Awful sections in great video games

[RedTwoster]

This thread is inspired by me picking up the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy again - and replaying Crash Bandicoot 2 and 3. I'd always favoured the second game, but when I started playing Warped this time around, I realised I was enjoying it much more - you have the hidden powers, some nice variety as far as level settings are concerned and - arguably - a stronger soundtrack. 

And then, this happened: 

The jetski levels are among the most frustrating things I've ever experienced in a video game. If you're going for a full box run, it's so easy to miss a box simply by going over a ramp at an angle that is slightly wrong. Then you have to turn the vehicle, slowly make your way back and try again. And again. It's also frustratingly easy to bump into a bomb, or obstacle based on how badly the jetski  handles. I struggle to put words together that can adequately describe how much I hate these levels. It's not just that they're frustrating, I'd go as far as to say that they're just plain bad. 

The majority of the rest of the game is still brilliant, though. 

So...what do you consider the worst sections in otherwise brilliant videogames?

[King Mal the Glorious]

Obligatory mention of the RC helicopter mission in Vice City.

[LaGoosh]

GTA: San Andreas has a fair few of them but those Zero missions felt like genuine torture.

More recently Little Nightmares 2 had some brutal bits where the gameplay mechanics just weren't good enough for what they were trying to accomplish so things became insanely difficult but in that bad way where it feels like the game itself is letting you down rather than it just being challenging. The bit where you have to go through a bunch of evil mannequins with a torch specifically. 

Any game that has a bit where you having to protect someone while doing something is usually stressful and shit.

[Devon Malcolm]

[cobra_gordo]

The entire first bit of Driver, the part that's meant to be a tutorial.

[RedTwoster]

I'm really curious as to what the response will be to this suggestion: 

At the time, they were undoubtedly impressive from a technical perspective, but I always hated them. They felt massively unfair and frustrating - you could easily lose all of your rings by going around a bend into hazards that you couldn't have seen or anticipated unless you knew the course off-by-heart. These levels are one of the reasons I could never buy into the suggestion that Sonic 2 is the best Sonic game. 

2 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

The entire first bit of Driver, the part that's meant to be a tutorial.

This is a superb shout - the fact you had to complete it before getting on to the main game makes it even worse - and I could not! It was an absolute nightmare. 

[Mr_Danger]

ANXIETY!

[LaGoosh]

Oh god, the drowning music is a masterpiece of music design but also genuinely nightmare inducing.

[Lorne Malvo]

The section in the original God of War where you have to climb up these rotating pillars with blades sticking out of them. Infuriating and slowed what had been fun chaotic violent gameplay down to an absolute crawl.

Trippy/dream sections in videogames are usually nailed-on to be absolute shite, too.

[Merzbow]

Now it's not so bad but if you played it on OG hardware in 2012 you'd feel the single digit frames melting your brain in what's already one of the tougher areas due to toxic frog syndrome and falling off rickety planks of wood.

Then there's the swamp waiting for you, hope you brought your rings.

[Chest Rockwell]

Ultimate example for me is the fucking asteroid shooting bit in Dead Space. So incredibly frustrating and completely unnecessary to the game.

[Chest Rockwell]

6 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Trippy/dream sections in videogames are usually nailed-on to be absolute shite, too.

Sorry for the double post, but I can't let this go without saying how much I love the execution of the Scarecrow bits in Arkham Asylum. A top moment in gaming for me in terms of an amazing use of the video game medium to tell a story.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

The nightmare levels in the first Max Payne. Following a thin red line of blood in the dark whilst your dead wife and baby scream in the background. Hideous. 

The Mary Jane mission in the first Spider-Man game on PS4. Thankfully they greatly improved it in the sequel by giving her a taser and allowing her to attack enemies. Also in Spider-Man, the Doc Ock science missions/puzzles. I think the majority of them might have been optional, but I still felt obligated to do them. 

GTA 5 yoga. Urgh.

Any game that gives you the option to sprint, but doesn’t always allow you to do so. In the most recent Diablo, you can sprint (on foot or on horse) all over the shop, but as soon as you enter a town, it’s back down to normal speed. And in a lot of 3rd person games nowadays, there’s a section where you’re accompanying an NPC somewhere and you’re forced to walk at their pace rather than them keeping up with you. Stop slowing me down!

Ocarina Of Time. Water Temple. Oh, how I loathe thee.

Lastly, my single most hated part of any game ever. 

Kingdom Hearts and the Gummi ship. One minute you’re wandering through Agrabah, the next you’re forced to play around with Temu Lego and experience some shite Space Invaders nonsense. I didn’t even play the following games just in case this was still there. 

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

bits where the gameplay mechanics just weren't good enough for what they were trying to accomplish so things became insanely difficult but in that bad way where it feels like the game itself is letting you down rather than it just being challenging.

This in any game is usually enough for me to just give up entirely; I always think that what fundamentally separates good game design from bad game design is whether, when you fail, you blame yourself or the game. If you don't quite manage something but it's clear what you were supposed to do, where you want wrong, and how to build on that, it's a good game. If you know what you were meant to do, but it didn't work because you were screwed over by the camera, or the janky controls, it's the game's fault.

I think most Mario games are the pinnacle of never making you blame the game, but there's a point on New Super Mario Bros Wii where you move a platform with a certain flick of the Wiimote, which is very similar to the motion you do for a spin-jump, so nine times out of ten the platform would start moving but you'd also do a spin-jump straight up, and drop down a bottomless pit where the platform used to be.

The Wii in general was full of stuff like that, where they've crowbarred in some motion controls, but they're vague enough that it never quite works and you're constantly trying to get the movement right and the game doesn't pick up on it. 

53 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Oh god, the drowning music is a masterpiece of music design but also genuinely nightmare inducing.

I sometimes think it will be the last thing I hear before I die. 

[LaGoosh]

I loved Jak & Daxter back in the day. It was a really fun and light adventure platformer. Weirdly in the sequels they went all "edgy" with it , added guns, vehicles, a massive GTA style futuristic open world and hugely increased the difficulty level. Jak 2 and 3 are still great games but they have some awful and painful sections in them. The racing bits are awful due to the shitty driving mechanics and awkward city layout and there's also mini games that you can't skip which are insanely hard and boring. The games are great despite them but why they changed a family friendly fun Mario 64 knock off into one of the most difficult games I've played to this very day still amazes me.