That One (Annoying) Enemy

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Dark Souls has a few. The respawning mosquitoes in Blighttown can eat a particularly cheesy, hairy dick, especially when the camera decides to lock-on to them when you're fighting on narrow platforms or one just appears and shits on and staggers you. Fuck them.

 

[wings012]

Amoebas in Metro 2033. Though they are only really bad cause you have to escort an idiot through a hive of the things. And thr AI is somewhat ill equipped to handle suicide bombers.

 

[F-I-D-O]

I ran through Doom 3 yesterday since I'd never fully beaten it.
Most of the enemies I found fine, or at least reasonable. The archviles were obnoxious, but fill a niche, and only really come into play once the soul cube is acquired. They spawn the charges, are used sparingly and it works well.
The cherubs were annoying, but are an upgrade on the trites to counter the availability of ammo, and blend in with the shadows. I imagine if I had played the original release, they'd be the most annoying, but BFG edition's suit flashlight meant I could pick them out.

No, the most annoying have to be the ZSec assault rifles/shotguns and the commando chaingunners.
When you take damage, the screen flips out to a ridiculous degree, meaning any aim you had is thoroughly fucked. When fighting strong demons and dodging fireballs, it makes sense. Spasming from a single rifle shot to power armor just kind of ruins it, and makes the demons seem weaker by comparison. It doesn't help that ZSec and chaingunners don't react to damage but maybe once as their health dimeneses. So keeping accurate fire on them is almost impossible in a straight up fire fight, but they can easily focus in on you.

The shotgunners also fire faster than the shotgun cycles.
Pistol ZSec balance it out by having a slow rate of fire, but more mobile. They're more accurate than other ranged enemies and harder to hit, but do less damage overall and add a new challenge. The other ZSec just seem to be there to force players to crouch behind walls.

Chaingunners take all of those issues and increase it by having a more powerful, longer range, faster firing weapon with increased health. Seeing as how most of the mid to late game encounters focus on running around claustrophobic arenas where standing still gets you killed, incorporating enemies whose only counter is cover based long distance fighting is a bit counterproductive, making the better equipped ZSec and chaingunners the worst enemies to fight in Doom 3. Hadn't been that frustrated with enemy design in a while, but it could be due to playing through the whole thing in a day.

 

[mysecondlife]

Dogs from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for its "press left stick to not die" enemy.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I'd say the blowdart snipers in Dark Souls. Okay, not as bad as the great bow knights in Anor Londo, but those assholes in Blighttown (actually Blighttown in general was a royal pain)....those toxic darts, and having to snipe them, just not fun at all. Then again, anything in the Souls games is going to be a triple PITA simply due to the fact that you have to run all the way back to the place you just died.

Just finished playing Resident Evil Revelations 2, and I must say, the most annoying bastards in that campaign are the invisible insects. Holy shit what a tedious way to fight anything, having to switch characters to kind of get an idea where they are. And one hit kill too, how cheap thank you very much. At least they don't take much to bring down. And to think, you can unlock trial modes in areas where the only effect is that all enemies are invisible. Who in their right mind would find that kind of sadomasochism fun? Actually, don't answer that.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Cliff racers. There, thread over. Nothing is more obnoxious.

In the Dawnguard expansion for Skyrim, you meet Jiub (from the prison boat in Morrowind), he hunted them to extinction.

OT; Kind of back to Skyrim, the AI in general. I will be in full sneak mode, coming up behind a target to shoot them in the back from distance. I fire, and they dodge. The bandits are freaking Spiderman.

 

[Blacklight28]

Amoebas in Metro 2033. Though they are only really bad cause you have to escort an idiot through a hive of the things. And thr AI is somewhat ill equipped to handle suicide bombers.

That was the one time in my Ranger playthough I had to turn the difficulty down. I was in a bad way to start with on that level, with only half a mag of ammo and some throwing knives, but I reckon I still could have made it through on that section were it not for Ulman. To suddenly throw in a gigantic horde of enemies that almost completely ignore you and go for your dumbass AI partner in a game that promotes stealth and ammo conservation is just bad design.

EDIT: It's Miller, not Ulman. Oops.

 

[sXeth]

Taken captains from destiny.

It has an elemental shield, so if you don't have the right element weapon equiped it takes longer to kill , and he throws a large dark ball of doom, that when it hits you not only does it take half your shield away, but makes your entire screen go dark for a couple of seconds. Do not get hit by that.

You forgot how only a tiny piece of the center of the darkness blast has collision detection, so it can effectively clip through anything but huge cover (which renders you unable to retaliate). Also its their "melee", so they can spam it ridiculously and it can't be suppressed.

That and the Zealot attacks or Nightfall/Exotic Bounty missions that feature 3-5 of the bastards at once.

 

[distortedreality]

Poison zombies and poison head crabs from HL2. I fucking hate those things with a passion.

Second whoever said cazadores as well, such a massive pain in the ass.

 

[wings012]

Amoebas in Metro 2033. Though they are only really bad cause you have to escort an idiot through a hive of the things. And thr AI is somewhat ill equipped to handle suicide bombers.

That was the one time in my Ranger playthough I had to turn the difficulty down. I was in a bad way to start with on that level, with only half a mag of ammo and some throwing knives, but I reckon I still could have made it through on that section were it not for Ulman. To suddenly throw in a gigantic horde of enemies that almost completely ignore you and go for your dumbass AI partner in a game that promotes stealth and ammo conservation is just bad design.

I always wanted to replay Metro but whenever I remember that level... there goes all the motivation to do so.

I was low on the chump rounds when I arrived and had to empty almost my entire supply of mil grade rounds. I don't think there were anymore shops by then but it didn't feel good. Had to charge in hard and fast and eliminate the amoeba nests before captain-charge-everything-and-shoot-them-point-blank got himself killed.

 

[uncanny474]

Bats in literally everything. If I could make one game development thing illegal, it would be including bats as enemies in your game.

They pop up everywhere, they fly (which is almost always a problem in platforming games or games where you can't attack in all directions), they usually have erratic patterns, and they're tiny.

Zubats /thread

Special mention goes to these fuckers, due to their tendency to inflict confusion, one of the most annoying (not necessarily dangerous, but definitely annoying) status effects in the game.

 

[Neonsilver]

Badass Pyre Threshers in Borderlands 2, maybe I always do something wrong, but I have never been able to avoid being hit by their fire nova when they come out of the ground. That thing causes ridiculous amount of damage, it doesn't have some tells to inform you where it comes out, as far as I can say, instead it always comes right below you out. The only reason that bastard doesn't one shot you, is because the game makes it impossible to be one shotted as long as you have more than half of your health.

Since I usually play alone the nomads from the game are quite annoying as well. Always pointing their shield in your direction.

Any kind of enemy that has an ability the can instantly kill you, like the phantom or the banshee in Mass Effect 3.

Don't know how they were called but the Geth Snipers in Mass Effect 1. At least at the beginning of the game while playing you have a low level and weak armor. The snipers can kill you instantly and at least during the mission to get Liara there is one point where it's very hard to avoid being shot by one.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The Regenerator from Resident Evil 4.

They're scary as hell since you can heard their breathing a mile away (well ok not a mile) but you have no idea which direction the sound is coming from!

What's worse is they have only one weakness which is to used a themo scope and snipe the parasite located somewhere on its body which they can suprisingly come right at your face. As the name imply, shooting anywhere the parastyle isn't located like a limb will only regenerate them meaning you're screw!

 

[TheMann]

One word: "Slicers".

Spoiler: These. Mother. Fuckers.

Anyone who plays or has played classic Sonic has got to feel my pain on this one. Those assholes are the reason why many of my bids to beat Sonic 2 end at the Metropolis Zone.

Many people have already mentioned exploding enemies. Yeah, I agree with this for most games, especially if they're fast and get can quickly get up in your grill. Also the smokers from Left 4 Dead. They've ruined my escape enough to piss me off.

 

[samgdawg]

Playing Bloodborne right now, and I have to say Vicar Amelia is REALLY overdone in terms of hair. There is so much. Being a Souls game you have to get in close to deal damage, but in doing so you're all but guaranteed to get lost in the ridiculous hair coming off her body as she flails around from you hitting her. Also due to being a Souls game, she hits very hard with wide ranged attacks to hurt you near or far. And on top of all that if you've been hoarding Insight through the Madman's Knowledge item you can find laying around, you're liable to have enough for the hardy enemies that walk around to start shooting unblockable seeking magic bolts at you at a rate high enough to stop you from getting close enough to stop them.
As long as we're on Souls I'll echo the entirety of Blighttown, which might as well be considered an enemy in its own right with that damned swamp slowing you down if you don't have a specific ring, and poisoning you, and spawning giant mosquitoes to attack you from out of your attack range, and having dogs, already the most annoying enemy in any Souls game, that BREATHE FIRE.

Zubats /thread

No no. No. That's not even the half of it anymore. Gen V introduced a new ability. Sturdy. As long as the enemy has full health, they can't be knocked out in one hit. And of course, it has to be spread to existing pokemon. Like Geodude and Magnemite. As well as the new Roggenrola line. So Geodude is now guaranteed to get one Magnitude or Rock Throw. Or even Explosion/Self Destruct. But wait. It gets better. Gen VI added Horde Battles. Five pokemon appear at lower levels than the rest of the route and you get one. These include fan "favorites" like Zubat, Geodude, and more. Sand Attack, Leer, Tail Whip, Growl, and Confuse Ray have quickly become exponentially worse than ever before when it gets spammed three, four, even five times before you can stop them. I've had level 30 Pokemon lose to a horde of level 5 Scraggy using Sand Attack and Pound. And of course not as many moves as you'd think are actually good for hitting multiple Pokemon. The worst possible thing is a Horde of 5 Sturdy Geodude all using Sand Attack. No matter what you do, you can't win.

 

[Autumnflame]

cazadores from fallout NV

Those buzzing little annoyances,

because they can fly they will follow you to the ends of the earth.
Then sting sting, oh look your poisoned.

running into a swarm early game is a great way to rage quit.

everytime i hear the flutter of their wings the flashback begins again

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Slimes in Odin Sphere. They take an insane amount of damage before going down, and you deal very little damage - like 1 HP per hit - with anything other than napalm bombs, which the game never brings up as particularly useful against them and you probably don't have any on you, so you'll be grinding Habaneristos for a while to get stocked up. The slimes will also stun your character if they so much as touch you, and most times this will kill you, since they take huge chunks of health per hit. The game can become a bullet hell of sorts in the more hectic levels, so avoiding them can become a nuisance, even if they're quite slow.

Ghosts in Silent Hill 4: The Room. They're unkillable, they deal corrosive area damage just by standing next to you and they're not bound by walls or doors unless so scripted. So you spend the whole game avoiding them and navigating around them, which is a nuisance when trying to explore or sort a puzzle out (or dealing with the monsters you can actually kill). You get 2 silver bullets to knock them down instantly, and 5 swords to pin 5 ghosts (out of 15 or so). So they're no fun.

They're only used in two areas of the game, but they're notorious because of them.

Having just gotten out of Ish's bunker, this is a relief to hear.

 

[Casual Shinji]

One of the things that always discouraged me on the first Infamous was the way even the lowliest peon seemed to have gone to some sort of marksman academy. I can't even imagine what an armoured mini gunner would be like, that in mind.

But it made those moments where you could unleash hell upon them that much sweeter. If there's one thing the first two inFAMOUS games did well is make you feel very vulnerable one minute, and like an all-powerful superman the other.

 

[Evil Raccoon]

Rcently, I've found myself getting extremely nettled by engine impairing missiles in Rebel Galaxy, doesn't matter who's firing them at me, those things are just bollocks.

 

[Michael Legault]

Cliff racers. There, thread over. Nothing is more obnoxious.

Ummm...I need context. What game is this?

Though Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast version) was worse than any FF game I remember.

Speaking as a Skies of Arcadia fan, can I...get an explanation there? Without a doubt, it's got annoying enemies, especially in the Looper class and any creature using an instant death move, but I've been wanting to get this game back badly.

OT: And yet, I must say that Final Fantasy 8 takes the cake once again for making ALL the enemies annoying because they grow with you so you cannot level dominate them. This was a TERRIBLE idea. Maybe this was the point of Tactics, because it's a strategy game, but the core games were not.

You can level dominate in FF8, you just have to draw 100 of every spell everytime you encounter new ones, when you junction to stats you will be crazily OP. You can refine tents I think into curaga early on, get that on someone's HP and you have over 1000hp on the first disc. I do that to squall so he does his limit break every turn because his critical level hp is around the same as the other party members' max. Squall does carry my team, but he does it so efficiently.