My thought on the difficulty in video games

My thought on the difficulty in video games 

For those of you who don’t play video games, there has been people and so-call gaming journalist complaining about video games being too hard lately. To be fair this has been going on for the past five or six years and I hope it would stop. First, it was Dark Souls then Metroid Dread and now Elden Rings. Of course, like most of the gaming community, I brush it off as them being lazy, entitled, afraid of fomo or they want to be a completionist. The gaming community even started a hashtag # get good and I respond to them by saying play a telltale game. 

Heck game developers pop fun at us for playing games on easy mode. 

I feel bad for jumping on people who complain about this without seeing if this is a topic worth talking about. Plus, there is something I didn’t consider and that’s player expression. Also, I’m just tired of people expecting everyone to include them in everything. There is a right way and a wrong way to do hard mode in video games. When hard mode is done right it causes you to think of ways to beat the boss or complete your objective. It encourages you to be familiar with the game’s mechanics and know when to use them. For example, there is a level in Crash Bandicoot where you have to reach the end of a broken bridge without falling. You can do this by timing your jumps or using the ropes. Another example is GM mode in the Smackdown vs Raw games. The goal in that mode is to win General Manager of the year award. In order to do that you have to keep the rating high and that's no simple task. 

When it’s done wrong, it feels like the game is testing your patients instead of having you think. (I'm not saying that a difficult game shouldn't test your patients but there should be a limit.) This is the problem I have with the Halo games whenever I play them on Legendary mode, I feel like I’m being handicapped. The enemy A.I. has increased health and can do more damage when they hit you. Because of that I barely got past the first wave of enemies because I use most of my ammo on one of them. Playing Halo involves strategy as far as you have to prioritize which alien are you going to kill first? By making them OP you took the fun away and now the game has become a chore. I heard when you play a certain mode in the Destiny games, your equipment is limited and you have to play the game a certain way. If that's true, then that's hurting the player expression. That's why I don't like trophies in games because they are telling me how to play the game instead of letting me play the game how I want to play it.    

Despite my enjoyment of Pac-Man, it's one of the hardest games to beat for me. The reason why is because whenever you beat a level the ghost move faster and the power Pac’s last shorter. Memorizing the ghost movement patterns doesn't mean anything if you don’t have the reflexes to match. I’m not saying that this hurt the game however I can understand why other people would feel differently. Another thing that annoys me about playing games on hard mode is that when you died you have to start all over again as far as regain your collectibles and stats. (Well, that depends on what you're playing.) This is why platform games like Mega Man and Crash Bandicoot don't need hard modes because they become difficult as you progress through the game and you become familiar with the controls. They do the same thing with racing games, once you're familiar with the controls the tracks become harder and the time limit is shorter. 

There are some games where hard mode is ridiculous. For example, the hard mode in NBA 2K2 is an invisible wall when the A.I. is playing defense. I’m not kidding about that why was this game popular at the time? Star Wars Bounty Hunter doesn’t have a hard mode, but that game has tasks that can be hard to achieve like collecting bounties. I mean it’s hard to get certain ones because the target is in the middle of a shootout, and you don’t have enough time to decide if you want the target dead or alive? When playing a wrestling game as a cruiserweight going up against a heavyweight, there isn't much you can do against him besides outmaneuvering your opponent. (Well, that depends on which game you're playing.) Don't get me started on the Xbox 360 version of Iron Man. 

Yes! Hard mode in games can make or break those games especially if the game is broken. When you beat a game on hard mode you should feel like you accomplish something by overcoming the challenge not rejoicing that you finally beat the game and hope you never play it again. Then again easy mode can hurt the game as well, I mean if the game is too easy you have no incentive to explore the game. When it comes to Dark Souls and Elden Rings I hear people complain that those games have no maps, no indicator that tells you when an enemy is going to hit you, the game doesn't drop hits and you can't tell if you're fighting the final boss. 

Where was this complaint when it comes to the Legend of Zelda games? I mean some of the Zelda games are like this. Also, Pokémon games don't have maps either. I can understand why those games bug you if you're bad at backtracking. Also, there's a difference between holding your hand and pointing you in the right direction. Going back to Legend of Zelda those games have maps that you have to find and drop hits on where you should go but you still have to do the work. Those games don't tell you where you can find all the easter eggs or collectibles. (Well, that depends on the NPC you talk to in the game.) I struggle with finding all the pieces of heart but that didn't ruin the game for me. That was my gripe with Skyward Sword, I mean you start with six hearts instead of three, but I digress.       

Just because a game is too hard for you it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with the game or you. All games are not the same and there not made for everyone. Also watching other people beat the game on twitch is not that helpful, I mean you can’t accomplish things in life just by watching others do it for the most part. People complaining about games being too difficult shouldn't be an issue as long as you can articular your points. When you don't you get videos like that girl on TikTok saying all games need easy mode. 

See what I mean? RPGs don't need an easy mode because you can raise your stats to make the game easier for you. Just because playing games is not a priority for you that doesn't mean game developers should make it easy for you. Just because most gamers are minors doesn't help your case. There are people who work and still make time to play games so what is she talking about? If you want to see a story play the last of us or a telltale game. That's all I have to say about this subject for now. 

P.S. This is something Frosk could have talked about.