10 Awesome Mechanics That Make ALL Video Games Better
Bullet time ALWAYS works.
There are many, many video game mechanics which are at least heavily divisive if not outright loathed by most players - weapon degradation, rubber-banding in racing games, and the worst of the lot, unskippable cutscenes.
But on the flip-side, there are many wonderfully creative and simply fun gaming mechanics which have improved basically any game they've ever appeared in.
Now, it would be hyperbolic to suggest that every mechanic can absolutely, positively improve every last possible game, but where the overwhelming majority of games are concerned, these mechanics will improve just about any where they could feasibly appear.
These mechanics, from long-time classics to more recent and under-used ones, all come back to player choice - each of them gives something to a game rather than taking it away.
You wouldn't need to use most of these mechanics, but you'd probably want to considering how helpful and exciting they are, and how damn good they feel.
If a modern AAA game doesn't ship with these features where it clearly makes sense, a large swath of players will rightly be left wondering why the hell not...
10. Auto-Loot
Loot is a major aspect of many modern action-adventure games, and it regularly feels like an absolute chore having to walk around picking up every last shiny, neon-coloured goodie.
It's just a giant waste of time - tedious busy-work that adds zero enjoyment to the experience. Add up all the time you've spent picking things up in RPGs over the years and that's hours and hours of listlessly playing fetch.
As such, a growing number of games have begun introducing an auto-loot mechanic, whereby any wares within a set radius will automatically be hooved up into your inventory, sparing you a precious second or two sitting through a pickup animation nobody asked for.
Beyond publishers wanting to cynically ensure you get a dopamine hit every time you stop to pick up a shiny-shiny, there's no conceivable reason why auto-loot isn't the default mode for collecting weapons, gear, currency, collectibles, and so on.