10 Video Game Cliches That Need To Die

6. The Colour-Coordinated Loot System

Borderlands 3
Gearbox Software

For better or worse, pretty much every action game has looter shooter elements now. Weapons are no longer things to find and cherish, but numbers on a page that should be swapped out after every combat encounter, with the gameplay loop being designed around the pursuit of the top-level death bringers.

That's fine, but the big issue is that the majority of games don't do anything to differentiate their loot system from the next big blockbuster.

Modern shooters especially rely heavily on the same basic tiered system of common, uncommon, rare, epic and legendary weapons to get them through, while they'll often even share the same colour-coordinated hierarchy. Players know a grey gun is a dime a dozen, a green one is a little better, a blue one is getting into rare territory, and purple and gold are the upper levels.

It's made these loot shooters all about seeing those explosion of colours pop, rather than the actual weapons or how they function. The genre isn't going away any time soon but, c'mon guys, at least change up the colours or something.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.