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[RCU005]

With the release of Elden Ring and the talk about how it’s a fresh take on open world, it made me realize that many games try to copy others or implement popular game mechanics into theirs.

There are blatant copies like many who copied BOTW, but there are also some mechanics that haven’t been mastered since day one like the precise gameplay of Super Mario 64. It’s incredible how Nintendo’s first game nailed a gameplay so precise and almost perfect, but not every game can feel as good.

Then, there are other popular mechanics that ruined other games like how COD’s popularity ruined Killzone 3 and also Dead Space, among others by making them more action-focused.

I’m currently playing Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and noticed it has the similar mechanics of Souls game swhere if you die, you lose you exp points and have to hit the enemy to recover them. You also respawn all enemies when resting. I really like this mechanic and I feel it might work pretty well in other games.


I want to ask:

1) What game mechanic you feel would fit another game and why?

2) what games have a copied/inspired game mechanic that was beneficial?

3) What game mechanic from other games have ruined a game?

 

[01011001]

every open world game copying Ubisoft is like the pinnacle of what ruined many games

 

[KyoZz]

Oh sorry, I thought you meant "overused game mechanics recycled from other games over and over again".

 

[TheInfamousKira]

The Witcher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn absolutely ruined the open world genre by way of every game in the genre (and a couple that weren't) decided to rip off both games wholesale to the point I'm surprised we haven't coined a WitchHorizon genre like Metroidvania or Soulsborne. Then I realize, it's not surprising, because people actually LIKE those fusions.

Another vote to the (similar to the first) scanning/detective/eagle vision/ARI shit where you click a button and the entire zone lights up with enemy foot prints, salvageable loot, native flora, where the birds pissed last, and a big glowing purple arrow that flashes and says DON'T EXPLORE, GO HERE.

Beneficial? All I can think of immediately is Z-Targeting from Ocarina of Time. Revolutionizing lock on/strafing was one of the key decisions that led third person action games out of the awkward toddler stage of game development. Genius shit, and I'm not a Nintendo stan by any means, I'm sure ANYONE would have normalized it given enough time, but OoT is the first I can remember to utilize it.

 

[KàIRóS]

1) What game mechanic you feel would fit another game and why?

1) Leveling up and stat increases, almost any game with narrative progression

2) what games have a copied/inspired game mechanic that was beneficial?

2) Castlevania SOTN copied Metroid's Level Design and created the Metroidvania genre

3) What game mechanic from other games have ruined a game?

3) Mega Man X7 used Third Person Camera in the worst way you can imagine, it's the worst game in the X franchise and almost single handedly killed it.

 

[Captain Toad]

Basically every game ever.

 

[Husky]

A bunch of Warner Bros. games use the Batman: Arkham combat, though usually they aren't as rhythm & combo-focused as Arkham. The Middle-earth: Shadow games and Mad Max are the most prominent, but I remember TotalBiscuit covering some other licensed game with the same combat. It might've been a game based on Kick-Ass. Probably wasn't published by Warner Bros. Probably made the development of Mad Max's hand-to-hand combat easier, so the devs had more time to focus on the kickass vehicle play.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s AI is based on the AI from F.E.A.R.. They're also both acronyms. They also have some of the tightest gunplay ever.

Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games use similar mechanics. They're some of the only games where you have a grab button enabling you to move around physics objects. Starfield will surely offer the same.

Dying Light's parkour looks almost exactly like the parkour in Prey 2. But that's probably because there are only so many ways to depict first-person parkour. Mirror's Edge probably looks similar too. I'd like some more open world games with first-person parkour.

Look at every Left 4 Dead clone (and then look at why Left 4 Dead is still better—the fun is driven by tight gameplay instead of an intrusive numbers-go-up progression system, veterans and newbies are separated by experience, not by their unlocks, and infinite mods means infinite fun). Their whole thing is that they took a great idea and made it worse. A real formula for success.

One mechanic that seriously ought to get stolen is Middle-earth's Nemesis system. That could be an amazing fit in a Mad Max game.
I'd also really like to see Bethesda's open world design stolen. Their worlds are meant to be seen up-close, in first-person, and are highly interactive in a way few other games are. Every physics object can be fucked about, just about every character has a name, and they make their worlds feel more plausibly real than just about any other game's. They make their games less "gamey," and I appreciate that. I'm all about escapism, less about the dopamine kicks of watching numbers go up. That's why I was really disappointed to see the center-screen XP counters in the Starfield demo.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic's badass first-person melee combat should find new life somewhere. That gameplay was amazing.
I'd also appreciate seeing Sleeping Dogs' combat stolen. It had a real nice feel. I imagine people will point to Arkham or Yakuza, cuz I've seen the comparisons, but they don't quite offer what it was that I enjoyed about Sleeping Dogs' combat.

I'd love to see the tight movement controls of Metal Gear Solid V used in some more titles. Some games with a similar feel to Dragon's Dogma would be sick too. I remember Freedom Wars let the player create their own pawn in a similar fashion to Dragon's Dogma, but I don't recall pawns being shareable in the same way the pawns of Dragon's Dogma are. That's another mechanic I'd like to see used more, a custom sidekick, and the ability to share them online and use other people's custom sidekicks to fill out a party.