Poll: Does difficulty turn you off from a game?

[Ironbat92]

So, I've been consistently going back and forth on checking out XCOM on the consoles. I tried the demo and I enjoyed it, however I've been told that the game can get frustratingly difficult. Now I'm not against hard games or challenge, per-say, but seeing it's a genera I never played before and I wanna play and win a game. I'm not saying make it easy as all hell, but let me at least not die 100 of time. This why I can't get into games like Demon Souls or Dark Souls. I just can't stand the hair ripping difficulty. I know those games are made to kill you, But I don't want to keep dying and going back to the end of a level. I hated that crap as a kid, and I hate it now. However, I've been more forgiving when it comes to racing games like Need for Speed: Most Wanted or Action Games like Ninja Gaiden II or DMC 3 since the gameplay for those two games are incredibly fun. I just want to know, Does difficulty put you from experience or enjoying a game?

 

[StriderShinryu]

Nope. I don't think difficulty is integral to every experience. That's up to the creators of the game to decide. I do, however, never find myself scared away because I hear something is supposed to be difficult.

 

[Zhukov]

No.

However, it depends on implementation.

I'm fine with difficulty so long as it doesn't waste my time. For example, I can enjoy those tricky platformers like Super Meat Boy and They Bleed Pixels that kill you every ten seconds because they have frequent checkpoints and don't fuck around with getting you back into the action.

On the other hand, I can't enjoy Dark Souls because every time a boss kills you you have to slog through the same 5-10 shitty basic enemies to get back to where you were before. That's not difficulty, it's just wasting my time with needless, repetitive tedium.

 

[FalloutJack]

I play Persona and Shin Megami Tensei type games, whose regular difficulty has been hard for some to approach. Challenges and difficulty are not the issue in a game, really. The problem...is how it is handled. Is it hard because it's well-designed and requires a bit of thinking? Or is it hard because it's a really shitty idea in the works?

Here's an example: Original God of War. Remember the Hades blade-wall? I didn't have half the frustration as most every other person who ever played. BUT...the Traps of Madness segment of the game can go die in a fire. Why? Because one is essentially a commplex moving puzzle that uses on-the-go pattern recognition and the other is a pain in the ass repetitive attempt to avoid instant death by trying to narrowly make a jump onto a ledge after SLOWLY pulling a block to jump off of to the right spot...and the ledge is fucking HARD to get Kratos to grab.

As much as people hate the blade-wall, it's a hard thinking puzzle. The traps of madness are just plain stupid shit, a sure sign of the developers dicking around with you on purpose. Nobody wants that. That's anti-fun.

 

[T_ConX]

It depends on how hooked I am on the game once the difficulty starts to spike. If I'm getting my ass handed to me by the first boss over and over again, then we've got a problem. On the other hand, if I'm really enjoying the gameplay/story/whatever, then I'm willing to try and tough it out. Worst case scenario, I'll have to make a trip to GameFAQs...

 

[scorptatious]

Depends on the game.

With games like the Souls games, I'd expect them to be hard, so I don't get as frustrated once I hit someplace I'm having trouble at. (Unless it's for an extended period of time but even so)

Now if there's a game that was pretty mellow with it's difficulty throughout, and then suddenly for one part it spikes. Then I get rather annoyed.

For games that have a major focus on story, difficulty doesn't really matter as much to me. It's certainly welcome, but not absolutely unnecessary.

 

[Comic Sans]

It varies. I enjoy a good challenge. It's a big part of why I loved Ninja Gaiden on Xbox and X-com Enemy Unknown. They can be hard, but on mostly pretty fair. However, I don't enjoy it when the game's difficulty comes from bad game design, and it's just frustrating. If a segment takes luck, obtuse thinking, or some ridiculous mechanics to beat, then it's artificial difficulty and bad design.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Obviously difficulty needs to be done well, but I enjoy myself most proficiently when I am losing, means you can take pleasure in the smallest of victories because damn it we earned it!

 

[Cabisco]

It's mostly dependent, if I can see where I'm going wrong and I don't feel cheated by dying I can play for hours. It's when you start feeling cheated, when the AI does a 180 spin and blows your head off or soaks up all your most powerful attacks while standing there barley moving you start to feel the game is unfair. As long as I feel I have a chance, or that it's my own limitations rather than the game being a dick I'll keep playing.

An example of a game where I went f**k that, COD:world at war on the hardest difficulty, just constant grenades to the point where it wasn't fun anymore.

 

[Rack]

Very close to saying I won't buy a game if it's too hard, but I do like a challenge if it's well done. Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy and Viewtiful Joe were all excellent. Ninja Gaiden can die on a ****ing fire though.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Hmm, I'm currently replaying the first 3 Etrian Odyssey games and I practically creamed in my jeans when I saw the trailer for Dark Souls 2...so yeah I like it rough.

Dragon's Dogma and Amalur were almost painful to play because they were so damn easy even on the hardest setting.

Seriously all you need to do in Amalur, outside of one ridiculous arena match with a ton of tri-elemental sprites, is mash the controller against a hard object repeatedly.

If you chose mage, just use meteor and thunder over and over. The cool elemental combo skill was pretty useless sadly. In DD it was quite a bit more challenging and fun though still easy aside from one room with a Lich and 2 Chimaeras.

Games like Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden just piss me off though. And Borderlands 2 isn't much fun to begin with, but towards the end of TVHM it just stopped being a game and started being a chore. Everything requires 20 headshots with the best guns in the game to even dent their hp at a certain point. Also killing Doc Mercy 1600+ times and never getting his rare drop kinda sucks the joy out of it too.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

When you can't even play casually without going through an intensive two-week correspondence course, that's when difficulty has gone a little bit too far. Defense of the Ancients in all its myriad forms is the usual suspect here.

 

[Arina Love]

Yes, i will not buy game that is too difficult. I play all my games on easy because i don't look for a challenge only experience of a game.

 

[kommando367]

Genuine challenge like the DMC games's hard and very hard modes or the later ninja gaidens? Bring it on!
Trail and error bullshit like Halo 2 Ledgendary difficulty or Spec Ops FUBAR? fuck that shit.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Eh, depends on the game and the difficulty in question. If the difficulty is unfair and artificial, it will most definitely turn me off. If the difficulty is a sudden spike, I will be turned off. If I was never that interested in the game to begin with and it starts getting very hard, I will turn it off. Difficulty is never something I look for in a game, nor is it the reason I play games, but I do not mind difficult games, really, so long as they are fair and about something else than just being hard. [footnote]I can't stand games where the sole goal of it is just to be hard.[/footnote] STALKER, Hotline Miami, or the Souls series are the perfect examples of this.

But, let me just say this: I have stopped playing multiple games because they were too hard. I have never stopped playing a game because it was too easy.

 

[Darmy647]

I have died 10 times each on Ninja gaiden 3 razors edges first 3 bosses. Am I pissed? So much. Do I stop? No. Does it turn me on? Very much so...dont judge me!

 

[krazykidd]

Personally i like challenge . I need challenge . I can't stand easy games . They bore me to tears . I just wish more games would make me think a little . The fact that challenge was the main sellig point of demons's /Dark souls is what led me to buy and love those games . The reason i can't play RTS games is not because they are too hard , but because i can't micromanage ( quick enough ) for my life . Sometimes i start games on Hard mode . Iv'e played so many games that playing on normal is boring .

 

[Llil]

No, it's the opposite for me actually. A game being too easy is what turns me off from it. I can still appreciate the other good parts in an easy game, but the lack of challenge takes most of the fun away from the actual gameplay.

An easy game feels like if you were playing for example chess against another person and they obviously make bad moves on purpose and then shower you with compliments when you win. It's condecending and it doesn't feel like winning. I want the game to play fair, not just let me win because it assumes I don't know what I'm doing.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Not particularly, but the challenge has to be implemented correctly. If there's no rewarding feeling for completing a level or section and all that beating a level begets is frustration and resignation, then the challenge is done badly. Equally, games that call themselves 'difficult' but are actually tough not only from being a hard game but also because of poor controls and the like aren't worth my time either. Examples like Super Meat Boy fall into that.

If a game does challenge right, then I'm up for playing it. If it feels like I need actual skill to beat it, and I'm only failing because of my own lack of skill, then it's fine. If I'm still having fun even though I'm constantly failing, then that's good challenge. For example, Cave Story (especially near the end and the bonus cave), Devil May Cry, Hitogatta Happa or Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?!.

 

[EboMan7x]

Three obvious scenario's spring to mind:
1 - Game is difficult in an unfair way (ie Demon's Souls), I am turned off.
2 - Game is difficult fairly, and as part of the artistic experience (ie Dark Souls, Donkey Kong Country Returns), I love it.
3 - Game is difficult either fairly or unfairly, and the story has immersed me enough that I feel guilty about not being able to complete the challenges to save the orphans (ie XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dragon Age: Origins, sort of Mass Effect), I will either become to stressed out within the game to want to continue, start a new file and make better decisions early on, or just push on through.

So yeah.