- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I was wondering what everyone considers bad features that commonly reoccur over different games. For me it's-
Not being able to skip cut scenes. If something happens to my character right after the scene ends and I have to go through it again, I would really like to skip it. Having this happen right before a boss in a game is especially grating.
Objects in a game for no reason. Would a bunch of wooden crates really be in the middle of a military base corridor? Really, think hard now...if you said no, you would be right. Large businesses and military bases have storage rooms for a reason. You would never find half of the things you do in levels based on reality.
Collecting X amount of objects to do something. I could see how having to find one hundred bananas to unlock a door might seem like a great idea, but if that's the jist of the game, I won't bother playing. There's a fine line between fun and tedious, and collecting a bunch of little things to do something gets un fun very quickly.
Repetitive sound effects. When you're running around in a game, everything should make a different noise. If I punch one of my friends in the face, and then punch a chair, I'm doubtful it will make the same noise on impact. This used to be excusable but nowadays sound is just as important as graphics.
Bad controls. Simpleness is bliss, especially when it comes to control schemes. Whenever I play a game, I don't want to press a hundred different buttons for one action. Keep it simple so that when I'm in-game I spend more time interacting and less time fumbling with the controls. Completely customizable controls, instead of control scheme A, and control scheme B never hurts either.
Changing up gameplay at the end of the game - Oh, what's this!? My wonderful Action/Adventure game has turned into a top down space shooter at the last level; thus voiding everything I've learned and all the skills I've developed so far. SUPER! The only game to ever actually do this right in the history of games is The Oregon Trail, and even it gave you the option to avoid it.
Fetch Quests. It's suprising how many games fill in space by having you do some random gather mission. Of course you have 50 hours of gameplay when I have to walk all the way back to the beginning of the game to get some little, stupid, trinket and then run it all the way back to the person who needed it. It really just seems like a waste of space in games. You could always be doing something more fun.
Timed missions are just as guilty as fetch quests. Having to do certain tasks before time runs out is always a downer. It always dulls the atmosphere because instead of enjoying the game I'm worrying about getting through the stage fast enough. No time to stop and smell the roses now character X, you have to get the magic crystal to the reactor core before the earth explodes!
Escort missions are the worst of all. Fetch quests and timed missions are excusable on some instances, but I never, ever want to do another escort mission. There has never been anything fun about them, except when I get so pissed off I kill the person I have to escort for relief. Usually the person I'm escorting has horrible A.I. anyway, so they run around and get hurt while I have to retread my steps hoping they'll follow me.
Oh no! the peasant who I'm supposed to lead to a castle got stuck on a rock thirty feet back, now I have to go get him unstuck, and walk all the way back to where I am now. God forbid the game has a ladder they have to climb.
Places in the game being blocked off for no reason. If I am trucking along in a game and I decide I want to go into a house, there better be a good reason why I can't go into said house. It's always frustrating when I'm playing and I run up to a door but can't get inside for no reason at all. Give me a [LOCKED] message or something. ANYTHING!
Boring level design. One out of every five games I play has a level involving water, or a level involving sewers. Is it really necessary every time I play a game to be unable to breath, or covered in human waste? If you seriously think it's a good idea for a level, I want to hurt you. Hurt you horribly. Also, enough with the dark/damp industrial type designs already.
Ooohhhhh a spooky metal underground place, never been here before! I demand more bright, colorful levels. This is also why I never found Ice/Snow levels appealing either. Too much white, not enough color, it makes me get sick of a level very quickly.
Taking away all of my weapons. I realize that game developers want me to have a handicap later on in the game to make it more interesting, but it isn't necessary to take away all the fun toys they've given me. Instead of disarming me, or me being captured and my weapons removed, how about making the game itself harder? Introduce some new powerful enemies or have the current ones appear in bigger numbers.
So what are the little things in games that make you mad?