Level 15. This spot for example. There is an opening up there and some pipes on the wall seem to be there to help the player to climb to that opening. However there is no way to climb, it's a dead end. The path that the player should take is under the floor, following the pipes that go in another direction. A simple way to fix that is to place lights under the floor so that the player can see the path. Notice that the bright orange lights were placed elsewhere, which doesn't help guide the player at all.

Chapter 2. The trail of blood on the floor guides the player. However, when the player opens the door, there is a faint pulsating light coming from the floor below that attracts the player's attention. Going downstairs and the player finds an inactive seal. Going back upstairs and the player notices a highlighted door to a courtyard. There the player fights demons and discovers a magically locked door. The seal to open the door activates after the player fights the demons. The dark room has a corpse that indicates the direction of the door to the courtyard, but who is going to see it if the room is dark?

There is another error in this part. The windows are partially blocked by wooden planks. In spite of the wooden planks the sunlight is very bright, even brighter than outside. Even the sunlight's color is wrong. It's bright yellow whereas on the outside it's noon.

There are many ways to fix those errors. One of the most obvious is: why is the light pulsating when the seal is inactivate and therefore can't be destroyed? Other ways include putting a light on the door to the courtyard, changing the layout so that the player goes directly to the courtyard or moving around the staircase so that the player sees the door first.

Chapter 4. When the player reaches this garden the lights on the outer walls are much brighter than the lights under the trees. The light should had been brighter where the player is, battling the demons. It's inverted. The large Chinese portal that serves as a landmark is barely visible because the lights placed on it doesn't highlight it properly. The player has to go through the stairs but they are barely visible with lights placed not on the step themselves but on the outer sides. To make matters even worse the garden has fog and the tree themselves prevent the player from seeing the Chinese portal unless from very close. When the player is on the stairs they can't see the garden's entrance either.

Far away on the horizon there is a building with golden light. The player isn't supposed to follow it as it's not a goal or even part of the level itself. Yet it draws the player's attention in the wrong direction.

There is a part in the first level that the player has to notice that the path is above a window, through a grate with low light. The problem here is that the window guides the player's eyes to look down below to the room they came from. In the same level, near the end, there is another grate hidden in a dark corner and behind some explosive barrels. In this case the path does have explosive barrels to draw the player's attention, plus the fact that this game invites the player to explore dark corners to find secrets.

Kosov. This CTF map is one of the largest and least played. The main entrance to the red base is very clear. However, there is a second way in to the left that is hidden by the map's terrain. Both ways lead to the red flag, but the main entrance forces the player to go through a long corridor. That long corridor has a mistake, you can't see from the beginning of it that the red flag's room is to the right. If the player follows the hidden path to the red base they reach the same corridor from the other end, from which the red flag's room is clearly visible. The same thing happens in the cavern that links the red and the blue bases. When the player is going to the blue base they face a bright fog at the end that kills players going in there. It's a dead end. You can't see that the entrance to the blue base is to the left of that bright fog.

In both the cavern and the corridor cases there could be a simple step or a different floor texture to mark the entrance.

Image credits: GameArmy e Patrick Steuer

When the player goes in the tavern there is a small mistake. A character guides the player to a kitchen and then a small room. When the player faces the corridor they can see the door to the bathroom to the left and the kitchen. A misplaced shelf in the kitchen hides the door to the small room where the character went in. If the player saw or followed him, no problems. But if the player missed the character going in that room, the shelf in kitchen hides the room's entrance. To make it worse, there is a light inside the room placed behind the wall. It gives light to the character that sells ammo and weapons, but by being behind the wall it doesn't help the player see that room.

Groma Mines mission. When the player reaches the end of this corridor he or she sees a chasm and it seems to be a dead end. It's not. The path to progress is "hidden" from the player's view. He or she has to look down and to the right. If the player tries to reach the other side of the chasm he or she is going to fall to their deaths because it's not possible to cross this chasm by jumping or running. This narrow corridor creates the frame effect at the end of it, which drivers the player's attention in a direction that is unbreachable. Even worse, there are some laser turrets on the ceiling (except on easy difficulty) which further helps drive the player's attention off from where they should look for to progress.

Jabbas's Ship mission. When the player enters this room there is a spiral staircase that is completely outside the player's view. If the player happens to go in and then turn clockwise, he or she is going to miss the staircase and become lost because that staircase is the way to go.

Research Facility mission. This example is worth discussing. The path to go is outside the player's view. However, there are some caveats. There is a shield and an enemy placed, which draws the player's attention in that direction. After the player wanders around though, it's easy to get lost because there are no landmarks to guide the player. We have conflicting design decisions here.

Duke desert levels part are outdoors and linear and yet, still suffer from paths outside the player's view. That or bifurcation that doesn't signal which way is right. There is that part that the player passes under a bridge and then there are tire markings which indicate where to go, but those markings are outside the player's view! How smart! (irony). There is even debris and fire drawing the player's attention and making the player go to a dead end.