How Difficult do you Like Your Games? - InRetroSpect Podcast

In the latest edition of Through the Reticle, Sam looks at the affect that difficulty has on the games we play. What is usually an easy choice for some has, for Sam, become a challenging and awkward process whenever he begins a new game. For one does not simply always pick ‘Normal’. ‘Easy’ and ‘Hard’ must never be ignored.

[Gozer]

FPS, I play on Normal then play on Hard my second play through to get the achievements.

I played through Dark Souls, and it had its hard moments but was never unbearable I would say. I enjoyed Dark Souls difficulty.

[PoSTedUP]

depends on the game and my mood. i play a lot of pinball.

sports games depends on the sport, tennis i set to hard, hockey i set to hard, baseball and basekball i set to normal.

racing i normally set to hard but some games require a gradual increase.

story games depends on how i want to play it (hard: to keep it longer, or normal: to take it easy and chill out a lil)

persona games and jrpg's i set to normal because they are long as hell and i like the story.

RPGs i set to normal.

FPS i normally set to hard, even games like operation flashpoint.

[3-4-5]

If a game is too hard it becomes frustrating and I usually stop playing and move onto something else.

There is also a big difference when comparing real difficulty designed into the game and just cheap gimmick stuff.

[RedDeadLB]

Good games on hard and then again if there's an unlockable difficulty. Rest of the games on normal. Never easy.

[majiebeast]

Not Demons Souls black tendency swamp hard. Whoever designed that level was a sadistic bastard, 1 hitting giant trolls that have insane reach, with no way of running because of the damn swamp.

Colonel Radec had me pulling out my hair on hard and elite in Killzone 2. Joink backstab! He gives rogues a run for their money.

[HighResHero]

I remember that level and the frustration, but I would rather have that challenge.

I also remember conquering the club-wielding black phantoms(lol giant trolls yeah) just to fall off that bridge/platform and then deal with another black phantom, in the muck, where you couldn't dodge, and I think affected your status.

Can't wait for a proper sequel that retains the essence of Boletaria.

I also love the Japanese twist on the old European lore.

[Pintheshadows]

I actually found that on elite the hardest part of Killzone 2 was the part on the train when there is a tank and you are being constantly swarmed by Helghast. That drove me absolutely insane.

[_QQ_]

The best difficulty is vs other players in high skillcap games.

[Are_The_MaDNess]

higher skillcap in games? LMAO dont make me laugh..... and that comes from a Dota 2 player and CSS Player.

i would replace my hole dota team with elite bots instead of what im getting now.

[Allsystemgamer]

Someone's arrogant.

[_QQ_]

Diamond StarCraft2 player so i know what i'm talking about,i also play DOTA2 and it is High skill cap when you go 5 or 4 man because you que up vs 5 man.When you que Solo then i understand why its a pub stomp.At the very least its more challenge than almost all SP games offer.

[boribori831]

I play games on hardest when available .I have a rule" if your not cursing it out and saying how much you hate it, then its not good at all"

[pr0t0typeknuckles]

that my friend is a good rule,infact some of my favorite games, i cursed at the screen and said i hate the company,the system,and the game itself,lol

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

About 60 dollars worth but seriously I still think Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox and Killzone 2 for the Playstation 3 are the pinnacle for A.I that felt on equal footing with the player instead of cheap.

[TekoIie]

I usually like it when games have at least 4 difficulty levels.

For example with GeoW it goes: Casual, Normal, Hardcore and Insane.

when 4 options are given I go for the second highest. Just hard enough for me to die and get into situations that I struggle to get past not get too frustrated.

[Dante81]

Ninja Gaiden Black-level difficulty

[fsfsxii]

No game ever made me change T-shirts. Ever, except for NG.
Don't even get me started on the NES games.

[ifritAlkhemyst]

Always play on Hard. Extends the lifetime of the first playthrough. Provides a consistent challenge to the player. Overall more enjoyable experience.

Otherwise it's like playing a Quantic Dream game.

[DestinyHeroDoomlord]

Ghost's and Goblins....

[Daves]

My god, that on the Amiga... the Tim Follin music kept me playing - although I only got to hear it all many years later... on YouTube!

[andron]

I like my games challenging but fair. If there is no challenge, there is no incentive to get better either and I loose interest pretty fast.

And as others say if a game is good then several difficulties are necessary. I usually play through on normal or hard first, and then the hardest later when I really want a challenge...

[TopDudeMan]

I like my games to be somewhere harder than your bog standard multi-difficulty single player game (uncharted, mass effect, elder scrolls etc) and somewhere easier than "I wanna be the guy".

I think demon's souls and dark souls get it just right in so many ways.

[goldwyncq]

Normal first then the hardest difficulty the second time through.

[AceBlazer13]

not too easy i get bored but not too difficult that i quit. no cheap difficulty either like shao khan.

[DestinyHeroDoomlord]

Shao Kahn on hard is a nightmare

[AHall88]

I like to play my games how I watch my movies, relaxed, so I usually play on normal or easy.

[thehitman]

I play my games always on the hardest mode available for the best and most satisfying play through from the beginning.

[Are_The_MaDNess]

looking forward to when i complete the new game + in batman arkham origin and get the extreme gamemode without saves! :D

[hazelamy]

no saves?
so you have to play it all in one sitting?

[Arcanine]

Demon souls, ninja gaiden sigma 2 hardest difficulty I love...

[hazelamy]

i play for fun, so usually normal, and if i find that too much of a challenge, i drop to easy.

i'm under no illusions about my skill level.

[snarls200]

i am the same

[feraldrgn]

If it's something like Demon's/Dark Souls then it has to be difficult from the get go.

For all other games, I don't mind as long as there is a decent "Hard" mode as a selectable difficulty.

Open world games vary from Easy to Hard, depends on if I want to enjoy the exploration more or if the game has a shoddy auto-save/save feature.

Difficulty modes like Darksiders 2's Nightmare mode, where it deletes your data when you die, is a definite no no for me though.

[BABY-JEDI]

I was going to type 'real gamers play on hard' but I read a bunch of good points. I like games that challenge to the point of making my blood boil. Demon Souls, KZ2 end level, ghost & Goblins even TLOU @ certain point. But I can appreciate gamers who chill. Wish I could be like that!
LoL
Oh & I forgot Ni Nu Kuni that took forever. I love the game, but the grinding killed me.

[TheDivine]

Depends. I think balance is more important, I don't want to be frustrated. I love hard games like Etrian Odyssey, Demons Souls, Ninja Gaiden, SMT, and Fire Emblem. I love breezy games like Rune Factory that are easy and fun. None of those are frustrating. Some games make you rage because its annoying, not skill wise but just impossible odds, cheap tactics, or obtuse design. Persona 4 had the awesome retro dungeon that drove me crazy. I made it through only to find out I need a key from one of the ten or so floors. I backtrack and find a boss, kill him, travel back to the door only to realize the key is from a chest behind the boss, not from defeating the boss. I then backtrack again and get the key, return, and enter only to find out I'm about ten levels too low to win the fight. That is bad design and frustrating. Bad camera angles are frustarating. Having long dungeons without saves are frustrating. Dying on a boss when you have a one hour trek to get back to him is frustrating.

Most things have been ironed out with retry options, difficulty settings, save anywhere, and no random battle (which I hate). In a game like Dark Souls its hard but entirely skill based. You can still save anywhere. In Demons Souls there were levels but you learned them and were rewarded each time you replayed. This was hard but fair. That's the biggest thing, fair vs frustrating.

[CanadianTurtle]

Whenever I play Halo, I set it on Heroic since that's the way Halo was always meant to be played.

It always depends on a game's controls. If they're hard to get used to, I'll probably play through it on normal first just to get used to the movements and button layout. This is what I did with Bioshock Infinite. I started on normal, and once I got really good with the controls, I set it on Hard.