Last night I almost threw my controller across the room because of this game. In fact I would have done it if my wife hadn’t been there.
This might be a bit of a spoiler for the sensitive type.
So I was making my way through the final stages of the game last night and hit the final level where you drive a massive tank up the side of a mountain. It was chock full of massive explosions, overwhelming odds, white-knuckled excitement and...extreme frustration! Why the frustration you ask?
Well for the final level Volition decided to create a protracted and tricky road up the side of a mountain that eventually leads to the final boss. It’s filled with the meanest the EDF forces have to offer—but there isn’t a single checkpoint! That’s right--if you die you must start completely over at the very beginning of the level. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say it took me 3.5 hours to beat this one level. In fact my very LAST effort of the evening is when I finally beat it.
Certainly Volition isn’t the first developer to do this in the last level of their game, but playing it did stir up old feelings on the issue. I find it absolutely maddening when a developer does this in an effort to increase “game play time” or difficulty.
If you want to provide a more challenging experience then throw more bad guys at me, increase their toughness, pose ammo limitations, use a different vehicle, or even take away the protagonists legs (kidding)--but don’t take away checkpoints in a long and difficult level like this. I’m not the gamer I use to be when I was 13 having 80 hours a week to dedicate to gaming. I might be completely alone here—and I’m betting I’m not—but there is nothing amusing about playing the same frustrating level over and over and over and over and over and over again because of poor design choices.
Get this--roughly 2.5 hours into replaying the level I had finally made it all the way to the top of the mountain receiving the "Mission Accomplished!” Pausing the game I then cheered mightily--SUCCESS! I called my wife into the room to prove to her games will, in fact, one day bring the world closer and possibly cure cancer! I hugged my cat assuring her everything was one again right with the world and that she would one day end up in a painting above the fire mantel! Unpausing the game I found myself standing in front of the final boss’s tank and was instantly killed by two attacking jets from behind. I wasn’t too worried though--I had reached my checkpoint right? Mission accomplished? No?
No.
The game then started me waaaay back at the beginning of the level again. Man I've not reached a level of frustration since one of the final races in Burnout Paradise where my cars exploded because I was 1 inch way from another car.
This game does a decent job of saving the game often enough while placing you in the right spots if you die during a mission, but drastically changing that very system just for the last level is infuriating and honestly feels a bit cheap! It completely goes against what the game taught the player what he/she should expect since the beginning. Heck I’m surprised Volition didn’t take away all our guns too.
Look, overall I do really love this game for everything it has to offer in both the single and multiplayer experiences—but that design choices with the last level left a bad taste in my mouth unfortunately.
