I kind of like the idea of very limited rare resources where you have to actually make a decision of when to use them or save them. I think its been a while since I played such a game though for the life of me I can't remember which games took this approach and if it worked as well as I think it could.
Examples? System Shock (both), Deus Ex (all three parts), Thief ... nearly all "lightwight" RPG-mixes (or sneak-games) have such "super special attack who depends on a special resource" it's leads to the following situations.
- You end the game with all available resources, because you preserve it for a special fight... simply waste of inventory...
- You ignore the "special" because your play-style bypased it
- You use it to early ...
