Have you ever gotten a game into an unwinnable/unfinishable state?
- Thread starter LookingGlass
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I found spamming Combat Clinic (Med, Med, Sen) and Delta Attack (Rav, Com, Sen) and anything with a Sabotuer gets it done when the doom counter hits 300.Heroes and Cons said:
OT: Fallout 3, the game bugged when I killed Burke as he was killing Lucas. Lucas went through the saved dialogue but died when he touched the door of the saloon, the game autosaving just before then. The whole saloon, followed shortly by the whole town, attempted to kill me... while I was only level 3. Yeah, fun.
Escape from Monkey Island.
I think it was Escape from Monkey Island...
It's the part where you have to use certain items on the hermit...
Herman Toothrot? I think?
Yeah, I used them wrong, then saved, and yeah, he couldn't be cured.
I think it was Escape from Monkey Island...
It's the part where you have to use certain items on the hermit...
Herman Toothrot? I think?
Yeah, I used them wrong, then saved, and yeah, he couldn't be cured.
Gothic, my version was unwinnable without console commands and some light cheating, because some doors wouldn't open.
Neverwinter Nights: Almost every battle against boss spellcaster with my finesse based kukri wielding human fighter.
Neverwinter Nights: Almost every battle against boss spellcaster with my finesse based kukri wielding human fighter.
In Red Steel (I know, it seemed like a good idea at the time), I absent mindedly entered a mission without picking up any weapons at the firing range first, and so I started the level completely unarmed. I got shot to pieces in the first room before I could melee anyone and take their gun. For some reason the game wouldn't let me quit back to the hub, I could only restart the mission. With no bloody guns. Had to start a new file.
Also, in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, I got stuck on that griffin boss just after you get turned into the sand wraith. Maybe I hadn't picked up enough health upgrades, maybe I just sucked at the game, but I just couldn't win. Every time I did it any damage, the cheap bastard would take off and start dive bombing me, regenerating its own health bar while mine was constantly draining away. I stopped playing at that point. To be honest I don't think I'd been having that much fun anyway. I remember that game having a really oppressive atmosphere to it.
Also, in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, I got stuck on that griffin boss just after you get turned into the sand wraith. Maybe I hadn't picked up enough health upgrades, maybe I just sucked at the game, but I just couldn't win. Every time I did it any damage, the cheap bastard would take off and start dive bombing me, regenerating its own health bar while mine was constantly draining away. I stopped playing at that point. To be honest I don't think I'd been having that much fun anyway. I remember that game having a really oppressive atmosphere to it.
Fallout New Vegas.
I stupidly wandered into the hidden valley where the Brotherhood Of Steel hide out wearing my NCR beret, I got cornered in the empty bunker where it autosaved. As soon as I load that save again I die about 10 seconds afterwards. And the previous save to that was so far away I just started the game again.
I stupidly wandered into the hidden valley where the Brotherhood Of Steel hide out wearing my NCR beret, I got cornered in the empty bunker where it autosaved. As soon as I load that save again I die about 10 seconds afterwards. And the previous save to that was so far away I just started the game again.
I'm stuck in Skies of Arcadia. I just got out of the Pyrnn temple and I'm now stuck on the ship battle with the Lynx. I am ashamed... (-_-)
Your response is completely paradoxical. You say you've completed the game over a dozen times and think that the problem is due to his low level. However, if you'd played the game over a dozen times, you'd know that the enemies in the game scale in level with you, so even bosses wouldn't deal that much damage to you if you were a low level because they would be low levels as well!SquallTheBlade said:
OT: One time in Demons Souls I accidentally killed Stockpile Thomas, causing me to have to carry EVERYTHING for the rest of the game. Unfortunately the amount you can carry in that game is next to nothing, and so I was unable to upgrade most of my weapons or change my armor on the fly due to not having any upgrade ores or having other armors in the stockpile. Ultimately when I got the New game + I was instakilled by everything due to my crappy weapons and low armor.
I can't go past a certain point in Fallout New Vegas: Honest Hearts without crashing. Not that crashing is a rare event in F:NV, mind you... Still, I uninstalled the whole thing, this time for good, and spit on every new DLC they bring out without ever fixing the bugs they carry since the release date. Obsidian should go to jail if you ask me...
Oh well, no more Project Nevada
Oh well, no more Project Nevada
Shadow Complex. I had all but one item. I could see the item, hell I could walk over it. But he just wouldn't pick it up. I'm not sure if I'll get to 100% that game.
God, that boss was annoying...KingKamor said:
The reflux attack meant you had to constantly have at least one healer on every attacker, and that forced you to anticipate that fight (five chapters ahead of when you knew it was coming the first time, mind) and choose characters with healing abilities- which forced you to narrow your (already) small group of choices after picking up the six worthless characters they literally force you to bring.
Besides that, the spawning enemies and healing factor of the boss forced you to keep the pressure on, which meant you had to attack every node every turn (and you just don't have enough healers for each turns, it's not possible) and your strongest attackers are often most vulnerable to magic attacks, and they get worse as you get closer to the boss (where the nodes are) so you get stuck in an infinite loop of healing/attacking/retreating, and to win in hard mode would literally take you hours.
Besides that, you have to anticipate this need five chapters in advance- which means there are three ways to win
1) You use the FAQ
2) You restart and replay the five (not easy) chapters in advance and bring along characters more suited to the final boss, hoping you've grinded their abilities enough (and if not, god help you) and hope they're decent fighters for the five other chapters
3) You get lucky
Not a well-designed fight, all told...
Quite often, actually. I tend to have a knack for finding bugs in games.
Most recently, there was one in Gears of War 3. I do not recall the name of the chapter we were playing, but the bug that cropped up forced the three of us to have to start a new game from a previous chapter.
In effect, what happened was, while my two friends were on the ground rushing to a crashed vehicle, I was perched on the outer walls of a base sniping any would-be assailants. About half way through the battle, a lambent locust climbed up the exterior walls and tried to run at me. I turned toward him and fired my sniper rifle from the hip, in the very least, to slow him down. To my surprise, my character never reloaded. I confirmed this by looking at my ammo count. Neither had changed. Chalking it up to a lag spike, I fire again. Shot goes out. Animation completes. Locust reacts to the shot. But, again, I never spent a round. I repeat this about five or six times, never killing the locust but constantly stunning him. When I tried to switch weapons, I could not. I couldn't even get into cover. So for the rest of the map, all I could do was "stun" people with the rifle and try not to die. At the start of the next chapter, it was still the same and remained that way for a majority of said chapter. At a point near the end of the chapter, we tried loading from the last save. Still had the issue. After numerous other attempts, our only recourse was to load a new game from the previous chapter.
Not technically "unwinnable", but damned annoying and all but ruined the experience.
However, I do recall a teacher of mine, back in high school, who told me of the time he was playing Thief and ruined his save. He was attempting to jump across a deep shaft and missed. Unfortunately, he was a bit overzealous with his use of the "quick save" key and pressed it as he fell. Normally, this wouldn't matter as he could just load another save file, but his "quick save" file was his only save. So every time he loaded, he just fell to his death. I still laugh at that one.
Most recently, there was one in Gears of War 3. I do not recall the name of the chapter we were playing, but the bug that cropped up forced the three of us to have to start a new game from a previous chapter.
In effect, what happened was, while my two friends were on the ground rushing to a crashed vehicle, I was perched on the outer walls of a base sniping any would-be assailants. About half way through the battle, a lambent locust climbed up the exterior walls and tried to run at me. I turned toward him and fired my sniper rifle from the hip, in the very least, to slow him down. To my surprise, my character never reloaded. I confirmed this by looking at my ammo count. Neither had changed. Chalking it up to a lag spike, I fire again. Shot goes out. Animation completes. Locust reacts to the shot. But, again, I never spent a round. I repeat this about five or six times, never killing the locust but constantly stunning him. When I tried to switch weapons, I could not. I couldn't even get into cover. So for the rest of the map, all I could do was "stun" people with the rifle and try not to die. At the start of the next chapter, it was still the same and remained that way for a majority of said chapter. At a point near the end of the chapter, we tried loading from the last save. Still had the issue. After numerous other attempts, our only recourse was to load a new game from the previous chapter.
Not technically "unwinnable", but damned annoying and all but ruined the experience.
However, I do recall a teacher of mine, back in high school, who told me of the time he was playing Thief and ruined his save. He was attempting to jump across a deep shaft and missed. Unfortunately, he was a bit overzealous with his use of the "quick save" key and pressed it as he fell. Normally, this wouldn't matter as he could just load another save file, but his "quick save" file was his only save. So every time he loaded, he just fell to his death. I still laugh at that one.
There were two old games I had this problem with. One was called Stonekeep, actually one of my favorites from when I was a child. I never managed to beat it though as (long story short) there are several small versions of the planets within the game. They do nothing until near the end, and at one point I needed to hold back a trap. I took one of the planets (Saturn I believe), and placed it on the trap to make sure it wouldn't go off. Unfortunatly there are a LOT of the same style of trap in that game, and the 'dungeon' you explore is deep. In the end when I needed said planet to open the final doors, I could not ever manage to find it again.
The second was called Ultima Underworld, another dungeon crawler. Somewhere around the 15th level of the dungeon (99 levels total iirc), I died flying over some lava. Prior to that, I had been trying to throw something from my inventory, which would have saved me. Instead I threw my bag of keys, which then plummeted into the lava, never to return. Being unable to open the upcoming important doors, that game was over.
The second was called Ultima Underworld, another dungeon crawler. Somewhere around the 15th level of the dungeon (99 levels total iirc), I died flying over some lava. Prior to that, I had been trying to throw something from my inventory, which would have saved me. Instead I threw my bag of keys, which then plummeted into the lava, never to return. Being unable to open the upcoming important doors, that game was over.
I'm probably not the only one that played through hours and hours of Final Fantasy Tactics (the original PS1 version) only to encounter a boss on the 3rd (NEXT to last) chapter that was essentially unbeatable without certain character builds. A difficult boss is not game-breaking, but the fact that the save point that directly preceded this boss was NOT on the map screen, but was one of a series of battles that, once started, could not be backed out of. This means that by saving your game during any of the 4 battles within this dungeon, you were COMMITTED. The thing is, even after many desperate attempts, the truth dawned upon me: my save file is trapped on a boss that is too high of a level to beat.
I didn't play and beat the damned thing for another 5 years. Goddamn FFT...
I didn't play and beat the damned thing for another 5 years. Goddamn FFT...
Oh boy, there's a few.
Homeworld: well, was stupid and let most of my fleet die in that speeding-artificial-meteor-that's-about-to-kill-you "before last" mission. That whole level was a dick move before that last epic fight.
Homeworld: Cataclysm: man, after playing most the levels twice to know what ot expect in the next one and finding out that I stocked on the wrong stuff, the last level's unusual glitch drove me crazy. That huge leviathan (i think, played it so long ago) which is the main boss must be shot down with a Deathstar-like weapon. But the wretched thing comes up front, triggers a cutscene after which it's supposed to speed towards you. It did come at me first, killing some of my fleet and then POP! Where the fuck is it? Well it just happens to be teleported out of the map, can be seen on the very edge of the mapscreen. I re- and reloaded that last level and it did it every time. What's worst, it even headed AWAY from the game area, so I had to fire at it before the cutscene mentioned above. Gawd.
Half Life: after Gordon gets abducted, thrown into a trash-mash-o-matic and being robbed of all his weapons, he has to fight with scarce ammo and a crowbar through a dangerous factory of some sorts. Now, I was playing at the hardest difficulty because I'm just fucking hardcore man, and I happened to lose all my ammo besides 2 revolver rounds at the end tunnel of the factory. Then there's a part when you rise from that tunnel to be greeted by 5 or 6 eyehounds. Pro Tip: you can't kill them with 2 revolver bullets. I had to cheat if I wanted to advance, and for once I felt bad about it.
and here comes my favourite:
Black and White: so I arrived at the 3rd island and found out that my jolly nice God simulator that's occasionally funny happens to turn into an RTS after the first island. Pissed at that, I spend my divine time stepping on my ant-worshippers and destroying my temple to show the game I'm not impressed with it. Then I find this actor guy who can't be killed, and I try to kill it anyway. Another Pro Tip: you can't. So after 2 hours of trying to kill that asshole I give up and decide to play the game for what it is. Oh wait, my temple is in ruins and all my people are dead, what evil monstocity could have done that? Oh right... Let's reload then - and find out all my saves are after my lovely holocaust. I never finished that game.
Homeworld: well, was stupid and let most of my fleet die in that speeding-artificial-meteor-that's-about-to-kill-you "before last" mission. That whole level was a dick move before that last epic fight.
Homeworld: Cataclysm: man, after playing most the levels twice to know what ot expect in the next one and finding out that I stocked on the wrong stuff, the last level's unusual glitch drove me crazy. That huge leviathan (i think, played it so long ago) which is the main boss must be shot down with a Deathstar-like weapon. But the wretched thing comes up front, triggers a cutscene after which it's supposed to speed towards you. It did come at me first, killing some of my fleet and then POP! Where the fuck is it? Well it just happens to be teleported out of the map, can be seen on the very edge of the mapscreen. I re- and reloaded that last level and it did it every time. What's worst, it even headed AWAY from the game area, so I had to fire at it before the cutscene mentioned above. Gawd.
Half Life: after Gordon gets abducted, thrown into a trash-mash-o-matic and being robbed of all his weapons, he has to fight with scarce ammo and a crowbar through a dangerous factory of some sorts. Now, I was playing at the hardest difficulty because I'm just fucking hardcore man, and I happened to lose all my ammo besides 2 revolver rounds at the end tunnel of the factory. Then there's a part when you rise from that tunnel to be greeted by 5 or 6 eyehounds. Pro Tip: you can't kill them with 2 revolver bullets. I had to cheat if I wanted to advance, and for once I felt bad about it.
and here comes my favourite:
Black and White: so I arrived at the 3rd island and found out that my jolly nice God simulator that's occasionally funny happens to turn into an RTS after the first island. Pissed at that, I spend my divine time stepping on my ant-worshippers and destroying my temple to show the game I'm not impressed with it. Then I find this actor guy who can't be killed, and I try to kill it anyway. Another Pro Tip: you can't. So after 2 hours of trying to kill that asshole I give up and decide to play the game for what it is. Oh wait, my temple is in ruins and all my people are dead, what evil monstocity could have done that? Oh right... Let's reload then - and find out all my saves are after my lovely holocaust. I never finished that game.