(Hello, I thought it might be good to not only critique the UI of the games, but also some bad design flaws. I hope this directory will fill up.)
One of the worst problems when I play CRPGs is quite simple: Game developers don't know what darkness means. Sure, every one of us who work on computers know what darkness means. Nobody just bothers to think what it really is like to be in dark in nature.
People probably think this is nitpicking, but I say it anyway: It's possible to see in dark. Above ground, nights are rarely completely lightless. Summer nights are usually pretty well lit, even here in the near-arctic land of darkness. For comparison, the winter nights are pretty dark, but you can still see somewhat.
The point I'm chasing is this: Even in the worst imaginable night conditions, the most annoying thing that can happen to you in a game is that you can't read. There's plenty of light to make sense of the surroundings, even on a very vague level. Right now, it's midnight, I can pretty much find my way to the fridge (if there were anything in the fridge, that is).
Games frequently overdo the darkness, not only making things too dark, but also failing to compensate on the fact that other senses are also suppressed. In many games, if it's dark, you can barely see where you are going. Realistic? Arguably. Annoying? Well, if the controls are clumsy compared to real-life controls, making the screen dark won't help things at all.
I was rather joyous when I heard Bioware wasn't going to do "accurate" version of Underdark in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. Instead of a campaign in utter blackness of the eternal night of Underdark, here we had a moderately normally-lit experience - the game was beautifully merciful.
If it's not possible to let me sense, please let me be able to see.
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