Difficult or Cheap?

[CannotComply]

We all enjoy a challenge, hence why difficulty levels are created but when does a game cross the fine line of being difficult and instead is being just plain cheap?

Which aspects of difficulty do you find to be frustratingly cheap, be it near invincible enemies, never miss AI shots, combos impossible for a human to pull off or anything else that you can think of.

If you could also give an example of a game that does the cheap thing that you've listed then that'll be great.

 

[Killerbunny001]

A classic dick move is to have a game claim it`s highest difficulty is "realistic" only to find out that yes you will die from a single bullet but most enemies will not.

 

[skoomaeater]

The only game I found that came close to a truly fair difficulty set was Deus Ex Ivisible War. Realistic was just that, ammo was scarce and both you and your enemies could take few bullets. Only the player character's biomods (think special powers like invisibilty or increased strength for those unfamiliar to the series) could carry the day.

Unfortunately, the devs neglected to reduce the numbers of the item that restores the energy to these abilities, so the enemies in game had no real chance to take advantage of the now fair ground as I was totally invisible, could sneak kill any human enemy with only one hit, could detonate projectiles from 100 yards away and send a drone with an EMP attack way ahead of me to damage robots.

This for me is a common mistake in games, its almost as if the people that sat down and made the game never exaustively tested the difficulty and generate a variety of settings so that players could choose an easy ride or a frustrating reload-spamming experience.

 

[SOAL]

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

 

[skoomaeater]

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

Although much of the point of Ninja Gaiden was to be absurdly difficult, that said why they couldn't include a difficulty setting for fun is beyond me...

 

[Avida]

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

Although much of the point of Ninja Gaiden was to be absurdly difficult, that said why they couldn't include a difficulty setting for fun is beyond me...

Ninja Gaiden's difficalty was fun (and there was an 'easy' mode) - enemys normally either recoiled from your attacks for were slow, stupid and easy to predict, so it was at least fair. NG2 on the otherhand was just annoying, with every enemy being able to punch you through your attacks, or the constant streams of rockets fired from somone who wasnt on your screen ¬_¬

Halo's ledgendary mode is just plain cheap - one-shot-kill snipers who almost never miss, the constant spam of stickies and not being able to poke yourhead out of cover for any amount of time without evryone with a ranged weapon being able todraw a bead instantly.

 

[SOAL]

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

Although much of the point of Ninja Gaiden was to be absurdly difficult, that said why they couldn't include a difficulty setting for fun is beyond me...

Ninja Gaiden's difficalty was fun (and there was an 'easy' mode) - enemys normally either recoiled from your attacks for were slow, stupid and easy to predict, so it was at least fair. NG2 on the otherhand was just annoying, with every enemy being able to punch you through your attacks, or the constant streams of rockets fired from somone who wasnt on your screen ¬_¬

Halo's ledgendary mode is just plain cheap - one-shot-kill snipers who almost never miss, the constant spam of stickies and not being able to poke yourhead out of cover for any amount of time without evryone with a ranged weapon being able todraw a bead instantly.

im pretty sure there was only normal mode (which was still hard as balls) hard, and then you unlocked master ninja mode i dont remember an easy mode

 

[skoomaeater]

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

Although much of the point of Ninja Gaiden was to be absurdly difficult, that said why they couldn't include a difficulty setting for fun is beyond me...

Ninja Gaiden's difficalty was fun (and there was an 'easy' mode) - enemys normally either recoiled from your attacks for were slow, stupid and easy to predict, so it was at least fair. NG2 on the otherhand was just annoying, with every enemy being able to punch you through your attacks, or the constant streams of rockets fired from somone who wasnt on your screen ¬_¬

Halo's ledgendary mode is just plain cheap - one-shot-kill snipers who almost never miss, the constant spam of stickies and not being able to poke yourhead out of cover for any amount of time without evryone with a ranged weapon being able todraw a bead instantly.

All I know was Ninja Gaiden's difficulty was enough for me to give up because I couldn't defeat almer or alma or whatever. If you stop having fun it ceases to be a game and starts to be a time waste.

 

[ward.]

For an example of a cheap level, Playstation 2 game, seven samurai I think.

There's this stage after you've just met two anime looking twins, right up until then the games only moderately hard.

Then bam, they've upped the enemy respawn count and introduced a boss that would have owned the whole group on his own, never got past that level.

 

[rossatdi]

Generally I consider a game to have crossed from difficult into cheap when you start taking damage (action or FPS games) without anyway of stopping it. That artificial difficulty drives me nuts but the good ones don't do it.

Favourite games on hardest settings:

Half Life 1 (no crosshair)
Far Cry (two or three shots, your dead)
Deus Ex 1 (a sniper can kill you flat out without armoured bio-boosts)
Painkiller (just brutal)
Time Splitters 2 (robot factory, groan)

 

[Sixties Spidey]

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

True, but the Ninja Gaiden series turns out to be some of the best games I have ever played. I love games that are extremely difficult. It keeps me playing more. I love games with a challenge!

 

[Sixties Spidey]

I actually went and bought STALKER Clear Sky after watching the ZP review. Oh man... that game had me questioning myself whether I was the "Master-Chief-Novelty-Condoms-Then-Gameplay-innovation" guy Yahtzee despises. It took me a very long time to get used to it, but hey, this is how I would do in a post apocalyptic scenario: Really fucking bad.

 

[rossatdi]

I actually went and bought STALKER Clear Sky after watching the ZP review. Oh man... that game had me questioning myself whether I was the "Master-Chief-Novelty-Condoms-Then-Gameplay-innovation" guy Yahtzee despises. It took me a very long time to get used to it, but hey, this is how I would do in a post apocalyptic scenario: Really fucking bad.

I still have FPS flashbacks from the first STALKER game and it's first mission.
"Do you want to attack the base on your own or have help?"
[I'm an experienced FPS player, I'll get more reward for soloing!]*Solo!*
An hour of quick save/quick load hell and VICTORY! Jesus fucking christ that game was hard to start off with.

 

[xitel]

We all enjoy a challenge, hence why difficulty levels are created but when does a game cross the fine line of being difficult and instead is being just plain cheap?

Which aspects of difficulty do you find to be frustratingly cheap, be it near invincible enemies, never miss AI shots, combos impossible for a human to pull off or anything else that you can think of.

If you could also give an example of a game that does the cheap thing that you've listed then that'll be great.

What about Hell or Hell and Heaven or Hell modes in DMC? In the latter, every enemy dies in one shot, but so do you. In the prior, the enemies have the same health they have in normal mode, but you die in one hit. That's just disgusting.

the ULTIMATE dick move was actually an entire game....everyone knows it as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox...just thinking about it makes me want to throw my controller lol

Ninja Gaiden was one of the few games where I actually really enjoyed the super-challenge, instead of finding it annoying. It really gave me a sense of accomplishment when I beat Alma in 3 tries.

 

[corporate_gamer]

Generally I consider a game to have crossed from difficult into cheap when you start taking damage (action or FPS games) without anyway of stopping it. That artificial difficulty drives me nuts but the good ones don't do it.

Favourite games on hardest settings:

Half Life 1 (no crosshair)
Far Cry (two or three shots, your dead)
Deus Ex 1 (a sniper can kill you flat out without armoured bio-boosts)
Painkiller (just brutal)
Time Splitters 2 (robot factory, groan)

timesplitters 2, following that stupid japanese woman back to the stupid japanese hideout. bloody flying police.

 

[rossatdi]

Time Splitters 2 (robot factory, groan)

timesplitters 2, following that stupid japanese woman back to the stupid japanese hideout. bloody flying police.

Good god damn that game was vicious on Hard. I beat the entire thing on 100% and I'm pretty sure I was one of the first in the country to do so. Some of the arcade challenges were near insane to get Gold on.

 

[Tewg]

No one feels like mentioning IWBTG (I wanna be the guy) if you haven't played it and need to waste a few good hours playing a game that everyone who starts wants to beat then download it. I myself find the insane difficulty amazingly fun (so much so that I would pay for it if it wasn't already free- hint hint go play it). I feel most of you have probably tried it just want to throw it out there and if you haven't tried it yet have fun watching yourself explode (it just a simple plat-former but one of the best games I've ever played.)

Here's a decent review on the forums:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.68725
You download at:
http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/downloads.php

 

[Wolvaroo]

a certain boss in FFT that appears RIGHT AFTER a save point and unexpectedly makes you solo him for the first phase.

Every time I replay the game I forget >.<!!