In most video games, failing to follow the intended path usually results in a game over screen, prompting you to restart from a save file or a checkpoint. However, some games present unique challenges where players can inadvertently create situations that make it impossible to complete the game.
These soft blocks are sometimes caused by glitches in the game, but other times, they are intentional traps created by the game developers. So, the next time you embark on a video game adventure, tread carefully and consider every decision you make, unless you want to start over from the beginning.
10The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
Don’t Feed The Dog A Sandwich
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a text adventure game, you play as Arthur Dent, who embarks on a galactic journey after Earth’s destruction. Before leaving Earth, you have a brief interlude where you try to prevent your house from being demolished. Once that’s done, you head into town, where you can purchase a cheese sandwich.
After buying the sandwich, you are confronted by a hungry dog. If youchoose to give the sandwich to the dog, the dog scampers off. But if youwithhold the sandwich, you’ll later find yourself eaten by the dog.
Clock Tower 2 follows the story of Alyssa Hale, a teenager who grapples with possession by a mysterious alter ego, Mr. Bates. The game begins with Alyssa visiting her aunt and uncle’s house, only to find it eerily deserted. As she explores, she comes across disturbing signs of trouble: yellow blood and green body parts scattered throughout. The house soon reveals a darker secret when Alyssa accidentally awakens a set of haunted samurai armor and is relentlessly pursued by her possessed cousin.
You canavoid triggering the samurai armor in the first level, choosing to face only Alyssa’s cousin. However, this decision has consequences:if the armor isn’t dealt with early on, it crashes down from the ceiling in the final level, killing you.
InMorrowind, you have the freedom to explore and interact with the world of Vvardenfell as you choose, including the option tokill any NPC. However, several NPCs are crucial for progressing through the Main Quest and other significant quests. If you kill one of these essential characters, you’ll receive a message saying: “With this character’s death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created.”
Even if you complete the Main Quest, the game will continue to mark these NPCs as essential, meaning their deaths will always result in this warning message. Killing an essential NPC willprevent you from earning reputationin the Sleepers Awake quest but will not cause any additional side effects beyond this.
After earning your first Gym badge from Brock in Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, you’ll soon reach Cerulean City, where you’ll continue your journey as a Pokemon Trainer. Just north of the city, a popular spot for battling trainers awaits, and it’s also where Bill, the famous Pokemon researcher, resides. As youmake your way to Bill’s house, you’ll come across a trainer blocking an area that contains an item. Normally, you’d have to wait until youacquire the HM for Cutto reach it, but there’s a trick tolure the trainer away, giving you early access.
The released versions of Pokemon Red and Blue fixed this glitch.
However, there’s a hidden risk with this method. If yousave the game while standing behind the trainer and then reboot the game, the trainer will reset to their original position. This will trap you behind the trainer with no way to escape, forcing you to restart your game from the beginning.
In The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, set on the mysterious Koholint Island, your mission is to collect eight musical instruments to awaken the Wind Fish and escape. As you explore the island, you’ll solve puzzles and navigate various dungeons.
In the fourth dungeon, you encounter a gate surrounded by a moat. Typically, you’re meant to access the gate after learning to swim. However, in the GameBoy version, you’re able to bypass this by jumping across. If you attempt this without the necessary key, you’ll find yourself stuck. I guess Zelda will need to find a new hero.
In the iconic adventure puzzle game Myst, you are transported to a mysterious island of where you may travel through books. As you explore, you uncover the mystery of two brothers, Sirrus and Achenar, who are each imprisoned in separate books. Both brothers insist that the other is responsible for the murder of their father, Atrus. As the plot unravels, you discover that Atrus is not dead but trapped in a distant realm known as D’ni.
Your main task is to retrieve the final white page, which is crucial to freeing Atrus. However, if you choose to teleport to D’ni before finding the page, you’ll become trapped in the realm alongside Atrus, rendering you unable to return to Myst and complete your mission.
4The Legend Of Kyrandia
Find All Three Items To The Final Level
The Legend of Kyrandia follows the story of a young prince who sets out on a quest to end the chaotic reign of the evil court jester, Malcolm. Along the way, you mustgather three essential items: a flower, a chalice, and a key. While the cup’s location is fairly straightforward, the flower and key require thorough exploration and keen attention to clues scattered throughout the game.
However, if youreach the final stage of the game without having all three items, you will encounter a soft lock. The game prevents you from progressing forward, and your path back to collect any missing items is sealed off. This forces you to restart the game entirely, making it crucial to carefully explore and gather all necessary items before advancing.
In this fantasy-steampunk world, a technological revolution has pushed magic into obscurity, with machinery and innovation dominating society. As you embark on your adventure, you encounter Setzer,a womanizing gambler who owns an airship. He offers the use of his vessel, allowing you to travel across the world in style. With the airship unlocked, the game world opens up, reducing travel time and giving you the freedom to explore nearly every point on the map.
However, there’s a hidden danger that comes with this newfound freedom. While you can land the airship almost anywhere, there isone specific location on the World Map where, once landed, you will be unable to reboard the ship. Although you can continue on foot from this point,a soft block occurs later when the story requires the airship to progress, effectively trapping you and halting your journey unless you reload an earlier save.
2Garfield Big Fat Hairy Deal
Keep Garfield Fed
In this quirky adventure, you take on the role of Garfield as he sets out on a mission to rescue his girlfriend, Arlene, from the cat pound. Given his well-known laziness and love of lounging, Garfield’s determination to save Arlene comes as quite a surprise. But as you traverse the city, one of your biggest challenges isn’t just navigating obstacles; it’s keeping Garfield fed.
Throughout the game, you must keep a close eye on Garfield’s hunger meter. As he gets hungrier, finding food becomes urgent.If the hunger meter drops to zero, Garfield will start eating random items from your inventory, including key itemsnecessary to progress through the game and complete the rescue.
In the steampunk-themed FPS Bioshock 2, players are equipped with an array of weapons and Plasmids, each offering unique abilities to shape your combat strategy. One such Plasmid is Winter Blast, which instantly freezes enemies, allowing you to shatter them with a single blow. While Winter Blast is a powerful tool in many combat scenarios, it can lead to unintended consequences when interacting with key characters like Eleanor Lamb.
Eleanor, a pivotal figure in the story and a former Little Sister, remains in constant communication with you throughout the game. At a crucial point, she offers you her Plasmid, which is essential to advancing the storyline. However, if you have Winter Blast equipped during this moment, you canfreeze and shatter Eleanor, effectively breaking the progression of the game.
