Inventory management can be quite stressful orfrustrating in gaming. Many players attempt to avoid it as much as possible while playing and eventually just bulk sell everything they don’t want to carry any more or simply leave a large pile of rubbish when they finally become over-encumbered.
Thankfully, some developers in gaming have heard these complaints from players and have therefore made their inventory systems not only easy to navigate but on some occasions they have even been turned into an interesting mini-game. These titles are by far the best when it comes to having the best inventory management.
Minecrafthas by far one of the most straightforward inventory systems in the entirety of gaming. There is no weight capacity and simply a grid that players can fill. Many of the items players can collect in this sandbox can stack to a total of 64 which is far more than enough than any player would need while they’re exploring.
When players begin to run out of space in their inventory, they have likely alreadybegun building a basethat can be filled with all sorts of chests. These chests can hold even more than the player’s inventory can and give the player the freedom to sort their resources as they see fit.
System Shock 2was great at making players use their heads to try to fit all their gear in their inventory. There was once again no weight capacity, but instead, players needed to fit thearmor, weapons, and other itemsthat vary in size into one grid.
Players can only have as much ammo or weapons as they have grid space. Therefore, it was important for players to consider what items they really needed to keep a hold of, and what items they could simply get rid of in the hope of surviving.
Deus Ex: Human Revolutionwas one of many titles to be inspired bySystem Shock 2.This included taking certain elements of the game such as how it handled inventory space. At the start of the game, players may feel quite limited as they can only hold a certain amount of weapons and other items, though upgrading themselves they will unlock even more spaces on the grid.
As players progress further intoDeus Ex, they will realize what works best for them and then willingly sell those items that they use less frequently, thus making space for more important things.
Astroneerhas by far one of the most interesting inventory management systems to date. While it is very limiting it makes this adventure title incredibly fascinating to navigate. All the player’s stats and inventory space can be seen on the player’s backpack. This backpack has a total of eight slots that are dedicated to resource collecting and small item storage.
Once these slots are full, the player willsimply drop other resources. This makes adventuring a planned experience as players will need to prepare their backpacks for the resources they are hoping to collect on their journey. Thankfully, players can create storage boxes to keep their resources, but there is no way to increase the space in the backpack.
Dredgeis another fascinating title with an appealing inventory management system. LikeSystem Shock, it includes fitting all the important bits and pieces in a grid. This includes not only the fish and other resources a player is likely to catch during their boat ride, but also making space for their ship upgrades.
Thankfully, players can upgrade their vessel to make more space for the items they wish to collect while avoiding the dangers of the deep. Besides upgrading the hull of the ship, players also have a storage box where they can put all resources they don’t plan on selling.
TheResident Evilfranchise experimented with its inventory system inResident Evil 4, although many players enjoyed this new addition it appears to be the only game inCapcom’s franchisethat used it in the end. Key Items and treasures no longer took up space in the player’s inventory and instead went into their own separate section that had no space limit.
Meanwhile, all the other items, such as the player’s weaponry were put into the Attache case. This could be upgraded at the Merchant to contain more slots. Players were allowed to freely rotate their weapons to attempt to use up as little space as possible and therefore hold more items at a time.
Moonlighterhas many roguelike elements that make the player’s inventory limited. They are unable to pick up numerous items as this would make earning money far too easy, especially since the character the player controls is also a shopkeeper who gets their goods from going down in the dungeons.
Besides the limited amount of space,collecting thingsand putting them in the player’s satchel is also a game itself as putting certain items next to others may yield negative effects. This can either be great as it could possibly duplicate a valuable item or have horrid repercussions like destroying something precious.
Out of all the inventory management systems in gaming, one of the greatest is found in Hideo Kojima’s unique masterpiece,Death Stranding. Players must balance cargo weight acrossSam Porter Bridgesas he walks between locations to deliver this much-needed cargo.
On top of what these places require, the players must also make sure they have the gear they need themselves, from a possible weapon to even an extra pair of boots. As the cargo becomes heavier, players may eventually invest in a vehicle or a trolley they can pull along.
