Alex Hutchinson, lead designer on Assassin’s Creed 3, is wrong.
I’m sure he’s a lovely bloke, talented too, but his comments regarding easy modes in games – an otherwise throwaway snippet no doubt pulled from a greater body of discarded text for maximum impact by Edge magazine – have wound me up.
Even assuming that there’s a greater context to his words, and reading beyond the headlines, I can’t think of a single game in recent years that has been “ruined” by a lower difficulty level. Ruin is a strong word (and his, too) and seems completely at odds with my own personal opinion.
Of course, opinions are there to be personal, but I just don’t see his point.
[drop2]”If you have a cover shooter and you switch it to easy and you don’t have to use cover, you kind of broke your game,” he said.That’s largely nonsense, not because a game’s singular core mechanic must be its bond that holds everything together, but because that’s not really how games like that work.
Cover shooter? Let’s assume he’s thinking of Gears of War. It doesn’t matter if he’s not, but that’s a title that most will be familiar with.
I’m playing the game on (say) a ‘medium’ difficulty level and I’m struggling with a certain point, the option to drop to a lower level would be most welcome.
But that won’t mean that I don’t have to use cover. It means – in this example – that the enemy will be less accurate, and it means that their bullets will harm me less. If I stand still like an idiot I’m still going to die. I need to use cover, but I don’t have to be such a hotshot at everything else.
Is that really a problem? Is that really “breaking” the game?
No, of course not. It is – by definition – making it easier. It’s making it more suitable for me and my (lack of) skills, and it’s making that otherwise sticking point passable. Of course, I could die repeatedly on ‘medium’ until I manage to scrape by, but I really don’t have the time for that and I certainly don’t have the patience.
In fact, games that don’t adjust to my capabilities or offer a way to (even temporarily) reduce the difficulty better have a damned good reason for their stubbornness.
Playtesting and focus testing can only offer so much in the way of balance, there’ll always be players better or worse, and that’s what easy (and hard) modes are for.
[drop]”You made a game that is essentially the worst possible version of your game,” added the lead designer.Again, he’s clearly talking about a stripped back, mechanics-less version of a game that I can’t seem to connect with. Am I playing the “worse possible version” of F1 2012 if I throw on all the assists and let it change gears for me?
No, I’m playing the version that’s most suited to my skills, and my available time.
Am I missing out on something by not bothering with Uncharted 3’s upper echelons of difficulties?
Nothing but challenge and some trophies, as far as I can see, and I’m perfectly happy playing on a lower difficulty so I can enjoy the story, the ride, the flow without having it interrupted by Retry? screens and loading pauses.
I’ve barely played an Assassin’s Creed game beyond a few hours of the first one, so there might be an association with Hutchinson’s comments that I’m clearly missing, but on a wider scale – games in general – the somewhat ignorant remarks used in the article managed to annoy me more than they probably should have done.
I like playing certain genres of games on easy modes, just as much as I like playing others on hard. I don’t think they represent the “worst possible versions” of the games I might not otherwise enjoy at all, but – again – maybe I’m just missing the point entirely.
Origami Killer
I can understand what he means. With any shooter, action game I will usually start it on hard or normal, never easy. It does ruin the game in the way as there is no challenge anymore, no real feeling of accomplishment if you complete it on easy compared to hard. Easy should really be a last resort, only when you are having a lot of trouble. I’ve switched difficulties many times when this has happened.
bunimomike
But that’s just it. “Easy” is there for people who don’t have the skills that others might possess.
If you don’t need Easy don’t choose it but for god’s sake, leave it in there so others might enjoy a game they would otherwise overlook or resent after purchase.
Origami Killer
Oh yes I agree that it needs to be left there. I wouldnt of completed a few games if it wasnt for easy.
Tuffcub
Yes lets go back to the good old days when games were ridiculously hard and you had three lives. I buying games then only ever getting to see 25% of what I had bought.
I completed many games, Zynaps, Uridum, Sabre Wolf, Exelon, Cybernoid and Attic Attack, but there plenty more I never saw the end of.
Anubis2097
Played CoD or any other online competitive game recently? There are people playing who constantly spend their time at the bottom of the leaderboard and yet still enjoy themselves (I assume) as they keep coming back. They can’t make it easier but they stick at it and eventually get better.
Forrest_01
Online is completely different though. It doesn’t have difficulty settings, which makes your point a bit moot tbh.
The discussion here is whether adding an easy mode into your game ‘ruins’ it. Which it does not.
Anubis2097
My point is that people will play a game regardless of the challenge they face if it’s fun to play, they do it online so why not offline? An easy mode may not ‘ruin’ a game but is it necessary?
Forrest_01
For some, yes it is.
Some people simply do not have the time or patience for constant restarts & some simply do not have the skill required to complete on higher difficulties. Does this mean that they should be excluded from experiencing the story that the developer has spent hours lovingly crafting (& would most likely want as many people as possible to experience)? No, it shouldn’t.
Easy modes exist for people such as those above – I really don’t get why people are bothered by it’s inclusion, especially when they have already said that they play on higher difficulties.
If it’s not for you simply ignore it & play on the mode that best suits you, safe in the knowledge that someone, somewhere will be enjoying that mode.
Anubis2097
You say “Does this mean that they should be excluded from experiencing the story that the developer has spent hours lovingly crafting”, what about the game they have lovingly crafted? The game where the struggle is part of the story? The game where you feel what the characters are feeling because you have experienced the hardships they have. To create a game only to have someone waltz through your carefully designed challenges can’t be what developers want. The challenge is part of the story and the story suffers without it.
Easy modes do not ruin games for me but people using them are potentially numbing their experience. People don’t have the time? People complain all the time about the length of games, perhaps a few retries would mean they spend longer trying to achieve something. A good cure for lack of skill is practice and easy mode is not practice, if you played the same way you do on easy on harder modes chances are you won’t last long.
Forrest_01
To me, if i was a dev, it would be more important that people see the latter half of the game, rather than the knowledge that they are caused to sweat when the character does & potentially not finish it.
Wheres the value in all that coding, artwork, scripting testing etc if its just going to go to waste & not be seen?
At the end of the day, gaming is supposed to be an enjoyable experience & if the difficulty makes it less enjoyable (or worse puts people off entirely), what’s the point?
cam_manutd
Trophies/achievements encourages higher echelon of difficulty. Not everyone has the time to grind through demanding difficulties and thus easier difficulty is fine. Does not mean a player is worse or better. I believe in set difficulty on some games and higher difficulties on others but difficulty doesn’t define the quality of a game. Take Uncharted. Did all the reviewers play it on hard on a short deadline or then play through crushing?…..
wolf-OF-chaos
I completely agree. Before trophies/achievements i would always play through a game once on easy difficulty (except certain games like mgs3 and resi2,3 and outbreak). But know i’m more inclined to replay games on higher difficulties because of trophies.
wolf-OF-chaos
*Now* not *know*
doug
Easy modes on games are perfect for me to start on because you get to enjoy the games story without getting to frustrated with it but I still like to do them again on hard if the game is good enough thats what I did with all god of war games and all uncharted games I only wish dark souls had an easy mode because that game was bullshit I consider myself to be quite a good gamer but that game made me feel like I had two left hands or something even if it disabled trophies for lowering the difficulty I’d be happy because then I’d get to see the story
revilo13
I agree, easy mode doesnt break anything.
If you look at something like Guitar Hero, if it didn’t have the easy option, then a lot of people wouldnt get past the first song, it takes time (in other games too) to get used to the concept and controls, and THEN you can up the difficulty and enjoy a harder challenge.
When I played Guitar Hero with flat mates at uni I used to play on expert, but no one else could so they played easy or medium. it allows a wider range of gamers to enjoy the same games
VirusPT
Medium or Normal should always be the way the game was meant to be played. Hard ou anything above normal should offer some (or a lot of) challenge. But easy mode is ridiculous. It’s like playing Guitar Hero on the easiest setting where all you do is press one button at a very slow rate.
TheDeathAvenger
For games that have the option of choosing a difficulty mode I mostly always choose the hardest difficulty (apart from Guitar Hero type games!). The only time I choose the easy mode is for the odd time I want to piss about, and I wouldn’t really mind not having that option. However some people like to have, or even need to have, that option for them to be able to enjoy playing the game.
There are games that don’t have the option of different difficulty modes, some have one set difficulty, others change various factors which affect difficulty depending on how you are performing.
I know I certainly wouldn’t enjoy playing through most games on easy mode, it would plain and simply ruin it for me. I imagine that for people that like to play on easier modes, being forced to play a game on too hard a difficulty setting, so their experience wouldn’t be ‘ruined’, would ruin it for them.
blast71
I’d like 2 think that I’m pretty good at shooters/action games, but after deciding 2 start my 1st playthrough’s of Aliens vs Predator, Kane & Lynch2, & Singularity on hard mode, then getting stuck on all 3 maybe i’m not as good as i thought. Keep going back 2 them but still end-up rage quitting, i won’t lower the difficulties because that would be admitting defeat;)
Also tried platinuming Dead Space, spent over 12hours playing through on hardest difficulty, waited 4 the ‘ping’ of the trophy, only 2 find all it did was open-up an even harder level. Gutted.
Havn’t played it since. I’m not bitter:p
Forrest_01
Yeah AvP & K&L can be a kick in the teeth at certain points (expecially K&L), but Singularity shouldn’t be too bad. I think the only part that caused me a bit of frustration was in the sewers with the ticks. Its doable though – You just have to keep your distance & try not to get swamped.
blast71
That’s the bit i’m stuck on – the sewer. Manage to kill most of the ticks but there’s always one that gets me, even tried using that time bubble thingy. Maybe its cause i’m crap :p
K&L – stuck in a cafe surrounded by swat, right poxy level.
Vandix
First thing I thought when I read this comment by Alex Hutchinson, who is he to talk the game designer of one of the easiest games I’ve ever played… (one button does all…)