# Most unforgiveable cheat of a deathtrap in a game.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [April 3, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914 "2009-04-03T21:12:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/1 "2009-04-03T21:12:14Z")
You know, the places where it’s like the writers of the game were determined to **make** you lose a life at that point. Where without foreknowledge of what was coming up, there was no way anyone could live, no matter how experienced, smart, alert and prepared they could possibly be.
Since I"m a Half-Life fanatic, I’ll give (just one!) example from the original game: the building that is full of tripmines. You talk to a scientist npc before entering, but does he actually give you a useful warning? No, he just says to “use extreme caution”. So after talking to him you enter a hallway with some tripmines in it. You’ve seen them before, you know how they work. Tossing a grenade and then ducking back into a side room should clear them out, right? WRONG. Why didn’t Dr. Dickhead PhD warn you that the whole place is wired to go up, and that tripping any one of the mines will destroy the building? Because, uh, because- they wanted to SUCKER you into DYING at that point? :mad: Grrr, I hate those!
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/2 "2009-04-03T21:18:16Z")
If you count role playing games, [Tomb of Horrors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Horrors).
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### Author:  [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/3 "2009-04-03T21:33:23Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> You know, the places where it’s like the writers of the game were determined to **make** you lose a life at that point. Where without foreknowledge of what was coming up, there was no way anyone could live, no matter how experienced, smart, alert and prepared they could possibly be.
>
> Since I"m a Half-Life fanatic, I’ll give (just one!) example from the original game: the building that is full of tripmines. You talk to a scientist npc before entering, but does he actually give you a useful warning? No, he just says to “use extreme caution”. So after talking to him you enter a hallway with some tripmines in it. You’ve seen them before, you know how they work. Tossing a grenade and then ducking back into a side room should clear them out, right? WRONG. Why didn’t Dr. Dickhead PhD warn you that the whole place is wired to go up, and that tripping any one of the mines will destroy the building? Because, uh, because- they wanted to SUCKER you into DYING at that point? :mad: Grrr, I hate those!
I don’t remember having a problem with that in Half Life. However, on Half-Life: Opposing Force there was this one absolutely impossible part. I spent about a month trying to get passed it and gave up on the game. I guess I should try it again. Anyway, you’re underground, in what I’m thinking is some sort of sewer system and there is an infinite supply of these monster spider looking things that don’t die with regular gun shots. Obviously there is some mechanism that you’d have to engage or a small duct you have to use to bypass them but I never was able to find it.
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### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/4 "2009-04-03T22:00:17Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> If you count role playing games, [Tomb of Horrors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Horrors).
And of course _Return to the Tomb of Horrors_.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/5 "2009-04-03T23:42:45Z")
In my opinion, the most egregious example of this in the history of video games is the notorious [water trap puzzle](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wvN8_r_m8w) in [Onimusha.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onimusha) This is an excellent game, sort of like Resident Evil set in feudal Japan, with amazing atmosphere and action (one of the very last of the still-background third person “survival horror” type games.) About midway through the game you get locked into a chamber that is rapidly filling with water. You then take control of a different character in another room, who must arrange the tiles of a puzzle in order to stop the flow of water and save the hero.
The puzzle is extremely complicated and requires sixteen different movements of the pieces, which do not follow any logical or easily understood order. It’s essentially impossible to solve it within the required time limit without looking at a cheat guide beforehand. If the player fails to solve the puzzle in time, and is killed, he or she is forced to start again at a save point which is several puzzles and unskippable cut-scenes away from the “water trap,” which is unbelievably fucking frustrating.
I think this one is really pretty damn hard to top.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/6 "2009-04-04T01:03:25Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> If you count role playing games, [Tomb of Horrors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Horrors).
To be fair, though, it’s not like it’s called “Tomb of Friendliness” or anything.
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### Author:  [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/7 "2009-04-04T01:09:41Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> To be fair, though, it’s not like it’s called “Tomb of Friendliness” or anything.
They should make a game like that lures you into a false sense of security then WHAM loads of demons flood into to battle to the death.
“Tomb of Bunnies” it should be called.
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### Author:  [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/8 "2009-04-04T01:11:30Z")
_I Wanna Be The Guy_
Literally any part of this game qualifies. Just look at any random youtube video, you’ll see what I mean.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/9 "2009-04-04T02:01:01Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#):
>
> I don’t remember having a problem with that in Half Life. However, on Half-Life: Opposing Force there was this one absolutely impossible part. I spent about a month trying to get passed it and gave up on the game. I guess I should try it again. Anyway, you’re underground, in what I’m thinking is some sort of sewer system and there is an infinite supply of these monster spider looking things that don’t die with regular gun shots. Obviously there is some mechanism that you’d have to engage or a small duct you have to use to bypass them but I never was able to find it.
Not impossible but extremely hard. You’re in some lightless sewers, and your vision goggles don’t show you much more than the tunnel walls within three meters of your position. There are lots of those monsters (but not infinite, in normal play mode), they’re a ranged weapon enemy, and they’re very tough (not invulnerable to ordinary weapons but so tough that only the heaviest weapons kill them fast enough).You round a corner in the dark and the purple flash of their energy bolt charging is the only warning you get before half a second later you take fatal or near fatal damage. And they close on you as soon as they see you. The only way I beat that section was to memorize the entire maze and the position of every waiting monster. The shock rifle was helpful because I could fire a bolt down a passage and if it grazed a monster they’d grunt in pain but usually not detect me. I could then fire umpteen charges until it finally died.
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### Author:  [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/10 "2009-04-04T02:36:44Z")
There’s a level in the original Prince of Persia that starts with your guy falling down the screen into a death pit. You have about a quarter of a second after your player appears on screen to react and grab the ledge he passes on the way down.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/11 "2009-04-04T03:13:42Z")
Dying deep in any dungeon in the original Everquest.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/12 "2009-04-04T04:37:47Z")
> [@Commander\_Keen](#):
>
> _I Wanna Be The Guy_
>
> Literally any part of this game qualifies. Just look at any random youtube video, you’ll see what I mean.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBgxWyXYKI)
Winner. I’d be able to play that for about 30 seconds before I’d throw my keyboard at my screen.
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### Author:  [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/13 "2009-04-04T04:57:25Z")
> [@Captain\_C](#):
>
> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBgxWyXYKI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBgxWyXYKI)
>
> Winner. I’d be able to play that for about 30 seconds before I’d throw my keyboard at my screen.
Yeah, that looks f’n ridiculous. It looks like the creators of that just said, “Let’s make a game so hard that it’s entirely unenjoyable! This’ll be great.”
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### Author:  [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/14 "2009-04-04T05:45:26Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> Dying deep in any dungeon in the original Everquest.
thanks for the giggle…
I used to play on Sullon Zek and one of my favorite past times was to hang out at the upper entrance to the “Hole” just outside Paineel and wait for people from the other team to come by, hit em with a quick disease debuff and then disease root them into the Hole…talk about a rude surprise.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/15 "2009-04-04T05:47:20Z")
> [@Wheeljack](#):
>
> There’s a level in the original Prince of Persia that starts with your guy falling down the screen into a death pit. You have about a quarter of a second after your player appears on screen to react and grab the ledge he passes on the way down.
HAHAHAHAHA I remember that all too well. I grew up in a Mac household so while all my friends had Doom, and Wolfenstein, I was stuck with primitive games like PoP. But I managed to make the most of it nonetheless…I got hold of some sort of level editor for Prince of Persia and made my own levels. I remember, when I was 7 or 8 years old, seeing that primitive black and white intro screen reading “Prince of Persia, by Jordan Mechner” - that dude must be a millionaire now, since there are PoP games for all the latest consoles nowadays.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/16 "2009-04-04T06:02:41Z")
I _think_ it was the original Max Payne game, but I’m not 100 percent sure. A phone is ringing in a phone booth, and if you answer it, it explodes killing you.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/17 "2009-04-04T06:14:48Z")
> [@Critical1](#):
>
> thanks for the giggle…
>
> I used to play on Sullon Zek and one of my favorite past times was to hang out at the upper entrance to the “Hole” just outside Paineel and wait for people from the other team to come by, hit em with a quick disease debuff and then disease root them into the Hole…talk about a rude surprise.
Looking back on it, Brad McQuaid and the EQ devs were true sadists. I think it had some kind of permanently scarring effect on my psychological development (I was 14 or 15 when I started playing Everquest). Time for a lawsuit against Sony!
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### Author:  [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/18 "2009-04-04T06:49:35Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#):
>
> Yeah, that looks f’n ridiculous. It looks like the creators of that just said, “Let’s make a game so hard that it’s entirely unenjoyable! This’ll be great.”
The defining moment of that game is in a screen near the beginning, you have to walk to the right underneath apples hanging from trees. Some of the apples fall from the trees and will instantly kill you, so you have to dodge them. Once you reach the right-hand side of the screen, you have to go back to the left, but on some higher platforms (so you’re now above the trees). Once you walk above them, the remaining apples then fall _up_ and instantly kill you. Believe it or not, people have actually beaten this game (and it’s pretty long, and filled with all sorts of hilarious/unfair ways to lose).
You can die on the credits screen after beating the final boss.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/19 "2009-04-04T07:00:38Z")
The Lara Croft Tomb Raider games always had a few places where it was basically impossible to avoid dying the first time through. You’d be walking along, and a circular saw or a blade or something would just appear out of a wall or a floor and cut you in half.
Some surprise traps would eat away at you a little at a time, so you’d have time to register that something was wrong, and jump back to deal with the situation. But some of them just killed you in one fell swoop.
Sometimes you had to die multiple times at the same place before you could work out what combination of moves would get you past the trap.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/20 "2009-04-04T07:25:47Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> I _think_ it was the original Max Payne game, but I’m not 100 percent sure. A phone is ringing in a phone booth, and if you answer it, it explodes killing you.
Don’t know about Max Payne, but I know for a fact that what you’re describing happens in _Kingpin_ - an underrated gangland shooter based on an improved Quake 2 engine, set in a quasi-futuristic, decaying Art Deco city, which was one of the very first computer games to truly push the envelope of “mature” content (swearing, including the F word, and a lot of gritty, realistic violence.)
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