Fallout's Pipboy maps. The world map is serviceable, but the local maps are pure , confusing, green garbage. To make it even worse, they never improved the maps from FO3 to NV to FO4. All terrible.
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Maps in Video Games | What is the most ridiculous / confusing? Your favorite map? Ever got lost in a map? What game has the shittiest map?
- Thread starter hwarang
- Start date
this, I never used for more then a sec just to see the general direction I needed to head in because it was terribleJedi fallen order maps sucked.
Yikes
yeah DP has the worst implementation of a map i've ever seen in a game. the fact that you can't zoom out to see the whole map is just crazy. thankfully greenvale is pretty small so after a while you remember where everything is.Deadly Premonition. It would change orientation and I found it impossible to use quickly.
Fallen orders map was terrible. One of the worst things a designer can do when you look at a map is that it reorientates itself to face the direction you're facing. So it never looks the same each time you look at it making the map almost useless. Just to make it even more confusing. This game did that.
control's map was terrible too and one of the reasons I ditched it. The samey environments mixed with that awful useless map was a deal breaker.
I'm surprised this one hasn't shown here yet:
SMT4A Last Dungeon
There's some dungeon RPG i played that i can't remember the name of that did something similar, but not quite this bad. It was like 10ish floors and got worse near the end, i think the last 3 floors were basically one floor with a mix of pits and ladders and colored teleport pads that you had to navigate a specific path to actually get out.
Borderlands always had really shitty maps in any area that had any amount of verticality to it, not sure if they fixed it in 3, but the people i asked made it sound like no. It was just every layer compressed onto one another in a single 2d map of an overlapping mess. Which door is this floor on? How about this icon? Who the fuck knows. Paths got obscured in a couple areas because dead ends looked like they led somewhere because of another floor overlapping there, or the other way around with the correct path looking like there's not even a path to be had there. It only really affected a couple areas, but it was awful and i always got lost in them because the map was unreadable.
I'm only in the first chapters in control but the map doesn't seem that bad?
So far at least..
This shit is not trypophobia-friendlyThe Black Shroud map in FFXIV 1.0 looks like a nightmare. Never played 1.0 myself but my girlfriend has shared a number of horror stories with me.
What the fuck 1.0
Fuck XC2's map! Worst offender of my list.
Best map system: Warframe. Even with it's high speed movement, it has a near-perfect marker that updates. So if your objective is in an S-like path, it will guide you correctly and not tell you to warp through walls.
I see a lot of control. I don't get the hate. The map was useful to show you roughly where to go, but the game did a fenomenal job putting up signs and such to show you the way. I barely needed the map and I believe it was very intentional to have people use the map as little as possible.
I hate all maps that are 3D. For some reason I have a really hard time orienting in it.
I hate all maps that are 3D. For some reason I have a really hard time orienting in it.
I've been wanting to go back to Metroid Prime just to see why I didn't mind that game's map, but despised Fallen Order's.
I was speculating that it was something to do with not being able to really line up the space presented in the map with space in the real game. For instance, in a wide open area or a large room with only a narrow traversable path, the map only showed the thin path that you could traverse. What I felt like I needed was for it to present a much larger space despite being non-traversable, and highlight the traversable path.
^ I'm not 100% certain if my memory of the map is correct. So the above might be wrong. I do know for certain I couldn't stand using it.
Arkham Origins: Blackgate (I think that's the title. It's the one on Vita) has a map that's flat out unusable.
Here's the map:
Oh, btw, this game is in 2.5d.
So where the fuck are you?
I came to post exactly this, and thank goodness you did it before me because I honestly couldn't remember the name of the game. I knew it was some combo of Batman, Arkham and Blackgate :P
3D map for a 2.5D game; what a concept. Apparently the original Vita version had an entirely different map system that was changed for the console port? I played the console version and it was basically unusable, but I didn't hear good things about the Vita versions map either.
I didn't think it was that bad. Granted, it wasn't good, but it was serviceable most of the time. I think the main challenge with it is that it's really hard determine verticality, which makes it really bad on certain planets.
Recently played through XB2 and the map was still awful to me. I don't think I can have recall not being able to figure out where I need to go from a map until XB2. It's not even the map itself but the sheer vertically and scope of the world. You would have a side quest and see where the eventually place you need to go is, but the map only indicates that final destination and not the random trek you need to make to get there. Many times I needed to YouTube someone and follow their steps.
Man I really did not like that map. Trying to figure out where you were and needed to go especially on the bigger more layered maps was... ugh...Jedi fallen order maps sucked.
Yikes
The Resident Evil games have the best maps. Maps are well laid out and each room turning blue once you have collected everything is a godsend.
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Can't have a thread about maps without mentioning Miasmata.
What a phenomenal game, and it's basically about cartography.
I can't explain it in a good way so I'll just link to the wiki's great explanation.
But basically triangulation yada yada. Might not sound like fun but I absolutely loved it. I think I might need to do another playthrough...
What a phenomenal game, and it's basically about cartography.
I can't explain it in a good way so I'll just link to the wiki's great explanation.
But basically triangulation yada yada. Might not sound like fun but I absolutely loved it. I think I might need to do another playthrough...
This was what I was gonna mention as the worst. Nice to see it was already taken care of because it deserves to be bashed over and over. What a useless thing that was!Arkham Origins: Blackgate (I think that's the title. It's the one on Vita) has a map that's flat out unusable.
Here's the map:
Oh, btw, this game is in 2.5d.
So where the fuck are you?
I used the physical map while playing the game. It's an experience I really miss.
OH GOD. I'm having flashbacks. I got turned around so many times by the stupid fucking map turning with your character. Was such a nightmare since so much stuff was time sensitive and you had to haul ass across the map.Deadly Premonition. It would change orientation and I found it impossible to use quickly.
The map in Kakarot is really bad. Using the minimap during gameplay, I never knew exactly where I was relative to my objective when I was close to it. Am I right on it? Is it still ahead ? Oh shit I went past it already. I don't know if it's the scale, the size of the icons or something, but it really lacks precision. And when showing the map in full screen, there are only two zoom levels : not close enough and not far enough.
Agreed. The angle and the transparency contribute to make those convoluted maps even more confusing.
I'll never understand the problem with this one. It's only an option, and the game does have tons of stuff in it, so I don't see the issue with offering you a way to evaluate the total number of things to see. The fact that there is a ton of shit every two steps is more an issue with the game's design than the map itself. The default map view only shows relevant stuff and works fine.
Jedi fallen order maps sucked.
Yikes
Agreed. The angle and the transparency contribute to make those convoluted maps even more confusing.
AC Unity with all icons turned on.
Jesus Christ.
I'll never understand the problem with this one. It's only an option, and the game does have tons of stuff in it, so I don't see the issue with offering you a way to evaluate the total number of things to see. The fact that there is a ton of shit every two steps is more an issue with the game's design than the map itself. The default map view only shows relevant stuff and works fine.
Detroit in Deus Ex Human Revolution was really confusing to me as well. The map was unmitigated dogshit, but the physical area itself was awkward to navigate which made the suffering all the worse. Jensen has the stamina of a lifelong smoker, a lot of key areas were scattered about, connecting paths make no sense, and everything looks the exact same. Hated it.
1.0 was the very poor attempt at evolving FFXI to the modern age to compete with WoW while not understanding why everyone loved WoW. It's reflected almost everywhere in 1.0.
I always dislike 3D maps. They seem to be added to make something look sci-fi but inevitably ditch how useful they actually are for the purpose of getting from A to B, through linked areas and doors etc, for graphical impact.
SMTIV wasn't great either, as it didn't label Tokyo very well- not very useful when trying to get to districts of a city you don't know. They did fix it for the sequel though.
SMTIV wasn't great either, as it didn't label Tokyo very well- not very useful when trying to get to districts of a city you don't know. They did fix it for the sequel though.
They specifically did not play WoW when making 1.0, as they didn't want it to influence their design. Gods did it show.
Not getting the hatred for Fallen Orders maps at all. I found them to be one of the best parts of the game. Really useful, easy to use and helpful in locating new areas to explore and secrets. From memory I think the GB guys loved the map system as well?
OP
OP
Hell yeah. The map was awful. I wonder if it's better in Mankind Divided.
I hated the fact that salt and sanctuary did not have a map. Such a great game I couldn't keep playing because I got lost Everytime.
Soul reaver 2 is also a mess
And I remember getting lost in a forest in vagrant story. What q pain in the ass
Soul reaver 2 is also a mess
And I remember getting lost in a forest in vagrant story. What q pain in the ass
that's not even a map, that's just all ingame screens pasted next to each other. the actual ingame map looks like this:
and it being so hard to navigate is the entire point of the dungeon.
I liked Horizon's, a lot. But that re-starting music.. Man, that got old fast.
I also like how you're using a map in the Metro games. You got it on a clipboard and you're not 'out' of the game, pausing the game. And stuff that's relevant looks scribbled on.
I also like how you're using a map in the Metro games. You got it on a clipboard and you're not 'out' of the game, pausing the game. And stuff that's relevant looks scribbled on.
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Xenoblade Chronicles 2's map is absolute dogshit and pointless.
For one, you can't see the direction your character is facing on the map so you're expected to use landmarks. The problem is the actual levels are so busy with vertical traverse that it's essentially impossible. Then you have quest markers that can lead you astray due to how the terrain was designed. Even worse, the compass at the middle top of the screen is not relative but absolute, meaning that the left and right edges are both 180 degrees to you instead of it being relative to your viewport, and quest markers are in "the general direction".
To top it off, when you want to exit from the aggravating map view you need a few button presses. Really stupid design.
Amongst all things, this is the straw that broke the camel's back that is my playthrough.
For one, you can't see the direction your character is facing on the map so you're expected to use landmarks. The problem is the actual levels are so busy with vertical traverse that it's essentially impossible. Then you have quest markers that can lead you astray due to how the terrain was designed. Even worse, the compass at the middle top of the screen is not relative but absolute, meaning that the left and right edges are both 180 degrees to you instead of it being relative to your viewport, and quest markers are in "the general direction".
To top it off, when you want to exit from the aggravating map view you need a few button presses. Really stupid design.
Amongst all things, this is the straw that broke the camel's back that is my playthrough.
Oh yeah, just to be perfectly clear about my own post, the actual map/level design of Hollow Knight is largely fine. It's just the map-related mechanics of the game like the compass I have an issue with.hollow knight's map is exquisite
Disagree. The 3d view of the map was so confunsing that I couldn't pinpoint the exact location of a chest or another point of interest, even disabling other icons. This translucid color was pretty but not very functional. Syndicate's map was much better in every single aspect though.
Borderlands 3's 3D maps were a good idea... but get really fucking confusing as you search for the typon logs and what not. The game is really buggy, so you'll actually pass by something but it won't always clear it on the map. And it's rather difficult to tell from the map what is actually climbable and what's just scenery.
Yuhtunga Jungle in FFXI. It took me moths to finally understand how it works, meaning there would be parties I'd get invited to only to end up leaving because I could not figure out how to get to them. All those little ends do not come out at the nearest one like you think they would It's a clusterfuck of a map.
Final Fantasy XI as a whole had some really bad maps. My least favorite was Yorcia Weald. This is the in-game map, for anyone who has never played the game:
These are the actual paths through the zone:
The actual in-game map is basically useless because you can't really find any of the maps on it. It literally was useless when Seekers of Adoulin launched. The map was bugged and your location marker on the map didn't line up with where you actually were.
I actually came around on it after I learned better how to read it, but Hyper Light Drifter's map seems like unintelligible nonsense the first time you see it
I'm torn because I like that you can "crack the code" almost and learn how to use it effectively... but also I was so lost in the first area that I think it still could have used a few tweaks anyway.
I'm torn because I like that you can "crack the code" almost and learn how to use it effectively... but also I was so lost in the first area that I think it still could have used a few tweaks anyway.
I totally agree. The opposite of this thread, everything about Hollow Knight's map and how the game reveals it to the player without hurting the exploration in the game is perfectionhollow knight's map is exquisite
It's a diegetic explanation of how the compass would always magically point to where you are — it's literally a magic charm compared to the quill or the tokens or the lamp which are just normal objects. It's like how in Nier: Automata you can unequip your health bar and mini-map from the HUD if you want to free up space in your memory for more damage boosts or whatever — it both ties those video gamey elements into the world and allows for gimmick builds without them.
The game could have just had 10 notch slots instead of 11 and made the compass permanent, but that would lose that small bit of worldbuilding and remove the option to gain a bonus charm slot when you're not actively exploring and instead are just grinding a boss.
