The Difficulty Curve: How Hard Is Too Hard?

We all love a good challenge. At least, most of us. Well, it depends what you define as a gamer. Obviously, we’re not referring to the anyone who counts Dogz on the Nintendo DS among the badass gaming challenges of all time, no matter how fond we all may be of Labrador puppies. You often hear more mature gamers waxing lyrical about how “games were much more difficult back in my day”. This is often true, but it’s often true because the early pioneers of this young medium actually didn’t have a clue how to build a decent difficulty curve into a video game. The real question is, how hard is too hard?

[fattyuk]

Old games didn't have a save feature!

You start, you die, you restart.

I rememeber when the PS2 came out and people couldn't afford memory cards(well 13 year olds) and we use to play GTA3 but kept the console switched on for days at a time!

I think 1 day I might give bioshock infinite a crack on 1999 mode, but with a game like that if I died after a fair few hours I would probalay cry,

[ifritAlkhemyst]

1999 mode isn't that bad. Try Dead Space 3 hardcore mode if you want annoying difficulty.

I usually set all my games straight to hardest available difficulty. Anything less is such a pathetic breeze these days.

[Cam977]

Or if you really want a challenge try Hitman: 2 on 'professional' difficulty without a walkthrough.

[Dee_91]

GT5 redbull challenge.Talk about pulling hair out sheesh
and I consider myself a pro
In my opinion the lack of a save feature doesnt count as hard lol.

[2pacalypsenow]

Xcom enemy unknown in classic and impossible mode .

[Perjoss]

Strange thing about xcom enemy unknown was that the first 2 months were the hardest, after that the game got much easier. Very strange difficulty curve, if you can even call it that.

[Why o why]

Old skool gouls n ghost...or was the harder one ghost n goblins.......infuriating

[matrixman92]

there is nothing at all hard about 1999 mode...i beat it in 1 day just rushing through

[Saksoy]

Good old days.

[Benjammin25]

That's what she said.

[fattyuk]

That's what your mum said.

[Grave]

Demon's Souls NG+ was probably pushing the limits, but I say bring it!

[greatcrusader44]

I personally found Demon Souls NG+ fairly easy, I even black world tendencied all the worlds so I can farm for trophies, completely starting over is more of a challenge than NG+.

Truthfully I find the Souls games difficulty vastly exaggerated, its only hard til you find out the mechanics and leveling work. They are still fun and challenging games, but nowhere near as hard as its made out to be.

[SonyStyled]

when she says so

[T2]

Old school die in one hit with no save is a bit much ... Tmnt , bayou billy on nes... Or how about games that repeated but never end ... Spyhunter nes ....but yeah alot of games are just too easy these days

[bigtrucknd]

I still remember trying to swim through electrified seaweed trying to defuse bombs with a time limit. That board was just rediculous.

[T2]

Dude I finished it with the game genie on invincible , and it was still hard ! Took hours ! Lol

[Soldierone]

People these days don't know what "hard" is anymore. Hard is people throwing extra grenades or the game being broken with random head shots.

Go back a few generations and play games on hard, then come back and tell me todays games are challenging. Its a whole different experience. Today you just think about the situation or keep trying, back then you literally had to keep trying and actually figure it out, mixed in with a little bit of luck.

[Perjoss]

Ninja Gaiden 2004 was pretty brutal, but it always felt fair unless your death was related to the dodgy camera angles. Fantastic game.