The other thread about favorite mechanics is great, so let’s also do the opposite: what are some of your most hated mechanics?
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Quick-time events but SPECIFICALLY the ones that give you way too little time to react. Like, I never mind them too much, especially the ones in the Yakuza series, but I remember there was this game on the Wii called Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings that would throw these inputs WAYY too fast at you.
I like them sometimes, but there should ALWAYS be a way to turn them off, for people who don’t have fast reflexes or have problems with their hands, etc.
Shout out to Spider-Man on PS4 for this! Love when a game has accessibility options around quick time events, or anything where you need to mash a button really fast.
Radiant quests. You can never complete the game because of this, the quests are generic and repetitive and offer nothing but “stretch the playtime”.
That and mechanics like “rando dragon attacks in Skyrim” and “City is under attack” from Fallout 4. I quit F4 because I was on my way to a mission and got the "city under attack notification, and on my way to defend another city was under attack.
To yes-and this: procedural content in general. No Man’s Sky is a snore-fest for me, big, empty, meaningless. Missions in Elite Dangerous and X4 are similarly pretty boring, though the former is more fun the first time around. There has to feel like there’s some world-affecting point to what you’re doing. IMO
I found the procedurally-produced planets in No Man’s Sky to be stunningly beautiful. Then I would walk around on them and the similar-but-not-quite look of every part of the landscape would slowly drive me INSANE.
Combo attacks - I’m not coordinated to hit the buttons in order fast enough. I tried Black Desert when it was free and this was the dealbreaker for me, though it wasn’t the only thing that bugged me about the game.
Disclaimer: not always
Character stats, commonly called “RPG elements”.
In games with low enough detail that I have to use my imagination, it makes sense to have a character constitution 10 increase to 15 and take 50% less damage from blunt weapons. It works perfectly in Rimworld, ADOM, Terraria and the like because you can’t completely see what’s happening, so when your character does low damage your imagination has room for him to hit badly or be partially blocked.
But in games with modern graphics and animations, it feels… off. An attack animation that shows someone swinging a sharp steel battleaxe perfectly and connecting with bare flesh at momentum, deals… no damage because the wielder has low strength and axe skill, while the target has a high armor value.
The bit in the RPG when your character gets captured and you lose all your gear, and have to do the shitty stealth thing.
I hate how in a lot of retro games water kills you instanly.
When you enter a level and the camera pans over every important thing in the level before you can move. I’m not an idiot. I can discover the level on my own. Stop holding my hand.
People have said escort quests but I’m going to go more specific.
Escort quests WHERE THE NPC INEXPLICABLY HAS A DIFFERENT WALKING/RUNNING SPEED THAN THE PLAYER…
I think it was on one of the Half-Life 2 developer commentary where they mention that the made the NPC move faster than your walking speed, but slower than your running speed, so that you are able to catch up with them if you stay behind to look at something. If they move at your running speed, you are kinda forced to follow them all the time, and any obstacle will separate you more and more from the NPC that you are supposed to escort.
I have yet to play a game where NPCs have the same speed as the player, have you? I get it on the game design level, since NPCs need to move at a speed that their animations look natural at but player characters need to move fast enough to not feel frustrating to the character.
I have yet to play a game where NPCs have the same speed as the player, have you?
RDR2 did an excellent job with this by making it more of a pseudo cutscene. You can just hold a button and your character will match the target speed.
That seems great. I have RDR2 on my wishlist but unfortunately it would require more storage space than my entire laptop has at the moment.
Escort quests. Stealth sections in games that aren’t built around stealth would be close second.
Genshin Impact occasionally has little stealth missions where you have to sneak by guards.
Pain.
That fake open-world feeling you get in the Assassin’s Creed games. You have the illusion of the game being an open-world, but there is so much restrictions by levels, inventory, … That you are always forced to grind a lot.
You can’t choose how you progress, it’s very linear, while giving the illusion of it being open-world. I largely prefer the older titles that were linear, but didn’t try to scam you into thinking it’s open-world, so the progression was organic.
If I want to just play the story and nothing else, I can’t. Oh and the combat is boring.
Anything where the player is essentially a superhero, I like summers though…
I’m not a big fan of fishing mechanics, they’re usually shallow “press button at random signal, get a random prize” mechanics.
Also escort missions where the NPC being escorted does not understand that it should protect its own life. I don’t mind repeating a mission due to my own mistakes, but I don’t want to do it because some AI went potato.
nah man fishing mini games are THE SHIT
it’s not about gameplay it’s about vibes It’s just so calming
Probably simple, mindless side/fetch quests. Defeat enemies, get loot, run it back, rinse and repeat. It also is incredibly dry to watch as well as actually do yourself.
Nintendo’s inability to make things easy like crafting multiple items at once in BotW/TotK and Animal Crossing
Grinding to advance and make the game easier.
Looking at you fdev with Elite Dangerous, or Rockstar and GTA.
Having balance and not level locking stuff is hard I get that. And you have people that will burn though content like it’s a free crackpipe. But it basically makes a lot of adults or people that just play games casually or in moderation just not fun
