What one gimmick instantly turns you off from a game, making you not want to play it or to rage quit it if you already started (or, alternatively, cheat)? It can be setting, game play mechanic, or feature.

For me, one would be insta-fail stealth segments; this is one reason why I stopped playing newer Zelda games. Such sequences are incredibly frustrating, as they are basically scenes where you have to avoid invisible instant-death bullets. Such gameplay just isn't fun, especially when the usual gameplay is clearly not stealth-oriented, and where getting hit usually isn't fatal.

(Yes, this topic is based off the other "Gimmick" topic; I just reversed the direction.)

QTE.

Instant Fail Stealth followed quickly by escorts.

Overreliance on referential writing.

It's fine to have easter eggs or pay homage to something once or twice. Get your crowbar Half-Life joke out of your system and get on with it. But if you can't be arsed to have a single spark of narrative originality, maybe skip having a story entirely. More than one reference within the first hour of play is an instant uninstall. I'm also looking for mentions of referential humor in reviews to know what to avoid.

Same goes for the majority of games where you're The Chosen One.

Same as Telika - Quick Time Events. Either let me play or show me a properly made cutscene. Don't give me the worst of both worlds...

Age of Empires levels with no base-building. It's one thing the series just doesn't get right imo, in stark contrast to several other favorite RTSs like starcraft, dawn of war and battle for middle earth.

Losing all your guns in an FPS at some point. Perhaps not hated, but definitely annoying each time. Perhaps not so much the losing of the weapons as much as the bullshit way you typically lose it in : walk around a corner and get knocked unconscious by a perp with a baseball bat or something ridiculous like that.

Spider man like reflexes on enemies in games where one shot can kill you. Looking at you SWAT 3 and 4!

Loot boxes in single player - just gtfo with that nonsense.

There are a few that really annoy me, but I'll second escort missions/quests. All it used to mean was that you were charged with guiding and protecting some ridiculously fragile and slow NPC to their destination while being rushed by waves of enemies. That was already annoying. These days the formula is similar, but now the "waves" of enemies has dwindled down to a handful here and there and you mostly just walk slowly to the NPC's destination. In either instance, the escort mission almost never has any bearing on the overall plot of the game and the reward is usually never worth the effort.

Weapon wear. A game mechanic just to have a game mechanic. During all my years of weapon training in the military, not one single weapon ever wore out during actual use, and damn, some of our weapons were old.

It's the main reason I quit and sold Breath of the Wild, well that and it was just plain boring.

Action games that use gimmicky RPG elements like enemy levels, damage numbers, looting, etc...

"quick time events". Ugh.

Followed closely by "rhythm games" as minigames, which are kind of a subset of the former.

And then gestural input.

Being locked into unskippable tutorials where if you don't perform each action as instructed you are immediately reset and told to do it again. Also backtracking through empty areas to go to a new location.

In action games: Eagle eyed enemies that spot (and shoot) you through cover.

QTE. You want to make your cutscenes more interactive, but players are concentrating on button prompts instead of paying attention to the cutscenes.

There are quite a lot. I have problems choosing just one.

PTW -- pay to win is SO mþ_jkes.HFJ_KSÜDF_LJDZRTLJjfxz<gjjsnvjïnxz AAARRRGH!

Hidden extra cost -- like some games you buy for full price and then find out they are not really playable without that extra content, like some gun you must have (BF3) or the game is just about unplayable (Omerta: City of Gangsters (4 DLCs included)) without that one DLC.

QTE -- a most idiotic invention.

Enemies spotting you through walls (Far Cry without a fan patch/downgrade to earlier version) or dense foliage where you have no chance of seeing them.

Possibility to make the game unwinnable by something like eating that one apple in the beginning then find out 120h later that it was needed for beating the final boss. This one is such a middle finger to the player that it deserves the death penalty.

Games where the visible area is so small that enemies can kill you from outside the screen. A lot of sidescrollers, platformers at least encountered with this.

Enemies levelling up with you, meaning you will always struggle with that one monster. This one is more of despicable than an object of hatred.

Controller a must despite there being no good reason for it, it being a game suitable for mouse, keyboard or joystick (I am hopeless with a controller).

3D graphics for 2D games... It might look nice but it is hard to see where you can move and such.

Low resolution pixel graphics in modern releases. Why is the game only in like 200*320pixels?! It looks awful. I can forgive a game from 1986 but not something from 2016 or even newer.

Enemies popping into existance out of thin air, usually right behind you facing your back with their weapon/fangs/claws at the ready.

Too much handholding in sandboxy games. Some games do this well with you able to pick a tutorial start where you will get some help in the beginning and after a while it turns into a normal game.

Idiot puzzles, like use the apple on the boot and add an empty match box (you must empty it first) then put into the washing machine to have that one door three floors below open up and you have to try it three times because the first two times the game says you are crazy for trying something like that.

Missable content in RPG/Sandbox games. I'm ok with optional side quests, hidden secrets and all of that. I'm ok with multiple endings, but I HATE secret endings, important story-related content, cool secret bosses which require a whole new 100h playthrough to be experienced.