Things that I hate:
- management of assets/economy: from the artificial limitation of items (bullets, money, armor, etc.), you find on NPC, inventory, trading and so on.
- AI: minimal improvements over the years, basically the same as they were 10 years back or more (sometimes worse). Basic stuff like using the same "uniform" to infiltrate a territory is still impossible and in games where this is possible, other artificial limitations make it "cringy". No real team work, no real routines for disengaging from battle depending on how is going or how resources (ie: bullets) evolve - "return to base", "regroup", "run for your life", etc... You do bad stuff? Just spawn "police" all over instead of the world reacting organically to your actions. Plus, after all these years, we only have a handful of them walking around. Talking about a "world"...
- gameplay:tied with the management of assets/economy - > lots of artificial limitations "just because", with little (if any) innovation. There is no scaling from easy to hard in complexity, just more grinding of sorts. Plenty of back steps over the years.
- story: especially true in sequels, downgrading of the skills of the character, sometimes to stupid levels just so that it fits within another "rpg grind" mechanic they've had in mind. Plenty of stereotypes, stuff that happens, because the writer wants it, not because it happens naturally in the game.
- hardware: lack of truly supporting the PC: resolution (multi monitor), low level api, sound, graphics, peripherals: joysticks, wheels, etc. in games that have assets normally controlled by them: planes, helicopters, cars...
- overall: lack of "realism" (within the game world, of course), with suspension of disbelief taking a nose dive at every turn: you spend 2 games gaining knowledge and skills, recovering your memories, but you have to start over the learning process in the third "just because", while your pupil remembers pretty well that stuff learned from you when the story demands it *** stealing stuff from people without them reacting to it *** saving people from execution so they could just return back to their own home, in the same village like nothing has happened *** finding journal type of writings in all the places where they shouldn't be, with a way that the author express itself resembles a writer rather than a real person *** finding just 3 bullets/1 arrow per incapacitated / killed enemy plus all the other artificial scarcity due to lazy programming (even more prominent in survival games) *** bullets making more damage just because you've got one level up *** shooting someone in the had or face (where there is no protection!) and do little damage instead compared to what it should *** inability to use items or severe handicap just because you're not at the right level ... and so on.
There's so much nonsense at every step that it feels like that bad action movie in which the hero has one pistol holding hundreds of bullets, piercing through body armor with no issue, while assault rifles can't pierce a vehicle's doors, only wound our her hero and so on...