In my last article, I brought up the first two things I hate about modern videogames. I began with how games I hate playing start off with mandatory tutorial levels and then I went into the greatest buzz kill in action games. Now I will cover what has hurt action games(specifically first person shooters) over the span of the past decade.
6 Things I HATE About Modern Videogames
#3 – Regenerative Health
This is in almost every action game and it really pisses me off. Back in the day, games had cleverly placed health repleting items to keep the action going. It wasn’t realistic but the placement kept the pacing of the gameplay consistently exciting. How did all those health packs and ammo crates show up in the demon infested levels of Doom anyways?
I guess health pickups aren’t cool anymore because anytime you get hit with a few bullets or get too close to an explosion you have to run away and hide behind the wall like a little bitch until get your health back.
How is this any more realistic than health packs? If I get shot in Call of Duty 4, shouldn’t I be losing even more health due to blood loss from waiting around? That makes more sense to me. With health packs, there is no wait and the action keeps going.
You know what pissed me off recently? When Activision announced the Goldeneye butchering remake that now features regenerative health. You won’t be getting my money for that one guys!
I don’t even see why regenerative health is so necessary to have in action games; especially when they are flooded with…
#4 – Checkpoints… EVERYWHERE
Do I need a checkpoint every twenty paces that I walk!? It’s seems like all these new action games- which are all conveniently marketed to EXTREME Mountain Dew swiggin, sideways cap wearing bro douchebags -are set up so not only is it okay to die as much as you want but you only have to walk a few steps and that will be your new spawn point when you die again.
I believe that the ridiculous amount of checkpoints in modern action games is a combination of many things. First, this is another attempt for game designers to hand hold players to “expand the market.” Doesn’t it seem like I hate modern game designers? I really don’t but it really feels like the absurd measures they put in to make sure everyone finishes their game almost feels like a system of “big government,” where any responsibility from the player to play well is removed.
Second, maybe these levels are just too damn big? In games like Super Mario World and Mega Man 2, you only had one or two checkpoints in a level and that was good enough. If you died, you didn’t lose a whole lot of progress.
If levels in modern games desparately need more checkpoints than that, then the levels should be broken down into smaller chunks. Like 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 in Super Mario Bros. (Then again, you have infinite lives in all these games.)
I think part of the tests in action games were supposed to be the endurance runs. Can the player go through all these obstacles without dying? That was what the test used to be, but no more.
Which brings me to the third and final point: maybe most modern action games are just plain old BROKEN.
If the checkpoints were fewer and further apart, would most players make it? Probably not. Action games are now about the spectacle and bullets and missiles flying at you from everywhere. This is great for drawing in players to the intensity of combat, except you can’t see where all the bullets are coming from like you can in Ikaruga.
So running and gunning doesn’t work. You get shot and you have to hide, but hiding sucks so you try to make a break for it to the end of the level. Then you are taken out by a shot outside your peripheral vision but luckily you ran ten feet so now you can start in that very spot and just keep doing that until you beat the level!
Maybe it’s a bad mix of of bad game and level design, or perhaps realism in games isn’t fun so game designers compensate by adding in unrealistic features like regenerative health and frequent checkpoints to cover up the bad game.
Because I don’t know anyone who actually HAS FUN playing these kinds of games. Do you?
Next time, I wrap this up with two more trends that while unrelated, I still HATE passionately.