People talk as if games never stop developing and becoming more advanced which isn't true at all outside of graphics. When it comes to actual gameplay, games have become lazier and lazier.
"Open world" and "freedom" are two buzzwords used to excuse lazy game design. Just copy and paste the same content repeatedly and then give normies the "freedom" to do it any order and they'll call it amazing. Compare Dark Souls to Elden Ring. Dark Souls is obviously the better game in almost every regard. The world is carefully hand-crafted and interconnected intelligently. Elden Ring is lazy copy past slop that lacks any meaningful level design.
I assume that it's much easier for developers to opt for this kind of design due to how hard it is to make a game comparable to the ones that came out in the PS4/360 era with modern graphics.
Nintendo is very much guilty of this lazy design. I've already made multiple rants on here about the issue. All I'll say about it is that BOTW and Mario Odyssey are lazy when it comes to their content.
Another example of lazy game design is movie games. They have the opposite issue of open world slop. Last of Us kicked off this trend. They tend to have overly simplistic hallway level design with a large focus on dialogue and cutscenes. Compare RE4 to RE4 remake if you want to see the issues with movie games.
I'd even argue that the overabundance of souls clones is an example of lazy game design. Dark Souls combat was incredibly simple. After all, it is a action jrpg and not a traditional action game. It's become the default combat system to copy imo because it's incredibly easy to do so. Just allow the player to roll and parry and you're all set. Don't bother trying to create your own combat system that would actually suit your game. Rolling around in a lightsaber fight is totally immersive dude. Parrying a chainsaw with a knife is so fitting of Resident Evil bro...
It feels like the gaming industry just stopped coming up with new ideas and we've been stuck with the same mechanics regurgitated repeatedly. Honestly, I'm sick of hearing "this game is like these two games"
I want new experiences. There are so many cool things that could be done that won't be done because devs are more interested in copying trends.
For example, a sword fighting game with actual good sword combat. The only games we've seen like this are Wii games. We know from Skyward Sword HD that it can be done without motion controls. Yet, no one has bothered to try because they'd rather just make a fantasy game with roll-slop combat.
It's all so tiring.
"Open world" and "freedom" are two buzzwords used to excuse lazy game design. Just copy and paste the same content repeatedly and then give normies the "freedom" to do it any order and they'll call it amazing. Compare Dark Souls to Elden Ring. Dark Souls is obviously the better game in almost every regard. The world is carefully hand-crafted and interconnected intelligently. Elden Ring is lazy copy past slop that lacks any meaningful level design.
I assume that it's much easier for developers to opt for this kind of design due to how hard it is to make a game comparable to the ones that came out in the PS4/360 era with modern graphics.
Nintendo is very much guilty of this lazy design. I've already made multiple rants on here about the issue. All I'll say about it is that BOTW and Mario Odyssey are lazy when it comes to their content.
Another example of lazy game design is movie games. They have the opposite issue of open world slop. Last of Us kicked off this trend. They tend to have overly simplistic hallway level design with a large focus on dialogue and cutscenes. Compare RE4 to RE4 remake if you want to see the issues with movie games.
I'd even argue that the overabundance of souls clones is an example of lazy game design. Dark Souls combat was incredibly simple. After all, it is a action jrpg and not a traditional action game. It's become the default combat system to copy imo because it's incredibly easy to do so. Just allow the player to roll and parry and you're all set. Don't bother trying to create your own combat system that would actually suit your game. Rolling around in a lightsaber fight is totally immersive dude. Parrying a chainsaw with a knife is so fitting of Resident Evil bro...
It feels like the gaming industry just stopped coming up with new ideas and we've been stuck with the same mechanics regurgitated repeatedly. Honestly, I'm sick of hearing "this game is like these two games"
I want new experiences. There are so many cool things that could be done that won't be done because devs are more interested in copying trends.
For example, a sword fighting game with actual good sword combat. The only games we've seen like this are Wii games. We know from Skyward Sword HD that it can be done without motion controls. Yet, no one has bothered to try because they'd rather just make a fantasy game with roll-slop combat.
It's all so tiring.
