Comments on: A Disappointing Dose of Difficulty

By: Chris Carter

Chris Carter — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:23:59 +0000

@Cynical
I agree that it’s a HUGE pain for me to have to complete normal to “unlock” hard sometimes. Depending on the game, it can ruin my experience by being way too easy the first time through, and once I’ve learned all the ins, outs and tricks, hard becomes easier.

By: cynicalmonkey

cynicalmonkey — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:44:09 +0000

I have to disagree with the unlocking difficulty side of the fence. I hate when a game does that, I want to be able to choose what difficulty I play on. i have only just unwrapped this $60 game and I am being told that some of its content will be denied to me until I have performed a task. The majority of the time when I see a game needs its difficulty unlocking it makes me feel the designers lacked the confidence that their game was worth two playthroughs on its own merit.

To me i thought mw2 handled this well with the ssdd level – a refresher for older players a learn the ropes for new ones and it ends by giving you a guestimate of what level you should play the game on based on your time accuracy and how many civ casualties you racked up. It may not of been in depth but it did the job

By: Paul Clark

Paul Clark — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:26:16 +0000

the difficulty of an experience is only one facet of the experience.
Play Passage, is it hard? No. Is it a fantastic experience? Yes.
I play A LOT of games on the lower settings for the experience of the game, and very little of this is based on being “challenged”. Aesthetics, Design, Immersion, Narrative and more are wonderful things to be engaged in.

It works if the difficulty is added in a way that works, but if not, the game becomes something that will turn a lot of people off.

By: Jazzman

Jazzman — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:36:02 +0000

Oh, trust me, we don’t want you to win, we want you to have a great experience

I cannot think of anything good about dynamic difficulty, it’s few (if any!) pros are overshadowed by the cons!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:27:02 +0000

I don’t know, dynamic difficulty sounds great in theory, but it sorts of takes out the challenge of the game. If I suck at a game then hey, the game gets easier, but then what’s the point of me really trying?

I like the fact that playing God of War 3 on God mode is insanely difficult and you need skill in order to finish it, I like the fact that only true hardcore fans of Wipeout HD are able to master all of its tracks and races. If you have dynamic difficulty, it’s like everyone can essentially be good at the game, and you don’t really need any skill in order to finish a game.

I personally believe that playing the first level and giving a score based on that is the best idea. It gives you a feel for the game, and allows you to change the difficulty if you think that the rating they gave you is inaccurate.

Most of the time I just choose normal/medium anyway, as I believe the developers aimed to make that mode the most accessible to all, and most people should be able to finish that mode fairly easily.

By: RJ Clarke

RJ Clarke — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:11:58 +0000

I agree with Sean, I think the AI changing with the difficulty level would be the best possible way to change difficulty. I hate when they give enemies more health or make them ridiculous sharpshooters and hit any part of your body that is visible regardless of what happens (COD comes to mind here….they’re obnoxious on Veteran…not even fun…just obnoxious)

By: Shawn Evans

Shawn Evans — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:32:52 +0000

Great write-up Paul! I really like the idea of a game adjusting it’s difficulty on the fly spending on how good or bad the player is doing. It would be really interesting to try that out with a game like God of War 3.

By: Jazzman

Jazzman — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:06:59 +0000

I believe I may have some relevant imput.

Originally when I made my first functioning version of Part 1 of Theoria I realized it had little feeling and seemed monotone despite fun combat.

I decided the best way to increase the mood of the game is to add TENSION. I did this in a number of ways. For one, a couple of gunmen can chase you and if you stop running for more than a second a bullet will hit you and you will die (You can fight back, BTW, this isn’t just a cheap plug in). For two, I added in advanced lighting to make the game seem dark and dystopic.

Original: You’re running through a bleak blue corridor, killing everything you see in fury. Nothing stands in your way, there is no dispute over death. You’re looking for Laura

New: The city streets are filled with chaos. The savages paint the sky red with the blood of the innocent, it’s hard to see, but you don’t care. Your old friend is after you, with his knife, bloodstained clothing, and worst of all, he’s psychotic. You don’t care how many people you have to hurt, you don’t care about if your flashlight dies out, all you care about is the girl. You depend on her, and she depends on you.

—

So yeah, I kind of reeled off subject like always but hard difficulty is ONLY handled well when the rest of the game meets it halfway with stunning scenarios, stories, lighting, and character.

By: Chris Carter

Chris Carter — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:01:33 +0000

I’ll always love games that include a sick, twisted “Dante Must Die Mode”. There’s nothing worse than beating a game on hard only to find out…well..that’s all she wrote (Arkham Asylum).

By: Jamie Obeso

Jamie Obeso — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:51:31 +0000

What I really enjoy are games where you unlock the hard mode. That way, you never feel emasculated when you try out a hard difficulty and fail when playing the game the first time. Also, you don’t have to bother with dynamic difficulty, which I think is really insulting (there’s nothing like losing at a spot twice, knowing it was easier the second time).

When you unlock a hard mode after beating the game, you can decide if it was fun enough to try again with a greater challenge. I guess, theoretically, you could do that with selectable difficulty too, though.

By: Sean Patrick Carey

Sean Patrick Carey — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:46:52 +0000

Dynamic difficulty definitely has a large place in gaming future. Even without developing this technology, there are a lot of strides to be made simply by eliminating the lazy ways difficulty is implemented right now.

Instead of making Easy = HP x 1, Medium = HP x2, and Hard = HP x3, we need to see the strategy employed by the AI for the enemies jump in complexity. Ex. Easy = Stand and Fire, Medium = Use Cover Strategically, and Hard = Flanking and Team Tactics.

Nice write-up!