Forced Video Game Experiences You Hate

[Lanx]

Assassin's Creed => everything Desmond.

So my wife is on a 3rd person shooter binge after last of us/uncharted and i broke out the old Ezio Triology for her.

I never had assassins' creed 1, but honestly you only play assassin's creed for Ezio anyway.

Desmond... is like the worst forced protagonist you have to play. He's nothing more than a plot device to go into the Animus to play Ezio, and the whole mayan 2012 end of world storyline is stupid anyway.

You know a game has a stupid forced mechanic when my wife finishes a chapter, and she (and i) dread the next chapter... "omg is it a desmond chapter?"

I hate that they've been shoving down Desmond into assassin's creed for 3 games and two spinoffs, i hate it so much that when a horrible desmond chapter comes up, i will play it for my wife just so we can advance the story. Oh she can play it of course, but he's Desmond... a worthless character!, why let me play a great character like Ezio, even Altair(in revelations) hell, even playing the Indian in AC3 is better than playing desmond.

[nubbinator]

Well, I hate every Assassin's Creed game I tried.  They were obnoxiously repetitive and seemed to reward button mashing.  How they did so well as a franchise is beyond me.  That said, when I played it, I actually found the Desmond stuff more interesting story wise than the Ezio game play.  In fact, I think one of the major shortcomings of the game from when I played it was not developing that outside world better.  I didn't really care so much for the assassin part, but was really interested in how it was supposed to relate to the current day with Desmond. I wanted to know what was happening in the shadows, what he was supposed to be uncovering with the Animus, and how they related to each other.  Instead it turned into a case of "oh, it's a battle that have been happening between these two groups forever" thing.  It would have been awesome to me to have the present day political intrigue slowly be revealed through the missions in the animus, then have the series end with a futuristic Splinter Cell type game where you put an end to the evil people you've been fighting against throughout the historical memories.

[Jack Karneval]

Well, I hate every Assassin's Creed game I tried.  They were obnoxiously repetitive and seemed to reward button mashing.  How they did so well as a franchise is beyond me.  That said, when I played it, I actually found the Desmond stuff more interesting story wise than the Ezio game play.  In fact, I think one of the major shortcomings of the game from when I played it was not developing that outside world better.  I didn't really care so much for the assassin part, but was really interested in how it was supposed to relate to the current day with Desmond. I wanted to know what was happening in the shadows, what he was supposed to be uncovering with the Animus, and how they related to each other.  Instead it turned into a case of "oh, it's a battle that have been happening between these two groups forever" thing.  It would have been awesome to me to have the present day political intrigue slowly be revealed through the missions in the animus, then have the series end with a futuristic Splinter Cell type game where you put an end to the evil people you've been fighting against throughout the historical memories.

^^^ THIS! ^^^ I've only played the first Assassin's Creed and that is why I couldn't complete the game. I think I killed maybe the first important guy and then realized it was going to be rinse, wash, and repeat after that so I just couldn't do it. It doesn't help that around the same time I played Farcry 2 which was also developed my Ubisoft Montreal, and that had such terribly repetitive gameplay that I'm surprised I even got as far as I did.

[baldgye]

almost all the gameplay parts of The Last of Us

[noisyturtle]

Quick time events. They are the designers way of saying "We couldn't actually come up with a workable and decent mechanic for this boss battle/point in the level so here's a part where you watch a prerendered fmv and have to press a button at a specific moment! Oh, did you mess that up, well that's an instant death and you get to do the whole thing over again! Oh, did you ACTUALLY think you were just watching a cut scene? Well let us throw in this random-assed button press that you will never see coming that affects everything else if you miss it. We deserve an ice cream!"

Also: Ice levels, pinpoint precision jumping puzzles, grinding in games that aren't MMO's, almost all motion control, forced social interaction features (a la PS4s 'share' button)

[nubbinator]

Oh, another mechanic I hated.  The boss fights in the latest Dues Ex game.  The game itself was fun, but the boss fights were so different from the general game play and didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the game.

[Jack]

Cat burglar levels in No One Lives Forever. The game kinda sorta works as a sneaker but it isn't Splinter Cell and it gets pretty frustrating having to act like it is.

And, uh … yeah, that's all I've got; I don't even have anything pertinent to this decade.

[Lanx]

ugh word on quick time events, worst offender ... anything resident evil. because of those horrible quick time events, we couldn't even play the new tomb raider, just so silly. (slap r1 and r2 really fast like you're climbing!!!)

[PointyFox]

Oh, another mechanic I hated.  The boss fights in the latest Dues Ex game.  The game itself was fun, but the boss fights were so different from the general game play and didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the game.

Yeah, they outsourced the boss fights.  Everyone hated them.

[meiosis]

The invisible walls in that one electric gym in Pokemon R/B/Y, until I noticed that the way it was programmed showed you where the walls were.

[McWilloughby]

Quick time events. They are the designers way of saying "We couldn't actually come up with a workable and decent mechanic for this boss battle/point in the level so here's a part where you watch a prerendered fmv and have to press a button at a specific moment! Oh, did you mess that up, well that's an instant death and you get to do the whole thing over again! Oh, did you ACTUALLY think you were just watching a cut scene? Well let us throw in this random-assed button press that you will never see coming that affects everything else if you miss it. We deserve an ice cream!"

Definitely this. There are quite a few of them in the new Tomb Raider and I found that most of the time I had no idea what button to press as it just gave me these miscellaneous symbols that I'm fairly sure it never actually introduced. I wish there was an option in these games to just have the quick time events as cutscenes instead.

[Binge]

The uncomfortable moments when peers talk about Madden/Halo as a follow up to heated Pokemon debates.  Screw those guys for trying to make friends!

[IvanIvanovich]

I also find QTE the worst... but even more so when they are on a lazy console port and it says some **** like press triangle... what the hell is that mapped to on a keyboard... no clue.

[jdcarpe]

ugh word on quick time events, worst offender ... anything resident evil. because of those horrible quick time events, we couldn't even play the new tomb raider, just so silly. (slap r1 and r2 really fast like you're climbing!!!)

I also find QTE the worst... but even more so when they are on a lazy console port and it says some **** like press triangle... what the hell is that mapped to on a keyboard... no clue.

Quick time events. They are the designers way of saying "We couldn't actually come up with a workable and decent mechanic for this boss battle/point in the level so here's a part where you watch a prerendered fmv and have to press a button at a specific moment! Oh, did you mess that up, well that's an instant death and you get to do the whole thing over again! Oh, did you ACTUALLY think you were just watching a cut scene? Well let us throw in this random-assed button press that you will never see coming that affects everything else if you miss it. We deserve an ice cream!"

Also: Ice levels, pinpoint precision jumping puzzles, grinding in games that aren't MMO's, almost all motion control, forced social interaction features (a la PS4s 'share' button)

Quick time events. They are the designers way of saying "We couldn't actually come up with a workable and decent mechanic for this boss battle/point in the level so here's a part where you watch a prerendered fmv and have to press a button at a specific moment! Oh, did you mess that up, well that's an instant death and you get to do the whole thing over again! Oh, did you ACTUALLY think you were just watching a cut scene? Well let us throw in this random-assed button press that you will never see coming that affects everything else if you miss it. We deserve an ice cream!"

Definitely this. There are quite a few of them in the new Tomb Raider and I found that most of the time I had no idea what button to press as it just gave me these miscellaneous symbols that I'm fairly sure it never actually introduced. I wish there was an option in these games to just have the quick time events as cutscenes instead.

Clearly the worst at this was the arcade classic, Dragon's Lair. When I was a kid, I would drop a quarter in the machine, only to play through the first cutscene and die immediately. Repeat ad nauseum.

[Lanx]

but dragon's lair was like a movie! i'd just goto the grocery store and watch the older kids play.

[noisyturtle]

Have you played Dragon's Lair for the SNES? I hear they use it for getting information from terror cells in Guantanamo.

[Leslieann]

Far Cry 3, the last choice you make is horrid, who the hell thought that was a good plot twist?
Not only is it cut scene, but you are forced to make a terrible choice, and it's quite graphic. I took the other option then watched it on you tube, however the designers thought so highly of this, that they made sure you could go back re-play it over and over.
For those who don't get it, watch this. (warning: spoilers, graphic violence, disturbing concepts)

[Sifo]

Far Cry 3, the last choice you make is horrid, who the hell thought that was a good plot twist?
Not only is it cut scene, but you are forced to make a terrible choice, and it's quite graphic. I took the other option then watched it on you tube, however the designers thought so highly of this, that they made sure you could go back re-play it over and over.
For those who don't get it, watch this. (warning: spoilers, graphic violence, disturbing concepts)

Spoiler response:

More

I chose killing Citra the first time and never bothered, even though I knew what would happen the other way around.

[Internetlad]

As stupid as it sounds, fighting enemies in RPGs. I'm not talking normal gameplay or whatever but there are 2 instances where I get pretty ticked.

1. forced grinding. Why I hated FF. It seems like you can't just battle your way through the game and still beat the bosses, you have to stop and do an hours grind in between to keep your party levelled. ugh.

2. excessive encounters/encounters at inopportune times. I'm chasing down the big bad of the game, he's waiting at this end of the tunnel, and the hero decides it's time to stop and fight a couple of cave rats. Think Zubats in Pokemon. There's no area inside any cave in the game you can't run into these guys, they're everywhere. It makes it so I don't even want to explore this cave, i'm out of repels or whatever the analogue is for the game i'm playing and enemies 12 levels below me keep popping out to have a go. Really kills the mood.

[thegunner100]

I really hate being forced to see really long attack animations of some attacks every time I use them in RPGs. Thank god epsxe allows you to remove the frame limit to go through the animations faster. Some games do a really good job at keeping the animations to a minimum, like the aeons in FFX. In a indie game that I've played, called "The Genius of Sappheiros", there was an option to turn off attack animations! Amazing considering how much time was required to grind the levels and get the gear to beat the true final boss (optional).

I don't mind grinding in RPGs, if it's for an optional or post-game boss. Those are meant to be hard imo, and should require some time investment to beat them. I guess that wouldn't be considered "forced" then i suppose. Excessive random encounters are really annoying though, especially if you're at the end of the game or if you're overleveled for your current area.

[Krogenar]

I don't know if this would qualify as a 'forced' event -- but the interminable lagginess and bugginess in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. God, I loved these games just the same, but the more you play them, the more buggy they would seem to get, until you could only play maybe 3 minutes before the game froze up. Really, really maddening.

[Jack Karneval]

I don't know if this would qualify as a 'forced' event -- but the interminable lagginess and bugginess in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. God, I loved these games just the same, but the more you play them, the more buggy they would seem to get, until you could only play maybe 3 minutes before the game froze up. Really, really maddening.

Were you playing them on the console, because it's pretty bad on the consoles. But also, have you ever seen an open-world Bethesda game without bugs....? Us Bethesda fans will always be searching for that unicorn.... but we will never find it 

[nubbinator]

Were you playing them on the console, because it's pretty bad on the consoles. But also, have you ever seen an open-world Bethesda game without bugs....? Us Bethesda fans will always be searching for that unicorn.... but we will never find it 

Fallout: New Vegas is virtually unplayable on my desktop.  Same with Dead Island. 

[Jack Karneval]

Were you playing them on the console, because it's pretty bad on the consoles. But also, have you ever seen an open-world Bethesda game without bugs....? Us Bethesda fans will always be searching for that unicorn.... but we will never find it 

Fallout: New Vegas is virtually unplayable on my desktop.  Same with Dead Island.

Huh weird, can you think of any reason why? My computer slayed New Vegas, and I had very little glitches to bug problems with that game too. Then again, I also played it not that long ago, and even that was a year or two after it came out.

[nubbinator]

Huh weird, can you think of any reason why? My computer slayed New Vegas, and I had very little glitches to bug problems with that game too. Then again, I also played it not that long ago, and even that was a year or two after it came out.

Poorly coded.  Tons of people had issues with NV on PC.  Oddly, it got worse when I switched to a 3570k from an Athlon II X3 (well, really Phenom II X4 since it unlocked to one).

[Krogenar]

Yeah, I played both on a PS3 --- great gameplay and sandbox worlds -- when they work. It seemed that the more DLC packs you purchased, the worse the gameplay. I had always heard that the PC version of these games played well, or at least better. And you could mod the chicks to wear thongs in-game, so there was always that, LOL!

[Internetlad]

never had issues with PC NV. My specs were far and beyond what the reccomended were though as I played it several years after it came out.

[Lanx]

how about totally different gameplay mechanic to advance the story.

like you're in a rpg, but the only way to get the "ultimate weapon" is to win 1million in texas hold em

i know there are games like that, just can't name one off the top of my head.

[thegunner100]

how about totally different gameplay mechanic to advance the story.

like you're in a rpg, but the only way to get the "ultimate weapon" is to win 1million in texas hold em

i know there are games like that, just can't name one off the top of my head.

In xenogears 3, in order to get Ziggy's ultimate weapon, you had to play through 60 levels of this puzzle mini-game. It was pretty optional though, since there wasn't much post-game content. Maybe FF7 requiring you to play the chocobo race to get omnislash? Though I suppose that's pretty optional too.

I think requiring you to go through a different gameplay mechanic to get the ultimate weapons is fine, since often times they're optional.

[Internetlad]

OH, Here's another. 40 minute cutscenes (bonus points if they're codec) in MGS games.

I swear they're getting worse. I remember being bored out of my skull waiting to play MGS3 because it took naked snake 10 minutes to hop his ass out of a plane, then talk for another 30 minutes or so.

[nubbinator]

never had issues with PC NV. My specs were far and beyond what the reccomended were though as I played it several years after it came out.

I have a 3570k and 7950.  No reason it shouldn't play well, but there are incessant lock ups, crashes, lost save files, and so many more issues.  It's a very common problem with the game, even on PC.

[Thimplum]

LoZ:SS's constant running around and collecting stuff.

[nubbinator]

LoZ:SS's constant running around and collecting stuff.

Ahh, that reminds me of the loot mining mechanic.  Borderlands and BL2 was fun for a little while, but it's all about loot mining and after a while it just gets boring.  The story line also has almost no replay value.

[Jack Karneval]

How about having to play through Bushido Blade's "Slash" mode's 100 enemies without getting hit in order to unlock Katze in multiplayer?

/obscure video game reference....

[noisyturtle]

OH, Here's another. 40 minute cutscenes (bonus points if they're codec) in MGS games.

I swear they're getting worse. I remember being bored out of my skull waiting to play MGS3 because it took naked snake 10 minutes to hop his ass out of a plane, then talk for another 30 minutes or so.

MGS4: The best movie you'll ever play

[PointyFox]

GTA4 Liberty City - Acquaintances calling every few minutes and forcing you to stop what you're doing, pick them up somewhere, drive them to something, play a minigame, then drive them back.

Shenmue 2 - Walking from one Chinese village to another.  Seriously, it takes about 5-7 hours.

[TimIsABat]

COD

[Jack Karneval]

COD

Yeah.... they'll never stop beating that dead horse... 

[Lastpilot]

Gran Turismo 5 menu loading times....

[Thimplum]

COD

[Binge]

Console UI forced on the PC version and vice versa... modern games need a controller mode and extended control mode.

[TimIsABat]

Diablo III... Thank God I tried it as a demo first before giving Blizz my 60 bucks away.  Looks pretty but is lack luster.

[Binge]

There is nothing forced about that video game experience.  This thread is not about arguably terrible games.

[Jack Karneval]

Has anyone brought up being forced to have an internet connection for those games that require an internet connection to play? Because that sucks, although it doesn't necessarily bother me...