10 Modern Video Game Mechanics We Take For Granted
Top 10 Modern Game Mechanics We Take For Granted
Top 10 Modern Video Game Musical Themes
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’ll be looking at the top 10 modern game mechanics we take for granted. For this list, we’ll be going over the aspects of current games and game consoles that players have gotten so used to, even though they haven’t always been around. If there’s a game feature that doesn’t feature in our list, don’t take it for granted – tell us in the comments!
Rumble Controllers
Most video game controllers these days have some kind of built-in feature that provides haptic feedback – basically, they vibrate or rumble. This is done to enhance the immersion into the game, by simulating being shaken by the events happening onscreen; albeit in a less intense way than in the game. This seems like a no-brainer now, but controllers didn’t always have the ability to give this kind of feedback. Early attempts at this feature were add-ons to the controller, such as the Rumble Pak for the Nintendo 64. Before that, gamers just had to imagine or simulate impacts themselves.
Regenerating Health
“Dang! I took some damage in a firefight! Oh well, guess I’ll just sit behind this chest high wall for 5 seconds to get my health back!” Nah-ah! Old school gamers know how spoiled modern ones are with this mechanic. It used to be that health was something you could only regain through items, like hearts or food. And sure, those things are still around, but regenerating health just wasn’t commonplace for many years in gaming. You think the developers are just going to make things convenient for you like that? Nah-ah!
Cloud Saving
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Saving games in video games used to be quite the conundrum – there often wasn’t enough hardware space to contain all the data. Although PC gamers could update with relative ease, console gamers needed memory cards, and they were out of luck if they misplaced them or ran out of room. However, now gamers can save their games to the nebulous cloud. Data corruption and losing your save file because your dog thought the card looked fun to chew on are non-issues today! And the amount of data? Forget about it!
Narrative Choices
Modern games have so many options it can be a little overwhelming! Want to play like a heroic character? You can do that. Want to play like an anti-hero? You don’t even need perma-stubble or a deep voice! You can even be a total villain! And whichever way you choose to play, games will offer you multiple endings and other branching options based on how you play the game. Older games offered much less freedom in this regard. You played the game one way, and one way only! Granted, there were some where you could mess around within the gameplay sections, but as far as story goes? Chances are you’re going full hero or bust!
Resume/Suspend
Load times suck - all gamers can agree on this, right? Few things grate more than being forced to wait so we can just play the game some more! Not that long ago, it would take precious minutes to load up games. But now, thanks to the resume and/or suspend feature, we can pause our playthrough while the console is in sleep mode and then get right back to where we were, with nary a load screen in sight! Never take this for granted kids! Because it could be so, so much more boring!
Targeting Specific Enemies
Modern games are so convenient. A lot of times you can just lock-on to an enemy or other target and strafe around them with ease; dodging or parrying as needed. But this wasn’t always the case! Until games like “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,” players pretty much had to manually face in the direction of their opponent, swing or shoot their weapon, and hope their aim was true. What a hassle, right? But thanks to this handy innovation, gamers have been able to run circles around the bad guys for decades.
Open Worlds
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It seems like these days you can’t throw a controller without hitting a game with an open world. Massive environments, detailed nooks and crannies, and more to explore than any reasonable amount of free time will allow. But once upon a few decades ago, gamers would see a mountain in the distance in a game and…you could not go there. Like, it physically didn’t exist. It was probably just a 2D backdrop. If you tried to go there, you’d hit an invisible wall, or some mist, and you’d have to turn around. So, the next time you complain that there’s not enough to do in your enormous sandbox, just remember – your criticism may be valid, but keep in mind how far we’ve come.
Fast Travel
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Hand in hand with open worlds is the ability to move about them quickly. Most ginormous video games have at least one way of returning to previously visited locales in a timely manner. It’s so convenient and obvious a feature that it’s easy to forget that not every big game had this feature. Of course, some of them had shortcuts, but full-on teleportation all over the map? That was a great leap forward. While not quite as big a leap as it would be in real life, it was still pretty mind-blowing when we first encountered it. No more treks across huge overworlds on horseback or in a car! Now we could spend more time playing the best parts of the game.
Camera Controls
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Something as simple as being able to control from which direction you view your character in a game didn’t used to be quite so easy. Early games were two dimensional and were generally forced to use a fixed perspective. Even the jump to 3D didn’t eliminate this tendency, as fans of “Resident Evil” can attest. All too frequently, players would get surprised by an enemy because they were physically unable to see it coming. However, nowadays you can spin your camera around your character, zoom in, zoom out, center it, and a lot more! Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
Physics
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Games Where Characters Have Weight and Momentum Used to Be a Rarity
Completely Interactive & Destructible Worlds
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Back in My Day, There Were Indestructible Walls!
Preloading Before Release
Used to Be You Had to Wait Until After You Got the Game to Wait Hours While It Loaded!
Auto-Saving
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We touched on one aspect of saving earlier, but one of the more convenient aspects of it that we don’t even think about today is auto-saving. At certain points in modern titles, the game will just save your progress. This often creates checkpoints for you to restart from if you die. Yet, in older games, you have to physically go to the menu and save manually, if you can save at all. Sure, modern games have manual saving too, and boy is it handy if you know you’re going against a tough enemy. But the difference is that if you don’t save often enough in older games, you’ll be pulling your hair out once you lose all that progress!
