20 Dumb Video Game Restrictions Players Hated
Some games just can't help but handhold you throughout the entire experience.
One of the main draws of video games is their interactivity. What sets games apart from other types of media is your freedom to play around with the mechanics and experience the story at your own pace, often making important narrative choices yourself.
Of course, video games need to have rules as well to function properly, but sometimes these restrictions can take a huge toll on the players' experience.
While some structure is helpful, there are some rules and mechanics that feel so limiting, pretty much every single player hates them.
A game can prevent you from making a choice that should be obvious, remove some vital mechanic for no reason, or bar you from progressing to the fun part of the gameplay with pointless fluff content.
No one likes being told what to do, but it can be especially frustrating when the restriction feels completely artificial. It takes away from the overall experience, making the story feel less immersive and the gameplay less fun.
If you played the following titles, you probably had the same reaction to these limitations as the rest of the gaming community. They just don't make sense.
20. Hard And Easy Mode Lock - Pokemon Black and White 2
Pokemon Black and White 2 is praised as one of the most challenging Pokemon titles of all time. However, all this praise usually fails to mention that the hardest part of Black and White 2’s hard mode is unlocking it.
The Black and White sequels include separate easy and hard modes, giving both casual players and people interested in a more challenging experience the type of gameplay they want. The problem is that unlocking Black and White 2’s Challenge mode is one of the most complicated and needlessly restricted things ever conceived.
To unlock Challenge mode, you need a friend who beat the game on regular mode and have them give you a key that you can put into your own game to then finally gain access to Challenge mode.
To make things even worse, the key works only for the same version of the game, so someone with Black 2 cannot give someone with White 2 a working Challenge mode key and vice versa.
And of course, if you don’t have friends who play Pokemon, your only option is to buy two copies of the same game just to unlock Challenge mode.
The "design" somehow manages to be both greedy and stupid at the same time.