Top 10 Worst Parts Of Awesome Games

Sitting down to play a top-tier game is the highlight of being a gamer. Every year, a handful of elite titles shape the industry, and playing them gives us a glimpse of the future of gaming. But sometimes, these games also have elements that are better left in the past. In this list, we break down the top 10 ways even the best games can miss a beat.

10. Encumbrance (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Skyrim is all about creating your own adventure. You use the skills you like, undertake the quests that sound cool, and travel to places that look interesting. The sense of discovery is thrilling...but stopping off at your house to drop off a payload of magic items, dragon bones, and giants’ toes is not. For a game so focused on exploration, you spend a surprising amount of time in menus managing your items to avoid over-encumbrance and retain your ability to use the fast-travel option.

9. Being A Big Daddy (BioShock)

You spend the whole game living in fear of the dreaded Big Daddies. The behemoths are the fiercest foes in BioShock, roaming Rapture’s corridors and ready to attack. Late in the game, you must become a Big Daddy yourself. After a quest that involves collecting the necessary pieces, you finally suit up and…nothing. No drill, no rail gun, no cool powers…just an escort mission waiting to be completed. What a let-down.

8. Vehicles (Bayonetta)

If you want a finely tuned, over-the-top, stylish action game, you can’t go wrong with Bayonetta. However, you also have to be okay with a few levels that have nothing to do with why you want to play the game. Bayonetta occasionally holsters her guns and sheathes her swords to hop on a motorcycle or in-flight missile. For these segments, you just need to grit your teeth and plow through, because plenty of good stuff awaits you on the other side.

7. Gummi Ship (Kingdom Hearts)

Most people think of the original Kingdom Hearts solely as an action/RPG, but those people have blocked the awful shooter segments from their memory. Customizing a spaceship is a cool feature in lots of games, but when you’re anxious to get to the next grandiose, Disney-inspired world, the last thing you want to do is waste time tinkering with a machine with one of the Rescue Rangers coaching you along.

6. Creepers (Minecraft)

Minecraft wouldn’t be the same game without Creepers. In that sense, it’s hard to say that they are a bad feature. However, their ability to destroy blocks doesn’t target your character; the in-game damage from an explosion is nothing compared to the heartbreak you experience as a player when your beloved home, statue, airship, or other structure is partially destroyed. Yes, it adds tension, but wouldn’t it be nice to play Minecraft in Survival Mode while just taking the Creepers out of the mix?

Next: The top five worst parts of otherwise great games... 

5. Mineral scanning (Mass Effect 2)

The Reapers are coming. You need to enlist a good crew, amass resources, and delay their inevitable arrival. Time is short, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spend several tedious hours scanning planets for elements, right? Mass Effect 2 does so many things right in terms of story and gameplay, but your ability to craft various upgrades is dependent on combing through the galaxy and mining resource-rich planets one by one. BioWare eventually released a patch to speed up this process, but it still feels like an incongruous and unnecessary hassle.

4. Spinning Blades (God of War)

At the end of God of War, Kratos kills Ares and replaces him. He defeats hydras, minotaurs, gorgons, and other mythological terrors. You might think that nothing could stop a mortal with that kind of superhuman power, but you’d be wrong. The most difficult foe Kratos faces in his journeys are a series of rotating spiked pillars. This aggravating sequence shows that traversing hazardous terrain is not Kratos’ strong suit. Maybe he should stick to combat – that’s what made him an industry icon.

3. Asteroid Shooting (Dead Space)

Almost everything you do in Dead Space helps you prolong your life. From upgrading your guns to stockpiling items, your goal is survival in the face of a terrible enemy. After spending most of the game mastering the clever dismemberment mechanic, you eventually guide Isaac to a gun turret. There, you forsake everything you have learned and trade it for a simplistic (but strangely difficult) asteroid-shooting minigame that you must complete in order to advance.

2. Mexico (Red Dead Redemption)

This landmark open-world is a Wild West revenge tale…most of the time. For a big chunk in the middle, John Marston takes a detour from the main narrative and gets embroiled in a civil war in Mexico. The missions and locations in Mexico aren’t bad, but the long departure is frustrating for players who are invested in Marston and eager to see his tale conclude.

1. Tower Defense (Assassin's Creed: Revelations)

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations provides the emotional conclusion to Ezio’s story, but he at least he goes out doing what he loves: Protecting a base from waves of oncoming enemies. Wait, what? Yes, along with his traditional clambering and killing, Ezio needs to participate in these frustrating exercises to retain the territory he has claimed. It’s a strange system that works poorly, and gets in the way of the things the Assassin’s Creed series has always done well.