Worst Gameplay Mechanics

ArcticKomodo

ArcticKomodo

[11] Champion
In your opinion, what are the worst gameplay mechanics in video games? Feel free to explain why they are the worst.

Mine are:
X-factor from MVC3
Negative Penalty and Barrier Burst from BlazBlue
Supers from any fighting game.
Call of Duty's customizable load outs
Damage/defense increasing perks in any FPS
 
I got a couple FF complaints:
FFXII license grid, it's not enough equipment has to be purchased and that it wont show up in the store until a pre-set time in the game, now you have to grind for the privilege of using it.
FF tactics advance "laws". Laws in the real world are arbitrary and unfair, when I play games I want to get away from that. One of the most memorable problems to me was that "push-back" could be illegal and criticals were random and would cause push-back.

/edit/ Also, rather specific but in one level for shinobi on the PS2 they decided to replace the pits you could fall into and die with a water level which would rise and fall and make you die. There were a few buildings you could stand on where the water would come up to about your ankles and you'd get a game over. Once I knew where they were I wouldn't get killed, but I still hated it on principle alone.

/edit/ Also inb4 "StepG"
 
QTEs that end in death if you fail.
Most attempts at 3d platforming.
Basically 60% of the God of War franchise. I really like the other 40% though.

Loot that clutters inventory and exists for no reason other than to sell.

Haven't played a CoD since 4 but the existence of a 3 grenade perk sure made things unfun really fast.
 
It's hard for me to come up with criticisms of things after the fact, because after they annoy me and after I get angry and say "what a lousy mechanic." and analyze why it's a lousy mechanic, I put the game down and forget all about them. Maybe it's part of my forgiving nature, maybe I ditch the memories because they make me unhappy, or maybe my memory is just crap, but whatever it is as much as I'll complain about something when I'm watching or playing it when I walk away I will eventually forget what bothered me in the first place. Unless I run into it again. Then it all comes flooding back to me.

I will name three that come to mind:

1. Third Person Games where things can shoot you from off camera. If the developers themselves have FIXED the camera angle this is an even more appalling sin.

2. Escort missions. These vary from delightful in rare instances to frustrating or horrifying as the norm. Whenever one of these comes up in any game I think we all breath a collective sigh of resigned frustration.

3. Scarcity. As something you encounter in life, it is expected from time to time as a matter of practicality and always unwelcome. Nobody likes going to the store and finding out something they wanted or needed to buy is out of stock, nobody likes opening the fridge to find out the milk is all gone and nobody likes waiting in line to access a limited number of anything. As something you encounter in games it is all together baffling. You have the option of removing one of the least enjoyable aspects of life and you choose to include it? As Penny Arcade's Tycho once said: "This is like receiving a magical box that can create anything you can dream of, and the first thing you make with it is AIDS." This pertains to ANY and ALL instances of scarcity in games including and not limited to:

A Limited supply of XP available.
A finite supply of currency.
Anything that requires you collect materials that are not readily available.
Any material that has a one in six million chance of dropping.
Any game with a limited amount of health restoration.
Any game that only allows you to save a limited number of times.

The problem magnifies in RPG's where you have multiple teammates. If you see a sword in a shop and a gun in a shop, but there will only ever be enough money to buy one or the other, one team mate will suck, forever. If XP is only shared when somebody is in the party and there's only so much to go around, everyone will eventually be 6 levels below the main character.

As a paragon of bad design decisions, Silent Hill 4 included all of these scenarios in one convenient place. I thought it had some nice ideas, I would have liked to have finished it... but I don't hate myself that much.
 
I never really liked, in fact, I hate side scrolling levels. I seriously do. My least favorite levels in Mario 2D plat formers are levels that move and force you to go along the path. It's bad enough I got to find and collect six large Yoshi coins to unlock secrets but then you're gonna force the level on me so I have to play it through twice as much to memorize where they are? ASS!

Beast Mode in Bloody Roar 4. It baffled me why they changed it from 3. It's like the best strategy was to immediately go Beast so that you don't lose health when being hit, then when you lose all beast gauge and get that ass beat as a human, turn back into beast before you die to extend your life bar. Unless you where winning, supers where meaningless. Course, that game was just bad all together. ASS!

Arcadey-Sim racers. Why? Project Gotham Racing is prolly the closest to getting it right and even then I didn't enjoy it. People love Burnout for it's arcadey ness. People love Gran Turismo for it's Simy ness. People don't like NFS Shift for it's sucky driving mechanics. Least I don't. ASS!

Adding features and then taking them away. Example. I like Halo 2 and dual wielding but why they decided to removed that game play mechanic and future releases like Reach? Instead of trying to be Halo 1, be better. ASS!

Tacked on multi-player. ASS!

Sonic going lycanthrope. No... ASS!

Shooting in Sonic games. ASS!

Super Smash Bros: Brawl. Oh this one is going to be EPIC! Before I mention this, though, I would just like to say...

FUCK YOU, SAKURIA!

Yes I'm talking about "tripping" at random. ASS!

Mineral Scanning in Mass Effect 2. It's only tarnish, IMO. ASS!

The sequal of a game that takes away all your powers from the first game. WTF? If memory serves, Banjo-Tooie let you keep all of Bear and Birds moves from Banjo-Kazooie and then added more. So how do we forget moves? Samus, seriously? You lose and re obtain the same powers every game! Keep yo shit on lock, bitch! ASS!

Ninja Gaiden suicide enemies. Fuck them. Especially Ninja dogs... ASS! That actually did bring challenge to the game and I might just be raging on that one.

A.I. Partners that just stand there. I'm looking at YOU Sheva of Resident Evil 5! I gave you a mother fucking TMP for your to spray some crowd control not to sit there holding it as you decide how close you want ONE zombie to get before you lay lead in his head and shoot it while it's down! ASS!

Default Inverted controls; and more so, LOCKED inverted controls. No, most of us are not pilots for air craft. Should never force anyone to use inverted Y-Axis. Down means down. ASS!

Invulnerable rejuvenation states. Specificly regarding to Yakuza 4 with the last Side Story you had to fight bosses that became invulnerable to damage and recovered health in heat mode while also not flinching to attacks. That's some bull shit, Sega. ASS!

All I can think of for now.
 
I get this feeling that i will hate Critical Edge (But i might as well love it.)

And oh, fuck X Factor and The Star Fox Team's Final Smash
 
X-Factor - MvC3
Bound - Tekken 6
Negative Penalty + Burst Penalty - Blazblue CT
Armor Lock and Active Camo(as an armor ability) - Halo Reach
Tripping - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Ultras - SF4
Slowing down when getting shot - Gears of War 2 and 3
Dark Carnival's Finale(not a mechanic, but fundamentally flawed) - Left 4 Dead 2
Easy Counter System - Dead or Alive 3/ Ultimate 2/ 4
Situational Awareness/Evasion Booster - Uncharted 2 Competitive MP
Killstreak Rewards (namely ones like Nuke, Chopper gunner,etc...)- Call of Duty MW2
Auto-Aim - Most console shooters
 
Seven7Swords said:
Default Inverted controls; and more so, LOCKED inverted controls. No, most of us are not pilots for air craft. Should never force anyone to use inverted Y-Axis. Down means down. ASS!
Click to expand...

Hmm, somebody never saw Pirates 3... No seriously, lean forward... What way are you now looking? Now lean back... Am I getting through to you...? Hey I'm just messing with you, but if you ask me it's defaulted non-inverted controls (and most new games are like this, not sure what you're playing)... When I first tried Crysis 2 for instance, though it allowed me to invert my mouse control, at certain moments when the WSAD movement of the character would lock for some cinematic reasons or something, the mouse control would revert for no particular reason... Didn't play that one for long, but not for that particular reason actually. No, it was the graphical glitch/artifacts that happened later that made me quit/uninstall/delete it, guess that's what I get for piracy though...

Whatever, number one worst/poorly implemented gameplay mechanic ever? CS:S hostages... I haven't played it for a while, but I'm pretty sure they're still ridiculously broken too lol, but keep going on about X-factor, next month maybe...
 
Beat em ups:
Having to pick up items with the same attack button while trying to punch a foe.

Assassin's Creed & Infamous:
Auto-target ledges
Auto-hang ons.

Games in general:
Having to sprint with an extra button, I'd rather tilt the stick to the max.
 
Seven7Swords said:
The sequal of a game that takes away all your powers from the first game. WTF? If memory serves, Banjo-Tooie let you keep all of Bear and Birds moves from Banjo-Kazooie and then added more. So how do we forget moves? Samus, seriously? You lose and re obtain the same powers every game! Keep yo shit on lock, bitch! ASS!

Ninja Gaiden suicide enemies. Fuck them. Especially Ninja dogs... ASS! That actually did bring challenge to the game and I might just be raging on that one.

A.I. Partners that just stand there. I'm looking at YOU Sheva of Resident Evil 5! I gave you a mother fucking TMP for your to spray some crowd control not to sit there holding it as you decide how close you want ONE zombie to get before you lay lead in his head and shoot it while it's down! ASS!
Click to expand...

Laughed my ass off on those, my buddy completed RE5 on highest difficulty, Sheva playing human shield for the Zombies.
Zombies that shoot? WhoaWTFWhy?
At least RE5 got Lickers again :)

Other stupid things:

Debilitas effect: Some Silent Hill wannabe Game, i forgot the name, everytime you see something half scary your controls mess up and your character runs into walls facefirst. I think it is the main gameplay concept.

Weapon leveling in FF13, stupid system, do i need a chart or something for that? And Adaman grinding for months if you wanna have all maxed up.

Buying combos/and special moves for DMC3 and not being able to do them on the Bosses, they block the second part of the combo everytime.
Or you can't even use it.
 
Oblivion - pretty much everything.

In that game, every aspect of the game changes according to your character's level. Yes, the loot available to you gets better as you progress, but the enemies become harder. And I mean every single enemy. Suddenly areas that had rats and wolves start to become infested with ridiculous mobs like minotaur lords. Whereas rag-tag bandits would be using rusty daggers and swords at level one, they magically have access to top-tier weapons and armor by the time you hit level 25. There is no benefit to leveling up since the game only punishes you for progressing. It is not only possible to beat the entire game at level 1, it's actually much easier that way.

Also X-Factor in MvC3.
 
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