History Main / StoryDrivenInvulnerability

* Famously averted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid 3''. The fight with The End [[SkippableBoss can be bypassed entirely]] if you manage to snipe him in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it segment long before you are intended to boss-fight him. He dies from one bullet (in the actual BossBattle, he can take half a dozen to the head) and the zone where you'd usually fight him is filled with Ocelot soldiers, which, depending on the player, might make the fight even harder. Be aware, if you decide to try this, that The End's camo and gun become [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]], since you never properly fight him.
** Also, you can damage [[spoiler:The Shagohod]] during the chase scene that precedes the boss fight, but the chase scene isn't long enough for you to take away more than 1/4 of its life.
** However, if you kill Ocelot, you get a NonStandardGameOver for causing a "temporal paradox".
** Played straight, however, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. Shortly before fighting REX, the player can look at [[spoiler:Liquid]] through the scope of the PSG1. Firing the rifle does nothing to stave off the "final" battle. [[spoiler:Perhaps justified by Liquid's ability to survive seemingly everything but [=FoxDie=].]]

* In the first ''[[VideoGame/SpiderMan2000 Spider-Man]]'' game for the Playstation 1, Venom pulls this on Spider-Man, sneaking up behind the hero and leading him into a chase level. During this level, you have to move insanely fast to keep up with Venom, and it is very hard, for even though there is nothing that tries to kill you in the level, you lose if you fall too far behind. However, you can memorize or predict Venom's path beforehand ([[CrazyPrepared if you're crazy enough]]) and land right next to him on a few occasions, which case if you try to punch him or whatever, you have no effect on him.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'', the final mission. You're given an RPG and told to fire on a Ultranationalist helicopter, but it has story-driven invincibility, since it's scripted to wipe out your squad at the end of the level, and is only destroyed by the Russian Loyalists when they arrive(too late for most of you). Interestingly, if you ''do'' manage to get a hit in with the RPG (which is the equivalent of hitting a needle in a haystack) while you're in the car, the game activates an alternate (and supposedly glitched) ending where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MavEsYvoR7o an unnamed squad member comes out of the side of the screen, beats Zakhaev and his guards without them reacting in any way and stands around as the rest of the ending plays out in the same fashion]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* In the 1998 {{FPS}} ''VideoGame/SiN'', the main antagonist of the first three levels, a thug named Mancini, is being pursued by player character John Blade through a bank, a construction site, a series of city blocks and finally a subway. At several points during this chase, he is seen quickly before running away (usually with a hostage in tow), but if you're quick enough, you can snipe or shoot him, which won't cause any damage whatsoever. Most notably, the first encounter with the mutated Mancini has a period of several seconds where he pauses before jumping back into the ceiling, allowing you to run up and blast him in the face at point-blank range with a machine gun (to no effect).
** In the second-last level, Elexis Sinclaire lures you into a trap when you attempt to walk into a room filled on two sides with bulletproof glass and a single entrance - it's possible to try a bank shot into the room just before you hit the trigger that drops the floor out from under you, but the entrance has an invisible wall.

* In ''Videogame/GhostOfTsushima'', Khotun Khan cannot be killed in the first fight you have with him. Even if you somehow manage to empty out his lifebar he'll still continue attacking until Jin's health is depleted.

* In ''SoldierOfFortune II'', in Vergara's Mansion, Sanchez is invincible until the end of the mission, and even then he can only be killed by blowing up the fusebox with a grenade, electrocuting him.

** After beating the robotic Sonic in Sonic 2, Robotnik will flee from his control room into the cockpit of the final boss. Despite being the fastest thing alive, you cannot catch up to him; he will magically speed up if you are too close, even if you spin dash at him or even use debug mode to try and fly ahead of him. [[ThatOneBoss You'll probably see it a lot, too]].

** Another example in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto IV'' was when an enemy needed to be chased through a warehouse to to the rooftop where the player needs to shoot down the helicopter that comes to pick him up. At several points the enemy NPC got stuck on parts of the scenery long enough that several clips worth of ammunition could be emptied into him with no effect whatsoever.