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For most games, the real consequence of failure in a game is being forced to repeat what just happened. And getting caught in a Groundhog Day-esque situation that repeats once every few minutes suuuuucks.
It’s even worse when a failure causes your character to lose stuff. That’s even more time wasted, in that the time and effort taken to get the thing is gone.
Paint the rainbow on my proud carebear chest if you must. I just want a place to escape to for a little while, a place that doesn’t frustrate the shit out of me.
Exactly how I feel about the Souls games. How the fuck am I supposed to make any real progress when the only resource I have to do so is lost each time I die?
I have a full time job and a kid, I don’t have time to grind out a boss for hours. Can’t I just enjoy the world with an easy mode?
I agree with the person you were replying to, and I am glad that the Souls formula isn’t the norm (I’ve played all of them, and haven’t finished a one)…
But the Soulses get a pass from me personally, because their whole thing is about being present in the moment and overcoming what appear to be unbeatable odds. It’s the closest thing in modern gaming that gave me the feeling of being crushed by, and overcoming, the first Airship level in Mario 3.
That said, I’m not against accessibility option in a Souls game, so long as they’re optional.
Thats what the soul items are for. You eat those while standing in front of a bonfire about to level up. Because they are an item, you dont lose them when you die, so they are safe exp.
Especially boss souls. If you dont want the specific weapon that boss makes, you eat that shit when you need the level boost.
You can’t play Dark Souls without it being hard. There is no gameplay loop if you can just squash everyone in your path. I went out of my way to beat Souls 3 and Elden Ring without upgrading my character to make it more fun. If you want to just walk around then play something else.
I agree that the game falls apart without challenge, but the challenge will vary by player, especially those of different abilities. So while I wouldn’t use them (until I get older and slower maybe), I support the addition of optional accessibility options in Souls games. They aren’t a fun little experiment anymore - they’re a proven formula, and I believe it can survive tweaking.
I don’t even want an easy mode, per se, at the very least just a “medium” mode. Give the bosses like 5% less health, make them 5% slower, etc. Just take the edge off the difficulty so that it’s not so unbearable.
Exactly. I cannot stand how interested I am in soulsborne storylines because I’m simply not willing to put myself through playing that shit any longer.
The only soulsborne I’ve beaten is an “easy mode” modded Elden Ring. Nothing worse than watching a game LP on youtube because I really want to play it but don’t enjoy it. (Bloodborne, lookin at you)
I feel like souls games are the exception. The game is about the cycle of dying and reviving, and the progress you make isn’t in game, but in game knowledge. You might not like it, but it’s kind of the theme of the game.
And if you really want to experience those games, DKS1 has a really easy to perform soul dupe that will make you overpowered as hell in no time. Then you can enjoy the game. It’s cheating, sure, but so is asking for an easy mode in a game it’s not intender for, at least for me, and I’m totally okay with cheating when I don’t want to do the full experience. In single player games, ofc.
Except for Fallout 4. That survival mode turns it into a completely different fucking game.
Running around cause you need to get to a sleeping bag or dirty mattress after walking half a map, words can’t describe the feeling adequately.
Voluntarily drinking dirty water.
Actually using the cooking system.
Indeed. I want easy mode and cheats in my games. I am paying for them, let me play the way I want. Sometimes I play with normal difficulty, sometimes in story mode. And sometimes I just want to be immortal and have infinite money. I don’t know why basically no developer makes this available.
Local man discovers difficulty settings.
Pretty accurate to the story, now that I actually read it.
Easy Mode is for adults that just want to see the story.
I’m an adult and I like Hard Mode (or higher) because I play for the challenge. What could be more challenging than juggling a demanding work/home life and also trying to progress in a long game with only 2 hours a week to play on the hardest possible difficulty? At any moment a kid or pet could unplug the system and corrupt my save. It’s like everything has a hardcore mode.
Yeah, the last of us is an example of a game with a moderately compelling story.
But it’s also a game that does a really good job of offering brutal difficulty in a way that’s fair, engaging, and makes success all (OK, mostly) about you. There aren’t really cheap fails. If you approach encounters intelligently and execute your actions, you will succeed. If you don’t, you get punished. The mostly is because resources are scarce and there’s some RNG to drops, so if you’re too low, some harder encounters can vary in difficulty based on the ammo that you get.
If that’s not what you want, that’s fine. But I read books and watch TV for stories. I play games for mechanics. Is it nice when a game like Horizon makes a character like Aloy really compelling by having her have to present advanced tech to primitive tribalist cultures? Sure. But if the mechanics weren’t good, writing couldn’t even sort of mitigate that for me.
Flashbacks to when my daughter had just started walking and pressed the button on my Xbox while I was playing Assassin’s Creed 2, corrupting my save file at 90% completion.
I was like “no no no no!!! Ahhh…awwwwwww….”
Poor thing got so confused, I had to tell her it was alright but explain to her not to do that.
Couldn’t really get mad at them, they literally didn’t know they shouldn’t do that thing yet, lol, but damn did I have to start all over!
“At any moment, I could be shot in the face! I LIVE HARDCORRRRRRE!”
This is one of those threads where if you agree with the author, you’re a filthy casual, but if you actually want your hard game to be hard, you’re a sweaty loser than needs to touch grass.
Have your easy mode. Some of my favorite games even have a “Very Easy” mode. Just don’t corrupt games that are designed with a specific challenge in mind with nerfed nonsense.
Agreed. I’ve been playing through Forsaken Remastered and that game doesn’t fuck around. Figured I’d run through it on easy for my first run and work my way up the difficulty settings. Easy is for beginners.
I don’t have time to play on the hardest settings anymore. Plus I’m old and I’m just not as good as I was 20+ years ago. My son laughed at me once when he saw I was on easy, that was 10 years ago, he’s still grounded. 😂
Eh, easy mode is for those who need or want to use it. Ditto for hard or impossible modes. Adult, teenager, troglodyte, don’t really matter what ya are
Yeah, I felt the same way reading this. It frames the easy mode option as this revelation that everyone should try because they are too proud not to. In reality, it’s the tale of one person’s experience who found a way to make their hobby more enjoyable for them
I’m 38 and easy modes are made for people like me. I usually dont have the time, attention or patience required by some games to even have a fighting chance in game progression (looking at you FromSoft) I don’t regularly use easy mode as it does make many games trivially easy but sometimes it’s just enough where I can enjoy the story, explore a beautiful and imaginative world and see it through to the end without the bullshit. I usually have no desire to be a hard-core veteran of a game’s mechanics but I still want to play the game. If people don’t like it, we’ll, I’m still 38 and dont give a shit what others think anymore. Just take my $60 and entertain me.
Easy mode is for younger adults and kids too. Age isn’t really relevant tbh. I never played games on hard or even normal when I was a kid. Like you said it’s more about how much time do you have to invest
I’m older than you and have beaten all the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring.
I grew up playing actually hard games like Bionic Commando and Ninja Gaiden on the NES.
This article’s premise is BS. Easy mode is for people of any age who have not gotten gud.
This article’s premise is BS. Easy mode is for people of any age who have not gotten gud.
I don’t disagree with you, but a lot of people, when presented with new game mechanics, don’t have the time to spend “getting gud”.
I know that if I were to start playing, for instance, Hollow Knight today, rather than at its release (cleared Pantheon of Hollownest), I’d likely have to put it down or install a nail damage increase mod – I have kids now; no time to grind at bosses to learn the patterns.
Years ago, I may have felt the same and I probably did but my life is not compatible with “getting gud” at every game that comes my way or that i even want to play. I grew up with the same systems as you as I know full well they used to be much harder and the challenge was the whole point. Not anymore so much with a lot of games.
I have chosen 1 game to fully invest myself into and that’s BG3. I’m on my tactician run, just as I did with DoS 1 & 2 and I’m enjoying it because I’m willing to do so with that masterpiece of a gaming experience. But I also play other games when I can’t and I just want it to be fun. Hard, easy and everything in-between, I just wanna zone out, forget about my day and watch an interactive story unfold before me.
Edit:typo
I really wish there were an “adult difficulty” setting to pick instead of ‘easy’. I don’t have hours to waste on hordes of “difficult” enemies that just slows progress and pads the playtime. Nor do I want a walking simulator where the boss just falls over with no need for anything beyond the most basic game mechanics. Give me an option to experience the story with an interesting challenge without wasting my time, dammit!
Bought GTA V 10 years ago with a newborn on the way. Two more kids later and I’ve still never finished it because I’ve hit my video game skill cap. I just want to finish the story.
Please bring back cheat codes.
Please bring back cheat codes.
They exist behind paywalls nowadays.
Perhaps the real irony is that only PC still lets you cheat for free in single player games nowadays, but you have to download a trainer (which might have dubious origin), or just learn how to use CheatEngine and look up for ready tables for games
Huh, never thought of finding tables other people made, I just used cheat engine with a process of elimination every single time.
Like this?
Huh go figure. Maybe this is my year after all!
Edit: Why is the invincibility cheat only for 5 minutes?
yeah they “cheats” they put in are dogshit compared to a simple trainer.
Removed by mod
Sometimes the difficulty will improve enemy tactics, boost numbers or make the player less of a tank, and genuinely add challenge.
But, if the game has a good storyline I like to play on “normal” for the first playthrough as I feel higher difficulty ruins the pacing. Then if I enjoy the game I’ll go back and replay on higher difficulty for the challenge.
This was always the way when a new Halo game came out, they have long stated that they are “meant to be played on Heroic” but me and a buddy would rip through in coop on Normal and then bump up the difficulty.
I finally got around to Titanfall 2 and Normal feels a bit easy, but it also feels like I’m playing a robot mecha movie instead of grinding through tactical battles, which is awesome. Definitely going to revisit this one on Hard though.
Relevant video from Razbuten about difficulty settings on games.
It’s weird because I wish people were more clear about difficulty because it clears up contradictions. At the same time, it gives me an easy reason to dismiss an opinion if it doesn’t house my perspective on the best way to appreciate the game.
Cmon you gotta play F.E.A.R. on hard. That’s when it really pops off.
Okay The Atlantic. If you say so.
Lmao games journalists are never living down their reputation
