"Wait, THAT'S how they wanted me to play?"

[Worgen]

I played fallout 3 wrong. Instead of doing the story I just wandered around till I ended up at the carrier. If you end up there before doing the radio tower quest with three dog then the behemoths never spawn. I beat that game and never saw a single one.

 

[Adamantium93]

Also also apparently you're supposed to go to Kashyyyk first in KotOR? Well oops, I didn't realise how easy it was 'til I suffered through Tattooine first.

KOTOR? You mean that game where you simply choose not to level up between when the tutorial requires you to gain level 2 and when you become a Jedi, then go from "just trained" to "level 9 and 7 of them are in Consular" immediately? The sudden jump from "limping along" to "abnormally badass force-mage" made the rest of the game as simple as raining force lightning on anything that looked at you funny.

I feel like most DnD based games (or similar ones) have this sort of problem, where there is a small handful of right ways to play and a ton of wrong ways. Problem being, the "right" way is something you would really only know if you were fluent in power gaming and had an intimate knowledge of the system. To the average Joe, just doing what's intuitive will almost definitely be the wrong way to play. Kotor is easy enough as it is, but more difficult games can be downright frustrating if you just wing it and try to make a character based on instinct.

 

[ommadawnyawn]

Baldur's Gate is pretty unintuitive and esoteric about its various systems and NPCs don't level properly on their own so you have to rush to get the ones you want.

 

[Zen Bard]

I also learned the hard way that my strategy wa all wrong. I used to methodically build up my base and my forces, then send them in search of the enemy locations. Seemed to make sense to me.

But when I'd play co-op with a buddy of mine, the first thing he'd do is build a barracks and send four soldiers out in each compass direction. He always discovered my locations first and brought the hammer down before my defenses were adequate.

Turns out this is a fairly common strategy.

Yeah, it is. You always start out with units, as well, at the very least, it's 1 tank and you can send that one scouting. Very rarely do they have anything else to really do - at most, on some maps, they can break a bridge, thus severing access to you but on most maps, I'd just let them scout. The Soviet tanks suck in that regard, since they are really slow, however, at least every race would have dogs and you can always build barracks then dogs - they are fast and have really good sight radius. After they find what you're looking for, you can use them to fetch crates and protect against spies, paradrops as well as enemy infantry rushes.

Well, sure. I know that NOW.

Sending scouts is actually a pretty solid strategy for any RTS. Works just as well in Warcraft or Civilizations.

 

[Neonsilver]

Then I got to the final battle against Malak and he is pretty much immune against a strategy that works in every single battle beforehand.

Wasn't his apprentice also basically immune to normal stun? Anyway, if you save up your thermal detonators you can stunlock Malak with them, build more-or-less irrelevant.

No not really, force users tended to be a little more resistant, but that only meant I had to spam the stun skill a little or in rare cases reload and try again, add the party to that and very few battles were problematic at all. That even worked the first time you fight Malak. I admit he was a little more resistant than other enemies, but I was already around level 17 so changing my characters at that point wasn't an option
While the thermal detonators would probably work, it's kind of hard to stock up on them at this point and since the strategy worked perfectly during every other battle, I didn't think it would be necessary to buy any grenades.

In the end I used the stun skill to at least slow him down and then place the mines I collected during the game on the ground and let him run through them. While it was close, I managed to kill him this way. Otherwise I would have used a savegame editor to give me a chance.

I don't mind having to rethink a strategy in a game, but a boss is kind of late to show a player that there are enemies where your skills don't work at all, since you usually can't change it at that point without reloading an older game or even start over entirely.

 

[DoPo]

Sending scouts is actually a pretty solid strategy for any RTS. Works just as well in Warcraft or Civilizations.

Yup - in StarCraft, the zerg would send out Overlords to scout out the map. All race races would also usually send workers as that's a fairly cheap cheap unit and available immediately. In Warcraft, the night elves used their wisps really effectively - just send them next to each possible enemy location and get them to gather wood. Wisps do not need to return to base, they "teleport" wood directly, so they stay there and grant vision. You don't really lose much out of using them that way - just a small slice of production you'd have gotten if you had kept them in your base gathering wood. instead of having them walk for that time.

 

[Idlemessiah]

This is going back some... I remember the first time I played Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior. You're escaping from an Imperial ship thats about to go into meltdown and you have to kill a dreadnought to get to the escape pod.

Dreadnoughts are big and I wasted ALL the ammo in my pulse weapons, then I died. On my second attempt I noticed that you could disable his guns, then I died. On my THIRD attempt I used all of my ammo to destroy his chain gun, walked right up to him so his bazooka couldn't hit me and I whaled on him with my katana until he fell into a pile of sparking, grinding scrap. I made it to the escape pod with seconds to spare and as the PC turns to watch the door close, I saw a rocket launcher behind a pillar.

 

[Snotnarok]

A bunch of games I've had this problem with...
Mass Effect 2 I didn't really piece it together in my dumb brain but with a Vanguard you want to always be biotic charging enemies as much as possible. Restores your shields to full when fully leveled, so charge in, shotgun, lose shield, charge again. I dunno why I was trying to play it like a regular shooter but, didn't work on hardmode I can say that much.

 

[kilenem]

Any Shooter that had to difficult of a part and I just ran to the nearest quick save. Forcing Progress.

 

[Sam Billin]

I played a lot of Supreme commander Forged alliance and the single player mode always felt a bit cheap to me. Usually completing an objective opens up a new part of the map with more enemy types, but instead of progressing naturally I would just sit on the first objective fending off tiny enemy peons until I could max out my army with all the greatest units and just steamroll over the rest of the level or carpet the whole map with nukes.

 

[Silverbeard]

Homeworld was that game for me.
The original game had all these different ship types that were all effective against specific other ship types and had specific roles. It was actually quite impressive to watch; you could send 14 frigates against one destroyer the destroyer would mow down your frigates like they were made of cardboard. I stubbornly stuck to using nothing but frigates for how cheap they were and all of my missions would end with 30-40 frigates reduced to heaps of scrap across the blackness of space.
Then of my second playthrough I decided to FINALLY produce a few destroyers and the difference was night and day. My fleet was basically invulnerable but for enemy bombers.

 

[darkcalling]

The single player campaign of Battlefield 4 wanted me to play slowly apparently. If you rush into the level, you can very easily get behind where the enemies spawn. Enemy soldiers and civilians pop out of thin air around you. Things break.

At least I hope that is just an indication that it wants me to play slowly and methodically. It might actually point to the fact the single player campaign is a bit broken.

I haven't played Battlefield 4 but from what I've heard from friends who have it's a a little from column A a little from column B.

Something similar happened to me once though I can't remember what it was.

I've been playing Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate a lot recently. Gameplay is fairly standard for the series but with a wrinkle or two. Namely the plot is heavily based on time travel (seems a bit odd for the series at first glance but it works well enough). The plot has you traveling back and forth through time saving people so that they will join you and help in defeating the Hydra that killed them all in the original timeline.

Sometimes an important character dies during a mission and there's nothing you can do about it, for example Huang Zhong dies in the first (non-prologue) level. no worries you can still recruit him by talking to people at camp to learn that Pang De came across a demon army encampment where they were building and storing siege weapons that could have saved him a few days ago. Now that you know that you can go back there and steal them. this unlocks a new version of the first level termed a REDUX that gives you the ability to use your new wheeled catapult to save him. This happens several times over the course of the game.

Now everyone who's played a game in the series knows that Lu Bu is an absolute monster cleaving through enemies near effortlessly. naturally I'd like to unlock him. there's been several battles involving him but each time he's been forced to retreat or near the finale of chapter 3 dies at the hands of Nezha. I expect to get a mission that'll open up a REDUX level. but no nothing. what i do get is a conversation in camp that suggests he might have been saved if his lover Diao Chan was there to talk him out of his blind rage and join the resistance army.

So I replay the level with her in my team. Nothing. No unlock. I realize the game was being literal and try again. You have to get her close to him so they'll initiate a non-cutscene conversation after which he joins your army and is unlocked (provided you beat the level of course). What makes it difficult is that:

1. It's a fairly large map and he spawns on pretty much on top of Nezha near the center of it.

2. Depending on how well you've done up to this point there's 4 or 5 named generals between you and them.

3. Once you do get to them (likely by charging through on horseback) you are then stuck between two of the most powerful characters in the game while they're at or near their most broken.

4. They're still hostile to you until Lu Bu and Diao Chan finish talking.

5. You may have kited a third of the demon army behind you and they aren't letting up.

6. If you accidentally manage to get Lu Bu killed in the crossfire you have to start over.

Definitely not as bad as some in this thread but he's (as far as I can tell) the ONLY character in the game that you need to do anything this specific to unlock.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Command and conquer red alert 2.

I replayed it recently and as it turns out making more buildings of the same type makes building units faster.

I...

I almost feel like I need to reinstall Red Alert 2 and play through it all again knowing this new knowledge.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Dragon Age Inquisition

While it doesn't redeem the game any, when I suddenly discovered the value of tactics and behavior options in the Character Record menu the game became far less of a chore and actually at points enjoyable. Before I discovered it, which was roughly 15-20 hours of playtime, it was frustrating to the point of making me numb. I dropped the difficulty to the lowest setting, just because I couldn't be arsed dealing with the horrendously implemented tactical mode and the AI was far too unreliable for ANY engagement whatsoever.

Where once the AI seemingly did random shit with little impact in tough fights, suddenly Tanks were Tanking, DPS was Damaging and Support were supporting, all without requiring too much input from me. Now I can play the game on the harder difficulties, with Friendly Fire on, and not feel like I'm trying to demolish a building with my exposed bellend.

Games still shite, but I can tolerate it at least. Fuck you Bioware for making me invested in this garbage from 2 games ago.

Haha, brilliant, proper made me chuckle that

DA:2 & DA:I are both joyless experiences at the best of times. Being able to make either tolerable is an art in itself.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Does this count? It's a scene in BioShock Infinite that you don't really play in - and that's the problem.

Spoiler

OK, that seems a little bit whiny, no offense. Does it really make a difference how they had the player select their choice especially if it was meaningless mostly? Of all things to complain about with that game, that is definitely not one of them. XD

I remember when I was playing bayonetta for the first time my friend was getting annoyed with me because I would just casually walk around enemies shooting them from a distance. I was rarely getting injured for the longest time in the game and it drove him insane.

I guess that's why hack-n-slashers and the like have score systems and the guns don't do much damage and typically the enemies have redundancies to prevent such strategies. Just so I get an idea, what difficulty were you playing on?

I was actually just playing on normal maybe if I was playing on hard I wouldnt' have been able to do that XD

Ahhh... You see, Ivan... In Ninja Gaiden Black/II, enemy shoot at you! With an unholy ****ton of rockets.

Seriously though. Those are amazing games and even downright trump Bayonetta/Bayonetta 2 in some ways.

To be fair I haven't had any real problems with the controls. I've had problems with the massively OP enemies, their magical ability to teleport into areas I have already cleared and really obtuse level design. Like I start with an all American 'cheeseburger and fries' carbine and it shoots bullets and told to go have a meaningful exchange with those dirty no good North Koreans. And all is well.

Except they give you like two extra clips and nothing else. And each bad guy takes an entire clip, at close range, to the face to die.
So you scrounge a lot of ammo, but there's never enough.

...never enough...

Fun Fact: You can grab koreans by the throat, even out of strength mode, and kill them instantly.

git gud. The Nanosuit is very powerful and versatile EVEN IF you just use ONE MODE the entire game. So be adaptable and use them all to your advantage. Learn to switch modes instantly and on the fly as the situation demands.

Speed: Obviously makes you go faster. I think it also makes it harder for enemies to aim at you even when you're not running. And even harder, if not downright impossible when you are. Use this to get out of hairy situations into a good spot nicely and easily. It also makes for a decent default suit mode to walk around in in my arrogant opinion. Your health alone is pretty high so even if you take some bullets in some random ambush, you'll still have 100 energy to use as you desire. Furthermore, it's super easy to turn and run away incredibly quickly to good cover even if you do take some hits. And finally, it of course speeds up those long walks between battles. Mainly though, use this to get yourself into sweet positions with ease and abuse the enemy.

Strength: Cuts recoil in half for any gun and makes you more accurate whether with hip firing or ADS. Makes your punches much nastier. Allows you to jump incredibly high. Allows you to throw koreans pretty far. (Actually useful as when you grab one, you can throw them into their buddies.) Also, of course, it allows you to use the environment as a weapon, picking up and throwing very heavy stuff at very high speeds which usually, if it doesn't outright kill them instantly, will do a huge chunk of damage.

Armor: Your purely defensive route. Really good for camping. Shrugging off bullets as long as you're not stupid and don't take too many at once. You recharge health pretty fast in this mode too so it's rather hard to die in this mode. Only problem is, your energy will be consumed to protect you which will restrict the other modes a bit in helping you out if you ever have to switch due to the high energy cost in protecting you completely from all that lead. You really do become a walking tank though in this mode, and if you're good, you can abuse it heavily.

Cloak: Pretty self explanatory. Great for camping as well as I see you've already discovered. Don't be afraid to quickly uncloak even in front of a bunch of soldiers to shoot them! You don't wanna waste your energy and you'll still get that wonderful first strike because the soldiers take a bit still to see you. Super amazing for guerilla tactics too which most if not all enemies are rather weak against. Scouting things out. Also works for getting out of nasty situations. Sometimes even better than speed mode.

-

Anyway. Getting all my experience from both the first Crysis and Crysis: Warhead. Even played through a lot of skirmishes just unarmed and taking everyone out with cloaking, grabs, and strengthened punches. Was actually pretty fun too and I still dominated them. You really just need to use the suit, man. Like, really, USE it. I will say though that this is all on Normal for both games. I don't know what Delta's like.

 

[Aerosteam]

Does this count? It's a scene in BioShock Infinite that you don't really play in - and that's the problem.

Spoiler

OK, that seems a little bit whiny, no offense. Does it really make a difference how they had the player select their choice especially if it was meaningless mostly? Of all things to complain about with that game, that is definitely not one of them. XD

I know, but it was the only thing in the video I could remember that relates to this thread's question. >_> I didn't want to watch it again, but if you haven't yet I recommend it as well as the creator's channel.

 

[DementedSheep]

I played the Vanishing of Ethan Carter yesterday and it took me till the graveyard to realise that when it had a word duplicated and floating around the screen you are suppose to move the camera until the words join. I was finding the objects without the vision hint. I was also sweeping the map and intentionally going in the wrong direction like I do in most games because usually ion a game a space doesn't exist if there is nothing to do or find in it. Then I realised that the space is there to make it feel more real and for you to get lost in if you don't follow the implied directions because finding the locations you need to go is part of the puzzle. Realising that made the game much better because I was getting bored walking around.

I struggled with the combat in The Witcher 3 until I started actually using the backstep (not the roll) properly.

I definitely wasn't playing Crisis like intended since I was just running straight to the objectives.