Bad Sections In Good Games

[maninahat]

I think its safe to say that in any game EVER, water and sewer levels ruin the experience... or at least that portion of the game is crap and a chore to get through

I can think of a couple I quite liked. There is a brief (1 minute) sewer section in Mafia 2. It's quite a well detailed, claustrophobic tunnel, and once you get out of it, you have to sneak around a factory, amidst a bunch of guards who keep complaining about the smell of shit following them around.

 

[maninahat]

deus ex HR: the bosses... i don't even need to explain it

God damn, I've only just been playing it this last week, and they're ridiculous. In fact, what makes them all the more insulting is if you've been ghosting it all the way through, the cut-scenes just before the boss fights give you the finger, and show Jensen walking out into the open, blundering straight into enemies and obvious traps.

I had to forgo any attempt at ghosting the game on Deus Ex difficulty, because I didn't carry enough firepower to kill these asshole bosses.

Stun gun + Typhoon = Easy Bosses.

Sure it's cheap but fuck it, if I have to kill the bosses in a non-lethal run I may as well do it in the simplest way possible.

Didn't have the typhoon at the time, because I wasn't expecting to use it. There is a way to do it by throwing gas and explosive cannisters at the guy, but the lag on my laptop prevented such action.

 

[xplosive59]

The entire 3rd section of MGS4, crappy "follow me" mission followed by a crappy on-rails shooter. It was a good thing that Act 4 is the best and the story is awesome otherwise I would of quit there.

Also Water levels/temples in any game... ever.

 

[Mikejames]

Ones I've played? As was mentioned previously, the meat circus in Psychonauts.

I loved the premise and style, but that escort mission, along with the tunnel of love, wounded me.

 

[Trivun]

Also, I actually loved The Library in Halo. And Cortana in Halo 3. Those missions on Legendary mode, for me, are the true test of a gamer's skill at Halo - and I aced them both. Hell yeah.

The issue with the Library runs far deeper than just how challenging it is at higher difficulty levels - It's a poorly designed level in a game that otherwise has absolutely fantastic level design. Seriously. It's a long, tedious series of identical corridors with identical enemies spawning at identical locations with identical predictable artificial lengthening every time you reach another elevator. Yes, it's a difficult stage, but for all the wrong reasons.

Oh, I agree totally there, don't get me wrong. I agree that it's a tediously designed level, and since I have an interest in level design anyway (one of my ideal career paths) I do hold The Library up as an example of how NOT to design a level. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. Most people I speak to anyway don't cite that as their reason for hating the level, but rather, they don't like the difficulty or they don't like the Flood - both silly reasons to not like it as far as I'm concerned. I do agree with your points though, and it's my least favourite level in terms of design (in the original I'd say The Silent Cartographer is my favourite, closely followed by Halo).

 

[Blackeagle]

When they introduced the aliens in Crysis ... that was just plain bad

 

[legend of duty]

The start of every noncreative mode minecraft game. Gathering wool and making torches especially. Oh and losing your house, because its always fucking night.

 

[natster43]

The Chase Scenes in Assassin's Creed 3
The City in Dead Island
While not a good game, Leon's Campaign, and more specifically the entire Church/Catacombs Part of Resident Evil 6 is so far the worst thing in that game
Hovertank scenes in Mass Effect 2
The Tower Defense game in Ass Creed Revelations

 

[Gurgleflob]

Anything in sonic adventure 2 where i am not playing as sonic or shadow. The other sections feel like unnecessary padding.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Halo. The Library

[2]

And there was another one in Halo 2 but I can't remember what it was. Most frustrating Halo level ever. You're playing as the arbiter and everything's really dark and I couldn't see anything even when I blocked out light so I was just crawling my way through it.

 

[silver wolf009]

The amoebas section in Metro 2033. A huge shitpile of a section in an otherwise excellent game. Fuck that.

It's not gameplay related but the Collector's trap in ME2 makes my head hurt out of its sheer stupidity.

To beat that, I ran to the other end so Miller wouldn't progress, and I worked backwards. Was a pain, but I did it!

Then the elevator segment came, and I was screwed once more.

And do you mean when the Collectors

Spoiler

play dead to lure you in to the ship?

I felt that made sense; what better place to fight your enemy than in the middle of your ship, where they're surrounded?

OT: Going Multiplayer for this one, Pyramid from AVP 2010.

If you've ever fought even a single alien on that map, you know what I'm talking about. The entirety of that deathtrap is corridors that xenos can hang from and wall tail heavy attack stun lock spam you.

Dick move.

 

[QuartzQuadreant]

The stronghold missions in Just Cause 2. Not painfully boring but they were quite samey.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Now that I think about it, Halo CE was a mix of levels I absolutely loved and some I detested. I hated the level where you first meet the flood cos I never actually completed it and had to get my friends to do it for me cos I kept getting lost. Then there was The Library which was just shit. And I hate being timed so The Maw as well. But I can see why people would like them (apart from the library). It's probably worth mentioning I was 8 when I first played Halo CE so maybe it's partly my fault.

Still the best Halo game overall.

 

[Storm Dragon]

-The last level of Thief: The Dark Project
-The Fade section of the Circle of Magi quest in Dragon Age: Origins
--All of Dragon Age: Origins the tenth or eleventh time around
-The combat in the first Mass Effect
-That $%#@!& barrel in Sonic the Hedgehog 3
-Any boss fight in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
-That part in the first Deus Ex where both of your legs are crippled and you have no health packs to fix them and it is literally impossible to progress without a pair of functional legs so you just have to start the game all over from the beginning (Or did that only happen to me?)
-Playing through the Fallout: New Vegas addons with a non-combat character, which basically boils down to sprinting between objectives while shouting, "I'MSORRYFORLOOKINGATYOUFUNNYPLEASEDON'TEATMYFACE!"

 

[Akytalusia]

xenogears, disk 2. it's a staple to bring up in a topic like this. on the abysmal off chance someone with any authority notices and fixes this problem.

 

[shrekfan246]

Also, I actually loved The Library in Halo. And Cortana in Halo 3. Those missions on Legendary mode, for me, are the true test of a gamer's skill at Halo - and I aced them both. Hell yeah.

The issue with the Library runs far deeper than just how challenging it is at higher difficulty levels - It's a poorly designed level in a game that otherwise has absolutely fantastic level design. Seriously. It's a long, tedious series of identical corridors with identical enemies spawning at identical locations with identical predictable artificial lengthening every time you reach another elevator. Yes, it's a difficult stage, but for all the wrong reasons.

Oh, I agree totally there, don't get me wrong. I agree that it's a tediously designed level, and since I have an interest in level design anyway (one of my ideal career paths) I do hold The Library up as an example of how NOT to design a level. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. Most people I speak to anyway don't cite that as their reason for hating the level, but rather, they don't like the difficulty or they don't like the Flood - both silly reasons to not like it as far as I'm concerned. I do agree with your points though, and it's my least favourite level in terms of design (in the original I'd say The Silent Cartographer is my favourite, closely followed by Halo).

If it had been shorter, I wouldn't have an issue with it. I didn't mind the difficulty, and honestly the introduction of the Flood was amazing, one of the best levels introducing an enemy I've ever seen in an FPS. Then immediately following it was one of the worst levels I've ever played in an FPS, even to this day. It just sticks out as a monumental blunder on an otherwise astounding campaign mode.

Glad we can agree on a point, though.

 

[AnarchistFish]

-The combat in the first Mass Effect

Partly agree. The combat was definitely awkward and difficult and they improved it massively with ME2, but by the end I'd kind of grown on it. It was kinda endearing in how imprecise it was, more realistic. Although ME1's strength is its storyline, of course.

 

[Meatspinner]

All the unskippable, condescending tutorial levels. Black & White 2 gets a special mention.

 

[Dalisclock]

The Max Payne dream sequences. I still can't believe somebody thought that was a good idea.

Even worse than that was the short section near the end of the game where you had to navigate a short coridoor of trip wires whilst goons shot at you.

Well, in a way they make sense. Both times, max has been drugged(the second time with what should have been a fatal dose of V) and he slips into a nightmare while struggling to survive. So yeah, they suck. But they're rather short.

 

[sammysoso]

The Library in Halo: CE: Felt like a chore

The boss fights in the first two Uncharted games: Slow and tedious, the exact opposite of the rest of the games.

Mass Effect 3's ending: Fantastic game that went down the toilet very fast at the end.