These days you can put pretty much every 'feature' of a Telltale game in this thread.
After Tales I doubt anything they produced can even be called an adventure game anymore.

Another one (that comes up in Dark Sun: Shattered Lands). I am not in a battle and I want to heal characters with Cell Adjustment. That power restores only 2 HP per use, so I need to use it a bunch of times. This means I need to select the power and the target every time I use it. It would be *so* much nicer if I only had to select the power once. (Alternatively, they could have made it self-only, especially since Lend Health exists in this game.)

I believe the sequel has the same issue.

Escort missions, more importantly escort missions inserted into a game roughly three quarters of the way through it. Nothing more infuriating than having to adjust from going it solo to playing babysitter.

Bad/noticeable differences in dialogue recording quality - there's no reason to have one person recorded with pristine quality and three others that sound like they were either in an underwater dome, trapped in the trunk of a car on a dying cell phone or standing ten feet away from a microphone.

Time limits in any form.
There is enough stress in real life, no need for more in games.

That's the main reason, I prefer turn based or real time with pause games.

microtransactions - I just can't stand them
quick time events in point & click adventures
bad ports from console games
grinding

Excessive Cheese... Totalbiscuit describes Cheese as getting killed or failing something where you had no warning, or no way to prepare for it in advance.

Excessive backtracking. Get key from room A to open room B which has a key to room C on the other side of room A, which room C has a key for room D on the other side of room B, which has a key that opens a door in room A down to the next level... etc.

Really illogical inventory system. A note will take up an entire inventory slot, or 1000 bullets or a huge gun can also take the same slot... Gets worse where there's like only 8 slots available.

Lack of control over graphical settings. This includes being able to turn on/off AA, bloom, shadows, etc.

a 2D or Isometic perspective game and getting sniped from off screen...

The lack of maps and fast travel in Underrail. Comparing the game to Fallout 2, the difference becomes very stark. To get to major points of interest within Fallout 2, you have an overworld map that allows you to freely travel. The quest hubs have sub-maps, allowing the player to enter any district that they have previously explored.

In Underrail? Well...you could take the Metro, ferries, or just go spelunking. But the two previous options have limited access to the game world. Spelunking is also limited, since you need a consumable to break open paths. Without a map, spelunking quickly becomes a confusing and tedious nightmare, wherein travel takes 15 or so screens of walking from one bastion of civilization to the next. Even after exploring and opening up paths, travel can take a fair chunk of Real World time, often from forgetting which path leads to someplace interesting. The slow movement speed doesn't help, either.


Blech. Underrail is a disappointment for me, as it often apes Fallout 2 and Metro series, without actually having mechanics or world design to back the intention.

I actually think that this can work under a few conditions (I call these traps):

1. The game should make it clear that you should expect this. Ideally, this should happen really early, like in the demo or even on the download or store page. In particular, this should be a core mechanic of the game, not something that is tacked on. (Alternatively, this could be saved for some optional secret level, but the game should still make it clear.)
2. The traps are always in the same place and not random. For example, if there is an invisible block that messes up your jump, it should always be in that place.
3. The penalty for failure should be minor. Having to worry about losing all your lives, watch a lengthy cutscene, or have to start over because you lack a necessary item and can't backtrack are all things that should be avoided in this sort of game. Syoban Action handles this by having checkpoints and allowing your lives counter to go arbitrarily negative.
4. Ideally, deaths should be funny, and the same trap should not be over-used. Otherwise, the game gets stale.
5. Getting around the traps, once you know that they're there, should not require tricky maneuvers. On the other hand, puzzles work well. (My favorite are the goals in Syoban Action and (at least the first stage of) Eryi's action; figuring out how to not die after hitting the goal is an interesting puzzle in these games.)

Of note, roguelikes fail all these criteria and the developers should be careful to not make the game unfair.

Edit: My definition of a trap: Anything that punishes the player for doing something reasonable.

Games that start immediately without going into a main menu. I remember LOTR ROTK did this. I'm very glad this isn't too common.

Menus are made into game sequences so it takes a while to navigate through them. They should always be instantl, I just want to change my settings and then play the game.

I wouldn't consider it a little thing but I'll add it anyway: frame limits under 60.

Intended or not reason to cause the game to break e.g you have to restart without a clear sign that you should because you can't make any progress. I really abhor games that can make you stuck because you wasted resources and it doesn't tell you so, there's the possibility you waste time searching for a non-existant solution.

A hard beginning or an easy ending: they should be flipped.

Long game over sequences. Just let me reload!

PC games without keyboard and mouse support - so many developers just assume that everyone uses a controller because the developers use them

No support for standard Windows fonts

Settings/options are not saved when the game is exited - so music levels or whatever have to be set every time

Inconsistent spelling of things in the game - especially for things like character names

A one-foot tall hedge is an impassible barrier and the characters couldn't possibly step over it

Puzzles that prevent advancing in the game for no reason - both entrances to a room are unlocked, but you can't go through the second one until you stop and do a crossword puzzle

The main character has to carry a light source and the light source is visible on screen

When the AI gets to cheat on normal difficulty levels and this is never mentioned in the game's documentation - their vehicles have higher top speeds or are invisible or can't be attacked or whatever

I agree about time limits of all kinds

Ugly/awfully programmed main menus. It's my first impressions so please don't make ugly as fuck main menus. It's also unacceptable to lack the options I should expect to see in a PC game unless they are low-end indies, which typically don't require many options but the standard ones. Sadly though I've come across some indies that lack even simple things like a music volume. Give me a break...

Terrible conveyance and relying on a crutch like flashing objective objects or an arrow or line telling you exactly where to go. Game developers treat me like I'm the moron when they're the ones that can't make a fucking game that hints at the player where to go or what to do next.

Overly linear games with no sense of exploration or reward.

Forcefully gay/trans characters that lack any personality other than the fact they're gay/trans. It's embarrassing. It makes me cringe. Stop it. Cheesy romances that mean jack shit in the long run are another thing I hate. No matter the sexual orientation.

Garbage balancing and cheating AI (a common thing in RTS).

Whispers and explosions. Dialogue that's so quiet I have to turn the volume up, only to be ear raped a minute later by loud gunshots and explosions.

Hmmm if you could avoid it on future plays, then yes it's probably acceptable to a degree. But really the number of times such a instant death or trap is in place should be relatively low.

When you need to repair your stuff, I think it is the only thing what I hate in RPG games :P

Yep, modded the durability of Weapons and Armor out of Witcher 3, Fallout: NV and Oblivion, I never keep track of these things and I dont like it when my weapons suddenly break. :/

A toggle for this would be nice; those that like the feature can keep it while the others just deactivate it.