Elden Ring’s a latest instance of clunky mouse-and-keyboard controls, however there are many different video games that make horrible use of the PC’s default setup. Games that do not allow you to rebind keys; that use double-tap for dodge; that bind the map to one thing apart from M or tab; that bind a number of, contradictory issues to the identical keys so you find yourself leaping while you’re attempting to open doorways or skipping dialogue while you imply to crouch; that do not allow you to use the mouse in menus. (Shout out to Killer is Dead, the place you left-click to pick menu gadgets, however haven’t any cursor and so have to spotlight them with the arrow keys first like some type of savage.)
What are the worst mouse-and-keyboard management sins?
Here are our solutions, plus some from our forum.
Christopher Livingston, Features Producer: I used to be not too long ago reminded of an previous Apple II sport I used to play referred to as Aztec. Made within the early Eighties, it was mainly a precursor to Spelunky, with randomized dungeons, placeable explosives, monsters, traps, treasures, and a fedora-wearing adventurer. It was unprecedentedly janky—you might truly blow up the ground, fall by means of, and stroll round on the UI components—and the keyboard controls have been actually weird.
W was stroll, R was run, J was bounce, and S was cease. Yes, you needed to inform the adventurer to cease or he’d carry on going. This included climbing stairs (C for climb), and in the event you did not inform him to cease climbing stairs he’d hold attempting, even within the absence of stairs. O was open (a field), L was look (look into the field you simply opened) and T was take (take one thing from the field you opened and appeared into). How do you kneel? Okay for kneel? C for crouch? Nope. G! Explosives may have been E, however as an alternative it was P (for place explosives). And I’ll let the user manual clarify how fight labored.
I assume a constructive view is that it actually made full use of the keyboard. On the draw back, you actually needed to be a gifted touch-typist to play.
Tyler Wilde, Executive Editor: Chris, I hold rereading that management scheme doc and laughing at a unique line. Forget paying respects, I’m urgent F to “go into Fight mode” any longer. It’s unbeatable. I particularly like the road on the backside which explains the best way to depart “Flight Mode.” Is it a typo, or are there each Fight and Flight modes? I actually hope it is the latter.
Anyway, to really reply the query right here, there are tons of issues that trouble me, however one I am unable to stand is when Esc does not again out of a menu. Someone else talked about it not too long ago, and I hold fascinated with how a lot it annoys me, as a result of it is usually not a rebindable management. Especially unhealthy is when Esc opens the menu, however a unique key closes it. Noo! When in-game, Escape ought to at all times open the primary sport menu, and urgent it once more ought to at all times shut that menu, except you have navigated to a submenu, during which case it ought to transfer you “up a layer” again towards the primary menu. A associated factor that irks me is when hitting Esc exits an choices display and discards my modifications. I perceive the will for readability, however I promise that the stakes aren’t so excessive that I would like an additional keypress to avoid wasting my mouse sensitivity tweaks. (However, I do insist on a “reset to default” button in case I need to discover the baseline once more.)
Christopher Livingston: It’s a typo within the handbook. This adventurer has sufficient hassle strolling and climbing stairs. Flying is certainly not an choice.
Andy Chalk, NA News Lead: I actually loved Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, Cyan’s 2003 puzzle-adventure, however holy cow the controls are brutal. In the default setup you maintain the left mouse button to stroll, or left and proper buttons to run; the center button is for strolling backwards, and holding the best button permits mouselook—however solely in a really restricted discipline of view when in third-person mode.
Seriously, have a look at this scorching nonsense:
It’s doable to remap a lot of the management keys for a extra typical WASD setup, however full-time mouselook is not an choice: You nonetheless have to carry the best button to regulate your course as you progress ahead. Interactivity is not doable in that mode, although, so if you wish to push a button or flip a change, it’s essential to launch the button to carry up the cursor, which disables the directional management. Worst of all, although, is the sidestep, a painfully sluggish shuffle left or proper—the form of motion you’d anticipate from somebody frightened of heights who’s being compelled to inch alongside a shallow outcropping alongside the aspect of a cliff. It’s extremely irritating, and there is nothing that may be finished about it.
I’ll at all times have affection for Uru, however this previous Gamespy review is spot on: “The [control] scheme is tough to make use of and by no means turns into intuitive. You’ll most likely end up operating in place and lacking jumps as a result of the motion keys are uncomfortable. Far an excessive amount of of the sport is spent worrying over the controls as an alternative of having fun with the puzzles and ambiance. It’s simply the worst a part of Uru, and it is unclear why Cyan did not merely make the controls as straightforward to make use of as these in first- and third-person shooters.”
It’s a disgrace, actually. Uru had quite a bit happening, however these controls sucked, and that is what I bear in mind most about it.
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: I bear in mind the darkish days earlier than mouselook and strafing turned normal and the keys for left and proper—whether or not A and D or the left and proper arrow keys or no matter—would spin you in that course as an alternative. At least some video games would allow you to rebind them, like Thief: The Dark Project, which had strafe left and proper sure to Z and C by default. It additionally had W as run and S as stroll, with X for backstep. I left these the best way they have been after I first performed it as a result of it was useful to have the ability to management your pace, and I hadn’t actually tailored to WASD but anyway.
As far as trendy video games go, FromSoftware actually take the cake. I assumed after the debacle of the Dark Souls PC port that issues would have improved by Dark Souls 3, however it was nonetheless horrible with mouse and keyboard. Though fascinated with it, even after I switched to controller I could not constantly pull of the kick.
Special point out to Cyberpunk 2077 for having each toggle crouch and skip dialogue sure to C, although. Oof.
Evan Lahti, Global Editor-in-Chief: Six years later, urgent C to crouch stays an act of degeneracy. As I wrote in 2016, “C is the male nipple of keyboard bindings, a remnant that’s for some cause survived a long time of gaming evolution.” It’s not ergonomic, it is awkward, and it is illogical. An epoch in the past, after we used the Ctrl key to fireplace our weapons in FPSes, it was passably acceptable. Today it is an act of antiquated, alphabetical arbitrariness. Do we map Jump to J? G for Grenade? (Yeah, that is dumb too.) Rebind crouch and be reborn.
Nat Clayton, Features Producer: I do not know that I’ve a severe response however I WILL struggle Evan over C for crouch. Toggle crouch, not less than. Regular crouch can stay, as ever, in its pure residence—mouse button 4.
Evan Lahti: Romero’s mullet, it is worse than I assumed. The youths are binding totally different sorts of crouching to totally different keys? Each day we drift farther from enlightenment.
From our discussion board
Withywarlock: In MMOs it is keyboard turning/clicking. The former is the place you employ the A/D or Q/E keys to show left/proper on the spot (versus strafing), respectively, the place a mouse ought to be used for motion to unlock keys and fingers for talents. Clicking is considerably associated to that earlier level, in that clicking is dragging your mouse cursor over your on-screen capability buttons as an alternative of utilizing their designated keys, which means much less time is spent shifting and firing off talents. It even occurred on the excessive finish of World of Warcraft, the place prime gamers have been being laughed out of their 15-FPS 360p FRAPS recordings for doing keyboard turning and clicking.
In phrases of sport design although, not with the ability to press up on the highest level of a menu to go straight to the underside, and vice versa. It’s even worse on controllers the place 1) you need to bear in mind if it is the thumbstick or directional pad that solely works in menus, and a pair of) neither are higher than a keyboard or mouse for menus. >.<
Pifanjr: Not with the ability to rebind keys is clearly the worst one, however not with the ability to use hotkeys is sort of as unhealthy. Total War: Warhammer 2 for instance simply does not have a hotkey to toggle guard mode or the hearth at will stance. It’s not one thing it’s good to toggle fairly often in a battle, however it will nonetheless be good if I had the choice to only use the keyboard.
Another instance is Skyrim. I’d have cherished it in the event you may solid sure spells with only one button press, as an alternative of getting to equip them, solid them and unequip them. I like the thought of utilizing the spells for setting traps, however the problem of switching forwards and backwards simply does not make it value it. And I do know you need to use the numbered keys, however there’s solely 8 of them out there, which is not sufficient.
Actually, now that I give it some thought, I’d love for video games to only let me set macro’s.
Frindis: The first that involves thoughts isn’t with the ability to bind the enter key to one thing else. When I performed Forza Horizon 5 and tried to snipe vehicles on the public sale home it was nearly unattainable to snipe vehicles quick sufficient due to how sluggish it took when utilizing the enter key. So to fight this downside I had to make use of Microsoft PowerToys to have the ability to remap the important thing. Such a simple factor to repair, makes you surprise why not simply make it doable to do in-game.
ZedClampet: If by means of incompetence and a scarcity of rebind choices, you make it in order that I’ve to ever take my hand off the mouse, I’ll curse your ancestors.
DXCHASE: Not with the ability to rebind is my largest sin. Its like chopping out the most important cause of why keyboards are higher than a controller. I am unable to rebind my G key for going by means of quests in Lost Ark. My G is beginning to chip.
mainer: Rebinding keys has by no means been an enormous deal for me. Oh, I modify a couple of right here and there, particularly If I’m utilizing some mods that add some new gameplay mechanics which have their very own key controls. Sometimes these key features overlap what the sport already makes use of, so some keys will must be modified. I significantly recognize it when a developer permits altering the bindings (or not less than most of them).
As far as video games that had particular management schemes that bothered me, I do know there’ve been a couple of, however the one which at all times sticks in my thoughts is the mouse controls for fight within the Witcher 1. Left click on to assault, timed left clicks to chain assaults, double left click on on the bottom (however not too distant!) for an evasive maneuver, proper click on to dodge or duck, proper click on to solid an indication. The cursor would additionally change relying upon the place your cursor was and what your have been speculated to be doing. Most of the time I ended up flopping round like a fish out of water whereas getting stabbed within the face and clicking all around the display.
Keeping monitor of the cursor modifications, the sorts of clicks, and the place to click on was one of many strangest management schemes I’ve come throughout. Thankfully, quite a bit modified for the higher between Witcher 1 and Witcher 3.
Zloth: Did you ever play Die by the Sword again within the 90’s, @mainer? If I bear in mind proper, you truly needed to management a set of muscle tissues within the arm to make your swing.
I do not re-bind keys a lot however, after I must, I actually need to! Still, although it does not trigger as a lot correct hurt, I feel making the primary menu not work with the mouse is the larger sin. You’ve simply gotten your self able to go, you are all hyped as much as play the sport, and also you instantly get let down as a result of they could not be bothered to make the mouse work there. I do know it is solely going to be a few minutes out of dozens of hours of gameplay, however the psychological impact is actually nasty.
JCgames: Having to press 2 keys to go in a single course! A sport referred to as “Oxen free” did this while you needed to stroll down diagonal paths. It was thoughts numbing and almost ruined the sport. A sport that might simply be performed with simply mouse clicking you needed to press a number of keys far to usually simply to maneuver. It does not sound like an enormous deal, however in a sport the place all of your doing is attempt to transfer throughout the display it was utterly pointless. If i needed to guess the designers used a controller and a keyboard+mouse was an afterthought.
I’ll give them loads of credit score although, they up to date the sport to work with only a mouse which is improbable. I do know I made a submit requesting it and I’m guessing others did to as a result of they added it. It was a kind of video games that I cherished and hated. Loved, the story, the music, the theme, however the controls have been a large number. How do you make some extent 2D level and click on with no click on to maneuver? With that little change it turned a sport that I trudged by means of, to an prompt traditional and a should replay!
So not sufficient mouse assist is my largest pet peeve video games that might simply be performed with only a mouse needing a Keyboard+mouse. Now if I can solely get Concerned Ape so as to add Click to maneuver in Stardew Valley I’d be completely happy.
WoodenSaucer: I feel this is applicable for both Okay&M or controller. But while you play a sport sequence once they at all times arrange the important thing/button bindings the identical means, after which they arrive out with a brand new sport within the sequence the place they alter all the things, and it is not likely any higher than it was. Then you need to relearn the entire controls, and it isn’t even value it.
Krud: This may also apply to controllers, however it’s particularly egregious when you may have a complete keyboard at your disposal, and that is context-based controls. I do not prefer it when video games determine the spacebar is each Jump and Hide Behind Cover, relying on how shut you are standing to one thing. It’s irritating to suppose you are about to guard your self and conceal, however as an alternative you leap straight up within the air as if to say “Woohoo! Look at me!” (I feel not less than one of many Mass Effect video games was responsible of this.) The reverse can be annoying, while you’re attempting to leap out however as an alternative your character clings for expensive life up in opposition to a wall.
Edit: I simply realized that this was already talked about within the OP, my apologies. But significantly although. We’ve bought over 100 buttons to select from. There’s no want for them to double up. At the very least, give us the choice to allow or disable context-based buttons. Make it a toggle. Can’t be that arduous, can it?
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