Poorly done procedural generation where it’s a waste of time to explore. The first Remnant was pretty bad about this, with small setpieces scattered throughout the levels that looked interesting but usually only contained basic enemies and one or two empty pots. Filling out the map was a chore that was almost never worth the effort - almost never because sometimes there was a unique drop hidden in a level just to screw over anyone who got sick of fighting through hundreds of empty buildings and decided to stick to the main path.
Bethesda’s random leveled loot is another contender for worst mechanic. It was always fun picking the lock on a master-level chest deep in a dungeon only to find thirteen coins and a wooden spoon inside.
“Some may call this junk. Me, I call it treasure.” could be a line from their design document.
Poorly done procedural generation where it’s a waste of time to explore. The first Remnant was pretty bad about this, with small setpieces scattered throughout the levels that looked interesting but usually only contained basic enemies and one or two empty pots. Filling out the map was a chore that was almost never worth the effort - almost never because sometimes there was a unique drop hidden in a level just to screw over anyone who got sick of fighting through hundreds of empty buildings and decided to stick to the main path.
Starfield did more of this. What a dud that was!
Bethesda’s random leveled loot is another contender for worst mechanic. It was always fun picking the lock on a master-level chest deep in a dungeon only to find thirteen coins and a wooden spoon inside.
“Some may call this junk. Me, I call it treasure.” could be a line from their design document.