Difficulty Levels (That's Bull-!)

[LornMind]

I understand as plainly as anyone the necessity for varying degrees of difficulty in a game, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. What I want to point out is the bewilderingly large amount of cheating I experience on higher difficulty levels in games (the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor series come to mind).

I respect increased difficulty in games because it's fun to struggle against a game, not just plow through it without any sort of hindrance from enemies that crumple when you cough in their direction, but some games are more understandably difficult than others on elevated difficulties.

Take for instance, Half Life 2. On "Hard" mode you take more damage from attacks, I can dig that. Apart from increased damage and an enemy that is a little more willing to take cover rather than stand staring at you dumbfounded as you crowbar their faces in, I didn't really feel there were moments to call "BULLSHIT!"

But then I go over to Call of Duty 2 and 4 on veteran and find myself within inches of testing my consoles resistance to bullets. It's not a matter of dying more easily; in real life you can't take too many bullets, but Christ, these damn Nazi and OpFor bastards pull the most ridiculous bull. If a developer has to resort to increasing bullshit moments to make a game more difficult than I believe it's time to check your AI coding and perhaps your head. An enemy is not physically capable of hearing me sneak up behind them while prone while explosions rocket off in their ear and people shout commands and expletives. An enemy cannot shoot me while he becomes friends with a passing butterfly or wall or goose. An enemy would not attack mercilessly the soldier in the back of the pack wielding a pistol when a screaming, homicidal SAS soldier sprints towards him brandishing a shotgun that's on fire.

What's more (I'm looking at you Medal of Honor) enemies cannot take five successive sniper rounds to the head and wonder who's throwing rocks at them.

Phew. Got a bit worked up. Anyway, what are you thoughts? Experiences? What's more, do you think that there actually is a reason some developers do this? I'd like to know.

 

[ellimist337]

While it's not really a difficulty setting issue (though it does get more difficult as it's turned up, I suppose) the sniper-counter-sniping part of CoD: WaW was ridiculously bullshitty. The guy over a quarter mile away from me on a different level of his building can turn and strafe past a window, accurately discerning my hiding position and pulling off the most incredible moving headshot of all time? And he can do this 20 times in a row?

 

[Dancingman]

I'm now against the Call of Duty series, why? Because cheap-ass dog packs and artillery strikes are taking away the need for players to do any work.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Phew. Got a bit worked up. Anyway, what are you thoughts? Experiences? What's more, do you think that there actually is a reason some developers do this? I'd like to know.

Because that's the easiest way to do it. All it takes is some changing of values in the code. Make their health and damaged higher, and make yours lower. Easy.

They don't tweak spawns, or alter the map or anything. It's just the extent to which they change the values. And some of the coders are bastards.

 

[LornMind]

While it's not really a difficulty setting issue (though it does get more difficult as it's turned up, I suppose) the sniper-counter-sniping part of CoD: WaW was ridiculously bullshitty. The guy over a quarter mile away from me on a different level of his building can turn and strafe past a window, accurately discerning my hiding position and pulling off the most incredible moving headshot of all time? And he can do this 20 times in a row?

Enemies seem to be able to do this with their backs turned too.

 

[LornMind]

Phew. Got a bit worked up. Anyway, what are you thoughts? Experiences? What's more, do you think that there actually is a reason some developers do this? I'd like to know.

Because that's the easiest way to do it. All it takes is some changing of values in the code. Make their health and damaged higher, and make yours lower. Easy.

They don't tweak spawns, or alter the map or anything. It's just the extent to which they change the values. And some of the coders are bastards.

It would seem some are. The value changes are understandable, it happens in Half Life 2, but in COD2 and COD4 the enemies also seem to gain something close to omniscience, which only seems to solidify the notion that "coders are bastards."

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

This reminds me of the song "Dead again" by possible oscar. A line which says something to the effect of "I thought games would let me live out my dreams, but all i've found is developers getting off on our death screams."

I'd have to say the difficulty curve in the GH games is a bit much. I mean one minute you can do it whilst in a coma, the next you need 12 fingers to manage 3 stars.

Though most bullshit moments for me are Cod5 on veteran. I mean i didn't know the weather forecast had predicted rainstorms of frag grenades.

 

[I3uster]

Whenever there is a hardest difficulty in a game, and someone still manages to go through, the game designer failed

 

[klc0100]

While it's not really a difficulty setting issue (though it does get more difficult as it's turned up, I suppose) the sniper-counter-sniping part of CoD: WaW was ridiculously bullshitty. The guy over a quarter mile away from me on a different level of his building can turn and strafe past a window, accurately discerning my hiding position and pulling off the most incredible moving headshot of all time? And he can do this 20 times in a row?

That bastard bit is now my official, "Most Bullshit Wanking Bollocks" Moment in a game ever.

Agrees with everything above.

"you just grazed him"
it was a (longramblingswearwords) head shot.

 

[LornMind]

Whenever there is a hardest difficulty in a game, and someone still manages to go through, the game designer failed

Heh. Maybe so. I did beat COD2 and 4 on Veteran, earning both games a deserved, gloating pelvic thrust while they cried quietly to themselves at their failure.

 

[Uncompetative]

Aiming is too easy. Consequently your weapon's effectiveness has to be downgraded.

Harder levels of difficulty often reduce the "artificial stupidity" of your opponents scripting. Natural behavior is replaced by inhuman efficiency, target acquisition becomes psychic, the game seems unfair.

Waves of respawning enemies (in CoD) are an acceptable pragmatic response to players who inch their way forward through a game and learn all the ingrained enemy positions at the expense of their own mortality.

So what is the solution?

Make aiming hard - you really shouldn't be able to Snipe whilst standing up, certainly not whilst moving (as in Halo).

Equate harder levels of difficulty with extra objectives - thereby keeping the "artificial stupidity" of the enemies the same (maybe add more...).

Either impose a time limit, or have enemies come in reinforcement waves (perhaps, from behind your current position, even).

In other words, study what Goldeneye 007 got right.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

No everything about that level is stupid;

1. Sniper-counter-sniping
2. Crawling in the burning house - fighting the nazis off only with a pistol and then Sgt Reznov blocking the stair. PLUS when you die you have to start the whole crawling again.
3. Shooting General Amsel - if you peek up to take a shot his instant kill snipers shoot you
4. Jumping out that window at the end - Reznov always blocked it and I got killed

And to top it off once I actually did it on Veteran the game loses all my progress and i have to do it all again. In short, I hate it!

I actually did all of that on Veteran...including the pistol achievement for that level. *Waves e-peen around* Yeah, I don't know what I was on when I did that. It took me about an hour though for the pistol part alone =X

 

[TMAN10112]

I couldn't tolerate the redicules level of accuracy that the AI in Farcry 2 had on normal difficulty, I can't imagine anyone finishing the game on any harder difficulty. I played through half the game on normal, just barely surviving firefights and putting up with the AI's flawless marksmanship. Then I realised that I wasn't having any fun, I missed the feeling of power that I would get from the original farcry wich is nearly non existant when you'r fighting someone who can hit you with a rusty old pistol from 80 yards away. I finaly decided to turn down the difficulty to easy and found that I started to have fun since now I could win a firefight without using all my suringes in the first 5 minutes.

 

[DirkGently]

COD4's veteran was more like an endurance test than actual skill-test. I beat most of it (up to the point where you have 15 minutes to disarm the nukes, where I stopped becuase I bullshitted by an enemy in last stand right before the check point. I have since stopped playing because the amount of use of hte disc has left most of the campaign unplayable.) simply by throwing myself at my enemies until I figured out the exact way I had to beat the level (Which promptly changed *after* I beat it. I 'm pretty sure I played through the television studio part for atleast three or four hours on the same fucking checkpoint. Funnily enough though, the Ghillies in the Mist/The Shot levels were astoundingly easy, though for the finale you do have to exploit some form of bullshitting.

What I really hated was how the enemies shot your corpse. OKAY I GET IT I'M DEAD CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON ALREADY. It's why I don't have a COD4 case any more.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Difficulty modes are interesting. At their best, they can do exactly what they're intended to, give the player a greater challenge and allow them to get more out of the game. Examples would be Gears of War's Insane mode and plenty of other games.

The, of course, there are the Call of Dutys. COD4 wasn't too bad on veteran, it did get annoying when enemies could shoot you if you showed a patch of flesh for a few seconds, even if you can't see them through foliage or whatnot. But then Treyarch delivers unto us Cod: World at War, and its Veteran mode. This is the most unfair I have ever experienced a game to be. I don't think I need to describe it to you, but it's just complete bullshit. Especially the grenades. At times I've seen 7 or 8 grenade warning indicators all around me. There's absolutely nothing I can do, I can't throw them all back in time and there's no safe direction to run in. Even if I do try to run, there's probably an enemy machine gun waiting to mow me down as soon as I get up. Screw the MG, 2 guys with rifles will gladly cut me down as soon as I show so much as a finger.

And, of course, the counter-sniping part of Vendetta. That is one of the most poorly designed gameplay sequences I have ever experienced. Most frustrating is that it isn't just hard, there's absolutely nothing you can do to make it work. I still never beat Heart of the Reich, after spending hours on it I think it must be nearly impossible. I didn't do Downfall either, it might be more possible but by that time I was just so pissed off I gave up after about half an hour. That's pretty short considering how long I normally spend on missions on veteran.

Rant over, that's a perfect example, hell it's the epitome of what can go wrong with high difficulty levels. They're not fun anymore, just an annoying frustrating chore. I don't see how Treyarch thought that was balanced, but it's not.

 

[LornMind]

What I really hated was how the enemies shot your corpse. OKAY I GET IT I'M DEAD CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON ALREADY. It's why I don't have a COD4 case any more.

I have teabagged so many enemies because they do that.

A game has to frustrate intensely to cause one to teabag a COMPUTER AI.

 

[DirkGently]

What I really hated was how the enemies shot your corpse. OKAY I GET IT I'M DEAD CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON ALREADY. It's why I don't have a COD4 case any more.

I have teabagged so many enemies because they do that.

A game has to frustrate intensely to cause one to teabag a COMPUTER AI.

I was fling nades out the back of the chopperas we were flying away
It was satisfying to hear the claymores that I would place in front of the enemy spawn points in "The shot" though.

 

[Symp4thy]

I think the criteria for victory in Portal Challenges should have been different on the 360 than on the PC. Some of them are impossible to do without a mouse...or I lack the skill.