20 Video Games That Force You to Cheat (And Why)
Cheating usually gets a bad rap in gaming. Most people think of it as a way to steal a win or skip the hard work. But sometimes, you have to cheat just to see the credits roll. Broken code and unfair design can turn a fun game into a brick wall.
Many games launch with bugs that stop progress entirely. Other games have difficulty spikes that feel like a mistake. Whether it is the legendary Konami Code or typing commands into a PC console, some cheats are basically unofficial patches.
We looked at 20 games where bending the rules is the only way to survive. From missing enemies to AI that cheats against you, here are the titles that force you to cheat.
Glitches and Broken Mechanics That Break the Game
Grand Theft Auto 3: The Purple 9’s Glitch
GTA 3 is a classic, but it has a bug that can kill your save file. This happens during the “Uzi Money” mission where you must kill 20 Purple 9’s gang members.
The problem is that the gang members often just vanish from the map. They are deleted from the game after you finish the “Rumble” mission. You can search for hours and find nobody.
To fix this, some people delete all their saves, but that wipes your progress. The best bet is to download a pre-made save file from a community site. It is the only way to skip the glitch and move forward.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance: The “Questions and Answers” Quest
This game is hard on purpose, but some bugs are just unfair. Saving is a pain because you need a special item to do it manually. If you rely on auto-saves, you might lose hours of work.
The “Questions and Answers” quest is a disaster. If you leave the area too long, you fail. If you miss a specific letter, you are stuck.
Many players use console commands to unlock doors and grab the letter. Doing it “the right way” often breaks the game triggers. Cheating is simply faster and safer here.
Polaris Snowcross: The Unbeatable Rubber Banding
Racing games often use rubber banding to keep AI close to the player. Polaris Snowcross takes this to a scary level. The AI doesn’t just track one race; it tracks your whole career.
As you win more, the AI gets faster and stronger. Eventually, they hit speeds of 500 mph. They launch ahead like they have rockets on their backs.
Even on the easiest setting, the final tracks are impossible. The only way to see them is to open the game files in Notepad. You have to manually change the values to win.
Unfinished Systems and Unintended Consequences
Fallout 4: The Minutemen Betrayal Bug
Bethesda is known for bugs, and the Nuka-World DLC is no exception. In this expansion, you can side with raider gangs and send them into the Commonwealth.
This choice can permanently turn the Minutemen against you. If this happens, your friendship with Preston Garvey ends forever. This locks you out of major story paths.
PC players use console commands to fix their faction standing. Without these cheats, you are stuck with a broken story.
Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix: The Escort Mission Nightmare
Escort missions are usually hated, but this one is a nightmare. You have to protect marines who are completely useless. They get stuck on walls or die for no reason.
If your allies die, you lose. If you go too far ahead, you hit an invisible wall and die. The jungle foliage is so thick you cannot see the enemies hitting you.
God mode is a popular choice here. It doesn’t fix the dumb AI, but it keeps you alive while you struggle through the mess.
Sonic the Hedgehog 06: The Power-Up Predicament
Sonic 06 is legendary for being broken. It has a power-up system that does not even work. The meter that should limit your abilities is busted.
This lets you use special powers as much as you want. It is more of a developer mistake than a cheat, but it makes the game easy.
There is also a famous “infinite jump” glitch. By buying a purple gem, Sonic can basically fly over levels. Most players use this to skip the parts of the game that are not fun.
Unfair Difficulty and Unseen Obstacles
Descent & Descent 2: The Impossible Final Boss
Back in the 90s, patches were hard to get. Original copies of Descent had a massive flaw. The final boss required more ammo than the game actually gave you.
Unless you played on the lowest difficulties, you could not win. You would simply run out of bullets before the boss died. This happened in Descent 2 as well.
Modern re-releases fixed this, but old-school players had to use cheats. It was the only way to actually finish the game.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within: The Game-Breaking Save Glitch
Saving your game should be safe, but not always. In this game, saving at a specific fountain early on can break the ending.
There is no clear reason why this happens. It just corrupts the path to the true final boss. Once it triggers, you are stuck.
The only fix is to reload a very old save or download a new one. Players have to follow online guides just to know where NOT to save.
Battletoads: The CRT vs. Flat Screen Challenge
Battletoads was always hard, but new TVs made it impossible. Old CRT TVs had almost zero input lag. This made the Turbo Tunnel playable.
Modern flat screens have a slight delay. In a game that requires frame-perfect timing, a few milliseconds are everything. This makes some levels literally unbeatable on new hardware.
Players now use level warps to skip these parts. It is not about skill; it is about the hardware.
Monetization and Tedious Grinding
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: The XP Multiplier Dilemma
Ubisoft decided to sell XP multipliers for this single-player game. While they were labeled as “optional,” they felt required.
The game demands a massive amount of grinding. Without the multiplier, you have to do every single side quest just to progress.
The community responded by making mods on Nexus Mods. These mods give you the XP boost for free. It restores the game’s pace without costing money.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Skipping the Kingdom Management
This is a great RPG, but the management side-games are boring. You have to rule a country and manage armies in a separate mode.
These sections take dozens of hours. They provide necessary upgrades, but the gameplay is tedious.
Many players use cheat mods to skip the battles and take the rewards. This makes replays much more enjoyable.
The Simpsons: Hit and Run: The Near-Impossible Final Missions
Most of this game is a blast. However, the final three missions are brutal. The race to the nuclear power plant is the worst.
You have to drive a perfect line in under a minute. One small crash usually means you fail. Random chaos in Springfield makes this almost impossible.
Using the invincibility cheat is common here. It lets you take shortcuts and smash through obstacles without stopping.
Challenging Design and Systemic Flaws
Mega Man X6: Artificial and Random Difficulty
Mega Man X6 feels like a game that ran out of time. It uses “nightmare modifiers” that add random hazards to levels.
You might deal with acid rain and falling fireballs at the same time. It does not feel like a fair challenge; it feels random.
Many players use cheats to unlock the strongest upgrades early. This lets them breeze through the nonsense and finish the game.
Breakdown: Backwards Compatibility Woes
Breakdown was a first-person brawler for the original Xbox. When it moved to the Xbox Series X, things broke.
The game runs at a higher frame rate now. But the enemy AI is tied to the frame rate. This means enemies attack and react way faster than intended.
One final arena fight becomes almost impossible. Since there are no built-in cheats, players have to use save files to get past it.
Alone in the Dark (2008): Day One Brokenness
This game tried to do a lot with physics and fire. Unfortunately, none of it worked. It was a janky mess from day one.
Some sequences, like the car chases, would not load correctly. Your car would just fall through the floor.
The developers added a chapter select menu. This was basically a built-in cheat to let players skip the parts that didn’t work.
Iconic Cheats and Community-Driven Solutions
The Konami Code: Contra’s Lifeline
Contra is famous for one-hit deaths. Starting with only 10 lives is a death sentence for most beginners.
The Konami Code gives you 30 lives instead. This allows you to learn the patterns and maps without restarting the whole game every five minutes.
It turned a frustrating experience into a playable one. It is the most famous “necessary” cheat in history.
Driver: The Tutorial Roadblock
Driver has one of the worst tutorials ever made. It asks you to do complex stunts without explaining how.
If you cannot finish the tutorial in 60 seconds, you cannot play the game. Many people quit right here.
The stage select menu is the only way out. It lets you skip the tutorial and go straight to the real missions.
Skyrim: The PC Master Race Advantage
Even the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim has broken quests. triggers fail, and NPCs disappear. This can stop the Civil War storyline entirely.
On consoles, you are just stuck. On PC, you have console commands. You can manually tell the game that a quest is finished.
Mods also fix the carry weight limit. Being able to hoard items without slowing down is a quality-of-life cheat almost every player uses.
Final Thoughts
Cheating isn’t always about winning. Sometimes, it is about fixing a game that the developers left broken. Whether it is an unpatched boss in the 90s or a buggy quest in 2026, these tools keep us playing.
We have moved from simple button codes to complex modding and hex editing. These changes are often the only way to experience the full story of a game.
If a game is actively fighting against you, there is no shame in bending the rules. Have you ever had to cheat just to finish a game? Let us know in the comments.
