5 Tiny Decisions That Nearly Ruined Your Favorite Games

5

Dark Souls' Punishing "Invasions" Were Based On The Director's Sense Of Communal Charity

Challenge is subjective, but when a game is advertised as the "Prepare to Die Edition," there isn't much room for interpretation. So needless to say, Dark Souls was ball-twistingly difficult, and one of the most diabolical sources of controller warranty uses was the series' multiplayer option, called Invasions. In this mode, other players come into your generally single-player game and just ... ruin the hell out of your day. Imagine struggling your way to a boss fight, only to have weed_lazer_69 put an arrow through your face on the precipice of victory. Fun, right?

So what inspired such an anarchic madhouse of a game mode?

A chance encounter on a snowy road, according to director Hidetaka Miyazaki. See, he meant the whole thing to be a more positive experience. Once upon a time, a car in front of his got stuck on a hill, stalling traffic. So he and the other drivers all worked together to push each other out, and he made it home safe without the chance to say thanks. He had an existential awakening regarding the kindness of strangers, and thought he could put something in his game that would remind him of that feeling. Then gamers, being gamers, used it to torture and murder each other instead. Miyazaki forgot who he was dealing with.

4

God Of War's Blade Towers Are Impossible Because The Developers Didn't Bother Testing Them

The first God Of War ends with you beating the crap out of the Greek god Ares, and it's somehow the most grounded game in the whole franchise. But before you can go commit gleeful deicide, there's a notoriously difficult section wherein you have to climb a series of tall towers covered in spinning blades. If you get hit even once, you plummet to the bottom and have to start all over.

Sony Interactive EntertainmentThe original title was God Of Ninja Warrior.

3

Old Disney Games Were Insanely Difficult So You Couldn't Beat Them In A Rental

Disney games from the '90s are so notoriously difficult that they drove kids from "Hakuna Matata" to "Let The Bodies Hit The Floor" in about three levels. There are grown adults still whining about how difficult The Lion King and Aladdin were, and how impossible it was to finish them without cheating. From bad controls to obnoxious level design, they were brutally punishing from start to finish. Just look at this:

Virgin Interactive"Long live the king." -- The Developers

2

Spec Ops: The Line Criticised Mindless Shooters, Then Had A Mindless Multiplayer Mode Forced On It

Spec Ops: The Line is a shooting game about why shooting games are a pretty messed up concept. It features heinous war crimes, extensive ruminations on the horrors of conflict, and simulated post-traumatic stress disorder. It's not exactly the popcorn fun of the new Call Of Duty: Minority Hunt, is what we're saying here.

So while it's almost mandatory for shooters to have multiplayer -- especially once the suits figured out that they could sell gun skins to suckers for $4.99 a pop -- the developers of Spec Ops wanted to keep it single player. They were making a story-driven experience, and they figured their "virtual war is hell" message would be somewhat undercut if, right after the downer ending, you could hop online and whip up a sick kill streak.

2K GamesSomberly reflecting on the horrors of war, and the 13-year-old who called you "Suck Ops: The Lame."

1

BioShock Was Going To Have Genuinely Tough Moral Decisions, But The Publisher Wussed Out

BioShock explores some heavy themes, like the importance of choice, the flexibility of morality, and whether or not free will is an illusion -- and all this in between sessions of setting maniacs on fire and beating them to death with a wrench. Here's the most devastating of those choices: In the game, you can power up your abilities by finding Little Sisters (basically possessed first-graders), and then either saving them ... or "harvesting" them. Saving them is great for your conscience, but harvesting them doubles the awarded amount of power goo, aka ADAM. The idea was to give the player a hard choice about how far they would go in order to gain strength for the greater challenges ahead.