Pretty much every MMORPG is chock full of "chores". I thought WoW was bad (kill x of this, take y to z, etc). There's a free Korean game called Silkroad Online, which looks gorgeous... but after the first few levels, you're doing "collect 200 skins" on random drops. I was dumbstruck! The things people do for "fun".
What's the worst chores games have ever inflicted on you?
- Thread starter Shifty Geezer
- Start date
I was talking generally dumb escorts - I've never played RE4. An exmaple of one I have played is GuildWars, where the person you have to escort just runs off regardless into hordes of enemies and gets slaughtered after an hour's working doing the rest of the mission, so you have to start againdarkblu said:
Yes, this seems the basis of many chores, like having to complete the game on an insanely easy mode before getting a decent challenge in the hard mode. I guess it's to add 'longevity'. Where you have a game that's maybe 10 hours long, all these unlockables count towards 'replayability' especially in game reviews. eg. LocoRoco is a short game, but getting the 100% win and unlockables adds replayability. Sometimes they're fun, or a satisfying challenge, but often you're repeating a task you don't really want to.Acert93 said:
On a related note, where do game designers learn their trade? Is there a university course where they study the art of designing chores for their game? Or do people just play games, see what everyone else is doing, and sets themself up as a game designer to repeat the same mistakes?
Protection/Escort missions, Goldeneye, N64, 'Control' level, Agent 00 difficulty. Period.
I'll also add crappy implemented stealth phases to the list.
Advise to game designers reading this, when you're working on an average action title or platformer, just try to concentrate on making the game an above the average, or more, action title instead of trying to include terrible stealth elements to your game.
I'll also add crappy implemented stealth phases to the list.
Advise to game designers reading this, when you're working on an average action title or platformer, just try to concentrate on making the game an above the average, or more, action title instead of trying to include terrible stealth elements to your game.
Not the worst example but...
I was playing someone else's xbox just yesterday, just for the heck of it, I tried out 'Alias'.
Ignoring the fact it was a poor game, it had a 'hacking' sequence in the first mission. Your job was... ahem... to hack encryption. You pressed black/white/a/b buttons to put the letters a/b/c/d into a code. The code was 3 letters long, no repeating. It also had a 'visual hacking tool', in the form of a rotating exploded box (ala swordfish but much lamer).
This was in the first mission, and utterly enraged me because it was so incredibly retarded. I can't even imagine what the latter 'challenges' were like.
Luckily I got stuck in a room because a box I'd moved forced a door to close that would only open once. So I went on a half-naked killing spree, with what are possibly the worst fighting controls of all time. Forced me to give up on the game.
According to the owner of the game, in a latter mission you get trapped in a metal cell with a giant metal door. None of your expert hacking tools will open the door (even the super lockpick). So, erm, yeah, you do what naturally occurs to anyone in this situation. Bash down the giant metal door with a guitar.
I'd also add Fable's stealth quest to the list. Sigh.
I was playing someone else's xbox just yesterday, just for the heck of it, I tried out 'Alias'.
Ignoring the fact it was a poor game, it had a 'hacking' sequence in the first mission. Your job was... ahem... to hack encryption. You pressed black/white/a/b buttons to put the letters a/b/c/d into a code. The code was 3 letters long, no repeating. It also had a 'visual hacking tool', in the form of a rotating exploded box (ala swordfish but much lamer).
This was in the first mission, and utterly enraged me because it was so incredibly retarded. I can't even imagine what the latter 'challenges' were like.
Luckily I got stuck in a room because a box I'd moved forced a door to close that would only open once. So I went on a half-naked killing spree, with what are possibly the worst fighting controls of all time. Forced me to give up on the game.
According to the owner of the game, in a latter mission you get trapped in a metal cell with a giant metal door. None of your expert hacking tools will open the door (even the super lockpick). So, erm, yeah, you do what naturally occurs to anyone in this situation. Bash down the giant metal door with a guitar.
I'd also add Fable's stealth quest to the list. Sigh.
Following the obvious straight-line linear path thru every modern FPS. I'm tired of linearity!!!! STOP!
Of course, I suppose linearity is the way of things. Even Oblivion's sandbox world relies on linear events, quests, etc. And, well, so does the real world. Causality!!!!
Of course, I suppose linearity is the way of things. Even Oblivion's sandbox world relies on linear events, quests, etc. And, well, so does the real world. Causality!!!!
One of the worst of all is the roulette game at Riverside bar in Alundra (the first, on PSX), which is as random as possible.
And you have to succeed 5 times in a row !
result : some succeed in getting the (2) reward(s) in one hour, others don't get one in 20 hours !
On my first play a few years ago, i spend the necessary time to get the life vessel and the golden falcon.
I played it again last month and simply skipped that mini-game...
And you have to succeed 5 times in a row !
result : some succeed in getting the (2) reward(s) in one hour, others don't get one in 20 hours !
On my first play a few years ago, i spend the necessary time to get the life vessel and the golden falcon.
I played it again last month and simply skipped that mini-game...
Type_Raver
Newcomer
Back tracking! Donkey kong 64 comes to mind immediately, also its notorious for collecting this, that and the other.
Sailing in Zelda:WW, boooring, and catching that ghost ship, ugh.
Forced scrolling on 2d platformers, like New SMB. I prefer to run through at my own pace.
Rolling starts in GT4! I wanna launch the car with a bit of spin, kicking it a lil' sidways (which you cant ). Also the fact that it forces you to watch the intro to the rolling start, unable to skip right through to the part where you cross the line and start racing.
GOW, allocated save points. That goes for any game, just let me save anywhere.
Thats all i can think of now.
Sailing in Zelda:WW, boooring, and catching that ghost ship, ugh.
Forced scrolling on 2d platformers, like New SMB. I prefer to run through at my own pace.
Rolling starts in GT4! I wanna launch the car with a bit of spin, kicking it a lil' sidways (which you cant
). Also the fact that it forces you to watch the intro to the rolling start, unable to skip right through to the part where you cross the line and start racing.GOW, allocated save points. That goes for any game, just let me save anywhere.
Thats all i can think of now.
Unlockables don't bother me so much if the game is already pretty well-featured. Heck, isn't the whole point of Gran Turismo to unlock stuff? Same goes for fighting games, etc, but it does annoy me when unlocking something as key as multiplayer modes or arenas is a total pain in the arse.
I'm pretty sure the whole entire game of Icewind Dale was basically a giant chore. "Walk to the end of this giant .gif and stab everything that appears" is just not my idea of a good time.
Hexen (the first one) was a great game except that finding all the switches to advance to the next hub was often aggravating.
I'm pretty sure the whole entire game of Icewind Dale was basically a giant chore. "Walk to the end of this giant .gif and stab everything that appears" is just not my idea of a good time.
Hexen (the first one) was a great game except that finding all the switches to advance to the next hub was often aggravating.
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
Type_Raver said:
How about back tracking through repetitive levels that all looked the same the first time you went through them?
Especially in between save games. There's nothing worse then loading up a saved game and not being able to tell which direction you are supposed to go and you end up spending half an hour wandering around the entire level back and forth because you don't remember where you've been because everything looks the same, and because the game forces you to backtrack.. so even if you remember where you've been, you might have to go back in that direction anyway! Arrgh!
Shark Sandwich
Regular
FFX practically wrote the book on stupid chores in video games. In addition to dodging lightning bolts:
- you had to "race" a chocobo while getting bombarded with birds and blitzballs (for Tidus' weapon I believe). You pretty much have to make a perfect run in order to get the time required. It's about as fun as it sounds.
- you had to play Blitzball to get Wakka's weapon. Blitzball involved no reflexes whatsoever, it was all about hiring the best players and that's it.
- you had to catch butterflies. This involved touching all the blue ones and avoiding the red ones within a time limit. It basically amounts to finding the one correct path after trying over and over.
Aside from FFX. . . Xenosaga 2's 4-minute battles were all work and no fun. It was cool how the battles were all about breaking your enemies defenses and coordinating your characters' attacks, however, the way it was implemented was horrible. You're basically forced to use one strategy for every single enemy in the game, from the level 1 slimes all the way to the final boss: build everybody's combo gauge up to the max while your enemies beat the crap out of you, break your enemy's defense, then combo the ever-loving juices out of them. Repeat until everybody's dead. Magic, special abilities, and the unison attacks are all worthless. Every time you bump into some random enemy you have to do the same ~4-minute chore again. (4 minutes is no exaggeration. . . there's a timer that shows you how long your battle took.) It was especially frustrating when you walk into a room and immediately realize "it's going to take me about 15 minutes to get to the exit. . . here I go".
Oblivion is another game filled with chores. Oblivion was supposed to be revolutionary, but you ended up doing the same stupid shit you do in every other RPG. I guess it's a bad sign when the game starts out with an escort mission and then immediately gives you a FedEx mission. There are fetch quests everywhere. Instead of having only a few generic caves like some RPGs. . . Oblivion has 16 square miles of terrain that's just littered with generic, identical caves and/or ruins. Oh brave new world!
Also, the whole level-up system was one big chore. Any sane person would choose the 7 skills they plan to use the most as their main ones. However, this would severely handicap you in Oblivion. Instead, you have to pay close attention and level up your minor skills first, preferably setting a bunch of worthless skills as your main ones. Failure to do so results in a worthless character by the time you reach level 10 or so. Oblivion was supposed to let you play the way you want to, with your skills leveling up as you use them and your character developing accordingly. The way it's implemented, though, it punishes you for playing the way you want, and rewards you for carefully planning which skills you level up in-between each character level.
- you had to "race" a chocobo while getting bombarded with birds and blitzballs (for Tidus' weapon I believe). You pretty much have to make a perfect run in order to get the time required. It's about as fun as it sounds.
- you had to play Blitzball to get Wakka's weapon. Blitzball involved no reflexes whatsoever, it was all about hiring the best players and that's it.
- you had to catch butterflies. This involved touching all the blue ones and avoiding the red ones within a time limit. It basically amounts to finding the one correct path after trying over and over.
Aside from FFX. . . Xenosaga 2's 4-minute battles were all work and no fun. It was cool how the battles were all about breaking your enemies defenses and coordinating your characters' attacks, however, the way it was implemented was horrible. You're basically forced to use one strategy for every single enemy in the game, from the level 1 slimes all the way to the final boss: build everybody's combo gauge up to the max while your enemies beat the crap out of you, break your enemy's defense, then combo the ever-loving juices out of them. Repeat until everybody's dead. Magic, special abilities, and the unison attacks are all worthless. Every time you bump into some random enemy you have to do the same ~4-minute chore again. (4 minutes is no exaggeration. . . there's a timer that shows you how long your battle took.) It was especially frustrating when you walk into a room and immediately realize "it's going to take me about 15 minutes to get to the exit. . . here I go".
Oblivion is another game filled with chores. Oblivion was supposed to be revolutionary, but you ended up doing the same stupid shit you do in every other RPG. I guess it's a bad sign when the game starts out with an escort mission and then immediately gives you a FedEx mission. There are fetch quests everywhere. Instead of having only a few generic caves like some RPGs. . . Oblivion has 16 square miles of terrain that's just littered with generic, identical caves and/or ruins. Oh brave new world!
Also, the whole level-up system was one big chore. Any sane person would choose the 7 skills they plan to use the most as their main ones. However, this would severely handicap you in Oblivion. Instead, you have to pay close attention and level up your minor skills first, preferably setting a bunch of worthless skills as your main ones. Failure to do so results in a worthless character by the time you reach level 10 or so. Oblivion was supposed to let you play the way you want to, with your skills leveling up as you use them and your character developing accordingly. The way it's implemented, though, it punishes you for playing the way you want, and rewards you for carefully planning which skills you level up in-between each character level.
How about when a first-person shooter has long levels with a bunch of objectives but has no checkpoints, saves, or health...and requires you to beat them all on hard mode to unlock one of the best multiplayer arenas? Yes, I'm thinking of Timesplitters 2. I'm sure there are others that do this, though.
Lack of saves is somethng very interesting. I guess that's a chore. At the end of a gaming session you start down a road to see what's coming up next and 15 minutes later, think you want to stop now, where's the save point. And an hour later you're thinking you've got to keep on going as you must be near the end by now. And another hour later you're sick of the game, until you finally get to save and switch it off.
My worst experience of this was ICO. Towards the end of the game a quick 30 minute go turned into a couple of hours where the end of the game has no save points at all. I wasn't in any mood to appreciate the ending and so any emotional impact was lost on me. When save points had been pretty numerous throughout the rest of the game, suddenly having a drought was a bad move.
I can understand wanting to prevent gamers from abusing saves, or not wanting to interrupt storytelling with the user stopping halfway through the finale. Still, such games should have a warning at each save point for the likely time to next save, so we can plan not to start a 2 hour trek when we only intend to play for 30 minutes.
My worst experience of this was ICO. Towards the end of the game a quick 30 minute go turned into a couple of hours where the end of the game has no save points at all. I wasn't in any mood to appreciate the ending and so any emotional impact was lost on me. When save points had been pretty numerous throughout the rest of the game, suddenly having a drought was a bad move.
I can understand wanting to prevent gamers from abusing saves, or not wanting to interrupt storytelling with the user stopping halfway through the finale. Still, such games should have a warning at each save point for the likely time to next save, so we can plan not to start a 2 hour trek when we only intend to play for 30 minutes.
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
Shifty Geezer said:
That was always one of my main preferences for PC gaming over console gaming. Most of the time, you could quick save a PC game whenever you wanted to. For a console game, you've got to get the assigned check point before it would allow you to save.
I never understood why you couldn't just hit 'start' from 90% of the places in the game (Ok.. I understand not in the middle of a boss battle or something), and save the game exactly as it is and go watch TV or eat dinner or go to bed. Instead of forcing you to either leave the console running (possibly all night), or losing all the progress.
RancidLunchmeat said:
Well, at least the console running all day and night would probably still use substantially less power than a pc left running for a few hours. (unless it's the xbox)
Back in the days of the NES before save games really existed, I used to leave my NES on overnight all the time.
I don't mind save points when they're well-done. It forced me to break out of the "quicksave whore" mentality I'd developed in PC gaming. Seriously, I was awful about quicksaving to the point where it had just about ruined most action games. Quicksave, run into a room, see what jumps out, quickload, run back in and take the most strategic spot, rinse, repeat. Even if the saves are spaced far apart, at least put some checkpoints in so I don't have to do the same hour of gameplay over and over every time I die!
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
nintenho said:
Or 11.
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