that expansion...

 

[jab136]

wow, ME3 ending hasn't been mentioned yet? if it weren't for that I would definitely rate that game a solid 8-9/10 it wasn't as good as the other two ME games, but without that ending it would still have been a great game.

 

[Harpalyce]

THE FADE. I can deal with the Dark Roads - and actually like them - maybe I am a dwarf? - but the Fade from DA:O is what makes me quietly scream. The sad thing is that if you told me the concept of it, I'd be very interested. But in actuality, it just drags on too long, and everything is put through a damn blurry filter that gives me the most wicked migraines and always makes me feel like the game is trying to coquettishly run away from me and not properly show me any of its graphics.

 

[Billy D Williams]

wow, ME3 ending hasn't been mentioned yet? if it weren't for that I would definitely rate that game a solid 8-9/10 it wasn't as good as the other two ME games, but without that ending it would still have been a great game.

DAMN! Thought I was inb4 ME3!


Anyhow, for me it would be escort missions in Goldeneye (and almost all games in general, but this is the worst), online in Spec Ops: The Line, a few of the puzzles in Portal 2, campaign in Just Cause 2 (ironic, that usually means the game is terrible), and shooting and collectibles in LA: Noire.