Games that deliberately troll you.

[SCO]

Lethal weapon on the amiga...

 

[Gragt]

Rescuing the girl in Karateka.

 

[Nael]

Quest For Glory...

 

[Chaotic Lulz3r]

Hm... an entire game where every design element seems to be tailor made to piss me off? I'm sure there were at least a couple, but memory suppression methods seem to have worked too well.

For the time being, I'll just mention that nearly every modern 3rd-person, 3D action game I've tried* has sections requiring timing and precision that the controls and camera just aren't precise enough for. FFS, developers, this has plagued this genre ever since its earliest examples. Either fix it, or admit that it is an inherent weakness that can't be fixed, and quit using such "timing/precision challenges" in your games.

*I haven't tried that many. Specific examples include a couple of sections in the first Overlord, which admitedly added an extra layer of control complexity with minion handling, the bike ride in the snow in Tomb Raider: Legend** and my recent foray into Darksiders, and its fucking spinning drill blades** in the Ashlands.

**Yes, I know they were a joke after you figured out just how to adjust your mouse/keyboard or gamepad movements to take shitty controls into account. I'm not a noob that needs to lrn2play. I am an elite individual who knows when a developer is trying to pass off shitty design as a challenge .

Edit: Just as I posted, I remembered a game relevant to OP. Has anyone ever tried or even heard of an "adventure game" called Of Light and Darkness? Gorgeous art direction and graphics for its time, but the gameplay was indeed as if the designer(s) decided to troll the entire adventure gaming community. It should never have been marketed as an adventure game, and was most likely promoted as such because it didn't fit any other genre either. It mostly consists of timed fedex quests, with obstacles in the form of spirits of great/famous sinners of the past, whose appearance and placement were supposedly random, yet somehow always managed optimal positioning for fucking you up, again and again.

To add insult to injury, the few people that managed to persevere enough to see the ending (I am not one of these brave and/or desperate souls) report that it has one of the most incomprehensible, WTF endings of all time.

Edit the Second: And how could I forget Battletoads. I beat it back in the day (yes, in an actual Mega Drive/Genesis, no emulator with saveslots) and just like Unkillable Cat and his exprerience with Tecno: The Base (pm me torrent link for that turd if you have one, I'm curious but not nearly enough to fork over 10$ for it) I just can't feel like an uber gaming god for it, but like I fell for a bad trolling post that most normal people successfully ignored.

Edit the Third (WTF you want, I'm drunk): I recently replayed the original Zork Trilogy (but making use of notes I've kept all those years ago, making things far easier), as well as a couple of other Infocom adventures I've missed back in the day, like Trinity and The Lurking Horror (I resorted to walkthroughs, of me) . By today's standards, you can't call any these games anything but the gaming world's most successful trolling endeavors as far as puzzle design goes, but they get a pass, seeing as how they were pioneers in their time.

 

[waywardOne]

far cry - when it drops you naked in a forest surrounded by krogan.

 

[sser]

Oddworld/Abe's Odyssey. You can find a secret passage pretty quickly. Unlike Mario the secret passage is not rewarding, but instead an almost assured death trap that early in the game.

 

[baronjohn]

Bioshock. Everything in that game, the sound, the enemies, the levels, the graphics, is one big turd-troll.

 

[XenomorphII]

They have both already been mentioned but Battletoads, and both of the Ghouls N' Ghosts games. I don't think I have ever made it past the second or third stage in either one, and I always feel like the devs of both are laughing at me as I play them.

 

[Stabwound]

Early Sierra and Infocom games. Nothing like missing a minuscule detail at the beginning of the game only to find out at the end that you can't win anymore because you missed said item and there's no way to go back to do it. This was all intentionally done, too.

That's one aspect of old game design I don't miss.

 

[spectre]

Far Cry 2 always seemed like an elaborate troll attempt to me.

 

[Hamster]

Ego Draconis, at least according to some butthurt fucks.

Dunno, i think Dragon Terror Patrol and Terminator reference qualifies as trolling. Good kind of trolling.

 

[DraQ]

Ego Draconis, at least according to some butthurt fucks.

Dunno, i think Dragon Terror Patrol and Terminator reference qualifies as trolling. Good kind of trolling.

I meant the ending if you don't have the expansion.

 

[Hamster]

Ego Draconis, at least according to some butthurt fucks.

Dunno, i think Dragon Terror Patrol and Terminator reference qualifies as trolling. Good kind of trolling.

I meant the ending if you don't have the expansion.

Yeah, i can see how that can piss someone playing without expansion. Basically it's "you lost, idiot"

 

[DraQ]

Ego Draconis, at least according to some butthurt fucks.

Dunno, i think Dragon Terror Patrol and Terminator reference qualifies as trolling. Good kind of trolling.

I meant the ending if you don't have the expansion.

Yeah, i can see how that can piss someone playing without expansion. Basically it's "you lost, idiot"

Though my reaction was more along the lines of:
....

Those guys have balls.

 

[Hamster]

Though my reaction was more along the lines of:
....

Those guys have balls.

I didn't have a chance to expirience that moment outside of DKS. I discovered that i am already in Flames of Vengeance when i wanted to look up some quest in Aleroth in the guide and found out there is no such area in Divinity 2.

Then i though "wait a minute, that scene, is it where the game ended for those playing original Divinity 2?! Ha Ha Oh Wow"

 

[sick]

demon's souls - every time i died i've seen dev's doing troll face in my mind and saying sth like:
'you should have predicted that there will undetectable, instant kill trap in the middle of the room. now you lose all your souls (money and exp) and have to replay last 2 hours of game. problem?'

super meat boy - i'll just leave it here

DA2 - selfexplainatory i think

 

[Jick Magger]

Killzone 2.
Fucking Rico.
By the end of it you'll be asking yourself why nobody just tied him up and put him in a corner somewhere. He's proven he cannot follow basic orders because of how angry he gets (he botches a fairly simple rescue attempt and sabotage, which leads to your best friend getting ventilated), he's prone to violent outbursts of rage at basically everyone, is completely incapable of defending himself or helping you (half of what makes the final boss so hard is that you've constantly got to get out of cover to find him and heal him), and in the end he pulls the most pants on head retarded decision in gaming history; he blows the unarmed enemy's leader away, therefore martyring the fucker, after he had a 4 minute speech talking about how killing him would, well, martyr him.

 

[DraQ]

Killzone 2.

Consolefag detected.

 

[gromit]

Far Cry 2 always seemed like an elaborate troll attempt to me.

IT'S WONDERFUL! A WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL CARING GAME! YOU JUST DON'T KNOW IT LIKE I DO! *sob*

Seriously, though, the clear winner is anything that comes directly from the house of pain, sin, and torture that Sierra could be when their minds were set to it. That it's all deliberate, and sullying such otherwise enjoyable games, should be brought before the Hague.

Ironically, there is a loose pattern, in that the more family-friendly the game in question, likely the more numerous, terrible, and sudden the deaths awaiting you. It seems like every time Larry Laffer is even close to doing something stupid, the narrator warns you as he can't help but get a joke in at your expense. Roger Wilco and Freddy Pharkas are usually in fairly apparent danger or at least clearly fishy situations, but the former tends to get blindsided more often.

King Graham, however, generally does things akin to stubbing his toe on a pixel-off floorboard, then bouncing hard down a spiral staircase, landing with a splash in the hot-tub smack dab in the middle of Mongo's rape den. Mongo happens to be in, but only because you didn't grab your toothbrush on the way out this morning. It makes me genuinely afraid for any children who may have played Mixed-Up Mother Goose; who knows what the fuck happens in that one.

Meanwhile, Gabe Knight's off goofing around, putting mustaches on cats or some shit (a completely different troll in and of itself.)

 

[Jick Magger]

Killzone 2.

Consolefag detected.

Hey now, no need to be a mean meanie.

 

[DraQ]

Killzone 2.

Consolefag detected.

Hey now, no need to be a mean meanie.

...
Why not?

 

[Elwro]

I honestly thought NWN was trolling me with the rogue companion AI.

 

[Luzur]

Killzone 2.
Fucking Rico.
By the end of it you'll be asking yourself why nobody just tied him up and put him in a corner somewhere. He's proven he cannot follow basic orders because of how angry he gets (he botches a fairly simple rescue attempt and sabotage, which leads to your best friend getting ventilated), he's prone to violent outbursts of rage at basically everyone, is completely incapable of defending himself or helping you (half of what makes the final boss so hard is that you've constantly got to get out of cover to find him and heal him), and in the end he pulls the most pants on head retarded decision in gaming history; he blows the unarmed enemy's leader away, therefore martyring the fucker, after he had a 4 minute speech talking about how killing him would, well, martyr him.

well, they have to do a Killzone 3.

 

[saenz]

No mention of Farenheit (Indigo Prophecy) yet?

The first half is the most interesting and cinematic adventure game, with C&C, you'll ever play.

Then...

Spoiler

1. All actions sequences are based on QTE's.
2. None of your choices or accomplishment carry over into the second half of the game, let alone even factor into the ending.
3. The plot gets so rushed that all of the plot twists come across either completely unnecessary or a straight Fuck You: the reveal of the AI faction, the reveal of the hobo faction, the black partner leaving the game, the female protagonist having sex with the male protagonist, the female protagonist having a long term relationship in paradise with the male protagonist.

 

[Peter]

No mention of Farenheit (Indigo Prophecy) yet?

Holy fuck, this. The second half of that game is a slap in the face. Why couldn't they have left it as a simple detective?

WHY?