Gaming Mechanic you hate the most!!!!

[Saulkar]

I'm pretty much just parroting everyone here, but:

Time Limits, these are usually there just to make me scream incoherently, and even when I can succeed at the mission/event in question, I don't enjoy it because I spend the entire time worrying about how much time is left on the clock, even if I have a significant lead.

Quick Time Events, when poorly implemented. I can see a quick time event working well when it's an optional thing that the PLAYER can initiate, but popping these into cutscenes or making it a frequent, environment-initiated and required part of gameplay turns them into diabolical engines of frustration.

Completely Regenerating Health, because while having a layer of protection you can rely on when you're on your last legs is great, but cowering behind a corner for a few seconds to make it like you were never clumsy enough to get hit in the first place is terrible. It usually breaks the pace of the game, it breaks immersion (for me, although I can see an argument going the other way), and usually means that developers will compensate the reduced difficulty of health management by giving you hardly any health (which results in EVEN MORE FREQUENT hiding until the mortal wound fades away).

Singleplayer Weapon Limits, seriously. I'd rather developers let me deal with the presented situations with all the tools I've encountered up to that point, not just the ones they think I'll need to get to the next segment.

Checkpoints without Quicksave Options, although I understand the useful nature of the autosave, preventing me from saving progress between checkpoints is incredibly frustrating, especially over the more difficult segments. It also discourages me from trying new/risky things, which often results using the same tactics over and over, not necessarily because I enjoy them but because I feel like I'm being punished for trying anything else.

Idiot RTS Campaign AI, because it feels silly if my opponent never builds any more units than the buildings/army it starts with and just stands there until I move into sight.

Mind if I copy and paste this because you covered everything I wanted to say just perfectly?!

 

[minimacker]

Iron sights.

While they can be a good addition, I feel theres a lot of games that don't do them very well.

Ninja'd at the second reply. I guess I'm not the only one, eh?

 

[blizzaradragon]

Oh this one is easy: Regenerating health.

Here's why: it makes no sense, especially in the games claiming to be "realistic"; it takes away challenge in a game; it makes every character seem like a fridge with legs since they can take BULLETS TO THE FACE then hide behind a rock for 20 seconds and be good as new; depending on the game it can break the immersion (for me its like that with CoD or DNF, but not Halo cause its more futuristic and MC has super armor of win). There are probably other things but my brain has a dumb right now so I'll just leave it at that.

BRING BACK THE DAYS OF HEALTH BARS AND MED KITS!

 

[KanHanderan]

Stupidly hard RTS missions that can be dispensed whenever the designer wants.

Also, games with no mid-boss checkpoints. That's really petty, but I'm playing Outland, and the bosses require so much patience and pattern memorization coupled with no mid-fight save points-it gets to me.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Hate the exploration mechanic and the roulette wheel mechanic



good story(as far as I got), good music and good art style minus the chess piece overworld part all marred by a bad gameplay mechanic.

 

[sparkyk24]

Taking away control of my character. Whether it be an enemy that freezes me, or just an entire game mechanic built around disrupting my ability to move, I don't feel like there's a point in playing a game if I can't actually PLAY THE GAME.

 

[Monkestful]

Does Unskippable Cutscenes right before a difficult boss battle count as a mechanic?

Because after the fifteenth try, I'm so interested in seeing the same animation again.

 

[Quazimofo]

QTE, crappy stealth missions that were cut in @ the last second & loading bars for magic in WOW... mana OR loading bars! not both!

BTW I haven't played it in a long time but I don't care, because last time I checked it's like 300$ a year pay to play.

turns out its about half that if you do the 6 month at a time thing, but i see your point. though the casting time makes a little bit of sense (takes time to conjure the spell, especially the powerful ones) and it allows another option for them to fiddle with for game balance (because if magi were as powerful as they should be in games, it would not be fun for all non magi)

as for my personal least favorite game mechanic, never really liked quick time events, but they can be useful (like in infamous where to heal or leech people you had to do a very minor quick time event, like a double check to make sure you didn't accidentally do the karmatic opposite thing).
also hate time limits most of the time (again, sometimes they make sense)dislike invisible barriers (if i shouldn't go somewhere, lay a minefield or put a wall/fence/wall of men with guns on hair triggers and even shorter tempers) and it really bugs me with a noticeable lack of voice acting in single player games. just seems lazy.

and finally, dipshit Allied AI, because it seems the enemies sucked all of their intelligence and use it to absolutely destroy you, and your allies cant remember how to do much more than shuffle forward and pull the trigger at anything which resembles a mobile organism. becomes especially irksome on higher difficulties, when it would be nice if your allies could draw fire for more than a second, cover a flank, actually do some damage (in rts games and fps games. rpg games seem to not suffer from this problem as much)

 

[Xeivous]

Driving vehicles, can't control speed very well, brakes suck and I end up doing more damage to my own vehicles than enemy fire does to it...

 

[Quazimofo]

Does Unskippable Cutscenes right before a difficult boss battle count as a mechanic?

Because after the fifteenth try, I'm so interested in seeing the same animation again.

oh yeah, and this. the cutscene may have been interesting the first time, but it really isnt anymore after a second or third time.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Completely Regenerating Health, because while having a layer of protection you can rely on when you're on your last legs is great, but cowering behind a corner for a few seconds to make it like you were never clumsy enough to get hit in the first place is terrible. It usually breaks the pace of the game, it breaks immersion (for me, although I can see an argument going the other way), and usually means that developers will compensate the reduced difficulty of health management by giving you hardly any health (which results in EVEN MORE FREQUENT hiding until the mortal wound fades away).

I think Resistance had a partial regen system that filled a section of life and you needed med packs of some kind to refill the next block. You commented on complete regen, just curious if you think partial regen is ok or no regen at all.

I liked the partial regen but mostly because it fit story-wise.

 

[Antwerp Caveman]

Quicktime events are the worst.
Example: Viking, Battle for Asgard.
You have to do the bash A for a while to
- kill an enemy
- summon a dragon
- untie prisoners
- Unlock a DOOR with a KEY

And there are a bunch of monsters that require you to trigger a QTE 3 times on them.

 

[Smerf]

regenerating health and chest high walls

 

[Bobby_D]

I don't understand the uniform hate for QTEs. God of War did them very well, I thought.

OT: My least favorite is probably those arbitrary weapon and armor limits imposed on mages...as if mages can't wear chainmail...noooo they have to wear robes because that's what they wore in Tolkien...

 

[Vrach]

QTEs. I can forgive them at times (ME2 conversations, Batman: AA blocking and such), but at their basic, I'm generally turning the game off and hurling it out the window.

Time limits.... I do not work well under pressure. (Note: Turn limits, like in some turn based strategy games, I've had a more changeable relationship with... I'll let them slid...)

Close second indeed.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Mario.
Oh wait! Sorry he's a plumber isn't he?
Well in that case the worst is going to have to be the only gaming mech-wait, you meant like... oh.
Eh.
Uh... i'll just go with time limits, or even time limitations, like Dead Rising or those annoying mini games.