CCCToad on 19/1/2010 at 00:18
This is only slightly on topic, but one thing I hate is unlockable difficulties. Why can I not try a game out on the hardest setting right away if I want to? Un-adjustable difficulties are also evil. I enjoy a hard boss fight as much as the next guy, but sometimes I'd rather turn down the difficulty than spend the next hour of my life dying repeatedly.
Phatose on 19/1/2010 at 00:44
Do you mean adjustable before starting, or adjustable during play?
Being able to turn it back to easy is nice, but if it involves starting the whole game over, it's not much of an option. And...well, achievements are pretty much going to ensure in game adjustability doesn't happen much.
CCCToad on 19/1/2010 at 00:58
Ones that can't be adjusted during play, or at least between levels.
There's no reason for achievements to impact difficulty. Some games (Mass Effect) allow you to change difficulty at will, but only give you the achievement if you don't set it below the one you want. Others (Call of Duty) will give you an achievement for each level you complete at a certain difficulty. Only bizarre one I've encountered was C&C3, which wouldn't give you achievements for easy or normal if you beat the game on hard.
Renault on 19/1/2010 at 01:08
Quote Posted by Thirith
Since "They've dumbed it down!" is one of the things people tend to be most angry about with modern games
I've always taken that phrase to refer more to the aspect of games that "hold your hand" as opposed to games that are simply easy to complete. Like Deadly Shadows' atomic footprints (thanks for telling me where to walk, assholes), or Borderlands' "TURN IN!" (yeah, couldn't have figured that out for myself) nonsense. Granted, neither of those games is especially hard, but that's not the point.
For me, games are more about story and getting immersed, even if the plot isn't all that deep. I usually play on "normal" difficulty. Repeating the same sequences over and over again because they're too damn hard or just requiring trial and error, that's just not fun to me, so I usually avoid something like "expert" or "veteran" mode.
Thief is an exception, because Expert mode usually just gives you more to do (and, of course, because I am an exceptional thief).
CCCToad on 19/1/2010 at 01:14
Quote:
For me, games are more about story and getting immersed, even if the plot isn't all that deep.
I don't see how that works with all games, though. There's quite a few that are simply about good gameplay. Torchlight is my most recent example: I started my first character on normal difficulty, and about level 7 I re-rolled him on hard difficulty because his gameplay wasn't challenging enough to be interesting. On hard, its challenging enough that I actually have to pay attention to what each special attack does. Its a lot more fun that way.
Phatose on 19/1/2010 at 01:42
Eh, you know, as far as I could tell, all torchlight's difficulty settings did was make you gain levels slower. Not really the way to go about it, imho.
Nameless Voice on 19/1/2010 at 02:02
I'm incredibly stubborn and always play everything on the hardest difficulty level, and will generally persevere through it no matter what.
I generally want games to be challenging, but they should be intelligently challenging. A good example of what I mean is Gothic (1 & 2) - certain areas of the game are filled with very powerful enemies. You are warned not to enter those areas, and if you do, you'll die. As such, the game tends to be very hard. It's also usually possible to fight the monsters who are too strong for you and defeat them earlier than you might be expected to, giving you an XP bonus and making your character better. I far prefer this to, for example, The Elder Scrolls games, where the enemies are always carefully adjusted that you can never meet anyone very difficult when you're still weak, e.g. visiting a Daedric shrine in Morrowind when you are low level will result in their not actually being any Daedra in it, because they are deemed too tough for you.
I don't like artificial difficulty caused by problems, though, like for example Dead Space's extra difficulty due to having an extremely awkward control scheme and camera view, or games that forbid saving and have checkpoints placed too far apart.
gunsmoke on 19/1/2010 at 02:35
@ Nameless Voice:
Excellent statement. I am in complete agreement with the Gothic 1&2. I loved how there was an Orc (which is extremely tough, even far later in the game) just off the path to Khorinis.
That's pretty much what attracted me to Gothic's system. It felt more realistic. Levelled monsters and loot is just stupid. Games like Oblivion suffer for it. I love being able to go ANYWHERE. When I want. I may have to run like hell, or draw one creature at a time from a large pack to avoid fighting the group at once. I may have to use every bit of skill I have and fight smart and hard. It makes it enticing. Knowing I have to work on my personal skills (not simply raise levels in the game, though it helps) and learn the way my enemy fights/figure out any weaknesses makes the reward that much sweeter. It makes me fight that much harder.
I understand that a chunk of this drive is due to Gothic as a whole, and not simply related to its difficulty, but still....the difficulty is a big factor.
For those not in the know, that (Khorinis) is the town you are walking towards in the very beginning, and you will probably not even have raised a single level (though it is certainly possible to raise a couple if you know the game well) before you even reach the gates.
Anyway, if you flop off of the 10 foot hill to the left of the path, you can run into all sorts of trouble. The great part is that Gothic's system makes it completely possible to beat almost ANY opponent, at ANY time, with almost any level/equipment. It is one of the only RPGs that I can think of off-hand that has an almost completely skill-based combat system. See youtube for level 1 Black Troll videos from G2 for proof.
Yeah, there are definitely exploits to abuse such as standing on an odd boulder or other height advantage or using some obstruction or another to prevent the (melee) opponent from being able to reach you and picking him off with a long sword/bow/ranged magic. Whatever.
Nameless Voice on 19/1/2010 at 02:38
Oblivion's levelled enemies system also actively punishes you for progressing in the game by making the entire game harder every time you level up, which is especially jarring if your character got no tougher because you gained a level in non-combat-related skills - and that's not a fun kind of difficulty at all.
steo on 19/1/2010 at 05:37
It also lead to characters specialising in non-combat skills being the best in combat. But then, I'm sure we all know how broken a game vanilla Oblivion is. Funny thing is, it's hard to find a review that actually picks up on all of it's many flaws. I guess when you're not actually paying attention to what's really going on in the game, you don't notice anything's wrong and think it's great.
