10 Video Game Mechanics That Make No Sense

9. Weapon Durability

Assassin's Creed
Nintendo

Time for a not-so-hot take: weapon durability friggin' stinks.

No game in recent years has more divisively featured degrading weaponry than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where most all of Link's weapons and shields would break after a set number of uses.

Defenders of the mechanic argue that it incentivises players to change up their play-style throughout the game rather than simply sticking to the same trusty weapon, but critics retort that it transforms even basic combat into tedious busy-work.

But on a more general level, weapon durability rarely makes much sense for the simple fact that weapons and shields just don't break that often in reality.

Even accepting that games generally operate on an accelerated sense of time, weapons and armour break far more frequently than they ever would in real life, where they're typically designed to stand up to enormous levels of punishment for months or even years.

If you had to replace a sword after mere days or weeks in real life, you'd be asking the vendor for a damn refund and take your business elsewhere.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.