Game design choices that should be outlawed

[VanillaBean]

Quick time events
Unskipable cutscenes
Lives
Less then a dozen voice actors

Also is your third point refferencing Contra

 

[Kalabrikan]

I've played many games where a mechanic that hasn't worked in any other game has worked well in another particular game. That being said, there are two features frequently found in games I cannot stand.

Unskippable cinematics/cutscenes are the absolute worst. I don't want to have to be greeted by your EPIC CINEMATIC intro every time I start a game, EA.

Also, achievements that award individual behavior in team-focused games. Gears of War's multiplayer was made considerably more annoying because of kids whining about how you stole their kill. Thankfully, Gears of War 2 corrected this issue, though kids still found new and creative ways of complaining about inane stats.

 

[valleyshrew]

Black ops - Kicking me anytime I get given host, and counting it as a loss. The game knows it's not a real loss because it doesn't interrupt my win streak. And it knows I didn't choose to leave the game because it did it for me and I don't disconnect from the servers. I think the majority of host migrations on black ops are forced and not rage quitters. They never happened to me on mw2 where everyone had 4 bar in my hosts. Also black ops nat type is strict, until I stick in the mw2 disc and put black ops back in where suddenly it's changed to open... Obviously treyarch are amateurs at designing network games.

The whole silent thing just bothers me to no end. Maybe because I've used them, but it just destroys all realism when a fully automatic rifle shooting large powder loads is quieter than a fruit fly fart.

Shooters are not 100% realistic, things are balanced to make it fun. Silencers are balanced by lowering the range/damage of a silenced weapon. That doesn't make any sense either, if you get shot, whether the bullet was silenced does nothing to make it hurt less.

 

[MrJoyless]

- Auto Aim / Aim Assist in Console FPS multiplayer (aka CoDBO see thru wall auto aim, vs BFBC2 no auto aim at all)

- Escort missions where the NPC has no self preservation instincts...

- Over the top high level kill all skills (eg. whipfist in Prototype, or being able to play through a game using 1 skill pretty much the whole time *glares at pull from Mass Effect 1/2)

- vanilla flavored weapon choices, do i choose the killing sword of fire or the fire sword of killing?

 

[Emberwake]

I disagree. The rogue in WoW is a glass cannon; they rely on stunlocks and burst damage for survival and that's the entire point of the class - high risk and high reward. If you break the stunlock (which is not hard to do with PvP builds and equipment), unless they have vanish or sprint on handy, they are stuffed. And that's okay.

Remember, a rogue out of stealth is just as afraid of you as you are of it. If they screw up, they die. It's pretty rare that a (at least semi-skilled) player doesn't get the HK on a rogue that's out in the open and doesn't have you locked down. It's also not easy to actually lock the enemy down 100% of the time. It takes a specific build. That means the rogue is 100% banking on their lockdown working. If it fails, they die. It's a class of skill and reflexes, not unlike certain mages.

If you don't want stunlocking, then I don't want the ability to slow melee classes in a game. If you play your cards right, a slowed melee toon is as good as dead.

I don't play WoW anymore, by the way. When I did, I was a lock.

The problem isn't a question of balancing Rogues in WoW or anything similar. As an individual player interaction, if your character is killed (in any game) in a situation where you have no control over the fight from start to finish, thats not gameplay, its a real time cutscene of you losing for no reason.

On a deeper level, the problem is that when you play an action game or RPG you interact with the game in only 2 ways: you control your character's movement and you interact with your surroundings. Restricting one of those two abilities constitutes a jarring limitation on your ability to interact with the game world. Restricting both simultaneously disengages the player entirely. In my opinion this is some thing that should only occur as a reactive result of a failure on the players part, and even then it should be brief and rare.

 

[Halo Fanboy]

Contnues in arcade games.

Dial-A combo systems.

Quick timer events.

 

[silver wolf009]

Endlessly respawing enemies on any game mode that isn't sruvival.

 

[Janus Zeal]

Quick time events in cutscenes.

They can work in some games if used well. To take two examples of QTE-use from the same game series, bad and good; Resident Evil.

I hate, hate hate Quick-time-events in Re4 and Re5. Especially in harder difficulties. I've dies numerous times and got lower ranking for playing well the game but failing at button-smashing.

As for using them well, Umbrella Chronicles did it right.
You got the music cue so you knew that this was a cutscene where one was going to pop up, there weren't long sequences of button-smashing, and even if you failed, usually the game didn't kill you immediatly, and you just lost some HP.

But majority of QTE's should not exist in the games they are in.

Also, unskippable cutscenes.

And enemies that kill you in one hit. Well, you can use them well, but usually they are just rage-inducing and annoying.

I agree with you that most of the QTEs in RE4 sucked... but I did really like the knife fight scene. That was at least a great scene.

I really hate when there is a cutscene that you can't skip and/or pause.

 

[Bags159]

Oooh, I have to second long dialogues / cinematic before a final boss fight.

 

[Janus Zeal]

_Escort_ _Missions_

Burn them with FIRE!

That and putting unskippable cutscenes between the last save point, and the really hard boss.

There have been good escort missions before and if it is done right it can make for an amazing experience

Okay, I noticed this and I'm going to take the proper step and say "BADLY DONE escort missions".

Oh, and time limits. MOTHERFUCKING TIME LIMITS need to go!

Time limits can be good if done right. Like in most Metroid games it is expected to have at least one timer. But they are rarely unforgiving. Unforgiving time limits need to go away.

 

[Lieju]

I agree with you that most of the QTEs in RE4 sucked... but I did really like the knife fight scene. That was at least a great scene.

But you couldn't really enjoy the action when you were staring at the flashing buttons. Plus I'd like to see the person who didn't get killed by that the first time.

It wasn't impossible to get through once you knew when it would come and had learned the sequence, though.

 

[Janus Zeal]

I agree with you that most of the QTEs in RE4 sucked... but I did really like the knife fight scene. That was at least a great scene.

But you couldn't really enjoy the action when you were staring at the flashing buttons. Plus I'd like to see the person who didn't get killed by that the first time.

It wasn't impossible to get through once you knew when it would come and had learned the sequence, though.

Yeah that can be quite true. It is pretty much always annoying the first time. I would like to see how they would have done that scene as just a cutscene. You know what I mean? I wonder if it would be different at all or what.

 

[The Apothecarry]

Character creation systems that only let you see your character from a few strict angles so that you can't see if they look any good. I'm looking at YOU, Mass Effect.

Fallout 3 was REALLY BAD with that. REALLY.

Mechanics and design choices that should never be repeated?...
1. Mass Effect had a cluttered inventory system.
2. Oblivion's inventory should've been alphabetized. I hate to scroll for an hour to find one piece of equipment.
3. Stopping Power never should've existed ever.
4. FPS games no longer need boss battles. I'm sorry, Bungie, but as much as I love Halo, I must ask: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!

 

[Isshin]

The worst concept I've seen in action so far would have to be from Bowser's inside story.

Close to the end, after you get him out of the safe and have to heal his back, you have to use mario and luigis little drill move to heal him, but once you start... you can't do anything, for 15 minutes. You can't move or explore or even play the damn game. It literally tells you to go do something else while you leave it on. I mean, really? Is there any better way out there to break the flow and immersion of a game than saying "go away?"

 

[mikespoff]

Persistent stats are a big draw in any FPS... remove those and you'd have a lot of jaded customers.

I like the way that Alien Swarm handled it - you increased in rank, and when you maxxed out you could opt to trade in for a "medal". You reset your rank to 1, but your medal showed that you weren't a noob. It made for a good balance - you could repeatedly have the satisfaction of levelling up without having to lose your progress.

 

[Bags159]

Persistent stats are a big draw in any FPS... remove those and you'd have a lot of jaded customers.

I like the way that Alien Swarm handled it - you increased in rank, and when you maxxed out you could opt to trade in for a "medal". You reset your rank to 1, but your medal showed that you weren't a noob. It made for a good balance - you could repeatedly have the satisfaction of levelling up without having to lose your progress.

I think Call of Duty does the same thing via its prestige system.