What is the easiest AAA game you've played since 2005?

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Spoiler: Here's one of my favourite Morrowind exploits that I figured out on my own

Get a skill drain spell to unlock this effect in spellcraft (spellcraft is cheesy AF in general). Make a spell with only this effect, as strong as possible, lasting for 2, maybe 3s targeting yourself, affecting a skill you want to train. Cast this on yourself and immediately talk to a trainer for this skill (conversation pauses game time, so 2s duration should be plenty) - trainers will only train you up to a certain level, but the game checks against your current skill level, not base, meaning you can abuse this to train all skills to 100 without bothering with master trainers. Better yet, it even lets you "train" capped skills - they will of course reset to 100 the moment they exceed this value, but it's a quick and convenient way of leveling up a maxed out character without using jail time to randomly deteriorate your skills across the board.

Spoiler: My favourite tip

Pay attention to item quality in shops. There are a number of shops in Morrowind (such as the pawnbrokers in Suran and the Telvanni District in Vivec) that sell heavily damaged Glass daggers. Their condition is so poor (2/100) that they can be bought for as little as 15 Drakes, but if you then join the Fighters Guild you can access their equipment chests for free and repair the daggers back up to their full retail value of 4,000 Drakes each. And then of course there's someone in Caldera who will happily pay full price for anything you bring him...

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Anything by Thatgamecompany; Journey, Flower, the fish thing (Flow, I meant), are all pretty relaxing and no doubt annoy hardcore types by merely existing. I thought Abzu was by them, but apparently it's someone else. Still recommended though.

The recent Ratchet and Clank remake is alright, I believe the final boss may be a bit of a difficulty spike, but until then it's plain sailing!

Inside.

What Remains of Edith Finch (ok, I'm classing 'AAA' as mostly quality as opposed to the numerifications of budget basically; but within the boundaries of aesthetic eye pleasure).

Infamous games, including especially Second Son and Light.

Mafia 3.

Pyre.

Do racing games count? The Crew is quite laid back, though annoyingly always online, only recommended when on sale for that reason.

Shadow Complex. (I think)

Mad Max. Until some of the end game fuck-abouts.

Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy have generous difficulty options for inclusive accessibility, that also annoy hardcore types.

Umm, there's definitely more but am low on caffeine and high on distractions at mo

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Anything by Thatgamecompany; Journey, Flower, the fish thing (Flow, I meant), are all pretty relaxing and no doubt annoy hardcore types by merely existing. I thought Abzu was by them, but apparently it's someone else. Still recommended though.

Abzu is not by Thatgamecompany, but it might as well be. Their dev teams share several people, including the same art director and composer. And the game came about because that art director wanted to create a similar game while still at Thatgamecompany, but in a more vibrant and populated setting. So, spiritual sequel, I guess.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Does Telltale's The Walking Dead count as a AAA game?
All you really do is just walk around hurting people's sensibilities.

 

[CaitSeith]

Final Fantasy XV. In easy mode you get automatically revived 3 or 4 times per battle (so you practically can't lose). And even in normal mode healing items are OP, and your party HP gets quickly regenerated up to the max after each battle.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Abzu is not by Thatgamecompany, but it might as well be. Their dev teams share several people, including the same art director and composer. And the game came about because that art director wanted to create a similar game while still at Thatgamecompany, but in a more vibrant and populated setting. So, spiritual sequel, I guess.

Oh hey, that makes far too much sense. The similarities in style and quality were suspiciously strong there.

(Am not sure why I keep instinctively alliterating. It's legitimately annoying and have to actively resist it when not rushing or lazy)

 

[Ironman126]

Borderlands 2 is one of the easier games I've played. The combat is quite forgiving, the learning curve is shallow, and there's a DLC class (the Mechromancer) that features a no-clipping murder-bot and ricocheting bullets. If you don't want to buy DLC, then there's a class (the Commando) with a deployable turret that's good for solo runs.

Torchlight 2 is also pretty easy. Again, the mechanics make sense and the gameplay is as forgiving as you want it to be.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Easiest game I've played in a long time was definitely Destiny 2. It doesn't have difficulty modes, so the resulting balancing for the game is pretty easy to appeal to the most players.

I played through the entire campaign with two friends, and we finished it in under 6 hours, never once feeling challenged by it. When we beat the end boss we all kinda had that "wait... that was it? That was the whole game? Really?!" moment. Even the dungeons that were in the game at launch were a complete joke.

I have no idea what's been added to the game since we all bailed on it, but I doubt the core game has changed much.

If you're looking for an FPS with solid gameplay and a ton of Skinner box grinding that looks remarkably pretty even when running on a gaming computer that I built 5 years ago (seriously - even with most settings maxed, it maintains a consistent minimum of 60FPS even during intense firefights), then it's a decent game. Don't go into it expecting any more than that, though. The writing is pretty lackluster, the story isn't very compelling, there really isn't very much content, and the PvP is awful.

 

[sXeth]

Easiest game I've played in a long time was definitely Destiny 2. It doesn't have difficulty modes, so the resulting balancing for the game is pretty easy to appeal to the most players.

I played through the entire campaign with two friends, and we finished it in under 6 hours, never once feeling challenged by it. When we beat the end boss we all kinda had that "wait... that was it? That was the whole game? Really?!" moment. Even the dungeons that were in the game at launch were a complete joke.

I have no idea what's been added to the game since we all bailed on it, but I doubt the core game has changed much.

If you're looking for an FPS with solid gameplay and a ton of Skinner box grinding that looks remarkably pretty even when running on a gaming computer that I built 5 years ago (seriously - even with most settings maxed, it maintains a consistent minimum of 60FPS even during intense firefights), then it's a decent game. Don't go into it expecting any more than that, though. The writing is pretty lackluster, the story isn't very compelling, there really isn't very much content, and the PvP is awful.

There's some post-story missions/adventures that get a little obnoxious unless you grind up the light level for them. But yeah, the main compaign doesn't throw too much at you. No idea on the DLC either, I was barely hanging on the ship when they did the lootbox event instead of sparrow racing as the holiday thing, and went off before the DLC.

Destinys story work isn't terrible, but its presented in a weird, and generally poor way. And D2 has way too many callbacks to D1, and not just D!, but semi-obscure bits from the grimoire collectibles for half the points to mean anything. You prettymuch have to be obsessive about it, or at least go find wiki entries where someone's tried to organize the optional scans/grimoire collectibles/item descriptions and whatall into some coherent format.

 

[gorfias]

Do racing games count? The Crew is quite laid back, though annoyingly always online, only recommended when on sale for that reason.

Oh yeah. And I have that one too. Will give it some more time. Got Forza Horizon 3 and can't beat the 1st dude. Gorgeous to look upon.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Destiny 2 if you're just doing main story stuff.

I actually like Destiny 2. Not more than 1, but I don't dislike it by any means. I fully understand the criticisms, the disappointments, and I'm on board with all of that.

But MY personal disappointment is the lack of challenge. I died by accident more than the enemies killing me. And if you're playing it cooperatively? HA!

I know there's the big raids or whatever, but that doesn't excuse such an innate lack of challenge in your main fucking story. Why on earth there isn't a difficulty option is beyond me. Destiny 1 had a Hard mode. And replaying a handful of random missions every week that's slightly harder doesn't count.

And it's a shame too, because I do love the way shooting feels in general in Destiny 2, but it's no fun to use it against brainless enemies that do too little damage and make up for it by soaking up more.

I hear they are working on that for a future patch. I might even give the game another playthrough for fun if it turns out to be true.

 

[laggyteabag]

I completed Red Faction Armageddon on the hardest difficulty, twice in the same day. So I guess there is that.

Otherwise, as stated above: Telltale games are pretty much just moral choices and QTEs. You can't really lose.

In Fable 2 and 3, you cant die. You just fall over, lose any uncollected XP, get a scar, and then stand back up again.

 

[Elijin]

Do racing games count? The Crew is quite laid back, though annoyingly always online, only recommended when on sale for that reason.

Oh yeah. And I have that one too. Will give it some more time. Got Forza Horizon 3 and can't beat the 1st dude. Gorgeous to look upon.

But....there are only like, 5 races in Forza Horizon 3 that you have to win (The illegal street race pink slip races)? The game is about having the experience. Everything pays out some level of exp and cash, and that exp opens more and more of the world up. The game has no problem with you losing races, you'll just open the game up slower than if you were winning.

 

[Buffoon1980]

Final Fantasy XV. In easy mode you get automatically revived 3 or 4 times per battle (so you practically can't lose). And even in normal mode healing items are OP, and your party HP gets quickly regenerated up to the max after each battle.

This was actually the first thing that came to my mind too. I played on normal difficulty, the only time I felt even remotely threatened was... um... that bit where everyone gets separated about 75% of the way through... it's been a while. Honestly, pretty much every JRPG is like this. Which is fine by me, honestly... I don't play those games (or, indeed, almost any game) for a challenge.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Super Mario Odyssey

It's like playing a (classic) God of War game where everything dies in one hit. And the platforming is at about the level of a Ratchet and Clank game.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Super Mario Galaxy 2.

As much as I love the visuals and colors of the game, I find its lack of difficulty to be the fault. The game is so afraid of you failing that it holds your hand throughout the whole game.

Oh but it's a Mario game. I'm not supposed to hate it

 

[Yoshi178]

Super Mario Galaxy 2.

As much as I love the visuals and colors of the game, I find its lack of difficulty to be the fault. The game is so afraid of you failing that it holds your hand throughout the whole game.

Oh but it's a Mario game. I'm not supposed to hate it

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is easy sure.

but i thought the original Super Mario Galaxy was way easier than Galaxy 2 was overall.

 

[Fireaxe]

Don't play a lot of AAA games, but Bioshock Infinite on normal difficulty was pretty damn easy.

 

[CaitSeith]

Final Fantasy XV. In easy mode you get automatically revived 3 or 4 times per battle (so you practically can't lose). And even in normal mode healing items are OP, and your party HP gets quickly regenerated up to the max after each battle.

This was actually the first thing that came to my mind too. I played on normal difficulty, the only time I felt even remotely threatened was... um... that bit where everyone gets separated about 75% of the way through... it's been a while. Honestly, pretty much every JRPG is like this. Which is fine by me, honestly... I don't play those games (or, indeed, almost any game) for a challenge.

The only enemies that gave me headaches were the ones with instant kill attacks. The Coeurls have an unblockable counterattack that can decimate your party if you aren't careful (because the idiots still go to attack them in the worst moment possible).

 

[Nuuu]

Probably would have to be Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. The only time I died was to my first encounter with Caragors.
For a game where its most advertised mechanic requires the player to die, the game sure is easy. The domination mechanic near the end felt like it was just shrinking my enemy pool and making the game EVEN EASIER.

Shadow of Mordor is also the last game i've decided to play that uses the Arkham style of counter-combat. It's shallow, boring, and really only serves to make the player look cool with minimal effort.