10 Times Video Game Realism Went Too Far
4. Encumbrance (Skyrim)
Like The Witcher 3, Skyrim is clearly set in a make-believe fantasy land full of magic and wonder, but just like CD Projekt Red, Bethesda opted to incorporate some realism in one particular area. Only, in this case, it has a much more negative impact on the gameplay experience.
See, in Skyrim, the many items you can pick up each weigh a certain amount, a statistic you can view within your inventory. At first, this statistic isn't really important to keep track of, but as you progress and you start to gather more and more stuff, you'll likely end up becoming encumbered, which means that you've exceeded the maximum weight limit that your character can hold.
While encumbered, you won't be able to run, you won't be able to use carriages, and you won't be able to fast travel. You're essentially grounded to a snail's pace until you lose some of that weight, which is super frustrating for players who like to hoard lots of items without being forced to abandon any of them.
Encumbrance is such a drag on the experience of playing Skyrim (as well as other Bethesda titles, like the Fallout series) that players actually created mods to combat the issue, with some of them achieving over 450,000 total downloads.