Last Saturday I finished my coffee, got ready and started up the XBox. I was going to play a lot of Nier Automata over the weekend. The game got good reviews and I know a lot of people who love the game. I was excited.
So I played the game and about an hour or so in there’s a boss fight with two big saw machine things. Since I generally suck at games, I died.
These things happen. I’m sure I’ll just restart before the boss fight and what the actual hell is this, the game is starting from the beginning.
I promptly google it.
You only get to save your game after you beat that boss. To add insult to injury, you have to watch all the cutscenes again. You can’t skip them. And should you die again, you will have to replay it again!
I uninstalled the game.
In my opinion it’s unacceptable game design. I’m turning 40 in a couple of weeks. Time is one of the most precious things I have. For a game to just erase an hour of my game time is an insult and in this day and age should not happen. I want to play games to relax, to experience great stories or atmosphere or gameplay.
But to let me play the same thing again with no progression at all. It irks me.
Have you experienced any game design that you find unacceptable?
Another example I can think of in this regard, and constantly referenced, is Dark Souls. Much like a 'Souls title, you start from your last bonfire, which is generally a ways away from the boss fight. Take Dark Souls 1 or 3 as an example, you have to make your way to the boss through a bunch of scrub enemies in order to do it all over again, and again. Dark Souls 1 is even worse in that if you didn’t see the “exit” door when meeting the Asylum Demon, the only weapon you’ll have is a broken sword and no armour.
I do agree with this sentiment however, it something that really irks me in any game. Some games due to replay enjoyment I have seen all the cutscenes, others it’s simply not caring for them.
The entire Basement 2 level of Luigi’s Mansion 3. I loved every second of the game up until I got to this level. Basically the whole level gets covered in water and you float around in a rubber duck (that controls like absolute ass) and have to navigate through the level avoiding mines, spikes and ememies and solving puzzles using Gooigi (slime Luigi).
There is one section in particular which really annoyed me. You have to open a gate with Gooigi and then navigate the rubber duck through the gate while avoiding shark like enemies that one shot you.
Then after getting through all this you get to the boss fight. This boss fight has drained all my enjoyment from this game at this point. I will try again later, but for now I am taking a break.
Increasing monster health/damage reduction to make the game harder. That’s a cheap, uninspiring way to increase difficulty.
Hold button to interact vs press button to interact. Silly hey, but I fucking hate this.
Sticking RPG elements into a game, that doesn’t need any RPG elements, for the sake of extending my playtime.
Visual noise, I like my retinas, stop giving a blind person epilepsy with in-game effects.
Fetch quests in games. You have the creative spark of a pebble.
Online only for single player story-driven games. W T F
Using console UI inventory management design in the PC version. Are you lazy? Or stupid? Or both? Go and play your game for 400 hours, so you can realise how shit a UI, that is designed for a gamepad, is to use, with a mouse and keyboard.
So many assets shoved into a map, that the game lags. I want to shove 30000 egg boxes into that level designer’s car, and see how well he can drive it. But he won’t get that either, cos he probably takes the train.
Have games gotten worse over time? No idea. But more games, means more crap to sort through. Sometimes, play a game with crap design, cos the good outweighs the bad. But mostly, that’s why the uninstaller is there.
Most modern AAA games on the PC (cannot speak for other platforms) have a business model where they attempt to keep the player playing after the story is done so that they can sell a DLC to them post release. This means these games have game play loops which are repetitive and time consuming for that reason.
Its all about the money. Sadly.
Interestingly I find that early access games have better design (although a lot more bugs) than triple A games do, for this reason. They want your money up front and the game is finite, so better designed for the game play you get.
I felt that way when playing Control and dying after some progress. Had to work my way through the whole section again and sometimes even die on my way to the freakin place where I died previously. At the end of the day, I really wanted to finish the game, so I got a cheat code or trainer or something to keep me from dying.
Still after all these years have no idea why hate it so much. I mean it’s not a masterpiece but at least it’s not Ride to Hell Retribution
Also "make this thing move while getting attacked by scrub enemies/defend fckface while he or she takes a millenium to download or update or transfer something while being attacked by scrub enemies/every escort mission ever (while being attacked by scrub enemies)
Not even sure if that counts as game design but it pisses me off anyway
Escort quests where i am faster than the person i am escorting, and in the same vein, escort mission with no checkpoints where the enemies always go for the VIP that cannot heal/be healed and dies within seconds.
Unskippable cut-scenes I can understand if it is your first play-through, but then the dev should keep in mind I bought a game, not a movie, so keep them short-ish. On a second play-through, or after I load a save, then at least let me skip!
I also get that some games whole mechanic is dying and trying again. But sheesh, there comes a point where it is just not fun anymore. I have no shame in admitting I play most games on medium or easy difficulty. Why? Because the devs gave me a choice and I dont have time to try and try and try again. But forcing me to die and try and die and try saps the energy out of me…
its a game they didnt know what direction to take with, on foot action in an NFS game i mean WTF ! the ai is sticky as shit, im not a programmer but im sure i can make better ai than that, you lead a race by a massive margin and close to the finish line the AI is suddenly going twice your speed and passes you by. I know its an arcade racer but the handling was atrocious, and considering how good Hot Pursuit was the prior year, this was just a pile of IMO, I mean EA went and closed down Blackbox after this game, thats how bad it was. I wasted R399 on this i could have gotten Test drive Unlimited 2 which was a better shitty game
TDU 2 was a bad game but much better than NFS the RUN, Atleast i saw the light when Forza Horizon launched the year after that All Hail Playground Games
I have now deleted the game from my Switch and I will never play another Luigi’s Mansion game in my life.
Whoever designed that level should be fired from Nintendo and never allowed to work on video games again. It took a game I absolutely loved to something I never ever want to even look at again.
I’ve beaten every Souls game, have the platinum trophies for both Bloodborne and Nioh but I can’t beat a boss in a fucking children’s game.
I was bored at work so I tried again and I beat the boss. The game is better now, but that boss is still absolutely terribly designed. Later in the game you have to go back to the area where you fight him and I almost thought I’m going to see him again, but luckily not.
IMO, I mean EA went and closed down Blackbox after this game, thats how bad it was. I wasted R399 on this i could have gotten Test drive Unlimited 2 which was a better shitty game
All Hail Playground Games 
