Difficulty spikes!

[Blemontea]

In Resonance Of Fate after the Third Chapter the Difficulty goes to the max, i barely managed to get to chapter four but then it gets way to hard. The main problem is that the first chapters are easy setting you up as a acrobatic flying gun slinging death machine.

 

[ReckzB]

I never had a problem with the Infected in Prototype. The Master Hunter (or whatever they called it) was tediously boring to fight because it took forever to die, but was never really difficult. The problem I have with the game is the freaking Blackwatch. They have ludicrous jumps in difficulty, and the game's wonky targetting system didn't help at all when they brought in those goddamn UAVs.

The game gets to a point where 'Stealth' gameplay is no longer an option, because a UAV a hundred feet in the air and three blocks away behind a building can detect you immediately and alert everybody in the base, including the commander you have to consume. And because there are so many soldiers about, you can't tell who the commander is. So he winds up on the wrong end of your blade-arm and therefore, unable to be consumed, and you can't enter the base to get upgrades/web of intrigue nodes... Ugh.

 

[Vilcus]

Playing Starcraft: Brood War in a custom game where it's you v.s. 7 other computers, and the match is a melee (you're all alone, and they're all allies). Oh wait... that's intentional difficulty, although it is possible to overcome (mind control is OP).

Homeworld 2: You play the mission where you save the transport ships or whatever, and then the next one you get steam rolled by the enemy's superior number, and unfair unit creation abilities (honestly, them being able to build 13 squadrons of fighters in 2 minutes, while I can only make around 3 in that time is not fair). Although playing the campaign doesn't get you anything, so you might as well stick with Skirmish (which is all sorts of fun).

Can't think of any other game that absolutely stone walled me, I usually die a lot in platformers when they throw a tricky jump at me though, but that's easy to overcome with enough practice or luck.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The major Boss fights in Alpha Protocol, (I dont care if its a broken peice of shit, still enjoyed the game). Nothing pissed me off more than force melee combat with the boss being able to perform unblockable strikes that drains all you endurence and half you health.

*Edit*

Red Dead Redemptin turret sections

Are you talking about the one before you head to Mexico?

Nope, the ones where you're mobile... the train and the armoured car.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The latest thing to cause me real grief was the bear-knifing challenge in Red Dead Redemption. Even after hobbling the great lumbering bastard with multiple rifle shots, I had to cut him six or seven times. And it's nigh imposible to connect on a kife attack when the opponent is fleeing.

Yeah, that's a pretty shit mechanic. I got pretty frustrated trying to do it to. Try to chase him into a fence, that what I did. Still tough though. The one around

Spoiler

John's farm

is a good spot for it.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

You know the feeling... you've been happily enjoying a game for hours, going through it at a good pace and suddenly you're stuck in your tracks, starting to get frustrated by the sucker punch of a sudden huge leap in difficulty.

It can be a new control mechanic introduced late in the game that reacts differently to the main game mechanics (Dead Space Meteor sections... ugh)...



It could be a ridiculously hard boss fight (Kaileena from Warrior Within, final colossus from SOTC...I hate you both)...

It could be a flat out broken piece of shit game design (God of War's spinning blade pillars of death, Gears Of War 2 defending the Satt Comm from the reavers, Metro 2033 Acid Blobs)...



It could be a flat out unfair fight against overwhelming numbers of powerful enemies (Oblivion - Meridia's quest... 5 constantly self healing necromancers, a bunch of undead skeletons and zombies in a tiny cave... goddamn that was tough)



...or just a section that requires a lot of luck and skill (Half Life 2, fighting 2 airships at once with just a dumpster for cover and some antlions as bait)



Share the times you found yourself suddenly stuck and how you you eventually beat it!

I couldn't agree with you more on all those games. In fact I was powering through DeadSpace with zero deaths until that meteor section game out of nowhere and caused me to continue TEN TIMES!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I couldn't agree with you more on all those games. In fact I was powering through DeadSpace with zero deaths until that meteor section game out of nowhere and caused me to continue TEN TIMES!

Yeah it was really badly explained, there was no tutorial. The best way I found was to just use one of the cannons and aim for the rocks in the center.

the library level of Halo: CE... the horror...

I sympathize.

That level wasn't all that bad if you just went very slowly and hung back , taking on the flood in small groups a few at a time... problem was it was so goddamn long, repetitive and boring. One of the worst designed levels I've ever played.

 

[MasterV]

I'd like to see the OP fight the Dahaka in Warrior Within. Kaileena was a pretty nice fight.

You want difficulty spike? Try Bitores Mendez from RE4 in Professional. You're undergunned, underhealthed and he is tough as nails.

Also F-Zero GX was a difficulty spike in it's entirety.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I didn't have that much trouble with the bit in Half-Life 2 the original poster mentions. Sure, I died more times than I could remember, but I did that throughout the game (thank Valve for autosave) and the hardest part was just getting to the infinite ammunition crate after every two shots. The part of that game that really made my rage however was the second Strider battle just before the Citadel: hing everything with the super gravity gun.

.

That's odd, I was the opposite. I didn't have any trouble with that area (though the infinitely respawning baddies was a dick move) but got my ass handed to me by the two gunships.

The strider battle was easy for me because you could just duck down the stairs then pop up and shoot when the coast was clear and you'd reloaded.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

These ones just made me laugh. The spinning pillars in god of war were so easy. All you had to do was take 2 seconds to pay attention to the timeing. Seriously you really need to suck to die to those things.

Kaileena I dont actually remember being any sort of challange, actually warrior within was a pretty easy game all around.

Now if you had said the difficulty between the entire god of war game and say the final boss then mabey you could have gotten away with it. Seriously he wasnt exactly hard but when the rest of the game is a complete joke and you come to him and you actually have to try.

Wow! You're like, so awesome! I guess we should all bow down to your 1337 gaming skills and condescending attitude!

Let me ask you something... do you also drive a sports car??

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Could you be any more of a fucking moron. If your to stupid to actually time something properly and just keep jumping at the spikes till blind luck saves you well thats pathetic. Intelligent people assess the situation and act accordingly.

Intelligent people don't insult random strangers on the internet.

From your attitude to people finding stuff difficult that you didn't, it is clear you need a lesson in objectivity.

And from your tone it is clear you need a lesson in manners. Now get off my thread.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

These ones just made me laugh. The spinning pillars in god of war were so easy. All you had to do was take 2 seconds to pay attention to the timeing. Seriously you really need to suck to die to those things.

Kaileena I dont actually remember being any sort of challange, actually warrior within was a pretty easy game all around.

Now if you had said the difficulty between the entire god of war game and say the final boss then mabey you could have gotten away with it. Seriously he wasnt exactly hard but when the rest of the game is a complete joke and you come to him and you actually have to try.

Wow! You're like, so awesome! I guess we should all bow down to your 1337 gaming skills and condescending attitude!

Let me ask you something... do you also drive a sports car??

Could you be any more of an uninformed gentleman? If you're too stupid to actually time something properly and just keep jumping at the spikes until blind luck saves you, well, that's pathetic. Intelligent people assess the situation and act accordingly.

I went ahead and fixed your grammar for you. Please don't insult peoples' intelligence if you can't at least do it in an intelligent manner yourself.

Anyways, OT: I'd probably have to go with Grunt's recruitment mission on insanity for Mass Effect 2. Those damned homing missiles are pretty much a death sentence if you get hit by one.

 

[DustyDrB]

Knights of the Old Republic, right before you fight Bastilla and then Malak on the Star Forge. You have turrets, Sith elite troopers, Dark Jedi, and droids coming at you in waves. At about the halfway point in the game until now, you've been dominating everyone by clearing rooms with Force Storm, Stasis Field, and/or supreme lightsaber skills. You get used to the feeling of domination and then get to that point in the Star Forge and the sheer amount of enemies swarming your party just eats away you and your other two team member's health. You spend so much time just healing. I can't imagine not having "Destroy Droid" and another force power like "Force Wave" or "Force Storm" in this section. Crowd control is a must.
Malak himself is pretty tough as well. But he's the final boss and that is to be expected.

Also, though it was intentionally difficult according to Bioware, the area before you go into Orzammar has some high level human enemies that will destroy you if you try going to the place too early in the game.

And I always had trouble beating Gyorg (fish boss) from Majora's Mask.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I'm probably behind a few years on this one, but the last boss in Gears of War. I just played the series for the first time (have to say, it was enjoyable, but I beat it in under 6 hours and it was not all that fun on multiplayer either - not as big as all the hype would have had me think).

Anyway, the last boss was ridiculous. He has some weird one hit insta kill crap if you strayed out of the light and then because of the clunky movement/running controls, you might wind up accidentally running into cover in an unlit area and dying. Not to mention if you didn't save yourself the Torque Bow or had no grenades it was damn near impossible. After breezing through the game I must have died 25 times before I looked at a strategy guide where I had to exploit a glitch to win.

Bad way to end an otherwise okay gaming experience.

 

[HT_Black]

Divinity 2. That entire game was a fiendish, sadomasochistic difficulty sawtooth, where you would easily clear out a room of enemies only to get two-shotted by a mook or stunlocked in the middle of a melee mob; in fact, on the second main quest, you get jumped with a room full of guys three levels above you. The key to winning that game-- what I did, and what the developers obviously intended-- was tossing off, finding every sidequest on the map, and finishing them in short order. By the time I'd done that, I was four levels above the final boss and I effortlessly blazed through the final third of the game. Killing ten mega-bosses in a row in less than three minutes is fun, though.

 

[Serenegoose]

As I recall, the 'sword guy/axe guy' boss fight after the chariot ride in Two Thrones was rage inducing because the controls got messed up, and then you had to watch the 'INTRODUCING THE BOSS' cutscene over and over and over.

Also, try getting a medal on expert mode on sector Z in Lylat Wars. It's not saving the great fox that's the problem, it's getting enough kills before the missiles are destroyed.

The second 'defend your point' mission in Nova Prospekt in HL2 is also murderous - 3 turrets, 4 ways to get shot at from, and grenade/manhack happy overwatch. I play the entire game on difficult mode up til that point, but bump it down to easy for that fight because it is so horrid.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Also, CoD 4. The Pripyat mission, with the end of level defence. It was going so well up to that point.

That part of the game can go suck a fat one. I only finished it (on hardened) when I realised that less of them spawned if you backtracked a bit, where you could lay down and camp along one big sightline, then rush the plane in the last 20 seconds.

God I hated that bit.

Also, try getting a medal on expert mode on sector Z in Lylat Wars. It's not saving the great fox that's the problem, it's getting enough kills before the missiles are destroyed.

The worst part of that is that if you go through that level the regular way, the medal is impossible as Kat steals all your kills. It's your bloody teammates kill stealing that's the worst part...
Also, I only got all the medals in that game last year. Thank Christ for emulators and save states. No level select, resetting your lazers if you try again? That's half an hour of work at a chance to get a medal. Nintendo can be cruel bastards sometimes...

 

[Wayneguard]

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena spider bot sections.... not hard... just extremely lame.

Also, the first town square bit in Resident Evil 4. This was a very good difficulty spike however. You're just like flipping your shit running, hiding and trying to survive.

 

[dawdarsd]

Psychonauts has a well documented case of this. The first half is easy, but still brilliant, and then there's that sudden huge spike in difficulty. With controls as imprecise as that, it's quite frustrating.

I beat Psychonauts just last week and actually, I don't know what the fuss is about*. The acrobatics test just before the final two boss fights was quite annoying, but it still felt to me like a gradual progression of difficulty, like the whole game I've been practising my psychic skills, and now it's time to make it count. Maybe because I was forewarned of what it would be like, it wasn't annoying as it might otherwise have been.

* The fuss about the difficulty I mean, not the fuss about how awesome the game is, which of course is well deserved.

anyway it had to be hard because it was the end of the game when you are at the last acrobatics test then you face the boss,you defeat him,and then you face the final boss lol
i though that the final boss was the giant brain tank, i defeated him and i was like oh man this game was awesome too bad it was really short,and to my surprise ANOTHER boss the butcher,i was like oh he's gigantic he has to be the final boss,to my surprise the acrobatics test,i was like oh this is insanely hard this has to be the end of the game,to my surprise you face the two bosses combined,me: THIS HAS to be the end of the game what else can i seriously fight,TO MY SURPRISE i fight them both combined into one walking mountain of flesh,well i finally got the ending i died lots and lots of times but the ending is awesome it also leaves us on a cliffhanger and i really think that there's gonna be a psychonauts 2

 

[Serenegoose]

The worst part of that is that if you go through that level the regular way, the medal is impossible as Kat steals all your kills. It's your bloody teammates kill stealing that's the worst part...
Also, I only got all the medals in that game last year. Thank Christ for emulators and save states. No level select, resetting your lazers if you try again? That's half an hour of work at a chance to get a medal. Nintendo can be cruel bastards sometimes...

Make way for kat! *doo dee dee doo dee doop dee doo, doo dee doo dee doop dee doo.... duh duh!* GODSDAMNIT KAT THAT'S MY MEDAL YOU'RE STEALING.

Got it on my N64 when I was like... 14 or something. My reward? Shades the first time round, and a big CLOSE UP OF FOX intro screen when I defeated it on expert. Totally worth it. Wait, that other thing. TOTALLY NOT.

The tactic was to totally abuse the +1 kill you'd get if you killed an enemy with the splash damage of a charged shot - see, if you killed a guy with the charged shot directly, it'd give you a kill. If you fired it BEFORE the shot could lock on and killed him with the splash, it'd give you the kill AND a +1 - 2 points for a single kill.