10 Video Game Level Types That Must Die Next Generation
8. Timed Missions
Hey, do you want to instantly suck the fun and joy out a video game for your audience? Do you also want to have said audience completely taken out of the experience and snap back to reality (we're not saying it) where they've been trying so desperately hard to escape from through the use of your product? Well, we've got a nifty little idea. Just stick a goddamn timer on a mission for no reason.
The main reason that timed missions are such an utter drag is that they often leave little to no room for error of any kind. Slip up once and you'll be forced to go through the process again... then you'll get past your last point of failure and slip up again... and then that'll happen again... rinse and repeat.
The difference between these failures and something like Dark Souls is that there's no satisfaction in learning from these failures, because you aren't learning, you're just failing so what was fun becomes laborious.
Another reason these timed missions can suck it is because, structurally speaking, they often make no sense, as they've been tacked on to games that otherwise emphasise allowing you to take your time to explore - looking at you Rockstar! And let's not even speak of the Driver tutorial...