8 Brilliant Video Games Made Impossible By Terrible Mechanics

8. Alone In The Dark - Inventory And Driving Sections

Now nobody is going to be claiming that the Alone In The Dark reboot/sequel that dropped in 2008 was a perfect representation of the survival horror genre, but you know what? It had so many things going for it that it was a shame that a few key areas hampered the overall experience and made things artificially difficult for a player.

For example, while the narrative might have ended in a laughable and much meme-d way, the journey to that point was pretty engaging, as was the interesting use of fire physics for puzzles and combat. In fact, combat definitely had more of a focus in this title, meaning the player was always battling against beasts from the dark at any given moment.

It's a shame therefore that the inventory system kinda sucked. The presentation of it was nice with the player holding items inside their coat, but being unable to pause the game, plus a finicky system of getting/combining the item you wanted, meant that you could get battered before you've even located your weapons.

Adding to this frustration were some of the worse driving mechanics I've yet seen in a game, with players sliding around like the floor was ice rather than concrete, and glitching through floors if they got ahead of the scripted events. If these were tweaked or worked on more then this might place higher in the overall Alone In The Dark games rankings, but when such moments leave as bitter a taste in the mouth, many wanted to snuff out The !*$% Lightbringer once and for all.