10 Hidden Video Game Mechanics That Will Blow Your Mind
When bullets have a mind of their own.
When playing a game, you rarely realize just how much is happening in the background. It takes a lot to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and developers don't need the player to know every little detail of how a product works.
The thing is, the game mechanics that developers hide from players are not exclusively related to things such as optimization and smooth gameplay. Sometimes, their real intention is to make your time with the game more enjoyable, especially without you knowing.
You may not be aware of this, but those moments when you feel like a total badass, taking out all the enemies with a spec of health left, or when you do cool stunts with your car while zooming through the city streets, are usually the result of some kind of hidden mechanic.
Once you learn about the existence of these tricks, you'll never look at the way you play the same way again.
10. The Hidden Morality Meter - Prey
Prey is a truly unique survival horror game in its ability to make the player feel like their decisions actually matter. The game does it so well, in fact, that sometimes you're not even aware when it takes notice of something you do.
In the true ending of the game, spoiler alert, which happens after the credits roll, the main character, Morgan Yu, is revealed to be a Typhon that had its memories replaced with Morgan's to test if the aliens are capable of compassion and peacefully coexisting with humans. Depending on the results of this test, the Typhon is either sent to Earth as an ambassador between the two species or killed as a failed experiment.
Prey determines the player's empathy levels through several different factors that it secretly keeps track of without ever letting the player know. Your morality is judged not only by the number of people you've rescued or spared, but also by less obvious things like which Psionic upgrades you've unlocked and used.
Again, the game never informs you that these upgrades can have an impact on your empathy test. This way, it can ensure that whatever you were doing prior to the test was entirely your choice.