Unlockable Difficulty Sucks

[Azure-Supernova]

Uncharted did this too. They were both stupidly easy in Easy, Normal and even Hard... yet I had to sit through the multiple replays to unlock the next difficulty up

 

[zimtheawesome]

I more or less hate it when say beating "drinking the piss of Satan while Beelzebub rapes you" difficulty doesn't also unlock the bonuses of "an irate kitten" difficulty. I can understand keeping the hardest difficulty unlockable like God of War but non-stacking unlockables for beating that difficulty isn't fair.

Indeed, I hate when games do this. If I finish the game on Hard, why don't I get the Achievements/etc. for Easy and Medium too?

This is what is known as being an achievment whore.

On topic, I dont really mind. If you want to play on a harder difficulty, then it should be an extremely easy feat to get to a harder difficulty. I do agreee maybe on a long game this would be annoying. But if you bought a game, may as well get your moneys worth.

Not just achievements though. Lets say rather then just getting achievements you got costumes for beating each difficulty. Would it not be a pain in the ass if, like many games do, you had to beat each difficulty to unlock each costume rather then just beating the hardest one and unlocking them all?

I see your reasoning. Although rarely is there a really good unlockable that comes from the easiest difficulty. It just makes more sense to be rewarded for completing the more difficult difficulties.

Good or not it's still stupid to make someone play through Easy after they beat the final boss to death with his own cock on the hardest difficulty just so they can unlock the main character in a tutu.

I suppose i just have a different view of games and I dont see a need to unlock things like that. So it really doesnt bother me when I dont unlock everything. I can see the desire to get 100% of the game completed but it just doesnt concern me

 

[tkioz]

Difficulty isn't really an issue for me. I don't play games to get a challenge, but to mess around in an awesome universe, and enjoy the cosmetic delights in which it exists.

When upping the difficulty only adds less health, more enemy dmg, and so forth, I feel it to be absolutely redundant. Not unless upping the difficulty changes the gameplay a bit, and in some circumstances adds more enemies, it's worth it.

Well it depends on the game, I agree if it's just screwing around with numbers, i.e NPC hits for X on Y setting it's plain stupid, but if like in say (again) Mass Effect 2 it makes the NPCs smarter, taking cover, giving each other supporting fire, using their powers more often, etc, it does at least IMO make it more fun.

 

[tkioz]

I more or less hate it when say beating "drinking the piss of Satan while Beelzebub rapes you" difficulty doesn't also unlock the bonuses of "an irate kitten" difficulty. I can understand keeping the hardest difficulty unlockable like God of War but non-stacking unlockables for beating that difficulty isn't fair.

Indeed, I hate when games do this. If I finish the game on Hard, why don't I get the Achievements/etc. for Easy and Medium too?

This is what is known as being an achievment whore.

On topic, I dont really mind. If you want to play on a harder difficulty, then it should be an extremely easy feat to get to a harder difficulty. I do agreee maybe on a long game this would be annoying. But if you bought a game, may as well get your moneys worth.

Well to a degree it comes down to if I find a game "too easy" it's not as much fun, so I'll have less incentive to play it again, I know it's not logical, but that's just me, if I can just up the level a little bit until it feels like a challenge, it's fun for me.

 

[GreyWolf257]

Unlockable levels are one of the most annoying things a game can have. If I want to play the hardest difficulty the first play through, then let me do that, don't force me to play the goddamn game three times just so I can finish every difficulty.

 

[tetron]

I hate unlockable difficulty. My most recent experience was star ocean the last hope. Had to play through that game 3 times just to beat it on galaxy,universe, and then finally chaos difficulty. And by that time the game was already super easy just because I could pull off blindsides in my sleep. Would've been a lot nicer to have been able to do chaos from the start. Also I had to avoid getting to much into the game my first two playthroughs so I'd still have something to look forward to on the final one.

 

[Dys]

It straight up shits me, often if I find a game is too easy to hold my interest I won't bother with it at all, so it's really just a waste if there's a more appropriate setting that's locked.

 

[ethaninja]

I hate unlockable difficulties with a passion. It's like saying, if you have to be shit at a game to play it or something along those lines. I mean, sure it's not that bad if the game is fun to play again (HL 2 etc), but if the replayability is stupid, it really screws it up.

But the only thing I don't like about the hardest difficulty on alot of games is that enemies take ages to die. Especially those arcade ones. I love it when enemies die realisticly, but you die realisticly too.

 

[Plurralbles]

yeah, I refuse to play Dante must die or God mode in GoW.

 

[AlchemistMayCry]

Bayonetta has got to have the most ridiculous difficulty curve I've played in recent memory. I barely scraped through normal with at least 6 stone awards just to beat it. They at least make it possible to skip the more annoying chapters and come back to them later (Route 666 and Isla Del Sol....fuck you), but it's still a pain in the ass. And in the hardest difficulty, Non-stop Infinite Climax, you can't even activate witch time unless you have a certain accessory equipped! And after beating Normal and a bit of Hard, I went to Easy to see just how easy it was...and it was easy. Too easy. I bet if I went to very easy I'd beat the game in 3 hours whilst picking my nose. But Bayonetta seems overly cheap with enemy placements. There's a point where I fear minibosses more than I fear the main bosses of a stage. It was the same in Devil May Cry 4: I was more afraid of a Blitz than I was of Berial or Echidna.

When it comes down to it, I was at least pleased that Bayonetta at least gave me the achievements for beating the game on any difficulty when I beat it on Normal. And in Gears of War 2, after I beat it on Normal, it gave me the achievement for beating it on Casual. A nice gesture. Beats what I had to deal with in Devil May Cry 4, where I had to beat every single effing difficulty just to get their respective achievements. But yeah...I've got nothing else.

 

[jackyjack13579]

I more or less hate it when say beating "drinking the piss of Satan while Beelzebub rapes you" difficulty doesn't also unlock the bonuses of "an irate kitten" difficulty. I can understand keeping the hardest difficulty unlockable like God of War but non-stacking unlockables for beating that difficulty isn't fair.

I agree with you a 100%, and I really only quoted you to let you know I enjoy your name for the hardest difficulty on some games. I personally go for the middle difficultly of "Slaughter generic NPC's until a Boss comes and Satan gives you a Red Flag Touch" If you don't know what a "Red Flag Touch" is ask my elementary school guidance counselor.

 

[internetzealot1]

Frankly, I think that sometimes we need the higher difficulties to be withheld from us. Take Mirror's Edge. In the hardest difficulty, "Runner Vision" is disabled. Now, runner vision isn't just some little thing that you use when you don't know where to go. Its a pretty damn important gameplay mechanic. If you're running from the cops, you need to know what paths are viable or not. Quick. If you always had to stop to look around with people firing at you, it would get pretty frustrating.

Now, imaginge you are someone who likes to play the hardest difficulty on the first playthrough. If Mirror's Edge let you pick the hardest difficulty the first time, you would do it. And you wouldn't have runner vision. So, you would find the game extremely frustrating because it would take you multiple tries to clear one obtacle in a chase sequence. Playing on the hardest difficulty is actually detracting from your fun. However, you are determined to beat the game on hard. Ultimately, you remeber the game for being uncooperative and frustrating, even though it was because of a choice you made yourself. So, by keeping you from the hardest difficulty, the developers are actually ensuring that on your first playthrough (arguably the most important) you are having the most fun that you can have.


As a qualifier to all this, games need to let you know if a difficulty will be unlocked once you beat the game. Nothing like thinking your playing a game on Normal and discovering that you were really playing on Moderately Easy.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I don't mind if the unlockable difficulties aren't just "increasing their health and increasing the damage you take". That's a cheap way.
I prefer if it actually alters the missions in some way or makes them harder by making the objectives harder to achieve. I also love Resident Evil 4 on Professional (which you have to unlock). You find way less ammo and health and it fits with the genre considering it's all about survival.

 

[(whitty name here)]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind keeping the hardest difficulty locked until a full playthrough. I wouldn't care much since I usually play on an easier difficulty the first time to get the hang of the game, your lack of experience gives a challenge, the surprises are surprises and you get to enjoy the game.

Then the hardest difficulty unlocks. At this point it makes sense to me. You've mastered the game by now; you are now weaker and your enemies are stronger. Maore bots are added in, maybe given better weapons/abilities.

This is one thing that i liked about MW2 spec-ops(not the unlock part, it didn't exist, the difficulty-proper boost). It didn't just add enemies and make you weaker, in some missions, it change the objective.
For example the AC-130 co-op mission. Depending on the difficulty, your objectives location changes as well as making it harder to get there and reducing the time you had to get to said location. This is what should happen. Add something to keep gameplay somewhat new while still excersizing the skills you have learnt on your last playthrough.

 

[jackyjack13579]

I more or less hate it when say beating "drinking the piss of Satan while Beelzebub rapes you" difficulty doesn't also unlock the bonuses of "an irate kitten" difficulty. I can understand keeping the hardest difficulty unlockable like God of War but non-stacking unlockables for beating that difficulty isn't fair.

I agree with you a 100%, and I really only quoted you to let you know I enjoy your name for the hardest difficulty on some games. I personally go for the middle difficultly of "Slaughter generic NPC's until a Boss comes and Satan gives you a Red Flag Touch" If you don't know what a "Red Flag Touch" is ask my elementary school guidance counselor.

I prefer calling it Satan's Prostate Exam when the boss comes out to do his job as your local doctor.

Nice way to put it, everything's going all good until it comes to the drop your drawers and cough part! It also relates in the fact if you just man up it's all over soon, I mean except for the reoccurring nightmares of course.

 

[Eggsnham]

When playing games I like to play god, so I'll play at normal until I get ridiculously overpowered and then I'll switch the difficulty to the hardest available (supposing you can do that mid game). I dunno, I just like be even or overpowered for some reason.