Poll: What's Your Deal With Easy Mode

[nogitsune]

I'm going to be honest, I love easy mode even though I've Played games for at least 25 years. I have problems with hand eye coordination and tend to have to take things slower than other people and don't have as good of aim and also feel my mind works slower and I make more mistakes in gaming. Also I hate the feeling an adrenaline rush gives me, I feel sick and numb so if a game gets too frustrating, it's not fun anymore. Easy Mode is great since it allows me to play a game fair and enjoy it while those that like tougher games can enjoy it too. I really think difficulty levels are probably the best feature to ever come to gaming and it really saddens me to hear people scream how it ruins games, it doesn't, it's an option that you have the choice to use, it's like a PC gamer complaining about having options for lower resolutions in a game becuase thier PC runs it at max setting and HD at 60 FPS no sweat.

 

[Eve Charm]

I start the game on normal, If it's to easy I'd like the option to move to hard, if it's to hard I'd like the option to move to easy. I don't like Easy being baby's first video game and hard being I hope your a masochist.

Persona's are my favorite games, Normal is 100% damage and 100% enemy health, Easy is take 20% off both, hard is add 20% to both. If the game is good and balanced you shouldn't need anything more then a minor tweak if anything.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I don't mind it. We all have to start somewhere after all. It's not like I'm forced to select it.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I basically never play easy mode, just because I generally like at least some semblance of challenge in a game. I think my only exception to this was Just Cause 2, just because I didn't give two shits about being challenged in a game about doing stupid shit with a grappling hook.

But anyway, even though I don't usually use an easy mode, I'm still totally fine with them existing. I mean, why limit the options for other people to play with? It's not like the presence of an easy mode affects my experience at all.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Depends on the game. Most games I play I start out with hard mode if it's unlocked already, but there are some games that I will play on easy mode, just because I think think the game is poorly designed (like the Call of Duty campaigns).

 

[TelHybrid]

I can't remember the last time I finished a game on easy mode. I can see its purpose for people very inexperienced with video games, but when I see people at my sort of skill level playing a game on easy, then complaining about how bored they are, it's instant facepalm.

 

[DjinnFor]

I always play on the hardest difficulties when reviewing games because it reveals shoddy design choices. For example:

-Does the game become more tedious and boring (e.g. Call of Duty), or genuinely challenging (Vanquish)?
-Do the game mechanics encourage overuse of a single, optimal strategy/technique/tactic (e.g. XCOM Enemy Unknown) or are the viable options and strategies fairly diverse (Mass Effect 2 & 3)?
-Are many game mechanics ignored or sidelined in higher difficulties because they developers failed to take into account their effects (e.g. Tales of Graces), or was the combination of game mechanics and difficulty effectively planned from the start (Metal Gear Rising)?

etc.

 

[josemlopes]

Never use it but I dont mind it being there, I even like it since it means more people can play and enjoy the game

 

[DEAD34345]

I don't mind it being there, but... I never use it myself.

If a game is too hard for me I generally prefer to struggle on or even just quit altogether, probably due to some weird sense of pride. Choosing the easy mode would be letting the game win, and I can never allow that to happen. The shame would be unbearable.

In a related note, games that offer to lower the difficulty for you when you're losing deserve to die in a fire. That's just humiliating.

 

[You Can't Take the Sky From Me]

Also, totally agreed on that last point. Why must harder difficulty ALWAYS mean "jack up the HP by 5000%"?

This is my one and only complaint with higher difficulty in some games. In the original Mass Effect for instance, my most recent play-through was on Insanity just for the hell of it, and holy Christ, a basic Geth trooper would take nearly a minute to kill, never mind anything stronger. It kind of broke the game's pacing.

On Topic: If it's a game where I only care about the story my first run-through will usually be on normal or easy, depending on the genera and my familiarity with it. After that, if I like the game enough, I'll go back and replay on a higher setting for the challenge.

 

[pspman45]

for me it entirely depends on the type of game I'm playing
if its something where the difficulty is part of the atmosphere, like The Last of Us, then I'll play normal or hard
but if its something like Bioshock Infinite, where I can't be asked to care about the combat and I just want to get to the next story session, then I'll play on easy.
sometimes I feel like easy difficulty actually ADDS to the experience, my most recent example is Saints Row 4, where its hard to feel like a bad ass superhero president if you die a lot

 

[Hero of Lime]

If I don't feel like a tough challenge, normal is good enough for me. I like a good challenge, not cheap ridiculous challenges mind you. I remember playing a few games on easy mode just for fun, very boring experiences.

Edit: I should say that I don't mind that it exists, not everyone wants to play games the same way, or like to challenge themselves. So it's not bad to have easy mode, I just don't use it.

 

[DanielBrown]

Sometimes I just want the entertainment value of a game and go for Easy. Most often I stick around normal, unless the game has a reputation for being way too easy. Bring on hard!

 

[ThreeName]

I always play easy. I don't really like losing, I don't have too much time to play games and I'd rather just get through them and enjoy the ride.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I think the Devil May Cry reboot tackled alternative difficulties decently, though it still had the annoying Easy, Normal, Hard modes.

After beating the game once, another mode called Son of Sparda was unlocked- the only difference is that "big" enemies show up earlier and all enemies are stronger.

After beating the game on that mode, two more are unlocked: Dante Must Die! and Heaven or Hell.
Dante Must Die! mode is an extreme version of Son of Sparda that upon completion gives you a great upgrade.
Heaven or Hell mode allows you to kill anything in one hit, but you also die in one hit. Very fast paced and fun!

Then, possibly taking it too far, after beating it on Heaven or Hell, Hell or Hell is unlocked, where all enemies are upgraded..... and you die in one hit.


While I enjoy a good challenge, after beating DmC on its "hard" difficulty, I was a bit too drained to want to play harder and harder levels, and Heaven or Hell was only obtainable after beating the damn game twice already.

Thats actually where the old DMC's shine the most compared to the new DmC. Where as normal *surprise motherf***er its hard" mode in DMC3 was challenging, and DMC4's normal was just as challenging, DmC is unfortunately dumbed down and easily breakable (fully upgraded Drive.... *facepalm*). As soon as I beat Son of Sparda I went into Dante Must Die and 2 hours in was bored to tears... then it froze. I know, I know, I grew up with the old DMC's where I'd play DMD till my heart stopped functioning from the 60fps but talk about inconsistency... you'd think if you were using an IP that had difficulty modes that were strangely hard yet still fun and provided a challenge it wouldn't be so watered down in a reboot. But hey... not even Ninja Theory can defend what they did.

OT: I don't easy mode. Its not fun.
Remember God Hand's "easy" mode? That was the last game I played on easy, after that experience I want THAT easy mode in every game pls.

Its also why I like Dark Souls. Here are the difficulty settings in case anyone is curious:
-New Game
-Load Game

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Depends on the game.

I never turn it down on games where I feel the difficulty is a major part of the experience.

I may rarely turn it down on games where I get incredibly frustrated with a particular airship defense section excuse of a final boss in a certain game that starts with "B" and has the word "Infinite" in the title.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

There is literally no good reason not to have it and the people whining about putting it in Dark Souls need to go away forever.

I don't use it very often, but options are basically never bad. And as OP said, I use it all the time in RTS games.

Though to point myself out as a bit of a hypocrite, I rather enjoy making fun of my friends when I watch them play things on easy...

 

[Altorin]

I play whereever I'm comfortable. Some games don't hit the right balance of difficulty, so I don't tend to play those games.

Some games are too easy so I turn them up, others are too hard so I turn them down. Gears of War for instance(the first one at least), I can't play on Normal, at least by myself. I just can't do it, the game just kicks my ass, so I spend 20 minutes dying, and then give up.

But Mass Effect's too easy.. I find Veteran, Hardcore, Insanity to be that game's Easy, Medium and Hard, so I tend to play on either Hardcore or Veteran, depending if I want an actual challenge.

I also will fiddle with the difficulty as long as achievements aren't on the line (Say what you will about achievements, they give me some concrete thing to shoot for so I use them as a guide). If something's too hard for my nerves, I'm not against turning that shit down so that I don't go postal.

All about staying calm


Civilization 5 on the other hand, I hang out at 2-3 out of 10 in terms of difficulty, but I play that game more as a simulation game then any sort of challenge. For me, the beauty in Civilization 5 is getting your numbers to ludicrous levels (20k+ gold/turn etc) and that's just much harder to do on the higher difficulties. So I don't play it that way.

 

[shootthebandit]

Really does depend on how the game difficulty works. If its like veteran mode on COD that just chucks a load more badistanis at you and gives you no health then it just makes it infuriating without adding anything worthwhile. However if it ramps up enemy AI then im all for it as more of a tactical challenge rather than just pissing me off

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Like so many others, it depends on the game. I usually start playing on Normal, to gauge how the devs felt everyone should be playing. On some occasions (like with Ys: The Oath in Felghana), I found Normal to be too difficult and frustrating, making me chose between giving up on the game, or going to easy (or Super Easy). On other occasions, like with Kingdom Hearts, I found Normal to be too easy, and now I start every KH game on its highest difficulty.

In conclusion, I like having the option to play on easy if I want, even when I don't necessarily use it.