Ha yes! Its like they said "Hmm people seem to find driving about in a barren desert boring, but you know what people do find exiting? Looking around the surface of a ball for minerals!"CleverNickname said:
Games that you felt were ruined by one game mechanic
- Thread starter richd213
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Realistic physics in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. I can kind of see where they were coming from, what with the necessity of a core system that would suit any vehicle you can come up with. But still, it was annoying.
The levels were also too small.
The levels were also too small.
Halo: Reach because of the fan-base. Yes I know its not a game mechanic, but it pisses me off that I can't just go online and have fun without having to play with at least 3 douche bags who spend 10 hours every day memorizing every FUCKING pixel of every FUCKING map just so they be can stay in be good at a video game.
Every non-racing game that includes a racing section which you have to complete to continue (i.e. Rachet & Clank, Sly Cooper)
Every game that doesn't feature an inverted camera. I'm looking at you, 'Silent Hill: Homecoming'. Not that I thought it is a good game, in fact it's the worst game I've played in 25 years but it could've saved just a little bit of respect if at least the camera worked.
Every game that doesn't feature an inverted camera. I'm looking at you, 'Silent Hill: Homecoming'. Not that I thought it is a good game, in fact it's the worst game I've played in 25 years but it could've saved just a little bit of respect if at least the camera worked.
I can think of two games which were semi-broken by design choices, not enough to make me chuck 'em but still got up my ass. First, there was FF: Crisis Core's DMV slot-machine system that det. when you could limit break or summon. It was never a real problem in the main game, I got through okay with mostly just attacks and magic. But then along came one of the unlockable side missions, where the final encounter is an enemy who can be killed ONLY with limit breaks. And his every attack lowers your chances of hitting one on the slots. And there's no way to quit out other than restarting the PSP. For a completionist nut like myself it's a real mental thumbscrew.
The other semi-broken game I still enjoyed was Brutal Legend. Double Fine hasn't made a bad game yet, but G-damn did they ever take off the training wheels too soon than with the RTS battle system in that one. I managed to get through most of the stage battle levels without much trouble even on hard, but the second-to-last one (Sea of Black Tears) turned me into Lewis Black with a bucket of candy corn! I mean, if I just had the ability to,
A: select and create custom unit groups, and
B: target individual enemy units with said groups, instead of just saying "go kill whatever's in the general area I'm pointing at!"
the game would be a ten-star success. But again, still enjoyed it, might play it again once I get the downloadables.
The other semi-broken game I still enjoyed was Brutal Legend. Double Fine hasn't made a bad game yet, but G-damn did they ever take off the training wheels too soon than with the RTS battle system in that one. I managed to get through most of the stage battle levels without much trouble even on hard, but the second-to-last one (Sea of Black Tears) turned me into Lewis Black with a bucket of candy corn! I mean, if I just had the ability to,
A: select and create custom unit groups, and
B: target individual enemy units with said groups, instead of just saying "go kill whatever's in the general area I'm pointing at!"
the game would be a ten-star success. But again, still enjoyed it, might play it again once I get the downloadables.
I'm probably in the minority, but it would have to be Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age. In short, quite a few RPGs. I like the idea of RPGs and wish I could like them, but the mechanic that kills it for me is the lack of turn-based options. I know, I'm totally in the minority on that, but I'm used to playing Dungeons & Dragons, which is entirely turn based. I even remember playing Temple of Elemental Evil for Windows 98 or XP way back in the day and I loved the gameplay because it worked. Just a shame it was difficult and the customization of characters isn't what Neverwinter Nights 2 offers.
While all other areas improved, taking away my turn based combat ruined it for me. I know you're supposed to pause, but that's what turn-based combat did. Paused it for you so you can plan and strategize accordingly. I even played the DA2 demo and still couldn't find myself getting into it. I guess I'm just hardwired to only enjoy turn-based strategy in RPGs and so on. Oh well... back to Pokemon and Fire Emblem.
While all other areas improved, taking away my turn based combat ruined it for me. I know you're supposed to pause, but that's what turn-based combat did. Paused it for you so you can plan and strategize accordingly. I even played the DA2 demo and still couldn't find myself getting into it. I guess I'm just hardwired to only enjoy turn-based strategy in RPGs and so on. Oh well... back to Pokemon and Fire Emblem.
Bioshock's hacking mini game and dying mechanic.
The hacking thing was fixed in the the sequel but the Vita Chambers really took out the tension. They should've gone Borderlands and charged some cash for it. I mean, it's free to die and come back to life, but you have to pay 5$ to take a piss? Andrew's logic escapes me.
The hacking thing was fixed in the the sequel but the Vita Chambers really took out the tension. They should've gone Borderlands and charged some cash for it. I mean, it's free to die and come back to life, but you have to pay 5$ to take a piss?
Andrew's logic escapes me.
Dragon Age- Level scaling
Oblivion (after 30+hours) level scaling
Final Fantasy- using summons for damage
RPGs with blob combat- blob combat
Tripple Play baseball- cant throw balls
Oblivion (after 30+hours) level scaling
Final Fantasy- using summons for damage
RPGs with blob combat- blob combat
Tripple Play baseball- cant throw balls
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.
A game with an interesting story and setting, a neat combat system and overall very enjoyable to play, destroyed by a terrible grindy mechanic. The game is balanced around restarting the storyline through special save files, starting the game over with your current levels and equipment, meaning that monsters and bosses scale in difficulty much faster than your playable characters scale in strenght. Your main character does have a Demon form that can overpower most of it, but that Demon form also has a corruption meter that increases drastically if you use it, and kills you if it maxes out. To top it off, bonus cutscenes are unlocked every time you "restart" the story, which contain important plot information.
I genuinely liked the game, but dropped it as soon as I realized I would be forced to replay from the start several times to get the full story. It's not fun running through hours of gameplay being vastly overleveled and killing everything with one attack, and replaying through the story to get the newest details is like watching a TV series from the first episode every time a new episode is released. Why would anyone want something like that?
A game with an interesting story and setting, a neat combat system and overall very enjoyable to play, destroyed by a terrible grindy mechanic. The game is balanced around restarting the storyline through special save files, starting the game over with your current levels and equipment, meaning that monsters and bosses scale in difficulty much faster than your playable characters scale in strenght. Your main character does have a Demon form that can overpower most of it, but that Demon form also has a corruption meter that increases drastically if you use it, and kills you if it maxes out. To top it off, bonus cutscenes are unlocked every time you "restart" the story, which contain important plot information.
I genuinely liked the game, but dropped it as soon as I realized I would be forced to replay from the start several times to get the full story. It's not fun running through hours of gameplay being vastly overleveled and killing everything with one attack, and replaying through the story to get the newest details is like watching a TV series from the first episode every time a new episode is released. Why would anyone want something like that?
You do know that you can turn off the vita-chambers in Bioshock right? The hacking I can understand, but the vita-chambers are optional to the player.
Prey - Whilst there were some things I liked about this game, the mechanic that killed it was that after about 10 minutes of gameplay, you gain the ability to travel to the spirit world. This means that every time you die, you just go there, kill a few spirits for extra health (though this is by no means necessary) then return to the game with no penalties and often with extra health. Since this occurs no matter how many times you die, it makes the game very unchallenging.
I'd also like to talk about how doolally the story is, but I doubt I can stretch 'mechanic' to cover it.
Most RPGs nowadays - I find that newer games of this genre such as NWN and Dragon's Age all have the same frustrating camera, which follows your character(s) relentlessly and has little (if any) free movement. I much prefered games like BG2, where the camera could be moved freely, allowing you to easily look around a town, or easily see all the different enemies attacking you.
I'd also like to talk about how doolally the story is, but I doubt I can stretch 'mechanic' to cover it.
Most RPGs nowadays - I find that newer games of this genre such as NWN and Dragon's Age all have the same frustrating camera, which follows your character(s) relentlessly and has little (if any) free movement. I much prefered games like BG2, where the camera could be moved freely, allowing you to easily look around a town, or easily see all the different enemies attacking you.
Also, a general one: As soon as you pick up an item, spell, weapon, ability, specific unit, etc. 98& of the upcoming enemies are immune or highly resistant to it.
I noticed it again most recently in Final Fantasy 6. You learn all those fricking Espers and by the time you have the debuff-spells at your disposal, none of them work. Sleep, Stop, Stone, Silence, Confuse, even Slow are entirely pointless. If the enemies are weak enough to be affected, they die quickly enough anyway. Out of frustration I even resorted to exploiting the Vanish-Doom-Bug a couple of times (damn Sneezing Brachosaurs).
But it happens everywhere. Oblivion: The entire Illusion school is useles until you've mastered it, because everything is level-dependent and you can never cast anything useful for 1 or 2 levels above you.
Sometimes it's the other way around. You crawl through a whole dungeon of things that are immune to X, at the end of it you get the "X-Ray" (heh) but then everything is immune to Y, Z and Interrobang and X rarely appears anymore.
WTF, devs!???!?
I noticed it again most recently in Final Fantasy 6. You learn all those fricking Espers and by the time you have the debuff-spells at your disposal, none of them work. Sleep, Stop, Stone, Silence, Confuse, even Slow are entirely pointless. If the enemies are weak enough to be affected, they die quickly enough anyway. Out of frustration I even resorted to exploiting the Vanish-Doom-Bug a couple of times (damn Sneezing Brachosaurs).
But it happens everywhere. Oblivion: The entire Illusion school is useles until you've mastered it, because everything is level-dependent and you can never cast anything useful for 1 or 2 levels above you.
Sometimes it's the other way around. You crawl through a whole dungeon of things that are immune to X, at the end of it you get the "X-Ray" (heh) but then everything is immune to Y, Z and Interrobang and X rarely appears anymore.
WTF, devs!???!?
i can't speak for Persona, having never played it, but in Baldur's Gate there was a very good reason why main character death = game over. namely, revival in D&D is resurrection from the dead, and your main character is the offspring of a dead god and dying will cause you to lose that divine spark.Aurora Firestorm said:
it completely destroyed the game for me, I killed three big daddy's with that very same method. I still cant think for the life of me why they used such a mechanic.Dr. McD said:
Scribblenauts had so much potential to be awesome, but the design has two very fatal design flaws. First, and most problematic, using the touch screen to both move your character and place items, and the D-pad to move the camera. Seriously, how hard would it have been to put in arrows on the sides of the touchscreen to move the camera and put control of Maxwell primarily on the D-pad? Certainly would save the player a lot of headaches and have us doing a lot more to solve the puzzles instead of fight the controls all damn day. Second, the weight issues. Somehow, if I put a drawbridge over a gap, a small animal can walk by and knock it into the gap. WTF? While relative sizes are by-and-large correct, things I place should not go bouncing around the screen like a pinball game every five seconds. Add that to the horrible controls and you get the most needlessly frustrating game of all time.
But I was able to re-enact LOTR on the title screen with hilarious results, so it can be forgiven.
But I was able to re-enact LOTR on the title screen with hilarious results, so it can be forgiven.
