"Forgotten" game mechanics

[Astraea]

Let's talk about certain aspects of a past game's mechanics that you liked but haven't seem to carry on in current day games.

I'll start with these two:

Demons Souls - world tendencies
The game environment would change certain aspects of it like enemy placement/optional bosses or items based on whether your world tendency was more to the 'black' or 'white'. You would gain a more black world tendency by dying a lot, making the game harder too. Whereas performing well and defeating bosses would contribute towards a more 'white' world tendency with it's own perks.
I celebrated this mechanics because it was so original and as far as I can remember it was even affected my people invading you, making it an even more relevant mechanic when playing online. Sadly I have never seen this feature again in either the souls series itself or any other game I played.

Call of Duty: World At War - Rifles
Also, the PS3 era. This is when I first got into Call of Duty, not being a huge shooter fan I had to find my niche in multiplayer. And I found it, the game was a looooot more fun to me when I discovered the rifle weapon type, ideally used for mid-long range shooting. It was the only weapontype I enjoyed playing and man what a great online game it was! I decided much later to buy CoD Modern warfare but to my shock it didn't include any rifles...I was stunned. Why would a developer choose to leave out a weapontype that's completely different from all other weapons? It left a hole, because I couldn't find any weapon to fill that hole.
You could argue it's because of the era the game plays in and maybe they didn't really use rifles in the age it was set in, but for gameplays sake why not just put it in anyway?

What's a gameplay mechanic that you liked and missed later on?

[ryan_]

Legend of Dragoon's QTE attacks would have been great in a lot of turn based RPGs instead of having them try and fail to go full action.

I really like the custom world building mechanic from Legend of Mana.

Love the Perfect Dark (the N64 one) mechanic with tranquilizers and N-Bombs where you can mess someone's screen up to just grief them forever without killing them. Troll heaven.

[NordhNet]

This isn’t really a game mechanic but something that shows that the industry somehow lost its ability to sometimes think outside the box.

Back in the original Xbox days there was a game that I can’t really remember but I think it was one of the ghost recon/spec ops kind of games that was on to something.
It really isn’t that big of a deal but it has been haunting me ever since.

You know when you are supposed to write anything on a console you get this grid of letters that you navigate through to push buttons? It’s usually something like a 4x something tiles or something that resembles a qwerty keyboard that you are supposed to move a marker across.

This game did this differently. It had a circle of letters (I think alphabetical) that you used the thumb stick to move around in and it was soooo fast, smooth and precise that writing something in game was actually an option! Why this wasn’t adapted into more console games baffles me to this day.

[ImmersiveGaming]

Anything requiring brain power has been removed. Puzzles are mainly gone, platforming is gone, key finding is gone, labyrinth style maps are gone. Only a few games keep things complicated to this day. Anyone remember trying to beat The Lair Of The Blind Ones in Turok 2 without a guide? It's pretty rough. (not counting remaster which reworked the level to make it slightly easier to navigate)

[Chris_Ceee]

brain power and skills...

[Merlin]

Astraea, well met.

I cannot say in particular much in terms of specifics. However I shall forever pine over the loss of the immense creativity seen among games made for Nintendo's DS game console. Though the 3DS too could achieve such feats, developers sadly shied away from using the unique device for their games. Now with the Nintendo Switch and WiiU I dare say we may never again see multi-screen games, unique touch screen controls as a feature and more.

Remember it fondly, cherish it forever, much as I shall never forget noble Arthur.

[CyklonDX]

GTA2 - Faction reputation

Its something i do not see anymore, either games set you around factions but when you do something like kill someone in that faction you forever are the enemy. In GTA2 you could whoop ass some gangs/mafia's and that would make you much better friend of certain factions while becoming enemy to others.

[KTG]

I just want cheat codes back. Achievements are cool and all, but they ruined one of the most interesting parts of old games like Spider Man on the Xbox/Gamecube.

[fenrif]

Call of Duty: World At War - Rifles
Also, the PS3 era. This is when I first got into Call of Duty, not being a huge shooter fan I had to find my niche in multiplayer. And I found it, the game was a looooot more fun to me when I discovered the rifle weapon type, ideally used for mid-long range shooting. It was the only weapontype I enjoyed playing and man what a great online game it was! I decided much later to buy CoD Modern warfare but to my shock it didn't include any rifles...I was stunned. Why would a developer choose to leave out a weapontype that's completely different from all other weapons? It left a hole, because I couldn't find any weapon to fill that hole.
You could argue it's because of the era the game plays in and maybe they didn't really use rifles in the age it was set in, but for gameplays sake why not just put it in anyway?

There are two point's to make to this I think. First is that rifles are absolutely still in the games. Black Ops 4 has sniper rifles and designated marksman rifles. If you want a bolt action without a scope you can do that. If you want an M1 garand style semi auto rifle you can do that too. I think it's mostly a historical distinction with the naming of them.

However I do see where you're coming from. Modern COD, from about WaW onwards give or take a game, is designed heavily around short to mid range engagements. It's all down to map design, but you'd be hard pressed to find a map with more than 2 long range engagement areas. And they're nearly always either a corridor situation or a square with two high placed windows opposite each other. All the maps feel cramped. I assume it's been sacrificed in the name of increased graphics, but honestly I prefer the old open and free-er design as it encouraged many different playstyles.

[Astraea]

Ah good to hear the newer CoD's have rifles (bolt ation and without scope). But yes, I've had the same feeling , it doesn't seem to be the CoD anymore that I loved back on PS3. It's super fast paced and it seems to be more about the encounter itself than preperation for the encounter/ spotting + the encounter. This was drastically different in World at war.

[Seifer_Black]

Final Fantasy: Turn based battle system

Ok i like a lot of others enjoyed Final Fantasy 15 but i have to say I still miss the traditional turn based battle system from older games, they have Kingdom Hearts for a great ARPG so why bother making Final Fantasy into another of the sort? I know people would argue "Well you cant move your character out the way when enemies attack why dont they just move to the side?" And to this i would just say thats why you work on agility to dodge attacks. I think this is a thing which just isnt taken away from FF but alot of RPG gaming in general, Ive been waiting for a new turn based RPG game that doesnt look like its been made for the super Nintendo for a while now and i for one miss that style of gameplay.

[tomo]

Final Fantasy: Turn based battle system

Ok i like a lot of others enjoyed Final Fantasy 15 but i have to say I still miss the traditional turn based battle system from older games, they have Kingdom Hearts for a great ARPG so why bother making Final Fantasy into another of the sort? I know people would argue "Well you cant move your character out the way when enemies attack why dont they just move to the side?" And to this i would just say thats why you work on agility to dodge attacks. I think this is a thing which just isnt taken away from FF but alot of RPG gaming in general, Ive been waiting for a new turn based RPG game that doesnt look like its been made for the super Nintendo for a while now and i for one miss that style of gameplay.

Check out Divinity Original Sin 2 or 1

[Seifer_Black]

Check out Divinity Original Sin 2 or 1

Will do, thanks for the suggestion.

[Astraea]

Astraea, well met.

I cannot say in particular much in terms of specifics. However I shall forever pine over the loss of the immense creativity seen among games made for Nintendo's DS game console. Though the 3DS too could achieve such feats, developers sadly shied away from using the unique device for their games. Now with the Nintendo Switch and WiiU I dare say we may never again see multi-screen games, unique touch screen controls as a feature and more.

Remember it fondly, cherish it forever, much as I shall never forget noble Arthur.

Ah I remember my Nintendo DS. I think I had that Yoshi game and a brain training game and a RPG game that was about collecting solar power to fuel special attacks. When it was daytime in the game, your knight would collect energy from the sun that he could spend to fuel special attacks. When it was night time you would need to be fueled up to get around. I completely forgot about that mechanic and the game itself.
I can't say I miss the touch screen, but I did like the games that came out for the DS for what they were, great nintendo games.

[Hard Carved Winter]

This game did this differently. It had a circle of letters (I think alphabetical) that you used the thumb stick to move around in and it was soooo fast, smooth and precise that writing something in game was actually an option! Why this wasn’t adapted into more console games baffles me to this day.

Radial menus are relatively common in console games and interfaces. For example, Diablo III on Nintendo Switch makes heavy use of the pattern.

[MadMummy76]

Separate reputation with each and every NPC
Reloading forfeits ammo still in magazine
Wheel+Pedal support in not specifically car sims. (like mafia)
Non-combat introductory levels (ex: Unreal, or HL1) Now games start with the loudest and biggest bang possible, like they're still trying to sell the game by being flashy. But you're already playing it.
Physics based puzzles
Health that doesn't auto refill
Manual save points
Cosmetic items as gameplay rewards (instead of microtransactions)
Multiplayer only an optional bonus feature, and not the entire game

[Mike]

Anything requiring brain power has been removed. Puzzles are mainly gone, platforming is gone, key finding is gone, labyrinth style maps are gone. Only a few games keep things complicated to this day. Anyone remember trying to beat The Lair Of The Blind Ones in Turok 2 without a guide? It's pretty rough. (not counting remaster which reworked the level to make it slightly easier to navigate)

Brain power is a barrier to sales i'm sure... if people can't complete a game, they are less likely to buy the follow up game(s).

Like how some folks say that Pokemon has always been easy. Only in hindsight... when I was a kid with Pokemon Blue, no internet, no strategy guide, it was a damn hard game and took many weeks for me to complete. I died multiple times and lost countless battles. But when I did complete it the feeling of reward was immense... that is how a game should be. Ultimately reflective of the challenges of real life where you don't have your hand held all the time, or guaranteed outcomes of never losing. Of course Game Freak would never allow kids to "faint" in the new Pokemon games as it might scar them for life!

Heck they even took battling wild Pokemon out of the newest games. And you think it will come back in the next "core" games? Of course it won't.

The other aspect is we are so saturated with games now, both new and old (in form of retro mini consoles) that game devs must fear putting out a game that takes time and patience to complete, with actual skill, as people will get bored and play something easier and quicker. A bit like how board games have become watered down versions with wording on the box like "takes 20 mins to complete". Because no one apparently has time to sit down for 2 hours and absorb themselves in a game. Why even bother at all then?

Instead of dumbing down, games should take risks and challenge the players..and they will still have people playing them in 20 years time. But that doesn't make money right now.