Top 10 Useless Items In Video Games

Ever since the dawn of the inventory years ago, video games have been engulfed with various tools, items and pieces of equipment. Unfortunately, not all of these are created equal. It should come as no surprise that some of these end up being almost entirely pointless. Sure, some of these may serve some minuscule purpose. Sadly,through certain actions or play styles that most of us adhere to these things inevitably end up feeling pretty worthless. Some of these are obviously a little bit tongue in cheek…..

10 – The knife (Resident Evil)

While a knife may be a very useful survival tool, it has to be the most ineffective weapon in Resident Evil. Sure, you can take down a good number of zombies with some strategy and a couple of well-aimed slashes but taking on anything more is pretty much suicide. It made logical sense as to why a member of the S.T.A.R.S team would carry a knife but it served nothing more than to annoyingly fill up inventory space.

09 – Cigarettes (Metal Gear Solid)

Cigarettes are a useable item in Metal Gear Solid. However, they have to be one of the strangest consumables in video game history. If you do use one you’ll notice a puff of smoke come from Snake. Then much to your surprise your health will begin to drop. What the hell is in those things that it literally kills you to smoke them? I do believe that the smoke from the cigarette serves to reveal laser beams in certain areas of the game. I cannot confirm this to be true. Also, I may be wrong but I remember that smoking one has the ability to calm Snakes nerves . I believe it helps in aiming long ranged weaponry.

08 – Items that having nothing to do with solving a mystery/puzzle (Adventure games)

You know games like Monkey Island or other point & click adventure games in which you have to find and use a particular item to solve some kind of puzzle and progress the story. There are always a bunch of miscellaneous objects that will serve nothing more than to fill up your inventory and confuse you on what their purpose is. I understand that in certain games it would be far too easy if the only thing you picked up were the exact things you needed but it doesn’t stop these bits and bobs from feeling pretty damn useless.

07 – The Dog (Fable)

While it may not technically be an “item”. It was a cute idea to have your very own virtual dog to help personalize the experience in Fable. Was it truly worthwhile? The Dog does randomly bark to alert you to nearby buried treasure. However, more often than not it would be a really small amount of gold that wasn’t worth the time that the digging animation takes. You’ll spend countless hours training it to do tricks. Sadly, these are ultimately wasted hours.

06 – Money – (certain RPG’s)

The amount of RPG’s that I have save files for which contain a playthrough that has massive amounts of fruitless game currency. The issue with certain RPG’s and other games is that some of them give away money quite freely. Only for there to be very little to buy in most of the shops. More often than not you’ll find stronger weaponry, clothing or items hidden within the world. Where’s the need to spend anything? What’s worse is games that have no new game plus. This only erases the precious funds you’ve spent hours accumulating.

05 – Elixirs/Megalixirs (Final Fantasy games)

These precious items have the ability to cure you or your entire party to max health/MP. They are anything but useless. Who else out there saves them to the point where they ultimately go unused.  I’ve always had this problem, thinking to myself “I have 99 Megalixirs, better save them for the end boss in case it’s really tough!”. Just having these helpful potions creates an inner conflict. I usually manage fine without ever needing them at all so maybe it would be better if they never even existed.

04 – Food (Fallout)

There sure is a lot of food around in the post-nuclear war ravaged wasteland. It makes logical sense for it to exist within the world. Still, As a consumable item it’s pretty pointless. Food only heals the most minuscule amount of HP and with that you’re usually given a nice hit of radiation. With Stimpaks so easy to come by what is the actual point of food? Well, if you play Fallout on hardcore difficulty then it becomes essential to your survival but for me and many others it serves nothing more than to waste inventory space.

03 – Toy Mega Buster (Dead Rising)

Dead Rising is home to a great number of useless weapons, a consequence of having such a large selection of weapons available. The Toy Mega Buster, however, fires ping pong balls and cannot even take down one zombie with a full clip. At least the Toy Mega Buster is easier to get than the Real Mega Buster; you only need to run to the movie theatre to grab it, as opposed to killing 53,594 zombies in three days.

02 – The Flamethrower (Dead Space)

Pretty much every weapon in Dead Space is useful for dispatching Necromorphs if utilized correctly; that is every weapon other than the flamethrower. Anyone that has played Dead Space knows that Necromorphs are killed by dismembering their limbs from their body. Well, setting them alight doesn’t exactly dismember anything. Oh and it doesn’t exactly help that they seem to be almost entirely resistant to fire. How can they take one of the most fun weapons in video games and leave it feeling so worthless? From what I have stated above it makes sense why it is so ineffective. Why have it exist in the first place?

01 – Alcohol (most games)

Drinking alcohol in video games makes your screen go blurry and will occasionally make your character throw up, the end.

Know of any more useless items in video games? Disagree with anything on the list? Let me know.