crafting dear god I hate crafting if I ever find the person that introduced crafting into the triple a formula...

Escort missions and weapons breaking without a reasonably easy way to get/make more (glaring at you, Dead Island...)

I honestly do not like the RPG mechanic of levelling up/buying skills, especially in FPS games. I'd rather have a Half Life experience over levelling.

I'm also not a fan of side quests. I find it breaks the immersion when you're character is on some crazy, world saving overall quest but sure, I can spend time to find that random thing for you.

Currently?
Having cool abilities tied to NPC companions.

And I'm pretty sure (nearly?) everyone knows why and what I'm talking about.

Stamina, why can't i just keep running forever!! Even worst in open world games.

The bit in a certain DOS game where a demon respawns lower level demons... If you know, you know.

Most open-world games have areas on the map that are blank until you "explore" them by climbing a tower of some kind and "activating" that region on your map.

This results in trudging blindly into the middle of every new area, ignoring interesting stuff along the way and beelining to the tower just so you can see the damn map. It's an annoyingly unnatural way to explore.

I didn't even realize that I disliked it until I played Far Cry 6, which has a much more organic and immersive landmark discovery process. You learn locations of interest from readables and by talking to friendly NPCs that you encounter in the world.

In FC6 it's even thematic, since you're guerilla fighters passing intel along by word of mouth.

Edit: sp

I think forced stealth mechanics in games not designed for them are my pet peeve. Looking at you Witcher 2.

I really don't like random bullet spread. Especially when it becomes more random if your character is moving.

Quest systems, especially in linear games. All is does is clog up the UI, and if you need to constantly tell me what to do and where to go, is your game really designed that well?

Someone already sort of mentioned this, but I don't usually like crafting and building stuff. So games like minecraft and animal crossing new horizons are out. For the latter, greatly prefer new leaf.

Perhaps forced online with no way to self host.

Anything that encourages toxicity and trolling behavior, though I suppose in some ways that's unavoidable and is the nature of anonymity/pseudo-anonymity that online gaming offers.

Flowcharts for multiple endings. Let me take multiple distinct routes from the start, or make a choice at the end I can come back to. I hate going through some of the same content again and again and having to look up guides just to find the true ending (looking at you Persona).

1. Slow, boring climbing sections that add nothing to the game and just pad out playtime. I'm looking at you, God of War (2018).

2. Lives systems. Luckily modern games never use it anymore, but every now and then I play an older game and wow, losing 30+ minutes of progress just because you died a few times SUCKS.

I hate RNG-heavy progression that discourages playing the actual game.

Path of Exile had terrible loot droprates and gamble crafting when I last played in Ritual League. Starting a league = poring YouTube for safe league starter builds to follow step by step. Gearing up = only picking up currency and buying items from other players on a website. Making $$$ = flipping items (buy low sell high) in hideout (personal town).

Path of Champions (PvE gamemode in Legends of Runeterra) drops shards and fragments to unlock new champions and relics that add a passive effect. Drops are random and not duplicate protected. Champions need 2 star upgrades totalling their unlock cost to feel playable. Optimal progression = speedrunning dailies/weeklies, 2-starring meta champs, and logging out.

Disclaimer: not always

Character stats, commonly called "RPG elements".

In games with low enough detail that I have to use my imagination, it makes sense to have a character constitution 10 increase to 15 and take 50% less damage from blunt weapons. It works perfectly in Rimworld, ADOM, Terraria and the like because you can't completely see what's happening, so when your character does low damage your imagination has room for him to hit badly or be partially blocked.

But in games with modern graphics and animations, it feels... off. An attack animation that shows someone swinging a sharp steel battleaxe perfectly and connecting with bare flesh at momentum, deals... no damage because the wielder has low strength and axe skill, while the target has a high armor value.

I know it's a popular mechanic that lots of people love, but I really don't like games where you die a lot, or where death has significant impact. I generally play games to chill out and just have fun and I often feel like games are punishing me when that happens and I find myself doing sort of "risk management" and becoming a hermit in the game.

The bit in the RPG when your character gets captured and you lose all your gear, and have to do the shitty stealth thing.

QuickTime events. I started replaying RE4 original. Did not miss them.

Repeateable procedural quests. I feel like this explains it all.

Crafting with survival elements, one button stealth attacks, random loot with stats in story games.

Not a gameplay mechanic but constant fucking talking mains and npcs

3D 3rd person platforming. Any flavour of it. It consistently either sucks (souls games) or is just plain boring (the uncharted series). I'm sure there are some games where it's done reasonably well (probably some sonic or mario game), but I've never seen that.