Player Control

In prince of Persia: two thrones, there are simple controls. Space will jump over your enemy or be acrobatic moves, E is usually some kind of grab move and so forth in a rather controlled and uncomplicated manner.

Player controls must be simple

Player control should not be too extensive where it becomes an overwhelming responsibility, for example in Crysis, the team decided to have a cloaking, but the player had to fiddle with temperature controls, but they got it removed. It was too complicated and made the cloak more about responsibility than making things easier. It would have destroyed the player’s beliefs that it made things easier (making them feel invincible) and instead, done the opposite.

Player control should give feedback for example in Dead Island, a currently in development game you can gore up your enemies face when it is hit. Other ways are destroying cover or destroying objects.

If we shoot a zombie in the arm, we want his arm to blow off. If we shoot him in the knee, we want him to limp. And if we shoot him in the head, we want his head to explode. We want our bullets to create wounds. Now let's watch a bit of Umbrella Chronicles, and watch the zombies go down undamaged, as if beaned with a baseball

http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_p4.html