"Challenging" or "Just Bloody Irritating" ?

[Sixcess]

So I've been playing Oblivion for the last couple of days. It's a good game and far better than I expected seeing as I greatly dislike Fallout 3. But there's a couple of things it does which I think cross the line from challenging to just bloody irritating.

Stuns/Knockback/Whatever they call it. I hate this in any game. I can see it being valid in small doses, but what designer in their right mind thinks "hey, let's give this enemy an attack that completely robs the player of control of their character for a few seconds during which the enemy continues to rip them to bits." ? That Ogre (I think it was an Ogre) in an early part of Dragon Age had a similar habit with it's prolonged might-as-well-be-a-cutscene grab attack.

Aggro. I'm undecided as to whether horses are completely fucking useless or not. Reason being, I'm riding along and I aggro a wolf. Said wolf will then pursue me for 5 or 10 minutes, guaranteeing that the second I step off my horse I'll get attacked by a wolf, having already lost health from being bitten when my fucking horse got stuck against a rock for a few seconds, and being utterly unable to do anything while on said horse. Oh, and when I do get off the horse I'll have to draw my weapon first before I can defend myself, giving my persistent furry friend an extra bite or two for free.

But the big one has to be this: I'm in a cave, and some crab/spider/thing bites me - once, then dies in one hit. "You have been infected with Swamp Fever" the game cheerfully informs me. "Your Strength is being drained." 5 seconds later I can't move because I've just lost 25% of my not-very-generous-to-begin-with carrying capacity, so basically I'll have to walk out of this fucking place half naked, go find a fucking cure then come back, if I can be bothered. Given the regularity of disease inducing attacks and the fact they last indefinitely there's a pitiful lack (read: none) of cure potions as drops.

It won't kill me, of course. It'll just force me to waste a stupid amount of time and money.

I like a challenge in a game, but these things are just making this not fun for me at all. It's not even like this is a set piece dungeon - just wolf/rat/bandit cave #347.

Yes, this is a rant, but in an attempt to disguise it as a legitimate topic I'll ask - what game mechanics have you encountered that you feel cross the line between challenging and irritating?

 

[Batou667]

I think there's a very fine line between challenge and arbitrarily, stupidly difficult, but a lot of the disctinction has to do with choice and the ability to approach a situation from several different angles.

Example of challenge: playing Halo on the hardest difficulty setting. I get killed a dozen times in the same encounter, so I have to radically rethink my strategy - perhaps switching to longer-range weapons, getting the AI guys to draw the enemy fire, maybe just try to plough through the encounter in a vehicle... it's a process of trial-and-improvement, and there are a number of "correct" solutions.

Example of annoyingly difficult: Fighting a boss on Ninja Gaiden. These bastards teleport around, dodge your Ninpo powers, deflect your shurikens, and are generally overpowered, cheating bastards. In a lot of cases there is ONE correct way to defeat the boss, and any deviation from this will get you killed. So, you'd better find that one correct combination of gameplay behaviour that results in you not dying, through repetitive trial and error.

 

[Revolutionary]

There's a difficulty slider in the settings you can take down. It doesn't affect achievements or any of the game content. I use it so should you.

Game mechanics have you encountered that you feel cross the line between challenging and irritating? -

- I find the fact that you aren't allowed to just enjoy the story of JRPG's and instead have to grind to infinity so you can beat the obnoxious boss battles.

 

[krazykidd]

The OP made me lol . Someone has never played D&D . " you have open the chest , the ceiling starts to crumble"

OT: nope it's just halarious role playing , you'll look back on this day and laugh.

 

[Vegosiux]

I think the "just bloody irritating" can be rather fun when taken to extremes. Extremes like Douglas Adams' Bureaucracy. One of the best games I've played, even if it's just a text adventure.

 

[Furioso]

There's a boss who does this constantly in Skyrim, and you have to fight him, or someone like him, 4 times during the quest chain (the one where you unite the 3 pieces of the necklace) he can use your Fus Roh Dah on you, which sends you flying, and then you can take up to 20 seconds to get your lazy ass off the floor, and this happens maybe once every 20 seconds, why can't I just dodge them you say? Because he clones himself into 4 ghosts, one can be hurt, all of them cast Fus Roh Dah.... the quest reward is very nice though

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

There are ways to become immune to disease.... Dark ways that will taint your soul forever.

 

[WodashGSJ]

But the big one has to be this: I'm in a cave, and some crab/spider/thing bites me - once, then dies in one hit. "You have been infected with Swamp Fever" the game cheerfully informs me. "Your Strength is being drained." 5 seconds later I can't move because I've just lost 25% of my not-very-generous-to-begin-with carrying capacity, so basically I'll have to walk out of this fucking place half naked, go find a fucking cure then come back, if I can be bothered. Given the regularity of disease inducing attacks and the fact they last indefinitely there's a pitiful lack (read: none) of cure potions as drops.

It won't kill me, of course. It'll just force me to waste a stupid amount of time and money.

I like a challenge in a game, but these things are just making this not fun for me at all. It's not even like this is a set piece dungeon - just wolf/rat/bandit cave #347.

Yes, this is a rant, but in an attempt to disguise it as a legitimate topic I'll ask - what game mechanics have you encountered that you feel cross the line between challenging and irritating?

That wastes time only, not money - perhaps you're not aware that any temple shrine will cure disease for free as long as you're not evil.

 

[FilipJPhry]

Hardcore mode in New Vegas. It's more of an annoyance than a challenge. Oblivion's archery class was needless. It was slightly improved for Skyrim in terms of damage and range, which is a bit better.