What are your thoughts on 'overpowered' features in single player games? Games which are generally open-ended like skyrim or a strategy game like crusader kings 2.

For example the old smithing in skyrim, or maybe a minor random feature in a game that allows the player to become powerful easily (only in single player). Would you want the feature to be changed for gameplay balance, or would you advise people complaining about it to not use the feature if they're so riled up by it?

For single player games that allow a great deal of freedom and open-ended scenarios to the player. So stuff like an overpowered gun in Bioshock, for example, wouldnt count (since its fairly linear).

Why anyone gives a [censored] about what other people do in their single player game baffles me. If something is OP and you don't like it...don't use it, More options in games is usually a good thing.

If I find a weapon that's OP and I had to go through hell to get it, I'm using it. Besides the enemy can have OP items to use and they don't care about using it on you.

This is a very reasonable opinion to have, and indeed I believe no-one cares what others do in their game.

The problem comes when I have to limit myself to keep the game balanced. If I as the player must deliberately break the game to unbreak it...

To get perspective, imagine fists in a game like Skyrim did the most damage of everything, right from level 1. You could use a sword or an axe that does 5% of the damage, but the fists are there to deliver infinite damage, for free, at your leisure. Simply by existing, it makes everything else feel just a bit silly.

For me it depends on the game. With Elder Scrolls it has been under control, for my taste at least. That's because there is lots of character creation to muck around with outside of the overpowered builds. For Deus Ex: HR and Dishonored, I had to leave lots of points unspent to avoid getting overpowered. I would have preferred more customization but tbh I'm not sure what exactly, so it wasn't the end of the world. In Fable you could get overpowered by exploiting potions, but it was up to you if you chose to do that. Mass Effect, the D&D games, the Fallouts, have pretty good balance with lots of options.