Have you ever run out of resources at a critical juncture in a game?

[StaceyPowers]

If there is one thing I fixate on when I am playing a linear game, it is resource management. Nowhere is this more stressful for me than The Last of Us, where I obsess about how I can get through every situation using as few valuable health kits or bombs as possible. It’s because I always visualize getting to a key fight where there is no way for me at my skill level to possibly prevail without the resources I need, only to find I don’t have them and am never going to be able to progress.

Having played successfully through TLOU, I know that my resource management fears are exaggerated. But nothing really stops me from worrying about it, even on a second playthrough. In fact, it isn’t uncommon for me to successfully get through a hard fight only to voluntarily re-play it if it hasn’t yet auto-saved just so I can conserve a single bomb or health kit.

Mostly though, I just wonder if my resource management anxieties are completely unrealistic, or whether it is possible to wind up in a situation where you just don’t have what you need to proceed. Has this ever happened to anybody in any game? Which game, and how much progress did you lose?

Sometimes I wish games would flash a warning at you if the game determines you are about to proceed poorly stocked, like, “Warning: If you proceed at this point, you are likely to have a very hard time making further progress. Would you like to replay from the last checkpoint?”

What do you think of this idea? I feel like situations which would warrant such a warning would be relatively rare, so it wouldn’t be all that disruptive, and you could always switch it off in the options.

@skyfire @Alyxx @DylanC @The Blackangel @killamch89 @kingpotato @Shagger @Crazycrab @LadyDay

[Crazycrab]

In a linear game it is (or at least should be) balanced so that you should able to beat it.  There should be no need for a warning.  In open world games it's different of course, they give a level or some other indicator as to whether you can complete it or not.

 

In TLOU even if you miss all of the optional parts it's still possible to beat the game, it's just more difficult.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Crazycrab

[SaucyPastaTho]

4 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

In a linear game it is (or at least should be) balanced so that you should able to beat it.  There should be no need for a warning.  In open world games it's different of course, they give a level or some other indicator as to whether you can complete it or not.

 

In TLOU even if you miss all of the optional parts it's still possible to beat the game, it's just more difficult.

That's true but most of the time we think we have enough supplies to craft health ammo etc. When in reality we don't.

[kingpotato]

The only time that something like that happened to me was in Dead Space 2, several times I arrived at areas where I was overwhelmed by enemies and so little ammo, so I had to restart from an older save to loot some more to be ready for the fight. It was still an awesome game though.

[StaceyPowers]

On 1/12/2020 at 5:36 PM, SaucyPastaTho said:

That's true but most of the time we think we have enough supplies to craft health ammo etc. When in reality we don't.

That's why I always worry about it. If I progress forward without a reasonably full stock of supplies, I am just assuming that the crafting items I need are between me and the next fight. Otherwise, I am stuck relying on a level of skill I simply don't have. The irony is that to some degree, I am building those skills slowly simply by trying so hard not to use up my items.

5 hours ago, kingpotato said:

The only time that something like that happened to me was in Dead Space 2, several times I arrived at areas where I was overwhelmed by enemies and so little ammo, so I had to restart from an older save to loot some more to be ready for the fight. It was still an awesome game though.

So this does happen sometimes! I'll keep that in mind if I play that series to be mindful of my supplies then. I hope you didn't have to go too far back!

[kingpotato]

Just now, StaceyPowers said:

That's why I always worry about it. If I progress forward without a reasonably full stock of supplies, I am just assuming that the crafting items I need are between me and the next fight. Otherwise, I am stuck relying on a level of skill I simply don't have. The irony is that to some degree, I am building those skills slowly simply by trying so hard not to use up my items.

So this does happen sometimes! I'll keep that in mind if I play that series to be mindful of my supplies then. I hope you didn't have to go too far back!

If you search and loot every corner you will not run out of ammo, but sometimes everything is so dark or there is always the fear of a necromorph jumping on you. So sometimes I just followed the main path because of that reason. Also I have a shitty aim so thats why I tend to use a lot of ammo xD

[StaceyPowers]

4 minutes ago, kingpotato said:

If you search and loot every corner you will not run out of ammo, but sometimes everything is so dark or there is always the fear of a necromorph jumping on you. So sometimes I just followed the main path because of that reason. Also I have a shitty aim so thats why I tend to use a lot of ammo xD

My aim is terrible, so I can relate =D

[The Blackangel]

I have in Diablo and Diablo II. Right when I enter a boss fight I use potions one after another. Before I know it, I’m out of potions, half dead, and the boss is wondering if I’ve spent the entire fight swatting flies. Some bosses are a pushover, some are next to impossible to beat.

[killamch89]

This situation has happened to me numerous times in Skyrim because I tend to like buying my items in bulk so I wait until I get to a major town to do my shopping. The problem is that most times I hardly even stop at a major town so I find myself in some pretty intense fights and then realize that I haven't restocked anything lol

[skyfire]

For me this seems to happen in many games. In fact I have started watching youtube videos for some of those games for this reason.