10 Small Details Video Games Still Can’t Get Right

1. Colour-Coding Parts Of The Environment You Can Climb

Platformers in the 2D era were pretty clear with where you could and couldn't go. If there was a ledge present on screen, you could jump up to it, and there was never a problem with figuring out which parts of the environment you could get to.

That all changed with the jump to 3D though, which needed to distinguish parts of the level from background decoration. Earlier games essentially just had you investigating every area and hoping for the best, leaving it to you to figure out if one muddy texture was climbable or not.

Consequently, most developers decided to colour-code or highlight elements of the world the player could engage with so they weren't jumping around trying to grab everything that looked like a ledge.

This resulted in the Far Cry series adopting dangling ropes to visually signify places that could be climbed, or Uncharted highlighting ledges that could be grabbed. This works to keep players moving, but it also makes it incredibly obvious where you're supposed to go, and draws attention to the limitations of how much you can actually explore.

God of War featured the same system, but actually explained why certain environments were highlighted. Not every game needs the same in-universe explanation, but finding ways to hide what is interactive and what's just there to look nice would do wonders for increasing immersion.