10 Popular Video Game Mechanics The Industry ABANDONED

6. Self-Updating Maps

Sticking with horror now, the genre deserves some major props for coming up with self-updating maps a whole quarter-century ago.

Both the Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises have featured in-game maps which are automatically updated with new information as you interact with doors or attempt to navigate your way through the game world.

Resident Evil's maps are colour-coded according to whether you've visited rooms or not, while the original Silent Hill crossed off inaccessible routes as you explored the fog-blanketed town.

Given how easily players can get confused and frustrated by the sheer number of rooms in a given area, having the map track everything you've discovered is a God-tier quality-of-life feature that ensures you need not keep a pen and paper nearby.

And yet, a baffling lack of games have adopted a feature that, at least in theory, seems incredibly easy to implement, and can save players some serious headaches.