10 Video Game Mechanics That Make No Sense

10. Detective Vision

One of the most pervasive gaming trends of the last decade-or-so is "detective vision," whereby the player character is able to scan the surrounding environment for points of interest, and even tag enemies and trace their movements through objects.

While some games at least try to explain this mechanic away within the context of its world, like Batman being rich enough to create environment-scanning tech, or Geralt of Rivia having supernatural Witcher Senses, even many realistic(ish) action games will allow you to freely track enemy combatants in a way that isn't even remotely realistic.

Granted, games would probably be a lot less fun if you had no idea whatsoever where the enemy was going, but often it feels like developers use Detective Vision as a crutch to compensate for overly cluttered, busy level design where enemies can't easily be distinguished by the player.

Though The Last of Us' Listen Mode is intended to be a translation of what Joel and Ellie can hear, it still feels somewhat at odds with the game's grittier survival thriller tone. Without it, though, the gameplay would simply be offputtingly difficult for many players.

Such is the tension inherent in Detective Mode - it's useful, but doesn't really make much sense within the internal logic of many games that use it.

And yet, it's so commonplace and accepted nowadays that it probably isn't going away anytime soon - if ever.