The most worthless game mechanics/features

[TorchofThanatos]

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.

From what I read from The Escapist Review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10713-Call-of-Duty-Ghosts-Review-Dogs-of-War.2], the leaning is only contextual (when by corners like BF4), which is rather useless. I lean out in the open to correct my aim when my aim is off by a little bit, leaning left or right is easier to correct your aim than moving the crosshair plus you have less chance to over-correct since you can only lean slightly left or right and I'm also moving making me a harder target to hit instead of just standing still moving a crosshair. In MOH Warfighter, which has both a lean and a slide, you can win so many gunfights by sliding then leaning at the end of the slide when another player spots you first. The best player in the game said he hated playing against me the most in the whole game because I'm always moving. I actually don't lean around corners much because it limits your mobility and if someone rushes you, you're kinda screwed. Removing a lean removes a lot of dynamics from each and every gunfight and reduces the skill gap between players as good players lean to correct their aim while average players do not. Also, leaning doesn't take away anything from the control game there is no shooter that I have played that couldn't add leaning to the control scheme while not taking anything out.

Melee and grenade buttons waste more buttons then weapon switching. Say you shoot with L1 and R1 and say R2 is weapon switch (that's 3 buttons). You would switch to a grenade (R2), then press L1 (to aim the grenade) and R1 to then throw it. Same exact thing with melee (but switch to a knife). Whereas if you have a grenade button (say R2), a melee button (say square), and normal shooting buttons (L1 and R1); that's 4 buttons used instead of 3 buttons. Being able to chuck nades at a moment's notice ruins shooters as you then need no premeditation to throw a grenade, you can just chuck it at the tail end of a gunfight you know you're losing.

Thus, shooters are only devolving. Think about how basic the standard FPS is, you can only move your character and aim, that's it. You can't even move your character forward while looking behind you (something you can do in real life and in TPSs). FPSs are usually too basic for me to even play, I need leaning or sliding, more moves/abilities for me to use against my opponents than just out-shooting them, it's just so boring.

Okay, the leaning makes more sense but very few games give you the ability to chuck grenades at a moment's notice. The main one that I can think of is Halo. It is really annoying in Halo being able to instantly chuck a grenade but it also makes the game fun. Throwing a stick and nailing your opponent is enjoyable to do but I understand how that is annoying. Most of the other online shooter don't allow you to throw grenades that fast. COD has the delay of you pulling the pin and there is also a delay in Titanfall also. This delay magically disappears when using C4 which is the dumbest parts of both games.

And shooter aren't devolving just the special moves/abilities that you are using changes. COD has the drive and drop-shot to get the edge in combat and Halo has the twitch side to side. These abilities can really make a difference in your level of play. The main difference in these game (and where i think your frustration comes from, maybe) is that they are not needed. I never use the drop-shot is COD and I can still get massive kill streaks. The vast majority of players don't use them but they are in the game. Just out shooting your opponents is the main part but these side skill can make a difference. The difference they make however is limited. The vast majority of online shooter allow low skilled player to enter then they get better. Titanfall has the Smart Auto-aim pistol. Great for Noobs but get out classed by every other gun once you are good at shooting.

There is a lot more the the modern shooter then just moving and aiming but it is muted so that new players can still enjoy the game. Also what shooter can't you move forwards while looking backwards? There is no standard FPS. Each has small changes that make a difference. DOTA 2 and LOL are similar games but there is a difference between them. That being said, I understand you finding the low skill needed shooters boring. Even with the small changes there is not a lot of dept that that is what makes it fun for many. Easy to learn, impossible to master, always having fun.

 

[King Billi]

Gimmicky controls.

Only when they're partially utilised though, if a game is designed specifically for motion controls or kinect or whatever thats perfectly fine but I hate when a game is controlled primarily on a typical controller yet has one or two mechanics that require you to do something outside of the normal control scheme.

For exaple the sixaxis controls in the first Uncharted game being used to balance on beams and aim grenades, it was more trouble than it was worth and was scrapped altogether in the sequels.

 

[bug_of_war]

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

I have literally never played a single Zelda game ever. The closest I've come to doing so is super smash bros...

 

[bug_of_war]

Because in Witcher lore, potions are toxic poison. They have to be handled with incredible care. Reckless consumption of a potion can result in a Witcher OD'ing. It also takes time for the effects to take hold, which is why they are drunk during meditation. That's why you cannot chug them like every other fantasy game. It isn't a game mechanic, it's an established part of Witcher lore, and I like it.

That's all well and good, but when it comes to playing a game I personally wanna have fun, and like weight restrictions I found the whole potion shit to slow down the game waaaay too much for my liking. I understand (now) it's part of the lore of the series, but if a mechanic slows the flow of a game, then don't put it in there.

 

[bug_of_war]

Na I don't mind them either. If its telegraphed and you can negate it is not cheap. I hate them if you have a boss that is an easy hit sponge for half of the fight and then can 1 hit kill or near 1 hit kill for the second half though. Makes the first half feel like its just there to waste your damn time.

Yeah, pretty much. You should be punished if you decide to run up to an enemy willy nilly, but distant 1 hit ko attacks should have some motion/sound/something to show that the attack is about to come.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Unexplained regen health, like in COD.

Amen to that - that's partially why I really liked The Last of Us. They brought back a health bar that required first aid kits to replenish! Not sure how just wrapping up a bullet wound without extracting the bullet works exactly but it's better than your health magically coming back. Baby steps...

More games need to do this.

 

[VoidOfOne]

Stealth mechanics in a non-stealth game. Such as in RPGs like FFVII, or Lords of Shadow 2.

Then there's an issue with cutscenes: those where you aren't allowed to skip cutscenes, and those where pressing any button, even on accident, skips the cutscenes. I really appreciate it when the game asks if you really want to skip this.

And when you start the game, having to go through all those logos of all the companies represented in the bloody game, and not being able to skip through them quick enough. Just like in DVDs where you're not allowed to skip through the federal warnings at times...

 

[HardkorSB]

Status effect spells in pretty much any final fantasy. Yes, I think I'd miss them if they were removed, because I'd want them too if the enemies were casting them on me, but lets face it, they are useless. Either you can poison an enemy, and then wait turn after turn as it fights you and then slowly dies, or you can use the same turn and just kill it. The only enemies it makes sense to use status effects on are bosses, but most of them are immune to effects, so it's pointless.

That's the first thing I thought when I saw the thread title.
I guess that in FF8 you can junction things like Poison to your melee status effect (or whatever it was called) and cause poison while hitting enemies (never did that myself).
Also, Ruby and Emerald weapons in FF7 are vulnerable to status effects so I would cast Stop on them constantly. It made the fights too easy.
Other than that though, pretty much useless.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

I've very rarely had a battle in Final Fantasy that a healer and two heavy hitters just beating the shit out of the enemy couldn't win. Only on the rare boss have I needed to include a magic user for attacks of any sort.

 

[lord.jeff]

Obvious one but smash X to open door it sometimes makes sense like in the Arkham games and you are commonly in a rush to get a grate open but for the most part it's just annoying.

 

[Altorin]

the panting sound they put into skyrim when sprinting.

If you play the game without the music on as I do (it's not always a good time for bellowing operatic music), then the games soundtrack becomes asthmatic man trying desperately to catch his breath

 

[The White Hunter]

Leer / Growl and other attribute-affecting moves in Pokémon.

I never used any, except for the ones that lower accuracy in case of emergency.

Can be useful for competitive purposes but mostly it's betterto buff your own stats than lower your opponents outside of forcing a switch.

OT: The roll jump in Super Mario 3D World is absolutely and totally pointless.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

The cooking mechanics in Skyrim and FO:NV. I never once needed to use them. It's easy enough to recover health without this mechanic. Not that I want them to take it out. It's harmless, immersiony and I'm sure some people use it but I find it useless.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Okay, the leaning makes more sense but very few games give you the ability to chuck grenades at a moment's notice. The main one that I can think of is Halo. It is really annoying in Halo being able to instantly chuck a grenade but it also makes the game fun. Throwing a stick and nailing your opponent is enjoyable to do but I understand how that is annoying. Most of the other online shooter don't allow you to throw grenades that fast. COD has the delay of you pulling the pin and there is also a delay in Titanfall also. This delay magically disappears when using C4 which is the dumbest parts of both games.

And shooter aren't devolving just the special moves/abilities that you are using changes. COD has the drive and drop-shot to get the edge in combat and Halo has the twitch side to side. These abilities can really make a difference in your level of play. The main difference in these game (and where i think your frustration comes from, maybe) is that they are not needed. I never use the drop-shot is COD and I can still get massive kill streaks. The vast majority of players don't use them but they are in the game. Just out shooting your opponents is the main part but these side skill can make a difference. The difference they make however is limited. The vast majority of online shooter allow low skilled player to enter then they get better. Titanfall has the Smart Auto-aim pistol. Great for Noobs but get out classed by every other gun once you are good at shooting.

There is a lot more the the modern shooter then just moving and aiming but it is muted so that new players can still enjoy the game. Also what shooter can't you move forwards while looking backwards? There is no standard FPS. Each has small changes that make a difference. DOTA 2 and LOL are similar games but there is a difference between them. That being said, I understand you finding the low skill needed shooters boring. Even with the small changes there is not a lot of dept that that is what makes it fun for many. Easy to learn, impossible to master, always having fun.

The act of having to switch to grenades makes a big difference to me, plus even with the animation delay (like you mention), you're still wasting a button for no reason.

I think the Treyarch CODs have "the flop" but I'm not sure as I played COD4 and realized how simple the game is due to the killstreak rewards (which is another horrible mechanic as it rewards camping). All shooters usually have the drop shot but I don't find it that useful, not nearly as useful as the slide (which I believe MOH Warfighter, COD Ghosts, and the latest Killzone have). After playing Warfighter with the slide and then trying the BF4 beta, not having the slide just felt so limiting. By the nature of the 1st-person camera, you can't move your character forward while looking behind you like say you're walking to your garage and you can look behind you down the driveway while still moving towards your garage (you can't do that in COD, Bioshock, Borderlands, BF, and every FPS). In a FPS, you can only move in the direction you are looking.

 

[Flammablezeus]

X-ray vision/wallhacks (Batman, Far Cry 3, The Last of Us) is a big one for me. As well as mini-maps, crosshairs (that aren't attached to guns,) objective markers, built-in "hints" that simply tell you what to do, quick-time events and the use of teleportation as "fast travel" in lieu of actual fast travel options.

There may be more, but they're the ones that spring immediately to mind.

 

[jademunky]

Edit: You know, stuff that somehow you know someone thought he had this brilliant idea at 2am while taking a shit in the toilet and managed to convice his coworkers to waste time implementing it.

The morphine use in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

For those of you not familiar, the game is a 1st-person action/adventure/stealth/horror game. At any point in time, you can inject yourself with Morphine. This temporarily takes away the negative status effects from injuries (you stop limping if your leg is hurt for example) although you still lose blood. The downside of it is that you lose sanity and it causes your vision to trip balls, everything goes wavy and difficult to see what is really going on.

Now this effect is totally awesome, made slightly less awesome by one tiny fact: You will almost certainly never need to use it. Seriously, I finished the game several times did not actually need to use it at all. I only tried it when I wanted to see what would happen.

I understand that the developers put it in there so that there would be a way out if you found yourself with an injured leg and without a wooden splint, then having to make a running jump to get to where you needed. Yes, under those specific circumstances you would need the morphine to be able to run. But still, it feels like it was added just because Lovecraft's protagonists have a tendency to eventually turn to substance abuse to block out the memories.

Now that I think about it, the stealth mechanics in the same game also qualify as useless. At least they become useless after you get a gun.

 

[Tanis]

QTE - At least in cut-scenes...

It does not add 'immersion'.
It does not add 'drama'.
It does not add 'happiness'.

It DOES add annoyance.

 

[grey_space]

It's been mentioned before but Galactic readiness in ME3. I don't play multiplayer so fuck you for messing with my single player experience and fucking up my ending trying to MAKE my play it.

Randomly getting to flush/use the toilet for no discernible reason in FPS/RPG shooters.

I get it there are bathrooms. Brilliant immersion there game designers, well done.

I mean in Duke Nukem and Fallout the affected your stats, fair enough, but in other games than them it's pretty useless.

Attunement in Dark Souls annoys me also, now I think of it.

Edit: Spelling

 

[TorchofThanatos]

Okay, the leaning makes more sense but very few games give you the ability to chuck grenades at a moment's notice. The main one that I can think of is Halo. It is really annoying in Halo being able to instantly chuck a grenade but it also makes the game fun. Throwing a stick and nailing your opponent is enjoyable to do but I understand how that is annoying. Most of the other online shooter don't allow you to throw grenades that fast. COD has the delay of you pulling the pin and there is also a delay in Titanfall also. This delay magically disappears when using C4 which is the dumbest parts of both games.

And shooter aren't devolving just the special moves/abilities that you are using changes. COD has the drive and drop-shot to get the edge in combat and Halo has the twitch side to side. These abilities can really make a difference in your level of play. The main difference in these game (and where i think your frustration comes from, maybe) is that they are not needed. I never use the drop-shot is COD and I can still get massive kill streaks. The vast majority of players don't use them but they are in the game. Just out shooting your opponents is the main part but these side skill can make a difference. The difference they make however is limited. The vast majority of online shooter allow low skilled player to enter then they get better. Titanfall has the Smart Auto-aim pistol. Great for Noobs but get out classed by every other gun once you are good at shooting.

There is a lot more the the modern shooter then just moving and aiming but it is muted so that new players can still enjoy the game. Also what shooter can't you move forwards while looking backwards? There is no standard FPS. Each has small changes that make a difference. DOTA 2 and LOL are similar games but there is a difference between them. That being said, I understand you finding the low skill needed shooters boring. Even with the small changes there is not a lot of dept that that is what makes it fun for many. Easy to learn, impossible to master, always having fun.

The act of having to switch to grenades makes a big difference to me, plus even with the animation delay (like you mention), you're still wasting a button for no reason.

I think the Treyarch CODs have "the flop" but I'm not sure as I played COD4 and realized how simple the game is due to the killstreak rewards (which is another horrible mechanic as it rewards camping). All shooters usually have the drop shot but I don't find it that useful, not nearly as useful as the slide (which I believe MOH Warfighter, COD Ghosts, and the latest Killzone have). After playing Warfighter with the slide and then trying the BF4 beta, not having the slide just felt so limiting. By the nature of the 1st-person camera, you can't move your character forward while looking behind you like say you're walking to your garage and you can look behind you down the driveway while still moving towards your garage (you can't do that in COD, Bioshock, Borderlands, BF, and every FPS). In a FPS, you can only move in the direction you are looking.

The critic of not being able to move forwards while looking behind you is kinda pointless because you can move backwards when you look forwards. Most FPS don't have you move your head but move your body because you need to shoot that direction. Your gun always needs to be in the direction that you are looking. I just don't understand the criticism because it really doesn't seem important to me. When would looking behind you but not shooting ever be effective? Many third person games do allow you to do this though but by there nature it works. Having to switch to a grenades just seems like adding a not needed step. Most shooters don't need that many buttons anyways. The ones that do are usually RPG shooters or have some other gimmick (ME for example). If you haven't played Titanfall yet you should. Their movement system is amazing. What I like most about it is it gives you the added abilities of movement but doesn't require them for the shooting. The slide is like jumping in COD or Halo. There are meant to surprise your enemy and give you an edge inside of straight fighting them. Titanfall uses their movement system to allow you to get in a better position then start the fight not so much as am ambush technic. But, then again I haven't really played a game with a good slide so my answer is kinda bias. I might need to try Warfighter out.

Oh, yeah and Killstreaks are terrible! Total agree there. Another reason I like Titanfall, titans are given to everyone. That game is not prefect but it might be a good start to a series.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I expected to see QTEs listed here about fifty billion times. Not on the first page anyway!

I will go with a kind-of-annoying feature from a game I kind-of-love: the "pipe dream" minigame in the original "Bioshock". It replaces the "hack" / "repair" function in System Shock 2, the difference being that 1) "System Shock 2"'s function is far simpler and can also be made easier depending where you choose to spend your upgrade modules, so it affects how you play the game in other ways, 2) "System Shock 2"'s function happens in real-time (so there's a definite time real-world time constraint and you REALLY have to make sure the area is clear of enemies before you start hacking something unless you want a pipe through the skull), and 3) "Bioshock"'s minigame really makes no sense in terms of the world you're in. How on earth does changing the flow of water change whether a security camera or turret recognises you as a "friend" or an "enemy"? How is that even possible?

I really like most of "Bioshock". But that pipe dream minigame just stopped the game dead and made no sense.