Game design is an ever-evolving medium
and sometimes things just drop off hi
folks it’s Falcon and today on game
ranks 10 game Concepts that have been
forgotten starting off with number 10
content that can be permanently missed
this is one of those Concepts I think a
lot of people are glad to see forgotten
but there is actually some value in it I
think with most games now it’s really
rare you’ll run into content that’s
permanently missable uh games will go
out of their way to make sure you get a
chance to see everything that you want
to uh like if your hometown gets blown
up in the start that the quest that you
don’t finish there usually show up
somewhere else if you miss an item in a
dungeon that you can’t come back to it
just shows up again somewhere else or
appears in a special lost items chest or
something all that stuff is good because
it sucks to miss out on things you
wanted to do and in some ways games bend
over backwards to accommodate the player
that can limit the game’s potential like
how many games now make it so you really
can’t make any big choices anymore
nothing that’s actually going to change
the entire direction of the game or lock
you out of certain interactions it’s
just not there like Persona 5 there’s
stuff you could miss like the will seeds
and whatnot but that doesn’t change the
direction of the game like there’s minor
variations like that but big stuff
doesn’t usually change in a way these
things are designed to avoid player
frustration and I get it because it does
people don’t want to make a decision
they perceive as wrong or causes them to
miss out on something but they also want
choices to matter it’s a tough position
for developers even the ones who are
really good at it like CD projekt Red
and Witcher 3 they get criticized for
this kind of thing there’s a lot of
people out there who are kind of
nostalgic for the way games were when
you could really miss out on something
major it makes a game more replayable
but yeah it also can be very frustrating
at number nine is real-time Squad
commands and action games like what
happened to this like games like Mass
Effect were so much fun you could order
your allies around command them to do
special attacks you could do this in the
middle of combat it was the perfect mix
of tactical but still exciting and it’s
kind of shocking that more games haven’t
tried to copy that or this kind of just
disappeared the only other time I can
really think of it is the Bureau XCOM
Declassified which tries to be a more
tactical version of that same kind of
gameplay but doesn’t quite pull it
together just in general it seems a lot
like Squad commands are kind of going
away from games especially ones that
they’re purely tactical like the
original Gears of War which let you
command your squad in single player
um the sequels just took it out the Band
of Brothers inspired Brothers in Arms
was an awesome combination of FPS and
tactical game little more arcadey was
the Freedom Fighters where you command a
swarm of resistance Fighters and take on
the Soviet Menace now that I think about
it there’s actually a lot of games that
use this concept it’s just that they’re
all about a generation or more out of
date like there’s a lot of potential for
a game like this in next gen and it’s a
shame there aren’t more of them out
there there was that disintegration game
but that didn’t really do that well the
closest thing I can basically think of
is the Guardians of the Galaxy game
which was fantastic a huge surprise and
also kind of quietly passed we need more
like this it works
at number eight is risky traversal
mechanics um getting around in most
games these days pretty much a breeze
Spider-Man Batman Assassin’s Creed hell
even any given Uncharted game basically
all you have to do is get around is
point yourself in the direction you want
to go and go there’s no real danger to
getting around at least not from the
environment itself that part’s almost
completely automated for you at this
point obviously platforming is still
alive in the 2D space and a few rare 3D
games but for the most part if you want
to get around in a big budget action
game you’re not really gonna have a
tough time it wasn’t always the case a
lot of action games traversal was a real
Challenge and I’m talking about games
like the original Tomb Raider games
Prince of Persia they could be real
nerve-wracking Prince of Persia reboot
on the Xbox and PS2 was one of the first
games to try to modernize that kind of
cinematic platformer but that doesn’t
mean the traversal was easy in that game
it was still a real threat in a lot of
cases and that’s even keeping in mind
the more player friendly controls that
game’s version of traversal kind of got
lost at a certain point in a lot of
modern games could actually be improved
by making their movement mechanics have
some element of danger while still
feeling fair
at number seven is insulting easy modes
so many games used to give you [ __ ] for
being uneasy or like using cheats or
basically doing anything that went
against the game designers quote-unquote
Vision they let you do it but they made
fun of you a little bit for it kind of
acted like you were being insulting to
them but it’s also kind of like No I
gave you 50 60 bucks for this I don’t
think you should be insulting me for how
I use it so it’s kind of like a back and
forth on this because honestly I think
that it’s funny when I get made fun of
for playing on easy mode in a game but
it’s also kind of weird it can come off
a little petty and mean-spirited
especially given how games have become
more accessible over time so that more
people can play them I don’t know I go
back and forth on it sometimes it really
does give the game some character like
wolfenstein’s labeled easy mode can I
play Daddy and had a picture of the main
guy in a baby Bonnet probably the most
harsh of these is the one from Ninja
Gaiden on the Xbox with the Ninja Dog
difficulty they really really rub it in
when you select that one it’s a little
overboard actually it seems I have
greatly overestimated
oh well
we have no choice but to proceed
I will support you in every way that I
can
don’t be overconfident people now see
difficulty options as a form of
accessibility like I said so adding
insulting messages to them isn’t
something consider is called for like
there’s there’s a reason this concept
has been mostly forgotten it doesn’t
seem like it has a place in modern
gaming even though it’s still funny to
me at least I don’t know like I said
it’s one I go back and forth on I’m
happy when more people are able to enjoy
a game and it doesn’t change the game
fundamentally anyway
at number six is bad guy campaigns like
most of the time game has a single
player mode there’s gonna be one
campaign it may be that Publishers
researched it and found that most people
just play as the good guys all the time
but it seems like you really just never
see games to give you multiple campaigns
especially ones where you place the bad
guys in one of them it was most commonly
seen in Old like real-time strategy
games like red alert and Starcraft but
they weren’t the only games like
Transformers War of Cybertron had
separate stories for bad guys and good
guys you could play them in any order
you wanted the first Lego Batman game
had a whole villains story too it had
remix levels where you play out the
story is Batman’s Rose Gallery instead
of as the cave Crusader it was a great
idea and something I wish more games
would try to do alternative story modes
in general are almost never packed in
with games anymore they’re almost always
DLC now and that kind of feels like a
shame
at number five building a town minigam
there’s a lot of games where you can buy
houses and decorate them but for the
most part it’s pretty simple and
cosmetic but every once in a while you
get a game that scratches the city
building itch probably the most
well-known games to do this are the Dark
Cloud games for PlayStation 2 where the
whole game is about exploring Dungeons
and rebuilding towns it’s a really
satisfying gameplay Loop because all the
resources you collect from the dungeon
aren’t just abstract stuff you actually
take it put it in the game world and
walk around and look at your handiwork
the original for this is probably act
Razer where the gameplay was split
between SimCity style Town building and
2D side-scrolling action
um Fallout 4 deserves a mention here as
well you have to keep people happy and
defended in your colonies by setting up
power and shelter ah let’s just say
older games did it better in my opinion
though not that it’s terrible but it can
be very tedious city building is a lot
of fun and it’s even better when you can
actually walk around in your cities and
that’s kind of what this concept is all
about
at number four is save limits uh it’s
easy to take saving for granted now but
a lot of older games didn’t make the
simple Act of saving such an obvious
choice instead of giving you an infinite
amount of saves and say where you wanted
games would limit your ability to save
in some way so it forces you to make
decisions like do I really need to save
my game now it’s usually done by giving
you a limited supply of items that you
can spend to save like the ink ribbons
in Resident Evil or the Kong coins and
Donkey Kong Country 2. a lot of people
really hate stuff like this because
they’re busy they might have kids
demanding job don’t have all the free
time in the world and could be
interrupted at any moment so being able
to save and quit whenever you want is
kind of how every game should do it but
I will say sometimes I do like seeing
stuff like this even if it’s kind of
scary at first one of the few recent
games that actually forces you to use an
item to save is a survival horror
throwback signalus it works in the right
way because it adds a layer of tension
to the experience that isn’t there
normally and it also doesn’t like overdo
it like Donkey Kong country too was it
was it was harsh at number three is
bizarrely complex creature raising
minigames a concept that’s kind of
intentionally out of style back in the
90s when Tamagotchi was big Pokemon and
Digimon were everywhere people were just
Monster raising crazy so for a while a
lot of big games for whatever reason
included some really complex creature
raising minigames just because probably
the most noteworthy I can think of is to
choke about raising minigame of Final
Fantasy VII and the kind of bizarre Chow
raising from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.
with Chocobo racing at least it served a
purpose and fit into the world of Final
Fantasy the chocobos have been there
since forever having an actual layered
way of interacting with them and
including a kind of cool racing minigame
as well like I like going back to that
but the ciao minigame and I’m gonna say
this I’m a big Sonic fan and I know I’m
gonna go for this because I know that
the Sonic fandom is insane about Chows
but like it’s weird like who plays a
Sonic game and is like oh man this needs
a monster to raising game I want to slow
down from the fastness of this Sonic the
Hedgehog game to shove food down the
throat of this thing that I can
accidentally throw and kill erasing
whatever I put into it uh it’s whatever
creature raising minigames were out of
place often very convoluted and
unnecessary but they also could be
weirdly addictive as far as creature
raising games go they’re still around I
mean we got a Monster Rancher sequel
last year but when it comes to big
budget games they tend to stick to the
core gameplay rather than include a
bunch of alternate stuff
and number two is intentionally useless
allies like people hate the escort
Mission and I think that’s been well
established at this point but that
doesn’t necessarily mean having to deal
with a burdensome companion is always
bad now if you got a follower in a game
there’s purposely designed to stay out
of your way and not be annoying and they
mostly succeed at that but they can
potentially also make a game less
interesting most bring up Ashley from
Resident Evil 4 as a negative example
but I think having a protector actually
did make certain parts of that game more
interesting not all of the times you had
to do it but one of the best examples of
a weak but interesting followers from
Ico uh the character yorda is mostly
defenseless and it’s up to you to help
them in any other game that might seem
like a pain but in this one the bond
between the two characters is built up
through the gameplay and it really works
now for the most part I’m pretty glad
that most games have gotten away from
forcing it a babysitting useless NPC but
there are a few situations where a good
designer has made a game more
interesting and engaging with a
character who in any other context would
be a huge pain
and at number one is difficulty based
objectives only a few games ever really
attempted this concept and it’s kind of
crazy like in Goldeneye depending on the
difficulty level you got more or less
objectives to complete any given Mission
an example of the easiest difficulty
agent all you have to do in the first
mission is get to the end of the level a
normal called secret agent you have to
take out all the alarms and get to the
end and on the hardest difficulty double
O agent you have to take out the alarms
install a covert modem intercept a data
backup and then get to the end it
completely changes the level and it
rewards players for playing through the
level multiple times only a few games
ever really had this sort of thing this
golden eye Perfect Dark time Splitters
2. that’s about it a few of the EA James
Bond games had similar mechanics but
they were way more half-assed and with a
lot of games playing on harder
difficulties just makes the game Harder
by changing some damage values these
games actually made the levels more
complex and interesting I don’t know why
this concept was so minimally used and
forgotten about it’s a fun idea that
makes it really rewarding to go back and
play through these games again first run
do easy and work up to hard it’s
actually really great quick bonus for
you environmental destruction is a game
mechanic we’ve mentioned this one plenty
of times in other lists but it’s it’s a
drum that we still have to hit why are
there so few games with the kind of
Destruction Red Faction gorilla had it
feels like when next-gen consoles it
should be more possible rather than less
and Red Faction gorilla didn’t just have
it it was a major part of how the game
worked like you could complete a lot of
the missions by destroying a building
but rather it seems game worlds have
become more static rather than more
destructible there’s just so much that’s
been left on the table when it comes to
destruction in video games this mechanic
can’t Peak with a game that’s well over
10 years old it’s dumb the only game
that even comes close is the indie game
teardown which is awesome I play that
game a lot all the time even though I’m
through all the missions I go back to it
because it’s so much fun to just destroy
stuff why is there not more and that’s
all for today leave us a comment let us
know what you think you’d like this
video click like if you’re not
subscribed and has a great time to do so
we upload brand new videos every day of
the week best way to see them first is
of course a subscription so click
subscribe don’t forget to enable all
notifications and as always we thank you
very much for watching this video I’m
Falcon you can follow me on Twitter at
Falcon the hero and we’ll see you next
time right here on gameranks
10 Game Concepts that have VANISHED
Game design is an ever-evolving medium
and sometimes things just drop off hi
folks it’s Falcon and today on game
ranks 10 game Concepts that have been
forgotten starting off with number 10
content that can be permanently missed
this is one of those Concepts I think a
lot of people are glad to see forgotten
but there is actually some value in it I
think with most games now it’s really
rare you’ll run into content that’s
permanently missable uh games will go
out of their way to make sure you get a
chance to see everything that you want
to uh like if your hometown gets blown
up in the start that the quest that you
don’t finish there usually show up
somewhere else if you miss an item in a
dungeon that you can’t come back to it
just shows up again somewhere else or
appears in a special lost items chest or
something all that stuff is good because
it sucks to miss out on things you
wanted to do and in some ways games bend
over backwards to accommodate the player
that can limit the game’s potential like
how many games now make it so you really
can’t make any big choices anymore
nothing that’s actually going to change
the entire direction of the game or lock
you out of certain interactions it’s
just not there like Persona 5 there’s
stuff you could miss like the will seeds
and whatnot but that doesn’t change the
direction of the game like there’s minor
variations like that but big stuff
doesn’t usually change in a way these
things are designed to avoid player
frustration and I get it because it does
people don’t want to make a decision
they perceive as wrong or causes them to
miss out on something but they also want
choices to matter it’s a tough position
for developers even the ones who are
really good at it like CD projekt Red
and Witcher 3 they get criticized for
this kind of thing there’s a lot of
people out there who are kind of
nostalgic for the way games were when
you could really miss out on something
major it makes a game more replayable
but yeah it also can be very frustrating
at number nine is real-time Squad
commands and action games like what
happened to this like games like Mass
Effect were so much fun you could order
your allies around command them to do
special attacks you could do this in the
middle of combat it was the perfect mix
of tactical but still exciting and it’s
kind of shocking that more games haven’t
tried to copy that or this kind of just
disappeared the only other time I can
really think of it is the Bureau XCOM
Declassified which tries to be a more
tactical version of that same kind of
gameplay but doesn’t quite pull it
together just in general it seems a lot
like Squad commands are kind of going
away from games especially ones that
they’re purely tactical like the
original Gears of War which let you
command your squad in single player
um the sequels just took it out the Band
of Brothers inspired Brothers in Arms
was an awesome combination of FPS and
tactical game little more arcadey was
the Freedom Fighters where you command a
swarm of resistance Fighters and take on
the Soviet Menace now that I think about
it there’s actually a lot of games that
use this concept it’s just that they’re
all about a generation or more out of
date like there’s a lot of potential for
a game like this in next gen and it’s a
shame there aren’t more of them out
there there was that disintegration game
but that didn’t really do that well the
closest thing I can basically think of
is the Guardians of the Galaxy game
which was fantastic a huge surprise and
also kind of quietly passed we need more
like this it works
at number eight is risky traversal
mechanics um getting around in most
games these days pretty much a breeze
Spider-Man Batman Assassin’s Creed hell
even any given Uncharted game basically
all you have to do is get around is
point yourself in the direction you want
to go and go there’s no real danger to
getting around at least not from the
environment itself that part’s almost
completely automated for you at this
point obviously platforming is still
alive in the 2D space and a few rare 3D
games but for the most part if you want
to get around in a big budget action
game you’re not really gonna have a
tough time it wasn’t always the case a
lot of action games traversal was a real
Challenge and I’m talking about games
like the original Tomb Raider games
Prince of Persia they could be real
nerve-wracking Prince of Persia reboot
on the Xbox and PS2 was one of the first
games to try to modernize that kind of
cinematic platformer but that doesn’t
mean the traversal was easy in that game
it was still a real threat in a lot of
cases and that’s even keeping in mind
the more player friendly controls that
game’s version of traversal kind of got
lost at a certain point in a lot of
modern games could actually be improved
by making their movement mechanics have
some element of danger while still
feeling fair
at number seven is insulting easy modes
so many games used to give you [ __ ] for
being uneasy or like using cheats or
basically doing anything that went
against the game designers quote-unquote
Vision they let you do it but they made
fun of you a little bit for it kind of
acted like you were being insulting to
them but it’s also kind of like No I
gave you 50 60 bucks for this I don’t
think you should be insulting me for how
I use it so it’s kind of like a back and
forth on this because honestly I think
that it’s funny when I get made fun of
for playing on easy mode in a game but
it’s also kind of weird it can come off
a little petty and mean-spirited
especially given how games have become
more accessible over time so that more
people can play them I don’t know I go
back and forth on it sometimes it really
does give the game some character like
wolfenstein’s labeled easy mode can I
play Daddy and had a picture of the main
guy in a baby Bonnet probably the most
harsh of these is the one from Ninja
Gaiden on the Xbox with the Ninja Dog
difficulty they really really rub it in
when you select that one it’s a little
overboard actually it seems I have
greatly overestimated
oh well
we have no choice but to proceed
I will support you in every way that I
can
don’t be overconfident people now see
difficulty options as a form of
accessibility like I said so adding
insulting messages to them isn’t
something consider is called for like
there’s there’s a reason this concept
has been mostly forgotten it doesn’t
seem like it has a place in modern
gaming even though it’s still funny to
me at least I don’t know like I said
it’s one I go back and forth on I’m
happy when more people are able to enjoy
a game and it doesn’t change the game
fundamentally anyway
at number six is bad guy campaigns like
most of the time game has a single
player mode there’s gonna be one
campaign it may be that Publishers
researched it and found that most people
just play as the good guys all the time
but it seems like you really just never
see games to give you multiple campaigns
especially ones where you place the bad
guys in one of them it was most commonly
seen in Old like real-time strategy
games like red alert and Starcraft but
they weren’t the only games like
Transformers War of Cybertron had
separate stories for bad guys and good
guys you could play them in any order
you wanted the first Lego Batman game
had a whole villains story too it had
remix levels where you play out the
story is Batman’s Rose Gallery instead
of as the cave Crusader it was a great
idea and something I wish more games
would try to do alternative story modes
in general are almost never packed in
with games anymore they’re almost always
DLC now and that kind of feels like a
shame
at number five building a town minigam
there’s a lot of games where you can buy
houses and decorate them but for the
most part it’s pretty simple and
cosmetic but every once in a while you
get a game that scratches the city
building itch probably the most
well-known games to do this are the Dark
Cloud games for PlayStation 2 where the
whole game is about exploring Dungeons
and rebuilding towns it’s a really
satisfying gameplay Loop because all the
resources you collect from the dungeon
aren’t just abstract stuff you actually
take it put it in the game world and
walk around and look at your handiwork
the original for this is probably act
Razer where the gameplay was split
between SimCity style Town building and
2D side-scrolling action
um Fallout 4 deserves a mention here as
well you have to keep people happy and
defended in your colonies by setting up
power and shelter ah let’s just say
older games did it better in my opinion
though not that it’s terrible but it can
be very tedious city building is a lot
of fun and it’s even better when you can
actually walk around in your cities and
that’s kind of what this concept is all
about
at number four is save limits uh it’s
easy to take saving for granted now but
a lot of older games didn’t make the
simple Act of saving such an obvious
choice instead of giving you an infinite
amount of saves and say where you wanted
games would limit your ability to save
in some way so it forces you to make
decisions like do I really need to save
my game now it’s usually done by giving
you a limited supply of items that you
can spend to save like the ink ribbons
in Resident Evil or the Kong coins and
Donkey Kong Country 2. a lot of people
really hate stuff like this because
they’re busy they might have kids
demanding job don’t have all the free
time in the world and could be
interrupted at any moment so being able
to save and quit whenever you want is
kind of how every game should do it but
I will say sometimes I do like seeing
stuff like this even if it’s kind of
scary at first one of the few recent
games that actually forces you to use an
item to save is a survival horror
throwback signalus it works in the right
way because it adds a layer of tension
to the experience that isn’t there
normally and it also doesn’t like overdo
it like Donkey Kong country too was it
was it was harsh at number three is
bizarrely complex creature raising
minigames a concept that’s kind of
intentionally out of style back in the
90s when Tamagotchi was big Pokemon and
Digimon were everywhere people were just
Monster raising crazy so for a while a
lot of big games for whatever reason
included some really complex creature
raising minigames just because probably
the most noteworthy I can think of is to
choke about raising minigame of Final
Fantasy VII and the kind of bizarre Chow
raising from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.
with Chocobo racing at least it served a
purpose and fit into the world of Final
Fantasy the chocobos have been there
since forever having an actual layered
way of interacting with them and
including a kind of cool racing minigame
as well like I like going back to that
but the ciao minigame and I’m gonna say
this I’m a big Sonic fan and I know I’m
gonna go for this because I know that
the Sonic fandom is insane about Chows
but like it’s weird like who plays a
Sonic game and is like oh man this needs
a monster to raising game I want to slow
down from the fastness of this Sonic the
Hedgehog game to shove food down the
throat of this thing that I can
accidentally throw and kill erasing
whatever I put into it uh it’s whatever
creature raising minigames were out of
place often very convoluted and
unnecessary but they also could be
weirdly addictive as far as creature
raising games go they’re still around I
mean we got a Monster Rancher sequel
last year but when it comes to big
budget games they tend to stick to the
core gameplay rather than include a
bunch of alternate stuff
and number two is intentionally useless
allies like people hate the escort
Mission and I think that’s been well
established at this point but that
doesn’t necessarily mean having to deal
with a burdensome companion is always
bad now if you got a follower in a game
there’s purposely designed to stay out
of your way and not be annoying and they
mostly succeed at that but they can
potentially also make a game less
interesting most bring up Ashley from
Resident Evil 4 as a negative example
but I think having a protector actually
did make certain parts of that game more
interesting not all of the times you had
to do it but one of the best examples of
a weak but interesting followers from
Ico uh the character yorda is mostly
defenseless and it’s up to you to help
them in any other game that might seem
like a pain but in this one the bond
between the two characters is built up
through the gameplay and it really works
now for the most part I’m pretty glad
that most games have gotten away from
forcing it a babysitting useless NPC but
there are a few situations where a good
designer has made a game more
interesting and engaging with a
character who in any other context would
be a huge pain
and at number one is difficulty based
objectives only a few games ever really
attempted this concept and it’s kind of
crazy like in Goldeneye depending on the
difficulty level you got more or less
objectives to complete any given Mission
an example of the easiest difficulty
agent all you have to do in the first
mission is get to the end of the level a
normal called secret agent you have to
take out all the alarms and get to the
end and on the hardest difficulty double
O agent you have to take out the alarms
install a covert modem intercept a data
backup and then get to the end it
completely changes the level and it
rewards players for playing through the
level multiple times only a few games
ever really had this sort of thing this
golden eye Perfect Dark time Splitters
2. that’s about it a few of the EA James
Bond games had similar mechanics but
they were way more half-assed and with a
lot of games playing on harder
difficulties just makes the game Harder
by changing some damage values these
games actually made the levels more
complex and interesting I don’t know why
this concept was so minimally used and
forgotten about it’s a fun idea that
makes it really rewarding to go back and
play through these games again first run
do easy and work up to hard it’s
actually really great quick bonus for
you environmental destruction is a game
mechanic we’ve mentioned this one plenty
of times in other lists but it’s it’s a
drum that we still have to hit why are
there so few games with the kind of
Destruction Red Faction gorilla had it
feels like when next-gen consoles it
should be more possible rather than less
and Red Faction gorilla didn’t just have
it it was a major part of how the game
worked like you could complete a lot of
the missions by destroying a building
but rather it seems game worlds have
become more static rather than more
destructible there’s just so much that’s
been left on the table when it comes to
destruction in video games this mechanic
can’t Peak with a game that’s well over
10 years old it’s dumb the only game
that even comes close is the indie game
teardown which is awesome I play that
game a lot all the time even though I’m
through all the missions I go back to it
because it’s so much fun to just destroy
stuff why is there not more and that’s
all for today leave us a comment let us
know what you think you’d like this
video click like if you’re not
subscribed and has a great time to do so
we upload brand new videos every day of
the week best way to see them first is
of course a subscription so click
subscribe don’t forget to enable all
notifications and as always we thank you
very much for watching this video I’m
Falcon you can follow me on Twitter at
Falcon the hero and we’ll see you next
time right here on gameranks
Related posts: