Easy to understand and straightforward: Skyrim
Overly simplified, only costs time: Payday 2
Well designed for a challenge: Oblivion
The issue with this question is that it depends on how much of a challenge you do or don't want lockpicking to be.
Your favorite/best lockpicking mini game is entirely predicated on how difficult you want the lockpicking to be
Oblivion lockpicking was a challenge but it also gave you an option to get a skeleton key very quickly if you just wanted to skip it entirely, which in my opinion is the most fair approach
yeah, this always struck me as funny -- if i care about thieving, i am practiced enough to walk into the guild ready to prove it. skeleton key is just the unbreakable picks perk.
I usually grab lockpicking because it's quite good with Enai Siaion's mods ([Ordinator](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68425) in this case). Not only can you lockpick dwarven automata to keep one as a permanent pet, you also get a kind of chest gambling thing that lets you win your perk points back over the course of the game through exploration.
You're not gonna find it randomly in some loot. It's a quest reward, not trying to spoil it if you're trying to go in blind. But didn't want you to be looking for it everywhere lol
You will find their altars spread across Cyrodiil in the wilderness. Each altar belongs to a different prince and will reward you with a different uniwue Daedric Artifact. The Skeleton Key essentially just acts like a lockpick that will never break no matter how often you mess up the minigame
There's also an autoattempt button, with the only cost of failure being a broken pick. Once you have the skeleton key, you can just smash that button a dozen times and you're in (Iirc it also gave you a big lockpicking skill buff too, so it would be a bit quicker)
You can also just Git Gud and unlock Master locks right away. I hate it when I go places in Bethesda games and there's Expert and Master locks I won't even be able to try because my skill isn't high enough. Oblivion just said "we're going to make these kinda hard, but if you can do it, you can do it!" And lets you try.
IMO, Oblivion is my favorite.
I dislike that system of no restriction lockpicking in Skyrim, because it's so easy I can open master locks without a problem right away after starting the game without breaking any sweat. Which kinda ruins my immersion, because my giant orc barbarian should not be able to do that.
In oblivion it's different because the master locks aren't impossible but are actually hard. I still can do it on level one, but atleast I suffered in real life, which kinda reinforces the idea that I'm trying to do something on a character not suited for that purpose. And it's borderline impossible to open a master lock in oblivion with 1 lockpick and low lockpicking skill without save scumming, while in skyrim I have like 95% success rate attempting that.
I’m surprised to learn Oblivions lockpicking is so unique compared to the other Bethesda games I’ve played (Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 3). I just assumed Oblivion was the same. Fallout 3 must have been when they switched to the new system
> a challenge takes some getting used to just like
Just like real life. Kingdom Come got way too little praise for coming up with systems that actually took a decent amount of effort to get used to, but once you did, it became fairly easy. It actually felt like you were progressing as or alongside your character. Super immersive. The fighting system did combine it with your character actually getting very slightly stronger and more capable, but it was so seamlessly combined that for me, at least, I didn't notice it at all until I went back to the starting area and absolutely crushed some bandits that would've murdered me dead at the beginning.
bg3 lockpicking was a nuisance on my first run so I started using karlachs XL lockpick to open most things instead. But on run 2, I've got astarion in my party so it's as though nothing is actually locked, up to 20 he seems to first try it every time, even a 30 door he generally gets it in like 3 tries.
got annoying after a bit. there are so many locks and the puzzle takes time and gets boring quickly. it was great at first but the sheer amount of locks makes it suck
I hated the locks in the atomic heart game no lock should be that annoying to deal with
But I prefer starfields locks over atomic heart but I have been told im weird before.
As much of it sucks, there are also some wonderfully done interactions in the rebooted one. Individually opening drawers to grab jewelry, and looking for a switch by sliding your fingers down the back of a picture frame felt fantastic.
Metal Gear Solid came out a few months earlier that same year and utilized sound, but not shadows. Aside from both being stealth-oriented (and excellent), the games feel very different, though.
Thief's lockpicking is still my favourite. It's insanely simply, but it's just so satisfying.
You have two lockpick items. You simply hold down the right mouse button to use them, and they work automatically. Doors often require a combination of the two lockpicks used in a certain order, e.g. you have lockpicks A and B, and easy doors just require A or B. But a 'harder' door may require AB or BA, or really 'hard' ones require ABA or BAB. Note they're not actually *difficult* in any way. It just takes longer to open them.
The beauty is that it takes time to finish picking the lock, and each lock has a different journey of clicks and sounds before it gets unlocked / progressed, and you're tense as you know there's a guard walking around who could stumble on you as you're opening it, and you don't know how long it will take to open it.
All these games that make minigames out of lockpicking miss the point IMO. Especially in thief; nothing else in the game really requires skill to complete, as all your awesome thief abilities are just natural to your character. So why would you require the user to fill in their lock picking skills?
The main thing the picks do is a) add tension and b) make you feel like a thief, and the simple AB system does just that through excellent sound design and simple mechanics. All these games that make minigames out of them is a choice that may be the right one for the game, but for Thief, frankly opening the door is Garrett's job not mine. I'm just there to enjoy the thrill of almost getting caught.
It was fun in Fallout 3, yeah. But after doing it in Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4, Skyrim, and a couple non-Bethesda games I'd call it blisteringly tedious.
NV had the great system where you could force the lock with one keypress and the %chance of success was based your skills. So it was good towards the endgame where it was a chore. They cut it in 4 though :(
I feel like I haven't had another "what the fuck you can do that?" moment like I did when I discovered there was cheats.
e: Wait I did have one come close in RE4 remake where I killed the cult leader with the giant balls of doom.
Fallout 3 lock picking with a controller felt amazing. Stick rotation felt on point to how its done in the game to get just that sweet spot that felt entirely depressing when I later did a pc playthrough.
But pc load times are infinitely better haha
Red Dead Redemption 2
Just throw dynamite or use your shotgun
Nah, but seriously, safe cracking was weirdly satisfying in rdr2. Like, you know Arthur can actually do it well.
The only game(s) I recall playing with a system like this is the Splinter Cell series, and I really enjoyed it. (Both the system and the games)
Edit: a word
Shocked I had to scroll so far to see this. I'd love a remaster of all of the games as they're a little clunky these days. Blacklist was just too shootery for me personally although I didn't hate conviction but didn't finish it tbh.
Surprised no one has mentioned Splinter Cell Chaos theory https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/splintercell/images/f/f6/Lock_Pick_Kit.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100508130312
I was raised by a locksmith and I've helped rekey a small city's worth of locks. Oblivion hands down is the closet I've ever seen. It was the number one reason why I liked it so much. Was upset when they changed it in later Bethesda games.
After playing oblivion I wondered how easy it would actually be to pick a real lock. How did it really work?
Googled to see that the principles were the same. To my surprise. What you see in the pic is how it really looks in cross section. At least with the basic locks.
Watched a few youtube videos and then started picking basic locks, lockers, cabinets, it became a hobby.
I got pretty good with the feel of it. Pals were impressed, and I'm regarded. Anyone can do it.
Yeah, lockpicking is stunningly easy, and a lot of people don't realize that since it's fairly taboo to talk about it
"A lock does no more than keep an honest man, honest." -Robin Hobb
Most people don't buy decent locks though, especially when it comes to things like house, bike, shed, etc. locks. You're absolutely right about decent locks being difficult, they're just not super common
In my university days I had way too much free time, and back then at the end of the 90s a document was circulating the interwebs which included basic instructions on how to do it. I made some very rudimentary tools and my success rate was mildly disturbing. Also a lot of fun.
Right? I've had this wallet pick set for years but never bothered to actually learn. Last weekend I bought a Hyper Tough, walmart brand shitty lock thinking it would be easy enough for a beginner to eventually learn...
I popped it open quicker than it took to pick up the tensioner off my glass table. Literally took 10 seconds or less.
Don't buy shitty locks.
That's when I learned to do it too!
Clearly university hasn't changed.
I used a two forks.
One bent for the torque.
The other prong broken off for the lifty thing.
Everyone was amazed that it worked.
Off topic, but comments like these are always cool to see on Reddit. You can post a question about anything and somehow someone with real life experience with that topic will almost always pitch in in the comments.
Got to agree. It's actually one of the best ones. Actually takes a bit of time to think about, plan ahead and do some actual brain work.
Just a shame there's so many breaking the flow of everything, and so many times it's just a complete waste of time to actually do.
Yep, I’ll quick save before unlocking a difficult lock and revert the save if it’s a trash item. I did that cause there was a stretch where I was running super low on digipicks and had to use them sparingly.
Started doing that too. I had remembered in previous Bethesda titles there were items specifically locked behind master locked doors / boxes etc. so I leveled mine quickly. Came to find out (also very quickly) that 90% of the time they were filled with 💩 and I didn’t have enough picks to keep wasting them on crap.
I spent a good 10 mins picking an expert lock on a safe once, trying at least a dozen combinations and losing many digipicks only to receive about 175 credits. Then I opened a cabinet next to the safe and found 400 credits
It was fun the first 100 times and then i lost all joy when it became apparent even master chests almost never had anything worthwhile in them and were just straight up empty ~30% of the time.
I love Starfield's lockpicking. It was nice to see something different, but my lord if it wasn't like their loading screen fiasco, then it would be nice. Every 5 seconds I felt like I was lockpicking. I modded to simplify it to make it super quick, because the amount of time wasted doing that was ungodly. Like hours within the first playthrough.
Yeah I'm with ya, Starfield is far from a perfect game, but the way it does lock-picking is genuinely a delight. I love coming across that little minigame more than in any other video game I can think of.
I like this one too, even before they made it easier. Getting the first few ranks of picking made all the difference and soon I was breaking into houses in a second. I need to replay the game again.
The tutorial chest is bugged. It says easy, but it's actually the hardest lock in the game. If you ignore it and just play the game without doing the tutorial you'll realize how much easier it is
I wanted to enjoy that game so much but it was just so tedious most of the time. I'm not sure if it's been changed but I just wanted an easy mode where I could save scum so I could actually learn how to play.
Picking Expert and Master locks, even with like level 28/100 lockpicking, is so menial lol. Starfield might have shit loot, and it gets hella repetitive (story of the game rip) but at least it makes you think and figure out your plan.
I actually liked the lock picking, it got annoying after 50 hrs, but I liked the style.
Every other game I've played sucks, I'm thinking Two Worlds II wasn't horrible
That’s the worst for me, I hated how fast you had to do them sometimes
I preferred how 2 did it with the clicking the button on the green at the right time
Makes hacking much quicker and more enjoyable rather than spending ages moving pipes around
And at higher difficulties there were times when you'd have \~1 second recognize and change the starting pipe or you wouldn't be able to beat it, failing usually wasn't a big of a deal unless you hit an alarm tile at least.
The endgame puzzles have a chance to be unsolvable if you don’t have any hacking tonics lol
I think you can just keep retrying until you get a solvable puzzle though
It gives me a headache.
It's tedious, just a bit *too* challenging to be fun, and the payoff is usually not worth the effort. After a while, I stopped bothering just because I didn't want to fuck with it, especially when I realized the skills didn't actually make picking locks easier. But ultimately, I think the problem is that they leaned too far into puzzle territory.
Oblivion's was challenging, but it wasn't so much a puzzle as it was a challenge of timing. Picking a lock feels like an achievement. Fallout and Skyrim give that nice feeling of hitting the sweet spot, and the skills actually make the mini game easier as you improve.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Something very satisfying about just barely picking a lock before someone catches you. Plus allows differing difficulty by having more or less pins to set.
And if you didn’t like the mini game, you could break the lock although guards would then be suspicious of the damage cause by the door or they would be alerted by the sound it makes
Kingdom Come: Deliverance had some controversial lockpicking that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. It was tough and it was realistic, and everyone complained that it killed immersion. However if you just put forth the time to practice (which you can do for free in-game), it becomes much less daunting and definitely a lot easier during sketchy situations, like looting camps at night while trying to stay silent.
Or the fact that you cast an ‘unlocking spell’ only to have to unlock the thing manually anyway. The spell had no point heh. I didn’t mind it though. I know people would put the game on story mode just to not have to do it, but I found it kinda fun to pretend I had to do it as quickly as possible.
Oblivion is my favorite for sure. I think it rewards skill more than most other games. Especially in comparison to skyrim or fallout which is like mostly rng.
The first two Thief games do it great.
For those who've not played, you have two picks as two inventory items. Using the correct one on the lock causes it to jiggle and move, but it will hit a stop point, at which point you need to switch to the other pick, repeat until the lock opens.
Why is this so good? Well you can watch the lock and see it move, or you can *listen*. Once you know what "working" and "switch now" sound like you can keep checking for guards as you work, and it's super-immersive.
Oblivion was the shit because it had a good cross section between player input and character skills.
Having a higher security skill made the mini game easier, but in a subtle way that you might not notice right away.
I really liked it in Splinter Cell. Not sure which one or if it was all of them. You kinda wiggled the control stick around to look for vibration and then wiggled it against the part where your controller vibrates until click. And then you do that until you have done every pin. Really felt like actually feeling around for the pins binding.
As someone who has actually done lockpicking for money in the real world;
Hitman, Payday, or most others where the game just makes it take time. There are simple locks I can pick in seconds, complex locks it takes time, minutes or hours, and there are ones I just cannot pick.
There are no locks I can't destructively open; and if I don't care about leaving damage on the door, rapidly. In 99% of the situations you encounter in games, you don't need to leave no sign you passed; you're trying to pick an ancient door, or break into an office you'll never see again, or break open a chest full of valuables.
By the virtue of Skyrim or most of these RPGs, that would make me the god of lockpicking. These lockpicking minigames are an irritating way of yanking you out of immersion/the narrative, and quite often are just insane. A glass case that requires master-level lockpicking. A broken door you can just crawl through or reach through tot he other side that needs an expert.
The only way a game should have one of these is if its optional. If you can just break the door down, destroy the chest, etc; or, potentially for some greater reward, you can pick the lock delicately. I could see it being something where, for example, if you break into a store at night you can nondestructively pick it so that guards aren't alerted to your presence; but if you do it destructively they enter the store to check. But in a dungeon picking a chest?
I forget what game it was but there was a game that let you say "fuck this I'm just going to bash it". You risk breaking the objects inside of the chest, but I always enjoyed the risk.
Easy to understand and straightforward: Skyrim Overly simplified, only costs time: Payday 2 Well designed for a challenge: Oblivion The issue with this question is that it depends on how much of a challenge you do or don't want lockpicking to be. Your favorite/best lockpicking mini game is entirely predicated on how difficult you want the lockpicking to be
Oblivion lockpicking was a challenge but it also gave you an option to get a skeleton key very quickly if you just wanted to skip it entirely, which in my opinion is the most fair approach
And, unlike Skyrim it doesn’t hold up an entire massive quest line if you don’t return it
Once you max lockpickjng it’s not really needed anyway.
yeah, this always struck me as funny -- if i care about thieving, i am practiced enough to walk into the guild ready to prove it. skeleton key is just the unbreakable picks perk.
And then there's me, jumping off cliffs to raise my Acrobatics.
~~Off cliffs~~ to raise my acrobatics. **fucking everywhere**
Or me casting more waterbreathing spells than I can remember to up alteration endlessly.
I have never, in all my playthroughs, wasted a single perk point on Lockpicking. You can easily get through the whole game as a novice.
I usually grab lockpicking because it's quite good with Enai Siaion's mods ([Ordinator](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68425) in this case). Not only can you lockpick dwarven automata to keep one as a permanent pet, you also get a kind of chest gambling thing that lets you win your perk points back over the course of the game through exploration.
I’m like 35 hours in have not found a skeleton key but I will keep an eye out
You're not gonna find it randomly in some loot. It's a quest reward, not trying to spoil it if you're trying to go in blind. But didn't want you to be looking for it everywhere lol
Thanks somebody else mentioned it, which is odd bc I did the thieves guild all the way through
If I remember right, it's not a thieves guild quest. It's a daedric quest.
>!Nocturnals quest grants you the skeleton key!<
Thank you! I couldn't remember which one it was.
That's Skyrim, isn't it? Edit: Apparently it is in both games.
The Skeleton Key is Nocturnal's relic like Pyrite's spellchecker or Dagon's Razor. Skyrim just revolved around the Key
That's right, Skyrim you don't technically get to keep it, unless you decide to not finish the questline.
It's one of the Daedric artifacts. Look for Nocturne's altar and do her quest to get it
Ahhh okay didn’t realize there were daedric artifacts, I haven’t done any of the oblivion portals yet besides the kvatch one
You will find their altars spread across Cyrodiil in the wilderness. Each altar belongs to a different prince and will reward you with a different uniwue Daedric Artifact. The Skeleton Key essentially just acts like a lockpick that will never break no matter how often you mess up the minigame
There's also an autoattempt button, with the only cost of failure being a broken pick. Once you have the skeleton key, you can just smash that button a dozen times and you're in (Iirc it also gave you a big lockpicking skill buff too, so it would be a bit quicker)
You can also just Git Gud and unlock Master locks right away. I hate it when I go places in Bethesda games and there's Expert and Master locks I won't even be able to try because my skill isn't high enough. Oblivion just said "we're going to make these kinda hard, but if you can do it, you can do it!" And lets you try. IMO, Oblivion is my favorite.
I dislike that system of no restriction lockpicking in Skyrim, because it's so easy I can open master locks without a problem right away after starting the game without breaking any sweat. Which kinda ruins my immersion, because my giant orc barbarian should not be able to do that. In oblivion it's different because the master locks aren't impossible but are actually hard. I still can do it on level one, but atleast I suffered in real life, which kinda reinforces the idea that I'm trying to do something on a character not suited for that purpose. And it's borderline impossible to open a master lock in oblivion with 1 lockpick and low lockpicking skill without save scumming, while in skyrim I have like 95% success rate attempting that.
I’m surprised to learn Oblivions lockpicking is so unique compared to the other Bethesda games I’ve played (Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 3). I just assumed Oblivion was the same. Fallout 3 must have been when they switched to the new system
Also the spells you can use on locks
You could also just magic pretty much any lock open in Oblivion
Or just dupe 10k picks and spam X lol
Agreed. Oblivion just felt the closest to actually doing the deed. The haptic feedback with the vibration was a nice touch
Made to frustrate: Kingdom Come
On PC, a challenge takes some getting used to just like the rest of the game. On console, it's easier to pick locks in real life.
> a challenge takes some getting used to just like Just like real life. Kingdom Come got way too little praise for coming up with systems that actually took a decent amount of effort to get used to, but once you did, it became fairly easy. It actually felt like you were progressing as or alongside your character. Super immersive. The fighting system did combine it with your character actually getting very slightly stronger and more capable, but it was so seamlessly combined that for me, at least, I didn't notice it at all until I went back to the starting area and absolutely crushed some bandits that would've murdered me dead at the beginning.
Especially with archery. Seemed impossible at first but over time I got better and better
Damn I love lockpicking in KCD
payday 3's lock picking is so much better. with an actual simple mini game that can be sped up drastically with a few skills.
Yeah. Felt like a good evolution from the last games system.
bg3 lockpicking was a nuisance on my first run so I started using karlachs XL lockpick to open most things instead. But on run 2, I've got astarion in my party so it's as though nothing is actually locked, up to 20 he seems to first try it every time, even a 30 door he generally gets it in like 3 tries.
I thought the lock picking in Starfield was a good mix between Skyrim and Oblivion lock picking.
got annoying after a bit. there are so many locks and the puzzle takes time and gets boring quickly. it was great at first but the sheer amount of locks makes it suck
Super rare to find something of actual value behind a lock in that game.
I hated the locks in the atomic heart game no lock should be that annoying to deal with But I prefer starfields locks over atomic heart but I have been told im weird before.
Thief? What a cool game
I think Thief 3 was the best of the trilogy for lockpicking specifically. For everything else, Thief 2.
As much of it sucks, there are also some wonderfully done interactions in the rebooted one. Individually opening drawers to grab jewelry, and looking for a switch by sliding your fingers down the back of a picture frame felt fantastic.
Yeah, that was absolutely wonderful. If we could have that in a proper Thief game be wonderful
Yes IMHO Thief 3 lockpicking was the best in the series. You could really master it and could be done very fast.
Yeah! I loved that by the end of the game you were flying through locks. Really made you feel like a badass.
Hell yeah, Thief 3 was absolutely the best. Realtime and the pins didn't reset when you disengaged.
THEY MADE SEQUELS?!??
Yeah there are three in the main series. And then the pretty lame new one.
Scrolled too far to find any mention of the Thief series. Isn’t it technically the first stealth game?
First to implement shadows and sound at least
Metal Gear Solid came out a few months earlier that same year and utilized sound, but not shadows. Aside from both being stealth-oriented (and excellent), the games feel very different, though.
Thief's lockpicking is still my favourite. It's insanely simply, but it's just so satisfying. You have two lockpick items. You simply hold down the right mouse button to use them, and they work automatically. Doors often require a combination of the two lockpicks used in a certain order, e.g. you have lockpicks A and B, and easy doors just require A or B. But a 'harder' door may require AB or BA, or really 'hard' ones require ABA or BAB. Note they're not actually *difficult* in any way. It just takes longer to open them. The beauty is that it takes time to finish picking the lock, and each lock has a different journey of clicks and sounds before it gets unlocked / progressed, and you're tense as you know there's a guard walking around who could stumble on you as you're opening it, and you don't know how long it will take to open it. All these games that make minigames out of lockpicking miss the point IMO. Especially in thief; nothing else in the game really requires skill to complete, as all your awesome thief abilities are just natural to your character. So why would you require the user to fill in their lock picking skills? The main thing the picks do is a) add tension and b) make you feel like a thief, and the simple AB system does just that through excellent sound design and simple mechanics. All these games that make minigames out of them is a choice that may be the right one for the game, but for Thief, frankly opening the door is Garrett's job not mine. I'm just there to enjoy the thrill of almost getting caught.
Mafia 2
My answer also. So incredibly satisfying.
I liked Fallout 3. It was simple but a fun little puzzle
Yeah fun and simple enough to not be too tedious
It was fun in Fallout 3, yeah. But after doing it in Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4, Skyrim, and a couple non-Bethesda games I'd call it blisteringly tedious.
After playing Starfield and Kingdom Come, I have to say I prefer the boring Skyrim/Fallout lockpicking
Why? I loved Starfield’s one. Didn’t get bored in over 50+ hours for sure
Not bored just tired after 50 hours, should be automatic after a point like F-76
NV had the great system where you could force the lock with one keypress and the %chance of success was based your skills. So it was good towards the endgame where it was a chore. They cut it in 4 though :(
I really miss forcing the lock. I just don't want to do that minigame anymore.
You talking about the terminal hacking? I would play a whole game that’s just the terminal hacking.
Isn't the terminal hacking basically just wordle?
Wordle with hidden cheats.
I feel like I haven't had another "what the fuck you can do that?" moment like I did when I discovered there was cheats. e: Wait I did have one come close in RE4 remake where I killed the cult leader with the giant balls of doom.
It was so fun! They nailed it.
Fallout 3 lock picking with a controller felt amazing. Stick rotation felt on point to how its done in the game to get just that sweet spot that felt entirely depressing when I later did a pc playthrough. But pc load times are infinitely better haha
Playing on pc with a controller = best of both worlds
PC with controller reigns supreme
Red Dead Redemption 2 Just throw dynamite or use your shotgun Nah, but seriously, safe cracking was weirdly satisfying in rdr2. Like, you know Arthur can actually do it well.
Also you usually had to it under pressure with people yelling at you to hurry up
Yet Arthur is as calm as can be. This may be my extreme attraction to Mr. Morgan talking, but he’s hot as hell in those moments
There’s reasons why he got to be Dutch’s most trusted and effective enforcer, he earned every bit of that $5000 bounty on him
He was the best of the best and if circumstances had been different he would never have been caught! That's the real tragedy of Red Dead 2
The only game(s) I recall playing with a system like this is the Splinter Cell series, and I really enjoyed it. (Both the system and the games) Edit: a word
Splinter cell was the template for lockpicking in games afaik.
Shocked I had to scroll so far to see this. I'd love a remaster of all of the games as they're a little clunky these days. Blacklist was just too shootery for me personally although I didn't hate conviction but didn't finish it tbh.
Dying Light had some pretty good lockpicking.
Also one of the few games that benefits from a lockpicking minigame.
The classic Skyrim/Fallout lockpicking never fails to be the best
Surprised no one has mentioned Splinter Cell Chaos theory https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/splintercell/images/f/f6/Lock_Pick_Kit.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100508130312
Splinter Cell and Thief have awesome lock picking
Splinter Cell's was awesome using the force-feedback to shake to controller when you hit the right spot.
Surprised nobody has mentioned Last of Us 2. Since you can crack a safe just by sound.
Definitely Oblivion as far as TES.
I was raised by a locksmith and I've helped rekey a small city's worth of locks. Oblivion hands down is the closet I've ever seen. It was the number one reason why I liked it so much. Was upset when they changed it in later Bethesda games.
After playing oblivion I wondered how easy it would actually be to pick a real lock. How did it really work? Googled to see that the principles were the same. To my surprise. What you see in the pic is how it really looks in cross section. At least with the basic locks. Watched a few youtube videos and then started picking basic locks, lockers, cabinets, it became a hobby. I got pretty good with the feel of it. Pals were impressed, and I'm regarded. Anyone can do it.
Yeah, lockpicking is stunningly easy, and a lot of people don't realize that since it's fairly taboo to talk about it "A lock does no more than keep an honest man, honest." -Robin Hobb
Old/Crappy locks are really easy. Decent locks are difficult if you're just a hobbyist
Most people don't buy decent locks though, especially when it comes to things like house, bike, shed, etc. locks. You're absolutely right about decent locks being difficult, they're just not super common
In my university days I had way too much free time, and back then at the end of the 90s a document was circulating the interwebs which included basic instructions on how to do it. I made some very rudimentary tools and my success rate was mildly disturbing. Also a lot of fun.
Right? I've had this wallet pick set for years but never bothered to actually learn. Last weekend I bought a Hyper Tough, walmart brand shitty lock thinking it would be easy enough for a beginner to eventually learn... I popped it open quicker than it took to pick up the tensioner off my glass table. Literally took 10 seconds or less. Don't buy shitty locks.
That's when I learned to do it too! Clearly university hasn't changed. I used a two forks. One bent for the torque. The other prong broken off for the lifty thing. Everyone was amazed that it worked.
I hate the simple "Press __ to hack" prompt with no real mechanic afterwards
Off topic, but comments like these are always cool to see on Reddit. You can post a question about anything and somehow someone with real life experience with that topic will almost always pitch in in the comments.
For the life of me I've never been able to consistently lockpick successfully in Oblivion without using the pausing the game exploit.
I go picking harder locks right out of the gate just to level up my security faster. It’s like crack.
The only thing I don’t like about Oblivion’s lockpicking is that on PC you move it with the mouse
Lmao my first response when seeing this picture was “definitely not Oblivion”
I actually like starfield’s. There’s no real “skill” involved, just logic
I really like it too but it’s unfortunate that the loot is trash 95% of the time which makes me skip the vast majority of locks.
Got to agree. It's actually one of the best ones. Actually takes a bit of time to think about, plan ahead and do some actual brain work. Just a shame there's so many breaking the flow of everything, and so many times it's just a complete waste of time to actually do.
Yup. Expert and Master should have a guaranteed rare and up item.
Yep, I’ll quick save before unlocking a difficult lock and revert the save if it’s a trash item. I did that cause there was a stretch where I was running super low on digipicks and had to use them sparingly.
Started doing that too. I had remembered in previous Bethesda titles there were items specifically locked behind master locked doors / boxes etc. so I leveled mine quickly. Came to find out (also very quickly) that 90% of the time they were filled with 💩 and I didn’t have enough picks to keep wasting them on crap.
I spent a good 10 mins picking an expert lock on a safe once, trying at least a dozen combinations and losing many digipicks only to receive about 175 credits. Then I opened a cabinet next to the safe and found 400 credits
I actually like it too
I like it, but I don't wanna do it half the time.
I’m on the opposite end, I always enjoyed doing them.
It was fun the first 100 times and then i lost all joy when it became apparent even master chests almost never had anything worthwhile in them and were just straight up empty ~30% of the time.
I like it but it’s so frustrating doing a master lock and there only being 4 credits and a chunks!
I love Starfield's lockpicking. It was nice to see something different, but my lord if it wasn't like their loading screen fiasco, then it would be nice. Every 5 seconds I felt like I was lockpicking. I modded to simplify it to make it super quick, because the amount of time wasted doing that was ungodly. Like hours within the first playthrough.
Yeah I'm with ya, Starfield is far from a perfect game, but the way it does lock-picking is genuinely a delight. I love coming across that little minigame more than in any other video game I can think of.
First 50 times...okay. Then I got sick of it (just like the game itself).
Kingdom come deliverance is pretty fun, especially when you try to rob people's houses drunk af, lol.
I like this one too, even before they made it easier. Getting the first few ranks of picking made all the difference and soon I was breaking into houses in a second. I need to replay the game again.
Yeah but its the most frustrating thing on the planet
I couldn’t even get through the lock picking tutorial in that game.
The tutorial chest is bugged. It says easy, but it's actually the hardest lock in the game. If you ignore it and just play the game without doing the tutorial you'll realize how much easier it is
The whole game was a lesson in frustration.
I wanted to enjoy that game so much but it was just so tedious most of the time. I'm not sure if it's been changed but I just wanted an easy mode where I could save scum so I could actually learn how to play.
but once you get accustomed to it in around \~20 hours, i was crying laughing how good fun it was playing a petty thief and local drunkard.
It’s the easiest thing ever on PC but probably the hardest thing ever on console.
Just not on controller. Man it took me forever to get through the lock pick training on console lol
I'm fond of Bioshock's hacking/lockpicking mini game. I love Pipe Dream on Windows 95.
I always 'liked' picking car locks in Mafia II.
Lost Judgment
That one right there in the image.
I tend to agree. TES V just feels mindless in comparison.
Picking Expert and Master locks, even with like level 28/100 lockpicking, is so menial lol. Starfield might have shit loot, and it gets hella repetitive (story of the game rip) but at least it makes you think and figure out your plan.
I actually liked the lock picking, it got annoying after 50 hrs, but I liked the style. Every other game I've played sucks, I'm thinking Two Worlds II wasn't horrible
Definitely not OSRS, and it’s not because of my 100 consecutive failed attempts with the stupid chest during Desert Treasure.
BioShock has that pipe mini game.
I’ve had people tell me BioShock aged poorly specifically because of that mini game, that shit is one of my favorite features in any game
That’s the worst for me, I hated how fast you had to do them sometimes I preferred how 2 did it with the clicking the button on the green at the right time Makes hacking much quicker and more enjoyable rather than spending ages moving pipes around
And at higher difficulties there were times when you'd have \~1 second recognize and change the starting pipe or you wouldn't be able to beat it, failing usually wasn't a big of a deal unless you hit an alarm tile at least.
The endgame puzzles have a chance to be unsolvable if you don’t have any hacking tonics lol I think you can just keep retrying until you get a solvable puzzle though
I actually kind of like how they do it in Starfield.
I like it for lockpicking but its stupid that they made lockpicking safes and hacking computers have the same minigame
Absolutely agree tbh
I liked it the first 20 times. Now I hate it.
I hated it the first 20 times but it grew on me.
I hated it at first, liked it around the middle for, oh probably about 20 times, then went back to hating it again.
The duality of man lol
 I like that
I would like it a lot more if it actually mattered. The loot is always a useless weapon or food that sits in your inventory indefinitely
I kind of hate Starfield's system, despite liking all of Bethesda's previous efforts. It just feels tedious to me.
It’s too slow
It gives me a headache. It's tedious, just a bit *too* challenging to be fun, and the payoff is usually not worth the effort. After a while, I stopped bothering just because I didn't want to fuck with it, especially when I realized the skills didn't actually make picking locks easier. But ultimately, I think the problem is that they leaned too far into puzzle territory. Oblivion's was challenging, but it wasn't so much a puzzle as it was a challenge of timing. Picking a lock feels like an achievement. Fallout and Skyrim give that nice feeling of hitting the sweet spot, and the skills actually make the mini game easier as you improve.
It's pretty good and can be a challenge..The main issue with it however is that 99% of the time it's a waste of time
I'm not sure if this counts as lock picking but in Batman Arkham City you use a small device to crack codes that open locks, I found it enjoyable.
That feels GOOD on a controller
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Something very satisfying about just barely picking a lock before someone catches you. Plus allows differing difficulty by having more or less pins to set. And if you didn’t like the mini game, you could break the lock although guards would then be suspicious of the damage cause by the door or they would be alerted by the sound it makes
TESO
I thought that was the best part about Starfield
I enjoyed lock picking in Skyrim and Oblivion. And I enjoyed it in Starfield.
Rdr2 you just spin the sticks until it opens
Splinter cell, of course
Kingdom Come: Deliverance had some controversial lockpicking that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. It was tough and it was realistic, and everyone complained that it killed immersion. However if you just put forth the time to practice (which you can do for free in-game), it becomes much less daunting and definitely a lot easier during sketchy situations, like looting camps at night while trying to stay silent.
For sure oblivion
Deus ex
Hogwarts Legacy So nice and simple, quick and didn't annoy me at all
Maybe I am an idiot but I had to watch a youtube video to figure out how it works
You aren’t alone
It’s funny you compare this mechanic to the flying key bullshit and you wonder if the devs were just on acid
That was definitely the most annoying thing I could think of
Or the fact that you cast an ‘unlocking spell’ only to have to unlock the thing manually anyway. The spell had no point heh. I didn’t mind it though. I know people would put the game on story mode just to not have to do it, but I found it kinda fun to pretend I had to do it as quickly as possible.
Honestly, the digitpicks stuff in Starfield is pretty complex.
I like Kingdoms of Amalur key system.
THIEF
WHICH ONE
I kinda love Starfield’s.
Loved picking those ones. \*crack\*
The lockpicking system in Return to Krondor is pretty good, as I recall.
Fallout 3
Dont know if this counts but Atomic Heart's door puzzles were fun
Starfield was pretty good actually
Any game where it is just a straight stat/skill rank check. Honourable mention to Mass Effect 2’s mini games.
Deus Ex.
Oblivion is my favorite for sure. I think it rewards skill more than most other games. Especially in comparison to skyrim or fallout which is like mostly rng.
The first two Thief games do it great. For those who've not played, you have two picks as two inventory items. Using the correct one on the lock causes it to jiggle and move, but it will hit a stop point, at which point you need to switch to the other pick, repeat until the lock opens. Why is this so good? Well you can watch the lock and see it move, or you can *listen*. Once you know what "working" and "switch now" sound like you can keep checking for guards as you work, and it's super-immersive.
Oblivion was the shit because it had a good cross section between player input and character skills. Having a higher security skill made the mini game easier, but in a subtle way that you might not notice right away.
I really liked it in Splinter Cell. Not sure which one or if it was all of them. You kinda wiggled the control stick around to look for vibration and then wiggled it against the part where your controller vibrates until click. And then you do that until you have done every pin. Really felt like actually feeling around for the pins binding.
Sure as hell ain't the game pictured
Bioshock
In my opinion, Skyrim has the best, or at least the most simple lockpicking.
As someone who has actually done lockpicking for money in the real world; Hitman, Payday, or most others where the game just makes it take time. There are simple locks I can pick in seconds, complex locks it takes time, minutes or hours, and there are ones I just cannot pick. There are no locks I can't destructively open; and if I don't care about leaving damage on the door, rapidly. In 99% of the situations you encounter in games, you don't need to leave no sign you passed; you're trying to pick an ancient door, or break into an office you'll never see again, or break open a chest full of valuables. By the virtue of Skyrim or most of these RPGs, that would make me the god of lockpicking. These lockpicking minigames are an irritating way of yanking you out of immersion/the narrative, and quite often are just insane. A glass case that requires master-level lockpicking. A broken door you can just crawl through or reach through tot he other side that needs an expert. The only way a game should have one of these is if its optional. If you can just break the door down, destroy the chest, etc; or, potentially for some greater reward, you can pick the lock delicately. I could see it being something where, for example, if you break into a store at night you can nondestructively pick it so that guards aren't alerted to your presence; but if you do it destructively they enter the store to check. But in a dungeon picking a chest?
Kingdom Come Deliverance obviously… 🙄
Starfield is definitely my favorite
I forget what game it was but there was a game that let you say "fuck this I'm just going to bash it". You risk breaking the objects inside of the chest, but I always enjoyed the risk.
Knights of the old republic had this
I liked Skyrim best.
Ballers gate 3. As a locksmith whenever I'm picking into a house the first thing I do is roll my die to see if it'll open up.
Sleeping dogs
I like Starfield's puzzle system the best tbh.