10 Tiny Details In Games That Made Them So Much Better

3. Weapon Upgrade Animations - The Last Of Us 2

There are some things we’ve just accepted as automated in games. Upgrading a weapon usually just takes you to a menu where you navigate to your upgrade of choice and then hold a button for long enough to spruce up your gun/bow/what have you. Similarly, visiting a merchant usually just takes you to a menu where you pick what you want to buy and sell from a UI list.

Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, in fact it’s generally more streamlined, but in the few cases where this rule has been broken it’s pretty darn cool.

The first of which is in Red Dead Redemption 2 where shops actually feature the items up for sale on shelves and you can buy them that way. There is a menu available too in the form of a catalogue on the counter, but it’s all a far cry from a basic list of text or small images showing available goods. Similarly, The Last of Us 2 takes weapon upgrading to the next level with realistic animations showing Ellie and Abby altering components of each weapon in real time.

The animations aren’t all flawless but it’s a satisfying attention to detail that’s carried through the rest of the game.