History ThatOneLevel / FirstPersonShooter

## The level is a hive of respawn points for enemies with more high-damage AR-33's or even higher damage [[FrickinLaserBeams hitscan lasers]] with crippling knockback. You will succeed or fail based on where they are spawned, not on the basis of your skills. Speaking of skills, the enemies here have the most unreasonably superhuman aim, reaction time and damage in the game. It takes three laser hits to end your attempt and about four assault rifle hits.

* Episode four of ''The Ultimate VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' - entitled ''Thy Flesh Consumed'' - was produced a year after the original release of the game, and was much harder. In fact it began with the two hardest levels in the original stock Doom, more difficult even than the episode-ending boss battles. [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/E4M2:_Perfect_Hatred_%28Doom%29 E4M2: Perfect Hatred]] trapped the player in a small underground cavern packed with monsters, with most of the accessible area suspended above a damaging lava floor. There is hardly any room to maneuver, and there are many tough enemies all coming for you. On Ultra-Violence, it's nearly unwinnable if you don't come with more than just the starting pistol and 50 rounds. The previous level, [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/E4M1:_Hell_Beneath_%28Doom%29 E4M1: Hell Beneath]], was no slouch either, with only token quantities of health and ammo. On higher difficulties, there is not enough ammo to kill many of the enemies, so you have to conserve your ammo or else you'll be completely out of luck. The player would frequently have to begin [=E4M2=] half-dead and out of bullets, before quickly become full-dead courtesy of the Doom equivalent of a ZergRush.
* [[https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/MAP10:_Refueling_Base_(Doom_II) Refueling Base]] from ''VideoGame/DoomII'' has a huge number of enemies-close to 300 on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare difficulties-and a good chunk of them are former humans, which are easy to kill but have hitscan weapons, which means you'll find yourself taking lots of damage.

** In ''[[VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAlliedAssault Allied Assault]]'', Sniper's Last Stand, aka Snipertown. A town full of extremely well-hidden [[HitScan insta-hit]] snipers that take off massive amounts of health per hit. If you thought that was bad, it gets worse in the second part, where [[EscortMission you have to escort]] a squad of [[ArtificialStupidity suicidal chipmunks]] through the whole mess.

* Then, five maps later you get [[https://doomwiki.org/wiki/MAP27:_Mount_Pain_(TNT:_Evilution) Mount Pain]], which not only has the second highest monster count in the WAD but it's also large. This wouldn't normally be a problem if not for the fact that your healing options are largely in the form of stimpacks (which give you 10% health), and your armor is limited to three pickups ''total'', two green vests and only one of the stronger blue vests.

* Episode four of ''The Ultimate VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' - entitled ''Thy Flesh Consumed'' - was produced a year after the original release of the game, and was much harder. In fact it began with the two hardest levels in the original stock Doom, more difficult even than the episode-ending boss battles. [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/E4M2:_Perfect_Hatred_%28Doom%29 E4M2: Perfect Hatred]] trapped the player in a small underground cavern packed with monsters, with most of the accessible area suspended above a damaging lava floor. There is hardly any room to maneuver, and there are many tough enemies all coming for you. On Ultra-Violence, it's unwinnable if you don't come with more than just the starting pistol and 50 rounds. The previous level, [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/E4M1:_Hell_Beneath_%28Doom%29 E4M1: Hell Beneath]], was no slouch either, with only token quantities of health and ammo. On higher difficulties, there is not enough ammo to kill many of the enemies, so you have to conserve your ammo or else you'll be completely out of luck. The player would frequently have to begin [=E4M2=] half-dead and out of bullets, before quickly become full-dead courtesy of the Doom equivalent of a ZergRush.

* ''VideoGame/FinalDoom'', The Plutonia Experiment: the [[SecretLevel secret]] [[BonusDungeon MAP32]] "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCGeNNvG0Z4 Go 2 It]]." For those who can't tell from the rather frantic pace of the video (finding a non-speedrun of the level is nigh impossible), it's packed to the gills with Cyberdemons, which if you recall are end-mission bosses by themselves that haven't lost any power since then. If that wasn't enough, you also have hordes of [[DemonicSpiders Arch-Viles]], all ''individually'' capable of both heaping on the damage on their own and ''resurrecting'' everything in the level that isn't another Arch-Vile, Cyberdemon, or Spider Mastermind. And, like many [=WADs=] did in the Doom days, their numbers ''double'' if you're playing co-op. If you're intending to clear a path through the monsters in order to survive, as opposed to having Jedi-like reflexes, expect to clear the level ([[NintendoHard if you can]]) with a kill rate of somewhere around 1000%. Yes, ''one thousand''. Meaning you would have killed each individual enemy ten times over.

*** [=Map24=] of Hell Revealed, Post Mortem, the hardest map in the entire megawad, not only has 579 enemies at the highest difficulty settings, but there is also virtually no cover without improvising
*** A Post Mortem-style map, Hard Target of the Kama Sutra megawad. This one has over '''1,700''' monsters in the map along with the aforementioned lack of cover. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Have fun beating that.]]
*** Hell Revealed 2's [[SecretLevel Map 32]] has over 1,600 monsters, a lot of them being of the heavyweight variety. Good luck beating this one without [[SaveScumming reloading]].
*** Speed of Doom's [=Map28=] and final level, having over '''2,800''' monsters and exactly '''2,010''' monsters each, respectively... Those two levels alone make [[MarathonLevel the first Deus Vult]] look easy.
*** Plutonia 2's Go 4 It. Not nearly as tough as the rest of the levels on this list, but it's certainly a fitting successor to Go 2 It.

** The lift segment of ''Quarantine Zone'' is a ZergRush galore as endless waves of Flood swarm you and your allies from every direction. If you don't kill them as soon as they enter, it's very easy to get overwhelmed by sheer numbers. And that's without factoring in the combat forms wielding shotguns, which can be a OneHitKill on as low as ''Normal'', creating a segment that punishes one second of inattentiveness with immediate death.

** There seems to be a rule that levels involving Libraries on Halo installations must always be That One Level. "The Sacred Icon" is the tenth campaign level and it sees the Arbiter travel through a claustrophobic set of hallways and tubes, all while being harassed by the Flood, who are using shotguns and assault rifles galore. In particular, there's a section where the Arbiter and several Elites are on a moving platform and the Flood jump on to say hello. On higher difficulties, your allies will die pretty quickly, leaving you there to clean up the mess.

** While deep in the [[ForgottenSuperweapon D6 Missile Silo]] toward the end of ''2033'', you and Miller must cross rooms full of Amoebas and [[MookMaker the pores that spawn them infinitely]]. Miller will shoot the Amoebas, but not the pores. The [[ActionBomb Amoebas explode when you kill them]], doing insta-kill amounts of damage if you're too close, and [[EscortMission Miller can die if too many detonate near him]]. The only way to make them more bearable is to snipe the pores from the upper floor – they take exactly eight shots no matter what weapon you shoot them with. It was so bad that ''Redux'' nerfed the whole section: Amoebas take less damage to die and explode with less power, the pores are much larger, take less ammo to dispatch and can only spawn one amoeba.
** Earlier, the levels Bandits and Dry are annoying. The combat in this game is not optimized for fighting against other humans. On lower difficulty levels where Rambo-ing, this is more annoying than anything, but on Hardcore or any of the Ranger difficulties, it makes ''Call of Duty'''s [[HarderThanHard Veteran]] difficulty feel fair. This is because unless you do things very specifically beforehand[[note]]getting a Tihar air rifle and a handful of cheap bearings[[/note]] you have only cruddy weapons, starting equipment, and little ammo, forcing stealth.
** The Library missions are a massive pain in the ass. [[GuideDangIt You are not told in advance that you are going to be outside for three whole levels]]. The Librarians are relentless, and they [[MadeOfIron don't die easily]], so your options are to stare them down (a slow process that taxes your filter supply), sink a ton of ammo in them, or run (which is dangerous if you don't know the path). At least the last level of the Library can be stealthed through and the air is breathable.

** ''Eviternity'' has level 19, "Dehydration"--the most disliked level of all, for two reasons: it's a surprisingly long, complex and tiresome MarathonLevel (its par time is ''40 minutes'', in a mod where most maps have par times no longer than 5 minutes), and it feels quite unfairly hard in spots.

* The ''Doom II'' mod ''Eviternity'' has level 19, "Dehydration"--the most disliked level of all, for two reasons: it's a surprisingly long, complex and tiresome MarathonLevel (its par time is ''40 minutes'', in a mod where most maps have par times no longer than 5 minutes), and it feels quite unfairly hard in spots.

*** ''Hellbound'' has several of these, the worst offenders being map 14, ''Doom District'' (Up until then, the wad it's challenging but manageable. This one is an all out urban warfare slaughter with more than 500 monsters, including several Spider Masterminds), map 31, ''Diabolus ex Machina'' (Hope you like facing hordes of Revenants and Cyberdemon, here you'll find those by the buckets), map 16, ''City Bounds'' (Like map 14, but WORSE. the open highway area throws a veritable horde of mid to high tier baddies at you, and you'll probably be limping from the other massive encounters you've faced before that), map 27, ''Crimsom Abyss'' (The very first enemy you fight in the level is a Cyberdemon. That's just a taste of horrors to come), map 29, ''Ascension'' (A marathonian ascent up a demonic mountain, with more than ''ONE THOUSAND'' enemies. Good luck, you're gonna need it) and map30, ''Worlds Collide'' (To put it very mildly, your probabilies of making it to the Icon of Sin are... slim)

*** And then comes the insanity that is "Fire and Ice". The crowning glory of Episode 3, 747 monsters fill this large map which dwarfs every other map in the wad. Even the easy skill levels aren't for the faint of heart the monster count reducing to a mere 718

** There seems to be a rule that levels involving Libraries on Halo installations must always be That One Level. The Sacred Icon is the tenth campaign level and it sees the Arbiter travel through a claustrophobic set of hallways and tubes, all while being harassed by the Flood, who are using shotguns and assault rifles galore. In particular, there's a section where the Arbiter and several Elites are on a moving platform and the Flood jump on to say hello. On higher difficulties, your allies will die pretty quickly, leaving you there to clean up the mess.

*** Pretty much the entire ''Sunder'' wad can fall under this trope, but the worst offender has to be Map 5: "Precarious." Imagine "The Chasm" from ''Doom 2'' with absolutely no safety net and hundreds of monsters attacking you trying to knock you off.

* The final level of ''VideoGame/SeriousSam: The Second Encounter'', the Grand Cathedral. Despite the undeniable SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, the level takes the game's [[TheWarSequence War Sequences]] so far that it becomes positively NintendoHard. The Great Pyramid, final level of preceding game in the series ''The First Encounter'', is slightly less bad on this account. Of course, being subjective and all, some others consider them Crowning Levels Of Awesome.

* The ''TNT: Evilution'' half of ''Final Doom'' has [[https://doomwiki.org/wiki/MAP22:_Habitat_(TNT:_Evilution) Habitat]], everyone's favourite level to skip past. Why is this? Because despite its name, the majority of the map is a maze of tunnels which have to be negotiated in a certain manner to open 50% of the levels secrets. There are also triple-layer doors to open that close in front of your face if you don't trip them correctly. They are so frustrating that even Lightning Bolt Forever, the most mild-mannered [[LetsPlay LPer]] you could ever meet, launched a PrecisionFStrike at them during his playthrough. For a true hair-pulling experience, though, speedrunning it on UV respawn and [=NM100S=] takes the cake. Because of the moving platform limit that results from the respawning zombies in the tunnels, this caused the level to crash on the original DOS executable.

* ''Final Doom'', The Plutonia Experiment: the [[SecretLevel secret]] [[BonusDungeon MAP32]] "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCGeNNvG0Z4 Go 2 It]]." For those who can't tell from the rather frantic pace of the video (finding a non-speedrun of the level is nigh impossible), it's packed to the gills with Cyberdemons, which if you recall are end-mission bosses by themselves that haven't lost any power since then. If that wasn't enough, you also have hordes of [[DemonicSpiders Arch-Viles]], all ''individually'' capable of both heaping on the damage on their own and ''resurrecting'' everything in the level that isn't another Arch-Vile, Cyberdemon, or Spider Mastermind. And, like many [=WADs=] did in the Doom days, their numbers ''double'' if you're playing co-op. If you're intending to clear a path through the monsters in order to survive, as opposed to having Jedi-like reflexes, expect to clear the level ([[NintendoHard if you can]]) with a kill rate of somewhere around 1000%. Yes, ''one thousand''. Meaning you would have killed each individual enemy ten times over.

** Two Betrayals, because it has the same enemy type that The Library does. Two words: [[DemonicSpiders Rocket]] [[Instakill Mook Flood]].

* The original ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' had the infamous level "The Library". Lots of tough enemies, you are by yourself (except for 343 Guilty Spark), not much ammunition, and the level [[MarathonLevel just keeps on going and going and going and going and going and going]]. It's also very easy to just get plain lost (even with 343 Guilty Spark guiding you through it).

** The level where you lose your lightsaber is pretty bad - not quite as bad as ''Outcast''[='=]s opening, but still bad. Considering the game discourages you from using anything but your lightsaber except in rare cases (enemy Jedi always dodge guns, and regular enemies are much easier to just cut down while deflecting their attacks with the saber), it's such an abruptly annoying change in gameplay. About all that makes it tolerable is that, if you're doing all of the missions in descending order, by the point you get here (if you don't skip it, since it's the last mission of its segment) you should have at least one good offensive Force power to quickly clear rooms with and one good defensive power to reduce or undo what damage the enemy deals. Prepare to go FromBadToWorse at the end, as naturally, ThatOneLevel can only end with ThatOneBoss. If you survive this far, expect to face a NighInvulnerable enemy wielding that Concussion Rifle you [[SarcasmMode loved so much]] way back on Nar Shaddaa (slightly less overpowered in this game, but overpowered ''enough'' when in the enemy's hands). Somehow, what sure ''looks'' like an unprotected human who could stand to lose a few pounds will shrug off all manner of gunfire and grenades, and will be right back up and shooting again immediately even if you send him plummeting from the highest point in the room.

*** Rhen Var Harbor for the Alliance or Separatists. The map is just big enough that the Imperials and Republic get their heavy AT-AT and AT-TE walkers, but not big enough that the Rebellion get T-47 airspeeders, their only efficient defense against the AT-AT; they, and the Separatists in general, only get light vehicles, which are destroyed in one hit by the walkers' main weapons. Worse is that they function as mobile spawn points as well, which can pop out anti-vehicle troops to hit anything the AT-AT and AT-TE can't, and which ''respawn'' after a minute or so even if the opposing side somehow manages to destroy it.

** Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon, if only for the challenge points. On its own it's relatively simple: flying through the streets of the city on a swoop bike, trying to make the other 20 or so ahead of you crash before they can get to the end, with the only real difficulty being in trying to avoid hitting anything except another speeder bike at any appreciable speed to prevent blowing yourself up. The game even inverts RubberBandAI, as the bad guys will actively slow down to let you keep up with them if you're lagging behind. Going for the challenge points makes it hell, though, as a lot of them are beyond jumps that will kill you if you don't get them with pixel-perfect precision and frame-perfect speed control, and most of the others being in places that are completely counter-intuitive and will waste precious seconds getting. Most players going for them here choose to destroy all the enemy swoop bikes and ''then'' go back to get the points at their leisure, and even then the ones beyond jumps are likely to rob you of at least as many lives as you're rewarded at the end for getting them all.
* The Prosecutor in ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'' is brutal the first time through, since most encounters begin with the Trandoshans ambushing you with their shotguns, which if you don't react in time can two-shot you even in the best of circumstances. And when they're not doing that, they're attacking you in packs of 4 or 5 guys along with a Scavenger Droid or two supporting them. Said droids drain your shields and health ridiculously fast and kamikaze your ass as soon they've been hit. This combined with the fact that for a good half of this mission you're completely alone (which means Game Over if you go down) and ammunition for your main weapons is sparse, forcing you to use the ACP Array Gun or (in the PC version, at least) your [[EmergencyWeapon useless recharging blaster pistol]] if you want to save ammo.

** The Eder Dam level in the British campaign is particularly infamous. Here we have a game priding itself on teamwork; an important part of the advertising was that "in war, no one fights alone". This is reflected in the entirety of the American campaign so far - even when you're sent in alone against impossible odds, it's still a team effort (you have two guys with you), it's only because that's as many men as can be spared for the operation, and ''not'' going through with it isn't an option. When you first get to the British campaign you're expecting more of the same (the game even rehashes the first two American levels, tasking you with taking an enemy bridge at night and then defending it the next morning) - and then the game suddenly decides it wants to be ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'', completely eschewing the teamwork angle and sending you to clear an ''entire'' hydroelectric dam with nothing more than a sniper rifle that you can barely use indoors, a submachine gun you can't replenish your ammo for[[note]]In spite of the fact that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sten that SMG]] was outright designed to share the same magazines as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP40 another SMG]] that ''damn near every other enemy you kill drops''[[/note]], and [[DifficultySpike a massive kick to the balls in terms of difficulty]]. It's basically the game's take on the obligatory StealthBasedMission every other game was shoehorning in around the same time, minus the stealth but with all the hair-pulling difficulty.
* There is a Russian mission in ''Call of Duty 2'' which pits you against three German tanks, with no rocket launchers, meaning you have to ''literally touch them'' and plant an explosive charge. And the tanks ignore all of your allies and only shoot at you. And they are always looking at you. ''Always.'' You can't sneak up on them ''because they can see through walls''. Even worse is that, unlike everything else you have to use explosive charges on in the entire series, they're not stuck in one place and can in fact move faster than you can. They can and will ''run away'' before you can plant the explosives, and then they can and will '''[[CarFu run you over]]''' when you're trying to hide from all the other Germans constantly ventilating you.

* "Mile High Club," TheStinger level in ''Call of Duty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', is a TimedMission set on an airliner. There is not enough room to move, the {{Mook}}s outnumber you, the rest of your team [[AllUpToYou won't move up until you clear the area]], and if you're going for the [[BraggingRightsReward "Mile High Club" achievement]], you die in four hits and only have one minute to reach the hostage, who you ''must'' rescue with a headshot; if you go for a kneecap, the level ends with the message [[NonstandardGameOver "Veterans only get headshots."]] If you make one false move, you'll either die or fail anyway because you wasted time. It's the kind of level where you don't need a walkthrough so much as choreography.
** Where do you begin with the defense of the Ferris Wheel in the end of "One Shot, One Kill"? To set it out for those who haven't played this level; You and your injured superior have to fight off at least a hundred respawning enemies all armed with fully automatic rifles for 6 minutes while waiting for a helicopter to arrive. You have 5 to 10 Claymore mines and a few C4 packs to defend your ally with, and if he dies, game over. Luckily, most of the enemies go after you, instead of him. If you stay behind the Ferris wheel, which makes very good cover, attack dogs spawn in packs, which instant kill you unless you press a button in a 0.1 second window of opportunity. If you stay almost anywhere else, you get a rain of grenades. It's gets even worse if you're [[HundredPercentCompletion trying to collect the intel for that part]]. The last intel of the level is ''[[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence behind a door that you can't open]]''. You have to [[ViolationOfCommonSense run out into the mass of enemies]] to manipulate their spawn points and force one to spawn behind that door and open it for you, so you can then try to rush ''further'' into the mob of enemies and grab it before they all kill you (the only upside being that if you do get to it and grab it, it's still yours even if you die before getting another checkpoint). That said, if you're ''not'' going for the intel there's an EasyLevelTrick if you go prone and hide in the little kiosk booth, keeping as far inside the stand as possible, and simply shooting whoever crosses your line of sight. The grenade indicator will go off constantly as always, but [[ArtisticLicensePhysics you will be protected from most of the grenades by the sheet metal.]] When it's time to go, spring out and grab [=MacMillan=] - you're almost invulnerable while carrying him in this mission, so take advantage of that and just sprint to the helo right away, and you're done.
** While not exactly that one level for the most part the level Hunted in ''Modern Warfare'' makes up for the rest of the level in one 'short' part involving a helicopter. During this one part you have to take out a bunch of people and then get into a barn to be able to advance, now overall this really isn't all that hard, even on veteran. But what makes it hard is they give the helicopter a door gunner. To put it lightly the helicopter is a [[GameBreaker bitch]]. On veteran it will kill you in about a second if you are not constantly in cover. Now if this still sounds easy, [[FromBadToWorse think again]], the helicopter will move to make sure that you never have very good cover. Even killing the door gunner buys you only a few seconds, as they always have someone to replace him. And then there is the part where you have to leave cover to get to the barn, which you can't just charge into because there's at least three guys inside ready to kill you as soon as you run in. So you have to patiently sit outside the barn while the helicopter kills you and you do the whole thing all over again. [[LuckBasedMission Really it comes down to whether the helicopter decides to be stupid and move behind the barn]].

** To clarify this further: The helicopter may look in another direction, but the instant it has line of sight on you, it will flick its gun around INSTANTANEOUSLY and begin shooting you. It shoots no one else.
** The beginning of "Shock and Awe" had you manning the helicopter's mounted Mark 19 grenade launcher while you approach the city. A minute into the mission you come to the bridge with enemy infantry and anti-aircraft gun nests a little farther on. Having a very limited angle at which you can turn the weapon as well as the necessity of watching an overheat meter while shooting in rapid succession, you will realize you die repeatedly exactly at the same moment simply because you can not aim at the hostiles who are just a hair outside the gun's operating area even if you try (and try you will). While during other strenuous missions you are able to switch tactics, in this assignment you are either bound to succeed or taking a cold shower. On [[IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels Veteran]] this quickly comes down to being infuriated at seeing the same scripted stretch of desert as you approach the same spot again. And again. And again. The hint? [[spoiler: [[LuckBasedMission Pray for enemies to miss the helicopter right away]] and try to shoot the nearby vehicles in hopes of catching the infantry within the blast radius or at least giving you time to get within the cannon's range.]]

** Oh god. "Heat." Starts like a normal hold the line type of mission, starting at the middle of a long incline. You take out hordes of enemies, slowly losing ground, until you get to a barn that's supposed to be your extraction point. The moment you get there, ''then'' you are told that your extract is at ''the bottom of the hill,'' the one that's overrun with Ultranationalists. This is where the real trouble starts. The endlessly respawning horde lays down a solid wall of fire that means staring at another death quote on the screen if you stick out your head from cover for half a second. The limited airstrikes you get aren't even as effective as you might think, since they respawn so quickly. The area you're in has little cover ahead of you, other than a shallow trench, a few unreliable bales of hay, and a small shack. Stick to one piece of cover for too long, and you'll be grenade spammed. There's plenty of visual cover in the form of smoke and vegetation, but the computer can see through it, meaning that you'll be shot at by enemies you can't even see. And you have to ''advance'' through this bullshit. Your only chance is to call multiple airstrikes at once and maybe toss a smoke grenade in front of the next piece of cover, wait until the endless gunfire gets quieter, then sprint. And possibly pray for a checkpoint. Thankfully once you get past the open field into the village, you're mostly home free if you sprint ahead of the spawns. Despite this, when in the barn, you might have noticed a small building, if you go through its back, there are nearly no enemies, making a mad dash to the extraction points possible without taking too many risks.

** And if you think "Loose Ends" is bad, ''immediately after'' you get "The Enemy of My Enemy." Recap: Soap [[spoiler:and Price]] are sent to Afghanistan to look for Makarov. Shadow Company attacks. You're told to let Makarov's men and Shadow Company fight it out as much as possible, but they're all ''way'' too eager to drop the ongoing battle with the guys sent to kill them and start shooting at the unaffiliated Brit in the ghillie suit (read: you). Even if you hang back and let them all kill each other before mopping up the survivors, this takes at least twenty to thirty minutes. You do get silenced weapons if you want to contribute to thinning the herd without being noticed, but [[TheAllSeeingAI you know how that goes]].

## Didn't pick up his weapons? Oh dear, you'll almost certainly run out of ammo trying to chew through the Maian saucer's unholy number of hitpoints.

*** Air Force One: Antiterrorism. You begin the level running around punching armed guards, since you're not allowed to kill them as they're Secret Service agents. Next you have to run halfway across the level to get to the President, whom you have to protect from waves of shielded troops carrying assault rifles. After you've rescued him, you've ''still'' got to run all over the place completing another couple of objectives before it ends, and you can easily be shot once and die at any time.

** The game's penultimate level "Robot Factory" is the absolute nadir of ''[=TimeSplitters=] 2'''s NintendoHard difficulty and is easily the hardest level in the ''entire series''. It doesn't put as much pressure on the player since there's no time limit, but it makes up for it with one thing: [[MechaMooks SentryBots]]. Eleven-foot-tall robots that resemble a cross between [[Film/RoboCop2014 Modern Robocop]] and a [[StarWars Super Battle Droid]], each of them a BossInMookClothing that can [[SuperToughness soak up your Plasma Autorifle ammo like rainforests]]. The level just ''loves'' to throw these guys at you in groups (and sometimes arming them with ''rocket launchers'' for good measure). They're also the only reliable source of ammo for all your decent weapons, since [[DroughtLevelOfDoom regular pickups are nearly impossible to find]], and the hordes of [[GoddamnedBats ChassisBots]] only use useless Sci-Fi Handguns that fire shots which ricochet off the walls, carrying with them a risk of accidental suicide in the level's [[MalevolentArchitecture dark cramped hallways]]. This isn't even mentioning all the other enemies the level has to offer, like [[DemonicSpiders Spiderbots]], automatic rail-turrets, and annoying insect robots that [[ActionBomb home in on you and explode in your face]]. On top of all that, the level is [[MarathonLevel incredibly long]] with a grand total of ''[[CheckPointStarvation two checkpoints]]'', one of which is right before the fight with [[AntiClimaxBoss The Machinist]] at the very end. In particular, the final room before said boss is nearly Unwinnable unless you [[EasyLevelTrick lure the half-dozen SentryBots present back to the controllable turret halfway through the level]]. This is all on ''Normal'', by the way. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Only an absolute masochist need apply for Hard]].

** Control. You have to [[EscortMission protect Natalya]] as she tries to reprogram the guidance system of the titular [[WaveMotionGun EMP weapon]] so it does a reentry into Earth's atmosphere instead of [=KOing=] London's electrical security systems (thus allowing Trevelyan to steal all the money from the London bank unhindered). This involves trying to keep her alive while [[ZergRush hordes of enemies]] come and try to shoot her, and she just stands there where she can easily be shot ([[JustifiedTrope which to be fair, she kinda has to do in order to reprogram the damned thing]]). She dies in only two or three hits, and to make things worse, the desks and computers near the console Natalya's working on, like everything else in the game, are MadeOfExplodium, and are close enough to kill her (or you) if they're destroyed during the shootout. Of course, you fail the mission if she dies.

## There's a guy with two instakill weapons. You need to hit him with the Psychosis Gun and then ''follow him closely'' so that he won't despawn, because you ''have'' to pick up his weapons when he dies.

** The [[{{BFG}} Mass Driver]] sequence at the end of the level "The Pillar of Autumn", when playing on Legendary. The combination of a slow-turning gun that takes a full econd to charge before firing [[spoiler: and is controlled by you]] in an open top isn't too bad on Normal, but combined with Legendary mode's [[BuffySpeak easy-you-die-ness]], it's positively infuriating. Be prepared to die ''at least'' a dozen times, and get used to hearing [[spoiler: Captain Keyes give you the same orders and words over and over and over and...]]

** The Glacial Strata take the opposite approach, and may be even ''worse'' because of it. Mainly because you will be haunted by the temperature meter unique to the biome at all times. If it goes too low, you freeze on the spot, utterly unable to move. You can free yourself with some effort and in little time, and teammates can just crack the ice open with their picks, but getting immobilized at the very worst of times is a very real possibility that will get you killed, especially since you take extra damage while frozen. ''Everything'' in the level, from the [[UndergroundMonkey unique variants of the usual enemies]] to the Cond Vents blowing icy wind in your face to the local flora exploding into liquid nitrogen to the ''random blizzards'', will conspire to keep this temperature meter low until you keep freezing at all times. And then there's the crevasses that will open when stepped on, forming large fissures that can cause nasty fall damage and trap you until you can pull yourself out. And the annoyances to finish this all off are the snowy terrain that will slow you down, the slippery ice that will make control hard, and the reflectiveness of the walls that make ores hard to find. At least there's volcanic vents to warm you up if you're too cold, and the reflectiveness makes light carry further than in most biomes.

** In ''[[VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAlliedAssault Allied Assault]]'', Sniper's Last Stand, aka Snipertown. A town full of extremely well-hidden [[HitScan insta-hit]] snipers that take off massive amounts of health per hit. If you thought that was bad, it gets worse in the second part, where [[EscortMission you have to escort]] [[ArtificialStupidity a squad of suicidal chipmunks]] through the whole mess.

* The Proving Grounds in ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}''. It was a fairly unique shooter up until this point, and then the producers go and throw an annoying EscortMission at us.
** An EscortMission that was unique in the depth of guilt trip it laid on the player. You could fail this repeatedly without gameplay consequence, but watching a little girl die while a mournful motherly voice underscored the tragedy of it seemed far worse than restarting it from the beginning.

* In [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon FEAR]], we have several.

* While deep in the [[ForgottenSuperweapon D6 Missile Silo]] toward the end of ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', you and Miller must cross a room full of [[ActionBomb Amoebas]] and the pores that spawn them. Miller will shoot the Amoebas, but not the pores. Oh, and the Amoebas ''explode'' when you kill them, doing insta-kill amounts of damage and dropping your framerate into the single digits. Good luck.
** Earlier, the levels Bandits and Dry are annoying. The combat in this game is not optimized for fighting against other humans. On lower difficulty levels, this is more annoying than anything, but on Hardcore or any of the Ranger difficulties, it makes Call of Duty's Veteran difficulty feel fair. This is because you have only cruddy weapons, starting equipment, and little ammo. Levels involving hostile humans generally suck.
** The Library missions are a massive pain in the ass. [[GuideDangIt You are not told in advance that you are going to be all outside with no prior indication that you need a lot of gas mask filters.]] And the Librarians just don't like to stop trying to murder you, [[MadeOfIron nor do they die easily]].
* ''[[VideoGame/MetroLastLight Metro: Last Light]]'' gives us "Sundown", a slow, brutal slog of a mission that requires a great deal of trial and error to get right. You're tasked with trekking across a swamp to find fuel for an automatic ferry, and the water is ''teeming'' with infinite, randomly-spawning [[GoddamnedBats Shrimp]] and [[DemonicSpiders Amphibians]]. Simon advises you to stay out of the water to avoid bothering them, but it's pretty much impossible to NOT step in water at least a few times, and you'll never know whether you stirred up a Shrimp or two until they start attacking you. The gas you need for the ferry is programmed to ''always'' be in the ''second'' place you look (the plane or the gas station),and reaching both waypoints requires a great deal of fording across the swamp waters. It gets worse halfway through, where a circling Demon joins the army of mutants in your path, which will swoop down and attack if you spend more than a few seconds standing still around the gas station. Finally, once you've gotten the fuel and gassed up the ferry, you'll have to HoldTheLine against a seafood platter's worth of Shrimps before it finally reaches the shore. Oh, and just so you know, the whole mission's set on the surface, so watch those filters.
** 'Sundown' also doubles as a test of whether the player was actually paying attention at the beginning of the game or not: If you weren't, the above platter-full of seafood will be chowing down on your arse many, many times over before it ends. If you were, you'll be following the red flags mentioned by the rangers in D6 and only have any trouble with the very last part of the level...

*** The top prize though surely has to go to ''Holy Hell'' Map 5, The Waste Tunnels. Just under 20,000 monsters fill this massive map. It's so big a recent UV Max run took nearly three hours. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZn5yaVuB1Y&nohtml5=False See it here.]] To put this in perspective, maps 1-4 of the WAD are actually that map split up because at its release in 2006 most computers COULD NOT RUN A 14 YEAR OLD GAME with that many monsters.