What game mechanics do you consider outdated?
Outdated game mechanics.
- Thread starter CastletonSnob
- Start date
The whole concept of a Game Over doesn't really make sense on home consoles that have the ability to save your progress. It's just a thing because it always was.
Escort quests. Especially when the escortee moves faster than your walking speed but slower than your running speed, so you have to sorta awkwardly shuffle to keep them in range. And when they randomly run off to go fight something and you have to go save their useless ass.
"Outdated" implies that the mechanic ever did make sense though. Escort quests NEVER worked. They have always been obnoxious, seemingly on purpose.
I'd argue that Game Over is still fully valid due to different genres and that some games can only save at specific points. Plus, you do need to know the point where you lose. The outdated part would be limited continues.
Maybe we could at least get rid of it in games that don't have a save point within levels.
Walk us through this a bit here: What kinds of genres are you picturing? What games do still have a Game Over screen, but shouldn't, in your opinion?
I think he's probably talking more about the concept of "Lives" and then the eventual "Game Over" you get from losing them all. You know, the holdovers from the quarter-munching arcade days.
Because God of War or Dark Souls certainly wouldn't feel the same without their "You have Died!" text crawls.
Because God of War or Dark Souls certainly wouldn't feel the same without their "You have Died!" text crawls.
Yeah, that would make sense. I just get the sense that extra lives really have been gradually phased out in most contexts and usually aren't included just to be there. Everything from Souls-like games to Minecraft sends you back to a rest point with no money, puzzle adventure games just respawn you at the start of the world, etc. I play far too much Warframe, so I mention it a lot, but that's a game that has a limited number of continues within a mission (a 5-10 minute session that can be played with random online coop players) in the event that the player dies. It's a kludgy system for a lot of reasons, but there isn't one immediately obvious alternative - it's filling the spot of a lesser penalty than just having to leave the mission and start over again (with a different team in the case of online play.) A mission is the smallest unit of play - you can't cut any smaller, can't have "save points" etc., so losing your progress in the mission is all or nothing. In that kind of situation, a classic three-strikes deal still makes sense to me.
Hell, even Mario Odyssey doesn't have limited lives. You lose coins when you die. But even if you have no more coins to lose, it still keeps going.
You know when even Mario abandons a mechanic, it's well and truly dead.
It's been a while since I've seen quick time events. I don't know if it's just the games I play or if they're actually truly dead, but I sure don't miss them.
You know when even Mario abandons a mechanic, it's well and truly dead.
It's been a while since I've seen quick time events. I don't know if it's just the games I play or if they're actually truly dead, but I sure don't miss them.
The purpose of the game over has changed. It's gone from telling you it's time to get more quarters to shaming you for failure.
They still show up occasionally, but they tend to either be very streamlined or better integrated with the rest of the gameplay. Either just one or two button presses or an actual mini-game with actual controls and rules.
Pressing a long sequence of random buttons seems to be gone, though.
To say nothing of such a marketable one -- how much do you suppose they've made off of licensing the 1UP mushroom iconography alone?
As for my submission: Grinding enemies to refill health or weapons and getting pick-ups you don't need.
Super Metroid showed how to handle that properly all the way back in 1994, and anyone who didn't take note can flush their head in a toilet, because no one has time for getting refills for something they're already filled to capacity with.
Save points that are far away from a boss, that also have a high concentration of difficult enemies/obstacles. This can be done well, to build tension, but other times it just feels like running your head over and over into a wall. Much as I love Hollow Knight, the lead-ins for Soul Master, Dung Defender, and Traitor Lord can all kiss my ass - though thankfully I was able to cheese the last one.
Yes god. I don't know about "outdated", but that element of Hollow Knight is needlessly punishing. Gotta take five minutes of carefully navigating back and maintaining my health just to get back to the start of the encounter, and if I screw up along the way it's just even longer to rebuild my health ... all to die in thirty seconds if my rhythm's wrong this time.
Games where, in order to properly exit the game, you have to do this:
- Load the pause menu
- Select 'Quit to main menu'
- Choose the 'Yes' option on the 'Are you sure?' because, of course, it'll default to 'No'
- Wait for the title screen to load
- Press start/A/enter/whatever key to go to the main menu from the title screen
- Select the 'Exit to desktop' option
- Choose the 'Yes' option on the 'Are you sure?' option again because again it'll default to 'No'
Just let me exit to the desktop directly from the pause menu, goddamn.
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Having to mash a button to run/sprint (hello GTA and RDR)
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This isn't really a mechanic but unskippable cutscenes, especially ones before a boss fight where the game puts the checkpoint prior the cutscene, so if you lose the boss fight, you gotta rewatch the cutscene again. If a dev is really worried about people skipping a cutscene by accident, require two button presses to skip it. Like if you press 'A' or whatever, you get a little text that says 'Press A again to skip cutscene'.
- Load the pause menu
- Select 'Quit to main menu'
- Choose the 'Yes' option on the 'Are you sure?' because, of course, it'll default to 'No'
- Wait for the title screen to load
- Press start/A/enter/whatever key to go to the main menu from the title screen
- Select the 'Exit to desktop' option
- Choose the 'Yes' option on the 'Are you sure?' option again because again it'll default to 'No'
Just let me exit to the desktop directly from the pause menu, goddamn.
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Having to mash a button to run/sprint (hello GTA and RDR)
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This isn't really a mechanic but unskippable cutscenes, especially ones before a boss fight where the game puts the checkpoint prior the cutscene, so if you lose the boss fight, you gotta rewatch the cutscene again. If a dev is really worried about people skipping a cutscene by accident, require two button presses to skip it. Like if you press 'A' or whatever, you get a little text that says 'Press A again to skip cutscene'.
This is why I've been loving the trend lately in game collections of either just putting in savestates or adding a rewind feature. Lord knows it makes the MMZ games so much less soul-crushing.
An actual, factual PAUSE BUTTON.
Now, I don't mean in the majority of titles. I mean in the games meant to be played "as a server", like Ark and Valheim. And I don't even want it functional when the actual server is active and you have other people connected. But for those instances when I am playing alone, or playing on my single player world: I need a ******* pause button. I seldom get to sit for more than 20 minutes at a stretch uninterrupted and don't want to get my ass massacred by drauger or raptors or what ******* ever cause there is literally no way to tell the game "hold up a sec" when entirely and completely alone.
Now, I don't mean in the majority of titles. I mean in the games meant to be played "as a server", like Ark and Valheim. And I don't even want it functional when the actual server is active and you have other people connected. But for those instances when I am playing alone, or playing on my single player world: I need a ******* pause button. I seldom get to sit for more than 20 minutes at a stretch uninterrupted and don't want to get my ass massacred by drauger or raptors or what ******* ever cause there is literally no way to tell the game "hold up a sec" when entirely and completely alone.