Most controversial videogame levels - from beautiful to cringey

[Most Dumbest Bitch]

Surprised no one mentioned the entirety of Xen from HL1. Every single mission in that area is infuriatingly difficult, with the horrifying mixture of platforming and swarming enemies making it damn near impossible to complete. It took me way longer to finish HL1 than HL2, because I was so furious at how shitty that area was that I just dropped the game and didn't pick it up again for another month.

In a less well-known example, the level with the Marty spiders from LISA: The First is the most hated section in any of the LISA games, bar none. Not only do you have to navigate an already obtuse maze with these fuckers in it, but each spider has a different walk pattern, and getting hit by them puts you right back at the start. It's pretty much unplayable, and if you search up any videos or threads about the games, they'll inevitably comment on how terrible that section is.

 

[GnomeofDoc]

rising storm 2 vietnam the resort map is hot ass as the America side. You either get zero footholds on the A objective as your Hueys get shot down or you steam roll the VC. It’s super flip flop depending if you have competent helicopter pilots. Especially if your Cobra pilot is god level you will wreck ass.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I love watching gamers discuss Spec Ops: The Line. It reveals who the cultural illiterates are when they start gushing over a mediocre third-person-shooter because its story (badly) rips off some books and movies they've never read or watched.

But reading takes too much effort, dude

Hacking the stoplights in Watchdogs was good for a laugh, too. Creating pile-ups is fun.

I had a game I’d play in Watch_Dogs called “Terrorist,” where I’d assume some identity (Communist, Islamist, white supremacist, etc.) and try to assassinate NPCs who had traits my character didn’t like. Waging guerilla war on the streets of Chicago, using the phone profiler to find my targets.

 

[casE sensiTive]

The reverse castle from SotN. The two key aspects of a Metroidvania are exploration and collection, and neither of those are fun here. Almost everything you find is junk, and the few items that are worth using will completely shred everything. Exploration is no longer fun as you've already seen everything, and the best way to navigate is to fly around slowly as the bat. The regular castle already has some design issues with long flat hallways and excessive stairwells, but you don't realize it when everything is new and fresh. Upside down stairs are a pain to climb, and the halls are boring to go through.

 

[Niggernerd]

Senran Kagura damage animations.
But idc because anime booty, jiggly boobies and a kick ass ost to boot.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

Duke Nukem Forever's Hive Level. Basically you're inside an alien's stomach or whatever and there are boobs all over the place. Not only that, but the Holsen Twins are implied to be raped and Duke well... has a one liner moment.

Never mind that it's a rip off of Halo 3's Cortana level

This was my first though, it's such a jarring tonal shift and Duke cracking jokes as his girlfriends are horribly killed before his eyes makes him more of a psychopath than action hero. If they'd written it properly, it could have been the perfect motive for him to seek revenge, just like the 80's action films it references, but instead we got to slap wall boobs.


Also, the final battle in Fable 3. You have a year to prepare for a massive invasion from an unspeakable evil, but instead of just telling your subjects this, for some reason keeping quiet and chopping down forests to prepare are the evil choices. But you don't have a full year, just a few days within it, but there's no warning what the penultimate day is. So you'll go to sleep on day 70-ish then suddenly wake up in the middle of the invasion likely completely unprepared. And a massive part of the town gets destroyed, so if you had family there then tough luck.

The choices could have been actually meaningful, for example have a mob outside a food store where you have to decide whether to order your soldiers to open fire and protect its contents, or let them have it and risk starvation later. But no, for some reason do nothing to prepare and letting more people die is the right choice.

 

[Martys_not_smarty]

De Le Metalica in Wild Arms specifically the puzzle that requires you to have a set of five chests open or closed and they give you no real idea as to what the solution is and a shrine in Lufia II with the othello piece puzzle.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

EVERYTHING in W_D2 is cringy AS FUCK. Even the basis of the game is utter horseshit.
Accused of hacking? Correct that social wrong by becoming a mass-murderer and creating a terrorist cell that 3d prints automatic weapons.
At least the game gives us SOME insight into the woke food pyramid. Black anything >> White anything. Even if your archenemy is a white tranny who is 'body positive'.
There needs to be an update with syringes and human waste on every SF street.
The sad part is, gameplay was actually fun. But the asscrazy 'social messages' wore me out after 2 hrs.

 

[Foltest]

two words that are infamous among early 2000s fps player. two words that are synonymous with enemies with lighting fast reflexes, annoying as fuck placement of said enemies and you will quicksave more then you shoot
I am of course, talking about the legendary Sniper Town.

 

[That Chris Guy]

Fighting Xan in both Unreal Tournament GOTY and 2004. That merciless motherfucking aimbot ninja would hunt you down and never rest until your guts had been plastered over every wall, floor, and a little sent into outer space for good measure.

 

[millais]

rising storm 2 vietnam the resort map is hot ass as the America side. You either get zero footholds on the A objective as your Hueys get shot down or you steam roll the VC. It’s super flip flop depending if you have competent helicopter pilots. Especially if your Cobra pilot is god level you will wreck ass.

Speaking of multiplayer maps where enjoyment hinges heavily on who can grab the vehicle commander's seat first, many of those combined arms maps in RO2 were unfortunately hated by many. On full tank maps like Gumrak, there were a limited number of Pz IV and T-34 slots that were often taken by new/unskilled players, forcing everyone else into worse than useless Pz III and T-70 slots. If you got stuck in a Pz III or T-70, you were basically just there to provide soft targets for the big tanks, so the map was only fun for those 10-20 people in the big tanks.

And on meatgrinder, long-slog attack/defend maps like Bridges of Druzhina or Myshkova River, where the attacking team absolutely has to rely on their single Pz IV or T-34 to dislodge entrenched MG nests and strongpoints, a single idiot who manages to snag the tank slot can screw the attackers when it comes to being able to get past the tougher objectives.

But universally hated by all but the "realistic milsim" grognards were the enormous combined arms maps with APCs and tanks like Arad2 and Barashka. It was like the full tank maps but even worse, since there were fewer Pz IV / T-34 slots and it was impossible for infantry to get around the map due to lack of a good APC spawning system.

Oh, and in RS1, the Peleliu map was very controversial due to the complete removal of tanks from the game after the map had been expressly designed and balanced for the attacking team to benefit from tank support. The map was never rebalanced to account for the removal of tanks from the game, so it was hellishly impossible for the attackers to win. I always thought that was a terrible shame because it was a very nice map from both visual/aesthetic, historical accuracy, and gameplay perspectives.

 

[bigoogabaloogas]

The most controversial level for me was in RE:4 during the part where the Iron Maidens start to show up, especially since I didn't know about the special scope at the time.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

 

[UnclePhil]

GTA V: The torture mission and the half-assed social commentary on the way to the airport.
GTA: San Andreas: Every O.G. Loc mission. Committing heinous murders for one of the worst characters in video game history because you're a mule and whatever, the game says "jump." Also forces me to endure my least favorite kinds of gameplay: rhythm, stealth, and parallel parking—all for the most bottom-feeding, barely tolerated lieutenant in the gang.
BioShock: Escorting the Little Sister through the Splicer gauntlet. It's the only part of the game where I spammed quicksaves. I despise it.
Super Mario 3: The level where you have to fly the block to the ceiling before it breaks. I either hoard p-wings or use the level skip cloud.
Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus: Any mission with hoards of those turtle assassins, the ones that are almost impossible to hit unless they're standing. Pretty much guarantees I will get a 'D' grade based on wasted time.
DOOM: "Slough of Despair" and "Fortress of Mystery." The former was always a slog, and the latter feels like a 12-year-old's first custom map (designed by a grown man who was paid.)

 

[werbwub]

Every single mission on veteran difficulty in cod world at war. The enemies would throw 50 grenades in your general direction and shoot you once you had to leave cover to dodge all 50 grenades

Accurate depiction of veteran difficulty grenade spam

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

The most controversial level for me was in RE:4 during the part where the Iron Maidens start to show up, especially since I didn't know about the special scope at the time.

The water room... fuck that part

 

[millais]

The water room... fuck that part

Yes, that part basically ended my run on the pro-difficulty level that you need to complete to unlock the laser gun. I technically got past that part, but it ate up so much of my ammo that I couldn't beat the next mini-boss fight with the twin blind gladiators even with extensive backtracking to scavenge as much ammo as possible.

 

[Overcast]

View attachment 978886

God Jak 2 was full of shit like this. That game was hard.

 

[Recoil]

MineStorm on Vectrex. 13th level was bugged, you couldn't play farther without crashing it. It caused enough of a stink that writing to Milton Bradley about it would result in you getting a patched cartridge in the mail, free of charge. Those patched carts now fetch a hefty price on the collector's market.