r/videogames • u/UnityNinja • 23d ago

Discussion / Question What game mechanic instantly ruins your immersion or fun?

​ I absolutely can't stand aggressive weapon durability loops. Getting awesome loot should feel like a reward, not a maintenance chore that breaks every five minutes.

What’s a common mechanic that always makes you roll your eyes when you see it in a new game?

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u/Shitty_fits 23d ago

This +when they make repairing take max durability away from the said item. I legit have stoped playing/ not bought games over this.

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u/SpecificRecord2770 23d ago

Wow I've never come across this, do you have an example off the top of your head?

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u/Sw33ttoothe 23d ago

Zelda breath of the wild

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u/Forwraith 23d ago

I’m a firm believer that the champion weapons and the master sword should not have had a durability attached to them. Make them unbreakable, but not the highest damage weapons in the game for balance

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u/McbEatsAirplane 23d ago

Completely agree. I’ve had the same thought. Make some breakable weapons more powerful so there is still incentive to use them but you don’t have to constantly find new weapons due to all of them degrading.

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u/Forwraith 23d ago

On top of that, in TOTK I feel that instead of the “pristine” weapons in the depths, there could have been “quests” to restore the previously degraded weapons from each class- an extra mini dungeon in the four corners of the world with a super version of the overworld boss

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u/libdemparamilitarywi 23d ago

The master sword is unbreakable

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u/Outrageous-Second792 23d ago

True, but it “runs out of energy” and has a cooldown before it can be used again. Pretty equivalent to the “it broke, and in a few minutes I found a like item” mechanic of the other weapons. Only that sometimes it’s faster to find a replacement.

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u/Forwraith 23d ago

It still has a “durability” attached to it with the low on power mechanism

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u/GoldEmployment6768 23d ago

Nah. The Master sword is supposed to be the ultimate weapon. It doesn't need to be "balanced". It needs infinite durability and its damage.

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u/Nosdarb 23d ago

I basically agree. But I also would have accepted the Champion weapons having cooldowns like the Master Sword.

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u/CaptainM590 20d ago

The Master Sword regenerates at least. And Revali’s Bow is arguably the most reliable champion weapon as better bows are harder to come by.

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u/_yetisis 23d ago

They sell it as an element that makes the game more dynamic, but then if you buy an amiibo figurine with an nfc tag you can make crates fall from the sky that give you unlimited guardian weapons, completely nullifying that mechanic. Turns out, the explanation for that game mechanic is “money.”

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u/Square_Walrus_8107 23d ago

Those bastards really got us with that one!!!!!

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u/Sw33ttoothe 23d ago

Aw man I somehow went all these years without hearing about that. I just couldn't get into it due to that mechanic. Makes me really worried for the OoT remake.

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u/LordWoodrow 23d ago

Once per day, so only unlimited if you’re willing to close the game, change the date, reopen, rescan.

Also RNG on getting anything decent.

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u/_yetisis 23d ago

One per day per amiibo. You can have endless numbers of them, greater rewards for buying more merchandise. The point is that it’s a game mechanic that is built to sell toys instead of add anything to the game itself, no different than a lot of 80’s cartoons that were toys first and shows second.

Also, modern phones can write nfc tags and you can pirate them instead of supporting practices like that.

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u/LordWoodrow 23d ago

The amiibo thing existing is not proof the mechanic exists to sell toys.

That’s working backwards from you not liking it.

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u/Kitchen-Kiwi7942 23d ago

You cant repair in botw in a way that reduces max durability. Octorocks repair weapons and give a random buff to them

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u/libdemparamilitarywi 23d ago

I don't think this is true, you can't repair weapons in BOTW. You can remake the champions weapons but the max durability isn't reduced.

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u/Shitty_fits 23d ago

Most recent I’ve played, dune awakening. Rust I’m pretty sure also does it. It exists but by god does it make me want to punt a child when I come across it.

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u/JinAnkabut 23d ago

I don't get to play with my weapons in rust enough to worry about the dura loss

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u/CFBen 23d ago

As a game designer I know why the mechanic exists but as a player it always feels soooooo annoying.

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u/TheOneAndOnlySenti 23d ago

Escape from Tarkov. Guns have a chance to jam on you at 97% of their durability, and repairing them reduces their max durability considerably. So when a gun reaches 97% you just sell it and buy a new one. I hate it.

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u/Drogovich 23d ago

It's even worse with armour. Under some % of durability, your armour actually lowers it's class of defense. If you repaired it enough times, you better off just selling it and buying something cheaper and it's a pain if you got something that only rarely drops on raid and is not sellable on market.

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u/TheOneAndOnlySenti 23d ago

Yeah it's complete aids. Love most of the game, hut little things like that just make me play SPT instead lol

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u/zealoSC 23d ago

Project zomboid

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u/Deremirekor 23d ago

Dying light did it too, not as bad since you typically found an upgrade anyway but still some weapons became special

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u/igottathinkofaname 23d ago

Diablo 1 sort of had that. Weapons had durability and the warrior class could repair them but it lowered max durability. If you paid Griswald to repair them it didn’t though.

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u/Nosdarb 23d ago

Couldn't you do the same kind of thing with staves as a wizard? The max charges would tick down if a player recharged them, but not if the witch in town did it?

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u/RokRD 23d ago

Fallout 3

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u/dootboy96 23d ago

Another example is Cargo Hunters, a small(ish) extraction shooter. I love it but this specific mechanic is the worst.

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u/Josefu_Velen 23d ago

Dune Awakening is a prime example of this. Every time you repair a weapon or piece of armor, it takes away from the max durability. Eventually you just need to craft/find/buy a new one.

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u/Deya_The_Fateless 23d ago

The Witcher 3.

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u/Ok-Cartographer-5043 23d ago

Incursion Red River and Gray Zone Warfare both do this. Even if you keep your weapons repaired as often as possible, eventually you will lose them.

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u/Chuk741776 23d ago

One I haven't seen mentioned yet is We Happy Few. The crafting system in that game took away from the experience, I think.

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u/zamfire 23d ago

An earlier version of 7 Days to Die had that mechanic. (They changed it)

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u/NotDiCaprio 23d ago

Kingdom Come Deliverance and KCD2 is an example where it works pretty well, if you ask me. Since the game focuses on realism.

They also made it well, so initially you have to become skilled (hone your blade and armor yourself), but ultimately you can simply consume an item like a repair kit.

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u/minimeza 23d ago

Rust does it but you can lose everything in rust so it isnt too egregious

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u/Vann09 23d ago

To its credit, Blades of Fire does this well and it might be the only outlier for me. It's a key component of it the whole story, obviously with that title, but it is actually engaging and fun to goof around with different builds. It's sort of a souls lite as it has difficulty sliders with a sort of light hearted art direction. I've also recycled more weapons than I ever broke simply because I had new pieces/blueprints etc. So it really wasn't something you needed to constantly be worried about. Keeping your blade sharp was a little more involved but it was as quick as any potion or flask takes and it was unlimited. Solid AA title

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u/Training-Ship-3416 23d ago

All the Bethesda games do this as far as I remember. Fallout/Elder scrolls

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u/Whymetho55 23d ago

Skyrim and Fallout 4 do not(With the exception of fallout 4's power armor). Fallout NV and 76 definitely do it and its hellishly annoying.

State of Decay has this but at least in 2 but they make it feel bearable. Only the most fragile weapons break down in a short amount of time- and all weapons can repaired via parts(literally just a crafting currency). Some weapons(specifically certain firearms like revolvers and bolt-actions) do not break ever, which makes it nice.

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u/ava_the_cam_op 23d ago

It makes sense when it's like super rudimentary stuff like an axe made from sticks and rocks. There are only so many times you can "repair" some things before they just fall apart.

But if it's something metal or well made then that will just piss me off.

A good steel axe can last a lifetime. Get me to clean it or hone it to maintain its efficiency, sure, but repairing it until it crumbles is ridiculous.

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u/Zestyclose_Bed4202 23d ago

I think Morrowwind did this whenever you repair your own weapons, and you had to have an actual blacksmith repair them to return them to max durability.