The Best/Worst Loot Systems in Gaming

[CriticalGaming]

So I have played a lot of Nioh this year, a difficult combat game based around a Diablo-esque loot system, and it got me thinking about loot systems in various games throughout the years. Games like World of Warcraft, Path of Exile, Torchlight, Kingdoms of Amalur, Diablo, etc, and I tried to divide them into good systems and bad systems.

Now what makes a good loot system? Obviously the loot needs to provide the player with various freedoms to highlight and empower their abilities in specific ways. Things that allow the player to control not only the way the player their character, but also manipulate the play styles of that character to play the game in different ways.

Nioh as a series has thusfar proven to be one of the best loot systems in gaming imo. The loot can roll an ungodly number of potential bonuses that allow players to fight with any combination of weapons, ninja skills, magic, elemental effects, and any combination of these. However that freedom of loot comes at a cost. It is incredibly tedious and difficult to truly maximize the build you want. Because there potential of the gear is all over the place, getting the gear to have what you need on it is an incredible hassle. Which I think holds Nioh back from being perfect.

But then you take a game like Minecraft Dungeons, in which the loot is trash. It offers nothing to how you character plays, and the different loot doesn't really have any differences from each other piece of loot. The only stat on the gear that matters is making sure your base number is better, and that's it. No choices, no balancing act of x damage versus y damage or defense.

Honestly I think that Diablo 3 might be the overall best loot system right now. Most every item in the game has a place in a build somewhere. While not every build is equal, you at least have choice in playing the way you want, and having a piece to suit your needs for that style. The biggest downside is that every piece will basically need the same stats on it. Crit when you can, Cooldown reduction, etc etc. The player base has figured out the math on where stats should go so there is no choice there. Which leaves the gear to strictly only be different for the modifier it offers or the set it belongs too.

But I'm curious to see what you guys think. There are games I never played like Destiny so I couldn't tell you how the loot worked. What games do you think have the best and worst loot systems in gaming?

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

I know fuck all about what makes loot systems good, but i recognise a bad'n when i sees'm! And that be Marvel's Avengers Anthem: who's loot is essentially nothing more than a number and a shitty jpeg...cause gotta sell those skins separately to rinse those young MCU fans dry, damnit. Don't do that, videogames. That is the dark path. And boring. And garunteed to fail. And make me gloat upon your greedy little whale-starved grave!

 

[CriticalGaming]

I know fuck all about what makes loot systems good, but i recognise a bad'n when i sees'm! And that be Marvel's Avengers Anthem: who's loot is essentially nothing more than a number and a shitty jpeg...cause gotta sell those skins separately to rinse those young MCU fans dry, damnit. Don't do that, videogames. That is the dark path. And boring. And garunteed to fail. And make me gloat upon your greedy little whale-starved grave!

That's fair.

 

[ObsidianJones]

Ok, I've been a Loot Recruit (I just made that up!) since Diablo 2 came out on the computer.

That long ago.

But there are a few things I like to see in my loot system.

-A substantial difference in Loot abilities.

We all know the elements by now, Fire, Ice, and Electricity. Add some others like Shadow and Holy depending on the game. But I like the damage to be only part of the reason to get it. Fire puts a DOT over the enemy? Ice puts down slow? Electricity stuns periodically, takes away stamina, or abilities? Yes, sign me up.

I hate it when each element is just a different affect but basically are all DOTs or All just added damage.

-"Use this on 50 Bugbears to unleash its true potential"

I know people see this as grind, and to be fair it is. However, it give me something to DO instead of just collecting loot. I'm now not just hoping for better drops, I'm actively doing something to better my weapon. Added bonus if the condition is "Do not use special attacks or counter will restart". Keeps me on my toes.

-Loot that has its own abilities.

Self explanatory. Say you're playing a toon that doesn't have a good mobility power. This Hammer of Slapassery +9 has a berserker leap tied to its alt fire. You've been close to be mobbed to death twice with no way to escape, but your friend was there to help you so you didn't die. And oh yeah, this is on hardcore mode.

But that scythe by your legs has Passive Regen AND Regen boost on kill. NOW you've created build ideas in my head and what would be more beneficial down the road.

-Loot styles.

I do like a certain loot.

This is a lot to say. Especially to say that I agree with Critical Gaming and that Diablo 3 hasn't been topped yet. I like my loot to make me feel like it is fundamentally changing the game for me. I have not felt that since Diablo 3.

 

[CriticalGaming]

We all know the elements by now, Fire, Ice, and Electricity. Add some others like Shadow and Holy depending on the game. But I like the damage to be only part of the reason to get it. Fire puts a DOT over the enemy? Ice puts down slow? Electricity stuns periodically, takes away stamina, or abilities? Yes, sign me up.

I hate it when each element is just a different affect but basically are all DOTs or All just added damage.

If you aren't playing Nioh you are fucking up.

-"Use this on 50 Bugbears to unleash its true potential"

I know people see this as grind, and to be fair it is. However, it give me something to DO instead of just collecting loot. I'm now not just hoping for better drops, I'm actively doing something to better my weapon. Added bonus if the condition is "Do not use special attacks or counter will restart". Keeps me on my toes.

DO you have game examples of this?

This is a lot to say. Especially to say that I agree with Critical Gaming and that Diablo 3 hasn't been topped yet. I like my loot to make me feel like it is fundamentally changing the game for me. I have not felt that since Diablo 3.

Much love bro.

 

[Worgen]

The loot system that comes to mind that just annoyed me was the one for Shadow Warrior 2. Just generic items for buffs. Although I suppose the gun loot was good, but the buff items were just really boring.

The best... hmm. I guess Borderlands 3, they finally got the guns feeling nicely different from either other so even if one had lesser stats you still wanted to try it to see how it felt to use.

 

[ObsidianJones]

If you aren't playing Nioh you are fucking up.

DO you have game examples of this?

Much love bro.

I gotta be honest. This might be more of a moral thing, but I'm really only turning on my ps4 pro for VR lately. I enjoyed the hell out of Nioh. At least the first one. Didn't get to the second one.

Because I'm spending so much time on my Switch. I know how crazy that sounds. But I like the idea of seeing my experience through. I am limited with the PS4 to play when I'm in front of it. You literally made me think about playing Diablo 3 and I'm currently doing it right now. And not for the gaming laptop I have, but I'm playing it on the Switch.

So, yeah, I think I'll get Nioh 2 soon. The ability to do different move tied to stances was really fun. On paper, Nioh should be my dream series. But I'm looking for more of Bayonetta combat with a Diablo 3 loot system. I have no idea how it would work, but I wouldn't play anything else.

For specific "Kill X enemies by using Y", I remembered Dead Cells doing that. I don't even like platformers any more, but that Loot loop was very satisfying.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I honestly hate it when a loot system makes my character look like they dressed themselves in a running tumble dryer. Can we get some sort of design cohesion, or at least the ability to customize the look of gear somewhat? For a long time, World of Warcraft was horrible about this. (It didn't help that I had to spend several levels strutting around in what I called the "reverse slutpants of the Maghar".)

 

[Gordon_4]

I honestly hate it when a loot system makes my character look like they dressed themselves in a running tumble dryer. Can we get some sort of design cohesion, or at least the ability to customize the look of gear somewhat? For a long time, World of Warcraft was horrible about this. (It didn't help that I had to spend several levels strutting around in what I called the "reverse slutpants of the Maghar".)

Man transmogrification was the single best non-core gameplay addition to that game ever. Now if you wanna wear slut pants of the Mag’har, you can make it a choice

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

So I have played a lot of Nioh this year, a difficult combat game based around a Diablo-esque loot system, and it got me thinking about loot systems in various games throughout the years. Games like World of Warcraft, Path of Exile, Torchlight, Kingdoms of Amalur, Diablo, etc, and I tried to divide them into good systems and bad systems.

Now what makes a good loot system? Obviously the loot needs to provide the player with various freedoms to highlight and empower their abilities in specific ways. Things that allow the player to control not only the way the player their character, but also manipulate the play styles of that character to play the game in different ways.

Nioh as a series has thusfar proven to be one of the best loot systems in gaming imo. The loot can roll an ungodly number of potential bonuses that allow players to fight with any combination of weapons, ninja skills, magic, elemental effects, and any combination of these. However that freedom of loot comes at a cost. It is incredibly tedious and difficult to truly maximize the build you want. Because there potential of the gear is all over the place, getting the gear to have what you need on it is an incredible hassle. Which I think holds Nioh back from being perfect.

But then you take a game like Minecraft Dungeons, in which the loot is trash. It offers nothing to how you character plays, and the different loot doesn't really have any differences from each other piece of loot. The only stat on the gear that matters is making sure your base number is better, and that's it. No choices, no balancing act of x damage versus y damage or defense.

Honestly I think that Diablo 3 might be the overall best loot system right now. Most every item in the game has a place in a build somewhere. While not every build is equal, you at least have choice in playing the way you want, and having a piece to suit your needs for that style. The biggest downside is that every piece will basically need the same stats on it. Crit when you can, Cooldown reduction, etc etc. The player base has figured out the math on where stats should go so there is no choice there. Which leaves the gear to strictly only be different for the modifier it offers or the set it belongs too.

But I'm curious to see what you guys think. There are games I never played like Destiny so I couldn't tell you how the loot worked. What games do you think have the best and worst loot systems in gaming?

Good to hear a game I’ve played already has the best loot system, at least in your opinion. I agree it was pretty rewarding, and avoided the burdening effect of binging and purging that so much crap gear can have in something like The Witcher 3.

 

[BrawlMan]

Diablo 2 I guess. I never played that many games with loot systems. I liked the loot system in God of War and Transformers Devastation. With the latter, you got loot by finding chests and hidden chests. How you the best loot real fast was by getting S or SS on fights, and end of chapter rankings on harder difficulty. The only problem was when combined and leveled up your best weapons, the loot becomes curbusome asn you can only hold a max of 200 weapons. After that you have to constantly sell weapons with attributes you don't need. So it gets really annoying, if you're not constantly selling weapons after every (during a) chapter or fight. Sometimes it's best not the collect the weapon, because you can tell what rank the weapon can be just by the color of the sword or gun icon.

 

[Dreiko]

I like loot that is unique and significant. I want named gear with flavor and lore about them. You don't need to rain loot upon us, just have it be memorable stuff that you remember where and how you got them. Something like DA:Origins was really good about that.

 

[xmbts]

I'm going to say Final Fantasy 8's Draw system, where you syphon magic spell uses out of enemies and bosses you encounter. Each character has their own draw proficiency, and some of them can only snag 1-3 spell uses on each attempt.

"So what?" you might ask, how many spell uses could you possibly need in any given fight, well you can link a spell to a stat to boost it, with the more stockpiled spells boosting it further. The process of making your characters strong is a series of agonizing 50 turn fights to cap out any new spell you encounter.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Whatever loot system that doesn't have levels or puts damage increases upon the weapons, that needs to go. Dark Souls is strong in not giving you garbage to constantly sift through and everything is viable (you decide what to upgrade) but interesting effects/properties aren't really interesting. Borderlands has a lot of cool different interesting weapons but the level aspect kills it because stuff becomes garbage so fast or you're just looking for the same drops that you have but just a higher level version of it.

 

[laggyteabag]

Im not particularly interested in "Weapon A does 5% more damage than Weapon B", or "Helmet A give 5% more health than Helmet B". Its boring, and barely noticeable (unless you stack the same buff).

I like my new shiny gear, to do new shiny stuff.

I've always enjoyed the way Borderlands approaches gear, because there are just so many variables. Different manufacturers have different functions, so a Vladoff pistol wont have the same traits or features as a Tediore pistol, but then two Tediore pistols might have slightly different traits vs each other, and the unique function might operate differently. Sure, its not foolproof, and you might just find 2 guns that are mostly the same, but one is simply better (particularly whilst leveling), but at least most of the time, a Pistol isn't just a pistol.

Then of course there are the unique and legendary weapons, which have all sorts of effects, ranging from "This gun shoots bullets in the pattern of a bird", or "this gun literally shoots explosive cheeseburgers".

Otherwise though, I do quite enjoy it when games dont give you objectively "best in slot" choices, and everything is just an alternative to everything else. For example, I've always enjoyed the weight system that guns have in Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda. Sure, you can go for the massive heavy sniper rifle, that is going to deal an incredible amount of damage, but because that weapon is heavy, it means that your powers are going to recharge quite slowly - and the opposite would be true if you went for something light, like a pistol. Then there is everything else in between.

It just allows you to experiment, even when you have reached the endgame, instead of not really having much purpose anymore, after you have already beaten the best raid on the hardest difficulty, and you are just waiting around until the next content drop, because there is literally no other way to improve.

 

[Hades]

I kinda think its Overwatch. There's just so much useless stuff in the lootboxes. If you're hunting for costumes then its a real bummer to only ever get useless things like sprays or voice lines for characters you never use. And the useless objects are never taken out of the rotation so the odds of eventually getting the costume never increase.

 

[stroopwafel]

Nioh as a series has thusfar proven to be one of the best loot systems in gaming imo. The loot can roll an ungodly number of potential bonuses that allow players to fight with any combination of weapons, ninja skills, magic, elemental effects, and any combination of these. However that freedom of loot comes at a cost. It is incredibly tedious and difficult to truly maximize the build you want. Because there potential of the gear is all over the place, getting the gear to have what you need on it is an incredible hassle. Which I think holds Nioh back from being perfect.

I hate loot grinds but I love Nioh, which is probably one of the worst loot grinds in gaming. I can tolerate it solely b/c I love the combat so much. They addressed almost every issue I had with Nioh 1 in Nioh 2 like more enemy variety, more interesting stage design and level structure. But they kept that horrendous loot intact. I really don't know what is fun about digging through a garbage pile of hundreds of the exact same katanas with slightly different stats. Just give me unique weapon and armor sets like in Souls. But it is what it is I guess. I usually just make it a habit to disassemble all the regular equipment after every mission just to have a clean inventory.