Nintendo Castle Horror

[Cranky Old Man]

Level designers think that you can put barrels and crates everywhere, and it's gotten to a point where there's actually a general level design rule against it. Unless we're talking warehouses, players will frown if they see containers strewn about, and in Amnesia doubly so, because you'll have to check behind every darn one, just in case there's a key hidden behind them. Putting that many barrels in a small room is almost like an IQ puzzle, though, so I don't know whether to hate it or love it: You can't search the place properly without shooting them out the door, and judging by PDPs LP, some people won't realize that.

i think that's a bit exaggerated...

What part?
I quote Dart Zaidyer, professional eater of duct tape:
"Crates are the high overlord of bad level design. Unless the room you're
working on is a warehouse, crates are a universally recognized symbol
of laziness. Bonus points if they're just taking up space in the corner.
Double bonus points if the crates are too big to fit through the doors
of the room they're in."

There is also the "Start to Crate" measuring system:
"Games can be rated and compared based on the shortest amount of time it takes a player to reach the first crate, which represents the point where the developers ran out of ideas. This number is measured in seconds and is called "Start to Crate" or "StC". The smaller the StC, the worse the game."