I'm 46 and I never do that. Not because I'm a god gamer, far from it, but because I like to engage with the mechanics and have a hard time focusing if I'm not challenged. I like to think it keeps me young. ;)
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Games you enjoyed a lot more after turning down the difficulty?
- Thread starter Staf
- Start date
I'm 46 and I never do that. Not because I'm a god gamer, far from it, but because I like to engage with the mechanics and have a hard time focusing if I'm not challenged. I like to think it keeps me young. ;)
Both Wolf TNO and TNC are definitely better on lower difficulties I think. They wanna make you all vulnerable but also give you dual wielded automatic shotguns? I'm turning the difficulty down and rampaging with those auto shotties. Same goes for all the Uncharted games actually. I think they're much easier to "stay on script" with at lower difficulties.
I think I may do this with FF7, it's a lot of work getting myself to feel powerful on normal difficulty.
It felt great in Fallen Order for me too OP.
It felt great in Fallen Order for me too OP.
I am usually terrible at that kind of combat but Fallen Order felt perfect to me, I even replayed it on hard which was a lot of fun. I did have to cheese the final boss with the twin blade special attack though. Did the same thing with the sequel
I played the first hour or so of Gotham Knights on standard difficulty, and when I saw how spongy the enemies were I knew the combat was going to be insanely frustrating. Turned it down to easiest setting and basically just skipped all the combat, still hated it but there was no way I was ever finishing that game on standard.
I played the first hour or so of Gotham Knights on standard difficulty, and when I saw how spongy the enemies were I knew the combat was going to be insanely frustrating. Turned it down to easiest setting and basically just skipped all the combat, still hated it but there was no way I was ever finishing that game on standard.
God of War — went from being repeatedly murdered with every third footstep to a proper rollercoaster. As the dad of a toddler, don't need my leisure time to also be failure and repetition 😁
Not quite "difficulty" but I'm playing an old Amiga puzzle game right now and it has the actual puzzle level but also lives, a time limit and a separate time limit you have to make a move during.
I've turned them all off via a hack so it's just a puzzle and it's about 5000x better a game.
I've turned them all off via a hack so it's just a puzzle and it's about 5000x better a game.
Civ 6 - if you watch any content creator or streamer, they whack it on the highest difficulty making you think this must be the diff level to play, this is endemic to the whole gaming streamer/ytuber sphere and not fully specific to Civ, and that is fine. I've beaten it on it's higest difficulty, I, personally, did not get any more satisfaction from this, in fact I just felt slightly more pressed. I don't want to feel pressed in Civ, I'm a chill empire builder, my lowest stat is in Wars Declared, let me just cook, I mean, turtle up and send trade routes and expand. So on the lower difficulties the AI has no chance as they don't get increasing bonuses, they flounder lol and I love to see it.
I'm not sure I've actually *enjoyed* a game more because I've turned the difficulty down, but I've definitely beaten games because I turned the difficulty down.
In almost every instance it trivializes the game down to just kind of going through the motions to see the story play out.
In almost every instance it trivializes the game down to just kind of going through the motions to see the story play out.
I used to try to force myself to play every doom wad on ultra violence ... it just ended up with me saving after every encounter and reloading if I took too much damage. eventually I swallowed my pride and started playing on hurt me plenty, and I never looked back.
especially now, where doom wads are brutally difficult, I don't have time to grind like that anymore. I just want to experience it all and have fun, you know?
sometimes I'll even drop it to I'm too young to die (cough sunlust cough)
especially now, where doom wads are brutally difficult, I don't have time to grind like that anymore. I just want to experience it all and have fun, you know?
sometimes I'll even drop it to I'm too young to die (cough sunlust cough)
Nier & Automata
Jedi Fallen Order & Survivor
FF7 Remake (I'll do it with Rebirth)
Every Yakuza / Like a Dragon, lol
Jedi Fallen Order & Survivor
FF7 Remake (I'll do it with Rebirth)
Every Yakuza / Like a Dragon, lol
For me it's Control. I was playing for the story and setting, didn't care for the combat challenges.
Now that I'm 40 I'll turn a game down to easy without a second thought. I barely have any time to play these days, and when I do I certainly don't want that time to be spent frustrated. Most recent was BG3.
Multiple parts of FFVII Rebirth I dropped to easy just to get through the grind of the combat sim. I don't think I ever dropped it for an actual story boss or anything but I did drop it for those stupid summon battles for the final protorelic. I wasn't fucking around with Odin and somebody else when Odin already pushed my shit in.
I understand the feeling more and more everyday though. I have less time to play these things but I hate the idea of not playing at the default and experiencing the game as it was intended.
I understand the feeling more and more everyday though. I have less time to play these things but I hate the idea of not playing at the default and experiencing the game as it was intended.
I wasn't even able to get out of the tutorial area in the Witcher 3 without dropping the difficulty. That werewolf boss in White Orchard killed me like 20 times and I just gave up on playing the game on Normal.
I am actually starting to do the opposite a bit. Just got Jedi Survivor on sale and when i played through it on EA play it was on the lowest difficulty, now I am trying to get through it on normal and it's really fun. Same with my asscreed odyssey playthrough which I am doing on Hard now. This is mostly due to me personally having issues with goals and achieving them so I am using gaming as a way to help with that. I want to work up to the point where I can at least play something like Dark Souls without giving up at the first difficult enemy
Pretty much all of them, lol. I really can't think of anything specific off the top of my head at the moment. I feel like I've gotten worse at (or maybe I've just lost patience for) games over the years and rarely play on any difficulty above normal nowadays. And if for some reason I'm having difficulty on normal difficulty, you can bet I'm dumping down the difficulty level after getting frustrated too many times to the point the game has ceased to be primarily enjoyable.
I always hate it when games don't allow you to change the difficulty after starting the game. I find myself looking up all the differences between the difficulty settings online for like 10-15 minutes before finally selecting my difficulty and hoping I don't have too many issues with it. It's less of a thing with modern games but there's some games that actually lock things behind difficulty settings (Valkyrie Profile comes to mind), and sometimes difficulty settings don't actually even affect difficulty all that much.
I think I actually prefer it when games don't have difficulty options like Souls games or RDR2 because then I don't have to put so much mental energy into thinking about what setting I should choose, and if I do have difficulty with the game after that, I feel a bit more motivated to actually try and overcome the hurdles, since there isn't really any other option than "getting good". Generally I've found games without difficulty settings that are challenging like the Souls games to actually be really enjoyable forms of difficulty as well. In a lot of other games, hard modes often just mean the enemies are more spongy or you have to be a little more proactive in dodging/defending attacks because they hit harder, or maybe even grinding more in turn based RPGs - it all just feels too "artificial" for lack of a better term.
I always hate it when games don't allow you to change the difficulty after starting the game. I find myself looking up all the differences between the difficulty settings online for like 10-15 minutes before finally selecting my difficulty and hoping I don't have too many issues with it. It's less of a thing with modern games but there's some games that actually lock things behind difficulty settings (Valkyrie Profile comes to mind), and sometimes difficulty settings don't actually even affect difficulty all that much.
I think I actually prefer it when games don't have difficulty options like Souls games or RDR2 because then I don't have to put so much mental energy into thinking about what setting I should choose, and if I do have difficulty with the game after that, I feel a bit more motivated to actually try and overcome the hurdles, since there isn't really any other option than "getting good". Generally I've found games without difficulty settings that are challenging like the Souls games to actually be really enjoyable forms of difficulty as well. In a lot of other games, hard modes often just mean the enemies are more spongy or you have to be a little more proactive in dodging/defending attacks because they hit harder, or maybe even grinding more in turn based RPGs - it all just feels too "artificial" for lack of a better term.
That was me with Control as well. Turned on God Mode and 1-hit kills and just enjoyed the story.
Usually not the case for me, although I'm not the type to enjoy beating my head against the highest difficulty wall either, but DOOM and DOOM Eternal are a lot more fun for me on easier difficulties simply because I feel more drawn to the power fantasy of the Doomslayer than trying to get into the flow state of mechanical execution.
Most recently, the last few chapters of FFVII Rebirth and the DLC for The Witcher 3. For Final Fantasy, the game was just a bit too long and I wanted to get through the fights somewhat faster. I wish the difficulty settings would also affect the minigames. And for The Witcher 3, I really enjoyed the main game on the highest difficulty. It makes you think and prepare a bit more and basically engage with all the systems. But the first boss fight in the first DLC is ridiculous, so I turned down the difficulty and breezed thorugh the rest of the game a bit quicker.
I usually play at max difficulty, but there's certain games that just turn their enemies into hit sponges (Forbidden West, God of War 2018) and don't really do anything good with them.
I think games with difficulty sliders often tend to be poorly paced and have constant difficulty spikes anyway.
I think games with difficulty sliders often tend to be poorly paced and have constant difficulty spikes anyway.
I still start every game at Normal difficulty, but I'm not afraid to bump it down to Easy when the going gets tough. Recent examples:
God of War (2018)
The Witcher 3
Control
Horizon: Zero Dawn
When it comes to combat, I don't get a lot of joy out of challenging gameplay. However, tough platformers like Celeste, Super Meat Boy and the final levels of the Super Mario games are totally my jam!
God of War (2018)
The Witcher 3
Control
Horizon: Zero Dawn
When it comes to combat, I don't get a lot of joy out of challenging gameplay. However, tough platformers like Celeste, Super Meat Boy and the final levels of the Super Mario games are totally my jam!
Spider-Man 2. I didn't go full preset Easy but I did go with custom difficulty settings -- turned down enemy health by one notch and then turned down damage taken by enemy hits by one notch (If I remember right, all custom difficulty settings had like 5 possible ticks with 3 in the middle being "normal").
Made the game way better for me after having some frustrations and feeling like I was dying too quickly and doing too little damage to start... I was not actually convinced I was playing as an experienced Spider-Man.
I had no regrets about doing it and it enabled me to enjoy the game a lot more once I made those changes.
Made the game way better for me after having some frustrations and feeling like I was dying too quickly and doing too little damage to start... I was not actually convinced I was playing as an experienced Spider-Man.
I had no regrets about doing it and it enabled me to enjoy the game a lot more once I made those changes.
I'm all about the easy mode in most games. I don't have a very high tolerance for frustration or irritation for what's supposed to be a fun leisure time activity. However, once I'm intimately familiar with the controls and mechanics, cranking the difficulty up for a second playthrough can be fun. It's funny with all the Horizon Forbidden West mentions, because I had a good time and not much trouble with that on Ultra Hard but that was on NG+ with fully loaded and upgraded kit.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow 1 temporarily. I like my character action games on hard, but LoS starts on the tedious side (boring) when you haven't unlocked enough combos & tools. Luckily you can change it per chapter and go back to previous chapters, so once I got to a certain point I completed it on the max difficulty.
I tend to not turn down the difficulty on games because if I don't find the gameplay compelling enough on hard then I'm probably not going to find it compelling enough on easy. For the most part.
I tend to not turn down the difficulty on games because if I don't find the gameplay compelling enough on hard then I'm probably not going to find it compelling enough on easy. For the most part.
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I will only lower the difficulty if the game has 'bullshit ways' to artificially make it hard. e.g. giving the player very low health upon hits, making enemies bullet sponges, or long load times after dying. The last one is the worst.
I personally find games like Elden Rings very difficult. Enemies have very high HP, and your damage is very weak, unless you're fully upgraded.
Doom Eternal on Nightmare feels like a relatively well balanced game. The Slayer does feel a little 'squishy' on Nightmare and I certainly died a ton of times, but, you can equally dish out a lot of damage to the demons if you use the weapons effectively.
I personally find games like Elden Rings very difficult. Enemies have very high HP, and your damage is very weak, unless you're fully upgraded.
Doom Eternal on Nightmare feels like a relatively well balanced game. The Slayer does feel a little 'squishy' on Nightmare and I certainly died a ton of times, but, you can equally dish out a lot of damage to the demons if you use the weapons effectively.
I think I gets som sort of fear of missing out feeling so I'm having a hard time turning down the difficult level but I can think of a few games that my experience would be better if I did. I haven't read all comments but surely Callisto Protocol is mentioned? Basically all games that lack in game mechanic but have other redeeming qualities. I actually enjoyed Callisto Protocol but there are some issues with the combat.
A lot of retro games are more enjoyable when the difficult level isn't explicitly made to draw out on the experience
A lot of retro games are more enjoyable when the difficult level isn't explicitly made to draw out on the experience