GamingBolt Game of the Year Awards 2013

Worst Gameplay Mechanic

Innovation is tough, especially in video games, but there are times where developers will just fall back on the same tired mechanics that have been done to death in order to get by. Other mechanics seen in this year make us scratch our collective heads and wonder just what some studios were thinking. Join us as we look at the Worst Gameplay Mechanic of 2013. And really, the winner seemed pre-ordained the moment we first laid eyes on it.

Nominees:

– DmC Devil May Cry – Devil Trigger

– Splinter Cell Blacklist – Mark and Execute

– Ryse: Son of Rome – Quick time events

– Call of Duty: Ghosts – AI Dog Companion

Winner: Call of Duty: Ghosts – AI Dog Companion

When Infinity Ward revealed Riley for the first time, the collective gaming world either laughed it off or wondered if the developer had lost its mind. The more cool-headed of us argued that an AI dog companion wouldn’t be so bad – maybe you could direct it to attack enemies using Kinect or something similar? It actually boiled down to controlling Riley in one mission, with a twist on the traditional breach and slow-mo shooting sequence, after which he was promptly forgotten in the grand scheme of things. The announcement of DLC to convert you dog kill streak in multiplayer to a pack of wolves didn’t help either. Say what you will about the other nominees but at least they weren’t as useless, overhyped or outright pathetic as Riley.