Game mechanics you absolutely detest

pspman45

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I've been borrowing a friend's 3DS to play Fire Emblem Awakening, and I just absolutely HATE the whole "oh no, reinforcements that suddenly appear behind you without warning and get to act immediately after appearing, killing ALL OF MY MAGES AND SHIT"
it is literally the least fair thing ever, so if anyone tells me that Lunatic Classic is the way that the game is meant to be played, then you can kindly fuck right off
 

MASTACHIEFPWN

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bug_of_war said:
MASTACHIEFPWN said:
TL;DR: Mass Effect 2 fucked up because I made a stupid choice, and I ruined my perfect play through.
No...you fucked up. The game allows as many missions after everyone is taken to be done, however after they're taken more people will die for each mission not taken. Take 1 mission, Kelly dies. Take 2, Dr Chakwas dies. Any more than that and I'm pretty sure you loose everyone. Don't blame the game for screwing up your perfect play through, you dun goofed and the game had an actual consequence.


Game mechanics I dislike? Overly complex game mechanics. If it takes 5 minutes to explain how to do one action, you're doing it wrong. The best games aren't overly complex, at least that's my opinion.

-RPG leveling skill trees in none RPG games. I don't mind waiting to be given a better weapon/abillity, but don't tease me with it in the pause screen and be all, "OOOOH LOOK SHINY, IT TAKES SUPER LONG TO GET THIS". Just give me the fucking thing.
As I've explained to others- The mechanic in question I hate (admittedly, I didn't go into on the original post) Was the irreversible set of events that happens when selecting the galactic map after acquiring the IFF. Once you select the map there is no going back- unlike everything else on the game where you are given a choice before you do something. This is forced upon you- and you are not warned. EDI alerts you that the IFF is "Almost ready", but nothing more than that. you are given no option to say you aren't ready for the irreversible events that will start the countdown, it just happens. This is unlike anything else in the game. This is the only thing that is forced on you without consent.
 

Thedutchjelle

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Rocket pods (or similar heavy anti-ground weapons) on fast moving air vehicles.

I've had these against me in Bf4, Bf3, and in Planetside 2.

It's terrible. You have no where to run or to hide, and in most games infantry or (most) ground vehicles aren't equipped to kill jets fast enough before they leave the combat zone again. Bringing this up anywhere on the respective game's fora will usually result in a storm of "Jet flying is hard" "Jets are supposed to be OP" "L3rn to pl4y" and other useless comments. One good pilot on the enemy team shouldn't be able to casually slaughter everybody without anyone having a fair chance of killing it.

KarmaTheAlligator said:
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.
Lufia 2 did this in a good way. Somewhere at the end of 1/3th into the game you meet one of the Ultimate Bad Guys. It's supposed to be a curb stomp battle so he can casually slaughter your whole party.
However, if you went in (over)leveled and put up a real fight you can eventually grind him to death. As a reward you get a pretty sick weapon too. In a cutscene after your victory you still "die" but it's way more satisfying than losing the actual fight.
 

Mr.Squishy

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- Escort missions
- 'Defend X for so and so long' you know, like waiting for an elevator and holding off enemies
- Shitty moral choices
- Situations in which only one of the game's many approaches is valid
- Quicktime events, especially when it's of the type 'Wiggle the left stick to break free!'
- Puzzles filled with absolute moon logic. It's one of the reasons I can't stand adventure games, and I imagine that makes a good lot of people quite cross with me
- Over-tutorializing or under-tutorializing
- Forced 'Cinematic' moments, especially if it's an escape
- Turret sections that go on forever
- A game mechanic that seemed like a really good idea to shove down the player's throat. Singularity did this particularly egregiously with its time mechanic.

And all of this

seaweed said:
Cover shooting

Poorly designed forced tutorials (For a good example, 2/3 of Portal 1 is a tutorial and it's fun as hell! But when it's like Look Up, Look Down, Look Left, Look Right, are these controls okay or do you want them inverted? Use WASD to move. Space to jump. E to use. It's like OH MY GOD GET ON WITH IT, 99.9% of the people playing this have played a video game before)

Region gating without good reason (There's a blackout in Lumiose City! You can't go any farther! That doesn't make any sense! In fact I can see the lights in the buildings up ahead are actually very much ON!)

Forced slow-walk sections where NPCs deliver exposition to you

Obvious content padding(Go collect three macguffins down these three separate hallways to open this door)

Bullet sponge enemies

Mechanics that are highly incongruous with each other or the story of the game

Level design that is just a straight hallway for the entire game

Ooh, look at this pretty thing exploding in the skybox. Wow, so cool. Wow. Except that was totally played out back in like 2009.

Press F to airstrike. Press F to breach this door. Press F to comfort Elizabeth. Press F to watch cutscene.
 

Lilikins

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hmm, donno if it would count as a game mechanic but more of a control. Does anyone remember the Mario party games for the N64 where you had to rotate the joystick with your thumb/hand?
I detest that..blisters and bloody controllers were the outcome...I beat that stupid minigame isle though so, was worth it.

Also giving nods to the escort missions where the NPC will 'yell' at you that you should hurry, all the while whilst walking so slow that a dead turtle could probably bypass them in some way.
 

KarmaTheAlligator

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Thedutchjelle said:
KarmaTheAlligator said:
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.
Lufia 2 did this in a good way. Somewhere at the end of 1/3th into the game you meet one of the Ultimate Bad Guys. It's supposed to be a curb stomp battle so he can casually slaughter your whole party.
However, if you went in (over)leveled and put up a real fight you can eventually grind him to death. As a reward you get a pretty sick weapon too. In a cutscene after your victory you still "die" but it's way more satisfying than losing the actual fight.
I'm not sure I'd like that, actually. Sure, you get a good reward for it, but the story still goes on saying you lost.
 

4Aces

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Lemme sum up everything I have read so far (except for the one person that likes rail shooters): Anything the removes the player from immersion or controlling the game their way.
 

symphonymarie

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I might be alone on this one, but I had a really hard time with Skyward Sword.
As an extremely uncoordinated individual at best, I was heartbroken that one of my favorite series would punish me so with such awkward (in my opinion) mechanics. I wanted to love it, I wanted to embrace it, but it just never clicked and I still have yet to finish it because of this. I'm close to the end, but the boss fights were just far too difficult for me, even though I knew exactly what I needed to be doing. (Would this issue be considered mechanics or controls? Is there a difference?)
 

The Enquirer

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Weaver said:
I hate sticking to cover. I honestly never saw it as necessary and it just feels like my character is magnetizing to everything.

We were able to use cover long before these sticky cover mechanics by crouching next to a wall.
It annoys me in certain games. Games like Deus Ex: HR did it right because it isn't the central focus. I guess that's what really get's to me. In certain games like Rainbow Six you can actually avoid cover most of the time if you plan things out right. Same with Deus Ex. But when you have to stick to cover... Ugh.

Another one for me is a game that makes the checkpoint right before a long unskippable cutscene. So every time you die, you need to watch it again. I suppose it's an effective way of making someone really hate a certain set of characters though.

Also mandatory stealth sections. Like the crappy kind wherein the game wasn't built around stealth as an aspect.
 

FPLOON

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TerranV said:
Games that require weapon/armor forging. I can't stand having to grind out random drops to get all the rediculous materials just to make one weapon. Hell in KH 1.5 Remix I got to the end of the game and said "FUCK THIS" to synthesis.
That goes double for Kingdom Hearts 2 (or, I guess II.5 at some point) for me... especially when I'm required to collect X amount of a synthesis item before I end up using it all on a bracelet and/or an earring that's basically useless to me at the point I synthesize it...

Also, Jiminy's Journal (in general) in Kingdom Hearts 2... You mean I have to complete that whole shit 100% just to get that "secret ending" in Standard Mode? FUCK THAT! I'm playing on Proud Mode for now on!!

Edit: In a more general game mechanic... uh... instant/unpredictable QTEs?
 

Setrus

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Turret sections are detestable and boring, mindless violence with no real goal but holding on until the game decides you've gotten enough kills.

ME3 was the worst with this, adding a turret section - all of a sudden - on the earth mission as you're walking about, having your final conversations with your companions, some which you've fought alongside for three games!
The timing of it is just dreadful, and takes you out of the moment as some game-developer decided "Well they have to have some action now or they'll get bored." No I don't! I wanted to talk to Liara!
And who's that soldier shouting at me, Commander Shepard, to mount the turret? HE should do it, bloody lazy git... *grumble* ;)
 

Moontouched-Moogle

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symphonymarie said:
I might be alone on this one, but I had a really hard time with Skyward Sword.
As an extremely uncoordinated individual at best, I was heartbroken that one of my favorite series would punish me so with such awkward (in my opinion) mechanics. I wanted to love it, I wanted to embrace it, but it just never clicked and I still have yet to finish it because of this. I'm close to the end, but the boss fights were just far too difficult for me, even though I knew exactly what I needed to be doing. (Would this issue be considered mechanics or controls? Is there a difference?)
It's a mechanics issue that's compounded by a control issue. Basically every useful weapon or item in Skyward Sword is controlled using the WiiMotionPlus mechanics, ignoring the IR Sensor completely for things like pointing at the screen to select/shoot, and when the calibration tends to slip resulting in cursor drift, it makes controlling things accurately a chore and results in constant recalibration. Also, slashing with Link's sword isn't 1:1, instead taking up to a full second to load a prebaked slash animation for one of 8 compass directions that most closely matches your movement. During that one second, the enemy will usually change their guard, meaning your attack is now going in the wrong direction. I actually had better luck most of the time by flailing wildly against mooks instead of trying to aim for the opening in their guard. I would have preferred true, non-laggy 1:1 slashing, even if it wouldn't look as nice as the premade animations. I know the 1:1 can be done, since Link's arm seems to move around in sync when you're just pointing the sword without slashing, and apparently the Miiverse Zelda minigame thing on WiiU has actual 1:1 slashing on it.

I've yet to finish either Twilight Princess(Wii version) or Skyward Sword, but I'd put money on me finishing the former and never touching the latter again.

As for the discussion at large, I'll add my disdain for forced-to-lose boss fights into the mix. Crisis Core is probably the absolute worst offender of this. Not only is the final battle against what seems like THE ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY(instead of maybe 3 dudes with a well-placed shot as seen in other sources) a battle that you're forced to lose by established plotlines, but you don't even get a say in when you lose it. If you suck really bad, you'll just be stuck at 1 HP without dying until the game is done playing the battle out, since it wants to play flashbacks through the ability roulette thing to represent Zack dying or something. The reason they keep you alive though is so that you can have the battle afterward where Zack is so wounded and slow to move or attack that he can't even fend off 3 mooks with guns, regardless of how badly you curb-stomped the rest of the army beforehand. I would have preferred just fighting 3 super-OP(or even invincible) soldiers instead of throwing an infinite army of squishy chumps at me. Would have avoided the sudden competency whiplash.

Kingdom Hearts seems to do this right. When you fight Leon(*cough*Squall*cough*) after first arriving in Traverse Town, you can actually defeat him in battle. Then you get a cutscene where, instead of being knocked out from losing the fight, Sora is shown victorious but passes out anyway from exhaustion, which makes sense. Both arrive at the same conclusion, but the game is nice enough to let you whoop Leon's ass if you're good enough(or ground XP like a madman on the island).
 

Twinrehz

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momijirabbit said:
Neverhoodian said:
Not being able to skip or pause cutscenes. Bonus points if it's right before an incredibly hard portion of the game, forcing you to sit through it every time you fail the gameplay segment.
Great, now I am having war flashbacks to FFX, you can't skip a single cutscene in the entire game, and before every boss there is usually a 2-5 minute long cutscene that you have to sit through every single time you screw up.
Yunalesca is the worst, there are like 4 cutscenes between you and the fight against her and they are soooooo long.
Tales of Vesperia pulls this shit too, before every single boss fight. And what happens when you inevitably lose, because you want a challenge rather than just go down to easy mode and roflstomp him? You need to reload the game. So the game doesn't remember that you went to the boss, and you have to sit through the whole damn cut scene again. You can fast forward the dialogue, but I would much rather have the option to skip the cut scene in its entirety, or better yet, on the game over-screen, let me reload the boss fight! That would have been a dream come true. No wasting time walking in to the boss again, no wasting time on a cut scene that I've seen once already. Believe me, the shocker doesn't get more shocking from watching it several times.

DementedSheep said:
I like puzzles. I'm ok with hidden object "puzzles" if it's in a one area and you know when you've got everything you need. I don't like when you can't progress because you didn't pick up this hidden thing that you had no reason to even know you would need from 4 areas ago.
And of course puzzle operating on moon logic or relying on people acting really stupid to work. Well game I didn't think of your solution and had to use trial and error because your solution doesn't make sense!
Sounds like you'd hate The Longest Journey. OK game, I guess, but what got on my nerves is that things MUST be done in ONE, and precisely ONE particular order to progress the story. I ended up walking back and forth across 16 in-game screens (I counted) in order to do that ONE thing that I didn't know I had to do, to make the story go forward, and be able to do the thing that I had understood that I had to do.

Both of these things strike me as in-game continuity problems, things have to happen as planned, because the game has been programmed like this. You didn't win the boss fight? That's not how the story goes, you'll have to reload and try again. You forgot to do something at some far away place? Too bad, the story won't make sense until you do that.

Back on track, one game mechanic that really bugs me is timed puzzles in what is otherwise a quite relaxing game. Out of nowhere, a timed puzzle drops from the sky, making me all stressed out because I sort of hate doing things more than once. I get angry when I fail at something, and angry words are only the first things to start flying at that point.
 

Saulkar

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Anything other than varying levels of arcadiness in vehicles simulations. Seriously, I can handle a vehicle acting in an exaggerated fashion (GTA IV, Fuel, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Just Cause 2) as long as it does not explicitly deviate from real life physics.

When vehicles right themselves in midair to allow for a perfect landing where a spectacular roll was expected or land from a high fall without the vehicle bouncing about as its frame and suspension are taxed to the max, I am completely jarred from the experience. GTA V and ARMA III are two that really come to mind.

But, but, Just Cause 2 is not realistic at all *SMACK!* But it covers most of the expected elements of physically simulating a vehicle, just to exaggerated proportions and thus it rests safely on the other side of the uncanny valley of physics.

Scripted losses: These moments often feel contrived more than anything else.

Invisible walls: Somewhat of a mechanic in that it artificially guides your movements. The total lack of them in Halo 2 were one of the reasons I still love that one above its sequels.
 

Scars Unseen

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Gameplay/cutscenes prior to character creation/face editing. It always pisses me off when I play a new game in ME2, Dragon Age 2, Saints Row 3 or Saints Row 4 that I can't just make my character. Especially bad in ME2 since you have no way to go and change your face if turns out badly without starting over again. Skyrim also had the problem, but you could just create a save right before character creation if you wanted.

QTEs in inappropriate places, such as God of War-esque finishers. I just beat your goddamn monster. Don't make me play a minigame just to finish it off. If I wanted to play Simon, I'd fucking play Simon.

Grinding. I was okay with meaningless filler in my games when I could only afford one a year. Now I have a backlog of games and less tolerance for your lazy bullshit. MMO genre as a whole, I'm looking at you. I'm okay if there are things I can't get without grinding, but don't make the grind a necessity just to get through the game.
 

Thyunda

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KarmaTheAlligator said:
EMWISE94 said:
I'm someone who likes it when a game test your skill rather than your patience, its the reason why I haven't finished Pokémon Y yet because the next hurdle to jump is too high and I have to grind my team to get to jumping it and as we all know the grinding slows to crawl once you hit lvl 30+.
Battle Chateau is your friend in this case, as well as the Exp Share (the new mechanics for it are awesome to avoid grinding, or have your new team members catch up to the others). I'm actually surprised you're having trouble with that, as most people say the game is too easy.
I have only really played two Pokémon games in my life. Red and Y. I took forever playing Red and got stuck on various gym bosses and then lost interest and so never completed it. I rushed through Y, stopping here and there to capture random critters I found here and there, but ultimately moved fairly unimpeded toward the Elite Four. In fact, I didn't lose a battle until the Elite Four, where I lost four or five times, got upset for a while, and then re-ordered my six and beat them. I think I had...Madara the...delphox? Is that what it was called? The third-tier fennekin evolution. I had a talonflame named Stalin - I distinctly remember the Fire lady using a talonflame and repeatedly spamming Brave Bird and really pissing me off. I think I had that 'God of Destruction', too, though he was kind of shit. And an ugly two headed thing that never even saw combat.


OT: Omerta: City of Gangsters. The combat is wank. I have sunk so many hours into XCOM: Enemy Unknown and while the relative incompetence of my troops frustrates me, I don't often feel cheated by the mechanic. The bloody gangsters though...one of the early missions has the objective - Deal with the three protection rackets in the district. Because my laptop has issues with even the most basic of graphics, I figured I would do things from the overview and try to beat the game purely through clever economics. I bought, I sold, I operated entirely peacefully and I bought out the three. Things were going great.

And then the game introduced me to a guy named Wolf or Wolfe or something, and he demanded I lead an armed raid into some factory. And of course the most frustrating thing about that game are the melee attackers. With no sense of self preservation and a total of at least three damaging and status-inducing attacks, they just sprint past your cover and beat the everloving shit out of you. Muggers are even worse, they're armed with baseball bats and can inflict Concussion and make it so your men, who already can't shoot for shit, suffer a penalty to their aim. Two unarmed Pickpockets and a Mugger can do some serious damage to your gang, and even the shotgun wielded by your Boss character can't seem to hit worth shit. If they're close enough to hit, they're close enough to rush your position and kill at least one of your men, and at the early stages you have only three. Two, if you've posted a man on Support. One, if you're staging a prison break.

So I guess my complaint is this - Don't offer two paths and then force me to take one. That's just silly. It'd be like if you selected the Economic Campaign in Stronghold 3 and suddenly an invading army popped up and made violent inquiries into your arms production, on threat of death should they be dissatisfied with your output.
 

kasperbbs

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Weaver said:
I hate sticking to cover. I honestly never saw it as necessary and it just feels like my character is magnetizing to everything.

We were able to use cover long before these sticky cover mechanics by crouching next to a wall.
This, i completed wolfenstein without realising that it had that sticky wall thingy and i didn't really miss it.

The thing that i hate the most is obviously QTE's, especially the ones where you have to mash a button as fast as you can, i just don't get it why some games want me to break my keyboard.