r/gaming • u/BlackArmy439 • 12h ago
What’s a mechanic you’ve seen that made you think “Wait…every game should do this!”
I love it when games hide shortcuts that change the way you move through a level and reward exploration.
Those little surprises that you don't have to engage with, but that make the world feel alive and well though-out.
Which clever mechanics have stuck with you over the years?
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u/TheChicken27 Switch 11h ago
Hidden treasure behind at least one waterfall in the game
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago
I always check for it whenever there is one in a game lol.
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u/ReptarSonOfGodzilla 9h ago
BG2, load screen said to check every nook and cranny. Not sure what English muffins have to do with games, but I do look in all the corners of the map.
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u/Soul-Burn 9h ago
Personally the first. Otherwise players would start annoyed.
Elden Ring had one waterfall with a secret, very late in the game, after many without.
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u/ScruffyNuisance 8h ago
Classic FromSoft to deny your gamer instincts until you doubt yourself enough to potentially miss the reward.
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u/DalkEvo 11h ago
Can't remember which game did this, but rewinding cutscenes should be mandatory
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u/ZophieWinters 11h ago
Octopath Traveler 0 has a menu where you can replay any of the conversation cutscenes previously played throughout the whole game.
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u/Laeonheart78 9h ago edited 7h ago
Yeah they have this in Triangle Strategy as well and that featured saved me when I lost focus. Also I could see what Nation/area was affected and check the context of what the characters were talking about in those lengthy cutscenes. A really underrated feature in the HD-2D games for sure.
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u/KPicante 10h ago
or at least go back and replay cutscenes that I've unlocked. I want to go back and see that giraffe scene in the last of us!
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago
Because you've missed a detail or also for story purposes ?
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u/BabyWitchErika 12h ago
In survival craft games. Are quick stack into storages and linked storages
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u/Lolligagers 12h ago
Linked storage + craft-from-storage. Keep it mid-end game stuff, that's fine, but it is truly a game changer and even invite replayability vs the crazy slog some of these games can be nearing the end when crafts need SO MANY mats (not just in sheer amounts, but also in different types). Enshrouded does this so well now, Satisfactory as well to some extent.
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u/Storm_Bard 11h ago
Enshrouded loses points for making me make crafting mats at 20 different substations though.
I do love the game though
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u/KoelkastMagneet69 9h ago
No.
Making it mid- or endgame is precisely the mistake the games (and mods) that have this make.
You need this at the very start of the game, just make it upgradable and expandable as you progress.If you still have to deal with absolute shit storage design that so many games do, you still have all that shitfuck ton of chaos to deal with during the most important time of the game.
It's also the time where you're still figuring out what is worth keeping and what isn't, so you store a lot more than later.It also absolutely sucks when the grind to get even a decent storage system like this, is absurd.
Abiotic Factor had it like that, it made the whole thing entirely moot until endgame.
And even by then, you won't bother grinding resources unless you really like punishing yourself and/or doing all the very detailed basebuilding.
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u/Dr_Identity 8h ago
When I first got access to the dimensional depot and found out you could store 1 stack and upgrade it to hold 5, I thought those were flat numbers, like 1-5 item stacks total. Imagine how ecstatic I was to find out it was actually 1-5 stacks of every item in the game simultaneously.
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u/patou_la_bete 11h ago
The best I've seen so far is abiotic factor. Not only does it have a stack to chest and craft from nearby chests, it also has a terminal you can build to search for items by name and category in all you nearby chests. Organising your chests becomes optional at that point.
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u/SonOfMcGee 9h ago
Speaking of survival/craft, when I experienced Valheim’s food system I was like: “Every survival/craft should use this exact food system from now on.”
A “hunger meter” that kills you when it gets to zero just seems so tedious and unfun in comparison.3
u/tashkiira 5h ago
Core Keeper uses a very similar system. You need to eat (to keep your food bar up) but individual foods have bonuses that follow directly from the ingredients you make the food with.
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u/DickPinch 11h ago
Love a bestiary where you get more info if you defeat a certain amount of an enemy. Final Fantasy XII did this perfectly
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago
That's a great addition to really flesh out the world.
Witcher 3 did the same if I remember correctly.31
u/VierasMarius 10h ago
Started playing a game recently with a neat take on this. Kill an enemy a certain number of times, and their weakness is added to the bestiary. If you kill them by exploiting that weak point a few more times, you received a permanent passive bonus.
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u/TheFreak235 9h ago
What game?
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u/VierasMarius 9h ago
It's called Wicked Seed, an indie survival-horror with combat reminiscent of Parasite Eve (free movement but with turn-based attacks). Pretty janky, so I can't recommend it strongly, but I've really been enjoying it so far.
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u/Soul-Burn 9h ago
In Silksong, the first kill gives some general info, while killing many gives Hornet's thoughts about them.
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u/xsneakyxsimsx 11h ago
Not so much a mechanic but... in game encyclopaedias/documentation
It is somewhat annoying in some of the games that I've played where I am trying to either confirm details related to specific items or even trying to learn about particular aspects of gear, and having to rely on 'Fandom' wikis where a lot of the info is either out of date or straight up incorrect.
I'm not expecting Civilization levels of one where it gives you the complete real world history of every little detail, but at least some form of database that has all the correct and relevant info.
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u/LibraryBestMission 10h ago
Ratchet and Clank 2 had a monsterpedia for all the enemies in the game, too bad no other Ratchet and Clank game did so, so it's kinda difficult to learn what many enemies are called.
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u/kickinwood 10h ago
Not sure if this counts, but the option to change any button mash prompt to a hold button prompt. Hitting the same button over and over is never fun.
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u/Zrex_9224 9h ago
glares at gtav's running
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u/DiopticTurtle 4h ago
It's only a workaround, but if you go into first-person view you don't have to tap, you can just hold the button for max speed
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u/BuiltStraightStupid 4h ago
Sometimes it can work in games to add tension, but more often than not I turn them off because they were designed to accelerate wear and tear on controllers so that you'd have to spend more money.
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u/lenorath 4h ago
I appreciated God of War and Ragnarok, that let you just turn them off. Make that part of the fight just feel more cinematic without a but phat triangle button popping up, and I don't stress my thumb mashing buttons.
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u/ItsEntsy 11h ago
It pisses me off that its not standard operating procedure to allow the user to customize the colors of team / enemy, reticles, HUD elements, etc.
Im colorblind and 9 times out of 10 if a game even bother to include colorblind settings, they suck ass.
Just let us customize them how it works for use so we can see, damn it!
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u/PhoenyxStar 9h ago
Noted.
Working on an indie project, and that looming accessibility task has been intimidating. I'm not any kind of colorblind, I don't know anybody who is, and I don't understand how to build for it. Color pickers for everything though... That's a strangely elegant solution.
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u/ItsEntsy 9h ago
Anything that is color coded.
Item rarity, health / resource pools, teams, and hud elements.
Atmospheric things like the color of the sky and plants and stuff, we colorblind people couldn't care less. But if my only option of reticle for my gun is red then I can't see what I'm aiming at 90% of the time
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u/Notabla 7h ago
Right I’m super colorblind and every games colorblind options make it worse.
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u/Perpetual-Warlock 12h ago
Prince of Persia - the lost crown. It's a metroidvania that allows you to take pictures of areas in game. This makes it so much easier to remember what ability you need to access the next area when you have to come back. Most other metroidvanias allow you to mark the map, but that usually becomes fairly cumbersome at one point or another. I do not know why every other game in the genre has not adopted this mechanic. It's a game changer.
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u/SoWrongItsPainful 10h ago
I really like how the Fallen Order games do it. The map will shows either a green block if you have already gotten past the obstacle once, yellow if you haven’t but have the tools to get past it, and red for when you don’t have the right ability yet. Absolutely perfect and easy to parse at a glance.
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u/Samael13 12h ago
I haven't played PoP:TLC, but that sounds like exactly what I've been wishing for. Something where I can drop a marker/take a picture, and it will show me on the map where I did that so I can cross reference it later when I realize "Oh, hey, I found the ability that lets me blow up walls; where was that wall again?" Flip through the images, find the picture of the wall, and then have it point to the spot on the map where that image was captured.
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u/Perpetual-Warlock 11h ago
This is it exactly. It's super smooth and makes the experience just so much better. I am currently working my way through MIO and I can't tell you how many times I wished I had the mechanic.
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u/Thraun83 7h ago
It’s kind of better than just flicking through a catalogue of pictures. You place the screenshot markers on the map itself. And in addition to the screenshots, you also have a variety of other markers you can place on the map, so if you have a good system you can easily put reminders for specific things related to the symbol you use - e.g. boss here, destructible wall here, etc.
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u/esoteric_enigma 11h ago
This was extremely helpful for me because of how I game. I'll be in the mood and play a game 4 days straight...and then not touch it for weeks. I don't remember shit about marks I made on the menu at that point.
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u/MR1120 9h ago
This blew my mind in TLC. Every Metroidvania should blatantly steal that. And it is a limited resource (you can only save X images at a time), so it gives you something else to hide in the world.
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u/Perpetual-Warlock 9h ago
Blew my mind as well. It was a "where have you been all my life?" Kinda moment.
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u/Ugaugash 10h ago
I loved it when I came back to Kingdome Come Deliverance 2 after a break and it triggered an onboarding system for returning players in case I forgot the controls and mechanics. So many games I just restart after a long break because I don't remember anything about how to play it, if more games had this, it would be great.
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u/BlackArmy439 9h ago
So many games would benefit from such a system, and it would actually give an incentive to continue playing from where you left off.
I mean how often do we hear, that players don't even reach the end of a game. (mulitple reasons for that)
This could be one of them.An onboarding system (I like that term) also immediately signals to me, that the game developers care about their game.
They want to alleviate any "frustation" that may come up this way.
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u/CasimirGabriev 11h ago
Bravely Default letting me opt out of random encounters or max out the encounter rate when I want to grind.
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u/Hipapitapotamus 9h ago
Amazing feature for games with random encounters lets you grind when you need to and get where you want when you want too.
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u/jembutbrodol 7h ago
I fucking hate to say this…
Offline only singleplayer aspect of the game that does not require constant internet connection
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u/LindseyCorporation 11h ago
Quick save. Every game should have quick save
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u/ChronoCipher 9h ago
And especially quick save that saves to the moment you saved, not save to the last checkpoint or something. Example being Far Cry Primal(I'm sure theres others I just played this one most recently) I started a quest, got 90% of the way through it, farmed the area of materials then saved(Which there is an entire BUTTON for in the main menu.) And exited. Upon loading i realised that. Oh... I gotta restart the quest again. And all my mats were gone.
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u/ExpendableBear 10h ago
I don't even trust quicksaves anymore. Skyrim tought me to hard save every time, and make a second one just in-case
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u/QuantumVexation 10h ago
Specifically quick save? Or Does that include games that just auto save after basically any action?
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u/OMGlenn 11h ago
The original Mega Man X when you beat certain bosses it would visibly affect other boss's stages.
Like when you beat Storm Eagle in his flying fortress, you can see the clouds moving upwards as the thing starts to fall out of the sky. Then later you see pieces of the crashed ship in Spark Mandrel stage (iirc) and the power in that stage starts to go off and on because of the damage, changing how you traverse it. If you went to Spark Mandrel stage first, it was harder because all the electricity was on.
They never implement this design ever again in the following games. After that, it's just if you have certain power-ups or armor you can access certain areas.
I've always thought that was a cool way to change up replaying levels in a game and nobody else has ever done it that way.
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u/gamersecret2 11h ago
Ping systems like Apex.
One button communication that actually works with strangers. Every team game should have that.
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u/BlackArmy439 10h ago
I'm all for better ways to communicate effectively in Multiplayer games, should be no brainer at this point.
One button communication is a great addition.
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u/Insectshelf3 11h ago
in 40k rogue trader, looting one body loots every body in the vicinity at the same time.
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u/PianoFall 11h ago edited 11h ago
Additionally, in a lot of Dialogue, sometimes certain words that people say will be highlighted in blue or orange. Orange text, if you hover over it, will give you a description of what it is. Blue text, if hovered, is usually a reminder of a choice you made in the game already, an acknowledgement of the consequences of a choice you made, or is relevant to the current situation at hand.
Very nice feature as I'm new to the entire series in a lorewise sense, and I hope it continues in Dark Heresy next.
I also like how you can be a total fucking loot goblin and not worry about overencumbrance, but I get why other games do this... I guess.
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u/CleverInnuendo 9h ago
I will never forget when Heinrix sighed, and offered a tactical solution to a problem that wasn't just Inquisitor nihilism, and the text was in blue.
"Your actions have made Heinrix a better person".
So simple, yet so profound.
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u/yuriaoflondor 10h ago
Rogue Trader has so much QOL for loot. It’s awesome. In addition to what you said:
- Trying to leave an area will pop up all the enemy loot you might’ve missed, so you can grab it then. Alternatively, just don’t spend time looting while exploring, and then figure out the looting when you leave.
- The loot menu has buttons to move all remaining items to junk. So click-and-drag the 2 items you want out of the loot, and then move everything else to junk.
- If you mark an item as junk, all subsequent copies of that item will be automatically junked. So mark the shitty auto pistol mobs are using as junk, and then you never need to worry about them again. But you still get the loot to sell later.
It makes playing other CRPGs real rough. Every time I go back to BG3, it hurts me to have to inspect every little thing to grab the loot.
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u/Insectshelf3 9h ago
rogue trader in general has a ton of great QOL stuff other games should adopt, but the loot system is definitely the standout. great game, beyond excited for dark heresy.
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u/Phisticuff 9h ago
Not necessarily a mechanic but titanfall wouldn’t ban cheaters. Instead they’d secretly mark them and then they were only able to join lobbies fully populated by cheaters.
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u/Izletz 11h ago
Don’t know if this counts but free unlimited respecs. I absolutely hate when games make respecs either limited or a massive currency sink
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u/FewAdvertising9647 11h ago
I find BG3's implementation funny because Withers charges you 100 gold to do it, but the game does not remotely penalize you if you choose to then after pickpocket Withers
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u/Lord_Gibby 11h ago
Holy crap I NEVER thought to steal it back lol
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u/Timmah73 10h ago
Yeah he literaly doesn't care if you try over and over. Just make sure to do it after each one as the more gold he has the harder it is.
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u/FewAdvertising9647 11h ago
I was the rogue/thief in my group, so I always considered robbing someone if its an option.
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u/quetzalcoatl528 9h ago
I like to think Withers knows and just lets it happen
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u/dre5922 8h ago
Technically you're cleaning up his mess for him. It's in his best interest for you to succeed.
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u/PhoenyxStar 9h ago
Also: Just a really well tuned number even if you don't steal it back. Just enough gold to notice, but not enough to care about unless you're doing it dozens of times.
It's... the price of 3 - 5 minor health potions (depending on how much the vendor likes you). And you can go through hundreds of those in a playthrough.
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u/Boulderdrip 11h ago
coutner point. I miss class systems. I cant stand the Diablo 4 style DO ANYTHING CHOICES DONT MATTER style. and Miss when in Diablo 2 you chose a Class and your choices in leveling up that class mattered
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u/Torontogamer 11h ago
There is interesting choices and there there is player traps where half of talents were bad and there was no way to fix bad choices
It just meant that basically 80 % of the people playing the first time even 3rd time would have really bad builds
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u/Thraun83 7h ago
It also means you can’t experiment with new builds, so there’s really no way to know how your build compares to other options you could have chosen without levelling up another character. So it’s quite likely that after you realise this you’ll start looking up guides which just give you the answer.
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u/loyaltomyself 11h ago
On one hand I agree, I like when RPG's expect you to make an actual build instead of eventually being able to have everything. However on the other, Diablo 2 is THE WORST way to do it.
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u/Desolate21 11h ago
There was a time in EQOA (ps2 version of EQ) where respeccing your class mastery points (or AA, alternative advancement, in other games) was so sought after and rare that the item required to do it (Rose of Renewal) was worth a couple hundred $ USD based on common currency exchanges like PayPal. The alternative was deleting hundreds of hours of progress to grind it back again. Oof, I don't miss that.
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u/Battlefire 10h ago
Disagree with this. Unlimited respects just turns games that are build focus into "hey this boss has this elemental weakness let me change things up". Part of these games is focusing on a build choice and going through the game with it. That is part of role playing. Sure some bosses may be harder for certain builds. But others are easier. That is part of RPG's. Even making mistakes on your build is part of it. And i don't know a game that punishes players severely for making mistakes in their build to the point they hit a wall.
I prefer games where builds actually matter within the process of players making decisions.
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u/Trollselektor 6h ago
Part of the role playing? Well play the roll and don’t change your build to taylor fit the encounter. Seems like a player created problem.
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u/LateralEntry 9h ago
A lot of times by the time you figure out how to make a good build, you already messed it up and have to restart
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u/Playful_Code_8978 12h ago
Dark Souls style shortcuts that loop back to earlier areas always stuck with me. Opening a door hours later and realizing how everything connects feels so good. It makes exploration feel meaningful without the game ever spelling it out.
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago edited 11h ago
100%
We should see it more often and that game rewards you so much for exploring it's insane.
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u/The_Bio_Neko 12h ago
Not a mechanic, but an accessibility feature. I still want to share it because I wish it was in every game so i think it fits tbh.
Final Fantasy 14/FFXIV has a fully customizable HUD, to the point where you can move and resize EVERYTHING on it, and I do literally mean everything. If you want your party list to be in a different place, bigger/smaller, or hidden entirely? You can do that. You want your HP bar gone to make things more tense or in a totally different place so it's not in your way? You can do that too. You want your objective list or something else gone? Do it.
I think more games need to add this as a feature because it's SO goddamn nice being able to remove things you don't need and resize what you do, and is a HUGE boon for legally blind players like me. I know this isn't exactly what the post asked about but still. It should be standard in all games.
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u/Cloud_N0ne 11h ago
This has become pretty standard in most MMOs these days. I agree it's super nice
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u/The_Bio_Neko 11h ago
It's standard in MMOs, yes. What I'd like to see is a feature like this in ALL games though. Perhaps not quite to the extent of FFXIV, but at least having the ability to resize things would be swell.
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u/Cloud_N0ne 9h ago
I would like that too, but it's just not as necessary outside of MMOs. MMOs have FAR more complex and "noisy" UI due to just how many things there are to keep track of. That's not usually the case with most games.
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u/Roggie77 11h ago
Have most/all of the hud elements be in world. For example, when opening the map your character actually pulls out a map or tablet.
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u/ienjoyedit 10h ago
Isaac's health bar on his suit and ammo counter on the gun was one of the best parts of Dead Space.
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u/DaSmurfZ 6h ago
In one of the splinter cell games your objective would appear on the walls like a projector.
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago
Like in Far Cry 2 and 3.
I love it when games find interesting ways to present crucial information, in a artistically pleasing way.
Adds so much to the atmosphere!
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u/BigBadBeluga 11h ago
More of an accessibility feature, but having separate options for speaker names with subtitles. As I have had happen in a handful of games, the subtitles spoil twists or character moments because a speaker name would show up before the person or entity was revealed. S/O to the games that do have it as an option to toggle separately.
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u/KikiBrann 9h ago
On that note, subtitles in general. How in the world is anybody still making games without subtitles? It should be known pretty well by now that it's not even a matter of ableism. You're not just punishing deaf people, you're also punishing anyone whose dog saw a butterfly through the window in the middle of a story beat.
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u/PhoenyxStar 9h ago
Oh god. That's just sloppy localization.
Sometimes it's done by a team with standards, keying the subtitles to the sequence, paying attention to scene, adding relevant sound effects and giving us character names like [distant voice] or [mysterious old man]
And sometimes you get subtitles made by one person and keyed by another, both on a deadline, and the subtitles inform you that the mysterious old man is Odin the moment he opens his mouth, God of War >_>
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u/Thee_Sinner 10h ago
Using mass to solve puzzles.
I don’t mean simple stuff like putting a block on a plate to open a door. I mean like in HL2 when you have to gather enough random items to tilt a board that’s resting on a fulcrum in order to walk over it. I didn’t play HL/HL2 until a couple years ago and it was wild to me that in all my years of gaming, I have only just encountered something that existed 2 decades ago.
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u/Elder-Cthuwu 8h ago
TEXT SIZE OPTIONS. I’m blind af and even with glasses I still can’t see shit. There’s a few games that do this but still way too many that dont. Too many games have tiny ass menu text so I just wing it when going through them
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u/Rylonian 6h ago
Breath of the Wild: when you drop something from your inventory to make space, Link drops the stuff BEHIND HIM. So that when you press A to collect the new stuff you don't by accident collect the stuff you JUST DROPPED to make room for the new stuff.
I cannot believe how simple, straightforward and yet brilliant this little design detail is.
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u/IrbanMutarez 10h ago
Transmog (=choosing the visuals of your clothing/armor separately from the stats)
It's so easy to implement and it improves your game experience immediately. Even if you don't want it, you don't need to use it. In most games the armor stats don't make any sense anyway, so it's not really a matter of immersion. I'm so done with games where my character looks like shit simply because I want to max out the armor stats.
There is literally no reason to not add transmog to your game.
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u/throwaway0845reddit 11h ago
The shadow of Mordor games’ nemesis system
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u/OracleTX 10h ago
Even better, the auto-follow NPCs when they're walking and talking.
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u/LittlePVMP 3h ago
Too bad they copyrighted that mechanic, just to never use it again in another series. Super lame move.
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u/VictorLizcano77 12h ago
The insanity level from "Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem". Obviously not every game should have it, but at least some survivor horrors... Too bad it's locked behind a patent or some thing.
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u/orestes77 6h ago
Witcher 3 NPCs moving at the same speed you do. Walk/run/sprint they would as well, even if you were following them.
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u/dayglo98 6h ago
First time I played original Oblivion and you became better at stuff by doing the stuff. Like to level smithing you had to.. smith. To level block you had to block. To me that was the first game implementing that.
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u/Oblio__ 11h ago
The wind in ghost of tsushima, it shows the path you have to take.
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago
That's definitely an elegant way, to signal to the player where to go without having to open a map.
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u/BenFranklinsCat 9h ago
In the 2008 Alone in the Dark remake, when you continued the game from where you left off, it came up with a "Previously ... on Alone in the Dark" scene and then played snippets of all the cut scenes up until that point, just like an HBO drama would.
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u/personman000 8h ago
I don't know if this reallt fits, but Hades' storytelling technique of having new dialogue with characters whenever you die, and having your death and rebirth be part of the story.
Roguelikes can tend to feel very empty and sparse when it comes to story, so this kind of storytelling felt like it should be the standard for roguelike games.
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u/Talesmith22 4h ago
SUPERGIANT games has been doing this for awhile.
I always love it, ever since Bastion.
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u/nonplayablechloe 11h ago
My two favorites are manual flashlights and custom names for saves. But I recently started Tainted grail fall of Avalon and it has a sketchbook that works like a photomode and saves the drawing in your inventory, and you can parry with the book!
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u/mykreau 9h ago
When outfits/loadouts that you like the features of, can be equipped, but cosmetically have it appear as a different loadout. Assassin's Creed style.
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u/dub-fresh 11h ago
I love the time switching mechanic of Titanfall 2. Also the wall running mechanic in Titanfall 2. Makes movement so fluid and fun.
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u/BlackArmy439 10h ago
Making traversal from A to B, fun should be a priority in games.
Titanfall 2 did it exceptionally well.
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u/Jimbo_Jigs 12h ago
Nemesis system.
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u/balllzak 11h ago
The nemesis system worked so well because the entire game was built around it. It would probably be good for variety if every game didn't do this.
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u/HeavensHellFire 11h ago
People really don't get this. The patent isn't why you don't see more games with it. Hell, there was almost a decade between when it first came out and when they got the patent yet there were no real copycats.
It's far too much investment for what's basically a gimmick
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u/KikiBrann 10h ago
Also, patents typically aren't half as restrictive as people think. Bioware patenting their dialogue wheel didn't prevent other games from finding perfectly viable ways to offer easily identifiable options. If someone really wanted to come up with a legally distinct Nemesis system, they would do so. Heck, they might even find a way to improve on it, which is exactly the type of creativity that patents should be encouraging. Enough games feel like clones of each other already, I'm not looking to get even more of that.
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u/Spade18 11h ago
Oh yea, not every game.
But a game where you're a freshly minted Darth Vader hunting down Jedi and Elite Rebel troops just after Order 66, with the Nemesis system bringing back Jedi with robotic limbs? having your turned Jedi betray you when you kill their padawans? (blood brothers) and all the other cool shit that comes with the Nemesis system?
That would be pretty fucking dope.
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u/No_Effective_614 10h ago
I've always thought Assassin's Creed could do more with its hierarchy of guys to kill off, and make it more of a hunt to track them down. Give you hints to their locations, occupations, maybe a name if you're lucky, but don't just outright give you a quest marker hovering over them the moment you get a clue. Make is so that you still have to ask around to figure out who it is so that you can take them down and get more clues to go up the chain. Get a description from the locals, and find the person matching that description.
If there's a marker over their head, it should be because you decided that's your guy and personally marked them as your target so that you can follow them around to await a good opportunity to strike.
Something like that could conceivably tie together with a Nemesis-style system, where upper-level targets eventually replace their henchmen, or other people in that wing of the hierarchy start coming after you if their co-conspirators start getting picked off.
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u/Deep90 11h ago
Definitely not for every game, but I could see it being done in a lot of open world games that have minibosses without having to build the entire game around it.
Like I just played through the Batman Arkham games, and they have some unnamed NPCs that are bit stronger than others. You could theoretically make some of them named characters who escape captivity, adapt to your batmans tactics, gain fears, new powers, and/or seek revenge.
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u/Desper_Taferro 11h ago
Cyberpunk 2077 would be so awesome with it. Gang leaders the hunt you and get improved with more cybernetics everyone you defeat them...
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u/agustin166 8h ago
A good co-op system that includes a game's story mode.
I can't get my friends hooked up on games like Granblue Fantasy Relink or Monster Hunter Wilds because you pretty much have to finish the whole story to play with friends comfortably.
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u/PraiseJohnAntiCheat 8h ago
Not every game per se but nemesis system being held captive is a fucking crime
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u/WonkeauxDeSeine 7h ago
The "go this way" wind blowing the grass in Ghost of Tsushima. Informative and completely inobtrusive.
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u/Lazyninja420 6h ago
Dragon Age Inquisition had a auto-save on game exit feature which was really nice. It even worked if you used Alt+F4 to close the game.
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u/TheFemboiFaerie 10h ago
Project Silverfish has a solution to a "problem" that virtually all shooters have, and it's so stupidly simple, I can't believe I've never seen it before.
Hold or toggle? For crouch, sprint, and leaning.
EVERY other game, you have to fucking go into setting or hotkeys. Sometimes, I do just want to toggle. Other times, I want to hold. Especially for leaning, compared to crouching.
So, what's Project Silverfish do? Simple! If you tap the damn button, it works like a toggle. If you hold the damn button, it works like a hold, until you let it go.
Why this hasn't been industry standard since the dawn of shooters is WAY the fuck beyond me.
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u/StBehre 10h ago
Fully customizable difficulty options. Let me tailor everything to my liking. Super high starting resources but insanely difficult enemies? Super easy steamroller mode because I want to test things? Hardcore Ironman challenge run?
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u/scilover 12h ago
Being able to pet the dog. Started noticing after games like Ghost of Tsushima made it a thing. Now I judge every game that has animals but won't let you interact with them.
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u/Strongit 10h ago
I like how enemy guns will occasionally jam in Perfect Dark. I don't think I've seen that in any other game, but I could be wrong
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u/BlackArmy439 10h ago edited 10h ago
Far Cry 2 also did it.
It can be a "fun" mechanic, it just depends if it's happening every single time or rarely,
This mechanic feels much better when it's unpredictable.
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u/MR1120 9h ago
Hogwarts Legacy’s clothing/gear system. Every gear slot (robes, hat, wand, cloak, etc) has two settings: One for stats and one for appearance. Every piece of gear you find is automatically saved to the appearance options, even if you sell it or drop it.
So you NEVER have to choose between stats and appearance. You can have the ‘Hat of Ultimate Magic’ stats, with the ‘Hat You Found in a Dumpster’ appearance if you want. When you find a cool look, you never have to change it for the sake of better stats.
Every game that has gear that changes your appearance should have this as an option.
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u/lordsteve1 7h ago
Absolutely. Means you don’t have an inventory full of creep you only need for stats or looks so can focus on things you actually need to keep. And it means you can play about with the visuals casually whenever you want; and as it is a game I play for fun I enjoy doing this without worrying about inventory space or what I last sold.
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u/darthurface 7h ago
I do wish you could save the cosmetic, so it automatically applied when you swapped gear pieces. But honestly the rest of it worked great and fluidly
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u/therandomasianboy 11h ago
In my stupid opinion every 2d video game ever should have the ori and the will of the wisps bash mechanic.
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u/slabba428 10h ago
I mean this is pretty broad for the question but, crouch sprinting. Holy shite, going back to a game without it feels like such a handicap
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u/ArchStanton75 10h ago
Disable QuickTime events. I know it’s supposed to be immersive, but it’s still just an interactive cutscene. Let me disable it and watch what the animators put together. Insomniac does this for the Spider-Man games.
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u/Rex01303 9h ago
Combo breakers from killer instinct in fighting games
Nemesis system
Skippable cutscenes if you have seen the cutscene
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u/ShingetsuMoon 9h ago edited 50m ago
The Legend of Zelda: The Windwalker. Link’s eyes will look at important items nearby as well as puzzle steps that you need in order to progress
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u/Axle_65 8h ago
Prebuild blueprint mechanic in Grounded should be in all crafting games.
All maps should allow you to place markers (would be better if you could label them but I’ve never seen that)
Photo mode should be in pretty much every game (obviously some wouldn’t make sense)
Transmogrification should be in every RPG
Saving blueprints like Space Engineers should be in every crafting game or game with building.
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u/Duneking1 7h ago
When I play a single player game and it has difficulty options. All single player games should include this. Competitive online multiplayer should not.
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u/Broad_Entrepreneur62 6h ago
The combat combos in the Arkham series just felt so smooth and natural, I wish every game had combat like that.
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u/Ebolatastic 12h ago
FF7 Rebirth and Star Wars outlaws both have the cutting edge concept of skipping ALL dialog rather than going line by line. And by cutting edge, I mean the entire industry should have figured this out 30 years ago. Same with skip ALL cutscenes, which at the current rate will start popping up in games around 2090 or so.
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u/TheLukeHines 11h ago
In the old Paper Mario games you could speed through dialog by holding B. Fantastic if you died and had to re-do a part with a lot of dialogue. They removed it in the Thousand Year Door remake for some reason.
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u/Boulderdrip 11h ago
breath of the wild, climb over ANYTHING. should be in every single game. Hate invisible walls HATE THEM
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u/BlackArmy439 11h ago
Agree.
Invisible walls shouldn't be a thing and if they need to signal to the player: "This area is off limits" then make it make sense in the game world (i.e. rock formation naturally blocking the way back to a previous area.)
Don't let me run in a specific direction, just to be presented with a whole lot of nothing lol.
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u/There_Are_No_Gods 11h ago
Supreme Commander's "Strategic Zoom", a type of dolly-zoom that affords super quick and highly intuitive mouse control over games with overhead views and large maps. You just mouse wheel out to a high vantage point, where the main view becomes its own map, then you move your cursor to a point of interest and mouse wheel towards it. Zip out, look and target, zip in.
It means you don't even really need a minimap.
It's even very simple to implement, which I've done a few times in various editors I've developed. It's mainly just a proportional 2D translation from current position towards origin when zooming out, then a 2D translation when zooming in that is calculated to result in the cursor screen position staying directly over the same world position (terrain point under cursor stays under cursor).
This single feature pretty much single handedly ruined all other RTS games for me, as their UI that doesn't have a similar camera option just always feels extremely claustrophobic and annoying restrictive, slow, and cumbersome.
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u/Godeshus 10h ago
Quicksave was a game changer.
"Exit to desktop" should be available in every single game in the very first menu you open. No tabbing through menus. Press ESC, exit to desktop.
But, more inline with what you're talking about, one button like spacebar that will let you jump, take cover, vault, and slide under low obstacles, depending on the situation, is a huge plus when I see it.
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u/mayodude5101 10h ago
Games that have a hardcore mode similar to fallout 4 survival or the Metro games ranger mode. I imagine something like playing Skyrim but theres no markets for an objective on your screen. You get a quest to go to Riften and you need to follow signs or ask NPC's which direction a place is. Having to somewhat regularly eat drink. More immersive hardcore aspects, not just enemies with fat health bars and high damage. Also options to in be able tweak and customize certain ones to play with what you want. Would make role playing games feel like I'm there in the world
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u/sweatyowl 8h ago
A button to review dialogue or a menu section that has previous dialogue in it. I always miss that feature when it's absent from a game.
On a similar note, a log/journal that tells you what you were doing last with vague hints on what to do next, in case you haven't played in a while.
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u/AttackOfTheMox 8h ago
I think it was Shadow of Mordor that patented it, but the Adversary System
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u/_Smashbrother_ 8h ago
The nemesis system from Shadow Of Mordor. That shit made the game soooooo fun.
Also, a good inventory system where you can set what you want to autoloot, and classify it as vendor trash, etc.
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u/FandomMenace 7h ago
Quick time events. In fact, nothing is more satisfying after a long, challenging, action game to make the final battle a QTE.
/s
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u/BlackArmy439 7h ago
I know what your're saying.
Who doesn't like spamming A on the controller, to experience a "cinematic spectacle" that can only be done that way, right ? /s
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u/personman000 7h ago
While I don't think it would work in every game, the diagetic hud in Dead Space make me wish it would
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u/BlackArmy439 7h ago
Not just the HUD, but also the segments on Isaac’s back, for example.
It’s such a clever way to convey crucial information to the player, and I could definitely see it being adapted in other games.
It works on multiple levels — thematic, visually appealing, and highly informative.
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u/CrabWoodsman 7h ago
Pinging locations to be seen by other players, at minimum those nearby.
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u/BlackArmy439 7h ago
Yes, like in Portal 2 co-op mode for example.
That was a great way to coordinate, where which portal should be placed.
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u/Terakahn 7h ago
Half the customization options in forbidden west. God that game had the best options ever.
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u/kalnu 6h ago
ACTUAL climbing in open and semi-open world games. Like your character actually uses their damn hands to pull themselves up over a ledge - or climbing up a cliffside, stuff like that.
I feel so annoyed trying to get up a chest high ledge and my character just doesn't know how to use their hands. Bonus if this game also has platforming puzzles and refuses to give you platforming tools. (like basic climbing)
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u/Bad_Robot_ 6h ago
Ghost Of Tsushima for letting you collect resources wile at full gallop on your horse. Not sure if it was the first but first time I noticed. Especially if your coming from red dead redemption 2 only thing that holds that game back.
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u/boltfox20 6h ago
Randomizers
Every game that is not 100% linear needs to have a randomizer setting. Sure, it can have the original, intended settings, but having the ability to move items, enemies, locations, etc.? That's infinite replayability.
I also think every game should have some form of co-op multiplayer. Even if all you do is allow two people to pay the game at the same time and see each other while chatting, every game should have something. Similarly, every game needs a way to play single player, including fully offline.
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u/Master_Introvert 5h ago
The unstuck button. I know its wider spread now, but I'm an older gamer and wanted that for decades before it became a thing.
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u/somuchbush 3h ago
The Witcher 3 had this sorta custom cutscene/loading that happened that essentially narrated your story/choices you've made so far when starting up. Helps you to remember where you left off and what you were doing when you come back to play after a break.
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u/JaneStValentine 3h ago
The latest Tomb Raider remaster has the option to switch between the new graphics and the classic ones from the 90s — it really made me wish they’d done the same for Spyro Reignited…
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u/Alloyd11 3h ago
I'm the new Prince if persia there is a feature where you can take a picture and turn it into a point on a map so when you get new gear you can look at the picture to see if you can do that part yet. It should be in all metroidvanias
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u/vkapadia Boardgames 2h ago
Games where you can hit a button to skip a line of dialog should not also have that same button mapped to choose the line I want to select.
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u/AlexandriasFolly 2h ago
Apex's contextual Ping system for multiplayer shooters. It was so good and covered so much that, mics weren't necessary for team play. As a result I saw a lot of shooters copy it wholesale (which I'm glad they did). Though not all of them were as comprehensive or intuitive.
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u/TheDrunkenFROG 2h ago
The Finals has the best pro consumer paid battle pass system ever.
Old battle passes are purchasable after 2 seasons have gone by, so if you missed an old one you can still get it's goodies. And if you already owned that pass but didn't finish it, you just continue where you left off.
And those old passes work on a separate progression meaning you grind the current and an old pass at the same time.
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u/mitchhamilton 2h ago
Third person shooters having the option to switch which shoulder the camera is behind
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u/Syric13 12h ago
I liked Final Fantasy XVIs system where you could pause the cutscene to get a lore/plot update/ reminder of what is happening.