Difficulty: HARD

Thought I’d have to start posting some time or another and with the current difficulty articles from my fellow bloggers I thought I should point out why I always play my games on ‘Hard’ difficulty, just to show I'm not some kind of sadistic gamer who enjoy raging at games on a regular basis.

I’m almost bored of modern games basically handing me the story with very little challenge rather than making me work for it, somehow it doesn’t feel so rewarding. Although in the same breath I don’t appreciate being denied the story because I have to grind almost endlessly, or be superhuman to detect enemies before they appear. Is it possible in the current world of games for developers to do it well without just ramping up the enemies or damage etc?

I’m the kind of guy who plays Call of Duty of Veteran, basically because I’m not too fond of being a sort of ordinary marine in FPS’s who is actually the Terminator in disguise who can almost wipe out a platoon of enemy troops without breaking a sweat and still have time for a cup of tea. Although if it's done wrong it's infuriating, so don’t get me started on the invisible enemies and grenade spammalicoius tendencies of Call of Duty:World at War, that’s another matter yet an good example of difficulty done wrong.


Don’t get me wrong I love my narrative and story, hell that’s what makes half a game but if the other half (whether it be shooting Nazis/aliens, slaying mighty gods, saving the world from ultimate doom etc ) can’t hold it up without at least a bit of a challenge I find myself thinking ‘somethings not right here’.

But I also find there is the satisfaction of learning a section to a degree that makes you try something differently than before but it working out is such a pay off, take Dead Space for example. This is a game that I started on Hard right from the beginning because I knew I wanted to have the crap scared out of me throughout, especially from the variety of disgusting creatures who have the ability to turn you into mince meat if you stumble into them unawares or sod’s law reload your gun at the wrong time.

If only this worked *sigh*

Now I hit one boss a year ago that had me gouging my eyes out, I saw no way of completing this bugger so much so that after a considerable amount of time invested in restraining lobbing my controller through my T.V it was put on the shelf for nearly two years or so! Until now that is. I thought ‘lets have a bash at this bastard once more’, loaded up the section, and bugger me next thing I know I’m trying something different and finishing the sod in no time. So I got that great sense of achievement, aswell as the realisation that the game has been opened up for me once again.

Which brings me to Demon Souls, I’ve been playing this hardcore gamer gem since it’s American release, after reading about it over the internet it sounded like my kind of thing. The main feedback of the game is it being rewarding, but notoriously infuriating. It makes you get better at it or get your ass handed to you in a variety of ways that will make the most masculine of men cry like babies.

Now honestly I have no idea why that premise appealed to me, but be warned if you think this game is your kind of bag, think about it strongly, never has a game had me torn between sitting on the edge of my seat to raging and hurling my controller in frustration in a matter of seconds. If you’re like me you’ll be so literally scared of every movement in the shadows in the common case that something is nearly always waiting to kill you and makes you repeat everything you just did in the last 30 minutes, again.In no way should this put you off, just be prepared for it as it’s going to happen often if you don’t dedicate a lot of time to playing and learning it and most importantly, get better at it.

Get used to this sight In Demon Souls soon followed by you

crying yourself quietly into a corner after you die.

You’d think you’d have to have an almost sadistic nature to enjoy this game, but at the same time never has a game been so compelling for me to have that ‘one last try’ at a gigantic boss or area that I couldn’t overcome because I was too hasty, ignoring the fact my previous death 2 minutes ago nearly brought me to tears. If you buy it you won’t be sorry, it’s an amazing tome to what gaming can be, just be prepared to be retracing your steps a lot and perfecting the art of playing this game without going all Wolverine on your TV.

I enjoy being tested at skill and my ass being handed to me in equal measures if it makes me try something new or really push me as a player to risk something or think outside the box, just not having the game make me give it up and place it in its sadistic claws sprinkled with sugar and a cherry.

And don’t get me started on the world of Trophy/Achievement whoring, that’s another article.

So to quote my fellow blogger BrapScallion:

‘So, in the days of 100+hour games, Fully immersive stories with actual plots and twists worthy of Hollywood, who wants to break the illusion by dying a thousand times just to get through that awkward choke point with the bad guys with grenades?’

I will if it makes the gaming experience feel that little bit more epic and worthwhile when it’s over.

Khronos out.

Difficulty: EASY

Games are becoming easier, or so I keep being told. In the age of virtually every demographic playing Video Games, the notion and idea of difficulty in games has been an issue that has been leaping to the forefront of many discussions. Indeed, with the advent of achievements and trophies, the subject has become more apparent than ever, with players being awarded from embracing the higher difficulty levels. I find this subject fascinating, as people tend to have wildly differing views when it comes to difficulty, and what's right.

Trials HD. The closest you can come to self-harm with

a controller in your hand. Basically Motocross for

the NES, but with all the fun taken out.

Now, personally, I tend to play games on an easier setting. Call it wimping out, tell me I'm not enjoying the 'true' experience, but I enjoy it. I enjoy narrative in games, and with a limited time to play games now I'm a grown-up, I like to rattle through games, and not be stuck on sections to the point of frustration. I don't personally enjoy the idea of grinding heavily, or memorising enemy patterns and really crawling through a game. I'm fully aware that this kind of sadistic impulse gets some people well in the mood, but not me. I rely on the story of a game, and love to play through it, enjoying the story, almost like a movie.

I also like to feel like a bad-ass when playing games. When playing God of War 3, I wanted to feel like the son of Zeus, rather than some lackey who can't even handle a little Hippogriff. I wanna take down that bitch straight away, and breathe fire from my lungs whilst doing it. On an easier setting, the true boss battles are still challenging, but I can concentrate on dealing with the footsoldiers in creative ways, rather than shitting myself when something trivial comes along.

If Kratos is having trouble kicking a few dogs about,

How's he gonna react when Zeus shows up?

The catalyst for this little ramble was Bayonetta. I instinctly turned the difficulty down to 'easy' when I started playing. It's a rental, and I want to breeze through it, so I turned it down. Part way through the game, I decided that for a change, I'd try it on 'normal', to see what I was missing, as I thought to myself that maybe I would appreciate the challenging aspect, and maybe I was wrong.

Seriously, I lasted about 5 minutes until I got to a miniboss. After dying about 12 times, I turned the difficulty back down. The boss was so unforgiving, so relentless in it's apparent unfairness that it just baffled me as to how this curve of difficulty was so obviously out-of-wack. Why was it so crushingly hard? On normal? Who has the time these days to play the same boss over and over again? Who gets pleasure out of this?

I think it's such an out-of-date idea. Originally, the difficulty of games was artificially inflated due to the restrictions on the machines. A NES or a Master System cartridge didn't have a great deal of memory, so they couldn't offer a huge amount of gameplay. They couldn't hold a great deal of anything really. Games were shorter due to this and budget restrictions, yet more pressure was put on them to be value for money. Because of this, difficulty was ramped up artificially, making some games absolutely nails, with the worst offenders often being the cheaper end of the retail spectrum.

Notoriously difficult, The Mega Man series of games

had players scratching their eyes out on a regular basis.

So, in the days of 100+hour games, Fully immersive stories with actual plots and twists worthy of Hollywood, who wants to break the illusion by dying a thousand times just to get through that awkward choke point with the bad guys with grenades? Not me.

Difficulty: MEDIUM

So I'm getting my thoughs out here first, as Brap's been talking about it recently. To save those people that skim the article and look at the pretty pictures some time:

PLAY IT ON MEDIUM.

So on with rationale. If you're new to games then yes, playing on easy is understandable. But I'm willing to bet anyone reading this has played their fair share of games, yes? If you're still playing on easy then where is the challenge? Where is the satisfaction of completing something when the game practically feeds it to you? A lot of games that I've played recently have a great depth to them, much more than would appear from first glance. For example, I recently went back to finish Dead Space, and stumbled upon a section that was excruciatingly tough to get by, I died over and over again, but I was determined to get through it. So I reloaded that save and stopped to survey the area, to try to plan out what to do before I flip the switch that brings on the shambling, leaping, exploding horde. Then I looked up, and out of a window. The view was unbelieavable, and while it wasn't my first thought, I would suggest to you: How many people that played the game on easy have seen that same view?


Now maybe you've read up to here and you're thinking, "If you want a challenge, play it on Hard you wuss!". The difference here is that whilst I like to get my money's worth, and I like to enjoy everything there is to offer, I have no intention of sitting through the same section until sticking forks in my eyes seems a reasonable alternative to playing. Maybe I'm just not good enough, but until console developers realise that action games require mouse and keyboard to work properly, I'm sticking to medium.

Now throw into the mix games that don't give you the option of difficulty settings. For example, the Grand Theft Auto series (if I'm wrong on this one, please forgive me) has been without a difficulty select since it's creation. Rather than letting you pick, it builds up pace by starting you out with easy missions and then goes on to massive sprawling missions that can easily go very, very wrong. This kind of progression makes it accessible to everyone, providing a simple introduction to game mechanics, and steadily building up the challenge to give that feeling of satisfaction and air-punching glory when completing that tough mission.

I think the most important factor when forwarding my case in favour of playing on medium difficulty is this; Medium difficulty puts the settings for the game at how the developers intended it, the level at which it should be benchmarked at. If you're playing at a different difficulty, could it be said that you're not experiencing the game in the way it was intended to be?

Discuss.
ParaLyze