What gameplay feature can ruin a game within 1 hr?

[Vigormortis]

- Games that require me to have a specific item/weapon to solve a puzzle/boss but never bothered to indicate I might need to conserve ammo for it or something similar

I can not name any game (off the top of my head) that does this and yet, I play every RPG as a compulsive hoarder, always using the cheapest ammo and as few health potions as possible. So clearly I am a victim of this.

That's because it happens more often then you think. Ever have a situation crop up wherein you're fighting an enemy or a boss or trying to solve some challenge/puzzle and suddenly you think, "Wow. I sure wish I hadn't used up all of my rockets/mana/jewels" or "Man, if I had known I would have needed that 'thing' to beat this guy I would've picked it up earlier or leveled it sooner"?

Yeah. THAT'S what I'm talking about. It's a classic case of the developer not bothering to drop clues as to what you might need and simply (lazily) forcing the player to use trial-and-error tactics against the enemy.

Granted, that style of challenge can work. And, can prove to be a decent...well...challenge. Still, in most cases it's just bad design.

 

[Vigormortis]

Brink's SMART system. First-person parkour just doesn't bloody work.

Brink was bad across the board, though. That game failed on just about every level.

Regardless, I must disagree. At least, from my experience. Some first person games can work with parkour-like movement. Mirror's Edge, for example. I had no issue with movement in that game. It came very naturally to me.

Admittedly, I know this is not the case with everyone. Some play mechanics work for some and don't with others. If this is the case with you in regards to parkour movement in first person, I can sympathize. I imagine it'd become very frustrating very quickly. It's much the same as my hatred of timed escort missions. I imagine there are people out there that love them.

No really. There has to be. Right?
<.<

 

[bacchus1234]

I hate it when a game requires you to click the L3/R3 on the PS3 ( or the equivalent on the XBox) any more than they have to.

I am just finishing Bioshock and although I really have enjoyed the game , the fact that you have to click R3 to aim ruins it to some extent. I do understand that you have basically two sets of weapons involved and I don't really know how else you would map these functions, but it's still a pain.

Darksiders was overly difficult to me simply because you had to use the R3 button CONSTANTLY.


Also, In FPS's I hate it when you press a button to aim and then you have to hit it again to stop aiming.

 

[Hexenwolf]

Gears of War 2. No, you may NOT do anything else while you've got your two fingers up to your ear to hear your comm. I mean, it's not like you've been talking to Anya JUST fine the entire freaking game.

If I recall, you can actually push select to cut those conversations short. Ditto any scripted squad chatter. I mean, it's not like they ever tell you you can do that, but you can. It's actually pretty funny, because Marcus will interrupt them with en "Enough!" or other equally rude statement.

Wait....what? The 360 controller has no Select button. Unless you mean Back? Which if you do, doh, I never tried that. Now I kind of want to.

Yeah, I do mean the Back button. Old habits die hard xD

 

[Stilkon]

Escort missions. I absolutely, unabashedly hate escort missions. The primary reason is the stupid AI of the person/thing that I'm supposed to be protecting: either they move way too slow, or they go running right into groups of enemies. How is this appealing to anyone?

 

[darkstarangel]

Yeah, the usual

Time limits (I like to take my time with games & increase their longevity. Its not a freaking exam)

Bodgy controls

Inflexible camera angles

Cameras that randomly change positions on you, especially when you really need it.

Button mashing & QTEs (I dont want arthritis or a broken controller. And I only tolerate my reflexes being exercised by enemies on screen not sudden pop up button pushing commands)

Games with so much potential but severly limited (eg. Shadow of the colossus)

And unskipable tutorials & cutscenes. (Why for the love all that is good & holy would you put an unskippable cutscene before a boss thats guaranteed to kick your arse a few times before defeating it.)

 

[Choppaduel]

Keeping strictly game-play based:

unskippable tutorials
QTEs
motion controls

 

[Mr Companion]

I could go on listing minor grievances all day but for something to ruin a game it has to be pretty big. Here are main offenders:

Terrible ports where it is obvious the designers dont give a s**t about the PC version even though it costs the same price.

Repetition: Doing the same s**t over and over can actually make me quit a game forever, this can be anything from a pointless lack of checkpoints to drag out the length of a game to repeating themes or sequences such as beating the same enemy over and over for loot drops, "I already proven I know how to do this Game let me be on my merry bloody way!" is a common battlecry of mine.

Expecting the player to follow a train of logic that is privy only to the mad bugger in charge of the writing, The Force Unleashed 2 cant go five minutes without throwing you into a situation that could be solved in about 5 different ways none of which are the correct solution because its actually something that makes no sense except in Dipshitsville.

Refusing to let the player advance until he/she backtracks around the whole gameworld looking for a number of items to unlock the endgame. Metroid Prime Assasains Creed 2 Psychonauts (part way through) Alone in the Dark 2 and virtually any Legend of Zelda game including Darksiders are all guilty of this and notice many of those are actually not bad games.

There are many others and not all of these would make me ragequit a game, but they all probably should.

 

[Hipsy_Gypsy]

Having too many features. More specifically, being able to do too many things, for example, Tomb Raider: Underworld. Okay, cool, I can get to places in a variety of different ways, however; when I want to climb over a rock or a boulder, I certainly do not want you to slap yourself up against it.

Actually, now that I think about it, I remember when a friend of mine introduced me to Zero Punctuation in... 2007 or 2008, can't remember, and showed me the TR:A review as he knew I'd been a big fan of the franchise since it came out. Totally loved it because I got the jokes and understood the analogies. Mind you, this was back when I actually knew what he was waffling on about, haha. So aye, watched that and one or two more but I never got hooked on the webseries. 'Matter of fact, I've only been able to remember the name of the fella and the show since June of this year without having to consult my friend as to "who's the fella who does the snazzy Rayman-style videos? You know, the one who just loves Tomb Raider."

Anyway, it was at about the 3 minute mark: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/502-Tomb-Raider-Underworld

[...]

EDIT: After seeing this on another thread. I'd like to add, when they completely change the appearance of a well-established character.

Spoiler: From this...

Spoiler: ...to this.

Tomb Raider has been like that with every game published but they didn't stop at appearance; they kept changing her background as well for whatever the reason.

Escort missions. I absolutely, unabashedly hate escort missions. The primary reason is the stupid AI of the person/thing that I'm supposed to be protecting: either they move way too slow, or they go running right into groups of enemies. How is this appealing to anyone?

That's probably why Assassin's Creed II bored me near tears. Well, more due to the fact that it made me walk with a couple of NPCs on several occasions at a snail's pace.

 

[Phishfood]

-snippity-

That's because it happens more often then you think. Ever have a situation crop up wherein you're fighting an enemy or a boss or trying to solve some challenge/puzzle and suddenly you think, "Wow. I sure wish I hadn't used up all of my rockets/mana/jewels" or "Man, if I had known I would have needed that 'thing' to beat this guy I would've picked it up earlier or leveled it sooner"?

Yeah. THAT'S what I'm talking about. It's a classic case of the developer not bothering to drop clues as to what you might need and simply (lazily) forcing the player to use trial-and-error tactics against the enemy.

Granted, that style of challenge can work. And, can prove to be a decent...well...challenge. Still, in most cases it's just bad design.

Its true. Someone mentioned the demon fight in DAO, that was a tough one. Took me several attempts and about 1/3 of my stash to do it.

On the one hand, that is a good argument for regenerating health - no fucking around with supplies. On the other hand, once you HAVE regenerating health it becomes very hard to make anything a challenge.

The better solution that is coming up is when a mission says "go put some rockets in this guy here" they then give you 6 rockets. If you already used your rockets, you still have 6 and a reasonable chance to complete the mission. If you have your own rockets as well, bonus.

The problem is walking that fine line between regenerating-health-unlimited-ammo-zero-challenge and oh-my-god-now-I-need-to-load-a-save-from-15-hours-ago. Taking skyrim, all these named weapons I am getting are stashed in a chest. I could probably be rich if I sold them all, but I don't dare. Same for the dragon claw keys. I PROBABLY don't need them. I don't dare sell them. Skyrim, its not bothering me being a hoarder. It put me off RAGE, too many lost fights because I was artificially making the game hard by using the cheap ammo. That and the texture pop-in and the fact that its just not brilliant.

 

[putowtin]

Quite funny that I thought about this topic about 5h ago after I played 1h of the following game:

Force Unleashed 1. Since the force is a feature of nearly all Star Wars games I count it here.

The poor balance of the force in this game killed my fun in it. From the beginning it is so much better than the lightsabre (seriously, why can people take two hits of this thing?).

Because they are made out of Spectacularanium. KotOR explained it in the tutorial section when you ask how you'd survive against a Dark Jedi. I forgot the actual name of the metal Vibroblades are made out of, though. But they make armor out of it too.

well remembered!

OT: QTE, I (Begrudgingly) don't mind one or two (twenty hours apart) but QTE every two minutes are enough to kill a game for me

 

[launchpadmcqwak]

the old star wars bounty hunter game. although i loved that game it annoyed the living shit out of me with the lives system...i still remember all those controller beatings

 

[Diddy_Mao]

The abysmal voice acting in Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom put me off that game in less than 10 minutes. I was pretty interested in that game until I played the demo. Then that god damned Majin moron opened his bloody mouth. I couldn't bare it.

Glad I'm not alone. I had this in my Gamefly queue and played it for roughly 20 minutes before I got sick and tired of listening to the Majin.

"YAY! DAT FUN!"
"I DID IT!" "
"I HUNGRY"

The last thing I want to do is play special needs care taker to the genetic crossbreed of Lennie Smalls and the Grimmace.


To contribute:

Any time the game features a control style that the game isn't really designed for.

This usually shows up in 3D platformers or action games in the form of underwater segments or stealth missions but I've seen it as the result of random kart racing segments, flight courses and FPS segments.

The problem isn't that these things always ruin the game but 9 times out of 10 it's really obvious that the time and effort was not taken to make sure the controls worked properly. The end result being clunky controls resulting in needlessly difficult gameplay.

 

[StrawHat]

I hate games where you have low inventory and limited saves or save points.

I've tried to play Ys on ps2. It had something like only 5 items and 3 saves? For a jrpg you would have to grind and grind to level up. I think I put it away after 10 minutes once the intro finished. Granted it was a port, but when the current FF game would let me have 99 items and fill the memory card with saves I was not happy.

Also I hate games with clunky controls, limited items, limited use items and save points. I'm looking at you dead rising. Maybe I can forgive the limited items, but he's in a mall. He can't just pick up a backpack or duffel bag at the sports store. I also get pissed off after the baseball bat breaks after 5 hits. Then the controls, shooting and walking are a pain and the bosses jump around and shoot with no problem. Personally, after halo came out, I can't forgive any developer with clunky controls.

 

[Warachia]

Skyrim. Went to Markarth for the first time a few days ago. It was a brand new character. Was in Understone Keep talking to people and then all of a sudden the guards started attacking. I just ignored them and went outside, everything was calm so I figured I just worked around a bug but then a few minutes later the townspeople started attacking me. The guards weren't but the townspeople were.

I turned it off and haven't turned it on since. If that was a bug, that's BS. If it wasn't, then that's bad game design.

That's actually part of a quest, I thought my game was bugged at first as well, and nobody in the game will ever comment on that, later the quest throws you into an unwinnable battle where enemies constantly spawn, and to finish the quest, you MUST release this evil guy from a prison, with no option at any point to kill him.

In essence, what ruins a game for me is when roleplaying games don't let you ROLEPLAY. That's why I play them in the first place.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Skyrim. Went to Markarth for the first time a few days ago. It was a brand new character. Was in Understone Keep talking to people and then all of a sudden the guards started attacking. I just ignored them and went outside, everything was calm so I figured I just worked around a bug but then a few minutes later the townspeople started attacking me. The guards weren't but the townspeople were.

I turned it off and haven't turned it on since. If that was a bug, that's BS. If it wasn't, then that's bad game design.

That's actually part of a quest, I thought my game was bugged at first as well, and nobody in the game will ever comment on that, later the quest throws you into an unwinnable battle where enemies constantly spawn, and to finish the quest, you MUST release this evil guy from a prison, with no option at any point to kill him.

In essence, what ruins a game for me is when roleplaying games don't let you ROLEPLAY. That's why I play them in the first place.

You can finish that quest by killing that guy. I did.

Spoiler

You are talking about the Forsworn Conspiracy, right?

 

[JesterRaiin]

So, escapists, any tales of horror that you'd like to share? Have you encountered something else that completely spoiled the experience within the first hour?

Solve my maze.

Thou has to do it our way.
Need for seeking some f*ing key/lever for opening door/gate that should be fairly easy to open. Especially when protagonist of the game is equipped with tons of deadly weapons, grenades, explosives and stuff.
I can't get over this no matter how hard i try.

 

[])rStrangelove]

A game looses its drive when i get too much money/credits too early and could buy anything i want. And on top of that, all shops are either closed or have restricted variety of goods so i'm forced to play through the story to unlock something i already could buy.

Yes, i'm talking about AC2 and onward