Most bullshit level/mission in a game

[White Haven]

Escort missions in space sims where the target you're escorting is made of paper, and they only way you can possibly succeed is by playing over and over, memorizing the exact positions that the enemy will warp in, and then you still need to have sheer dumb luck to prevent them from hosing your target because they throw their own lives away continuing to attack the target instead of taking evasive actions. Even worse is when the attackers are so durable that it takes longer to destroy even one of them with continuous firing than it takes them to destroy the ship you're supposed to protect.

NTC Trinity, I'm looking at YOU. Bastard.

[Darth Lucifer]

Battlestar Galactica on PS2 and XBox by Vivendi Universal.

Level 7 or 8 is a stealth mission, though there is a margin for error at first (a timer pops up to give the player a chance to save himself). You are piloting a stolen raider into Cylon territory to blow up...something. The first objective is to get into formation by lining up your ship with a see-thru ghost version of a Cylon ship marking where you should be. That's the easy part.

You have to match the acceleration and deceleration of the lead ships as well as bank, do barrel rolls, and other wacky fucking shit. What makes it even worse is that more ships join the formation the deeper into Cylon-Land you go, blocking you in on all sides. By this part in the level, if you even screw up once, you are toast.

[Vendetta]

The 200-lightning bolt dodge was pretty awful, too.

If by "pretty awful" you mean "worth the price of a plane ticket to Japan just to go and stamp on the designer's head", I agree.

However, the placement of some of the Dark Aeons in the PAL/International release was even worse, locking off one of the ultimate weapons and one of Auron's overdrives if you didn't collect them at precisely the right time (and for Auron's overdrive that meant walking manually all the way from Macalania Woods to Besaid as soon as you see the first Sphere). And so was the final "boss", who you couldn't possibly fail against because he cast Auto-Life on you.

Actually, FFX is just wank, FFX-2 is much more fun, if camper than a field full of boy scouts.

[Sharpshooter]

No one's yet mentioned the roof of Riovanes castle from Final Fantasy tactics? That's, like, the classic definition of a bullshit mission!

You've got the second-shittiest character in the game, who has to be protected in this scenario, surrounded by three of the most dangerous enemies in the game, two of which have instant-death attacks, while your forces are at least a turn's worth of tiles from getting into combat. Needless to say, the win/loss ratio on this one is horrifically absurd and probably accounted for more blaspheming and cussing on my behalf while playing a playstation game than all other titles combined.

[MKSheppard]

Any instant-fail stealth mission. Anywhere. Ever.

GODDAMN YES. Because the writers and programmers are too lazy.

Metal Gear Solid 2; sneaking past the Marines after their entire topside crew is dead.

Rogue Spear/Rainbow Six do not be spotted missions.

[Companion Cube]

The Sniper-Town mission in Medal of Honour: Allied Assault.

*creep, creep* *killed* *quick-load* *creep, creep* *shoot at memorised location of enemy* *yes!* *quick-save*

[Hotfoot]

Fuck it, I have you all beat. The final mission in Starlancer.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, look here.

[Dooey Jo]

That part in Castlevania 64 where you had to transport the nitro. If you jumped or got hit you exploded. That most horrible part of that most horrible game shall be emblazoned on my very psyche for all eternity.

Hey now, that's not so bad. Try doing it on "Hard", because then all the enemies respawn. Actually, that goddamned mutherfucking Maze Garden on Hard Fucking Frankenstein Gardener of Instant Death! And then he turns into a boss too! That hands down beats the Castle Center by a mile in terms of aggravation and "Holy shit nooo!" value.

I love that game

[Sea Skimmer]

The semi last mission in Operation Flashpoint, kill the SCUD launcher. You have one vehicle and a squad and the communists have about a battalion of armor guarding the thing, even with the tan kind air support you can call in it’s totally impossible to attack as the briefing tell you too
As far as I’m aware the only way to win, and even the strategy guide suggest this, is to drive around the entire enemy position, climb up a mountain and then shoot down onto the SCUD and hope a commie tank still doesn’t spot you and kill you with its first shot. That tactic works really damn well, but its fucking stupid as hell and adds up to one big waste of time.

[weemadando]

The semi last mission in Operation Flashpoint, kill the SCUD launcher. You have one vehicle and a squad and the communists have about a battalion of armor guarding the thing, even with the tan kind air support you can call in it’s totally impossible to attack as the briefing tell you too
As far as I’m aware the only way to win, and even the strategy guide suggest this, is to drive around the entire enemy position, climb up a mountain and then shoot down onto the SCUD and hope a commie tank still doesn’t spot you and kill you with its first shot. That tactic works really damn well, but its fucking stupid as hell and adds up to one big waste of time.

I actually just killed General Guba's escort, got him captured. Then snuck off with my team, assaulted a Russian helibase, nabbed a hind and went a hunting, successfully taking out some shilkas before killing the SCUD.

[weemadando]

Worst missions for me:

Snipersville - MoH:AA, and in fact any mission where the ONLY way to advance is to go forward until you die, figure out where it came from, reload and take out that guy, quick save, move again, die, figure out where that came from, reload and take out that guy, quick save, move again, die...

Insta-fail stealth missions - I'd say the BEST of these was Rainbow 6 and Rogue Spear because at least there you have the gadgets to give you the edge. One of the worst was the stealth mission in SoF2 (getting into the Colombian drug runners mansion).

Broken missions - Starlancer the mission with the stolen Kamov bombers, I simply COULD NOT finish this mission as it would crash EVERY SINGLE TIME, the fix for it (according the MS support website - turn off sound, HOW ABOUT NO!). Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter: VIP2 is down, because you missed that ONE guy with a G-36 back at the start of the level who was lying prone in the scrub, behind a low wall and concealed from every angle, I won't let you go the final checkpoint, and no, you can't go back and kill him either, in fact, you have to start ALL OVER AGAIN.

Stupid missions - Any mission that makes you go: "but why do *I* have to do this, or something like that. AVP2 is a prime example - Commaner: "Oh no, some one is trapped in the hive!" Character: "I'll go sir!" Player: "I'll fucking WHAT?"

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

The semi last mission in Operation Flashpoint, kill the SCUD launcher. You have one vehicle and a squad and the communists have about a battalion of armor guarding the thing, even with the tan kind air support you can call in it’s totally impossible to attack as the briefing tell you too
As far as I’m aware the only way to win, and even the strategy guide suggest this, is to drive around the entire enemy position, climb up a mountain and then shoot down onto the SCUD and hope a commie tank still doesn’t spot you and kill you with its first shot. That tactic works really damn well, but its fucking stupid as hell and adds up to one big waste of time.

I actually just killed General Guba's escort, got him captured. Then snuck off with my team, assaulted a Russian helibase, nabbed a hind and went a hunting, successfully taking out some shilkas before killing the SCUD.

Funny, I did the exact same thing. Rose from the trees and pounded CTRL and the fire button in rapid succession as I hastily lowerd myself back below the treeline before the shilkas could kill me. Sure enough, one of the targets that I undiscriminatorially shot a Hellfire at was the SCUD vehicle.

[Qwerty 42]

The mission in the first Rogue Squadron where you're protecting three stolen AT-PT's - Escape from Fest. Unless you take out the turrets, bombers, small walkers and AT-AT's in precisely the right order - not to mention time the destruction of the shield generator to the second - you fail. Every. Single. Time.

And the tow cable on your speeder can snap almost randomly. Great design, guys.

yes.

Fest was enough to put off the game the game for months, and it wasn't until Hoth in Rogue Leader that I started to enjoy snowspeeder missions again. I remember that the AT-PTs were bent on destroying the barrier seperating them from certain death before you:

A. Destroyed the AT-AT shooting at them from behind
B. Destroyed the forces on the other side of the barrier

Of course, your wingmen were also a problem when they destroyed the barrier, as I recall. I love Rogue Leader with its wingmen command options.

EDIT: Also, the Rebel Strike version of Strike at the Core. The Rogue Leader version was bearable because you had the choice to either be Wedge or Lando. In Rebel Strike, one player must be Wedge, and one Lando. And the Falcon is quite possibly the worst choice for that level in the entire game, and you need to play it with half a screen. Not only that, but when the Falcon player exhausts lives by crashing into the Death Star ductwork, once five have been used it, it's game over for both of you. Never mind that both players need to be in the Reactor Room before it will blow up. I've had my brother slam on the brakes and take a scenic tour through the level while I blew up the reactor with the X-Wing, and still just flew around in the room for several minutes before the Falcon showed up and the cutscene began.

Never mind trying to get out of the Death Star with the Falcon at a reasonable speed, especially when you both respawn at the core whenever one of you dies. I haven't gotten that far along yet, but I'd imagine it'll make you both wait before beginning the cutscene where you exit the station, too.

EDIT: How do I used grammer?

[Pick]

FF3/6

The Opera 'mission' Nuff said.

You need to go to Hell, because that was my favorite part of the whole game .

[Alyeska]

The RC plane in GTA:SA.

If I've destroyed the targets, and the plane has an auto destruct, why do I need to get back to the damn base?

Skip Zero's missions until after you complete flight training. Your controlability is increased significantly and the fuel load is almost doubled.

[NeoGoomba]

You need to go to Hell, because that was my favorite part of the whole game .

Haha one of my favorite quirks about that game is that Shadow hates Opera and will leave your group if you take him with you

[Alyeska]

Snipersville - MoH:AA, and in fact any mission where the ONLY way to advance is to go forward until you die, figure out where it came from, reload and take out that guy, quick save, move again, die, figure out where that came from, reload and take out that guy, quick save, move again, die...

Simple solution. Cheat and make yourself invincible. I got tired after only 15 minutes tryin to find 3 snipers. When I cheated I was astounded by how many of these assholes you had to go through. That was an astoundingly stupid way to increase game play time.

Insta-fail stealth missions - I'd say the BEST of these was Rainbow 6 and Rogue Spear because at least there you have the gadgets to give you the edge. One of the worst was the stealth mission in SoF2 (getting into the Colombian drug runners mansion).

Rainbow 6 and Rogue Spear missions weren't too bad. But Raven Shield fucked it up by taking away my heartbeat monitor and replacing it with some shitty goggles.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter: VIP2 is down, because you missed that ONE guy with a G-36 back at the start of the level who was lying prone in the scrub, behind a low wall and concealed from every angle, I won't let you go the final checkpoint, and no, you can't go back and kill him either, in fact, you have to start ALL OVER AGAIN.

After you finaly found that fucker, how many tries did it take to finish the level? I spent two days and 20 attempts to beat the last checkpoint in the game. Fucking lack of a quicksave and the inability to take command of my infantry. They fucked GRAW up something awful and the level design flaws were made worse by the complete lack of a quicksave feature.

[Noble Ire]

Any level with an extended "jump the platforms" segment. Honestly, especially in a FPS, who came up with the idea that leaping from one unlikely floating thingy to the next, especially if falling was insta-kill, you had a time limit, or the jumps had to be so precise that a single nanometer misstep sent you back to the bottom, or killed you (or, all of the above)? STV: Elite Force was a fun game, but there were at least two examples of this hideously stupid idea prominent in it, the Juggernaut mission being the worst of the lot. I don't know how many times I jumped up and fell down those stupid hover pads.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

The worst thing about the snipertown mission in Allied Assault was that it doesn't even make any sense. With the amount of training that goes into producing a competent sniper, there's no way they would have put that many of them in the town, and if they weren't trained snipers they wouldn't have been that accurate. Furthermore, if the town really was that sniper infested, they simply would have levelled all the buildings with artillery or gone in with tanks.

[Davis 51]

This one level in Advance Wars Duel Strike that I am still stuck on. You have 15 days to wipe out the enemy on both fronts or a volcano will erupt and kill you all. (Technically, you only need the primary front, but if you lose the secondary front, or not win it quickly enough, you're screwed.) 15 fucking days! I always end up one day short of victory. That mission is a bitch!

[Vympel]

How the fuck do you get to that town without getting wacked by the huge fuck off creatures blocking the way on the map?

Without losing most of your army

Apparently, by using Phantom Forces spell (don't have it? Well, then you're just out of luck. Brilliant level design!) and being a gamey prick, dragging the Earth Elementals all over the fucking battlefield with a fast unit while attacking them with Phantom units. Fun stuff, eh?

(of course, to beat them you'll need to capture the mines all around the SW town to semi-buildup your starter town so you can have a few units, which is a bundle of fun in and of itself)

Just ... bullshit. The whole mission.

[SirNitram]

Getting Yuri's ultimate weapon in Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Getting Tidus' ultimate weapon in FFX.

Yu Yevon and the dark Aeons in the final battle of FFX(Not the International Dark Aeons. Never saw those.).

Nemesis from above, in the Arena. Let's make a boss who can only be defeated by spamming Quick Hit for max damage with Haste!

[Surlethe]

Never mind trying to get out of the Death Star with the Falcon at a reasonable speed, especially when you both respawn at the core whenever one of you dies. I haven't gotten that far alon yet, but I'd imagine it'll make you both wait before beginning the cutscene where you exit the station, too.

There are some cheap tricks you can pull to fly in at a reasonable speed -- have the Falcon fly ahead, and it will "pull" the TIEs forward, so the player in the X-wing can can blow them up from behind; getting out is an entirely different story. I've never been able to get out of the station in the X-wing, let alone the Falcon. That level sucks donkey balls.

The last level of StarCraft; I've only been able to beat it once without cheating or restarting.

Bridge of Sighs, in Homeworld, where the hyperspace inhibitor is surrounded by literally a hundred Taiidan ion cannon frigates. I suppose I only hate the mission because I'm anal retentive and had to steal them all. Of course, those ion cannons made the last few missions much, much easier. I'm sure there are some other ones, especially in HW2, where the Vaygr determine their starting fleet at the beginning of the next mission as "x^2", where x is your fleet strength at the end of the previous misison, but I can't be assed to think of them right now.

[wilfulton]

Wing Commander I, the first mission when you meet up with Bhurak Starkiller. It's an escort mission too. I think I failed it a hundred times before I finally beat it.

Is this the mission where you're flying the scimitar? I actually found this one quite easy. Just keep your distance from the jump point, kill all the enemy ships, then get to the jump point. The sport warps in. Don't autopilot on your way back to the claw, just fly at top speed. You'll leave teh sport in your dust, but that's okay. You'll intercept Bhurak's strike force a safe distance away. Take them out (I think they more or less fly straight toward the sport at this point, rather than trying to dogfight you, but it's been a few years)

That, by the way, is how to protect any transport from enemy fighters. I find it incredibly stupid too.

EDIT: and by the way, I have sat back and watched Bhurak Starkiller make strafing runs on that Drayman, he would connect with maybe one shot out of half a dozen before turning around to make another pass. A kilrathi ace that can't hit a stationary target? Weird.


The other thing is any mission escorting a confederation capital ship. YOu'd think that these suckers would at least have some means of thwarting a swarm of incoming fighters, but evidently they're just big flying target dummies.

The other mission I find extremely tedious is blowing up the Pillar of AUtumn on Halo. First off, I'm pretty sure that ramming the Autumn into the other side of the ring at full speed would do more to destabilize it than just blowing up the fusion reactor, but I digress. Running up and down the stairs of doom four times to take out the reactor vents was okay, but then having to race a warthog down 3.2 km of hog-greased decks on a ship that's only supposed to be 1 km in length was a bit much for me. Especially when the warthog likes to go in every direction simultaneously except the one you want to go in.

[Lusankya]

The 200-lightning bolt dodge was pretty awful, too.

If by "pretty awful" you mean "worth the price of a plane ticket to Japan just to go and stamp on the designer's head", I agree.

However, the placement of some of the Dark Aeons in the PAL/International release was even worse, locking off one of the ultimate weapons and one of Auron's overdrives if you didn't collect them at precisely the right time (and for Auron's overdrive that meant walking manually all the way from Macalania Woods to Besaid as soon as you see the first Sphere). And so was the final "boss", who you couldn't possibly fail against because he cast Auto-Life on you.

Actually, FFX is just wank, FFX-2 is much more fun, if camper than a field full of boy scouts.

Which ultimate weapon was locked off by a dark aeon? If you're thinking about Auron's being blocked by the Dark Magus Sisters at the Mi'hen highroad, you just have to make sure that you don't pass too close to the women standing in the middle of the road. I find that the best way to do this is to just keep well to the left of them.

As for Auron's last thing, Valefor's the weakest Aeon, and Yojimbo's easy to get.

That said, I have Yuna's, Auron's and Rikku's ultimate weapons powered up fully, and the only other one that I've got a chance of getting (because I'm not even trying for the others) is Wakka's, and that's only if I go through another blitzball phase and I'm lucky. I'm not going to bother actually trying for it though, because Wakka's hair insults my aesthetic sense.


ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!