Game mechanics you hate

[ZippyDSMlee]

I would like to expand upon my annoyance concerning Artificial level limits to give a better idea of what I meant. In one particularly glaring instance in Delta Force - Blackhawk Down you are tasked with protecting some civilians who are getting food at an aid station (the "River Crossing" level for you who have the game). You are of course attacked by a whole bunch of bad guys. I have earlier noticed a largish hill the baddies must move around to attack the civilians. I move towards the hill with the intent of delivering a few dussin highspeed chunks of metal into their flank while my teammates take care of the close in protection. I make it maybe half the way up the hill before I get a message to turn back immediatly. Now this makes no sense what so ever. Flanking the enemy is a tactic used by the military since Babylon. But my commanders (the level designers) seem to have forgetten it's use. I object to being forced to accept an inferior position when there is another position that is simple for the level designers to allow for, logical in the situation that pertains at the time or is just plain old stupidity/lazyness.

In the games that ZippyDSMlee mentioned and I have actually played I can not think of a single instance where I felt artificially limited by poor level design. If the enemy is infront of me I am not going to go 5km back just to find an artillery unit I can use to remove the sentry by the door. As long as the levels make sense I don't care how much I imitate a train and stick to the rails placed down. As long as it makes some kind of sense.

I also want to add another annoying "feature" in alot of games. Unstable aiming points. To give a sense of why I loath this particular b*llsh*t method of game balance let me give you some idea of my personal history. I have used firearms for the past 20+ years. I have fired everything from small "hold out" handguns to large caliber sniper rifles. I am an avid airsofter so I am well aware of the effects of extreme amounts of adrenaline on my body and my stability. And I have never ever heard of, seen or experienced any phenomena even close to the random figure 8 movements of my sight that many developers use to make games more challenging to the player. The closest would be when you are taking a shot with a scope over atleast 100m, and then it is simply a very predictable up and down motion from my body's unreasonable demand for oxygen. The motion does tend to be more pronounced when one is standing or the weapon is to heavy for the shooters strength. But you are still able to put rounds into a human sized target while standing at 300 meters.

Rant two completed

For me bland level design is a issue if tis overly realistic with minuim of nooks and pathways its just boring, mainly because after the first 10 kills of a enemy type the level design keeps me from falling asleep while playing, the gun and run game type is demoniacally evil to me.

MrCIA
I am planing on reinstalling it and Q4 and do some def screwing, how did the grenades act in it I forgot 0-o

Saskwach
Sometimes I like sitting on a generator and kill them like ducks in a line,inf generators are cheap tho,set a limit to the hardness of the game.

Unholykrumpet
yes yes yes innovation in design is soemthign I cling to if a game fails to innovate/advance the genre it falls to be truly great.

have you tried crysis yet,yes its a FPS but it dose a nice mix of things (no magic but the suit powers are nice), also have you played Dark messiah? its magic system is cute its overly restrictive tho,I wish you could TK kick that would be awesome, it seems effect powers (magic,TK,fire,ect,ect) don't have alot of detail put into them that they are more 2ndry to the gameplay than part of it.

Kronopticon
Deus ex was ahead of its time in Body HP,its simply enough to do and players could switch it off if they do not like it yet no one seems to care....altho options are no longer a option much anymore no one cares to put detail into game options or control options.

 

[MrCIA]

For me bland level design is a issue if tis overly realistic with minuim of nooks and pathways its just boring, mainly because after the first 10 kills of a enemy type the level design keeps me from falling asleep while playing, the gun and run game type is demoniacally evil to me.

MrCIA
I am planing on reinstalling it and Q4 and do some def screwing, how did the grenades act in it I forgot 0-o

Boring level design and limiting level design ain't the same thing. I completely agree that regular boring level design that just does not have any variety is...well...boring. But it is not necessarily bad design.

As for the grenades in D3. They act like they where made of some kind of bouncy rubber material coated with vaselin then dipped in teflon.

 

[Fireandice]

this is really something that bugs me with with stealth games e.g. Assassins creed. im walking along blending with the crowd when some guy with an obvious mental condition that causes him to shout at nothing and hit himself comes by. the irritating things about this are small but have caused me to be exposed to the guards more than once. for some strange reason this mental guy only notices me and when i get too close he pushes me violently (ususally into a guard who miraculously happens to be there). the guards then begins hunting me down because i "pushed them" and take no notice of the idiot who just threw me into them. AAARRGH!!!!!

 

[J-Val]

I hate stealth sections in non-stealth games, usually because they are done abysmally. Sure, that blind guard doesn't see you when you're crouched in the shadows, but move quicker than a centimetre per hour and he immediately turns round, sees you, and BAM! Game over.

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

I hate stealth sections in non-stealth games, usually because they are done abysmally. Sure, that blind guard doesn't see you when you're crouched in the shadows, but move quicker than a centimetre per hour and he immediately turns round, sees you, and BAM! Game over.

Very yes. Forced stealth sections in games that have no feedback for how stealthy you're being are just as crappy if not worse than forced action segments in stealth games, which as Yahtzee points out almost always means a trip to Shitty-town.

 

[Kronopticon]

I hate stealth sections in non-stealth games, usually because they are done abysmally. Sure, that blind guard doesn't see you when you're crouched in the shadows, but move quicker than a centimetre per hour and he immediately turns round, sees you, and BAM! Game over.

Very yes. Forced stealth sections in games that have no feedback for how stealthy you're being are just as crappy if not worse than forced action segments in stealth games, which as Yahtzee points out almost always means a trip to Shitty-town.

stealth in non stealth games... hmmm, Zelda wind waker springss to mind like a boomerang to the back of the head. and phantom hourglass, what is it with the cell shaded zelda games and sneaking badly.

 

[Num43]

God of War(Shenmue) Simon Says Button Mashing sure is fucknig annoying but what really gets on my nerves if shitty camera control,for example trying to pass a corner filled with zombies in one of the RE games and finding yourself looking at a lamp, a wall a box of lemons or your grandma while zombies have a feast on your neck.

 

[Kemmler0]

I'm young and i'm with you on that point.
As soon as a game forces a succesion of buttons for you to push in order to achive a desired effect or complete a sequence. It makes you feel like a spectator, and i will not be a spectator in a game that i purchased to PLAY. My own intiative should suffice to complete the game. If they must do it, imake it subtle enough so that i don't know its happening, or make me feel like i am directly involved with the action.

Onimusha 2 forever! All games of this style should be based on Onimusha 2

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

The fixed camera in the early Resident Evil games never bothered me, but the Tomb Raider camera gave me problems, and there have been many third person action games since with shitty cameras that never seem to look the direction you need to see.

 

[CarlosYenrac]

stealth in non stealth games... hmmm, Zelda wind waker springss to mind like a boomerang to the back of the head. and phantom hourglass, what is it with the cell shaded zelda games and sneaking badly.

hate to dump one of my faves in it like this, but Ocarina too when you had to sneak into the castle... the one part of that game that i could do without. thank merciful Nayru it wasn't a particularly long section.

 

[Flammarion]

I believe the reason for WoW's popularity is that it brought the crack cocaine addiction of MMORPGs to the masses. Personally I think it is a grindtastic failure of a game that takes all of the worsts parts of an MMORPG, and polishes them to a mirror shine. It embodies everything I think is wrong with MMORPGs, but when a game has 9.3 million players it is hard to argue it is a steaming pile of crap without sounding like an elitist prick.

Well I AM an elitist prick so please, allow me.

1. Grinding, this is a problem I have with almost every MMORPG on the market. I mean for the love of some deity! Why the hell would anyone want 23 monkey hipbones? Most of the ?grind? quests' center of finding a large amount of objects that have no real purpose beyond some thinly veiled excuse to get you killed, or give you RSI.

2. Whilst I don't play it myself (I have better things to spend my money on) I've got a friend who used to play and I tried it out once. This games interface seems to exist to destroy any kind of immersion you manage to find. The icons are huge, and at times seem to have nothing to do with the power they represent; the worst part is that you NEED to use the interface to use any kind of power. Otherwise you'll get bashed by several large angry monsters with sticks whilst you sift though a menu to find the same power.

Wow... that's a lot less than I thought it was... Bah when I go to sleep I'll think of everything else I find wrong with it then kick myself.

On the topic of mechanics, I particularly hate it when in a stealth game you?re suddenly forced into a big action sequence. Like when you sneak through an entire facility, get to just outside a particular room, go inside, and it's filled with un-avoidable enemies forcing you to go in gun(s) blazing and forcibly evict them from existence, this annoys me no end.

(Also hello from someone new to the forums.)

 

[Count_de_Monet]

Speaking of forced stealthing I absolutely hate the covert (or covertish) missions in RTS's. They were a pain in Warcraft 1, they were a pain in C&C, they are an enormous and never-ending pain in Red Alert, they were moderately fun yet annoying and pointless in Warcraft 3, but generally they were a pointless annoyance. I generally hold the limited-unit-count-in-a-random-cave missions in low regard but they can be good if done properly.

 

[mightyfp]

Soulspawn:
MMO/RPG, where they ask you go kill X creature get X number of body part, suddenly you notice a lot of creatures seem to lack a brain/spine/hands/eye etc

how someone of the same race can be about 3 times your size what they hell does a person eat to get this big compare to everyone else. eg, Tempest keep in World of Warcraft how come prince keal'thas is so big yet is just a special blood elf.

My guess on the first part is that they are trying to separate the difference between outright kill quests, and collection quests. But I agree with you the implementation is lame most of the time.

The second part though is actually important for mmo's. The size of the mob has to scale with the number of people fighting it. keal'thas is a 25 man raid boss. If he were the same size as all the other players he would easily get lost in a sea of toons.

 

[Chilango2]

In no particular order:

1)A second vote for "limited units and explore a map" missions in RTS's, especially when there's always some point where its obvious there's a prescripted "ambush" part whose main purpose seems to be to make you load back to an earlier point.

2) Floors that randomly fall under you in FPS's.

3) Instant Death attacks by boss characters in RPG's as a "as I am dying" attack. (The mage on top of Kefka's Tower in FF3 American is the best example I can think of right off hand)

4) Instanced dungeons in MMO's that require more than two hours to complete and are necessary for advancement.

5) Zone changes in MMO's. Every time I magically go from brown prairie grass to bright green grass within a few feet, or even worse, chill snow to bright green grass, it just kills immersion.

6) Any RPG plot development that falls too egregiously into one of these cliches:
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

7) Uneven difficulty levels, especially for boss fights. If I easily wiped the floor with his lackeys, the boss should not be killing me in one or two hits.

8) Plot removal of powers/weapons/etc. Any time you progress up to a certain point and the game decides to take everything away from you and bring you back to the good old days with just your trusty ol crowbar...yeah.

 

[propertyofcobra]

1: Another vote for forced stealth (yup, me too), or forced gimping in any way. Remember MGS, the nuclear storage place? Yeah...lay down with a sniper rifle outside of it, shoot at anything and everything you want, it won't matter. Nothing will explode. Get caught inside, the enemies shoot at anything and everything in sight, it won't matter. Nothing will explode.
But god forbid that you even EQUIP a weapon in there, because if you do it will all EXPLODE!!!

2: Simon Says God of War Button blabla. Yeah, anything that removes character control from me, but still makes his survival my responsibility, sucks monkey balls.

3: As my sweetheart suggested, inconsistent weapon power. So a grenade launcher will turn zombies into fine mush, but god forbid you try to use it to blow down this rickety old wooden door, which is actually cleverly painted adamantium that you can ONLY open if you have the "Shield" key, now hop hop! Go key-huntin'!

4: Fake inaccuracy. I'm no weapon expert, but I've fired short-distance rifles, and airguns, at targets before. And good god, no, my sights did not make super-exagerrated figure eights over and over as I tried to keep the stupid thing still over the target for long enough to have a chance in heck of hitting. If I hold my breath, even the very slight up-down of my breathing gets lowered to almost nothing, so why do legends like 47, Solid Snake and most other hardcore mofos with sniper rifles aim worse than I do?

5: Fake accuracy. Almost worse. Anyone play wii much? Ever play any shootin' games, like Umbrella Chronicles, or even just Duck Hunt for Wii Play?
Yeah. Now try that with two wiimotes, one in each hand.
Yeah. You're not very accurate now, are you? Now imagine a weapon that actually has recoil and weight, and you'll see why only complete morons who don't enjoy hitting their targets dual wield weapons in real life.
Yeah, Jackie, I'm looking at you.

 

[soladrin]

well yea, forced stealth in RTS, in others i dont mind it so much, but in rts's it just comes down to having uber micro or 100% prefect knowledge of every patrolling unit and triggered effect in the map, aka, a guide.

As for RPG's, i hate HATE HAAAAAAAAATE it when the entire game you've been doing regular combat, and then in the end, you get some rayman boss who you cant actually just chop up but you have to do all kinds of stuff before you can even touch him thus making all your stats and equipment irrelevent anyway(if you even get to) im looking at you gothic 1 >_>

jumping in FPS games, theres only one game that may allow bunny hopping, UT, any other FPS should have some kind of limitation on jumping, because frankly, its just plain retarded.

lets see.. anything else...

simon says button mashing.. speaks for itself.

 

[hooliganyouth]

Jumping. I loathe jumping. I think it's pretty stupid especially when it's the "bunny hop" that many games use - i.e. "Mercenaries". Steepling, vaulting, clambering, climbing, and any other sort of RL method for traversing obstacles is perfectly reasonable but jumping? Could you imagine a team of SEALs hopping over fences and rocks?

A shooter that doesn't use cover effectively. This is one of the reasons I didn't enjoy "Call of Duty 4". In a tactical shooter you simply must have a cover system - no if's ands or buts. There's no excuse not to have one. "Rainbow Six: Las Vegas" had an awesome cover system.

Why don't RPGs have a note taking capability? Isn't this the 21st century? Why am I still hastily scribbling notes while I play? If I find a structure out in the middle of nowhere but can't enter it why can't I make note of it in game instead of on graph paper?

The lack of intellectually stimulating puzzles. Most are either trial and error or simply push the block around on ice while being shot at. I liked the one "Silent Hill" that had a difficulty setting for puzzles. That was nice.

Japanese games translated into English and then subtitled without the option of being played in Japanese with subtitles. This is an annoyance.

RHYTHM SEGMENTS! I pretty much loathe rhythm games - because I suck at them - but when they are inserted into games that have no need for "follow the bouncing ball". "Indigo Prophecy" was a game with great potential but after a few rhythm sections I tossed it aside. If developers need something different to jazz up gameplay they might want to make a better game instead of using gimmicks.

Cherry picking game genres/styles. Wait, it's a racing game, wait it's a rail shooter, wait it's a rhythm game, wait it's a third person platform jumper.

EDIT:

Garbage camera angles - especially when in a platformer. "God of War"'s Hell levels weren't difficult because of difficulty they were difficult because of worthless camera angles.

 

[Alan Au]

I could go on and on about game mechanics that I dislike, but actually most of them fall into a small number of categories:

1. insta-fail anything (stealth, escort, jumping puzzles, snipertown, etc.)
2. taking away player control (save-points, tutorials, cutscenes, scripted events, level caps, rail shooters, puzzle-like boss fights, automatic camera movements, etc.)

- Alan