Terrible design choices in otherwise excellent games?

[Uratoh]

So I was playing through Persona 3 Portable and noticing a lot of the 'thematic but kind of anti-game' stuff from its original version(s) had been removed, while still keeping the game overall the same...except, it still suffers from the 'protagonist dies, game immidiately ends', despite this being a multi member party with revival items readily available. This becomes a serious problem when there are enemies who have instant death attacks. Later on, you get a 'team bonus' where allies will 'take the hit' for you, but you're without this for the first third of the game, which can make it...frustrating to approach. And yes, I know *WHY* the game ends if he dies, don't spoil it for people, and it makes sense in context...but it still makes for a bad design choice in a great game...

So what are some other 'this game is great but wtf were they thinking with X?' stuff.

And please don't mention certain...controversial endings to certain famous/infamous games. We've had quite enough of that.

 

[epidemia]

Its been a very long time but I remember how the sly cooper games had a ton of cool gadgets and stealth techniques but it forced you to gradually unlock them during gameplay so that you only get to use each one a handful of times before the game is over.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Rise of the Witch-King: Thralls.

Such udder bullshit! let's you make a single unit, that can turn into any unit you'll likely need... How is that balanced? Admittedly, it is a pretty cool idea, but ze balance!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Dungeon Keeper.

Design a mazelike dungeon. Develop special rooms. Populate them with fiendish monsters. Put powerful doors in place. Lace corridors with wicked traps.

A hero arrives!

Pick up every monster in your dungeon and dump it on their head.

Victory!

Repeat ad nauseum.

 

[Hawkeye 131]

Planet scanning in Mass Effect 2... Seriously BioWare! What were you thinking? ME1 was by no means perfect however, I really enjoyed it in comparision to ME2. I'm probably one of the few players that actually ENJOYED driving the Mako straight up near vertical cliffs only to fall back down and start again. I understand that most people find that aspect of exploration very dull and detrimental to the overall pacing of the game as well as the standard cut and paste quest design that so many RPG's fall victim to. Anyway, I felt it added to the level of immersion, environmental exploration and the overall sense of scale of the galaxy itself.

The whole purpose behind the planet scanning aspect in ME2 is to replace the planet exploration mechanic via the Mako in ME1 as well as acquire and accumulate resources for weapon and equipment modification. I think they should have stuck with the original idea of simply finding and/or purchasing your weapon and equipment via enemy loot drops and in-game merchants and stores like in ME1. They should have invested time in redesigning and updating the inventory system instead of the boring, repetative and silly planet scanning mechanic.

The funny thing is they also had the same resources that you scan planets for aboard the Normandy readily available in numerous spots throughout the entire game, side-quests and story-quests alike. The better decision would have been to keep the random resource drops that pop up during the regular quests and simply reduce the cost or amount of resources it takes to upgrade your items. Then re-work the environments to make it easier for the Mako to drive in i.e., less sharp inclines and rocks and flatter, smoother surfaces and improve the driving mechanics of the Mako itself so it's easier to handle and drive.

Like a lot of the RPG elements in Mass Effect 2 exploration was very "dumbed down" in favor of a more streamlined easy to use system.

-Hawk

 

[hoboman29]

I have to say the camera in God Hand is actually another enemy because it will get you killed more than once. The problem with it is that you can only see in a 180 degree arc in front of you which means anything behind you can get a free attack that is essentially undodgeable. And there will be enemies behind you at some point and they will take off a good chunk of health for not having ESP. While for the most part the game has fair difficulty the camera will lead to at least one unfair death.

 

[revjor]

The menu font in Skyrim is just terrible. First mod I got was to switch it to something more appropriate.

 

[Mordekaien]

Persuasion minigame in Oblivion was utter bullshit. Who thought it was a good idea, burn.
Also some of those later armors looked idiotic. The same applies to armors in WoW for example (There are good pieces there, but all high level stuff looks silly).
Insta fail sneak missions in FPS are not good too- The only one I thought was good was Chernobyl from CoD MW.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Playing Pipe Dream every time I wanted to hack something in Bioshock. That game made me fucking HATE Pipe Dream.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Giving you more xp for sneaking and hacking in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Then following it up with combat-based boss fights.

Rewarding you with stuff (from hacking primarily) is fine and nice. Rewarding you with achievements or other bonuses is also fine.
Making combat builds gimped by game's end is completely counter intuitive.
"I've been shooting everything all this time, but I would have been better at shooting if I hadn't shot anybody up until now"

 

[Neverhoodian]

The forced stealth mission in Jedi Outcast (with the obligatory insta-fail outcome if you screw up just once). Not only is it incredibly aggravating, but it's jarringly out of place lore-wise. Kyle Katarn makes some lame-ass excuse about there being "too many troopers" to justify the segment's inclusion.

...

...are you shitting me, Kyle? They're Stormtroopers. They were hardly a threat to you even when you weren't a Jedi. You've scythed your way through Dark Troopers, Dark Jedi and God knows how many Reborn. You killed a Kell Dragon once with your bare fucking hands. You're the goddamn Chuck Norris of the Star Wars universe...and you're pissing your pants over a group of STORMTROOPERS?!

Also, all those finicky jump puzzles over bottomless chasms. Nothing destroys the illusion of being a badass Jedi faster than falling to your doom for the upteenth time.

 

[serious biscuit]

The quest viewer in Borderlands 2, being able to only one quest at a time was really annoying because sometimes quests would be close by to the one your ding right now, or may branch off from the path to the current one. It would have been nice to organize a path and knock out several quests at once instead of constantly selecting one checking the maps to see how much of a detour it is, and more often than not having to go back to areas you were just in because you missed a quest.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

- The horrendous boss battles in Deus Ex: HR.
- Everything involving Cerberus in ME2. That game was carried by the side missions and characters.
- The combat and drainpipes in Mirror's Edge. Both took the speed and rhythm out of it.
- The exponential increase in difficulty of story missions and the stupidity of each main character in Guild Wars 2.

 

[Athinira]

I can name a lot of cases of bad design, but they aren't necessarily "choices", but rather the result of an improper design direction or other factors. If i had to name a bad design choice, one that springs to mind was the negligence of the PC version of Crysis 2, which disappointed a lot of fans (it did get fixed later fortunately). Then there is the Mass Effect 3 ending, but that wasn't as much a design choice, it was a bad story choice.

Most of them i can't even remember by now, i guess I'll recall if i play the games again.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm assuming the dev team ran out of time or money towards the end of Myst IV, because the game was an excellent nostalgia bomb/kidnapping mystery/classic sci-fantasy adventure game, with lots of dark twists, about-faces and jaw-dropping moments of awesome, all set to what remain some the prettiest graphics available.

And then it tuned into a New Age fever dream music video.

I... don't know.

It sort of recovered at the end, but the damage was done.

 

[Poetic Nova]

The filter system in Metro 2033, I always hog up to the max number of them, just to see at least 20 dissappear on the next map right after the loading screen.

 

[Shuguard]

I think in general(games and mmo's) RNG needs to go, no one really likes the fact 1 guy can get it first time, and other may need 99 tries to get it.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

So I was playing through Persona 3 Portable and noticing a lot of the 'thematic but kind of anti-game' stuff from its original version(s) had been removed, while still keeping the game overall the same...except, it still suffers from the 'protagonist dies, game immidiately ends', despite this being a multi member party with revival items readily available. This becomes a serious problem when there are enemies who have instant death attacks. Later on, you get a 'team bonus' where allies will 'take the hit' for you, but you're without this for the first third of the game, which can make it...frustrating to approach. And yes, I know *WHY* the game ends if he dies, don't spoil it for people, and it makes sense in context...but it still makes for a bad design choice in a great game...

I fucking HATED that!! I could've beaten the game if it weren't for that. I only ever played the original version Persona 3, but it's the one that originated that damn mechanic so there ya go.

Also forced Stealth sections in non-stealth games. Like LoZ: Ocarina of Time, c'mon Link you were taking down huge fucking Dodongo's when you were 10 and all of a sudden you feel the need to sneak around a bunch of chicks with swords and immediately surrender when spotted? WTF?

Also escort quests. They wouldn't be so bad if the character you were escorting would move at the same speed you did and/or didn't act like an idiot. On the same token, any time you have to follow an NPC, why is it they never EVER move at the same speed you do? You know, usually their walking pace is faster than yours but slower than your running pace necessitating that you sprint ever few minutes to keep up with them.

 

[Sp3ratus]

Then following it up with combat-based boss fights.

- The horrendous boss battles in Deus Ex: HR.

While I agree with you both on that point, throwing 3 points into the Typhoon(just 2 might work as well, just getting the basic version), makes the 3 first bosses and absolute joke. With 3 points invested, every boss takes 3 Typhoon hits and they go down. I didn't even die once, on my second playthrough, even though I went all stealth/no kills route. Also, I'd like to think that Eidos Montreal learned a thing or two from fan responses, since you were able to defeat The Missing Link boss relying entirely on stealth.

I think in general(games and mmo's) RNG needs to go, no one really likes the fact 1 guy can get it first time, and other may need 99 tries to get it.

How would you solve loot in MMOs if not with RNG, then?

As for my own contribution, I'd say not putting more effort into AI design in Civ games. I assume good AI programming is very difficult, but it's silly that something like a diplomatic victory in Civ5 can only be won by allying yourself with all the city states instead of actually building a strong bond with other civilizations over time. I get that the AI is trying to win, but the way it works now is just utterly broken.