This was a hard one. Well, it was for me; Murdo found it pretty easy and Colin timed himself the whole way, whilst thinking that it was of an average difficulty. Read on to find out what each of us think about certain difficulty levels and which games get it right.
Blair: As I was playing Worms 2 a few weeks ago, I realised something: I found the later levels very hard. I was stuck on one for hours, but I enjoyed it. I like difficult games. I don’t know what it is, but that immense satisfaction you get after completing a part of a game that you’ve been stuck on for a while is awesome. What about you guys, do you prefer playing your games on hard for the satisfaction or on an easier difficulty to just get through the game?
Murdo: I always check the trophy list first. If there’s something to do with completing the game on normal, I’ll play that. If not, I’ll stick with easy and enjoy the story. From time to time, I will go back and complete a game on hard for a trophy if I really enjoy the game though.
Colin: I always start a game on normal difficulty and see how it goes. I want games to challenge me but not at a level that makes me want to throw my controller through the TV. I don’t go back and play games through on a harder difficulty often as it normally replaces the fun with frustration.
Blair: You’re both boring. I love a challenge. Started God of War III on Titan for that reason, think I’d have been disappointed if I had just cut through the enemies like paper.
Murdo: Some of the games I remember going back to include the last few in the Call of Duty franchise. World at War’s later levels were insanely difficult but, for the platinum, completely worth it.
Blair: Oh, Call of Duty got it completely wrong. Difficulty means harder enemies and less health, not ‘thousands of grenades’.
Murdo: I like to enjoy the story though. Frustration distracts me. I’m stuck (and have been since launch) on God Of War III on normal. I really enjoyed the story but got too annoyed with the consistent dying.
Colin: The exact same thing happened with me and I ended up trading it in as it wasn’t fun anymore. I see why people like the greater difficulty though; you get a greater sense of achievement after completing it.
Murdo: The reason I haven’t completed most single-player games is because of the difficulty. At one point, it ramps right up and I hate it and give up.
Blair: I do hate when they ramp it up at the end just to extend the longevity of the game. But that’s what difficulty levels are for, right?
Murdo: Some games, like Flight Control (although it’s a different genre), get the difficulty bang on. It steadily increases and challenges me.
Colin: The difficulty level has to be right for the type of game it is, otherwise it ruins the game. F1 2009 on PSP got it horribly wrong and, in my opinion, ruined it. A game like that I want to be challenged, I don’t want to win the world championship with ease while driving a Torro Rosso on Hard.
Murdo: Games can be too easy as well. I don’t want to feel like I’m simply moving a character through a movie scene, I want there to be some necessity for my presence.
Blair: Zelda is perfect (here I go again). It’s not difficult, you can basically complete the game without dying, but the puzzles are a challenge and the entire journey is just fun.
Colin: Kane and Lynch 2 is another game that got the difficulty a bit off. On normal you die quite a bit, especially when playing with a useless co-op partner.
Blair: I heard that the entire game was a ‘bit off’.
Murdo: That game is hard to play in an entirely different way.
Colin: I liked it but enemies seem to be able to take more bullets than you which becomes quite annoying.
Murdo: And you get shot in cover. And you can’t see the ground in front of you when you run. It’s just hard on all settings.
Colin: Good thing the trophies unlock on easy though.
Murdo: iPhone games are almost always perfect with the difficulty. Angry Birds brilliantly introduces the new birds and increases the puzzle difficulty at a steady pace. One of the reasons it’s so addictive.
Blair: Yeah, it’s great. You’ve been playing thinking “I can beat this!” then you slowly get better and the game slowly gets harder. Then you can’t improve, but you’re sure you can still beat it! Have you heard of the new bird? The ‘Mighty Eagle’: you pay for it and it completes the level for you if you’re completely stuck.
Murdo: That’s like those unlock on EA games giving players all the unlockables, ruining the whole experience. Absolutely no challenge involved.
Colin: I hate those. Split/Second had the unlockable car pack at launch, it defeats the point of having an unlock system. It’s there for a reason and completely ignoring it for people who can’t be bothered to play through the game at a challenging level.
Blair: I like the idea of it in Angry Birds, as you don’t have to pay for it and you don’t get the same rewards if you do use it. There’s that feeling again, when you finally complete a level that you’ve spent a while on. With this, the feeling is completely lost.
Blair: How about when things are extremely hard, and it’s not the difficulty level? Such as Time Trials in racing games, or Mirror’s Edge. What about time limits? I don’t like them, they do provide a challenge but I hate being put against the clock; I like taking things as my own pace.
Colin: I like Time Trials; we’ve had some good ones on TSA recently. The challenge is different as it’s you trying to beat a time set to test and show your skills or attempting to beat your own. They also allow competition between other players which is almost always a good thing.
Murdo: I enjoyed being timed but not one that that runs out, I prefer ones that have an aim that you can then go over.
Murdo: I forgot to enter the MW2 one but I hope to see more of them soon.
Colin: I prefer that too, it allows you to see how far off you were and gauge how much you need to improve.
Blair: I guess it’s not so bad as long as it doesn’t stop you in your tracks and stop you from playing. Anyway, we’ve rambled on for long enough – this is getting difficult. Do our lovely readers like it hard or are they easy?
MegaBonez
I tend to start games on easy, just so I can enjoy the story without too much frustration. Then I try the harder levels for the challenge.
BetaGhast
For regular games, I’ll go with the hardest difficulty right off the bat, for unfamiliar games I tend to choose the easier difficulties, Star Ocean 4 kinda screwed me over on this, i played with the practise battle on the main menu and the AI RAPED me, so i chose easy (Earth) mode and found the game to be a piece of piss, i was expecting it to be alot harder but whatever..
moshi
Im easy, sorry I meant I always play on easy. To many games to play and not enough time to get stuck on some boss etc.
Squeaks
Interesting one. I was discussing something similar with a mate just recently. I always play on hard as long as it’s a genre I’m familiar with. However, I like to be challenged and not cheated and a game has to be properly scaled for harder difficulties. Street Fighter IV basically feels like it’s cheating you. Seth being able to teleport around the screen with the highest priority throw has me pulling my hair out. I’ve beaten him a number of times on normal but fear for my sanity attempting it on hard.
While this isn’t directly related to difficulty, I’ve just finished Infamous and was disappointed by the lack of challenge. It was alarming that there was no real penalty for dying. If you’re struggling for energy you could just die to be revived pretty much where you left off with full health and battery cores. A better system would have been to gain XP at the end of each mission based on performance. This would at least give some degree of penalty for dying without putting up a wall that some gamers wouldn’t be able to overcome.
tactical20
Only games I play on hardest are games like call of duty and battlefield.
aerobes
It’s extremely rare I’ll complete a game twice, so I always play on easy to enjoy the game.
Real life is hard enough without having your free time compromised by struggling with something.
3shirts
But isn’t a lot of joy in real life derived from overcoming challenge, as it true of games?
Jimster71
I don’t like it when story driven games have achievements/trophies for completing the game on the harder difficulty levels. I’m only likely to play the game once (especially if it is something epic like Mass Effect 2) and I tend to play games on the Normal difficulty level. The exception to this is the rather excellent MW piss take in Bad Company 2.
Unfortunately, there is no definition of what a normal difficulty level should be in a game. Some are too easy, some are more of a challenge. As mentioned, it is good when a game offers you the chance to change the difficulty mid game, without having to restart.
I don’t mind a game being difficult if it is fair, such as the original Ninja Gaiden on Xbox. If you died, it was because you weren’t good enough and did something wrong. You get some games that just cheat or seem unfair – ModNation Racers, I’m looking at you – where you can play a perfect level and then get beaten by something out of your control.
Quinlank
“I don’t mind a game being difficult if it is fair, such as the original Ninja Gaiden on Xbox. If you died, it was because you weren’t good enough and did something wrong”
Or the game’s shitty camera led you to your death…
Slevin
I start anything on normal, especially story driven games(rpg’s, etc), more interested in the story than anything else. Get bored quite easily, but if it’s worth playing through on harder difficulty I’m willing to give it a bash.
PriceKitty
I agree with Blair. Why would you pay an average of $50 to $60 to play a game you can easily beat with hardly any skill? It takes both skill and effort to complete a game on harder difficulties and requires you to come up with new strategies and problem solving to what ever you’re stuck on. Also, everything about Call of Duty is made to be easy, especially the personally hated Modern Warfare series. Thankfully, the new Medal of Honor is almost out and will show IW and Treyarch how to make a game. :)
Quinlank
I practically never replay games on higher difficulties, with the only exceptions I can think of in recent years being Uncharted 2 and Demon’s Souls(A masterclass in how to structure a difficult game in a way that compells you to want to be better at it rather than give up). I don’t see the point in playing something like a Final Fantasy or Mass Effect game on higher difficulties as those are games that people are going into for the story first and foremost, unlike “smaller” games that rely on their gameplay alone to be the draw.