LOL so many memories about this one. I still remember how many people died on the first enemy on the tutorial, due to a very similar outcome.

I can't remember any game I couldn't get past the first level because of difficulty, but I can think of plenty who turned me off for either story, gameplay, or similar things.

Up until a day ago, I couldn't beat the first level of the Empire saga in Disciples: Sacred Lands. I started on Hard difficulty, gave up, tried Normal, gave up, and then finally succeeded on Easy. It's embarrassing, but Easy seemed like the only way I could avoid having my main party get slaughtered by an OP opponent. That said, even Easy is no walk in the park. I'm about halfway through the second level right now, so I hope it's manageable. But damn, I wish I could've at least done well in Normal!

When I first played C&C I couldnt beat the first mission. that changed after a year...
its kinda embarrassing.

Same here. I'm not really good with Heroes-like games (I prefer 4X), but Disciples I found extremely hard. I still think I'm missing something, I'm doing it wrong in some way.

It's seriously hard by design. Everything hinges on your party surviving and leveling up, but it's incredibly easy to die. Your fragile healer and wizard die quickly to ranged enemies, so keeping them alive is a major challenge. The RNG can really screw you over, too. Your party members tend to miss their attacks A LOT, and each miss can prove injurious or even fatal. If you somehow manage to keep everyone alive for a while, you can improve your odds by using magic. But from what I've seen so far, it's bloody difficult.

For me it was GTA (probably the first one). I never managed to do anything you were supposed to do because I stole all the nice looking cars I saw and collected them by the docks somewhere and then I couldn't go too far away from them or my whole car collection would de-spawn. So I couldn't really do anything in the game except drive around near the docks xD