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[Sophia]

It really depends on the nature of the game. Unlimited inventory in a Yakuza game for example would just break the game straight open as you could carry around healing item after healing item.

On the other hand, classic RE games had an annoying limited inventory because you had to juggle around puzzle items with combat related items.

 

[MechanicalWall]

I like it in stuff like Resident Evil and Silent Hill because it keeps you from turning the horrifying situation into a straight-up slaughter. I don't like the concept of over encumberence in WRPGs, though; I'm supposed to believe that Geralt can lug around 3 tons of stuff at once, but the 'realism' comes in at 3.0001 tons?

 

[shark sandwich]

Annoyance, especially in a piece of shit game like Fallout 4 where half of then "gameplay" is about foraging for garbage.

"Oh here's some random item I've never seen before, I wonder if I should discard one of these other weird random items which may or may not be useful in the future! What a fun, cerebral challenge this is!!!"
- no gamer ever

 

[killatopak]

Limited is fine on games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill


But on open world games like Skyrim and Fallout where you pick up TONS of stuff?

Hell no!

I immediately install carry weight mods or have companions/followers that can carry infinite weight.

 

[mindatlarge]

Big annoyance. I'm not a fan of busy work in games, I'd much rather have the developers respect one's time. But I get why they add restrictive elements like limited inventory space as well, I'm just not in love with the idea if it doesn't make sense within the game's structure.

 

[jroc74]

Neither immersion nor annoyance, instead can be an interesting gameplay mechanic.

.

Tho I lean more to immersion.

 

[Berksy]

I like it in stuff like Resident Evil and Silent Hill because it keeps you from turning the horrifying situation into a straight-up slaughter. I don't like the concept of over encumberence in WRPGs, though; I'm supposed to believe that Geralt can lug around 3 tons of stuff at once, but the 'realism' comes in at 3.0001 tons?

I get your point but in Witcher 3 most of your stuff is carried by your horse lol

 

[Pestilence11]

People citing Fallout 4 and Skyrim type games, do you really need to pick up that 12th cheese wheel?

 

[kadotsu]

Dragon Quest Builders did it the best. You start out with a hard limit but after a certain point you can just craft an item that is basically an infinite inventory.

 

[killatopak]

People citing Fallout 4 and Skyrim type games, do you really need to pick up that 12th cheese wheel?

Nah, I just pick up every armor the enemy has and in 1 dungeon that's enough to hit the weight limit.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

It really depends on the nature of the game. Unlimited inventory in a Yakuza game for example would just break the game straight open as you could carry around healing item after healing item.

On the other hand, classic RE games had an annoying limited inventory because you had to juggle around puzzle items with combat related items.

True. But games can and do limit how many healing items, ammo, etc. you can pickup/carry without making the player manage inventory in a menu.

That puzzle/key thing was still an annoyance in RE7 as well. Those types of items really shouldn't take inventory space.

 

[Crayon]

People citing Fallout 4 and Skyrim type games, do you really need to pick up that 12th cheese wheel?

For the ocd people:

 

[KORNdoggy]

Annoyance. I'm sorry but for it to be "immersion" your carry capacity would have to be so low you'd be returning to stores every 3 seconds to sell your shit. Because there is no way fallout guy or skyrim man can carry 30 various weapons or 28 heavy axes at once along with food, potions etc etc.

So why not just take away the limits at let a person Carey 70+ weapons or heavy axes. The numbers are so unrealistic anyway you may as well go all-out!

 

[Brokun]

I like it for immersion when it is done well. When it is just an arbitrary limit with no gameplay or economic reasons, it's annoying.

It works in Skyrim for example because there is an economy based around the fact that you can't pick up everything at once and sell it for all the Gold. There are also tactical decisions to be made about which items to keep on your person for possible future encounters, and which items to stash or sell.

 

[dickroach]

Plain annoyance.

yeah.

I can't imagine any instance where I run out of space in my inventory and think "Hey, this is great!"

 

[StereoVsn]

What i don't get it is why people don't realize this right away. This is how it has been since Morrowind at least.
It doesn't help money is also worthless.

The Witcher 3 tried to make money meaningful but it only applied in the early game, later on loot and money are both worthless for most part.

I disagree in respect of Fallout 4. It has a mechanic where you can share build inventory between settlements. It has perks and equipment which increase carry weight. Most junk items can actually be utilized if you want to spend time on settlement building (or say Survivor mode where you want Settlements due to bed restrictions).

So it's a design decision by the dev and at same time settlements or most of the junk are necessarily to complete the game. Plus outside Survivor Fast Travel means that you can always get quickly to the settlement of choice where you stockpile materials for settlements/upgrades/crafting.

In that sense Fallout 4 is perhaps the best Bethesda game as far as taking into account weight management. And if you don't want that it's easy enough to console/mod it out.

 

[Bl@de]

Depends on the genre and design of the game. It is a necessity in survival horror in my opinion. Managing scarce ressources on the journey can create a lot of tension.

 

[Tovarisc]

Nah, I just pick up every armor the enemy has and in 1 dungeon that's enough to hit the weight limit.

But.. why? Those have very meaningless sell value and you get more raw materials from collecting duct tape etc. than from e.g. 5 armors.

-------

I like need to manage your resources in RPG games, this includes managing your inventory. It doesn't make sense to me that character should be able to carry 20 power armor, 15 heavy armors, 5 battle axes and 10 longswords with him at any given time. You should be made to decide what you want and/or need with you.

I say this a person who tends to loot everything that isn't nailed down and closer to weight limit start to moderate what I loot and leave. Did that in Fallout 4 and TW3 from the beginning and never ran into issues with weight limits. Just became easier to get basically everything.

 

[DarkKyo]

For the ocd people:

That's not nearly as OCD-triggering as if he rotated the piece and blocked the hole with it.

 

[Dysun]

Annoying in all games that aren't built around inventory management, ala Survival Horror

Its the first thing I mod out in PC RPGs

 

[Secret Character]

Diablo 2 has probably the best and worst inventory management at the same time. You have to strategically hold on to some items, but always make sure you have enough space in case amazing drops. Your stash is also limited, but you get a little boost thanks to the Horadric Cube you get in Chapter 2.

The worst part is having something off class drop that is extremely rare. Eventually, you run out of stash space and you have to get real creative to make it work.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

In survival horror games it mostly works as the game design is built around it.

.

 

[Syril]

Btw, I truly feel for the people who are compelled to pick up every wooden bowl and every random piece of shit in skyrim lest they suffer an ocd attack. Their inner life must be a kind of hell on earth.

For the ocd people:

Dude, you're kind of teetering on the boundary of good taste with those OCD jokes. It is a real thing.

 

[The Cartographer]

Challenge.

 

[killatopak]

But.. why? Those have very meaningless sell value and you get more raw materials from collecting duct tape etc. than from e.g. 5 armors.

Most effortless to collect then sell to shopkeepers to increase my skills.

 

[shark sandwich]

In a way I think it's a symptom of shitty game design. There is just this unspoken assumption that having tons of stuff for you to pick up/interact with makes the game more immersive/realistic/whatever.

In reality, it just creates busk work. You have to sift through all this crap and wonder if you should take any of it just in case. You're not thinking "oh neat, I can pick up this spatula just like in real life", you're thinking "hmm I wonder if the game designers intended for me to use this for something..." IMO it actively detracts from the fun. And I fail to see what's so realistic about running around with 300 lbs of shit in your backpack and eating 30 wheels of cheese if your health gets low.

I like how most JRPGs handle it, where, if you can pick it up, it has a purpose. And there is no limitation on inventory space.

 

[Velcro Fly]

It isn't a big deal until games make you invest skill points to upgrade your carrying ability.

 

[Dremorak]

Depends on the genre and the design of the game. Its also a difficult balance so its hard to say "It doesn't work because this game screwed up" when it could be that the idea is fine, just not enough space or too much space, or its annoying because theres no quick way to get to it, etc.

 

[Brofield]

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Looking at inventory there, why would I need that much space to do so little?

Going to Harvest Moon: Magical Melody and 15 bloody item slots? Nothing short of infuriating.

 

[RealMeat]

Dark Souls has the best implementation, imo. Unlimited storage space, but limited equipped weight. You get the gameplay mechanics of needing to think carefully about what you have equipped, without the annoyance of needing to clear your inventory to pick something up. I think a similar system would work in most RPGs.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I welcome anything that requires more management.

 

[GodofWine]

They need to make the character visibly carry all the items in their inventory, eventually they'll wind up looking like a contestant from Crackerjack.

This would be hilarious. Some dev has to make an RPG parody and do this.

 

[LiQuid!]

It's irritating, but doesn't usually bother me in single player where I find other people having problems with it (like Fallout for instance) because I feel like that extra step of offloading and managing inventory clutter is a part of the experience for me the way grinding is in a JRPG, another widely accepted irritant that I happen to enjoy more often than not.

That said, I extra extra hate how MMOs (especially of the free 2 play variety) have started using inventory space as a way to act as a gold sink and/or monetize players.

 

[Calabi]

People citing Fallout 4 and Skyrim type games, do you really need to pick up that 12th cheese wheel?

I totally do, when I first played Skyrim I picked up and sold everything that wasnt nailed down. I convinced myself it was to make the game run better, getting rid of all those items has got to decrease the load times and increase the fps surely.

I dont see why games have a limit to storage space unless theres a specific reason and it fits with the gameplay they shouldn't.

 

[Crayon]

Dude, you're kind of teetering on the boundary of good taste with those OCD jokes. It is a real thing.

Point taken. Honestly. I didn't think of it that way.

 

[dgrdsv]

It's an annoyance in modern games where it's just X/100 or something. When done properly though it's a great addition to the gameplay. Examples of great inventory management are System Shock 2 and Deus Ex.

 

[MSScaeva]

The thing that makes inventory management fun is interesting choices. Having to scroll through a ton of junk to figure out what is useful and what isn't because the game doesn't communicate that properly, does not lead to interesting choices. So the game should either have a very limited inventory, but with every single item you can find being useful or valuable in some way, or have no limit at all.

 

[Primethius]

Love it when done in a good way. Hating managing tons of junk.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Personally it's a necessary evil because otherwise you get lazy and let an unlimited pile of crap builds up in your inventory and then it takes forever to navigate (and if your argument is that you should be selling it all the time then you're spending just as much time doing that as you would be managing a limited inventory).

I can only imagine how horrifying Oblivion would have been if I had unlimited space for keys, books, alchemy and potions and gear to sift through.

 

[InsaneTiger]

I don't mind it so much. Although sometimes I see the main character wear clothes with all these pockets but you only have 10 slots of inventory. Weird.

 

[Crayon]

Skyrim makes an interesting case because that game is full of ill considered balances. Anyone who thinks too much about it is likely to end up modding this or that to bring things more in line with what they want. For carry limit in skyrim, I use a simple mod that cuts it in half. When looting, I'm just looking for gold and gems. And I like being tempted to drop something good if I find something better.

I know I'm not the only one, because it's a popular enough mod.

 

[MSScaeva]

Personally it's a necessary evil because otherwise you get lazy and let an unlimited pile of crap builds up in your inventory and then it takes forever to navigate (and if your argument is that you should be selling it all the time then you're spending just as much time doing that as you would be managing a limited inventory).

I can only imagine how horrifying Oblivion would have been if I had unlimited space for keys, books, alchemy and potions and gear to sift through.

That seems more like an issue that UI design and sorting/filter features would fix. Having a single button that shows you keys you haven't used yet seems like it would be much more efficient than having to throw away keys once you're done with them.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Mostly annoyance. It does make sense in certain games to an extent but, regardless of the game, inventory management is not fun. It's busy work. The less you make the player do it, the better.

 

[Minions]

I think it helps balance the game quite a bit. It obviously has its place in survival games like the older resident evil games.

 

[JinjoUnchained]

As others have said, it has to be done right. In Stardew Valley you can pay for backpack upgrades. That's a strategic choice as it lets you be more ambitious in say, mining or foraging. The trade off is that you have less money for seeds and farming supplies.

I'm cool with that. But I also really liked the unlimited inventory space in XCX. It depends on the game really. I didn't feel that encumbrance added any strategic element to, say, The Witcher 3, for example.

 

[diablogod]

I like Resident Evils item management. Maybe even Dragon's Dogmas for various reasons. In general though it seems to be an annoyance in most games.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Screw immersions. It's a stupid reason to take the game out of being a game.

 

[Chev]

Screw immersions. It's a stupid reason to take the game out of being a game.

Managing the constraints of your inventory can contribute to the game mechanics. Don't think it's only done for immersion.

 

[oldboss]

Immoyance.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

Annoyance. It's one of the least immersive things I've ever seen, especially in a game where you can carry 300 swords and 20 sets of armour but you get overencumbered by picking up a carrot.

I also dislike it when you can only carry a certain number of different types of item. My time is too precious to play your game of inventory management, game.