At leeeeeast in games like DMC and other fantasy you can't bust down a magical barrier like you can a wooden door. I had always thought that making a survival horror game that gives the option to use precious ammo to blow out locks (but also drawing attention to your location) would be worth looking into.
Devil May Cry Forums
TWOxACROSS
LordOfDarkness
Oh yeah that would be a brilliant feature to a survival horror game. Instead of using guns all the time, they should just concentrate on using your body for attacks. Your strength and stamina etc The guns should be rarer to utilise, and as you said they could be used more wisely for shooting out locks.
DreadnoughtDT
Silent Hill does a passable job of explaining this by saying that a lot of doors are either jammed, have broken locks, or are magically sealed.
LordOfDarkness
Yes, but my point was how it seems to be such a hindrance for a lot of videogame characters, that it's almost like a common enemy to them in itself.