Game mechanics you absolutely detest

[KarmaTheAlligator]

One of the biggest one for me are un-winnable fights where you're dominating from the start (basically, a fight where you're going to lose no matter what, because the story demands it). Many games do this, while also allowing you do either get super powerful weapons or character beforehand and it's just annoying.

 

[TrulyBritish]

Not to be a jerk about it and maybe I misunderstand you but it sounds like you got pissed off at Mass Effect 2 because you made a mistake and the game made you pay for it...

But the thing is I didn't really make a mistake-
What is usually supposed to happen is you wake legion, then your ship is attacked by the collectors, then you do his mission.
In my case, my ship was attacked by the collectors, I woke legion, and then did his mission. Note that waking him involves a mere 1-minute conversation. that's it- but I take it the game considered that a recruitment mission (Although it was not a mission at all) and counted that against me. I find that ridiculous.

I don't think that's right friendo... I'm pretty sure after the IFF mission you only have one mission to before the crew get abducted. Once the crew are abducted, to save them all you HAVE to go straight after them. If you have no other loyalty missions (Which i guess you didn't if Legion was inactive), then you go straight to the Joker mission. At least I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Not to be a jerk about it and maybe I misunderstand you but it sounds like you got pissed off at Mass Effect 2 because you made a mistake and the game made you pay for it...

But the thing is I didn't really make a mistake-
What is usually supposed to happen is you wake legion, then your ship is attacked by the collectors, then you do his mission.
In my case, my ship was attacked by the collectors, I woke legion, and then did his mission. Note that waking him involves a mere 1-minute conversation. that's it- but I take it the game considered that a recruitment mission (Although it was not a mission at all) and counted that against me. I find that ridiculous.

I don't think that's right friendo... I'm pretty sure after the IFF mission you only have one mission to before the crew get abducted. Once the crew are abducted, to save them all you HAVE to go straight after them. If you have no other loyalty missions (Which i guess you didn't if Legion was inactive), then you go straight to the Joker mission. At least I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

After checking this on the wiki- it seems you are correct. But the thing is that selecting the galactic map accidentally caused the irreversible chain of events. I forgot selecting it would fuck me over, and I wanted to gather more recourses for a research project. That's the mechanic I hate, the irreversible chain of events that happened that fucked me over.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Regenerating health. I have no idea what was wrong with med packs, or getting healed by an allied medic soldier (ala Vietcong) but they were certainly better than crouching behind some cover and sitting there for awhile as the screen slowly does away with its ridiculous-looking blood splatter. Such a silly mechanic.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Chest High Walls, bloody screens when you get hugh by bullets like your face is made of ketchup packets (worse when your screen losses color and becomes a Charlie Chaplin pallet), and QTEs not from RE4.

 

[Warachia]

Teleport Mazes. FUCK THESE. better yet are when the mazes poison you by missing a single one of the 12 teleporters you have to take in the correct order, and have multiple levels with pits that drop you down in the poison, and you have to go all the way back to the start just to try again.
How about bosses that can infinitely heal themselves? Your only hope is that they don't heal, and just let you kill them.
Not to mention Bosses that can instantly kill the main character, again, your only hope is that they don't use this attack, because if they do, it's instant game over with no possible way to miss.

What I'm basically saying is fuck SMT: Strange Journey, that game had the worst dungeon, with the worst fucking bosses I've ever seen.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

OT: been mentioned, but unskippable cutscenes, especially after you've seen them before.

infamous KH scene:


seriously, if you were underleveled/on hard, this was such a ***** to repeat. added 10x the amount of frustration to it.

also, I'm fine with cutscenes, but dear god...BE SOMEWHAT FUCKING ACCURATE WITH THEM.

to use the OP's example, mass effect, there are tons of times where shepard and his group will be out in the open, some random baddie will be coming in/dropping in to shoot at them, and both sides stand there in the open like fucking idiots, shooting random bad bullets at each other or moving ridiculously slow. THE SAME DAMN OUTCOME CAN HAPPEN BUT AT A FASTER PACE. jesus, I can sprint and do all these things faster/better in normal gameplay, don't make my shepard look like an incompetent slow child (in more ways than one).

slight example of the many times this happens:

 

[Warachia]

One of the biggest one for me are un-winnable fights where you're dominating from the start (basically, a fight where you're going to lose no matter what, because the story demands it). Many games do this, while also allowing you do either get super powerful weapons or character beforehand and it's just annoying.

That's a big one for me, or when you WIN, but the following cutscene shows your character unconscious on the floor without telling you how you've lost.
I hate these, if winning doesn't matter, why do I get a game over when I lose?

 

[zehydra]

Any game which implements artificial delay in the hopes of getting a customer to pay extra money for an ingame currency used to speed up said delay.

Also, any ingame currency which can be purchased with real money. (not really a game mechanic, but...)


I also don't like swimming in games much. I just did a playthrough of Banjo & Kazooie for the N64... Clanker's Cavern and Rusty Bucket Bay are evil. EVIL

 

[zehydra]

I really hate timed missions, or games that score you based on how long you take. For example, in Battalion Wars, I'd love to take my time and do everything methodically, but if I want to get a good score I can't do that. There's loads more examples but to be honest I can't remember any right now.

This game...

There were a number of things I didn't like about Battalion wars, but it seems like they designed the timer mechanic with a speedrunner in mind.

 

[RavingSturm]

ME2 - mineral mining suckage

Daikatana - the stupid ai partners kept doing stupid stuff(getting stuck, not reacting to enemies)

Mask of the Betrayer- the soul eating mechanic feels forced for story purposes

QTEs in any or most games

AssCreed 1 - you cant swim!

Asscreed 4:

1)boarding action crew counter:the number of the enemy crew is meaningless because they spawn endlessly depending on who you have to kill or what you have to destroy(barrels) or get(flag)

2)tailing -the fact that enemies have eyes behind their head or can spot you form really weird angles inspite of you being in cover/line of sight is broken, the games not following its own rules

3)weather - its seems to change at the drop of a hat to make attacking certain fotresses harder

Farcry 2 - mallaria, vehicle overheat, notoriety:at some point it seems everybody in the whole area just shows up out of nowhere to try and kill you

FallOut 3 -VATS, game doesnt have true ironsights

Any game:Forced stealth sections where you are buck naked

Diablo2 - corpse retrieval becomes a hassle at higher difficulties with high enemy mob density

Elder Scrolls:

1)the skill leveling system -grinding is unimaginative

2)super guards - they show up even underwater, hive mind makes them aware of your crimes regardless where crime/s were performed(skyrim tries to fix this though)

Ultimaagan - jumping

GTA/Driver - scripted chase sequence, you cant block the other guy's car by parking in front of the getaway vehicle, the game moves your car elsewhere

 

[Raggedstar]

Pretty much everything has been mentioned (dumb escorts, unfair and cutscene QTEs, sticky cover, unskippable cutscenes, etc). I'll also toss in "mandatory racing/vehicle sections that clearly don't work" as they're pretty common in many platformers. The racing sections in Jak 2 were downright nasty (plus that bloody robot was a pain), and the cars in Jak 3 sometimes decide to veer off and roll for whatever reason.

Boss Rushes aren't that great either. I love me some Okami, but so many bosses are recycled at nauseum AND you have to fight them AGAIN right at the very end before that awesome final boss. I've already beaten these guys, damn it! And they're weaker than before! Trust me, your game isn't lacking in length, and the entire boss fight and ending cutscenes take about 30 minutes. This is a game where you can sink more than 40 hours with absolute ease. Chill out! Though while I'm here, Okami's unskippable cutscenes also suck, especially in the first act where everything is tutorialized and expositioned to hell (sheesh, it takes you 15 minutes to even start the gameplay).

Badly controlled water levels deserve another mention though. The water section with the spinning blades in Conker's Bad Fur Day was a particular thorn in my side. The perspective was terrible, your speed is slow and inconsistent, and the camera control wasn't that great. And then lest we forget nearly every water dungeon in a Zelda game was guaranteed to suck.

OT: been mentioned, but unskippable cutscenes, especially after you've seen them before.

infamous KH scene:


seriously, if you were underleveled/on hard, this was such a ***** to repeat. added 10x the amount of frustration to it.

*writhes on the floor* Oh geeze, I think I'm relapsing. That's the scene I ALWAYS use to explain why unskippable cutscenes (especially before a difficult boss fight) suck. Figures that I get the bugger on proud mode in Final Mix (where you CAN skip) in only about 3 tries without grinding. If Kingdom Hearts as taught me anything, it's that it's possible to complain to your friend that you lost, go upstairs to make a sandwich, come downstairs, and take a bite or two in about 2.5 minutes.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Unskippable cutscenes.

Cutscenes that slap you with an in-cutscene QTE as soon as you put the controller down.

Badly done mechanics of any kind. The cover system in the first Mass Effect actually caused me to die multiple times because Shepard simply would NOT stop dicking around with cover.

Sticking you with undroppable "quest items" that hinder you in some way. Skyrim is awful with this, I finished the game carrying about 30 pounds of garbage.

Escort missions.

Overly complex controls. Hold B to sneak, tap R3 to grab an enemy when behind them and sneaking, from there press A to interrogate or C to murder him, unless it's Tuesday in which case hold the left shoulder button, grow a third thumb, then use that thumb to do a combo on the D-pad.....No thanks.

Ridiculous life bars, or ineffective weaponry. If a shirtless bandit can withstand multiple rockets to the face, it's not a real bandit or a real rocket launcher.

The rendering inaccessible of collectibles, side missions, etc beyond some arbitrary point without explicit warning

Indestructible enemies, when done badly. The ones from Dead Space come to mind. Most 'morphs actually feel fragile, like animate jello molds only there to be blown apart in delightfully gory ways. Suddenly there's an enemy in the same weight class who no amount of firepower can ever dispatch. Knocked me right out of the immersion. I guess the desired reaction is "ohshitohshitrunningrunningRUNNING" but mine was "gimmickgimmick@#&*ingGIMMICK."

Gear degradation.

Having to get a keycard to open a door that looks like I could easily open it with, say, a few of those grenades I've been getting such good use out of. This is less mechanics and more aesthetics. I'd be fine with getting a keycard to open a vault.

Redesigning something that worked well -- UI, skill system, whatever -- into an inferior version of itself. I recently finished Mass Effect 1 and my first impression of 2 is that this happened with skills and cover.

 

[lacktheknack]

Fantastic. It had me wondering why I wasn't playing a better game. Like any other game.

I really hate it when people act as if video games are supposed to be fun toys, and only fun toys.

They're a storytelling medium like any other, and they should be treated like it.

I mean, how dare the Matrix set up Neo's normal, dull corporate life before getting to the anime gunfights. Dont the film-makers know that action movies are supposed to have combat on the screen 100% of the time?

Except... You know... it took less than half an hour to do that... which is certainly better than I can say for Mafia II...

 

[immortalfrieza]

No mention of heavy RNG dependance yet? As much as I love Disgaea 4 the post game is an absolute RNG nightmare. You want weapons that don't suck? need to unlock the land of carnage then, rather than unlocking it being based upon pirate maps that you would gain all of them during your multiple item runs, now you have to build a specific Pirate ship.

The catch being that in order to do so you must capture and torture specific enemy types to have them make a chest appear on a random maps, oh yay the drops from said chest are random better save scum like hell! The worst offender being the body piece which you must defeat the Meowkins for it... they just so happen to be the Pirates with the lowest appearance rate... who also happen to have the shortest floor range to appear. Even following the optimal steps to get all the ship parts it took me about 2 weeks just to get all of them, another kick in the teeth was the massive nerf to the puppy paw stick which further made Disgaea 4's post game "Save Scum to win" with most of the playtime staring at the title screen upon reload.

Yep, that's a pretty damn bad one. There's nothing worse than having an otherwise simple sidequest or worse main quest take hours because the developers decided that it was somehow a good idea to put you at the mercy of a sadistic RNG to complete it by doing something 2,000 times, instead of having the quest completion be based around skill or knowledge or something like that like it should be. It also doesn't matter what the odds of something good happening are supposed to be, it's actually at best 1/100,000, and the odds of something bad happening are always 99,999/100,000.

OT: Any game with life restoring magic and/or items that anyone can use where if a particular character dies usually the main character it's an instant game over.

Any turned based RPG where party members are uncontrollable especially with really stupid party A.I. that gets you killed repeatedly.

The above 2 are the reason I have yet to be able to get through Persona 3, not because it's hard but because it's such a pain to play.

 

[Tarsus]

My list of things that will cause me to never buy a game at full price if at all:
Auto saves(only), Qte's, mini games, poor cut scenes and "achievements", in that order.

 

[Drakmorg]

The only ones I find haven't already been mentioned for me are Mandatory (or at least just semi-mandatory) Mini-games, and Iron-sight aiming.

Mini-games are fine if they're either a core part of gameplay (your Mario Parties and stuff like that), or can be ignored with the only consequence being maybe I don't get some extra fake money or whatever. But when I have to do some random shit that has no bearing on anything that was in the game before-hand, and will never come up again (God be willing), then that shit irritates me. Especially if it's crazy hard. As for Semi-Mandatory, see the whole Mass Effect 2 mining bullshit of "You don't ever technically have to do this boring as shit mini-game. Buuuut if you don't, we'll randomly kill off the characters you've spent the game getting attached to, and are in fact the focal point of this whole game, once shit actually starts going down."

I hate Iron-sight aiming because "Hey, let's force the player to massively limit their field of view and ability to move if they ever want to hit anything". Also it really makes me wonder why shooters that have that even bother with giving you cross-hairs in the first place, because it sure as hell isn't going to help you do anything more than making sure your shots might possibly go in the direction the enemy is in.

 

[Meximagician]

'Cinematic gameplay', where game rules are pushed aside or changed, not for the game's benefit, but for visuals sake.

A vehicle chase could be cut short by shooting, better make the enemy, vehicle, and tires bulletproof. Never mind that the player isn't trying to follow the enemy anywhere, we just want a neat vehicle chase before the gunfight.

Again, during a chase sequence, we want the enemy to taunt the player. Better let the enemy AI rubber band so badly that the vehicle chase can be held at a brisk 30 mph (≈50 km/h).

We want the player's vehicle to be on fire here, but the scripted event that causes that is too far away from the point where the player needs to get out. Better cause fire to destroy the vehicle far slower than usual. Never mind that throughout the game, "vehicle on fire" was visual shorthand for "vehicle and player death imminent".

We want the camera at this angle, it looks better. Who really needs to know what's happening in front of their character anyways?

---

Also, QTE doesn't bother me unless something else is also going on visually. I don't want to have to play the game, pause, then look up on YouTube what just happened.

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Edit: Forgot about the achievements you get by playing/completing the game. Achievements should be about adding replay value, what's the point in earning one for something I need to do anyways?

 

[Winthrop]

I hate when games make you mash a button quickly. A lot of games do this when you are trying to pull something out of someone's hands or you lock swords. I don't find it fun or engaging to just mash a button fast, I'm not particularly good at it, and it can do some real damage on a controller. Absolutely hate that mechanic.

Escort quests don't normally bug me that much, but Dragon's Dogma's are the worst. I have one where I'm supposed to escort some young girl, but she will walk straight in front of me and get shot in the head by bandits and die in one shot. I wish I could tell her to wait, kill the archers, and then have her come.

Any time a game genre bends. Stealth sections in action games, action sections in stealth games, puzzles in action games where puzzles aren't part of the core experience, or any time you need to do some kind of race in a nonracing game. Stealth, action, puzzles, and racing are all fun when they are done properly, but WAY too many games add them in despite it not working with the mechanics or genre.

 

[Nazulu]

The only one that sticks out to me right now is QTE's. Currently going through Resident Evil 4, and not too long ago I completed God Of War, I have to say they were never fun.

I don't feel clever or skillful when I have to press a series of buttons or tap repeatedly to kill or not die. It's annoying because I've been trying to advance my skills so I'm ready for the next big challenge, and suddenly the challenge just becomes a mini game basically. And sometimes the keys flash on the screen so quickly you need to apply all your focus on one part of the screen, so you miss the action clips.

It's lame and will never be as satisfying as completing a challenge with your own skills.