Maybe not “lazy” per se, but my least favorite is finding reasons and excuses for the player character to always have to be alone even when they’re part of a team or collective effort.

Obviously many games feature AI companions, but a lot of games also have you working with other characters, but in actual gameplay you are completely alone, maybe talking to other characters on comms or seeing them do something in a scripted event or cutscene.

These games are obviously designed to be single-player experiences and balance around you being alone and probably don’t want to do the extra work to include AI companions for just one or a few sections, but the weird gymnastics they do to make sure that you never cross paths in combat with the people you’re working with becomes really noticeable and distracting.

Examples include the new Wolfenstein games, Bioshock, Jedi Fallen Order, and tons of single-player action adventure games.