On Difficulty Levels

[TiefBlau]

It used to be that I always played on easy because I didn't want the story of games to be inhibited by their difficulty.

Now that I'm less of a pussy, I play games on normal, because I would assume that game developers made the game with this intended experience in mind, and any fake difficulty [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty] gimmicks or simply difficulty to the point at which it obstructs coherent experience would only serve to dilute the game.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

I think the game which made the best ever use of difficulty levels was The World Ends With You which, interestingly, Yahtzee did in fact review when it came out. After reading this column I went back to watch his review again and I was a little surprised to find that he never mentioned the difficulty system, but on reflection that aspect of gameplay was far too technical and therefore boring to mention in his comedy reviews where he'd rather find something to bash.

The reason TWEWY's difficulty system was so amazingly clever was that it was fundamentally integrated into the gameplay itself. Once you unlocked the different difficulty levels you could change difficulty at any time outside of battle, which affected what items enemies dropped as well as how much EXP you got- a lot of rare and useful items could only be acquired by killing enemies on Hard or Ultimate, while sometimes you actually had to kill enemies on Easy for a certain drop and your in-game beastiary tracked not only what enemies dropped what items at what difficulty levels, but also their percentage chances of doing so. You could also manually handicap yourself by temporarily reducing your level down as low as 1 in order to boost these drop rates and earn even more EXP. And of course, if the game was just getting too friggin' hard (and believe me, with its duel-character-split-screen combat system the game could be really hard) you could just set it back to Easy and put your level back up to maximum again. You could even choose to retry a battle on Easy if you died or, if that offended your ego too much, simply step back to the adventure screen without penalty (apart from annoying your allies for fleeing). It was quite a remarkable system, quite unlike any other game I've ever heard of.

That's one of the things I liked about TWEWY. At any point, you could switch difficulties in multiple ways, by either making your opponents tougher or yourself weaker, which would net you better abilities or more abilities, respectively. That, combined with the ability to switch to easy after losing a match, made it hard to get stuck. Unless you totally messed up and didn't have anything equipped for a boss match.

Ah, ninja'd.

I know Yahtzee wasn't a fan of it (or really any JRPG, for that matter), but I think The World Ends With You did a good job with its difficulty thing.
Not only could you switch mid-game...or indeed, any time you wanted, you could also alter your level. Changing your difficulty (You start on Normal, gain Easy later, Hard after beating the story and you could buy Ultimate) changed enemy health and how much damage you recieved, and what kind of items they dropped. Lowering your level made them drop more and made you recieve more damage while dealing less, while upping your level did the opposite.
You could do this whenever you wanted, and it is in fact encouraged in game so that you can get different pins and items. Also, if you were a pussy and kept losing to a boss, you could replay the fight on Easy mode.

Unless your were fighting that elephant, because you HAD to beat it on Hard for it to count. Fucking purple elephant.

Twice even!

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Um...it isn't harder to fight enemies when they have more hp, do more damage, and you have less resources? Hell, it almost has the effect of scaling the AI, since guards rushing you head on makes a lot more sense when they're tougher, can take more hits, and do more damage.

Not really, since the same tactics will work time and time again regardless of how many bullets you have or how much health they have.

 

[Alexeduardo]

Yahtzee, don´t be an idiot. There are few things as geniunely terrifying as well-made deep-space travel.

 

[PokeMog]

Oh man, I really hope this A Scary Game: The Game will be like the Chzo Mithos series. This needs to be done.

 

[orangeapples]

I always play games on the hardest difficulty first. Then I'll replay on the lowest difficulty. It is fun to watch as the enemies just fall to the ground because of your presence.

that and all the good unlockables are always easiest on the hardest difficulty. Typically all they want is, "beat the game on [Death] difficulty." everything else is always "beat the game on [easy] and get all 500 flags, find every hidden treasure, find all character data and have 100% completion" "beat the game on medium, find every hidden treasure, find all character data and have 80% completion" "beat the game on hard and have 70% completion."

 

[Grand_Marquis]

Hey Yahtzee -
One very important aspect of a good horror game - or horror anything really - is the visuals. How they are created, implemented, and presented will speak heavily to the atmosphere that the game generates. It's not quite as important as the story, but it's a close second. One thing this means is that you're taking on a very art-heavy project this time around. Even if you have faith in your artistic abilities (or the artistic abilities of a single person, if you've already factored in shipping that role to someone else), the volume of visual content requirements is - without question - going to far outstrip anything you've created in the past.

So if you get to a place in the game's creation where you're actually adding some art (that's a ways off, I sure), and you find that you need help, let me know. I'd be happy to contribute to your project! I'm very good at adhering to other styles and I always wanted to try my hand at texturing a horror game

 

[Bunni]

That reminds me of the very first mission (not including the field tactics) of No One Lives Forever.
Bruno: "Would you like me to call out the targets for you?"
Cate: "That would be lovely."
"No thank you, I can handle this on my own."
"Where's the challenge in that? I just hope there's enough to keep me busy."

Too bad it was just that one mission, which may have been for the better because it'd just seem awkward if every assignment had some guy offering to help you out.

 

[Jezta]

I think that more games should implement the Elder Scrolls concept of difficulty settings in that they can be changed on the fly. I can't tell you how much I was ready to hang myself with my Xbox cord when I played Bloodmoon back in the day. That end bit with the maze had me going crazy. I remember pausing the game as a werewolf was mid-swipe think 'this is where I die...again' and for some reason I decided to mess with the menu and I found the difficulty toggle. I switched it down to easy and unpaused and I survived the blow that would've killed me not ten seconds ago. I don't like how most games have you locked into a set difficulty for the duration of your playtime. If its too hard or too easy than you have to restart, which causes a great deal of annoyance, especially if the game has a lengthy unskippable intro.

 

[ArmorArmadillo]

Um...it isn't harder to fight enemies when they have more hp, do more damage, and you have less resources? Hell, it almost has the effect of scaling the AI, since guards rushing you head on makes a lot more sense when they're tougher, can take more hits, and do more damage.

Not really, since the same tactics will work time and time again regardless of how many bullets you have or how much health they have.

Well, that isn't strictly true. If your tactic is running head on and pouring fire, it won't work if you have few bullets and the enemy is tankish. If your tactic is careful and well thought out, then it'll work, but only because you were using tactics sufficient to beat very hard enemies.

If the game was using scaling AI, then wouldn't the tactics that beat Very Hard AI beat easier AIs too?

 

[Jedted]

My favorite clever difficulty naming is in Wanted: Weapons of Fate. It goes from Pussy, to Assassin, and finally The Killer.

If you rearange the names it becomes "The Killer Pussy Assassin", which can be interpreted as either a killer cat who assassinates people or a killer who assassinates cats(depends on whether you like cats or not).

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Well, that isn't strictly true. If your tactic is running head on and pouring fire, it won't work if you have few bullets and the enemy is tankish. If your tactic is careful and well thought out, then it'll work, but only because you were using tactics sufficient to beat very hard enemies.

If the game was using scaling AI, then wouldn't the tactics that beat Very Hard AI beat easier AIs too?

Tactics against smart enemies would most definately work against the dumber ones, but in truth such tactics wouldn't be needed.

Say for example you are fighting a boss equiped with a rocket launcher. At the easiest setting throwing a smoke/chaff grenade to blind the missles detection systems allowing you to move about for a better vantage point while he looks around in confusion. On the hardest setting once you throw your grenade he instead disables the targetting sensors and then spams the area with rockets in the hope that the splash damage or a stray will hit you.

It would make for a more challenging fight than adding 1000hp to the bosses health meter.

 

[Eponet]

They're hobby projects, there's no way that you're a whore. Just a slut.

 

[Boba Frag]

To quote a well known and respected member of the Galactic Imperial Fleet...

"She lied to us!!!"

She in this case being the harlot Yahtzee...

Shame, I was looking forward to seeing Fun Space Game: The Game come to life and scream expletives as I smacked into asteroids repeatedly...

I'm sure I'll be able to forgive you eventually, Yahtzee

I'm ashamed to say I switched the difficulty on Dragon Age down more than once just to get passed the more infuriating quests...

The game allows you to do any quest in whatever order, but kicks the ever loving shit out of you if you choose poorly....

 

[Tyrant T100]

Difficulty is something most recent games can never get right.
I generally try to play on Hard but this becomes an issue when the difficulty curve goes crazy near the end and it becomes near impossible, which just leads to frustration rather than a challenge. Uncharted 2 was a big offender once it got into the Monastery section.

The best difficulty modes in my opinions are the games which had pre-set levels but depending on how you played the game would alter it accordingly, therefore if the game had a stupid difficulty curve after a few failures it would remove an enemy for example.

 

[ArmorArmadillo]

Well, that isn't strictly true. If your tactic is running head on and pouring fire, it won't work if you have few bullets and the enemy is tankish. If your tactic is careful and well thought out, then it'll work, but only because you were using tactics sufficient to beat very hard enemies.

If the game was using scaling AI, then wouldn't the tactics that beat Very Hard AI beat easier AIs too?

Tactics against smart enemies would most definately work against the dumber ones, but in truth such tactics wouldn't be needed.

Say for example you are fighting a boss equiped with a rocket launcher. At the easiest setting throwing a smoke/chaff grenade to blind the missles detection systems allowing you to move about for a better vantage point while he looks around in confusion. On the hardest setting once you throw your grenade he instead disables the targetting sensors and then spams the area with rockets in the hope that the splash damage or a stray will hit you.

It would make for a more challenging fight than adding 1000hp to the bosses health meter.

Makes sense, although that sounds more like giving the boss immunity to a certain type of stun/disabling attack than improving AI (which is kind of an ubiquitous term)

 

[Ravenseeker]

bioshock 2 and red faction guerrilla were the only games that let you (and forced me) to change your difficulty level and keep going.

On the topic of interesting names for difficulty levels; the saboteur had a difficulty setting of "feckin' hard"

 

[300lb. Samoan]

In Alan Wake,for example, it was foolish of me to automatically pick "Normal" out of "Normal," "Hard" and "Nightmare," because this is doing the Burger King "Medium," "Large" and "King Size" thing where the real medium is obviously the one in the middle.

I don't think that is foolish, I believe that's the developer tacitly acknowledging that the experience is more valuable than the mechanical challenge of the game. I think the same goes for Burger King's shifted naming scheme - a medium coke is a generous portion for an 'average' 2,000-calorie-per-day human. A large is suitable for an over-sized appetite and a king-size bucket is just about right for a 300 pound Samoan who consumes more than 5,000 calories over the course of 16 hours. In other words, normal-excessive-ridiculous. Since you spend many many hours playing games, excessive or even ridiculous difficulty is what would offer you a comfortably engaging playing experience. But as a reviewer you should probably evaluate the game as it is intended to be presented, a.k.a. normal. I know I've played games before where the normal difficulty was designed perfectly but harder difficulties were terribly unbalanced and only enjoyable for self-loathing masochists - I wish I could remember what game that was, I'd recommend it to you!

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Makes sense, although that sounds more like giving the boss immunity to a certain type of stun/disabling attack than improving AI (which is kind of an ubiquitous term)[/quote]

Yeah, it can be hard to define the difference between AI and limiting the attack chain.

In games I have found altering the difficulty doesn't alter the tactics of the AI, unless it is a specifically scripted event during the fight, and harder usually means a longer/drawnout fight which is ultimately boring. Looking directly at Dawn of War 2 there. Oblivion's AI was meant to be the be-all-end-all, kudos on screwing that up Bethesda.

Yeah, I'm really jaded. There is no AI, only scripted enemies.

 

[Alpha1Niner]

I like that idea of switching the difficulty midway in the game. I don't think I've played a game that did that on it's own.