Inventories

[MiracleOfSound]

Playing Dragon Age today I found myself spending an ungodly amount of time faffing about in the inventory screens.

Bioware seem to have a habit of making slightly awkward inventories, as anyone who knows what 'convert to omni gel' means will already know. The weight system in Dragon Age is a bit bizarre too.

So...

Which games had simple, intuitive inventories that were easy to navigate and comprehend, and who mucked it all up?

I shall start us off:

Resi 4 had a great inventory. The jigsaw-suitcase system felt fun to organise, made you carefully consider your supplies and was simple to use.

On the contrary, Resi 5 was a chore. Struggling to swap items with a dumb AI squad-mate while unable to pause the action to access the utterly fiddly 9-block inventory was a pain in the ass.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Res 4...it was simple and i could see everything i had available to use and when it was full the case graphic was filled up and nothing else could fit and if i needed to get rid of something just go to the merchant and sell.

 

[nick n stuff]

i don't think accessable inventory screens exist. no doubt if the people making the game tried to make it easier it would somehow become even more complicated. just a neccessary evil.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Diablo II had a fantastic inventory. It was actually a rewarding little puzzle trying to fit some stuff in.

 

[DuplicateValue]

Oblivion had a dreadful inventory by the time you were at the end.SO MANY KEYS!!!!

Yeah, eventually I had to have a clearout. I just dumped everything from my inventory into one of my houses and took whatever I needed.

It took a while, but it was worth it.
Sorting it all into separate chests was the most time-consuming part.

 

[reg42]

I'll go with Res4, oh god that game was great.

 

[The Infinite]

Diablo II had a fantastic inventory. It was actually a rewarding little puzzle trying to fit some stuff in.

Agreed it kind of made me think of tetris. Which is why I enjoyed RE4s one as well. The fact that your confined to space rather than by weight was an excellent idea and it really helped you choose what you needed.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

Oblivion had a dreadful inventory by the time you were at the end.SO MANY KEYS!!!!

A fun little game is to try and figure out what the hell you used each one for.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Diablo II had a fantastic inventory. It was actually a rewarding little puzzle trying to fit some stuff in.

Agreed it kind of made me think of tetris. Which is why I enjoyed RE4s one as well. The fact that your confined to space rather than by weight was an excellent idea and it really helped you choose what you needed.

Hah, it acually was like Tetris, that's true.

 

[Soren91]

As said before, Oblivion's keys, they even had an item called "key ring" in the game. It would have been nice for someone to program that to work like a second inventory for your keys.

 

[orangebandguy]

TF2 crafting screen used to fuck up all your items into a random order so I accidently crafted items I didn't want to.

They fixed it now thankfully.

 

[MrSmellyFinger]

Good idea for a thread, and I completely agree... the Dragon Age inventory is messed up (although the "junk" tab is sort of a good idea, although it takes almost as much time to pre-sort to this tab as is does just to sell junk directly).

This goes back a bit, but I sort of liked the Baldur's Gate inventories; they got a little messier in the Neverwinter Nights series. FFXIII has a nice inventory system, and also, Sacred 2 is pretty good, once you figure it out.

Terrible inventory systems include Armored Core series, and I really don't like any of the Resident Evil ones (and similar, like Silent Hill, etc.).

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

Diablo II had a fantastic inventory. It was actually a rewarding little puzzle trying to fit some stuff in.

While Deus Ex's was similar, I prefer it just because of the key ring, the most practical inventory-space saver ever.

 

[Valiance]

X-Com.

<img src="http://www.xcomufo.com/pics/xcom11sm.jpg" /img>

Think Diablo-2 except during combat you can take equipment from your belt out faster than out of your back-pack.

Lovely idea, really.


Another inventory I loved was Dungeons of Moria, but that's because I'm a sick bastard who actually enjoys rogue-likes.

System Shock's was simple, reliable, understandable...
Warlords... Eh, there's a lot of good inventory systems, but most RPGs don't come to mind.

 

[AvsJoe]

Worst one? My vote goes to Pokemon, FFVII, and any game that allows hundreds of slots that can be filled with x99 potions. Pokemon would be the worst offender though since the main character (Red? Blue? Ash? Jeff?) would be carrying *everything*, *by himself*!

EDIT: Actually, the worst one goes to the Space Inventory from World Quester 2. Every time I try to open it my computer freezes (cookie for obscure reference).

 

[ScruffyTheJanitor]

They should maybe start taking hints off mmorpgs.. Most of them can get it right and accept that a realistic weight inventory system would not work and not to bundle it all in one stupidly big list.

 

[CheckD3]

I agree with the RE4 statement. Sure you had to be sure to keep it organized, but it was EASY to keep organized, and was the BEST invo screen I've ever seen. So much that any OTHER invo screens I have to deal with usually just bother me around now when I start the game and find there isn't a breifcase anymore

You'd think in an industry where ripping off good ideas is a habit, they'd rip of one of the best ideas to make an invo screen for something (I have to admit that the new invo screen for Pokemon SS/HG seems to be well done, not too far in yet, but with touch screen navigation, is working smoothly for me right now ^^)

 

[Skratt]

Oblivion had a dreadful inventory by the time you were at the end.SO MANY KEYS!!!!

Bah, by the end of the game was the point at which money had no meaning (had like 100k or something obscene), so I had dumped all my loot in a single chest at home and carried around armor repair hammers & the equipment I was wearing and maybe a few rings and healing potions and just stopped picking shit up unless it bettered my current equipment, in which case I replaced it then and there.

But you are right about those goddamn keys. I had a thought to try to work on my spell casting (as a fighter) to get the "unlock everything" spell that Morrowind had, but I wasn't nearly bored enough to sit around and cast that spell for 3 hours strait provided I could even find it.