Annoying Game Mechanics/Dynamics

[The Director]

Let's have some fun by listing some game mechanics, dynamics, and cliches that we all know and hate.

 

I'll start us off with a few.

 

Quick Time Events: The general idea of a quick time event is to give the player immersion, but more often than not it detracts from the experience. Especially so if you miss one during what you thought was a cutscene and have to fight through the level again. There are some games that use quick time events to their advantage (Indigo Prophecy), but the majority of QTEs these days feel unnecessary and annoying.

 

Forced Stealth Gameplay in a Non-stealth game: I'm not talking about Splinter Cell or other games that rely primarily on stealth as their selling points, I'm talking about games that don't have stealth in any other part of the game than that one level that everyone hates. It feels as if the games are trying to show off their stealth mechanics, which are often subpar at best. 

 

Add Spawning Bosses: A boss-type enemy who spawns additional, usually weaker, enemies can be cool. Especially in games where killing the adds benefits you with exp, health, or ammo. But most add-spawn bosses don't spawn additional enemies that do anything except annoy the crap out of you while you're trying to take down the boss. Some bosses spawn adds so frequently that it's best to just ignore the adds and kill the boss, which kind of defeats the purpose of the add spawning to begin with.

 

So what are some game mechanics and/or dynamics that annoy you?

[Axilus Prime]

ESCORT MISSIONS

[Twinreaper]

My only problem with this, is the lack of actual "mechanics" so far. Quick Time Events, Add Spawns and Escorting are not mechanics, they are scripts added onto core mechanics to expand and enhance said mechanics.

 

Spawning in general, or the act of spawning/respawning "aka placing an object" is the mechanic sysyem. I would suggest that this thread title be renamed or rediscribed to clarify the issues for the sake of correctness involving the issues you have.

 

Quick Time events are simple cinematic mechanics at it's core, where a script places the camera at a first person perspective, instead of a third person, and adds a trigger "script", to start and end actions. Again, the actual Cinematic Mechanic is not to blame, but the way and extent to which it is used.

 

For example, "Game Mechanic Expansion and Usage Issues" would be a much clearer and effective title.

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

"Ghost target"

 

"Follow target"

 

"Tail target"

 

Just take the reigns, RGNesus that way I don't have to play through this crap.

[Unease Peanut]

Jumpscares.

I mean every once in a while to keep you on your toes and to maintain tension is ok I guess, but if a games relies on jumpscares to be "scary" I just find it cheesy.

 

Grinding is also a thing that I rarely enjoy. Usually because the "reward" is not worth it in any way. I quit TERA after half an hour because all story missions were literally "Go to this area, kill that particular mob and come back." only to come back to the quest NPC telling me to go back and kill MORE!

[RedStarRocket91]

Trial-and-error gameplay.

 

I'm aware it's more design than mechanics, but it's one of my pet peeves in videogames, and I can't stand when games use it (which forms a very big part of my disdain for Halo 2). For me, a game is well-designed if a player who has sufficient understanding and execution of a game's core controls and mechanics (shooting, parkour, spotting things on radar, etc.) and who is making sensible decisions based on what they've previously encountered in the game in terms of challenges encounters a new area and is able to complete it on the first try, barring sheer bad luck. In essence, it's a good game if you've learned how to play the game, rather than needing to learn how to complete the specific challenge, by the time you finish one.

 

Mechanically, I really dislike randomness and needing to rely purely on RNG in order to advance: this is part of why I hate things like the REQ system, where your only options for progression are to participate in what is literally gambling (possibly using real-money if you don't know any better) with no control or input of your own. There's a place for things RNG in games (XCom, for example, does it really well), but when it's poorly implemented and your only option is essentially to roll the dice and hope for the best, it's incredibly frustrating.

[The Director]

My only problem with this, is the lack of actual "mechanics" so far. Quick Time Events, Add Spawns and Escorting are not mechanics, they are scripts added onto core mechanics to expand and enhance said mechanics.

 

Spawning in general, or the act of spawning/respawning "aka placing an object" is the mechanic sysyem. I would suggest that this thread title be renamed or rediscribed to clarify the issues for the sake of correctness involving the issues you have.

 

Quick Time events are simple cinematic mechanics at it's core, where a script places the camera at a first person perspective, instead of a third person, and adds a trigger "script", to start and end actions. Again, the actual Cinematic Mechanic is not to blame, but the way and extent to which it is used.

 

For example, "Game Mechanic Expansion and Usage Issues" would be a much clearer and effective title.

 

 

So here's a couple more.

 

Story Integral (Mandatory) Minigames: So you've been playing a game for a day or two and are really enjoying the story. You've gotten used to the gameplay, however difficult, and are now moving along the story at a decent pace. Then all of a sudden, MINIGAME! And I don't mean an optional minigame, I mean a minigame within the story arc that you must beat to continue the story. Like hacking in Bioshock, or the nightmare in MGS3. These aren't always annoying, but they really can be if you suck at the minigame but are great at the normal game.

 

Mandatory Tutorial Missions: The biggest killer of replay value there is. The longer a mandatory tutorial mission, or a tutorial that cannot be skipped, the more annoyed you get on your second playthrough of a game. There are some horrible examples, like the Spiderman Trilogy games, Legend of Zelda (nearly all of them), and Fallout 3. The reason for most forced tutorials is equally annoying, game writers trying to justify cramming exposition into the beginning of the narrative.

 

Unrealistic Damage in 'Realistic' Games: So in reality a .50 caliber bullet coming into contact with a human being will prevent that human being from continuing combat. Usually because that human being is very, very much dead. However, there are quite a few video games out there that brag about being realistic yet have issues putting realism into terms of damage. Fallout 4, for instance, will allow you to create a .50 cal sniper rifle and also allow bandits to survive headshots from said rifle. Even if said bandits were wearing helmets (which they weren't, in my experience) the bullet would have caused a sizable chunk of the helmet to replace the bandit's brain in anywhere near reality. This is actually one of the most common cliches in video games, and in most cases it's beneficial. However, when 7.62 mm is > .50 cal, that's when things are ridiculous.