What game mechanics do you love and hate?

MJBrune@beehaw.org to Gaming@beehaw.org – 184 points –

I love hearing about unique takes on game mechanics. Someone recently convinced me that limited inventories are kind of abused currently and that unlimited inventory systems would give more player choices.

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Hate: disproportionately excessive penalties for falls (usually found in platformers).

If you get shot in the face by an enemy, you lose your shield, lose a life, whatever. In a bad platformer, if you don’t time a difficult jump exactly right, you lose a life, lose everything in your inventory, get sent back to the very beginning of the level, get audited, and have to mow the developers lawn for an entire summer.

Platformers are “guilty until proven innocent” - I won’t play one until I know it won’t destroy my will to live.

That's why Celeste is one of my favorite platformers. If you fail, you respawn at the very "screen" you died.

God damn that's a great game. At the same time, I think they did this knowing that folks would die all the time, so they didn't want each death to be super punishing.

at the very “screen”

In older games they were called "rooms"

Out of interest, what platformers are you referencing here? I can't think of any that are that punishing.

I stopped playing salt and sanctuary because of the platforming, despite being an ardent lover of souls likes.

I honestly can’t even remember the one that first set me off. It’s been a while. I just remember realizing that gravity was more punishing than any of the enemies, and thinking “oh, to hell with this.”

For platformers, maybe. But for certain genres -- like battle royale -- the risk of losing it all after one mistake is part of the thrill. It all depends on the game.