Hidden game design tricks, ranked by how sneaky they are

A tier list by abafa · filed under Gaming · published 25 September 2026

Games quietly cheat in your favour. Ranked by how well each trick hides. S: Hi Octane (1995) made every vehicle handle exactly the same and only changed the looks and stats, and Half-Life only let two soldiers attack you at once while the rest ran around shouting. Nobody noticed either. A: the last sliver of your health bar being worth more, enemies' first shots always missing, and rubber banding that keeps races close. B: coyote time, jump buffering and the double-damage last bullet are sneaky but they feel great, so they're easy to forgive. C: fog hiding the draw distance - you can literally see it, even if it made Silent Hill scarier. D: elevator rides hiding loading screens, because everyone noticed how long they were. Sources for every trick are in the video description on the abafaboy YouTube channel. Agree? Rank it yourself.

S tier

  1. Hi Octane's identical cars
  2. Enemies secretly taking turns

A tier

  1. The lying health bar
  2. The first shot always misses
  3. Rubber banding in races

B tier

  1. Coyote time
  2. Jump buffering
  3. The last bullet does double damage

C tier

  1. Fog hiding the draw distance

D tier

  1. Elevators as loading screens

3 likes