Worst video game levels

[Puella-Magi]

There are the levels that make me whine, moan, and complain, but rarely do I run across ones I downright hate.

 

I've been working on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the Game Boy Advance, and was tempted to give up on the fourth Bean Challenge level. The level itself is mostly running and jumping on moving platforms, but it was the spinning background that got me. I can't tell you how many times I sent Harry off the edge because I got dizzy. >8(

 

So, what about you?

[Stromboli]

I absolutely hate the hotel basement in The Last of Us.

I mean, I hate any part of the game where you're alone, but the hotel basement is the worst. It's just dark and you can hear all the Stalkers croaking and splashing around in the flooded basement and eugh. Creeps me out every time.

[InugamiZERO]

Water Levels, I HATE Water Levels

[Ribombee]

Water Levels, I HATE Water Levels

This is a pretty uniform one. I have to agree, though. They always are terrible!

[MercenaryCobra1]

I have a large hatred for the "Lost City" A.K.A. Mole Knight's stage in Shovel Knight. Exploding brick-platforms that have to be destroyed, lava that negates the Phase Amulet (couple of seconds of invulnerability for 8 MP), slimes that can become fire slimes with immunity to downward thrusts, long stretches of staying with a slow-moving platform that when failed results in instant death, timed rushes over lava pools that you have to transform back and forth between bouncy passages with a time limit... Oh, let's not forget those bouncing firebirds that can't be scrolled off-screen, take four hits to kill (when most enemies can be killed in one or two), and love to send you tumbling into one of those lava pools. Now add on top of this that one of the Feats is clearing all levels (save the very first and last stages) without using a checkpoint, meaning you need to one-shot this level for it.

 

I love the game Shovel Knight a lot, but I get bad memories of that stage every time I hear its music from the soundtrack.

[EnderEcho]

All of the water routes on Or/As.

[Omen]

The Society of Leopold Monastery level in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Took me ages to get through there with a Tremere, there was quite a bit of cursing involved every time I lured not one but all of the Leopold dudes near the tripwires. Of course, not all of them would die in the resulting explosion, meaning my character would shortly go through his Final Death. Thaumatugy made short work of one or two enemies, but against three it was asking for trouble. Managed to get through eventually, with a lot of sneaking about, cherry picking enemies.

 

The boss level however? Nope. Sniper rifle toting boss with deadly accuracy that three shots even when hiding behind something or running around like a headless chicken? Quit > Go to Steam > Properties > Set launch options > -console > Restart game > Load last save > Enable console > Type "god" > Exit console > Watch as boss gets a taste of his own medicine.

 

I usually don't mind difficult bosses in games, but this guy was ridiculous! Step out of cover to cast Blood Strike and bam! a third dead even with Blood Shield up, while my character's hit barely made a scratch on him. That surely made my Blood Boil. Probably should have brought blood bags with me but whatever, I wasn't expecting to get steam rolled so easily. I managed to take out the Chang brothers without too much trouble (well... lots of deaths) and they would two hit my character! At least Thaumaturgy worked on them in such a way that they stayed still long enough to get some much needed distance. Monks and their resistance to Thaumaturgy.

[zorua9]

all of dark souls, besides the lore and other stuff, the game it self is annoying, I am up to sen's fort..... UGH!

[Dawnwing]

Watch Dogs has two:

 

- The boss fight against Iraq. The start of the scene is an almost minute-and-a-half rant that you have to sit through; can't skip it. Then he sends a couple mooks after you - ones that can be real tough if you didn't spend the skill points to take down Enforcers with melee (they're super-tough enemies that can't really be taken out with normal gunfire). After a couple times dying against them, I finally made it to Iraq himself. He's classed as an Enforcer, but is programmed so that you can't take him down with melee, even if you have that skill. Eventually I figured out that using a grenade launcher is the best way to win that fight. But yeah, you have to listen to that rant every time... no wonder the people who were viewing my stream left after two or three tries.

 

- The climax, where Aiden needs to get to 3 places in different parts of the city to install a virus to take down CTOS. Damien gets into the system and decides to mess with him. So instead of 3 little objective markers, there's more like 10 frequently appearing and disappearing with gibberish text instead of distance markers. As you drive through the city, Damien does the sort of hacking against you that you've been doing all game: messing with streetlights, raising blockers, bursting steam pipes, etc. There's visual distortion effects across the screen every now and then. And to top things off, he's decided to call the cops on you, so they're all chasing and shooting at you, including their helicopter. You have to stay at each of those points like 30-40 seconds after arriving for the installation to complete, which is really difficult being shot at so much. Took me a while to complete it.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Dawnwing

[TheTron852]

Return to Castle Wolfenstein. THAT level where you have to sneak inside the base without being detected. You know, with all those watch towers and alarms and everything?

[Purplepotatoes2]

If any of you have even tried to play through the glitchfest that is Sonic '06, you would have probably reached the Flame Core level… That crap is ridiculous. I don't even feel like explaining everything wrong with that level.

[Millomoi]

If any of you have even tried to play through the glitchfest that is Sonic '06, you would have probably reached the Flame Core level… That crap is ridiculous. I don't even feel like explaining everything wrong with that level.

My friend bought me Sonic 06 recently because he's a terrible person. I've just got to that level and I actually want to cry.

 

I don't know how my child self managed to beat '06. Perhaps you genuinely have to be terrible at that game to get anywhere. Skill alone clearly plays no part.

[ShinyShinx]

On 01/03/2015 at 4:47 PM, Omen said:

The Society of Leopold Monastery level in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Took me ages to get through there with a Tremere, there was quite a bit of cursing involved every time I lured not one but all of the Leopold dudes near the tripwires. Of course, not all of them would die in the resulting explosion, meaning my character would shortly go through his Final Death. Thaumatugy made short work of one or two enemies, but against three it was asking for trouble. Managed to get through eventually, with a lot of sneaking about, cherry picking enemies.

 

The boss level however? Nope. Sniper rifle toting boss with deadly accuracy that three shots even when hiding behind something or running around like a headless chicken? Quit > Go to Steam > Properties > Set launch options > -console > Restart game > Load last save > Enable console > Type "god" > Exit console > Watch as boss gets a taste of his own medicine.

 

I usually don't mind difficult bosses in games, but this guy was ridiculous! Step out of cover to cast Blood Strike and bam! a third dead even with Blood Shield up, while my character's hit barely made a scratch on him. That surely made my Blood Boil. Probably should have brought blood bags with me but whatever, I wasn't expecting to get steam rolled so easily. I managed to take out the Chang brothers without too much trouble (well... lots of deaths) and they would two hit my character! At least Thaumaturgy worked on them in such a way that they stayed still long enough to get some much needed distance. Monks and their resistance to Thaumaturgy.

A-Hecking-Men. But the boss wasn't too irritating to my Gangrel character. He surprisingly lacks an immunity to Burrowing Beetle (Unless I found a glitch, in which case that makes two bosses I've killed with Glitch Exploits and four with the mighty Beetle, which finally helped me beat Ming.) 

I would have to go with the lead in to the Warrens as the most annoying. And Hallowbrook. Oh sweet Arceus, Hallowbrook Hotel...

The level title Hell at the Hallowbrook Hotel is extremely accurate. That level IS hell. Especially if you don't realise how bloody long it is and use your flamethrower ammo right at the start of it. So, we have: The fleshcrafter abominations from the Warrens,  Fully Proteaned Vampires that do Aggravated, Celerity Vampires with shotguns, a Miniboss fight and one of the most difficult bosses ever at the end of it. Hell is accurate. I only beat Andrei after eighteen attempts, and only after I exploited a glitch. Sprinting directly at him after he finishes talking and shooting upwards does a good quarter of his health. Even then, I barely survived it. 

[Whirlaway]

Escaping Filch in the PC version of Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone from when I was a lot younger and the game had only just come out!

Edited January 13, 2018 by Dorchet

[Syiren]

If anyone here has played Final Fantasy XV before the updates took over, you know of the nightmare known as chapter 13. The jumpscares, constant dread, all your abilities stripped away except for the ring which was maybe 40% power, compared to its power after its update boost, combined with powerful enemies, MTs that grab you and try to explode, trolling taunts from Ardyn which range from taunting over the speakers to showing illusions of Prompto...it was not a fun experience. It's a lot more tame now, but damn. When Noct's friends appear to help him out of that trap, you're just as happy to see them as Noctis is.

[HarbingerPuppeteer]

Nyollo i got One

 

has anyone heard of a game called Stella Glow ?? good game, I can ramble about it all day. Level-wise ?? there's two fights that are Bad. I'll talk abt one of them ((tho both are Harder than the Final Fight)). 

Now near the end of the game, it's all fine you're almost at the End of the Game, game's been easy so far. what can go Wrong?

never have i wanted to chuck my ds at a blender until i Experienced the fight w/ Angel Xeno, him being Heavily Overpowered ((you Know, with those HP stealing attacks except it hits Everyone in a Close Area, Recovering Every Turn, gives Those Debuffs, while being Immune to Debuffs, a bunch of Wild Stuff goin on))

you send everyone to mob him ?? o Boy he has HP stealing move to Rob the Health of anything and Everything surrounding him, getting Recovery Each Turn

you send ur most Powerful team ?? he just Laughs as he gives you Debuffs and Immediately Slaughters Everything

 

It's a fight that I hate so much but it's ok as Weird as the Difficulty Spike is, I love the game, also angel xeno looks Rad as Heck

[flockof-doves]

pacman is 100% terrible i've only gotten past stage one once

[Nine]

Any level with escort missions tend to be obnoxious. Back in the old Playstation Spyro games, there was the land where you had to escort a blind goat-man scientist around a convoluted course of enemies. The text for starting that mission is forever burned into my brain for all the times I had to restart it.

 

Resident Evil 4 definitely slowed down in fun once you rescued the girl and the game turned into one big escort mission. Thankfully, you could just throw her into a trash dumpster and go back to having fun, at least until she got kidnapped again.

[ShinyShinx]

Having just finished Catbird, which is a really good and free platformer iPhone game that I highly reccomend, I can safely say that nearly all the levels in the second half of Winda (with the exception of the boss) really take the cake as being painful to do. The boss was surprisingly easy, but the levels were all as if he had taken what would have been multiple levels and superglued them all together into one super long, super difficult level. One that stands out to me as a particularly nightmarish experience is called "Sea Salt" I died a grand total of 231 times to that single level, 150 of them being in the first tiny part. I was so overjoyed when I found out that I'd beaten what I thought was the level and ran towards the side, only to find that I had to complete a flight puzzle to get to a checkpoint.

Not even the end of the level. 

 

A checkpoint. 

 

You might think that would come halfway through the level. 

 

Nope. 

 

It was barely the beginning. It was just a nightmare... 

Edited January 10, 2018 by ShinyShinx

[Sesshomaru]

On 2/18/2015 at 7:44 PM, Puella-Magi said:

I've been working on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the Game Boy Advance, and was tempted to give up on the fourth Bean Challenge level. The level itself is mostly running and jumping on moving platforms, but it was the spinning background that got me. I can't tell you how many times I sent Harry off the edge because I got dizzy. >8(

 

I'd been passing this thread by for ages, and then I saw this. This right here. I had the PC version, and the bean challenges were my personal hell. My friends teased me because I was good at everything, but then this game happened, and we discovered there was something I could actually be rubbish at: video game jumping. I went a little nuts because my brain is neurotic and scary as hell when it doesn't get its way. I worked for weeks trying to get beyond proficient. At the end of it, I had mastered the mechanic, and was able to beat every last one of them, and things went back to normal. This is also the story of why I make a point of avoiding competition. This, and my first taekwondo wrestling match, where I downed all the other students, won, and probably freaked my teacher out because most of them were higher belts than me. And boys. (My master had to pull me off a few times because I wouldn't let up. But I was his favorite student, so I think he was actually very happy about my giving no quarter.) I just get into a competitive situation and every single predatory instinct kicks into overdrive and I have to win. Not fun. Especially when your personality otherwise is laid back as all get out.

 

I still have problems with jumping, though. There are a few bonus quests in Star Wars: The Old Republic that give me conniptions. There's this one where you either jump the whole time, or bomb the level and have to restart. Meh.

[SheridanCharon]

Pretty much every game I have ever played has a level that, upon reaching it, my brain just lets out one long scream of frustration. This is just some of them.

• Dark Souls: I ADORE the Dark Souls series, despite only getting into them last year. And most of the game, while frustrating, is an enjoyable level of annoying because of the satisfaction you feel upon beating a particular area. But  Blight Town and everything in it, I absolutely LOATHE that place.
• Bloodborne: The gem that got me into the Souls games. Beaten it several times, but the Forbidden Wood is hell and I hate how easy it is to get lost, I hate the snakes, I hate the snakemen, I hate the boss and its BS.
• Brutal Legend: Any of the missions where you have to escort the tour bus. I am terrible at escort missions and driving levels, so combining them into one is just one big nope for me.
• Resident Evil 4: EVERYTHING after saving Ashley. Like I said, I hate escort missions, so finding out ALMOST THE WHOLE GAME becomes one was just...urgh. I was so glad to finally unlock the knight armour so I could just leave her to it while I did my thing.
• Dishonored: Kingsparrow Island. I know final levels are MEANT to be the hardest, but this place ruined so many perfect ghost runs because of the sheer number of guards...
• Dying Light: For the most part, it wasn't a great game but it was enjoyable. Right up until the end level, that level and the boss was so much BS, it's unbelievable. Not because it was HARD, oh no. But because you do not spend your time playing with the game making you despise the final boss, making you look forward to the fight with him so much so that you spend an hour gathering supplies for medkits and make the best high-level weaponry, then make you go through a nightmare of a level with the promise of this awesome boss fight, ONLY TO HAVE THE "BOSS FIGHT" ACTUALLY BE NOTHING MORE THAN A GLORIFIED CUT SCENE WITH A QUICK TIME EVENT. As you can probably guess, I was beyond mad. So much so I haven't played it since, and that's not something I do.

[LadyLyzar]

Every single thing having to do with the Lord's Labyrinth in Path of Exile, especially once you get to Merciless tier.  Every floor is full of traps and things that make the traps worse!

[Nectaris]

These two are the original Mass Effect:

 

There have been other levels that have been difficult, but one that sticks out in my mind right now is rescuing Liara on Feros.  Particularly the higher difficulties.  The part where you are confronted by the krogan mercenary, there is no cover, his shotgun takes off a large portion of your health, as does the missile-wielding geth.  Oh, not to mention as a krogan, once you get him down, he then HEALS and comes at you again.  While you can kill them while down, it is really hard when there are other enemies around shooting you.

 

And then the hot lab section(again on the highest difficulties) with the rachni.  The thing with the rachni is that they spit acid, and acid ignores shields.  And there are a ton of them spitting acid at you with a short amount of time to make it to the door(you are on a timer).  Just running through them was a matter of luck, I died so many times trying to get to that door.

 

Uncharted 2:

 

That train.  I died so many times in various spots.  The helicopter was a pain, it would blow up the train cars you were on if you took too long, and would spray you with machine gun fire.  I kept dying at this one spot trying to open a door, when I FINALLY spotted the rocket/grenade launcher you are supposed to use to get it off your back for a while.

 

There are other games that have had really hard levels, though I don't really remember specifics. 

[Bellumsaur13]

The final chapter aboard the ship in the original Uncharted, where you have a lot of enemies with rifles and the boss character (Navarro) has a semi-auto shotgun that's instant death upon hitting you. All of the confrontations with the enemies have you stuck behind destructible crates that get torn to shred by said enemies' weapons as well as by Navarro's shotgun. As if that wasn't enough, when you actually confront Navarro, you have no choice but to run towards him in order to melee him. I have always died at least once because he managed off a shot on me, but it's incredibly satisfying once you, at last, send the ******* down to his watery grave. "Adios, a-hole, indeed."

 

While The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is all-around a pretty annoying game to get through, there are two specific levels that really ground my gears: the Ancient Grove and the Mountain of Malefor. The Ancient Grove is chockful of poisonous water that is hazardous to jump into and will deplete a point of health; it's only partway through that you gain the ability to create temporary isles of ice that you can use to jump across large expanse of water. Not only that, but it's also home to an incredibly-frustrating platforming sequence, where you have to glide onto different floating jellyfish to get across a great chasm marked by gigantic, towering trees right out of Kashyyyk or Lothlorien. AND it has a lot of tough enemies that can be a pain to combat, especially in groups, in particular, it has in abundance what I consider the absolute most-annoying enemies in the game: a dog-like creature that attacks by charging you, stunning you and leaving you vulnerable for other enemies to attack. They often come in groups, sometimes with other enemy types, which means they can drain your health pretty quick if you're not careful. Thankfully, you do have the ability to slow down time, so you can beat the snout out of them, and there even cliffs on this level you can knock them off of. It's incredibly-cathardic to do so, believe me... although this level does have one more thing going for it: at the end, you fight one of the hardest bosses in the game, nay, the entire Spyro franchise (right up there with that damn first boss in Spyro 3), Arborick. He's a giant boss who is vulnerable to fireballs, but he can regenerate his health, whereas you have no ability to heal yourself; on top of that, you fight him by going into this weird railshooter-like mechanic where you can move left and right and shoot fireballs. It was something I already actively disliked, as twice you had to do that previously against flying enemies who kept spitting green lightning balls at you (another instance where the time mechanic comes in handy).

 

The Mountain of Malefor I mention for a different reason as while it does have the frustrating enemies and some annoying platforms, towards the end of it, it has one of the most frustrating enemy gauntlets I've encountered in a game. As when you reach a certain circular platform, you immediately face swarms of really tough, armored undead enemies that can take quite a bit of hits before they go down. After a number of tries, I realized you can just use your ranged abilities to hit the enemies on the platform but even that takes a while, as a lot of them are tough and you have to constantly resupply your mana (as it can drain pretty fast if you're constantly using your elemental abilities), not to mention that certain enemies have ranged attacks that you have to avoid. Either way, it's still an annoying chore to deal with.

 

The Adams level in Spec Ops: The Line, where you have to traverse through a number of grounded yachts and partway through, a sandstorm hits. Once that storm comes over, it's incredibly hard to see the enemies, a number of whom are either armed with shotguns or are heavily-armored and may be armed with machine guns. Not to mention, there's one bit where you climb into a boat and it's incredibly-easy to get flanked but you have to remain in cover to maintain your health. Yeah... I wasn't a fan of that level.

 

Any combat sequence in the Uncharted games where you have to platform around, due to how sensitive the climbing and jumping mechanics are. The worst offenders are a lot of the fights against the pirates in 3 (the bits with the half-sunken boats and the ballroom on the cruise ship are the worst offenders) and quite a few of the fights in 4, where they really emphasized the new grappling hook mechanic. It's pretty annoying when you either accidentally leap onto a platforming ledge or you grab onto the wrong one, all while getting shot at; I died a fair few times in a lot of these fights.

 

Also, the side-mission in Spyro 3 where you have to protect an ice-skating polar bear from enemies; it wouldn't be so bad if you weren't sliding across the ice, all while she's getting swarmed by hockey-skating Rhynocs, so it makes it kind of hard to keep an eye on her and her assailants.

[Nectaris]

Not necessarily a level, but a whole DLC.  Fallout: New Vegas:  Dead Money

 

Especially if you are playing it for the first time and don't know where anything is.  You start off the DLC stripped of everything you have, healing, weapons, etc.  You are given a single gun with VERY limited ammo(and poor ammo at that).  Even though the gun is one of my favorites in the game.  If you are playing hardcore, the very air is deadly, making you lose health over time.  You have to scrounge for every piece of ammo and healing you can find. 

 

Then there are the primary enemies, the Ghost People.  Until you find Dog/God, they are hard to kill permanently.  If you just deplete their health, they will be knocked out, but will get back up.  You have to either disintegrate them or remove a limb in some fashion.  After you get Dog/God and get their secret ability, they aren't that difficult, though they are still creepy with their breathing noises and green glowing eyes.

 

Probably the worst thing is the speakers.  When the DLC begins, you wake up to find that you have a bomb-collar on.  Well, it turns out that radios and speakers mess with the bomb collar and take too long and your head goes boom.  They are often hard to find, even when you know where they are, they are sometimes hard to get to in time.  Oh, and did I mention that there are some that cannot be destroyed?  You have to find a terminal to turn them off, and sometimes it is past the speaker.

 

Fourth, the place is just littered with traps.  Due to the atmosphere, they are often hard to spot, and they are especially annoying in hardcore mode.  The bear traps often cripple limbs, which in hardcore mode can only be healed in certain ways.  It is easy to blunder into them when trying to race to/past a speaker or to escape the Cloud. 

 

Due to said Cloud, the whole place is tinted red and is incredibly easy to get turned around, the streets tend to labyrinthine and it all looks the same.