Current Events > Bad game design in games

(+) Yeah! (+)

M_Live posted...

50% = 0% (fucking XCOM)

"I don't understand how probability works"
---

ogOEA posted...

Hexenherz posted...

Being able to save in midair >_>

I got to the haunted island in Tomb Raider Chronicles (farthest I had made it in a TR game up to that point) and there was this dumb jump you had to make over a chasm and grab a hanging rope and I kept missing it and eventually instead of clicking "load" I clicked "save" and overrode my game so that any time I loaded it it was just Lara screaming and dying.

Like that sucks, but I laughed really hard at the visual.

this why I like how BotW (et al) have a backlog of saves to choose from should you get screwed by a badly-placed autosave
---

HylianFox posted...

ogOEA posted...

Hexenherz posted...

Being able to save in midair >_>

I got to the haunted island in Tomb Raider Chronicles (farthest I had made it in a TR game up to that point) and there was this dumb jump you had to make over a chasm and grab a hanging rope and I kept missing it and eventually instead of clicking "load" I clicked "save" and overrode my game so that any time I loaded it it was just Lara screaming and dying.

Like that sucks, but I laughed really hard at the visual.

this why I like how BotW (et al) have a backlog of saves to choose from should you get screwed by a badly-placed autosave

um, it was clearly player error. not the games fault. git gud etc
---

ModLogic posted...

um, it was clearly player error. not the games fault. git gud etc

true, but it can cut both ways
---

games that have many things that kill you in one hit, but excessively punish you for death, like checkpoints being very far and few between.

I'll take the instant deaths in Hotline Miami alright because I can restart immediately; I don't like dying to a frog thing in Dark Souls and having to traipse all the way back to the start of the game to fix my "you have half your max health now" problem
---

Off that I think one shot death and "wipe" mechanics in online games with Raids are cop-out bad game design rather than actual challenge.
---

Releasing a product where you're expected to be the super cyborg badass that utilizes an engine specifically designed around sneaking and stealthily taking out prey and not being detected, lest you be killed if more than one enemy starts firing upon you.
---

Shotguns that only work in what is essentially melee range

EverDownward posted...

Releasing a product where you're expected to be the super cyborg badass that utilizes an engine specifically designed around sneaking and stealthily taking out prey and not being detected, lest you be killed if more than one enemy starts firing upon you.

Is this Warframe? Because this was my Warframe experience.
---

Vyrulisse posted...

EverDownward posted...

Releasing a product where you're expected to be the super cyborg badass that utilizes an engine specifically designed around sneaking and stealthily taking out prey and not being detected, lest you be killed if more than one enemy starts firing upon you.

Is this Warframe? Because this was my Warframe experience.

Banshee's passive power is silenced weapons. There's also silencing mods that drop
---

Vyrulisse posted...

EverDownward posted...

Releasing a product where you're expected to be the super cyborg badass that utilizes an engine specifically designed around sneaking and stealthily taking out prey and not being detected, lest you be killed if more than one enemy starts firing upon you.

Is this Warframe? Because this was my Warframe experience.

Yeah! You're the ultimate badass killing machine! You're a man and a half! There's nothing wrong you can't fix...with your hands! You're cookin' with gas! You're bad, real bad! You're a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness!

Oh, wait, no, you'll get mowed down by a single shotgun blast to the face if an enemy is alerted to your presence. Better be safe and lurk in the shadows, throwing shurikens from a distance like a pussy. Besides, you get more EXP for being silent! Yeah, that's you, the pseudo badass that larps as a badass! It's okay, we won't tell anyone. Did you like our pop culture references? XDD
---

Nothing pisses me off more than games that give you two paths or an open path, give no indication which is the right way to go, but puts you into an instant cut scene when you accidentally pick the right way, and locks you from back tracking so you cant go back and explore the area on the other path/causes you to miss a collectible

God that pisses me off
---

The main story mission progression in Far Cry 5...

They tried to make it open ended so you could attack any of the main territories in any order you want. Except unlike doing it like in Wildlands where you just complete a core set of main missions and you're good, they link it to "resistance points" that you get for doing everything from freeing captives to wiping your ass, and once you get to a certain number of RP you get knocked out and typically forced into the next actual story mission without any choice.
---

In Sword of Vermillion, there's a sword you find early one, called the Dark Sword. There's no warning about it, but if you equip it you can't unequip it until much later in the game.
---

DevsBro posted...

Sword of Vermillion

I've only played that game once, and it felt like I was watching paint dry.
---

EverDownward posted...

Vyrulisse posted...

EverDownward posted...

Releasing a product where you're expected to be the super cyborg badass that utilizes an engine specifically designed around sneaking and stealthily taking out prey and not being detected, lest you be killed if more than one enemy starts firing upon you.

Is this Warframe? Because this was my Warframe experience.

Yeah! You're the ultimate badass killing machine! You're a man and a half! There's nothing wrong you can't fix...with your hands! You're cookin' with gas! You're bad, real bad! You're a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness!

Oh, wait, no, you'll get mowed down by a single shotgun blast to the face if they suspect you. Better be safe and lurk in the shadows, throwing shurikens from a distance like a pussy. Besides, you get more EXP for being silent! Yeah, that's you, the pseudo badass that larps that they're actually a killing machine! It's okay, we won't tell anyone. Did you like our pop culture references? XDD

That sounds just awful. I never played FC3 so I don't know for sure. What I meant about Warframe is that from what I played the game rewards you for playing a stealthy approach moreso than charging in because if you alert the enemy they can summon endless backup until you disable the alarms. I didn't really feel like some badass piloting a death machine.
---

In light of Warframe's recent update, cursor menu controls on console.

Fuck every single programmer who's implemented it in a video game to the ninth circle of hell. Who would ever think forcing players to move a cursor with an analog stick to navigate menus is a good idea?
---

As much as i loved the Souls series, the invisible floors areas always seemed like utter bullshit to me.
---

EverDownward posted...

Besides, you get more EXP for being silent!

This is one of the things I hated about Farcry 3+. They give you all these tools and guns to do whatever you want, but if you aren't skulking around throwing knives at people you're pretty much doing it wrong.

An unlock progression system when every vehicle is meant to be competitive

let me drive a damn Impreza
---

Vyrulisse posted...

EverDownward posted...

Releasing a product where you're expected to be the super cyborg badass that utilizes an engine specifically designed around sneaking and stealthily taking out prey and not being detected, lest you be killed if more than one enemy starts firing upon you.

Is this Warframe? Because this was my Warframe experience.

Get moar mods. I can shut off my brain in Sortie 3 using a Valkyr Eternal War build and mash melee while watching something else on another screen, and I end up getting the most kills on the squad. I know I'm in a somewhat challenging spot when I actually start losing a little health.

geno_16 posted...

cursor menu controls on console.

pretty much every console port of point-and-click games suffer from this
---

chill02 posted...

An unlock progression system when every vehicle is meant to be competitive

let me drive a damn Impreza

Is this a FM7 complaint?
---

JACKBUTTMOMMY posted...

specialkid8 posted...

EverDownward posted...

Besides, you get more EXP for being silent!

This is one of the things I hated about Farcry 3+. They give you all these tools and guns to do whatever you want, but if you aren't skulking around throwing knives at people you're pretty much doing it wrong.

I respectfully disagree. There are a variety of weapons and you can gain XP from multikills. Having played the series since it's origins, I find 3+ and even below to be fairly balanced in allowing you to go stealth, aggro, or anywhere in between.

You can go in guns blazing but you can't deny there is a massive emphasis on stealth. There's a lot more ways to get XP with stealth; all I can think of for being aggressive is a headshot bonus and multikills. And how many different stealth takedowns can you unlock in the skill tree? I can't remember any upgrades for an aggressive playstyle.

Unskippable cutscenes.
---

When the focus is to have a large map but many assets are copy and pasted.

Id much rather have a smaller map that has more distinct features.
---

@M_Live posted...

chill02 posted...

M_Live posted...

50% = 0% (fucking XCOM)

"I don't understand how probability works"

@chill02 have u played XCOM

https://steamcommunity.com/id/chill_02/stats/appid/268500/achievements
---

Antifar posted...

chill02 posted...

An unlock progression system when every vehicle is meant to be competitive

let me drive a damn Impreza

Is this a FM7 complaint?

more like Gravel because it has a much smaller car list, so it's more noticeable
---

Kircheis posted...

Fog of War maps in Fire Emblem, because you can't see the enemy, but the AI always knows where your units are, and FoW maps typically have high mobility units designed to charge out of the fog and kill one of your fragile units. It's at its worst in Thracia 776 where you can't even guess enemy locations based on terrain because FoW is pitch black in this game. And all of the gaiden chapters have FoW. Because that totally makes for fun gameplay, right?

Especially when you run into an enemy in the FoW but then just suddenly stop and their action for the turn is over, and they aren't even able to attack. I mean honestly, units can see like 2-3 spaces but they can't even attack if they're about to collide with someone?

Also...

- Super nerfed recruitable characters. Boss has 20K HP? Well I guess his pride got crushed when he joins, so he's down to 1K.
- Durability, like weapon use in FE or sharpening in MH. Hold up bro, before we pursue that hugeass dragon, I gotta sharpen my hammer.
- Time limits. I just don't like being rushed :<
- Mandatory character use. If I don't like someone, they're getting benched and never seeing the light of day. So if they're forced out on a stage with enemies that are like 30 levels higher than them, I'm greatly annoyed. Especially since in cases like that, losing said unit generally means game over, and the AI will make a beeline to that one loser <_<
---

fuzzylittlbunny posted...

- Durability, like weapon use in FE or sharpening in MH. Hold up bro, before we pursue that hugeass dragon, I gotta sharpen my hammer.

I actually don't mind this in Fire Emblem at all. It is a strategy series after all, and resource management is an important part of that. Imma use chapter 1 of FE8 as an example. The boss of the map is a Knight sitting on a Gate tile. The units you have at your disposal at this point are: Eirika, swordlocked, fragile, not enough levels under her belt yet to overcome weapon triangle even though she can one round him with a Rapier; Seth, kind of a badass, comes with a Silver Lance, which has low durability, making it all the more precious at this point in the game; Franz, fast enough to double, uses lances so he doesn't suffer weapon triangle disadvantage, but is weak and inaccurate against Gate!Knights right now; Gilliam, Knight, also uses lances, but he's slow, inaccurate and not that much stronger than Franz.

Sure, you could bank on RNG rolling in favor of Eirika and her Rapier, or even give Seth an Iron Lance so he can weaken the boss for someone else. Said someone else still being inaccurate enough that they can't guarantee a kill against the boss we're trying to take down, and there's also no guarantee that Eirika can hit the boss reliably enough to kill with her Rapier before you run out of healing items, which are quite limited at this point. Seth, however, can reliably one round the boss with his Silver Lance and, thanks to having awesome growths on top of good bases, you can't even claim that experience was "wasted" because Seth does actually put that experience to good use.

So in summary, an actually problematic early boss has been dealt with in one round of combat, and all it cost to deal with is 2 weapon durability, and no other resources. So, weapon durability in FE is fine.
---

fuzzylittlbunny posted...

Durability, like weapon use in FE or sharpening in MH. Hold up bro, before we pursue that hugeass dragon, I gotta sharpen my hammer.

I hate this in 99% of the games
---

I fucking hate turret sections
---

Durability in FE is like an oxymoron; It sucks, so you just carry 5 iron swords, but then it doesnt matter cause they have 50 hits each.
---

DoomSwell posted...

Durability in FE is like an oxymoron; It sucks, so you just carry 5 iron swords, but then it doesnt matter cause they have 50 hits each.

I don't mind weak, durable weapons that are cheap.

It's the powerful, rare, expensive-yet-flimsy weapons that I end up never using even when I should
---

DoomSwell posted...

Durability in FE is like an oxymoron; It sucks, so you just carry 5 iron swords, but then it doesnt matter cause they have 50 hits each.

I always thought it was funny how Ike starts with 4 iron swords in NA Path of Radiance when he has enough strength for Steel after like, two. And he even gets a personal weapon before he chews through the first one!
---

Dialogue choices that make no difference regardless of what you pick.
---

Spidey5 posted...

Dialogue choices that make no difference regardless of what you pick.

But thou must
---

Cutscenes disguised as "gameplay." Not even referring to QTEs which are also annoying. But something that is obviously a cutscene, but you can technically move around. And you can't skip it.

Spidey5 posted...

Dialogue choices that make no difference regardless of what you pick.

And this.
---

Zeros missions in SA
---

Alot of moments in Code Veronica are plagued with shit design. Namely the tyrant on the plane is a bad boss fight, tyrant Steve is atrocious because it can potentially break the game and make it unwinnable if you have no health left.
---

Giving the best gun out at lvl 1/a low level "so all the new players have a fighting chance"...against all the veterans using the same cheap gun because they have access to it too.

Looking at the CoD games from 4 to at least MW2 (haven't played one since).

Attacks that are unavoidable or nearly unavoidable. I feel like I've seen this before, but I'm not sure where.
---

EverDownward posted...

DevsBro posted...

Sword of Vermillion

I've only played that game once, and it felt like I was watching paint dry.

It was terrible in general, yeah. But that one decision just blew my mind with how bad it was.

But also it has that same "huge but empty" problem, the animations are horrible, there's basically no story, you have to interact with chests twice to take their contents, and I could go on and on lol.
---

Walking in one direction while npcs talk to you cutscenes No more heroes made this interesting though

JACKBUTTMOMMY posted...

I actually thought LA Noire was great, but they did change the commands of interrogation later in development, which certainly made your reactions when making choices quite comical. If you remembered what they originally stood for, however, it made more sense.

they switched coax with doubt
---