The top 10 gaming tropes I hate – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader catalogues his least favourite gaming tropes and cliches, from an all powerful detective mode to explosive red barrels.

With this feature I wanted to do something a bit different with a video Reader’s Feature, which I don’t think has been done before on GC. The top 10 is in the video above but I’ve also listed the following five additional tropes that really grind my gears. They’re in no particular order but there’s for sure some that anger me more than others, but we can discuss that in the comments!

Now to be clear, this mechanic, when it was first introduced in Batman: Arkham Asylum, made sense. Batman is The World’s Greatest Detective and a billionaire so it makes total sense that he has this tech to help him solve crimes. But when a lot of other games copy this trope and shoehorn it in where it doesn’t belong, it feels like a poor copy. Most recent offender is Dying Light 2. Why do I have to scan the area with my supernatural Survivor Sense to see the footprints or the bloodstains to follow? Surely I can see them already and just follow them? But no, it has to have a version of Detective mode.

Let’s say I haven’t discovered that mission yet. If I’d have just seen the footprints/bloodstains while heading somewhere else it would’ve piqued my interest and I’d go investigate and discover the crime scene more organically. Of course, that runs the risk of the trope then becoming just footprints and bloodstains equals detective mission. But at least I don’t inexplicably have superpowers in a game where I’m supposed to be a normal dude trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.

This one especially annoys me when it’s in a bandit