9 Terrible Video Games With One Incredible Mechanic

7. Alone In The Dark - A "Realistic" Inventory System

The Awesome Mechanic: The 2008 Alone in the Dark reboot had one of the most intriguing inventory systems of any recent-ish survival horror game. Rather than open up a backpack grid or pause the game to give the player ample time to figure things out, protagonist Edward Carnby simply opens his jacket and looks down, giving a birds-eye view of everything lining his pockets.

The stinger was that the game didn't pause while you had the menu open, requiring the player to work fast and efficiently, potentially in the heat of the moment.

The Terrible Game: Though the game was in many ways a brave attempt to resurrect the flagging horror franchise, Alone in the Dark was ultimately a depressing slog of a game, marred by an abundance of glitches, a forgettable plot, and some of the worst driving controls from any game of the last decade.

It tried to reinvent the series in gritty fashion, but its technical sloppiness above all else made it a hard sell. Atari did release an improved version for PS3 several months later, but sadly the damage was already done, and most players already stopped caring.