The most worthless game mechanics/features

[bug_of_war]

A. 1 hit kills from NPC's. It is just a cheap mechanic to fake real difficulty. Having to run and hide to get healed adds an "oh shit! OH SHIT!! AUUUGHHHHGGHHH!!!!" feeling that gets stronger as the closer to death you get verses further away from safety you are. Massive relief when you make it and equally massive downer when you don't.

Am I the only person here who actually doesn't mind 1 hit kills in games? Cause it sure feels that way.

-Games with no cutscenes.
I find it really hard to pay attention to a story when I'm given the ability to jump around, shoot my gun, turn and face a wall, crouch, crawl, flip switches and pick up items when I'm suppose to be listening to the characters speak. I'd rather loose control for 5 minutes and have my attention drawn to just the story than to have the freedom to fuck around and not pay attention.

-The Witcher: drinking potions
Why the fuck can he not just drink a potion during or a second before combat?

-Silent protagonists
SPEAK GOD DAMN IT!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Metal Gear Online played about as fast as shooter can play and it didn't have any regen health (or grenade button or melee button). You had a full CQC mechanic in place that let you do lots of different things like say grabbing an opponent, attaching C4 to them, letting them go, and then detonating it whenever. All that was due to the game not having just a melee button. If you have a weapon/item cycle system instead of a grenade button and melee button, you have at least one more free button (1 button to switch weapons vs 2 buttons for a grenades and melee). Metal Gear Online was a 3rd-person shooter that also had first-person leaning, something not even FPSs are able to fit into their controls anymore. Shooters are devolving instead of evolving.

You follow your anecdotal example with a rather grand claim, but I suppose if you're dead set on hating modern developments in the genre, there's nothing I can do

Grand Claim? Everything I said was true.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Inventory limits, weapon degredation and encumberance stats.

Anything that makes me stop what I'm doing to play inventory tetris or wander off to find a merchant is just artificially lenghtening the game.

As much as I love the Diablo games that,s always been my biggest gripe.

I just wanna clear the dungeon, I don't want to make frequent pit stops to repair and dump my bags.

 

[Altorin]

the most useless mechanic I've ever seen in a game was giving NPCs nicknames in Fable 2

 

[Evil Moo]

Sticky cover systems. There is no need to attach me to a wall for me to take cover. The game often has perfectly good movement controls. If I want to be in cover I can easily use those controls to move behind something and stay there without breaking any sense of control/mechanical consistency. It is unnecessary and only makes my experience worse.

 

[Joseph Wallace]

Im quite surprised I don't think ive seen quick time events listed yet! When a game is set up to incorporate them through out the entire game like Dragons Lair it makes sense since that's the mechanic. Only when your running through some action game for several hours no problem to all the sudden be required to hit buttons that flash on the screen to not die when you haven't needed to the whole time so far....just UGH!!!

 

[spartan231490]

Blood on the screen. Worst mechanic by far of any I've ever seen.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Unexplained regen health, like in COD. Breaks all form of tactics really, hate most games that pull it off. And while I like both Metro games I'm not playing it on anything lower than Ranger Hardcore and I still find it too easy...

 

[Boogie Knight]

Tacked on multiplayer is probably the worst offender. On paper, multiplayer in ME3 and Assassin's Creed sounds interesting (one's about the struggles of the nobodies in the galactic war and the other created the opportunity for a future era protagonist to fight a menagerie of psychos ala Kill Bill or No More Heroes, but stealthier). However, the real consequence is inflated development costs as well as those associated with maintaining the server... so unrealistic sales expectations rise even higher and a game just can't win if it doesn't reach that fantasy number in the head of the suits.

 

[sXeth]

Any door opening mechanic in non-stealth games. I'm walking into the damn door, its highly doubtful I'm trying to dry hump it for some reason, have the character open the thing himself.

Sprinting toggles have always confused me for as long as we've had standard-issue analog controls.

"Hacking" mechanics that are just an excuse to throw some variation on a generic puzzle game into an unrelated game.

 

[Callate]

Oh, another one that came to mind:

Do 10,000,000 points of damage to the boss monster! ...Now, push this button (light this explosive, drop this heavy weight, radio in an air strike, release this thing that hates the monster, etc., etc...), to actually kill the monster!

...Preferably while the monster continues to flash or show other signs of taking damage with every conventional hit! Bonus points if the game proudly gives you no freaking clue that the things you've been doing for the first 99% of the fight are now meaningless and no idea what you're now supposed to do differently!

 

[TorchofThanatos]

Metal Gear Online played about as fast as shooter can play and it didn't have any regen health (or grenade button or melee button). You had a full CQC mechanic in place that let you do lots of different things like say grabbing an opponent, attaching C4 to them, letting them go, and then detonating it whenever. All that was due to the game not having just a melee button. If you have a weapon/item cycle system instead of a grenade button and melee button, you have at least one more free button (1 button to switch weapons vs 2 buttons for a grenades and melee). Metal Gear Online was a 3rd-person shooter that also had first-person leaning, something not even FPSs are able to fit into their controls anymore. Shooters are devolving instead of evolving.

You follow your anecdotal example with a rather grand claim, but I suppose if you're dead set on hating modern developments in the genre, there's nothing I can do

Grand Claim? Everything I said was true.

Doesn't COD Ghost has first person leaning? I think it does. Also you one button to switch example doesn't make sense. Now, I have not played the game so I am just going off of what you wrote. It one button switch, you still need a button to do said action. One can button switches and one actual does the action (use grenade or melee). Now that is just what i get from you example. Maybe, I am just not understanding.
I also really hate leaning mechanics. I just see them as a way in encourage camping. Now you can hind behind a wall and shoot but maybe that is just my experience with the mechanic.
The grand claim was that shooter are devolving, which is wrong. They are just evolving in a direction that you don't like.

 

[OBE001]

The internet from GTA V. At first I thought this would be a great feature. A game with it's own internet that you could use to help you with stuff in the game, like looking up someones Facebook (lifehacker in game) to find out where they are. Look up places in Los Santos by doing a search online to find out where it is. But in reality it wasn't as useful as the real internet is, more of a parody.

 

[Inazuma1]

Identifying. Fucking. Items.

That's a legacy feature from the days of Diablo. Back in 1996. Welcome to gaming on the 486.

Anyway, the feature I hate as a staunch old schooler is Touch and Motion controls. They're far too obtuse to do anything but hinder the experience and that's if the controls even work in the first place. Note to anyone who is a fan of the kinect because you can issue a voice command to make it turn on your tv and console, it would take me just as much time to walk up to you, punch you square in the dick, and steal your wallet while you cry on the ground before giving you a parting curbstomp.

 

[cypher-raige]

Blood on the screen. Worst mechanic by far of any I've ever seen.

Blood on the screen, heartbeat noises, loss of hearing, screen going back and white.
If you're going to have regenerating health, at least make it like Halo and have a simple health bar.

 

[cypher-raige]

-Silent protagonists
SPEAK GOD DAMN IT!

Link isn't supposed to speak. Giving him a voice would ruin the character.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Ah, Alone in the Dark. That game had so much potential... oh so much.

In Silent Hill 4: The Room, Eileen manages to turn the game's second half into an escort mission. She's fragile, pretty intelligent, but sometimes about as smart as wet cardboard, and the only way to heal her is by using very rare items that you need to get the good ending, and turn your shitty apartment back into a safe haven every once in a while.

I like her character, and it's supposed to endear me to her, but she's just a pain in the neck. Your best bet is running away from her. And if she takes too much damage, then you actually start to take damage from her.

The ghosts are also just an excuse to force backtracking. Again, a good idea (recurring, invincible enemies) but the fact that 4 are unique, and the rest are the same just makes it an annoying feature.

Edit: It's not a game mechanic, but it's part of the franchise's "charm".

Link's character. He's not a character; he's just an idea. A Gary Stu-esque stoic goes to save a girl. Now repeat that for, how long now? About 35-ish years? And milk it for all its worth... I'm sorry, can someone tell me how Link is anything but an idea?

Link's characters in Wind Waker (which is kind of shared in The Minish Cap), Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, and Four Swords are all pretty good; they all have their own personalities and goals. Link as an idea, however, is basically "hot bishounen goes to save hot bishoujo, kills guy who lives in desert with a really big nose, more attractive people, end of game, thank you for your $40", and all to much is he just this idea without any character.

Idea that is profitable=/=good idea, or decent storytelling
Idea/acrchetype=/=character. Having a tsundere isn't a character; it's an idea, and people who write tsunderes, but not having that tsundere, an idea, be a character, are lazy.

 

[Someone Depressing]

-Silent protagonists
SPEAK GOD DAMN IT!

Link isn't supposed to speak. Giving him a voice would ruin the character.

And that character is...? Having him not speak is just an excuse to have a blank slate for the player to project him/herself onto. With the exception of a few games, he's not so much a character as he is paper meche who gets mountains of fangirls.