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General discussionAnti-features in games that are too common(94 posts)(94 posts)
(94 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted September 23, 2015
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andysheets1975: Gameplay that confuses immersion and busywork with fun - e.g., the driving sections and planet scanning in Mass Effect. I feel what they were trying to do was to hearken back to the exploratory stuff in games like Starflight, but a lot of it is NOT FUN and therefore makes me want to turn the game off.
I actually liked the driving sections in ME1, but the scanning in ME2 was... I don't know who thought that would be a good idea.
Posted September 23, 2015
Also, another feature I could live without: Jumpscares.

One or two in strategically placed points is OK, constant use of them though make the game feel "cheap" and dissolves any tension may have existed. Work harder dear developers and build a world that will make me anxious, desperate, make me wanna rage quit (Oh mighty Alan Wake!) without cheap tricks, just immersion.


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toxicTom: I actually liked the driving sections in ME1, but the scanning in ME2 was... I don't know who thought that would be a good idea.
Call me weird but I liked the scanning because I could eat & play at the same time! The driving in ME1 left me with very good impressions (the vistas were nice) & the physics were good enough for a vehicle like Mako.
Post edited September 23, 2015 by Vythonaut
Posted September 23, 2015
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Vythonaut: Call me weird but I liked the scanning because I could eat & play at the same time! The driving in ME1 left me with very good impressions (the vistas were nice) & the physics were good enough for a vehicle like Mako.
You're weird! :-P

Agree about the Mako driving. I still have a couple of nice screenshots of cruising alien planets.
Posted September 23, 2015
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andysheets1975: Gameplay that confuses immersion and busywork with fun - e.g., the driving sections and planet scanning in Mass Effect. I feel what they were trying to do was to hearken back to the exploratory stuff in games like Starflight, but a lot of it is NOT FUN and therefore makes me want to turn the game off.
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toxicTom: I actually liked the driving sections in ME1, but the scanning in ME2 was... I don't know who thought that would be a good idea.
Me too. The exploration in ME1 was poorly implemented, true (basically, all they needed to do was to divide the Z axis of all height maps by 2 and it would have been perfect) but it was fun and has some interesting encounters.

Then, inexplicably, when they made ME2 they decided that "since this mechanic is somewhat poorly designed, we'll get rid of it entirely and replace it with something much, MUCH worse". Whoever came up with the planet scanning mechanic for ME2 ought to be trampled to death by ducks.
Posted September 23, 2015
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mintee: also id like to add in immersion breaking actions like QTE that require you to watch for the cue to hit so you can succeed. You cant watch the awesome graphic action going on because you are focused on hitting E E S S T! annoying. In that same flavor devs putting keyboard actions into menial tasks like 'press eeeeeeeee till you open the door' in order to pad the gameplay. looking at you D4
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Bookwyrm627: Have you played Indigo Prophecy, by any chance? The game best played by someone else!
totally agree on that, shame really as the story looked great, couldnt get past the lousy keyboard interface
Posted September 24, 2015
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mintee: totally agree on that, shame really as the story looked great, couldnt get past the lousy keyboard interface
I played it on console, so the controls weren't too bad. The biggest issue I had was that a lot of the cutscenes were throwing QTEs at you to make the scene advance in a favorable way, so its like "Well, I could watch for the QTE buttons, or I could watch the story that I'm supposedly unveiling".
Posted September 24, 2015
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mk47at: 3. Invisible level transitions with auto save and no way to go back. I really hate them.
Yes! Those are the worst!
Posted September 24, 2015
Artificial difficulty (several newer games which claims to be "hardcore" relies on this one), becoming frustrating instead of a joy.
Post edited September 24, 2015 by enigmaxg2
Posted September 24, 2015
Dark Souls II actually has the worst artificial difficulty enemy I've ever seen. There is a boss called the Royal Rat Authority whose attacks are utterly broken and you start the fight with four minion rats that stunlock, poison and kill you in 3-4 hits before the main boss.
Posted September 24, 2015
- Quick timer events

- Artificially restrictive mouselook preventing you from looking straight up or straight down. The Witcher 3 does this which is particularly annoying when fighting flying creatures that are directly about you and his neck is locked preventing looking up which is pretty dumb. Even worse in the boat.

- Extreme low resolution pixelated art in brand new games attempting to be "retro".

- Extremely complex combos that involve memorizing complex button press sequences in very fast order to pull off, which leads to 99% of gamers just doing random button mashing. Yes I'm looking at you Mortal Kombat (every game). Still like the game, but most moves are painfully difficult to do and that ends up taking away from the fun for me at least.

- Forcing you to reload from a checkpoint just prior to a long cut scene that you have seen 50 times already and have no way to skip, which is then immediately followed by an incredibly difficult task which you're very likely to get killed and have to watch the cut scene again, and with no ability to do manual save after the cut scene. The Witcher (first game) does this for example.

- Automatically detecting that you happen to have a gamepad plugged into your computer and the game uses the gamepad by default with no way to disable it other than exiting the game, unplugging the gamepad and then starting the game again in order for the keyboard and mouse to work.

- Forcing you to fight a bunch of enemies shooting-gallery style in a linear map (or the entire game) and if you die you're forced to go back to the last checkpoint. Similar to my above entry but this one is more "rail shooter" type.
Posted September 24, 2015
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skeletonbow: - Extreme low resolution pixelated art in brand new games attempting to be "retro".
I used to share your opinion, but some great retro games eased me into this graphic style. Have you played The Last Door? Extremely atmospheric and quite scary for a radically pixellated game.
Posted September 24, 2015
* annoying check-points...common in most action games, including GTA V
* the ideology of open-world > good level design...as in Shadow of Mordor
* escort missions...or 'automatic stress generators'
* completely unexpected QTEs...if you're gonna use them, be consistent
* unremarkable boss fights....Deus Ex Human Revolution...I can't recall a single boss in that game
Posted September 24, 2015
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skeletonbow: - Extreme low resolution pixelated art in brand new games attempting to be "retro".
With ridiculously high system requirements. Man, the graphics of some newer games look like ported directly from a C-64, but the requirements are as high as the ones for Witcher 3.

- Permadeath. There`s nothing more annoying than playing a game for hours, dying without any chance to survive and then you are forced to start the game again from the very beginning. Can`t somebody tell those programmers that there is an invention, called "Savegame"?

- Loosing a game even though you won it. I only saw that in one game: Hammerfall. You can beat the endboss but still loose the game, because you didn`t find the myriads of planks hidden in the game.
Don`t get me wrong, I love Hammerfall. But since I`m simply not able to find all the planks I cannot escape after the endfight, and therefore I kinda loose the game.
Posted September 24, 2015
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toxicTom: I actually liked the driving sections in ME1, but the scanning in ME2 was... I don't know who thought that would be a good idea.
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Wishbone: Me too. The exploration in ME1 was poorly implemented, true (basically, all they needed to do was to divide the Z axis of all height maps by 2 and it would have been perfect) but it was fun and has some interesting encounters.

Then, inexplicably, when they made ME2 they decided that "since this mechanic is somewhat poorly designed, we'll get rid of it entirely and replace it with something much, MUCH worse". Whoever came up with the planet scanning mechanic for ME2 ought to be trampled to death by ducks.
Actualy, I enjoyed the planet scaning more than driving that car. I think this is related to the point 2 of OP: Genre switches. I wanted to play an RPG not a racing/driving game. Granted, the scanning was pretty boring.
I don't know which game featured this thing first (GTA 3 or maybe some Unreal Tournament) but I see this ideea implemented quite often: if in this game you can SHOOT than you should also be able to DRIVE and SHOOT at the same time.
Posted September 24, 2015
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Maxvorstadt: - Permadeath. There`s nothing more annoying than playing a game for hours, dying without any chance to survive and then you are forced to start the game again from the very beginning. Can`t somebody tell those programmers that there is an invention, called "Savegame"?
Oh yes and if anybody knows a mod for "Risk of Rain" that disables permadeath and enables a save option, I'd be very much obliged and the same goes for "The Binding of Isaac".

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Maxvorstadt: - Loosing a game even though you won it. I only saw that in one game: Hammerfall. You can beat the endboss but still loose the game, because you didn`t find the myriads of planks hidden in the game.
Don`t get me wrong, I love Hammerfall. But since I`m simply not able to find all the planks I cannot escape after the endfight, and therefore I kinda loose the game.
Do you mean Hammerwatch? I agree and finished it multiple times but I always missed two or three extremely well hidden planks and in the end always "lost" because of this.
Giving gamers a small easter egg for finding ridiculously well hidden stuff is good, but penalizing everyone else in this way is bad.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnti-features in games that are too common(94 posts)(94 posts)
(94 posts)