10 Video Game Features Every Title Should Have Stolen

3. Enemies & Areas That Don’t Adapt To Your Level - Gothic 2

gothic 2 game
Piranha Bytes

I admit, my old school RPG fandom might be showing with this one but there’s a special kind of magic to RPGs that do away with level scaling.

Level scaling works for a lot of games, it rubber bands the enemies so they sit pretty close to your level and while some enemy types or bosses may be more challenging, it’s not often you’ll run across an area that’s impossible. In games like Gothic 2 and Might & Magic X: Legacy, areas and enemies have fixed levels so if you can’t deal with them now you’ll want to go find a different conflict which you can handle and then come back once you’re more powerful. It’s an excellent mechanic to make game worlds feel more threatening and when you do manage to take out that beastie you lost to a dozen times, there’s nothing like it.

Knowing you have to constantly gear up and tread carefully is so much more engaging and immersive and it’s a shame that more games don’t do this.

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Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.