Have you ever had a game you just couldn't beat?

I'm not sure this counts because I actually could beat it if I played it solo, but I just can't beat Outlast Trials in multiplayer. The game takes advantage of every weakness I have. Other hard games, like Dark Souls, have just been a matter of sticking to it until I win, and that's what Outlast Trials would also be in single-player, but in multiplayer you only get one life, and I've just found it impossible. I suppose if I had some very patient teammates, I could keep banging away like 20 immortal monkeys trying to type the works of Shakespeare, but I don't find that very satisfying.

How about you? Have you ever met your match with a game?
 
Really any game that requires a high degree of speed and precision. Especially if it requires me to do multiple things at once. Platformers and bullet-hell type games are usually the hardest because they often don't have difficulty settings. I'm also pretty bad at most rhythm games on harder difficulties.
I should have mentioned that there are probably a lot of games that I would have serious difficulties with that I just go ahead and avoid altogether like Cuphead, for instance. I loved the aesthetics of that game, but just knew there was no way I was going to be any good at it, so I just admired it from afar.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
I couldn't make it through the TUTORIAL! Oh the pwnage.... the terrible terrible pwnage!

The Talos Principle's DLC was too hard for me, too. I was able to get through the main game fine and a few of the star puzzles, but I was only able to do a few in the DLC. Not playing the game for years in between probably didn't help.
 
Rogue likes are the bane of my life. most of the games i play i rarely finish. yeah you're not suppose to beat them in one go, but what annoys me is the luck/randomness of some runs. if it had been predictable i might persist. But since its not, its a ticking time bomb before my patience wears down to nothing.

Plenty of games i couldn't beat, the witness i couldn't beat partly because it was challenging, partly because it was boring and partly i couldn't figure out the mechanics. With no words some of the puzzles i couldn't understand what was possible.
 
I should have mentioned that there are probably a lot of games that I would have serious difficulties with that I just go ahead and avoid altogether like Cuphead, for instance. I loved the aesthetics of that game, but just knew there was no way I was going to be any good at it, so I just admired it from afar.

My problem is that I occasionally do try a new platformer or bullet hell game because it has some cool new gimmick, but then I crash when I actually have to interact with the core mechanics of the genre as well.

Another genre I typically suck at is Adventure games. I have little patience for pixel hunting or trying every possible item combination, so I look up a walkthrough as soon as I get stuck somewhere. I wouldn't have ever beaten the Monkey Island games without one.

Rogue likes are the bane of my life. most of the games i play i rarely finish. yeah you're not suppose to beat them in one go, but what annoys me is the luck/randomness of some runs. if it had been predictable i might persist. But since its not, its a ticking time bomb before my patience wears down to nothing.

I've done quite a few runs of Angband by now, but I've never gotten to the last boss, let alone be equipped to defeat him. One of these days though...
 
I couldn't make it through the TUTORIAL! Oh the pwnage.... the terrible terrible pwnage!

The Talos Principle's DLC was too hard for me, too. I was able to get through the main game fine and a few of the star puzzles, but I was only able to do a few in the DLC. Not playing the game for years in between probably didn't help.
I never tried the DLC. The way the main game works, each puzzle kind of leads up to the next puzzle, so playing the game over a relatively short number of days definitely helps. I was thinking about replaying this because I've basically forgotten all but two puzzles, although once I start playing I guess more will come back to me.

Have you been following the sequel news? Comes out in less than a month and there's a demo.
 
Rogue likes are the bane of my life. most of the games i play i rarely finish. yeah you're not suppose to beat them in one go, but what annoys me is the luck/randomness of some runs. if it had been predictable i might persist. But since its not, its a ticking time bomb before my patience wears down to nothing.

Plenty of games i couldn't beat, the witness i couldn't beat partly because it was challenging, partly because it was boring and partly i couldn't figure out the mechanics. With no words some of the puzzles i couldn't understand what was possible.
I got The Witness for free, but I went into it thinking I wouldn't like the puzzles and only did a couple before deciding it wasn't for me. I thought it was weird that they even bothered creating a world to put puzzles like that in.
 
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a lot of games that I would have serious difficulties with that I just go ahead and avoid altogether

Yeah, that goes without saying for me… which must be why I said it :rolleyes:

Most games I'm not bothered about beating—if finishing looks interesting, I'll have a go, else not. This is often the case with open world strategic/tactical games where the end becomes closed world melee fest.

The one I can think of which I wanted to finish but couldn't was Far Cry Primal—I couldn't beat Ull, 1 of the 2 final bosses. But not a big deal, I only made 2 attempts.
 
i hardly ever finish games... mostly as then I need to find something else I enjoy doing as much... Only games I finish are ones where the end isn't the end, so mainly ARPG and Journey**.

Otherwise I will restart game before I have to finish them. Fallout NV comes to mind, did everything except the dam.

I can't think of any I have tried and couldn't beat... but I am sure there was some. Plenty of times on consoles but I would just pass controller to a friend and let him do it. I wasn't concerned about doing it myself, it was more about just finishing games back then.

**Which reminds me, need to download that now I can play it on PC.
 
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I got The Witness for free, but I went into it thinking I wouldn't like the puzzles and only did a couple before deciding it wasn't for me. I thought it was weird that they even bothered creating a world to put puzzles like that in.

i think setting it on a beautiful island does spice things up a little. its like a walking tour of sorts. But yeah you would have lost none much. thats not to say that there aren't any puzzles that didn't utilize the environment but its not like they couldn't be reworked. I mean, its not like manifold garden or antichamber.

But the killing blow is definitely the cryptic puzzles as i didn't understand what it wanted me to do. I'm sure its part of the mystery, but it also adds to the tedium/annoyance factor.
 
Most recently? Doom Episode 4 Thy Flesh Consumed

I managed to finish off the first level on Ultra Violence, but I rapidly realized that the next level (and probably the rest of the episode), was going to rely on rote memorization and repetition, rather than thinking on my feet.

Which is pretty much where I end-up with many games I can't beat. If it's going to just be a slog and about my time investment, I begin to lose interest and won't want to bother with it.
 
Pretty basic pick but any Dark Souls games, Elden Ring included. I have hundreds of hours in all of these games combined, yet I have never finished any of them. I think it’s because I’ve botched my builds in a way that at some point late in the game I realize my character is nowhere near as powerful as he should be and I absolutely do not want to grind out souls to level my character, respec or start a new character. It gets to a point where playing feels like too much work and I’m not making progress anymore, so I just quit. It’s fun for the first 20-40 hours where you are strong, plowing through enemies easily, and leveling up a lot, but the amount of souls you get compared to how much you need to level up just becomes too distant, forcing you to grind. I hate grind in single player games. I’ve always felt like I don’t play these games correctly, like I don’t get enough rare or unique items, and I don’t level correctly, and also I’ve come to realize that I don’t like games like that either, where you need to find the meta of the game in order to be powerful or games where there is a large potential of messing up your character build causing you to be weak at high levels. They are fantastically made games, but I’ve lost my energy to play them anymore.
 

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