The process of creating a great, memorable game is not exactly a precise science. Even some of the best games ever made usually have at least one level, mission, or section that makes you scratch your head and ask “why did they do this.”
10 Outstanding Games With Terrible Opening Levels
The wrong kind of first impression
We don’t claim to be experts in game design, but we do know what’s fun, and these kinds of levels make you wonder whether someone was slacking off during playtesting to determine if they’d actually be fun.
These levels run the gamut from needlessly strict restrictions to punishing, unnecessary levels of difficulty, making them black marks on what would otherwise be great games.
Crash Bandicoot
As a game with a large emphasis on instant death traps and pits, the originalCrash Bandicoothas its share of headaches, but nothing that could be considered insurmountable.
If there were a level that could be consideredborderlineinsurmountable, it’d be the fourteenth level, Road to Nowhere, better known simply as “that one bridge level.”
The entire level is a single, narrow bridge with numerous boards missing or falling. That wouldn’t be horrible if not for the wild hogs running back and forth or the random super-precise TNT stacks.
This level has a well-earned reputation for absolutely devouring lives thanks in large part to the game’s mildly wonky jumping physics. Many players will attempt to bypass the whole thing by just walking on the support ropes, only because that’s somehow less annoying.
9Meat Circus
Psychonauts
The various mental worlds ofPsychonautsare occasionally a little abstract, but the game’s enjoyable gameplay usually keeps things moving at a steady clip.
However, the biggest roadblock to progress comes right at the last leg, with the final level in the game brought about by an entangling of Raz and Oleander’s minds: the Meat Circus.
Putting aside the generally unpleasant meaty carny aesthetic of the whole level, the first section is one of the most obnoxious escort missions ever devised.
You have to escort Oleander’s child self up multiple floors of a massive big top, rushing back and forth between protecting him from enemies and platforming across lengthy acrobatic sections.
After that, you have a long escape sequence where you have to climb upwards to escape rising water, all while Raz’s father chucks explosives at him.
8Proving Grounds
Part of what makesBioShockgenerally fun is that it’s very freewheeling (ironically enough,given the story). You can run around levels at your leisure, shooting Splicers and looting stuff.
That’s why it’s so head-scratching that the game’s second-to-last level would be, you guessed it, a lengthy and annoying escort mission.
In the Proving Grounds, you need to guide a Little Sister through a gauntlet of Splicers, protecting her while she gathers ADAM. There are no checkpoints in this section; if the Sister dies, you have to go all the way back to the start for a fresh one.
It’s not even clear why you have to do this from a story perspective; Tennenbaum mentions that, despite not having ADAM slugs anymore, the Sisters’ mental conditioning forces them to stop and gather at corpses.
Couldn’t you just, y’know, pick them up and carry them to the end, though?
7Security Hall
Sonic Adventure 2
The treasure-hunting levels inSonic Adventure 2can be a bit of a mixed-bag, especially compared to the more straightforward shooting and speed levels, but as long as you’re patient and observant, you’ll get through them.
Unfortunately, in the Security Hall, patience isn’t an option, as you’re under a strict five-minute time limit (andonlybecause Rouge tells Eggman she doesn’t need 15 minutes).
The entire level breaks just about every rule that’s been established by the previous treasure-hunting levels – you can’t dig into anything but unlocked safes, there are lasers and locked doors all over the place, and there are multiple areas with very vague connecting points between them.
As an added annoyance, if you die from an enemy or a pit, you keep the Emeralds you’ve found when you respawn, but if the timer runs out, you gotta start the whole thing over.
6Yiga Hideout
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Given his penchant for shouting at the top of his lungs, Link has never struck us as a particularly stealthy fellow. This is why stealth sections are thankfully few in Legend of Zelda games, but they’re always a chore when they crop up.
Case in point, when Link needs to infiltrate the Yiga Clan hideout to recover the Thunder Helm inBreath of the Wild, he’s forced into a mandatory stealth mission.
10 Non-Stealth Games With Great Stealth Mechanics
When infiltration is an option, there’s no better alternative.
You’d think, given his skill in climbing and paraglider, it wouldn’t be that hard to navigate, but the patrolling Yiga soldiers can spot you from a mile away.
If you’re discovered, you’re immediately beset by supercharged Blademasters. you’re able to technically fight them off, but the odds of succeeding at that are… low, to put it mildly.
5Girl Power Station
Splatoon 2
Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion DLC is made up of a variety of different tests and challenges, some of which have gained a reputation for beingunreasonably difficult.
The most infamous of these tests is Girl Power Station, a deceptively simple mission with a ridiculously high skill ceiling.
To complete the test, you need to protect a central orb from several waves of Octolings, followed by several waves of Elite Octolings. The test only lasts 90 seconds, but it feels like 90 years.
The Octolings come out so quickly and aggressively, it can feel impossible to get a bead on them before they’re already blowing up the orb. They also have some of the meanest enemy AI in the game, making sure to splat you with extreme prejudice before moving on to the orb.
4The Water Hall
Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Resident Evil 4
Despite Ashley’s reputation for being annoying in the originalResident Evil 4, she at least usually had the good sense to stay out of the line of fire andlet you handle things.
Any escorting woes you may have with Ashley are magnified tenfold, however, in the Castle’s Water Room. In this bit, either Leon or Ashley have to remain in the center of the room to turn a crank while the other climbs up to turn more cranks.
Either way, you need to constantly split your attention between Cultists trying to take your head off and trying to make off with Ashley. You’re supposed to make generous use of a sniper rifle here, so you need pinpoint aim to drive them away.
More often than not, though, you’ll accidentally shoot Ashley in the head when trying to stop a Cultist carting her off.
3Quick Man’s Stage
Mega Man 2
As with any of the earlyMega Mangames, Mega Man 2 has a few tricky bits, such as disappearing blocks and frequent instant death spikes, but it’s a verywell-made and playable gameoverall.
This is with the exception of Quick Man’s stage, which very quickly lets you know how much it hates your guts.
From the moment the stage starts, you need to begin frantically running and falling your way down vertical corridors, avoiding instant kill force beams.
These beams are classic newbie bait; they move so quickly and suddenly, it is virtually impossible to avoid them on your first try.
If you had any lives banked before this stage, you won’t have them anymore by the end.
2A Quiet Exit
Metal Gear Solid V
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
If you thoughtforced stealth sectionsin action games were irritating, have you ever considered a forced action section in a stealth game? Well, that’s what you’re in for inMetal Gear Solid V’s 45th mission, A Quiet Exit.
In this mission, Snake and Quiet have to team up to fight off the entire Soviet Mechanized Unit, including soldiers, tanks, and attack choppers en masse.
Snake isnotbuilt for this kind of direct combat, and having Quiet around doesn’t make it much easier. The game does give you a handful of rocket launchers scattered around, but it’s largely down to whatever you happen to bring to the mission with you.
If your loadout is insufficient, which you probably won’t realize until you’re already several waves deep, you’ll have to bail on the whole mission, reconfigure at Mother Base, and start it all over again.
1Team Rocket Hideout
Pokemon Red & Blue
Pokemon Red and Blue
In many of thePokemongames, thevillainous teamhideouts have some manner of exploration gimmick, not dissimilar to the gimmicks in the Gyms.
The very first villain hideout was the Team Rocket Hideout in Pokemon Red, and it’s got one of the slowest, most circuitous gimmicks of any of the villainous teams: spin tiles.
Whenever you step on a spin tile, you’re sent merrily twirling away in the direction it’s pointing, not stopping until you hit a solid surface. More often than not, these tiles will either send you in the completely wrong direction and scrambling to reobtain your bearings.
This spinning process was agonizingly slow in the original Game Boy version, forcing you to sit and wait several seconds between every panel. Thankfully, they sped things up in the remake, so it’s just obnoxious instead of being slowandobnoxious.
10 Games With Brutally Punishing Beginnings
Difficulty in games has been a talking point for a long time, but there are certain developers that love kicking your ass from the jump.
