Worst In-Game Camera You've Experienced?

[Shamanic Rhythm]

After spending far more time than I have to spare on Assassin's Creed 2's tombs with their chases and timed jumping puzzles, I've come to the realisation that my frustrations all boil down to the bizarre implementation of the in-game camera. Whoever decided that a sudden change from third person to fixed position is helpful was bad enough, but the person who suggested that on top of that the controls should be bound to the camera direction rather than Ezio's direction deserves to be fed to piranhas. The number of times I've suddenly slammed into a wall or jumped into the middle of nothing due to a forced camera change is uncountable, and my comments when it happens are generally unprintable.

What's your worst memory of an in-game camera?

 

[Ima Lemming]

Shadow of the Colossus, and Mario Sunshine is a pretty close second. Game developers, when I move the camera, I'm moving it for a reason; don't make it snap back as soon as I take a step.

 

[TheRiddler]

I remember picking up Epic Mickey for the Wii a few years back. The camera was abysmal. I mean, the rest of the game played alright, maybe even had a couple things I really liked. But I couldn't play the game with the camera snapping to the most inconvenient positions possible, especially during the 3D platforming sections.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I think I've had horrible camera issues with just about every Sonic game I've played that wasn't Sonic Generations.

Good lord, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 have not aged well.

 

[Aesir23]

Any Tomb Raider game before the reboot. I really don't know what Crystal Dynamics was doing for the camera to be so shoddy but I died more times just because of that camera than I care to count.

Oddly enough, the camera became perfect for me after Square-Enix bought Eidos. I mean, I still died a lot but it was never because of the camera.

 

[pearcinator]

Super Mario 64

but I can forgive that. It was after all one of the first 3D games ever made. I am sure I have played games with a worse camera but I think my brain decided to erase all memory of said games' existence.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox had an absolutely atrocious camera, I swear half the difficulty in that game came from me trying to see the bloody enemies. Whoever decided that the camera had to change to front on view of Ryu whenever you enter a new area is a complete idiot, especially in the areas where there are enemies right in front of the area entrance

 

[ninja666]

Terminal Reality's early games - Nocturne and Blair Witch had some atrocious camera angles. By themselves they weren't bad, kinda like in other survival horror games, where you have it hung in one place, not following the character, but combining it with shooter-like controls, absolutely no aim assist, and a crosshair being a small red dot of a laser sight, the camera made the experience with these games unbearable.

 

[asdfen]

on horse camera in shadow of colosus (orignal)
metal gear revengance camera shows everything but the stuff thats about to kill you.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The only one I can think of is when you playing as an Charr or Norn and doing one of the Jumping Puzzle in Guild Wars 2. Most of the puzzles are small and narrow and since those two races are quite big, the camaera get mess up (like seeing the insides of your character) which competely mess up your dept of perception needed for the jumping thus you will fail/ mess up the jumping puzzle.

 

[Evonisia]

I'm wondering why the person that got banned, well, got banned. Unless it was for a different post and it's doing that for all his posts.

Alice: Madness Returns has a pretty bizarre camera that can't decide how zoomed in it should be and when it's appropriate to change the camera angle, but I think Shadow of the Colossus on horseback and Silent Hill 4 can both go dive under a bus for those head-ache inducing camera angles. I don't know who told them that this was a good idea, especially Silent Hill 4 because half the time you can't bloody see those invincible Ghost enemies that stun lock you.

 

[ninja666]

I'm wondering why the person that got banned, well, got banned.

Following the youtube link he left in his post, looks like he was advertising a let's play series of his own.

 

[Mezahmay]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would have had the worst camera I can remember at the moment if I wasn't playing it on PC. I downloaded some software that adjusted the camera and made the experience a lot better.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Even though I loved the game, Ninja Gaiden 2 had an absolutely atrocious camera. For some reason they decided to move the camera closer to Ryu than in the first game, which is doubly bad because Ryu is so fast and is flying all over the screen during combat that it's often times difficult to figure out what the hell is going on. It became REALLY obnoxious later on when you would fight the Ninjas who threw explosive shurikens, because you'd start getting hit by guys whom you had no idea where they were.

Combine that with the fact that some of the bosses are shooting fire and light effects all over the place (I'm looking at you, giant flaming armadillo boss). Still loved the game, but the camera could drive you absolutely batty at times.

 

[Aeshi]

Just about any game with fixed Cameras (like the old Resident Evil games for instance.)

 

[moosemaimer]

I remember having the camera in Enslaved go batty and get stuck in a wall a few times, but nothing irritated me like Turok 2 on the N64... it insisted on having lookspring whenever you were moving, even if you turned it off (that only worked when you were standing still). Made it next to impossible to hit anything above or below you while trying not to get shot, to say nothing of the jumping puzzles.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Technically AVP 2010 when you play as the Alien. It's a first person perspective so it gets very confusing when transitioning from walls to ceilings. It's made all the worse because other characters don't experience this by virtue of not crawling on walls. That has more to do with how the character moves than the camera, however.

3rd Person Perspective in Fallout 3. It feels very stiff and unnatural. I couldn't use it unless it was to see around a corner or over a hill.

 

[Duster]

dark souls pre dsfix

dead space is pretty bad

There are a lot of platforming games that add in horrible, tweened panning camers to make the game harder

 

[Alex1508]

dark souls pre dsfix (oh dear lord it was bad but i managed to pass undead asylum even with that handicap), Darksiders both 1 and 2(the camera had an annoying habit especially in 1 to get stuck on walls/corners in the most inoportune moments aka as i was trying to perform platforming :<), AvP while playing as an Alien (thanks to the transitions), a few fighting games like Revengeance or DmC (they have a habit of not showing when offscren enemies are about to rip you a new one)