We all play games for different reasons. For some it’s an escape, for many it’s a way to unwind after a long day, and for even more it’s how they socialise and spend time with friends. However, I think that for everyone there’s one key element: a challenge. Games don’t need to be competitive or even have a win condition, but they do need to present you with some level of challenge.
Even thatgamecompany’s Flower, quite possibly the most relaxing game in the world, features a level of challenge, as does Journey. They’re hardly punishing but they do have collectibles that force you off the beaten track, encouraging you to explore the world a little more deeply and presenting you with that all important challenge.
For me I noticed the challenges from the first day, when I first played my favourite game. If you’re a regular reader you know I’m talking about the Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog, a game that was one of the keystones of my childhood. It pushed me from the very first time I picked up the controller, and continues to do so when I go back to it now. No matter how many times I play it the gauntlet that the level design throws down is still there, the challenge just as fresh.
[drop]That’s one of the aspects of a truly great game, the ability to come back to it and for it to still feel fresh each time you do. In my opinion the ability to that with a game comes down to the challenges it presents you with.This was the problem with Blue Toad Murder Files, the game’s puzzles didn’t hold up when you came back to it.
The game was certainly enjoyable the first time I sat down with it, the puzzles were entertaining initially and the characters were fun. However, the game was entirely focused on those puzzles and they were set in stone, repeating every time you played it.
It meant that the challenge evaporated after one play, essentially destroying the game’s replayability.
Without the challenge the gameplay evaporates and all you’re left with is an interactive world without any real purpose driving it. Sure there might still be a great story there but without that gameplay challenge, that force pulling you forwards, then it’s more of a film than a game.
Even games that seem open with no purpose have those challenges, or in many cases allow you to set your own. If you’ve played Grand Theft Auto then you’ve almost certainly seen how long you can evade the police or how many helicopters you can manage to take down. Somehow it’s more satisfying when you’re setting your own challenges and targets, although the depth of the goals in games like Burnout Paradise do a pretty good job of emulating what you might set for yourself, tasking you to find out how many barrel rolls you can do or how far you can jump.
This need to be challenged quite obviously extends to multiplayer gaming as well. We want to face off against someone who’s around our own skill level rather than an opponent who’s vastly better or worse than we are. Smashing someone in a complete mismatch isn’t that much fun, and neither is being smashed by a superior opponent. No, it’s when you go up against someone of a similar skill level that you’ve got the crucial element of challenge in the mix, and it’s then that you’re likely to have the most satisfying matchup.
As long as games continue to challenge us then there’ll always be something for us to appreciate and enjoy. All we can hope is that the type of challenge will continue to expand and evolve, presenting us with tougher bridges to cross and higher mountains to climb.
salvodaze
I’m not exclusively in it for the challenge either. Actually, apart from rpgs, strategy games and puzzle games, I seldom enjoy a tough challenge. I’ve actually been commenting about how fps games frustrate me and while I manage, how I usually can’t enjoy them even though I want to.
Like others have said, there are many reasons to play in addition to playing to be challenged. I can play just to have a good time, to empathize (and thus feel), to try something new or just to get my crush on Mitsuru or Yuna. All valid reasons.
KeRaSh
I usually only play games on Normal, except if I want to platinum it and there’s a trophy for that. I usually don’t play games on easy because some games even split up the trophies between a normal and an easy playthrough and being a gamer since I was 6 (wow, it’s been 18 years already…) I kind of feel obligated to do so. I guess it’s some kind of gamer pride.
The only game that I actively started on hard was Amalur because I wanted it to platinum it in one playthrough and because I’ve read that even on hard it was pretty easy. Even on hard the game was not challenging in the slightest but it was still so much fun.
So I guess no, I don’t need a challenge in a game to enjoy it. I don’t mind one, but it is not essential for me.
The Lone Steven
Whilst i like a good challenge, i don’t play games to be challenged, apart from Demon Souls and Dark Souls which may have caused me to go insane. But some of my favourite games can be challenging at times. For example, yesterday on DAO, i got my arse kicked a few times, this was on the normal setting and a diffculty spike occured. Twas the Desire Demon in the Circle Tower before the Sloth demon. My mage was killed within seconds due to everyone swarming him. Took me 3 attempts to defeat her.
I normally play on the normal setting as it feels natural to me, i used to play on easy but i’ve moved up to normal. Or in the case of Dark souls, getting my arse kicked diffculty. However there is a fine line between an enjoyable challenge and a very frustrating one. Dark souls was an enjoyable challenge, up untill Bed Of Chaos, then it became a very frustrating one that caused me to ragequit a lot and depise that bloody boss as i hate her and the person who was in charge of designing that fight should die, get ripped apart in hell and then sold to Tesco to use in their burgers! Ahem, i mean, it was very frustrating.
I found Fallout New Vegas to be challenging, for the wrong reasons. The challenge was how long can i play the bugger for before it crashes on me. I recall it starting to get very unstable when i had completed 3/4s of the plot based DLC.
But games today are easier and fairer then the SNES era as some of those games cheated, were brutal,cheated,had bad level design which could make it nearly impossible etc.. Based on AVGN’s reviews of bad games. :)
salvodaze
How is the shooting action in New Vegas? It looks like a great bargain now and I really like the Fallout atmosphere but like I said above I can’t enjoy games with too much fast-paced or demanding fps/shooting action going on. Would you recommend the game for someone who doesn’t play fps games (I know the game isn’t a fps :) )?
The Lone Steven
The shooting is good and each gun feels like it’s different. For example, the pistol feels like it’s a pistol and the single shot shotgun feels like it’s a single shot shotgun. I would reccomend it as you don’t have to play it as a FPS. You can punch everything to death, hit everything to death with a baseball bat etc.. The energy weapons feel like that they are energy weapons and have their own strengths and weakness. The plasma weapons are slow but powerful and so forth. You can play at your own pace as the game doesn’t make you feel that you should do the main quest. But if you do get to Vegas, it does start the second act which can be a bit annoying if you planned on ignoring it.
There is no post ending gameplay as it would be a nightmare for them to add the epilogue stuff in. You can get the UE for £20 nowadays and i think it is over 100 hours of content. Oh and 600 hours of restarting the console. :op
salvodaze
Thanks a lot, that was the impression I got from the videos too. It all sounds good since I’m in it for the atmosphere and loot. Sucks about the crashing though, I’ll check that out. So do you think Ultimate Edition is a must? Because the Standard Edition is dirt cheap right now (2-3 pounds) and I was thinking I’d give that a go.
The Lone Steven
The UE has all of the DLC and bumps the level cap up to 50 as well as introducing a lot of new weapons and perks. And a lot of content. :) Suspect you can get either one for £20 or less brand new. Have seen the UE for a tenner in an indie shop before.
salvodaze
Thanks, if I eventually get it I’ll definitely go for UE then.
blast71
I agree about today’s games being easier, bought the original driver off the store, and I absolutely loved it on my ps1 back in the day, now I can’t even get out of the garage at the beginning.
(Unless old age has made me useless at games);p
gaffers101
Personally I think there’s a fine line between a game being challenging and frustrating. Some games get it right and others get it very wrong.
I think a challenging game should have a progressive difficulty curve so that the game gets harder as you get better and vice versa. What really annoys me are the FPS games with ‘extreme-1-hit-death’ difficulty settings!
LTG Davey
I’ve found my patience when playing games has greatly reduced over the years. When I had a lot of free time I would always go for the highest difficulty and enjoy the challenge (I still remember being the first person in the UK to complete Dark Agent on Perfect Dark Zero – well, the first person to complete it with their 360 hooked up online anyway)
Now, with my job, my family and other commitments, I find myself playing a lot less and therefore get really frustrated when I get stuck on particular sections in games. Suffice to say I usually knock the difficulty down to easy/normal and just enjoy the experience.
Strangely online multiplayer doesn’t frustrate me… go figure.
stueeeee
Driver 2, and Silent Bomber. Still two of the hardest games I’ve played to date but really enjoyed in the end. Almost broke the controller though.
Both were on psOne, does this show how games are potentially getting optionally easier over time? Sure u put the difficulty up, but those games were just that hard, I had no choice but to try or give up!