Terrible missions in great games

[Thomas Vercetti Esq]

Pretty self explanatory. I'm playing through San Andreas, which is - all things taken into account - an absolutely superb game. But no game is perfect (least I haven't found one yet), and I've just spent the last 20 minutes absolutely screaming in rage at the race in "Farewell, my love". One single error and the race is all but impossible to win. It's hard enough even if you don't make any mistakes, as you still have to take a perfect line throughout the entire race just to stand a chance. I hate this mission and I hate the person who designed it. 

 

It's not that it takes multiple attempts to beat it. That applies to many missions. "Cop Land" in Vice City took me well over a dozen attempts on my first playthrough, but it never got me as incandescently angry as this race does.

 

What missions spoil otherwise brilliant games for you? And why that particular mission?

[LowTierDude]

Sir yes sir

[Krymefull]

Scouting The Port: The Mission: The Game: The Movie

Edited September 15, 2023 by DubiousThiny

[HenriqueV5]

On PlayStation 2 it is very difficult, especially when you are a noob. I remember that in my first runs I had a lot of difficulties with it.

 

But the secret is that you need to master the game's racing system, know how the cars work, how to brake at the right moment, know how to control it so you don't lose the rear and so on. That only learns with time.

So keep trying that one hour you can. It is important to remember that the game was developed at a different time, where games needed to present a certain difficulty to make it last longer.

 

---

 

But about the question, there are 5 or 6 missions in GTA Vice City Stories that are ridiculous. The only one I remember the name is "let me pyre".

[PolishRye]

nah, try highest difficulty in OG mafia 1 on the fair play mission

thats hard, tho not THAT hard as the internet made it out to be

[universetwisters]

The one in LCS where you have to kill the Yakuza boss who challenges you to a sword fight and halfway through he’s like “okay f*ck it” and gets his friends to unload on you with automatic rifles 

[Pistol Bobcat]

Taking the Peace in Liberty City Stories.

 

You either get lucky and kill a good bunch of the Forelli's in your first rush at them or they spread out and effectively wreck you while you struggle with the jarring first person view driving of the remote car.

 

At least they're fat and easier to aim for

[Ser_Salty]

Some of the casino preps in SA. Specifically, the sky crane, because the second part is just really long and boring, and cop wheels, which is also just really long and boring. Also Photo Opportunity. Two long, boring drives, one of them with a vehicle very prone to flipping. Oh, and Snail Trail if you miss the train (and even if you do catch it, you still gotta drive back to Fierro). I can handle difficult missions, but I despise boring, long ones.

[cant remember]

Liberty City Stories, it overall left me a bad taste because of some of the missions, even with save states and slo-mo in an emulator it frustrated me in ways no other  GTA has, even GTA1 wasn't as difficult and frustrating as VCS for me.

Edited March 30, 2023 by cant remember

[Thomas Vercetti Esq]

9 hours ago, HenriqueV5 said:

On PlayStation 2 it is very difficult, especially when you are a noob. I remember that in my first runs I had a lot of difficulties with it.

 

But the secret is that you need to master the game's racing system, know how the cars work, how to brake at the right moment, know how to control it so you don't lose the rear and so on. That only learns with time.

So keep trying that one hour you can. It is important to remember that the game was developed at a different time, where games needed to present a certain difficulty to make it last longer.

 

---

 

But about the question, there are 5 or 6 missions in GTA Vice City Stories that are ridiculous. The only one I remember the name is "let me pyre".

I got through it in the end, but instead of feeling like an achievement to beat it, it was more like a chore that you don't want to do but have to. That pretty much fits my definition of a badly designed mission.

[happygrowls]

III, VC and SA have some horrifically aged missions. Specifically III and VC.

 

III's escort mission with the van is so hilariously crap with how you can just wait at the end for the van to come to you, or if you wait, it gets itself stuck on EVERYTHING.

 

VC's Sir Yes Sir! is just throwing a bunch of enemies with really good weapons at you instantly, no idea how people on the PS2 played it, but godspeed.

[Thomas Vercetti Esq]

2 hours ago, happygrowls said:

III, VC and SA have some horrifically aged missions. Specifically III and VC.

 

III's escort mission with the van is so hilariously crap with how you can just wait at the end for the van to come to you, or if you wait, it gets itself stuck on EVERYTHING.

 

VC's Sir Yes Sir! is just throwing a bunch of enemies with really good weapons at you instantly, no idea how people on the PS2 played it, but godspeed.

 

"Sir yes Sir!" is the one where you have to commandeer the tank, isn't it. I remember the first time I tried that. I kept trying to do it by force and got blasted away in seconds. Mind you, once I looked up the trick to it, I realised that there was some subtlety to these games, and that you sometimes had to wait a while for the obvious solution to make itself known.

[E Revere]

1 hour ago, Thomas Vercetti Esq said:

 

"Sir yes Sir!" is the one where you have to commandeer the tank, isn't it. I remember the first time I tried that. I kept trying to do it by force and got blasted away in seconds. Mind you, once I looked up the trick to it, I realised that there was some subtlety to these games, and that you sometimes had to wait a while for the obvious solution to make itself known.

I actually forgot that I once had difficulty in that mission until reading this. It feels really easy now. But the trick I used back then was to wait for them to stop for donuts. If you save the big gun from Phnom Penh '86 (the helicopter drive-by mission) it comes in really handy. You can destroy every military vehicle instantly with it.

[untitledupcoming]

15 hours ago, Thomas Vercetti Esq said:

I've just spent the last 20 minutes absolutely screaming in rage at the race in "Farewell, my love". One single error and the race is all but impossible to win. It's hard enough even if you don't make any mistakes, as you still have to take a perfect line throughout the entire race just to stand a chance. I hate this mission and I hate the person who designed it. 

I've finally seen someone say it out loud. it's SO ANNOYING to try to drive the car in the mission, not to mention having to stay perfectly straight the entire time. The race is already pretty medium difficulty, even if you have an off-roading SUV during the Cesar mission. It has to be a mission that Catalina herself designed just to torture us.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

6 hours ago, happygrowls said:

 

 

VC's Sir Yes Sir! is just throwing a bunch of enemies with really good weapons at you instantly, no idea how people on the PS2 played it, but godspeed.

You just wait for them to stop to buy donuts! They leave the tank unattanded so you can run and get in it with no one attacking, and then since it's VC and tanks are almost indestructable drive it to the garage no problem.

[cant remember]

Sir Yes Sir is actually really easy once you know the tank driver gets out for donuts and you don't aggro the soldiers until you're already in the tank.

You can also do it by blocking the path with a car, the driver (I think?) stops the convoy and gets out to move the car.

 

IMO the reason most players have trouble with that mission is because they don't expect the script to have any more depth than is first presented. The way R* typically scripts their missions you would just expect to see "mission failed: too late" if you follow the convoy for too long, so nobody tries it with this mission.