Gaming - News
The Dumbest Things Video Games Force Us to Do
By NATHAN SIMMONS
Schoolwork
One thing video games shouldn't do is take a break from an exciting fantasy story so that you can worry about school. However, a major recurring part of “Persona 5” was making sure you made time to study for your exams in between all of the dungeon crawling and mystery solving, and the momentum of the game came to a halt while the characters took tests.
Chores
When you're playing a mostly action-oriented game like “Red Dead Redemption 2,” it's kind of a bummer when you have to take time out of your busy schedule of robbing trains and lassoing escaped convicts to slowly carry a bale of hay across a field. There's a fine line between realism and tedium, a line which many games accidentally cross by integrating chores.
Avoiding Water
Water is the age-old enemy of so many video game protagonists, which seems silly and unnecessary — take, for instance, master assassin Altair of “Assassin's Creed” who drowns faster than you can say "high quality H2O." The water was so deadly in “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” that players have created mods to allow characters to swim or even walk on the water.
Hacking Minigames
Hacking minigames are a goofy roadblock that keep you from getting to the next point of a game’s mission. In “Warframe,” your enemies become aware of your presence and the only way to shut off the alarms is to hack into the ship's security by playing a minigame where you match up lines and shapes — fans find the mechanics to be clumsy and awkward.
Stealth Missions
Stealth missions tend to be a total misfire when they pop up in a game that hasn't really encouraged that kind of careful gameplay, especially when said missions punish you brutally. “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2,” a game that allows you to viciously dispatch your enemies, will punish you if you step on a dry leaf during one of its stealth segments.
