Lame Game Tropes

I figured I was long overdue to write a little side entry on some aspect of gaming instead of just reviewing games. I'll probably come back to this again, but what I'm doing is basically "Stupid crap you see in games that I find annoying". This could range from a mission type, to a type of level theme, a kind of enemy, or anything else that I feel is too common in games. Now of course there are always exceptions to the rule but these are problems that are usually annoying the majority of the time they pop up. These again, are things that bug ME, so if you like some of these things I'm not saying that you have to hate them too.

1.) Escort Missions:

Along with timed missions this is one of the first thing gamers think of when it comes to mission types that suck. The idea behind it is simple, generally keep some character or characters alive that you don't control as you move from one point to another. The problem comes in due to bad AI in the escortee as they will often run into combat (Remember that battle in FFT where you have to protect that chick on top of Riovenes Castle?), get stuck on some object in the environment and leave themselves vulnerable, and generally suck at protecting themselves assuming they have any ability to do so whatsoever. Escort Missions are the worst.

2.) Timed Missions:

No list like this would be complete without timed missions. These often come in two types- the ones where you have so much time to complete them that the timer might as well not be there (End of Metal Gear Solid for example), and the ones where you will pull your hair out trying to do every part of the level just perfect so that this can be completed in time (Any of the rooftop races in Crackdown). A bad camera or shoddy controls can make these excruciating. Also bonus annoyance points if there is no way to start over if you screw up in the beginning and have to wait out the clock before you can try again.

3.) Underwater Levels:

Underwater missions or levels or anything really usually are pretty terrible or unusually difficult. This stems from the fact that generally a game won't be made with these types of game play in mind and someone comes up with the brilliant idea to tack one on. Kingdom Hearts had an awkward example of this in the first game. Most Zelda water temples are thought of as a pain in the ass. Underwater levels give the user a new dimension to move in that they're not used to while also slowing down movement, both can be annoying especially when they could have spent their time making a decent regular level. Also that sonic drowning noise will haunt me forever, and I never even really played much Sonic.

4.) Defend an area for X amount of time:

Similar in nature to escort missions you have to protect something for a certain amount of time. In this case it's usually a building, a computer terminal, etc. that is doing something important. Maybe a character is hacking a computer and you have to defend her and the computer (like in Goldeneye) or maybe reinforcements are coming to save YOU and you have to hold out until they get there. These aren't usually quite as bad as escort missions as you don't have to worry about some bullshit jumping out at you and in RTS games you could build units and defenses around it in some cases so that you're basically defending your base like usual. But otherwise they suffer from some of the same problems. Additionally in cases like this you have to face an infinite number of guys til time runs out, you can't kill them all.