History GuideDangIt / FirstPersonShooter

* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'''s Artifact of Spirit. The game tells you to seek the unseen entrance at the top of a certain room. The entrance you want is actually two or three platforms down in the room, hidden behind a completely normal square of wall. However, at the top is a Morph Ball tunnel that leads to a Power Bomb expansion. Combined with the misleading hint, this makes the hidden door way too hard to find. Just to add to that, the X-Ray Visor (which is what most people will think of when they hear 'unseen entrance') doesn't work well for seeing the hidden door.

* Getting access to many of the secret areas from ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' is a Guide Dang It moment. Usually requiring taking a LeapOfFaith or exploiting the jump physics to reach otherwise unreachable areas, with the game not giving you any hints about where and when to do either to reach a secret area. Most times it's better to leave well enough alone, but in order to [[HundredPercentCompletion unlock the final difficulty]], you are required to earn [[PowerUp collectible card powerups]] for meeting specific requirements when completing a level. Some levels require either finding all secret areas, or looting the contents of said secret areas to meet the card requirements.
** To provide an example: one of the later levels in the game, ''City on Water'', specifically requires you to find all its secrets to get the card powerup, and the level itself has some of the most devious secrets in the entire game, including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsN7_C6C-VQ rolling a specific barrel down to the starting point to reveal a jump pad and using it to jump up to the top of a tower]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMUVtk-IH4 jumping over the water and doing a full turn to get inside a small alcove]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMY4oUsima8 and abusing jump physics to hop over the rooftops]].

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* ''VideoGame/PhantomForces'' The votekick system is unable to be used until the player reaches Rank 25. Unfortunately, even if the player gains those privileges, they aren't reminded ''how'' to votekick them, and by that point, the only to know such a system exists is to see someone else get votekicked and search up how to votekick. This is one of the major reasons why the votekick system is a ScrappyMechanic.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife'''s level "Questionable Ethics", you are stuck inside a lab, and the only way out is by getting a scientist to open a door for you to leave the building. You find several interruptors of different kinds, many soldiers and aliens, and there are some scientists in a door you cannot open. The trick is to activate all the interruptors that provide energy to the superlaser, and then use a metal box to block the protection sheet's descent, thus making the superlaser impact on the wall and making it explode, which opens the way to the scientists' room. The only hint you get is a note about not blocking the sheet.

** ''VideoGame/DoomIIHellOnEarth'':
*** In order to find a necessary key in [=MAP19=] ("The Citadel"), you have to open a specific discolored wall in a generic corridor. Yep, you need to find a well-hidden secret area to finish the level - then, on top of that, you need to discern which of the five teleporters in that secret area actually leads you to that key (the far right one, for those curious). This game isn't quite so bad as most though because A) unlike most later FPS games, it includes a map (possible thanks to the 2D level design), which shows doors, and can be upgraded with a powerup to show unexplored areas as well; and B) [[SequenceBreaking only two of the three keys are actually necessary]] - the red bar in the center of the doorway to the exit takes up more space than the other two, so the red key plus one of either other key is enough to pass through.

*** There are three secret levels that contain a component that powers up your Unmaker weapon. Get all three and you have effectively built your ultimate weapon. The problem lies in getting to the one of the levels; "Level 4: Holding Area" has a lengthy balcony with four switches on it, that must be pressed in a certain order to unlock the secret-exit room. Mess it up, and you must restart the level to get another try. The proper sequence is not obvious, requiring [[TrialAndErrorGameplay brute-force]] or a strategy guide.\\

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode Two'' gives us the Hunter. It is ''very'' resilient to damage from most types of weapons, but has a crippling weakness to stuff launched by your gravity gun. The game never even hints at this, which is rather jarring considering how good Valve normally is at guiding the player towards these kind of discoveries; possibly, they assumed the player would just naturally try to fight it with the Gravity Gun [[WreakingHavok for the sake of trying to fight it with the Gravity Gun]]. It doesn't help that the finale of the game requires you to kill them in droves during a BossRush. Fortunately, they're ''also'' highly susceptible to [[CarFu being run down by your car]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} II''
** In order to find a necessary key in [=MAP19=] ("The Citadel"), you have to open a specific discolored wall in a generic corridor. Yep, you need to find a well-hidden secret area to finish the level - then, on top of that, you need to discern which of the five teleporters in that secret area actually leads you to that key (the far right one, for those curious). This game isn't quite so bad as most though because A) unlike most later FPS games, it includes a map (possible thanks to the 2D level design), which shows doors, and can be upgraded with a powerup to show unexplored areas as well; and B) [[SequenceBreaking only two of the three keys are actually necessary]] - the red bar in the center of the doorway to the exit takes up more space than the other two, so the red key plus one of either other key is enough to pass through.
** The FinalBoss of the game, the Icon of Sin, is normally a very straightforward PuzzleBoss in which you raise a platform to the proper height in which to fire a projectile into the opening which hides its "brain" [[spoiler:(a sprite of ''Doom'' developer John Romero's severed head)]]. Normally this is aligned with a texture that acts as a false wall, however in TNT Evilution the level geometry that hides the brain is ''underneath'' the "hole" texture. What's worse is that the projectiles stop at the bottom edge of the texture, which gives you the impression that you have to aim higher, but in fact you're supposed to descend one step down from the top of the stairway leading to the ledge you ''think'' is supposed to be the right spot to stand and then shoot at what looks like solid metal. The only way to figure this out outside of pure accident is to noclip into the brain area, shoot towards the ledge and see the projectiles at slightly below eye level in relation to the topmost area.
* The spin-off game ''VideoGame/Doom64'', released originally only for Nintendo 64:
** There are three secret levels that contain a component that powers up your Unmaker weapon. Get all three and you have effectively built your ultimate weapon. The problem lies in getting to the one of the levels; "Level 4: Holding Area" has a lengthy balcony with four switches on it, that must be pressed in a certain order to unlock the secret-exit room. Mess it up, and you must restart the level to get another try. The proper sequence is not obvious, requiring [[TrialAndErrorGameplay brute-force]] or a strategy guide.\\

** "Level 21: Pitfalls" has a switch that must be pressed in order to open the exit to the level, but it is so needlessly far back near the start that you may not think to return here to press it.
* In ''VideoGame/Doom3'', there are two special storage cabinets sent from a company called "Martian Buddy" that contain free stuff for personnel, and the codes to them are nowhere in the game. To find the code, ''you actually have to go to the website www.martianbuddy.com'' [[note]]As of 2012, the website isn't even online any more outside of the Website/WaybackMachine. Luckily, the code is still available in [=FAQs=].[[/note]]. One of these allows you to obtain the chaingun early, which is a big help for clearing out the DemonicSpiders at the end of Alpha Labs Sector 2 on higher difficulty levels.

** Big Oil Day 2 is practically impossible without reading a FAQ first. Your target is a machine in a basement full of similar machines, and you have to determine which one is the working fusion engine based on information on some chalkboards, computer monitors, and very small notepads. If your texture settings were too low, the information would have been unreadable ([[AuthorsSavingThrow until they patched it so that mission-critical information would not be affected by graphics settings]]). TrialAndErrorGameplay usually doesn't work - there are a dozen possibilities, you move at a snail's pace while carrying them, you can only try one at a time, your stealth is broken as soon as your helicopter arrives if you haven't already gone loud, said helicopter lands at a private runway (read: open field with little to no cover), and you can't escape until you hand over the right engine. It also doesn't help that the computer monitor that displays some information you need can be destroyed by gunfire or grenade explosions, which means you're shit out of luck if it happens and you didn't figure out the solution yet... or the possibility of players in public games (assuming that this is like every other heist in the game) start ''bagging all the machines'' before the right machine is found, turning all twelve similar machines into unmarked loot bags.

* Getting access to many of the secret areas from ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' is a Guide Dang It moment. Requiring taking a LeapOfFaith or exploiting the jump physics to reach otherwise unreachable areas, with the game not giving you any hints about where and when to do either to reach a secret area. Most times its better to leave well enough alone except to [[HundredPercentCompletion unlock the final difficulty]] requires earning [[PowerUp collectible card powerups]] for meeting specific requirements when completing a level. Some levels require either finding all secret areas, or looting the contents of said secret areas to meet the card requirements.
** To provide an example: One of the later levels in the game, ''City on Water'', specifically requires you to find all its secrets to get the card powerup, and the level itself has some of the most devious secrets in the entire game, including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsN7_C6C-VQ rolling a specific barrel down to the starting point to reveal a jump pad and using it to jump up to the top of a tower]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMUVtk-IH4 jumping over the water and doing a full turn to get inside a small alcove]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMY4oUsima8 and abusing jump physics to hop over the rooftops]].

** Big Oil Day 2 is practically impossible without reading a FAQ first. Your target is a machine in a basement full of similar machines, and you have to determine which one is the working fusion engine based on information on some chalkboards, computer monitors, and very small notepads. If your texture settings were too low, the information would have been unreadable ([[AuthorsSavingThrow until they patched it so that mission-critical information would not be affected by graphics settings]]). TrialAndErrorGameplay usually doesn't work - there are a dozen possibilities, you move at a snail's pace while carrying them, you can only try one at a time, your stealth is broken as soon as your helicopter arrives if you haven't already gone loud, said helicopter lands at a private runway (read: open field with little to no cover), and you can't escape until you hand over the right engine. It also doesn't help that the computer monitor that displays some information you need can be destroyed by gunfire or grenade explosions, which means you're shit out of luck if it happens and you didn't figure out the solution yet.
** The steps to unlocking the OVERDRILL achievement are just as convoluted and troublesome as they were in the original game, with precise positioning of all 4 players, and the activation of specific floor tiles being required.

*** After doing this, a device sitting in front of the three boxes can be activated, and shows off a rotating series of coded messages. Each player has to ''screenshot'' each message and cross-check it with a cipher. The messages are all randomized, and correspond to 20 random achievements in the game. (These can include achievements like OVERDRILL on First World Bank, which is itself a HarderThanHard achievement to get in the first place.) When all the messages are decoded, you'll have to team up with three other friends or players who have also completed the cipher messages and enter the White House Heist on Overkill difficulty or higher. This time around, when entering the PEOC wing, a Mayan painting displayed in one of the side rooms will glow and be activated, revealing a tunnel to a secret elevator that leads down to a vault entrance.[[note]]After this point, anyone who drops connection or crashes their game won't be able to reconnect, forcing them to start the level again.[[/note]]
*** [[FromBadToWorse It gets better.]] Upon walking up to the vault entrance and activating, reskinned cloakers (who give no warning of when and how often they appear) will begin attacking the group. While three of the players fend off the skinners, one player will have to decode another message written on the center of the vault door, using the aforementioned cipher and having to deal with rings that move together and sometimes independently. Even better, ''four separate riddles'' have to be solved, all while the group is continually attacked. This part is expected to take upwards of 30 minutes -- better hope you brought a ton of ammo and medic bags!
*** After doing all that, the vault finally opens and the group can move inside, where they find... nothing. It's then revealed that the Dentist has brought Locke and the dying Bain with him in an attempt to seize the vault for himself, and he asks the group to walk out of the vault. [[NonStandardGameOver Do that, and you'll fail to get the secret]]. You ''have'' to shoot the Dentist from the entrance of the vault, then use the Mayan Gold and place it in specific spots within. Do that, and you'll finally unlock a bounty of goods, including four Legendary Masks, a "secret ending" cinematic (which shows [[spoiler:the crew living it up while Bain (who has apparently regenerated into the U.S. President) gives a speech in front of the White House]]), a text crawl wrapping up many of the overarching plot threads found throughout the game and its DLC, and a Theater Mode to watch all of the videos released for the game.

* ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar''. The special weapons. Most are in out of the way areas you wouldn't otherwise think about, including a sewer, the bedroom of an apartment dweller, under some junk in an antique store, and a utility hallway. The worst though, is the [[spoiler: Hellfire Boltcaster]], which is hidden in a small room only accessible by jumping over to a small ledge in an area you don't have much inclination to be in anyway (it frigging off one faction to the point of sending assassins if you complete the objective there.)
* ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'':
** Marchenko's killswitch. You have two opportunities to get this item (which helps during the final boss battle if you're going the lethal route), but both of them are so well-hidden that you will not find them unless you have OCD-like tendencies of thoroughly examining every item and room you come across. The first is hidden in the G.A.R.M. facility -- and in a first for this game (and likely the series), the only way to access it is to ''crouch-jump on top of'' a set of lockers, look down and press a hidden button wedged between the lockers and wall, which opens a compartment in one of the lockers that has a switch. The second is found in the final level itself -- in a box hidden under a table. Up to this point, the game has never given an indication that there were items hidden ''in'' boxes, and the player is never led to believe otherwise. The second killswitch doesn't even show up on Smart Vision due to being inside another object, either.
** Getting the "best" outcome for the Dvali EnemyCivilWar. Getting Otar and the rest of the Dvali operatives to remain civil when you visit the old Prague Theater in the third act not only requires you to have done all of the optional objectives that Otar gave you earlier in the game, but also knock out or kill Radich Nikoladze during the second visit to Prague, despite nothing in the story telling you to do so besides a couple of vague emails talking about Radich and Otar's relationship. Not only that, but completing the objectives in the opportune fashion ''requires'' you to use lethal methods (and thus break a non-lethal run). If you choose to let Louis Gallois escape (via faking his death and assuming a new identity) instead of killing him and his bodyguards outright, Otar and the rest of the soldiers will still be hostile when you arrive at the theater. This is despite him telling you earlier on that you've completed his favor if you do all the requisite tasks.
** The "Golden Rookery" achievement requires you to carry an oversized gold-plated pigeon from Ivan Berk's apartment right near the start location in Golem City to a hidden area within ARC Territory. Aside from the fact that Berk's apartment isn't even immediately noticeable from the ground (you have to climb several floors to get to it -- the map doesn't help matters), the final destination requires that you've invested in the "Punch Through Walls" aug. And that's not even getting started on the bugs that can cause the penguin to disappear if you stray too far from it, especially within the Throat.

** In ''Mysteries of the Sith'', the expansion path for ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'', the second level starts you on an asteroid with a large, obvious hole in front of you. Going down that hole will send you through the first portion of the level backwards without a crucial weapon. What you actually need to do is turn around and scour the area for a much smaller hole, then solve a puzzle to get the Sniper Scope.

** Also in the first stage, there's an armored truck that can do pretty heavy damage unless you destroy it quickly. Trouble is, your weapons can't pull that off. What can, however, is the hidden smart bomb accessible by disc-ing the boared-up window, which will take out everything except the missile launcher. Blow that and the truck is history.

** The first game has proximity mines that can be detonated by shooting at them. However for some reason it's extremely hard to do so with anything other than the pistol, leading players to think they can't be removed short of purposefully walking over them. Annoyingly, you also can't pick them up with telekinesis, even though the rest of the game is really good at allowing you to pick up almost any object you can see. Likewise, there are electrical tripwires you can trigger by shooting the mechanism, but given they're small, easily missable, and most other games opt to have you getting close and interacting with it instead, a lot of players don't realise they can be disabled safely either.

* The first two ''VideoGame/BioShock'' games had a hyperspace arsenal for weapons, but ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' only let you carry two different guns. ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'' went back to having multiple guns, but displayed them on a weapons wheel that was opened by holding 'F', while scrolling merely switched between the two you last used, so most players believed they had two guns when they actually had several. As you cannot pick up a weapon you already have, many players thought there was a bug where they could not pick up a weapon they had dropped.

* The spin-off game ''Doom 64'', released originally only for Nintendo 64:

The manual is only a little help, as it explains basic gameplay a bit, tells you about the Tantanik Crystals and pictures (which you need to get items), mostly insults you, and doesn't describe any of the items. As a result, with the manual, you'll probably end up blindly experimenting with items in the hope that one of them does something useful, as [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] did during his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-B3Ywi6Os first review]]; this may or may not include {{Rage Quit}}ting after your entire inventory is confiscated because you took unspecified stolen property. May whatever deity you worship help you if your copy didn't come with the manual or you downloaded it from an abandonware website; because the game itself explains nothing, you can't know about items or Tantanik Crystals or that you're meant to drag the Tantanik Crystals onto the pictures, and you'll likely be wandering around the level in a futile search for an exit until the weird white skeleton demons kill you.\\

The manual is only a little help, as it explains basic gameplay a bit, tells you about the Tatanik Crystals and pictures (which you need to get items), mostly insults you, and doesn't describe any of the items. As a result, with the manual, you'll probably end up blindly experimenting with items in the hope that one of them does something useful, as [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] did during his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-B3Ywi6Os review]]; this may or may not include {{Rage Quit}}ting after your entire inventory is confiscated because you took unspecified stolen property. May whatever deity you worship help you if your copy didn't come with the manual; because the game itself explains nothing, you can't know about items or Tantanik Crystals or that you're meant to drag them onto the pictures, and you'll likely be wandering around the level in a futile search for an exit until the weird white skeleton demons kill you.\\
When you inevitably give up, search the internet for any sort of help, and find [[https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/564489-bloodwings-pumpkinheads-revenge/faqs/58487 the walkthrough]] '''''that only became available after Spoony's first review''''', you'll find that the item functions and the steps you should have taken are [[MoonLogicPuzzle bizarre at best]] and the game should never have expected you to work it out on your own. Sure, {{Adventure Game}}s can be [[GuideDangIt/{{Adventure}} rather cryptic at times]], but at least important information is given in-game.

*** Except there have been items in, under, and behind boxes throughout the game.

When you inevitably give up, search the internet for any sort of help, and find [[https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/564489-bloodwings-pumpkinheads-revenge/faqs/58487 the walkthrough]] '''''that only became available after Spoony's first review''''', you'll find that the item functions and the steps you should have taken are [[MoonLogicPuzzle bizarre at best]] and the game should never have expected you to work it out on your own. Sure, {{Adventure Game}}s can be [[`GuideDangIt/{{Adventure}} rather cryptic at times]], but at least important information is given in-game.

** he game is loaded with secrets which no normal player would find. Between many levels, there were "ammunition dump" stages which could only be accessed by achieving above a certain percentage of the previous level's objective. There were hidden rooms which could only opened if the player did things like shoot random walls (causing a wall to open somewhere for some reason), blow up random walls (which uses precious explosives), walk over specific spots and even a few even found down ''supposedly'' bottomless pits in levels filled with ''legitimate'' bottomless pits. Many of these rooms were not near their triggers (though you did get a door opening message) and many were timed with very strict timers and some wouldn't open twice meaning you had to know where they are beforehand. It's not uncommon for a player to suddenly find a wall or door open or a lift suddenly moving without having any clue as to what triggered it and then spend hours on subsequent playthroughs trying to trigger it again.

** The game is loaded with secrets which no normal player would find. Between many levels, there were "ammunition dump" stages which could only be accessed by achieving above a certain percentage of the previous level's objective. There were hidden rooms which could only opened if the player did things like shoot random walls (causing a wall to open somewhere for some reason), blow up random walls (which uses precious explosives) or walk over specific spots. Many of these rooms were not near their triggers (though you did get a door opening message) and many were timed with very strict timers and some wouldn't open twice meaning you had to know where they are beforehand. Many enemies were actually inside walls and would only come out if you made a hole (by for example blowing up a locker) or finding an broken air vent cover and drawing them to the hole from where they are. (You can hear them through walls, but that's your only clue.)
** The ability to blow up lockers is in itself an example, because most lockers are not breakable and it's not properly explained by the mission briefings. While many mission items and enemies are found in them, it's possible to find enough of each item/enemy on those levels without breaking any lockers to be able to progress to the next level, meaning it's possible to finish the entire game without realizing you can break some lockers. This in turn will lock you out of many ammunition dump stages due to not achieving a high enough mission complete percentage.

** In order to find a necessary key in [=MAP19=] ("The Citadel"), you have to open a specific discolored wall in a generic corridor. Yep, you need to find a well-hidden secret area to finish the level - then, on top of that, you need to discern which of the five teleporters in that secret area actually leads you to that key. This game isn't quite so bad as most though because A) unlike most later FPS games, it includes a map (possible thanks to the 2D level design), which shows doors, and can be upgraded with a powerup to show unexplored areas as well; and B) only two of the three keys are actually necessary - the red bar blocking off the exit takes up most of the doorway's space, so that plus only one of the other two keys is enough to pass.

When you inevitably give up, search the internet for any sort of help, and find [[https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/564489-bloodwings-pumpkinheads-revenge/faqs/58487 the walkthrough]] '''''that only became available after Spoony's first review''''', you'll find that the item functions and the steps you should have taken are [[MoonLogicPuzzle bizarre at best]] and the game should never have expected you to work it out on your own. Sure, {{Adventure Game}}s can be [[GuideDangIt/{{Adventure}} rather cryptic at times]], but at least important information is given in-game.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{DOOM}} DOOM II]]''
** In order to find a necessary key in [=MAP19=] ("The Citadel"), you have to open a specific discolored wall in a generic corridor. Yep, you need to find a well-hidden secret area to finish the level. This game isn't quite so bad as most though because unlike most later [=FPS=] games, it includes a map (possible thanks to the 2D level design), which shows doors, and can be upgraded with a powerup to show unexplored areas as well.
** The FinalBoss of the game, the Icon of Sin, is normally a very straightforward PuzzleBoss in which you raise a platform to the proper height in which to fire a projectile into the opening which hides its "brain" [[spoiler:(a sprite of DOOM developer John Romero's severed head)]]. Normally this is aligned with a texture that acts as a false wall, however in TNT Evilution the level geometry that hides the brain is ''undernearth'' the "hole" texture. What's worse is that the projectiles stop at the bottom edge of the texture, which gives you the impression that you have to aim higher, but in fact you're supposed to descend one step down from the top of the stairway leading to the ledge you ''think'' is supposed to be the right spot to stand and then shoot at what looks like solid metal. The only way to figure this out outside of pure accident is to noclip into the brain area, shoot towards the ledge and see the projectiles at slightly below eye level in relation to the topmost area.

Once you reach each secret-levels, you must then solve puzzles to actually reach your Unmaker components. This is more of a test of patience than anything, with the first component requiring a jumping-puzzle through an orthogonal room where switches must be shot in a certain order. The second-component is locked with a sound-puzzle, requiring that the player notice the sound of machinery lowering and play Literature/WheresWaldo with switches that are revealed in a limited time frame (after the first one is shot). Finally, the last component is a more straight-forward, just requiring a good running speed to reach in time before the object is teleported back to another platform and the player must try again.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 3'', there are two special storage cabinets sent from a company called "Martian Buddy" that contain free stuff for personnel, and the codes to them are nowhere in the game. To find the code, ''you actually have to go to the website www.martianbuddy.com'' [[note]]As of 2012, www.martianbuddy.com isn't even online any more outside of the Website/WaybackMachine. Luckily, the code is still available in FAQ's.[[/note]]. One of these allows you to obtain the chaingun early, which is a big help for clearing out the DemonicSpiders at the end of Alpha Labs Sector 2 on higher difficulty levels.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife'''s level "Questionable Ethics", you are stuck inside a lab, and the only way out is by getting a scientist to open a door for you to leave the building. You find several interruptors of different kinds, many soldiers and aliens, and there are some scientists in a door you cannot open. The trick is to activate all the interruptors that provide energy to the superlaser, and then use a metal box to block the protection sheet's descent, thus making the superlaser impact on the wall and making it explode, which opens the way to the scientists' room. The only hint you get is about not blocking the sheet.

** The Library is a level where you need to spend a lot of time of the surface. Hope you brought plenty of filters!