Poll: Will you drop the difficulty if you're having trouble?

[Seneschal]

Eh, I always play on easy (at least on the first playthrough). Especially if it's a horror game. I'm used to the passive spectatorial fear you get from horror movies. Horror games kinda overload my self-preservation instinct and make me feel like I'm winning the most by not playing at all.

As for other genres, I'm usually all about the experience; fun gameplay is a good bonus, but torturous gameplay is a reason to go do something else. Hence, easy mode. E.g. I finished Dark Souls with a trainer, yet I still loved it for its atmosphere.

I did once finish Crysis 1 on Delta difficulty on a dare, but I don't make a habit of it.

 

[piinyouri]

Most certainly.
I have no real qualms about it.

 

[Allevil]

The Witcher 2 had horrendous difficulty scaling, so the OP shouldn't feel too bad.

In answer to the question - it depends on the circumstances. If I'm playing a story driven game through for the first time, certainly. My desire to see the plot unfold at a proper pace outweighs my pride. Similarly, if its a game I've already played through on the hardest difficulty, I have no problems dropping down a notch or two since I've already proven I can do it.

 

[Kyrian007]

I have been defeated fairly by only a few games. Goblins 'n Ghosts, Castlevania III, Ninja Gaiden, no shame in admitting that these got the better of me. But I never went "easy mode" on them or any other game, until defeating it fairly on "normal" or "hard" first. Nothing wrong with anyone who wants to play easy mode, that's just not how I game. For me a chance of failure (like total "I'll never beat this, I give up" failure) adds to the sense of accomplishment and enjoyment I get from winning.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I will only when the game forces me into a complete clusterfuck of a situation that I can't get past at all but that only happens on rare occasions.

With that being said I normally play a game on normal difficulty and maybe hard after because I'm more inclined to enjoying what the game has to offer other than just a challenge because that to me sits in the back seat.

 

[The Aimless One]

I tend to bump the difficulty up one setting on my first playthrough and see where that gets me.
"Normal" tends to be too easy nowadays and if I actually finish an 8 hour game in eight hours I'm going to feel cheated out of my entertainment.

So basically...hardest setting I can manage as long as I don't get too frustrated.

Long as I don't get my ass handed to me in a wrapper that is.....then down the difficulty goes.

 

[TheCaptain]

I'll play on the easiest available difficulty most of the time anyway. And if that's still too much effort, I'll cheat.

Why? Well, couple of reasons.

First of all, I play video games to relax, as other people would read a book or watch a movie. And as much as those people wouldn't read the book upside down or watch a move with a pillowcase on their head for fun, I won't do anything to make enjoying my relaxing after-work-/weekend-activity harder for myself.

Second, I don't take pride in "being good at playing video games". I just can't be arsed to brag with any kind of gamerscores, rankings or whatever, not to others and not to myself.

Third, ever so often you got a tool, weapon or ability that's the most pragmatic one to use, and one that's the most fun to use or nice to look at. Lower difficulty allows for a higher variation of those.

Exceptions are when lower difficulty settings exclude you from some of the game's content (Monkey Island 2) or if the difficulty setting makes no difference at all (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, provided you go for a ghost run).

That said, I get why many people like to be challenged and find a higher difficulty setting more immersive or exciting. That's just not me.

 

[Daveman]

I usually do my first playthrough on easy or normal and then up the difficulty for other playthroughs.

 

[Karoshi]

I've spent 6-8 times redoing the same mission in Starcraft 2 on Normal and despite however frustrating and painful that experience was, I refused to lower the difficulty (each attempt took 20-30 minutes). God, so much time wasted on a single mission. I really do suck at RTS.

On the other hand I played for Dragon Age games on the lowest difficulty because I couldn't be arsed to give a damn about combat. Same with Kotor games and many others. Skyrim's difficulty is pretty broken, therefore sometimes I play on Master and sometimes pick the Easy setting.

Generally, I really appreciate Easy settings. Many games would be literally unplayable for me without it.

 

[SirDeadly]

I always start on normal difficulty for games that actually allow me to pick the difficulty. If I then decided to play on a higher setting I can know what to expect so imdont have to lower the difficulty.

 

[mateushac]

Well, I'll usually bang my head on the wall for a few hours. If it's not working, I'm not ashamed of lowering the difficulty a little bit.
That being said, I only actually did it once (bastion, in the stage you get the calamity canon, all idols on - goddamn giant artichokes!)

 

[wabbbit]

Depend on the sort of "difficulty" the game has.

Games which increase A.I, Reduce health etc(Like Hitman) just make me play better. If I was having an issue with a particular section I would just think logically about how I am approaching it. If this doesn't work I tend to look online for tips before lowering the difficulty.

Games which are hard for the sake of being hard - i.e. The dickish amount of health units get on Halo 4 on legendary I would just bite the bullet and drop down to Heroic. I don't see the problem here.
Repeatedly dying and doing the same section of a game ruins it for me, and I feel that I can't give an opinion of a game if I spend all my time sprinting and hiding instead of getting immersed in the story/environment that people have spent a long time making.


I have no issue in dropping down a difficulty if things become too hard, I prefer it if it's dynamic like the Elderscrolls games though rather than the hitman approach of "Do all the previous levels again, lololol".
I still class myself as a decent gamer for doing so, I just can't be bothered with the stress of doing the same section repeatedly dying for the sake of bragging rights.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I have only done this once any other time I am fully committed to pushing through and finding some sort of solution. The game will not best me and I will not admit that I have been spoon fed the easy cinematic experience for too long that it has made me soft.

As for this one time there is a perfectly good reason for this.
ME2 The Collector base trap segment. Playing on Insanity as a soldier and fucking Harbinger just kept rushing me out of my cover and killing me in a matter of minutes and I was just trying to play through every Mass Effect to get to 3 and I had been stuck on this small little bit for a week...so hell no I was not going to let my ego prevent me from getting to ME3(a game which I had held out on playing for a whole year since I bought it in March and had been planning on playing in November and yet because of this lengthy playthrough wound up playing in Jan) so I dropped the difficulty down one and HOLY SHIT IT WAS A FUCKING CAKE WALK. BULLSHIT!
Whew...for the record the minute that bit was up I turned the difficulty right back up and kept it there the rest of the game.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I'll bump the difficulty down if I'm getting my arse handed to me contantly, yeah. Usually I just play through on Normal and there's not been very many points in games where I get completely stuck - normally after a few tries I can beat most sections I'm struggling with. But yeah, if I'm just getting frustrated and I've been stuck on a part of a game for ages, I'll drop it down to Easy if I have the option. I do like to ramp it back up after I've beaten the section I'm stuck on though, if I can.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Just depend how hard is it, I mean if it look hard but can be done I will find a way to beat it eventurally while if it look impossible to beat then I will adjust the difficulty.
Don't asked me the definition of "can be done" and "impossible", it depend on that game itself and the gameplay. I suppose my examples would be Street Fighter 4 when I was facing Seth which was I was able to beat him eventually while some level on Deonkey Kong Country Return was impossibile for me but suppose it's a matter of preferences.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Nope. I prefer to play on the hardest difficulty available. If I feel up to it, I'll bump it up when I unlock a new difficulty. As far as I'm concerned, playing on easier difficulties feels like...cheating...if that makes any sense. If I'm not playing on Hard or above, it feels like I'm cheating myself out of the full experience. And I prefer games to be tough and difficult. I'll never improve if I don't push myself. In my eyes, being content with playing on Easy means being content with being weak.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Depends, with rpgs i normally just leave the area and level up, buy better spells or decide on a different way to attack the situation. If its a dumb game im playing to kill time, and not cos of the story or whatever.....then i just lower the difficulty.

People that say they only play on hard are lying....well, those that say there first playthrough is on hard. Depends on the game i know. But i have better things to do in my life than spend hours replaying the same area in a game. Im sure some people see beating a game on hard as being some sort of achievement in life, but its worthless if its not a fun game to start with and the difficulty is ramped up to cheat you as opposed to adding any real skill. As in, a FPS where every enemy take 100 shots to the face to kill is crap.

 

[PissOffRoth]

If I'm having trouble, I raise the difficulty.

 

[Frokane]

Nope. I prefer to play on the hardest difficulty available. If I feel up to it, I'll bump it up when I unlock a new difficulty. As far as I'm concerned, playing on easier difficulties feels like...cheating...if that makes any sense. If I'm not playing on Hard or above, it feels like I'm cheating myself out of the full experience. And I prefer games to be tough and difficult. I'll never improve if I don't push myself. In my eyes, being content with playing on Easy means being content with being weak.

well aint you a badass >.>

I prefer to play through EVERY difficulty, starting with the easiest and working my way up, that really gives me the full experience as Im playing the game in its entiritey.

If I REALLY get stuck, Ill look up some tips, outside of puzzles I dont really see this as cheating.

 

[Username Redacted]

I try not to let the game beat me. If a section is proving too difficult I'll usually just take a break to re-evaluate what I'm doing, grab a snack, a drink, etc. It also doesn't hurt that I usually play on whatever the default difficulty. Mirror's Edge is probably the only game that I've played (relatively) recently where I've sucked it up to the point that I'd have considered dropping the difficulty. I did not do so as I realized that adjusting the difficulty wouldn't make the controls less shit so I soldiered on.