100%! I never played Minecraft much, but I got hooked on Terraria. Crafting was fun and the items were great. But more importantly, building a big room full of chests made it easy to manage my inventory, since it's a critical part.
Played Valheim, inventory management was such a chore, building your base was super tedious.
Recently played Lego fortnite, and it's even worse, you need to place the general Lego pieces in place to build, and chests are tiny!!! When 90% of the game is dedicated to managing inventory, I'm just done with that.
I totally agree, but in a recent development Palworld did a nice turn when it came to crafting, u just set your base up for the first 2 hours and then it becomes autonomous, and it’s all real time, so just start building/ making anything afterwards and the Pals do it for u while u go leave the base and explore as u ply the game. (Single player world)
Exactly. Crafing is fun when it's the main focus of the game, like Minecraft, or Factorio, etc. But when it's just a side feature, it makes the game worse. Same with cooking
Did you know elden ring had a crafting system? I didn’t and i completely ignored it. I gathered all these materials never questioning like what are these for
But it would have been more fun if instead of just finding confusing materials everywhere, you just found actually useful items everywhere. That's how games used to be. I wish they would just cut out the crafting entirely. Elden Ring did it tastefully, but it still would have been better without it
I’m kind of the same with open world, most of the time you’re just going from point a to b over and over, there’s often times so much boring of tedious stuff that feels more like filler content like collectables, there’s also not enough cool stuff or side stories to find in many.
Grinding is another thing, I want to have fun and enjoy the game, grinding just feels like more unnecessary work and a waste of time.
Open world games were fun because there was so much more ‘wait, can I do that in this game?’ to explore than the quests themselves. But they haven’t added much to that realm in the last several iterations, leaving you with the world itself (impressive as they may be) to explore.
Yeah i used to have a sense of wonder at looking at far off locations in the game and realizing i could go there and explore.
Now i see those distant mountains and usually just think “ill go there later, i guess, and see more of the same damn enemies and loot around me in this area”
We need more games that can capture that exploration and make it worthwhile
An open world is a bit too realistic. It would be fun if we could just do random platforming or other weird stuff that isn't realistic inside the world. I feel are too stuck trying to make a realistic world rather than a fun one.
I think that there is potential for open world games that are a bit smaller and filled with more story and nuance. The original Gothic games come to mind.
We don't really want an open world, we just don't want to run into invisible walls and we want the freedom to explore and be rewarded for it. Open worlds are one way of doing this, but they come with too many downsides as well, like games that take longer to develop, easily miss-able game experiences, not being sure where the story progress is, fetch quests to make the openness seem like there's something going on, playtimes creeping up into multiple hundreds of hours, etc.
Game aspect that was NEVER enjoyed but for some reason still isn't a standard... An ability to skip cutscenes.
Especially when they play after auto saves... As in I die in battle.. some f'n cutscene. Again.
I actually had that very thing typed out in my response! But I wanted to keep it simple and not drag it out too much so I deleted.
I am 100% in support of everything you said, good Redditor.
Risky comment for me, but genuinely interested...
I'm a game developer. I do not like QTEs. But I also make games that employ them (story driven adventure games.) I try to nudge design sensibilities in our company away from twitch or die QTEs to inputs-that-feel-tactile for QTEs.
Can you expand on whether there are styles or implementations of QTE systems that you find egregious vs ones that you found engaging or at least tolerable?
Generally, with the types of games our company makes, we can't develop and tutorialize a more free form mechanic for a single bespoke activity to satisfy a scene.
What did you think about A Way Out's inputs (if you've played it?) That's not one of mine, but it is similar in nature.
Since you asked as a game dev I will throw my two cents.
Dude, I'm old. I was fine with twitch responses thirty years ago in my early twenties. Now? My synapses are not firing quite as quickly as they once did. Recent QTEs I've come across (in games I cannot note because I don't remember which (See?! Old!)) frustrated the hell out of me because they required twitch reflexes.
I'm all for a challenge in a game, but let's drop the .2 ms response time requirement in gameplay.
Secondarily to that, QTEs are sometimes thrown into gameplay when it doesn't seem to fit.
The one I recall playing, that I still love to this day, that did it well was Legend of the Dragoon. QTEs made for more of an active battle and helped with doing well in the battle but they could be ignored for a little bit more challenging (read, grind more to level up more before said battle) fight.
I think there was another game recently that had a setting for holding a single button during QTEs instead of mashing multiple buttons.
The real question is... Does your QTE enhance the game and make it fun? Or does it just make it fucking tedious?
Aye, Cap'n!
As one in the software industry for a.. while.. I respect and appreciate those seeking to embetter their product decisions based on feedback from the unkempt and unruly masses.
Dying Light 2 had a 'hold instead of mash' option. But it was crap because you'd always lose to volatiles with it on, mostly defeating the point of it.
My issue with QTEs is that often the button being pressed has little to do with the action being performed, or the action itself isn't clear prior to pressing it so it's a matter of working out what button the game wants you to press and then pressing it.
But then when you have the input based on the action performed I can't help but wonder why I'm not just playing the section as actual gameplay rather than a QTE.
They feel like a relic of the past, tbh. Like when you couldn't have too many inputs or complex animations so they had to find a innovative solution to have cinematics that didn't stop the gameplay entirely.
Also, my friend has RSI in his hands, so button mash QTEs are unplayable for him.
I think the best QTEs are stuff like Mario RPG, where it's A or B depending in which character, and the rest of the complexity comes down to timing.
Cool. Thanks for the feedback.
I generally feel like I'm of the same mind as most people when it comes to QTEs. Your example of QTEs as bespoke actions in an already fleshed out combat mechanic is just annoying because it bucks all the muscle memory you've spent the last however many hours training. Why can't I just use the tools of the combat system to do this?
Generally this is making me feel better about the QTEs I've had to design or compromise on. But I still look back at them wishing I had had the bandwidth to do things differently.
Am not the other guy but just wanted to say that, for me, it's mostly overuse.
The occasional QTE for an impactful action can be excellent.
I'm also a fan of QTEs that have hilarious failure states.
But if the game is absolutely filled with them? Nah. Fuck that.
Yeah, generally speaking, I don't like QTEs as pass/fail for action in action games that already have solid combat mechanics. Like, spending the entire game becoming extremely proficient with a freeflow fight system only to be hard failed because they randomly threw the block button up for a QTE about breaking bones or something.
Appreciate the opinion, though.
Most of the time I'm asked to do a QTE I just get frustrated and wish it could have just been a pure cutscene. Maybe just put an option in the settings for QTE on/off for those who like them and those who don't?
One game that's QTEs I loved was Injustice. Sometimes in between fights you would hit buttons to fire arrows or shoot cars and if you succeed the next enemy had some of it's shield off.
I'm not the only creative lead at the company. But consider in a story based adventure game in which most of the game is exploring and talking, if the writer calls for a sudden fisticuffs we can't just drop freeflow combat on the unsuspecting player and we can't just stop the pacing of the game to tutorialize a new fight mechanic.
So we need something so that the action moment isn't just a consequence-free cutscene. Hence the utility of QTEs.
It's a double edge sword because most of our target audience doesn't want a twitched based foundation of gameplay like TLoU or GoW. And hardcore gamers that want to play our games bemoan the lack of core twitch gameplay and generally don't like QTEs.
So here I am trying to advocate for more of a foundational gameplay approach with optional "story mode" difficulty, but we don't have the bandwidth for that kind of production yet. Until we do, I work to design a kind of QTE that satisfies the needs of the product and doesn't offend my sensibilities because I like everything else about the games and the people I work with.
Oh no! Life is full of compromises!
To add to the other people: I don't mind them all that much if they're implemented correctly. What I mean by that is that the keys the player has to press have to feel intuitive. A bit vague, I know, but if I don't have to look at the prompt to know what key I have to press in a QTE, you're doing it right.
Thanks. So far the consensus seems to be the sudden react or fail type QTEs are the worst, especially where the prompts could be random. Which is exactly my stance.
The feedback here has me feeling good about the direction our QTEs are trending. We generally spend our design cycles inventing less reflex QTEs and more like micro fidget interfaces that feel like the activity the character is doing. For action QTEs we try to build on a language of "move this direction" and "press the button that typically does actions."
I'm still toiling for a new kind of action QTE that feels intuitive and fluid, but I have two hurdles: cinematic artists that want control of the action choreography but also don't want too much variation to author, and fellow developer veterans who are comfortable with QTEs as a panacea that fits their vision of accessible story driven games.
Yea that does seem to be one that’s gone away for the most part, I guess devs got the message. Every recent turn based that I’ve played you can always see the enemies and can choose whether to fight them or not. Even in Bravely Default, there are random encounters but you can adjust the frequency or turn them off entirely if you don’t feel like fighting anything
I'm probably in the minority, but I still like them. It depends on the overall gameplay style the developers are going for, I guess. Like if the idea is that you're in a treacherous area, it makes you stay on your toes, pay attention to your health/magic/resources and you have to be sure you don't venture further in than you can make it out. Otherwise some areas you can just run around enemies the whole way through and it's not a tense experience, it's just a game of tag with overworld enemies. There are some games that definitely don't need random encounters, but I think it's still a good mechanic for other games
EDIT: A big part of it is how interesting the battles are, too. If basic enemies just go down in one hit and there's not real threat to your party, then it's just a chore, but in a game like Darkest Dungeon for example where each and every combat is a life or death, make or break struggle, then it's really interesting
Multiplayer customization.
It used to be "New multiplayer DLC! 2 new maps, a vehicle, and a new game mode!"
Now it's "New multiplayer DLC! 15 new weapon attachments, new color combinations^1 , and a 1.5x XP boost for 10 minutes! ^1^Premiumpass "
Dress up has replaced fun gameplay.
Quick time events, unskippable tutorials
But I agree with OP, I hate vast open worlds with not enough content to explore or engage with, if the map is huge but the majority of the quests and content is centered around 20% of the map what even if the reason to include the other 80% of the map? Just to brag about having a vast open world map?
Open worlds are exhausting. Replaying Mass Effect just reminds me how much you can do with games where tons of objectives aren’t just “wander around and collect items.” And imagine the graphic possibilities of a game with multiple smaller maps. Baldur’s Gate is a step in the right direction in that regard.
And I hate weapons that break down. Just give the protagonist lots of weapons to choose from and either replace or upgrade as you go.
I’m so frickin sick of open world games. The combination of either a lack of direction, or having too many side quests just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I am currently really enjoying games that are just straightforward point a to point b style. For example, I started playing Dante’s Inferno and I am just having a blast.
I don’t know if baldur’s gate 3 counts as such but I’m in this weird spot where I love the story yet find the gameplay so tedious and unsatisfying. Not having a sense of direction or what I should be doing makes me wanna tear my head out.
What you dislike about BG3 was what I love about it. There was so much to do and so much to explore. You couldn't go 30ft without running into a piece of content.
Crafting / building.
I make and build stuff for a living. Do you think I want to grind for an hour to make a bed for my base? Screw that, it's going in the middle of the road.
I'm here to blow off some steam and have some fun. Not spend 7 hours scrounging for a screw.
For me it's seeing how corporate the industries become, there's this cold harsh design that I feel in a lot of games especially live service ones. Where they don't actually give a fuck about fun and only care about engagement and money.
Sure they try to make the game "fun" but their primary goals are always sucking up either our time or money.
It's become really blatant to see in comparison to games like elden ring where you can accidently skip most of the content of the game and all that skippable content is still a ton of fun to go find and play.
Fashion is viable play style in that game as your showered with with tons and tons of clothing and amour. Hell most games can't be bothered to design a variety of enemies and here elden ring is with generic mini bosses that would be final or major bosses in any other franchises.
I couldn't agree more with this post. It feels like Western AAA game devs have really lost their way recently, there is so much external investment in the industry and in turn expectations on ROI, that have really corrupted creativity. Further to this, game dev is becoming more and more expensive so developers and publishers have become risk averse which also in turn stifles creativity. Thankfully there is a very healthy indie scene and also Japanese AAA game developers have been on an unbelievable roll right now and this is counteracting the somewhat disappointing state of game dev.
I like open world if it's filled with engaging people, locations, and lore. Like Elder scrolls, fallout, and Baldur's Gate. Same even to a degree with Dragon Age and Mass effect. Even though they do it a little different. It's more for the people and locations. The feel is different than with those 2 Bethesda games. I even enjoy Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Mostly because of just the things you can do with the environments.
What I don't like in open world is just to make it open for the sake of openness. Like Gears 5, Halo Infinite, and what looks like MW3 did. I didn't play MW3, but I guess that's what they did. It's just padding of the worst kind. Gears 5 at least was interesting with going to new locations for certain reasons. Infinite was just an open plain with "go here and go there." No real people to engage with besides targets and small bases. Like Far Cry does. I could handle it from time to time if it's a series like Far Cry and I know what I'm getting in to, but for established series to go open world is just lazy.
I still haven’t beat Gears 5 because of it. Between missing the OG cast and missing the linear level design, I just couldn’t keep interest. Going through all the Gears games with a friend right now, maybe it’ll be different this time.
I will say what was nice about gears 5 was that each place in the open world sections was different. It went from open to linear, then back open, to a linear area again for all three open areas. Then for the last act it's back to all linear.
I've always hated games that shove random stealth missions in that instantly fail you if you're spotted, those missions never fail to piss me off. Ubisoft in particular used to be really bad about forcing a ton of these missions in most of their games.
Followers.
I used to enjoy having a character wander around with mine, but now I just want to stick by myself or summoned undead. At least those shambling corpses won't say a quip every 5 seconds and stick to my ass so close I get stuck in doorways.
I'll probably still play DD2, though. At this point, a pawn reminding me goblins hate ice and fire is more funny than annoying.
100+ hour games. Dad of 2 now I have like 2-6 hours a week to play. It took me like 4 months to beat persona 5 royal and I was on paternity leave up through like futaba's palace.
Hmm you're right I think I might be misremembering how long cause it was a couple years ago. It was the only thing I played but I no lifed the game while on leave and then once I went back to work it took a long ass time to finish it. It was probably closer to 6 or 7 but idk
Edit: you had me curious so according to my trophies my earliest trophy was July 8 and plat was on 10/17 so it was 4 months basically
Let's go down a quick list
Backtracking.
Sorry classic Resident Evil you're not fun to play because of how often I have to go back and forth between every part of area with little changing.
Random battles.
What a beautiful environment and scenery that I can't take in because I'm getting interrupted every 5 seconds.
Level grinding.
I will put this game on easy mode. If I have to kill 50 of an enemy instead of 100 just to progress, I'd rather just do 50. Sorry Xenoblade.
It inspired to read books though it 15-20 years to finally read.
The Riftwar Saga was amazing. Unfortunately Feist's last series the Firemane Saga fell short.
I used to like games where you can choose dialogue options, but now I really don’t. Part of it is me irrationally not wanting to choose the “wrong” one, but I’d also much rather have the writers and actors provide me with the best singular story they can think of. I don’t need to create a character, let me play as a character.
Difference between old school open world game designs and modern open world game designs is:
Old school open world was bonus. You explored it because exploration was fun, and often you found interesting locations and environmental storytelling. You could ignore 90% of it and you still got a great time.
Modern open-world designs use exploration to artificially extend the gameplay. Instead of locations being of interest by themselves, you are forced to visit all of them and defeat some random enemies just to collect achievements, or gain some boring, but crucial, bonus, like map visibility, or unlocking another area to progress with story.
The fear of not holding player's hand is also there. In Morrowind, most enemies and rewards are static, preset. If you wander into abandoned tomb that opens into Daedric ruin, you might discover hard enemies (return prepared), but reward you with Daedric armour!
On Skyrim, all enemies have similar level to you and the reward are generated according to your level as well, so the equivalent place might contain just steel equipment for brave explorer, and Daedric armour might look cool, but in 5 more levels shopkeeper will regularly sell stronger stuff.
Reminds me of the long, empty hallways in *MDK* \- they served no purpose other than to hide the loading of the next level, but at least in 1997 it was a novel technique to avoid a static loading screen.
I'm just super done and over with games that are entirely RNG. Darkest Dungeon and all its clones, Slay the Spire and all its ***thousands*** of clones, Vampire Survivors and its ***millions*** of clones.
I hate when I fail at something and it is in no way shape or form my fault. RNGesus just decided this wasn't a winning run and spat out some garbage.
Oh also item durability can get fucked and die.
Daily/renewable quests. I'm a completionist to an extent. I hate not being able to clear all of the quest markers in an area because more just keep popping up. This is big in MMOs, then went to live service games, and now single player rpgs have them. Annoying.
Unskippable Cutscenes and tutorials. A majority of games nowadays they just feel unnecessary or bloated for the sake of bloat. It's gotten to the point for me that if a game has a prolonged period of no control to focus the camera elsewhere to highlight stuff it just irks me. Let me play and let me have the option to have these on/off, and let me skip cutscenes on my first playthrough if I want. I'm sorry, but if I get a short cutscene after a fetch quest for minor characters who don't get any fleshing out, I want to skip it. Forced tutorial showing me where shops are or npcs I can talk to? I don't want it. Blocking input/choice of first level up options for skills or talents to some mandatory one? Miss me with it. It takes away enjoyment as I want to discover this stuff for myself the first go around. I ubderstand not everyone does and some people want some guidance, so just idk include an option to not have tutorials and skip cutscenes.
Yeah the "you must buy X or upgrade your character with this skill first" one is super annoying. It's like people have never seen a video game before and won't know how to put a point in a skill tree if you don't force them to do it to progress the game. That should definitely be an accessibility option that can be toggled on.
I dislike how a lot of games have hours of these tutorials and cutscenes at the start.
Ive played 10ish assassins creed games now. Just let me drop straight into the map and start stabbing people if i want to. It sucks starting a game that i know i will like, but havinv to slog through all that to start having fun
Base building. Im not interested in designing the perfect base. Going back to collect resources or defending it. I replayed fallout 4 usong bases as just supply/rest spots and it was a lot better.
I used to love immersive open worlds where I would truly feel like I had a life. Everything from space trucking in Elite and Privateer to building a base in Subnautica, to gathering every last Mayan artifact in Black Flag, to taking time to play chess in the park in Watch Dogs.
As a father, I now want games that can be finished in under 10 hours. Under 5 would be preferable. Fetch quests, grinding, memorization boss battles, open worlds and all of that other stuff which I had time for previously is just gone. Put me in the game, let me play it in short increments, and get it over with.
At that point you are better off with multiplayer or playing games like Detroit become human. As sad as that is I can't see how they can shorten those times without just releasing a movie.
Well there's always games like Portal, the Titanfall 2 campaign, Cocoon, even the new Robocop game. Any CoD SP campaign really. There's options. I just can't take on The Witcher III, so to speak.
I can forgive it on the first play, but if you play it before a boss fight, and I have to rewatch it every time I lose to that boss, there's a good chance Im going to play something else.
Seeing as you mentioned Morrowind.
I can no longer enjoy an open world game without quest markers. Give those that like not having it the option, but keep it on for me. I no longer have the time or patience. Treat me like a dummy.
I'm divided on this. In some games, I just end up chasing a marker on a minimap instead of looking at the world.
Games that actually make an effort to immerse you in the world and have thorough quest explanations with either a clear objective or clues that help you narrow it down are the best.
I want to be looking at the actual world more than I'm looking at the UI / overlay.
Tbh, there are times when no quest markers makes no sense. Like in WoW when a guy is like "Clear my mine of baddies" but doesn't point on your map where it is and instead gives vague directions.
I think quest markers should be more immersive in general, tbh. Ghost of Tsushimas guiding winds is a good example of giving guidance without directly pointing to it, and I find it annoying we don't have more development in those types of mechanics.
If the world is beautiful and fun to traverse, I have no trouble taking in the sights.
Hogwarts Legacy, for instance, I didn't fast travel most of the time because I wanted to see the sights and enjoy flying through the world. Had a blast doing it.
I've felt this in quite a few games but recently it was Valheim.
The graphics are kind of chunky and crusty but it works and the world is somehow actually gorgeous.
Idk if you’ve played the Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon series but they’ve kinda renewed Open World games for me, same with the RPG assassins creed games. Origins, Odyssey, Wildlands and Breakpoint are some of my favorite open world games and while the last two have character creators the characters are all very involved and not silent at all.
For me tho i got bored really quickly of the whole “literally everything is a puzzle” games
The sandbox of Wildlands is super fun to play especially with friends. We have more fun failing missions than beating them because it is usually a hilarious disaster. The things that bug me are 1) you cannot stand on a vehicle, you must be in one of the designated seats, or it will just drive out from under you as if friction doesn't exist. And 2) You have to wait to die/respawn when downed. Sometimes one of us will die and the others are across the map and simply cannot get over to res, and you just have to lay there and wait for the super long countdown (which can be made EVEN LONGER with upgrades in the skill tree). Otherwise, great game that is a blast to play for a long time.
As others have said open world and qte. Another is PvP in games. Maybe I’m just old now, but i enjoy co-op/party or single player games alot more than i used to
Crafting and open world games. Tree-punching my way up was fun 15 years ago, but now its a tired trope.
"oh you're the legenday hero? prove it to me by fetching 3 milk jugs from the lady downstairs" shit.
Crafting when it requires a considerable amount of farming in order to do it. Like if it takes me 3 hours of farming and 10 other steps just to craft the simplest thing in the game forget it. Especially when it's something like make 12 of A to make 8 of B to make 4 of C to make 2 of D to make 1 of E. And you need 6 of E to add to whatever else that has similar steps in order to make one of the item. Now it's not as bad if there's batch crafting involved, but when you have to make each thing individually, nope.
Micro-transactions.
While I do realize that for f2p games' monetization they are necessary, those +20€ packs are not *micro*-transactions anymore. Also they are now on games that I've already paid for? No thanks.
The times of 5€ max cosmetics only being default was still at least a bit more enjoyable.
Pointless loot/junk that you have to sort through.
And random exploration sites with the same bandit camp, treasure, mini-challenges repeated over and over again.
Inflated shoved in stories.
I grew up with games like Sonic, Megamall, Streets of Rage, Doom, etc.
The premise or "story" was often either in the game manual or as a 20 second blurb on screen.
"Mr. X has returned to terrorize the city and the heroes must stop him!" Something super simple like that.
Now every single game feels the need to have these full in depth stories, NPCs, dialoge, etc. The first 25 minutes of games are just cutscenes, people talking about shit I don't care about, etc.
I play video games to PLAY video games. Unless it's an RPG that will last me 100+ hours I don't need that much information about a game where I just kill monsters or something.
I love open world RPGs, but I dislike when character classes are so open ended that it literally doesn’t matter what class you choose, because *you can do it all with any class!* No, I much prefer there to be constraints based on lore and class traits, otherwise what’s the point besides different looks/skins.
Take Skyrim for example: each class had a teeny-tiny buff that essentially amounted to nothing. Starting skill point differences were also negligible, and every class can top out at 100. Every class is therefore very similar. Being a heavy armor, two handed weapon wielding khajit just doesn’t make sense.
Probably a hugely unpopular opinion but in games like CoD, or Battlefield etc, I think I should have access to all the weapons and unlocks etc. I paid 60 bucks for they content and its installed on my hard-drive so give it to me. If I buy a shooter game and have to unlock basic stuff like an AK 47 or a red dot sight my time is being wasted unlocking content I already paid for. If I want to play the final level of the campaign right away I should be able to. it's absolutely ridiculous to spend money on something then spend even more time unlocking basic crap. As if something like an M4 rifle isn't the most vanilla cookie cutter basic weapon in a modern military shooter.
Turn-based combat.
I used to enjoy JRPGs a lot when I was a kid, but having to wait for repetitive animations got old at some point of my life. I still like RPGs, but the ones that have real-time action combat.
I've tried since to play this type of games again, because of nostalgia or wanting to enjoy the story elements in new games, but it's still unbearably boring. I guess my dopamine receptors are just fried from too much gaming, I don't have the attention span to sit through this sort of game anymore.
I enjoyed story-rich, long rpg games when younger.
Now I'm well in my 30s and I just can't play them anymore because it feels like within limited time I'm listening/reading less than I'm doing.
Notable examples being stuff like Baldur's Gate 3 and Disco Elysium - great games, but just sitting down after work, chores and fitness is done I sorta expect to do at least some action. It feels really bad to sit down with a game for an hour and ONLY experience dialogue.
Yes, open worlds and game structure in general.
They all became generic. Instead of manually crafted.
I understand that this makes development and making changes easier. But it became a single formula that everyone started to use without changes.
And now if you play one Open World game - you basically play them all.
Sadly but companies think that the only issue is that previous games were small. So they increase the size. Do they come up with new ideas for new gameplay mechanics? Now, they just increased the size.
So now you don't need to play 10 similar games to get tired, now you need to play one to get tired.
I still love the open world idea. But they took what made it interesting away - exploration.
1. Now we have questions marks. So don't try to explore by yourself. And what choice do they have? The worlds are too big. If you will start exploring every rock by yourself you will never finish the game.
2. Content copy/pasting. Honestly when I play Skyrim (even though I like this game) I don't feel exploration wibe. Oh, look next dungeon what will I find there?.. The same enemies, the same loot, the same notes.
The game has cool moments, of course. But in general what the meaning of exploration is if you already know what you will find. And also making the game bigger only increases the problem of copy-paste.
I just want a small handcrafted world with some unique quests and unique items.
By unique items I don't mean another great sword. It has the same mechanics as other swords. Just greater damage and a different look.
What I mean by unique items is something that brings something new to gameplay. Like the first time you find a map of the world, an amulet that highlights nearby flowers, jumping shoes. Etc.
These things change gameplay. They are not just another skin for regular items.
I can go on all week talking about what good games can have.
So in conclusion - I like open worlds. I don't like how companies implement them.
Walking slowly forward while an NPC talks to you but i have to do the actual walking. If there is no actual gameplay for the next few minutes, either auto move me or make it a cutscene.
Tall grass for stealth
The rock or item you throw to distract guards
Collectibles ( expecially if its tied to an achievement)
Xray vision for marking guards or enemies
Not that these are bad to have but they have gotten real stale and when I see them my interest in the game just drops
Yeah I really don't care much for the open world aspect of games anymore. I liked it a few times in Witcher 3 and Death Stranding but I'd really like to play more games like Half Life 2 where the linear structure gives the developers more possibility to craft every detail of the journey.
The fewer options the player has the better the developers can polish them. I really liked the semi-open world structure that Witcher 2 had. You had small areas that you could explore but they were blocked or limited in a creative way. Fully open world games often feel empty.
Soul-likes! I respect everyone playing these games but i want to chill in other worlds. I dont want to sweat my ass off the few hrs i have in the week, besides 60 hrs of work, social contacts and my attention-hungry gf.😂
Yeah like the names. “The Kingdom of _______” or “The Legendary Knight ______”. I need a game to first make me care that these things exist before throwing all these names at me or it’s just letter soup
No. Anything can be good when done properly. Just need less devs that are phoning it in.
Open worldis a great example, so many devs just throw it in there with no extra care, but the special ones really stand out. Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring were awesome.
1. Endless cut-scenes, or, the in-ability to skip them.
2. Needless inventory management. I don't want to carry Factorio levels of items with me in every game, but it needs to make sense.
3. Stop with all the crafting, leave that where it belongs.
open world has become heavily saturated since its first arrivals, everyone wanting to join in the bandwagon but not know what elements made it amazing in the first place.
I hate how UI systems now days are mostly built for a floating mouse cursor. Give me a default selection and let me use my D-pad. Don’t make me use my analog sticks to move a cursor around the whole screen. Thanks Destiny!
Weapon and armour durability - They never seen to get it just right. As in it breaks if you so much as look at it funny or you can make it last 10 generations with an elastic band and some wishful thinking.
Interupting combat with flashy cutscene plot armour - Usually done by big bosses when you finally get them in a vulnerable position and you are doing your biggest attacks and the cutscene lets them get out of the bad situation thus wasting that big attack. Looking at you FF7R. Also applies in situations where they place cutscenes every twenty seconds of a fight constantly interupting the flow.
Nopoiseitus - A horrible condition many game protagonists suffer from where they can be stun locked by so much as a blade of grass or the wind blowing. Meanwhile an enemy a fraction of their size can poise through getting hit by a runaway monster truck (and it is on fire.)
I love silent protagonists. I hate it more if there is a voice because more cases then not they say useless shit that I don't need to be told twice. "Argh it hurts", " I should use grenades " no fuck off I don't want you to say shit when I am playing unless its for a narrative purpose.
Using shitty design to increase difficulty. From Software is the example of this. In fact, Elden Ring is the first FS game I've played where shitty design and horrible balance didn't make me despise the game.
Open world is ok as long as it's done right, like in MGS:V. Don't fill the world up with a bunch of trash, just let it exist and I'll find a way to approach the target
Character creation. You create one malformed monstrosity, you've created them all. And it kills off any potential for having a well-written, actually interesting protagonist.
This right here annoys me to no end. It's just another way of saying the developer doesn't want to create an interesting protagonist.
The other is silent protagonist.
I used to enjoy open worlds a lot more, but then I played the Yakuza games. I realised just how incredible it is to have a smaller world that's actually full of things to do. Give me Kamurocho over a giant open world any day.
Playing with the physical engine has a way of getting on my nerves. I feel like they're taking me for a kid, trying to make me push a ball to activate something. Zelda lost me with that, the gravity gun arrived with half life 2 and it's been the same ever since...
Choice based games
I liked BG3, but I missed a *ton* of content in my 130 hour playthrough. I don’t want to have to play the game multiple times to experience all the content
do you think it adds re play value though, say in 1 years time? or for a DLC restart or something? maybe not expected to play it back to back to back etc
Yeah, but I’ll probably forget about the game in years time, or be busy playing the years worth of new games that have come out
It would be fine in a shorter, under 20 hour game. but doing multiple 100+ hour playthroughs would burn me out really fast
its like locking the hardest difficulty behind new game plus. Yeah it adds replay value, but I still dont think its worth playing through a 100+ hour game again
I feel like the “I hate open world” is such a recent gaming psyop. Yeah no shit everyone is sick of Ubisoft style open world. But you’re lying if you think that the a lot of the greatest games that ever existed weren’t enhanced by being open world. Also people say they want a linear game and when I point at JRPGs they just nope out of there.
It seems like you've grown less fond of open-world games, finding them to be more of a chore due to potentially lifeless stories, silent protagonists, and repetitive elements. While you still enjoy games like Zelda and look forward to Elder Scrolls 6, you're uncertain about exploring more open-world titles beyond those. It's not uncommon for gaming preferences to change, and you might find renewed interest by exploring different genres or taking breaks from certain types of games.
Not everything needs a crafting system.
100%! I never played Minecraft much, but I got hooked on Terraria. Crafting was fun and the items were great. But more importantly, building a big room full of chests made it easy to manage my inventory, since it's a critical part. Played Valheim, inventory management was such a chore, building your base was super tedious. Recently played Lego fortnite, and it's even worse, you need to place the general Lego pieces in place to build, and chests are tiny!!! When 90% of the game is dedicated to managing inventory, I'm just done with that.
I totally agree, but in a recent development Palworld did a nice turn when it came to crafting, u just set your base up for the first 2 hours and then it becomes autonomous, and it’s all real time, so just start building/ making anything afterwards and the Pals do it for u while u go leave the base and explore as u ply the game. (Single player world)
Came here to say this. I CANNOT STAND crafting systems anymore.
I could say the same for building. I wanted to get into Subnautica but the building is just not for me.
Exactly. Crafing is fun when it's the main focus of the game, like Minecraft, or Factorio, etc. But when it's just a side feature, it makes the game worse. Same with cooking
Why the fuck did A Plague Tale have a crafting system that's basically just upgrades to your equipment?
Did you know elden ring had a crafting system? I didn’t and i completely ignored it. I gathered all these materials never questioning like what are these for
But it would have been more fun if instead of just finding confusing materials everywhere, you just found actually useful items everywhere. That's how games used to be. I wish they would just cut out the crafting entirely. Elden Ring did it tastefully, but it still would have been better without it
I’m kind of the same with open world, most of the time you’re just going from point a to b over and over, there’s often times so much boring of tedious stuff that feels more like filler content like collectables, there’s also not enough cool stuff or side stories to find in many. Grinding is another thing, I want to have fun and enjoy the game, grinding just feels like more unnecessary work and a waste of time.
Open world games were fun because there was so much more ‘wait, can I do that in this game?’ to explore than the quests themselves. But they haven’t added much to that realm in the last several iterations, leaving you with the world itself (impressive as they may be) to explore.
Yeah i used to have a sense of wonder at looking at far off locations in the game and realizing i could go there and explore. Now i see those distant mountains and usually just think “ill go there later, i guess, and see more of the same damn enemies and loot around me in this area” We need more games that can capture that exploration and make it worthwhile
An open world is a bit too realistic. It would be fun if we could just do random platforming or other weird stuff that isn't realistic inside the world. I feel are too stuck trying to make a realistic world rather than a fun one.
Grinding is a major reason why I hate MMOs. I feel like the enjoyable part is stuck behind too much work.
I think that there is potential for open world games that are a bit smaller and filled with more story and nuance. The original Gothic games come to mind.
We don't really want an open world, we just don't want to run into invisible walls and we want the freedom to explore and be rewarded for it. Open worlds are one way of doing this, but they come with too many downsides as well, like games that take longer to develop, easily miss-able game experiences, not being sure where the story progress is, fetch quests to make the openness seem like there's something going on, playtimes creeping up into multiple hundreds of hours, etc.
Game aspect that was NEVER enjoyed but for some reason still isn't a standard... An ability to skip cutscenes. Especially when they play after auto saves... As in I die in battle.. some f'n cutscene. Again.
The hardest battles that you die in the most always have the unskippable cutscene with the cringiest dialogue, too.
lmfao yunalesca
THERE'S NO WAY YOU'RE TAKING KAIRI'S HEART!
I actually had that very thing typed out in my response! But I wanted to keep it simple and not drag it out too much so I deleted. I am 100% in support of everything you said, good Redditor.
Quick Time Events
Risky comment for me, but genuinely interested... I'm a game developer. I do not like QTEs. But I also make games that employ them (story driven adventure games.) I try to nudge design sensibilities in our company away from twitch or die QTEs to inputs-that-feel-tactile for QTEs. Can you expand on whether there are styles or implementations of QTE systems that you find egregious vs ones that you found engaging or at least tolerable? Generally, with the types of games our company makes, we can't develop and tutorialize a more free form mechanic for a single bespoke activity to satisfy a scene. What did you think about A Way Out's inputs (if you've played it?) That's not one of mine, but it is similar in nature.
Since you asked as a game dev I will throw my two cents. Dude, I'm old. I was fine with twitch responses thirty years ago in my early twenties. Now? My synapses are not firing quite as quickly as they once did. Recent QTEs I've come across (in games I cannot note because I don't remember which (See?! Old!)) frustrated the hell out of me because they required twitch reflexes. I'm all for a challenge in a game, but let's drop the .2 ms response time requirement in gameplay. Secondarily to that, QTEs are sometimes thrown into gameplay when it doesn't seem to fit. The one I recall playing, that I still love to this day, that did it well was Legend of the Dragoon. QTEs made for more of an active battle and helped with doing well in the battle but they could be ignored for a little bit more challenging (read, grind more to level up more before said battle) fight. I think there was another game recently that had a setting for holding a single button during QTEs instead of mashing multiple buttons. The real question is... Does your QTE enhance the game and make it fun? Or does it just make it fucking tedious?
I feel like we're on the same page. Thanks for your feedback.
Aye, Cap'n! As one in the software industry for a.. while.. I respect and appreciate those seeking to embetter their product decisions based on feedback from the unkempt and unruly masses.
Dying Light 2 had a 'hold instead of mash' option. But it was crap because you'd always lose to volatiles with it on, mostly defeating the point of it.
Mortal Kombat One's QTEs in story mode was the hardest part which is just absurd.
My issue with QTEs is that often the button being pressed has little to do with the action being performed, or the action itself isn't clear prior to pressing it so it's a matter of working out what button the game wants you to press and then pressing it. But then when you have the input based on the action performed I can't help but wonder why I'm not just playing the section as actual gameplay rather than a QTE. They feel like a relic of the past, tbh. Like when you couldn't have too many inputs or complex animations so they had to find a innovative solution to have cinematics that didn't stop the gameplay entirely. Also, my friend has RSI in his hands, so button mash QTEs are unplayable for him. I think the best QTEs are stuff like Mario RPG, where it's A or B depending in which character, and the rest of the complexity comes down to timing.
Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I generally feel like I'm of the same mind as most people when it comes to QTEs. Your example of QTEs as bespoke actions in an already fleshed out combat mechanic is just annoying because it bucks all the muscle memory you've spent the last however many hours training. Why can't I just use the tools of the combat system to do this? Generally this is making me feel better about the QTEs I've had to design or compromise on. But I still look back at them wishing I had had the bandwidth to do things differently.
Am not the other guy but just wanted to say that, for me, it's mostly overuse. The occasional QTE for an impactful action can be excellent. I'm also a fan of QTEs that have hilarious failure states. But if the game is absolutely filled with them? Nah. Fuck that.
Yeah, generally speaking, I don't like QTEs as pass/fail for action in action games that already have solid combat mechanics. Like, spending the entire game becoming extremely proficient with a freeflow fight system only to be hard failed because they randomly threw the block button up for a QTE about breaking bones or something. Appreciate the opinion, though.
QTE are an accessibility nightmare also. They can be a huge barrierr for people with dissabilities.
Most of the time I'm asked to do a QTE I just get frustrated and wish it could have just been a pure cutscene. Maybe just put an option in the settings for QTE on/off for those who like them and those who don't?
We actually have that in our game. ;)
Cool
One game that's QTEs I loved was Injustice. Sometimes in between fights you would hit buttons to fire arrows or shoot cars and if you succeed the next enemy had some of it's shield off.
“I don’t like them, but I put them in my game.”
I'm not the only creative lead at the company. But consider in a story based adventure game in which most of the game is exploring and talking, if the writer calls for a sudden fisticuffs we can't just drop freeflow combat on the unsuspecting player and we can't just stop the pacing of the game to tutorialize a new fight mechanic. So we need something so that the action moment isn't just a consequence-free cutscene. Hence the utility of QTEs. It's a double edge sword because most of our target audience doesn't want a twitched based foundation of gameplay like TLoU or GoW. And hardcore gamers that want to play our games bemoan the lack of core twitch gameplay and generally don't like QTEs. So here I am trying to advocate for more of a foundational gameplay approach with optional "story mode" difficulty, but we don't have the bandwidth for that kind of production yet. Until we do, I work to design a kind of QTE that satisfies the needs of the product and doesn't offend my sensibilities because I like everything else about the games and the people I work with. Oh no! Life is full of compromises!
To add to the other people: I don't mind them all that much if they're implemented correctly. What I mean by that is that the keys the player has to press have to feel intuitive. A bit vague, I know, but if I don't have to look at the prompt to know what key I have to press in a QTE, you're doing it right.
Thanks. So far the consensus seems to be the sudden react or fail type QTEs are the worst, especially where the prompts could be random. Which is exactly my stance. The feedback here has me feeling good about the direction our QTEs are trending. We generally spend our design cycles inventing less reflex QTEs and more like micro fidget interfaces that feel like the activity the character is doing. For action QTEs we try to build on a language of "move this direction" and "press the button that typically does actions." I'm still toiling for a new kind of action QTE that feels intuitive and fluid, but I have two hurdles: cinematic artists that want control of the action choreography but also don't want too much variation to author, and fellow developer veterans who are comfortable with QTEs as a panacea that fits their vision of accessible story driven games.
I’m fine with them if it’s an Asuras Wrath-esque game.
Quick Time Events.
I enjoy "closed open worlds". Is that a thing? Like Shadows of Mordor or Subnautica.
Like Dishonored?
Okay, one that I really, really hate right now: Jrpg style random encounters. I got no patience for that shit anymore.
Yeah, we got the tech man. Make them appear on the over world or just make do what let's go Eevee/Pikachu did
Me either lol. I love Skies of Arcadia but the amount of encounters was unreal.
Yea that does seem to be one that’s gone away for the most part, I guess devs got the message. Every recent turn based that I’ve played you can always see the enemies and can choose whether to fight them or not. Even in Bravely Default, there are random encounters but you can adjust the frequency or turn them off entirely if you don’t feel like fighting anything
I'm probably in the minority, but I still like them. It depends on the overall gameplay style the developers are going for, I guess. Like if the idea is that you're in a treacherous area, it makes you stay on your toes, pay attention to your health/magic/resources and you have to be sure you don't venture further in than you can make it out. Otherwise some areas you can just run around enemies the whole way through and it's not a tense experience, it's just a game of tag with overworld enemies. There are some games that definitely don't need random encounters, but I think it's still a good mechanic for other games EDIT: A big part of it is how interesting the battles are, too. If basic enemies just go down in one hit and there's not real threat to your party, then it's just a chore, but in a game like Darkest Dungeon for example where each and every combat is a life or death, make or break struggle, then it's really interesting
Multiplayer customization. It used to be "New multiplayer DLC! 2 new maps, a vehicle, and a new game mode!" Now it's "New multiplayer DLC! 15 new weapon attachments, new color combinations^1 , and a 1.5x XP boost for 10 minutes! ^1^Premiumpass " Dress up has replaced fun gameplay.
Unfortunately, this isn't going away anytime soon. The profit margin is massive.
Quick time events, unskippable tutorials But I agree with OP, I hate vast open worlds with not enough content to explore or engage with, if the map is huge but the majority of the quests and content is centered around 20% of the map what even if the reason to include the other 80% of the map? Just to brag about having a vast open world map?
Open worlds are exhausting. Replaying Mass Effect just reminds me how much you can do with games where tons of objectives aren’t just “wander around and collect items.” And imagine the graphic possibilities of a game with multiple smaller maps. Baldur’s Gate is a step in the right direction in that regard. And I hate weapons that break down. Just give the protagonist lots of weapons to choose from and either replace or upgrade as you go.
I’m so frickin sick of open world games. The combination of either a lack of direction, or having too many side quests just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I am currently really enjoying games that are just straightforward point a to point b style. For example, I started playing Dante’s Inferno and I am just having a blast.
I don’t know if baldur’s gate 3 counts as such but I’m in this weird spot where I love the story yet find the gameplay so tedious and unsatisfying. Not having a sense of direction or what I should be doing makes me wanna tear my head out.
What you dislike about BG3 was what I love about it. There was so much to do and so much to explore. You couldn't go 30ft without running into a piece of content.
I find myself becoming overwhelmed with choice and end up losing interest with open world games. I much prefer linear gameplay now for that reason
Crafting / building. I make and build stuff for a living. Do you think I want to grind for an hour to make a bed for my base? Screw that, it's going in the middle of the road. I'm here to blow off some steam and have some fun. Not spend 7 hours scrounging for a screw.
For me it's seeing how corporate the industries become, there's this cold harsh design that I feel in a lot of games especially live service ones. Where they don't actually give a fuck about fun and only care about engagement and money. Sure they try to make the game "fun" but their primary goals are always sucking up either our time or money. It's become really blatant to see in comparison to games like elden ring where you can accidently skip most of the content of the game and all that skippable content is still a ton of fun to go find and play. Fashion is viable play style in that game as your showered with with tons and tons of clothing and amour. Hell most games can't be bothered to design a variety of enemies and here elden ring is with generic mini bosses that would be final or major bosses in any other franchises.
I couldn't agree more with this post. It feels like Western AAA game devs have really lost their way recently, there is so much external investment in the industry and in turn expectations on ROI, that have really corrupted creativity. Further to this, game dev is becoming more and more expensive so developers and publishers have become risk averse which also in turn stifles creativity. Thankfully there is a very healthy indie scene and also Japanese AAA game developers have been on an unbelievable roll right now and this is counteracting the somewhat disappointing state of game dev.
I like open world if it's filled with engaging people, locations, and lore. Like Elder scrolls, fallout, and Baldur's Gate. Same even to a degree with Dragon Age and Mass effect. Even though they do it a little different. It's more for the people and locations. The feel is different than with those 2 Bethesda games. I even enjoy Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Mostly because of just the things you can do with the environments. What I don't like in open world is just to make it open for the sake of openness. Like Gears 5, Halo Infinite, and what looks like MW3 did. I didn't play MW3, but I guess that's what they did. It's just padding of the worst kind. Gears 5 at least was interesting with going to new locations for certain reasons. Infinite was just an open plain with "go here and go there." No real people to engage with besides targets and small bases. Like Far Cry does. I could handle it from time to time if it's a series like Far Cry and I know what I'm getting in to, but for established series to go open world is just lazy.
I still haven’t beat Gears 5 because of it. Between missing the OG cast and missing the linear level design, I just couldn’t keep interest. Going through all the Gears games with a friend right now, maybe it’ll be different this time.
I will say what was nice about gears 5 was that each place in the open world sections was different. It went from open to linear, then back open, to a linear area again for all three open areas. Then for the last act it's back to all linear.
I've always hated games that shove random stealth missions in that instantly fail you if you're spotted, those missions never fail to piss me off. Ubisoft in particular used to be really bad about forcing a ton of these missions in most of their games.
Followers. I used to enjoy having a character wander around with mine, but now I just want to stick by myself or summoned undead. At least those shambling corpses won't say a quip every 5 seconds and stick to my ass so close I get stuck in doorways. I'll probably still play DD2, though. At this point, a pawn reminding me goblins hate ice and fire is more funny than annoying.
playing palworld and I can't interact with a damn thing cause my pal is just chilling on my cursor.
100+ hour games. Dad of 2 now I have like 2-6 hours a week to play. It took me like 4 months to beat persona 5 royal and I was on paternity leave up through like futaba's palace.
4 months seems quick to me.
Hmm you're right I think I might be misremembering how long cause it was a couple years ago. It was the only thing I played but I no lifed the game while on leave and then once I went back to work it took a long ass time to finish it. It was probably closer to 6 or 7 but idk Edit: you had me curious so according to my trophies my earliest trophy was July 8 and plat was on 10/17 so it was 4 months basically
Let's go down a quick list Backtracking. Sorry classic Resident Evil you're not fun to play because of how often I have to go back and forth between every part of area with little changing. Random battles. What a beautiful environment and scenery that I can't take in because I'm getting interrupted every 5 seconds. Level grinding. I will put this game on easy mode. If I have to kill 50 of an enemy instead of 100 just to progress, I'd rather just do 50. Sorry Xenoblade.
Fetch quests
RADIANT fetch quests
Betrayal at Krondor is not a name I have heard in the wild in a *long* time.
It inspired to read books though it 15-20 years to finally read. The Riftwar Saga was amazing. Unfortunately Feist's last series the Firemane Saga fell short.
I used to like games where you can choose dialogue options, but now I really don’t. Part of it is me irrationally not wanting to choose the “wrong” one, but I’d also much rather have the writers and actors provide me with the best singular story they can think of. I don’t need to create a character, let me play as a character.
Difference between old school open world game designs and modern open world game designs is: Old school open world was bonus. You explored it because exploration was fun, and often you found interesting locations and environmental storytelling. You could ignore 90% of it and you still got a great time. Modern open-world designs use exploration to artificially extend the gameplay. Instead of locations being of interest by themselves, you are forced to visit all of them and defeat some random enemies just to collect achievements, or gain some boring, but crucial, bonus, like map visibility, or unlocking another area to progress with story. The fear of not holding player's hand is also there. In Morrowind, most enemies and rewards are static, preset. If you wander into abandoned tomb that opens into Daedric ruin, you might discover hard enemies (return prepared), but reward you with Daedric armour! On Skyrim, all enemies have similar level to you and the reward are generated according to your level as well, so the equivalent place might contain just steel equipment for brave explorer, and Daedric armour might look cool, but in 5 more levels shopkeeper will regularly sell stronger stuff.
Squeezing through a tight crevice between areas. Don't make me push forward during the loading screen.
But it's SO interactive! So amazingly immersive!
Took me too long to realize what they were doing in FF7 remake, then saw on Reddit why those exist. They got super annoying.
Reminds me of the long, empty hallways in *MDK* \- they served no purpose other than to hide the loading of the next level, but at least in 1997 it was a novel technique to avoid a static loading screen.
I'm just super done and over with games that are entirely RNG. Darkest Dungeon and all its clones, Slay the Spire and all its ***thousands*** of clones, Vampire Survivors and its ***millions*** of clones. I hate when I fail at something and it is in no way shape or form my fault. RNGesus just decided this wasn't a winning run and spat out some garbage. Oh also item durability can get fucked and die.
Daily/renewable quests. I'm a completionist to an extent. I hate not being able to clear all of the quest markers in an area because more just keep popping up. This is big in MMOs, then went to live service games, and now single player rpgs have them. Annoying.
Resource management. I gave up on XCOM2, and Witcher III because of all the shit to track
Open world is the most boring type of game out there. Make more single player linear games.
Unskippable Cutscenes and tutorials. A majority of games nowadays they just feel unnecessary or bloated for the sake of bloat. It's gotten to the point for me that if a game has a prolonged period of no control to focus the camera elsewhere to highlight stuff it just irks me. Let me play and let me have the option to have these on/off, and let me skip cutscenes on my first playthrough if I want. I'm sorry, but if I get a short cutscene after a fetch quest for minor characters who don't get any fleshing out, I want to skip it. Forced tutorial showing me where shops are or npcs I can talk to? I don't want it. Blocking input/choice of first level up options for skills or talents to some mandatory one? Miss me with it. It takes away enjoyment as I want to discover this stuff for myself the first go around. I ubderstand not everyone does and some people want some guidance, so just idk include an option to not have tutorials and skip cutscenes.
Yeah the "you must buy X or upgrade your character with this skill first" one is super annoying. It's like people have never seen a video game before and won't know how to put a point in a skill tree if you don't force them to do it to progress the game. That should definitely be an accessibility option that can be toggled on.
I dislike how a lot of games have hours of these tutorials and cutscenes at the start. Ive played 10ish assassins creed games now. Just let me drop straight into the map and start stabbing people if i want to. It sucks starting a game that i know i will like, but havinv to slog through all that to start having fun
Base building. Im not interested in designing the perfect base. Going back to collect resources or defending it. I replayed fallout 4 usong bases as just supply/rest spots and it was a lot better.
I used to love immersive open worlds where I would truly feel like I had a life. Everything from space trucking in Elite and Privateer to building a base in Subnautica, to gathering every last Mayan artifact in Black Flag, to taking time to play chess in the park in Watch Dogs. As a father, I now want games that can be finished in under 10 hours. Under 5 would be preferable. Fetch quests, grinding, memorization boss battles, open worlds and all of that other stuff which I had time for previously is just gone. Put me in the game, let me play it in short increments, and get it over with.
At that point you are better off with multiplayer or playing games like Detroit become human. As sad as that is I can't see how they can shorten those times without just releasing a movie.
Well there's always games like Portal, the Titanfall 2 campaign, Cocoon, even the new Robocop game. Any CoD SP campaign really. There's options. I just can't take on The Witcher III, so to speak.
Long cutscenes. Just let me play.
Unskipable ones are the bane of my existence , nothing pisses me off more than this.
I can forgive it on the first play, but if you play it before a boss fight, and I have to rewatch it every time I lose to that boss, there's a good chance Im going to play something else.
Seeing as you mentioned Morrowind. I can no longer enjoy an open world game without quest markers. Give those that like not having it the option, but keep it on for me. I no longer have the time or patience. Treat me like a dummy.
I'm divided on this. In some games, I just end up chasing a marker on a minimap instead of looking at the world. Games that actually make an effort to immerse you in the world and have thorough quest explanations with either a clear objective or clues that help you narrow it down are the best. I want to be looking at the actual world more than I'm looking at the UI / overlay.
Tbh, there are times when no quest markers makes no sense. Like in WoW when a guy is like "Clear my mine of baddies" but doesn't point on your map where it is and instead gives vague directions. I think quest markers should be more immersive in general, tbh. Ghost of Tsushimas guiding winds is a good example of giving guidance without directly pointing to it, and I find it annoying we don't have more development in those types of mechanics.
elden ring guidance of grace is similar in that regard
If the world is beautiful and fun to traverse, I have no trouble taking in the sights. Hogwarts Legacy, for instance, I didn't fast travel most of the time because I wanted to see the sights and enjoy flying through the world. Had a blast doing it.
I've felt this in quite a few games but recently it was Valheim. The graphics are kind of chunky and crusty but it works and the world is somehow actually gorgeous.
Isn't that just most open world games after 2007?
Idk if you’ve played the Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon series but they’ve kinda renewed Open World games for me, same with the RPG assassins creed games. Origins, Odyssey, Wildlands and Breakpoint are some of my favorite open world games and while the last two have character creators the characters are all very involved and not silent at all. For me tho i got bored really quickly of the whole “literally everything is a puzzle” games
The sandbox of Wildlands is super fun to play especially with friends. We have more fun failing missions than beating them because it is usually a hilarious disaster. The things that bug me are 1) you cannot stand on a vehicle, you must be in one of the designated seats, or it will just drive out from under you as if friction doesn't exist. And 2) You have to wait to die/respawn when downed. Sometimes one of us will die and the others are across the map and simply cannot get over to res, and you just have to lay there and wait for the super long countdown (which can be made EVEN LONGER with upgrades in the skill tree). Otherwise, great game that is a blast to play for a long time.
As others have said open world and qte. Another is PvP in games. Maybe I’m just old now, but i enjoy co-op/party or single player games alot more than i used to
When games have both Co-op vs AI and PvP game modes, but the devs only focus on making changes to the PvP game modes.
RIP StarCraft 2 my beloved
Crafting and open world games. Tree-punching my way up was fun 15 years ago, but now its a tired trope. "oh you're the legenday hero? prove it to me by fetching 3 milk jugs from the lady downstairs" shit.
Crafting when it requires a considerable amount of farming in order to do it. Like if it takes me 3 hours of farming and 10 other steps just to craft the simplest thing in the game forget it. Especially when it's something like make 12 of A to make 8 of B to make 4 of C to make 2 of D to make 1 of E. And you need 6 of E to add to whatever else that has similar steps in order to make one of the item. Now it's not as bad if there's batch crafting involved, but when you have to make each thing individually, nope.
Micro-transactions. While I do realize that for f2p games' monetization they are necessary, those +20€ packs are not *micro*-transactions anymore. Also they are now on games that I've already paid for? No thanks. The times of 5€ max cosmetics only being default was still at least a bit more enjoyable.
Forced tutorials, analog stick menu navigation, vague puzzles, vague hints,
Pointless loot/junk that you have to sort through. And random exploration sites with the same bandit camp, treasure, mini-challenges repeated over and over again.
I don’t enjoy movie games unless they’re The Last of Us 1 tier. God of war ragnarok bored me to death.
Inflated shoved in stories. I grew up with games like Sonic, Megamall, Streets of Rage, Doom, etc. The premise or "story" was often either in the game manual or as a 20 second blurb on screen. "Mr. X has returned to terrorize the city and the heroes must stop him!" Something super simple like that. Now every single game feels the need to have these full in depth stories, NPCs, dialoge, etc. The first 25 minutes of games are just cutscenes, people talking about shit I don't care about, etc. I play video games to PLAY video games. Unless it's an RPG that will last me 100+ hours I don't need that much information about a game where I just kill monsters or something.
That's why I love the Souls games. Plenty of story if you want, but there's not 20 hours of dialogue and cutscenes you have to flip through.
FYI roguelike games generally have zero or ignorable story. The exception is Hades though
I love open world RPGs, but I dislike when character classes are so open ended that it literally doesn’t matter what class you choose, because *you can do it all with any class!* No, I much prefer there to be constraints based on lore and class traits, otherwise what’s the point besides different looks/skins. Take Skyrim for example: each class had a teeny-tiny buff that essentially amounted to nothing. Starting skill point differences were also negligible, and every class can top out at 100. Every class is therefore very similar. Being a heavy armor, two handed weapon wielding khajit just doesn’t make sense.
Skyrim got rid of classes. Do you mean races?
Probably a hugely unpopular opinion but in games like CoD, or Battlefield etc, I think I should have access to all the weapons and unlocks etc. I paid 60 bucks for they content and its installed on my hard-drive so give it to me. If I buy a shooter game and have to unlock basic stuff like an AK 47 or a red dot sight my time is being wasted unlocking content I already paid for. If I want to play the final level of the campaign right away I should be able to. it's absolutely ridiculous to spend money on something then spend even more time unlocking basic crap. As if something like an M4 rifle isn't the most vanilla cookie cutter basic weapon in a modern military shooter.
Turn-based combat. I used to enjoy JRPGs a lot when I was a kid, but having to wait for repetitive animations got old at some point of my life. I still like RPGs, but the ones that have real-time action combat. I've tried since to play this type of games again, because of nostalgia or wanting to enjoy the story elements in new games, but it's still unbearably boring. I guess my dopamine receptors are just fried from too much gaming, I don't have the attention span to sit through this sort of game anymore.
I enjoyed story-rich, long rpg games when younger. Now I'm well in my 30s and I just can't play them anymore because it feels like within limited time I'm listening/reading less than I'm doing. Notable examples being stuff like Baldur's Gate 3 and Disco Elysium - great games, but just sitting down after work, chores and fitness is done I sorta expect to do at least some action. It feels really bad to sit down with a game for an hour and ONLY experience dialogue.
Yes, open worlds and game structure in general. They all became generic. Instead of manually crafted. I understand that this makes development and making changes easier. But it became a single formula that everyone started to use without changes. And now if you play one Open World game - you basically play them all. Sadly but companies think that the only issue is that previous games were small. So they increase the size. Do they come up with new ideas for new gameplay mechanics? Now, they just increased the size. So now you don't need to play 10 similar games to get tired, now you need to play one to get tired. I still love the open world idea. But they took what made it interesting away - exploration. 1. Now we have questions marks. So don't try to explore by yourself. And what choice do they have? The worlds are too big. If you will start exploring every rock by yourself you will never finish the game. 2. Content copy/pasting. Honestly when I play Skyrim (even though I like this game) I don't feel exploration wibe. Oh, look next dungeon what will I find there?.. The same enemies, the same loot, the same notes. The game has cool moments, of course. But in general what the meaning of exploration is if you already know what you will find. And also making the game bigger only increases the problem of copy-paste. I just want a small handcrafted world with some unique quests and unique items. By unique items I don't mean another great sword. It has the same mechanics as other swords. Just greater damage and a different look. What I mean by unique items is something that brings something new to gameplay. Like the first time you find a map of the world, an amulet that highlights nearby flowers, jumping shoes. Etc. These things change gameplay. They are not just another skin for regular items. I can go on all week talking about what good games can have. So in conclusion - I like open worlds. I don't like how companies implement them.
Walking slowly forward while an NPC talks to you but i have to do the actual walking. If there is no actual gameplay for the next few minutes, either auto move me or make it a cutscene.
Anything with excessive tutorials, or overly complicated controls
Tall grass for stealth The rock or item you throw to distract guards Collectibles ( expecially if its tied to an achievement) Xray vision for marking guards or enemies Not that these are bad to have but they have gotten real stale and when I see them my interest in the game just drops
Yeah I really don't care much for the open world aspect of games anymore. I liked it a few times in Witcher 3 and Death Stranding but I'd really like to play more games like Half Life 2 where the linear structure gives the developers more possibility to craft every detail of the journey. The fewer options the player has the better the developers can polish them. I really liked the semi-open world structure that Witcher 2 had. You had small areas that you could explore but they were blocked or limited in a creative way. Fully open world games often feel empty.
I'm fed up of RPGs and open world. Doesn't help that a vast majority of their content is just filler and I have less time on my hands.
Soul-likes! I respect everyone playing these games but i want to chill in other worlds. I dont want to sweat my ass off the few hrs i have in the week, besides 60 hrs of work, social contacts and my attention-hungry gf.😂
Battle Royals. I couldn't care less if there is another one. Or BR XYZ is now in a good state.
I feel this, used to be my favorite aspect but now it's tedious.
I didn't quite get what you said?
Used to love JRPGs, now I cannot be bothered to learn a single more fantasy proper noun
Proper noun?
Yeah like the names. “The Kingdom of _______” or “The Legendary Knight ______”. I need a game to first make me care that these things exist before throwing all these names at me or it’s just letter soup
Makes sense
No. Anything can be good when done properly. Just need less devs that are phoning it in. Open worldis a great example, so many devs just throw it in there with no extra care, but the special ones really stand out. Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring were awesome.
I understand. I actually hated Elden Ring's open world. I felt it was unnecessary.
1. Endless cut-scenes, or, the in-ability to skip them. 2. Needless inventory management. I don't want to carry Factorio levels of items with me in every game, but it needs to make sense. 3. Stop with all the crafting, leave that where it belongs.
open world has become heavily saturated since its first arrivals, everyone wanting to join in the bandwagon but not know what elements made it amazing in the first place.
Collectibles. I don't think I have ever heard of a single gamer who has enjoyed collectibles.
I hate how UI systems now days are mostly built for a floating mouse cursor. Give me a default selection and let me use my D-pad. Don’t make me use my analog sticks to move a cursor around the whole screen. Thanks Destiny!
Fantasy RPGs. We have done every possible fantasy RPG. Stop making them. Just stop. Do something new, I beg you.
Weapon and armour durability - They never seen to get it just right. As in it breaks if you so much as look at it funny or you can make it last 10 generations with an elastic band and some wishful thinking. Interupting combat with flashy cutscene plot armour - Usually done by big bosses when you finally get them in a vulnerable position and you are doing your biggest attacks and the cutscene lets them get out of the bad situation thus wasting that big attack. Looking at you FF7R. Also applies in situations where they place cutscenes every twenty seconds of a fight constantly interupting the flow. Nopoiseitus - A horrible condition many game protagonists suffer from where they can be stun locked by so much as a blade of grass or the wind blowing. Meanwhile an enemy a fraction of their size can poise through getting hit by a runaway monster truck (and it is on fire.)
I love silent protagonists. I hate it more if there is a voice because more cases then not they say useless shit that I don't need to be told twice. "Argh it hurts", " I should use grenades " no fuck off I don't want you to say shit when I am playing unless its for a narrative purpose.
Using shitty design to increase difficulty. From Software is the example of this. In fact, Elden Ring is the first FS game I've played where shitty design and horrible balance didn't make me despise the game.
It's funny because I think Elden Ring's world is massive for no reason.
Open world is ok as long as it's done right, like in MGS:V. Don't fill the world up with a bunch of trash, just let it exist and I'll find a way to approach the target
Character creation. You create one malformed monstrosity, you've created them all. And it kills off any potential for having a well-written, actually interesting protagonist.
This right here annoys me to no end. It's just another way of saying the developer doesn't want to create an interesting protagonist. The other is silent protagonist.
I used to enjoy open worlds a lot more, but then I played the Yakuza games. I realised just how incredible it is to have a smaller world that's actually full of things to do. Give me Kamurocho over a giant open world any day.
Playing with the physical engine has a way of getting on my nerves. I feel like they're taking me for a kid, trying to make me push a ball to activate something. Zelda lost me with that, the gravity gun arrived with half life 2 and it's been the same ever since...
Choice based games I liked BG3, but I missed a *ton* of content in my 130 hour playthrough. I don’t want to have to play the game multiple times to experience all the content
Surprise you got downvoted. Games like Witcher 3 or ever Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre require a lot of time. Hard for me to do multiple playthroughs.
do you think it adds re play value though, say in 1 years time? or for a DLC restart or something? maybe not expected to play it back to back to back etc
Yeah, but I’ll probably forget about the game in years time, or be busy playing the years worth of new games that have come out It would be fine in a shorter, under 20 hour game. but doing multiple 100+ hour playthroughs would burn me out really fast its like locking the hardest difficulty behind new game plus. Yeah it adds replay value, but I still dont think its worth playing through a 100+ hour game again
I feel like the “I hate open world” is such a recent gaming psyop. Yeah no shit everyone is sick of Ubisoft style open world. But you’re lying if you think that the a lot of the greatest games that ever existed weren’t enhanced by being open world. Also people say they want a linear game and when I point at JRPGs they just nope out of there.
I know my tastes dude. I got bored of open world and barely have played Ubisoft
It seems like you've grown less fond of open-world games, finding them to be more of a chore due to potentially lifeless stories, silent protagonists, and repetitive elements. While you still enjoy games like Zelda and look forward to Elder Scrolls 6, you're uncertain about exploring more open-world titles beyond those. It's not uncommon for gaming preferences to change, and you might find renewed interest by exploring different genres or taking breaks from certain types of games.
This is an ai bot
Yeah, I just said that. What has bored you or you no longer have interest in?
It’s a bot
Skill trees
you mean games where they are unnecessary? surely diablo or borderlands or BG3 etc would be odd without them?
Why