Outdated/Annoying gaming mechanics?

[VG_Addict]

What game mechanics were good, or at least tolerable in the time they were introduced, but need to go away, or are just plain bad? I feel one mechanic is parts in games where after you complete an objective, you have to go back to a certain place to be given your next objective. Why can't you just tell me my next objective right after I finish the previous objective?

All it really does is artificially lengthen the game.

It wouldn't even be so bad if you were just instantly transported to the area where you learn your next objective. Having to travel back to that area breaks the flow of the game.

 

[TheScottishMexican42]

When enemies always know where you are the second they see you, no matter where you go. In some games, enemies give up after a while, or search the area where they last saw you.
However, I despise it in games where enemies always know where you are, and will hunt you down. This is especially annoying in games like Hotline Miami.

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

Arbitrarily huge jumps in difficulty while you near the game's end.

I get you're trying to up the ante a bit, but do you really have to throw entire regiments of the game's toughest enemies at me?

Bonus points if it's one of those "cinematic experience" games, where it just serves to kill the end-game pacing.

 

[Nonomori]

Marathon boss, sequential boss, recurring boss; all these irritating boss tropes.

Maybe that was interesting or surprising in the 90's, but I don't have time or patience to beat five guys in a row or the same guy in fifty different phases. Metroid Prime Trilogy and Resident Evil are frequently guilty of boring me with the last bosses. Of course, there are exceptions like Monster Hunter, but huge monsters with huge life bars isn't exactly the formula for a fun game.

 

[Smeggs]

Escort missions.

Now, when the escort is actually a human being and not the dumbest bag of rocks in a human skin, it's okay.

But that's most never the case. The idiotic escort will just stand there, unmoving, usually making some little cowaring animation, as monsters tear them a new asshole. That's idiotic, if I'm escorting a human being they should be programmed to immediately run behind the hero and maintain as much of a distance as they are able while the hero handles the issue.

None of this standing in one spot like a moron. Apparently their desire to survive makes them stand directly in front of a giant monster trying to kill them. I've never heard of that logic before.

And by the Nine Divines, have them be as fast as your character! Nothing is more overly annoying than the escort trundling along behind you when your character can sprint like an olympic athlete. I'm not saying they should be whooshing along, but they should at the least not be jogging along as if they're out for a morning stroll when being chased by goddam Bandits.

In Dragon's Dogma, I would normally end up just picking up the escort, carrying them, throwing them, then picking them up and repeating that process, because the dumbass AI can't handle the terrain and has to go ALL the way around the smallest hills and get attacked by everything in the way, or they just end up taking fifteen years to catch up to me.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Escort missions.

Now, when the escort is actually a human being and not the dumbest bag of rocks in a human skin, it's okay.

In Dragon's Dogma, I would normally end up just picking up the escort, carrying them, throwing them, then picking them up and repeating that process, because the dumbass AI can't handle the terrain and has to go ALL the way around the smallest hills and get attacked by everything in the way, or they just end up taking fifteen years to catch up to me.

I hear that. Easiest way to deal with escort missions is using the ferrystones. A lot of the missions goto Bloodwater Beach, so place a Portcrystal there for sure. Accept the mission make sure your escort is with you and teleport.

What those missions really are is level grinding.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Tank style gameplay, otherwise known as PC gameplay on consoles is so overrated. I want my character to be nimble and free to leave the center of the screen.

I wish 3rd person shooter characters were more nimble. I love Just Cause 2, but it could have been done better in terms of Rico's mobility during a fire fight.

I also would like there to be options to skip cutscenes if they have no consequence on the gameplay. Stories and gameplay are so separate these days that it's like the stories don't need to be there.
Side scrolling platform games where you can't cling to edges or other surfaces is way oldschool for this generation. We need more games where mistakes can be rewarded.
Like accidentally discovering secret areas and so forth...that is a lost art. Dragon's Dogma is a breath of fresh air in that regard.

 

[ThriKreen]

The bit after a cutscene where the designer places you in an open and precarious position, even though you were in cover and safe beforehand. Usually enemies will have also spawned in front of you too after the cutscene has ended, so you have no time to react and they often get a couple free hits on you.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Lives systems. I've never quite gotten why Nintendo feels obligated to keep them for some games, Mario games in particular.

Head bob, camera sway, whatever you want to call it can go the way of the dodo as well.

Obligatory gameplay change that is dropped immediately after the segment where it's relevant. If I spend 15 minutes fighting in zero gravity or some such awesomeness, it should be a hell of a lot longer than 15 minutes. In other words, stop abandoning mechanics for a one off bit that you could design a good game around.

Why can't you just tell me my next objective right after I finish the previous objective?

All it really does is artificially lengthen the game.

Disagree somewhat, just so long as there's a reason for the trip or some interesting stuff to distract yourself with if you want to.

There's also Shadow of the Colossus. It kind of tells you where to find the next one, but kind of not for a few of them. I liked having to find my way around the big hulking mountain in my path to kill a big hulking mountain.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

This may not really be an old mechanic but:

Putting you in the middle of a battle RIGHT when you first start playing the game. GAAHH, let me get used to the basic controls first, idiots.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Obligatory Quick Time Events mention.
They were fine yonks ago when they weren't as intrusive, and some games, like Yakuza, do them right by not making them insta-kill you or the boss/enemy upon completion/failure, but instead give a small dis/advantage in the battle.
But games like God of War (which used to do it well) have gone way too far with their QTEs, to the point where they're just obnoxious and poorly implemented. Case in point, having the QTE heal the boss if you fuck it up is ridiculous, especially in already protracted boss fights. What, is your fail so inspiring to the enemy legions that their wounds instantaneously cauterize themselves? It's silly, and completely illogical.

 

[Ratties]

Pointless cut scenes. I don't mind watching two characters discuss their plans on how to break into the enemies stronghold. That kind of cut scene usually sets up the next stage to play. I can't stand it when I am watching something that I should be playing. The character is just killing bad guys and running forward. It's even worse when they start you right there after the cut scene. Why couldn't I just run the short distance in real life. Why in the holy mother of cut scene fuck did I have to watch it. If the character is doing something that I can't do in the game, then okay.

 

[likalaruku]

Quicktime events.

Escort missions with suicidal rescuees who run straight into danger, unarmed.

MMOs that punish you for soloing. Everyone solos at some point, even if they don't want to.

Tutorials that teach you nothing.

Unnecessary tutorials for easy-to-figure-out games that are too long & hold your hand through the whole thing.

Tutorials that introduce you to a likable companion character that dies in a cutscene & can't be revived, even though any other member of your party can.

MMOs that have no story or a paper thin plot. When the grinding starts getting grindy, it's silly reoccurring quest givers & the feeling of actual progress that make you want to continue.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

Pointless cut scenes. I don't mind watching two characters discuss their plans on how to break into the enemies stronghold. That kind of cut scene usually sets up the next stage to play. I can't stand it when I am watching something that I should be playing. The character is just killing bad guys and running forward. It's even worse when they start you right there after the cut scene. Why couldn't I just run the short distance in real life. Why in the holy mother of cut scene fuck did I have to watch it. If the character is doing something that I can't do in the game, then okay.

Yeah, that kind of thing especially annoyed me in Metal Gear Solid 4. The cutscenes are already longer than the gameplay time; why not let you play some of the bits that you're perfectly capable of doing in gameplay?

 

[Lieju]

Obligatory Quick Time Events mention.
They were fine yonks ago when they weren't as intrusive, and some games, like Yakuza, do them right by not making them insta-kill you or the boss/enemy upon completion/failure, but instead give a small dis/advantage in the battle.

Also, you need to be able to tell when the QTE's are coming.
Having them in battle or during a chase scene? I can live with that.

Having them pop up middle of a cutscene when my character is talking to someone? No.

Also have the button-promts make sense.
If you use X to attack and O to dodge in gameplay, have the QTE's reflect that.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Marathon boss, sequential boss, recurring boss; all these irritating boss tropes

Congratulations on beating the boss...now kill its true final form!

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I agree with Yahtzee when it comes to the 'lives' system. The thing is I think Nintendo agrees considering how easy it's been to max out lives in the last few Mario games. Why bother even having such a mechanic? I can see the lives system being relevant in a world wherein Arcades are also still relevant but since that isn't the case I don't see why or how lives have hung on for this long.

Another gripe is the 'helpful' support character. In games like Halo and, Gears of War the support characters were outright useless. In games from the Zelda series the support characters range from annoying though with their uses (such as Navi) to downright, unnecessarily terrible (Fi).

 

[OneCatch]

This may not really be an old mechanic but:

Putting you in the middle of a battle RIGHT when you first start playing the game. GAAHH, let me get used to the basic controls first, idiots.

I think the reason they often do that is so that you stress your GPU enough that you can sort the settings out for a tolerable framerate early on. Means that you don't get broken immersion later on when you're supposed to be fighting a boss and then drop to 15fps because of everything on the screen (or worse, having to repeatedly lower graphics settings as you go on because things are getting more intense). It's why you don't see it quite so much on console only releases.

And it give you the 'ooh pretty' factor as well. Though games where they don't adjust the difficulty curve accordingly are kind of stupid.

 

[wintercoat]

Marathon boss, sequential boss, recurring boss; all these irritating boss tropes

Congratulations on beating the boss...now kill its true final form!

---

I agree with Yahtzee when it comes to the 'lives' system. The thing is I think Nintendo agrees considering how easy it's been to max out lives in the last few Mario games. Why bother even having such a mechanic? I can see the lives system being relevant in a world wherein Arcades are also still relevant but since that isn't the case I don't see why or how lives have hung on for this long.

Another gripe is the 'helpful' support character. In games like Halo and, Gears of War the support characters were outright useless. In games from the Zelda series the support characters range from annoying though with their uses (such as Navi) to downright, unnecessarily terrible (Fi).

Arcades are still a healthy, thriving business in Japan. It's only in the West that they've become almost non-existent.

Though I agree that it seems Nintendo agrees with the notion, but it seems that they want to keep it, for nostalgia's sake, if nothing else. Mario has lives. It's part of his thing.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

This may not really be an old mechanic but:

Putting you in the middle of a battle RIGHT when you first start playing the game. GAAHH, let me get used to the basic controls first, idiots.

I think the reason they often do that is so that you stress your GPU enough that you can sort the settings out for a tolerable framerate early on. Means that you don't get broken immersion later on when you're supposed to be fighting a boss and then drop to 15fps because of everything on the screen (or worse, having to repeatedly lower graphics settings as you go on because things are getting more intense). It's why you don't see it quite so much on console only releases.

And it give you the 'ooh pretty' factor as well. Though games where they don't adjust the difficulty curve accordingly are kind of stupid.

That's fine but all they have to do is put a battle right after it gives me time to run around and get used to everything a little. Further, I think I only see this on console releases.