Artificial Difficulty: Biggest Offenders

[PedroSteckecilo]

Despite starting this thread, and despite all of its flaws, and despite my own ranting.

I still absolutely LOVE Dead Rising, it is this love which makes me complain. I enjoy killing random zombies, I don't even mind weapon breakage (though apparently I have a talent with dead rising, I can kill with brutal efficiency using Pop Cans and CD's, so I rarely worry about weapons). Seriously, what other game lets you wander around a mall, use whatever weapon you want and kill tons of zombies?

None that I can think of.

 

[Carnival]

F.E.A.R.

Example 1: The huge guys in armour that don't hit you for shit and yet take AT LEAST all your ammo and a kick to the face to dispatch. Twice. I actually decided to simply kick one to death just to save the ammo. And before anyone says "shoot them in the head", I tried that. Along with shooting them in the chest, arms, legs, crotch, and foot. It doesn't work. They just stand like a giant wall of boring.

Example 2: The robots they clearly stole from robocop. These actually do damage, but they're still boring to fight. You can pretty much aim at the closest wall and you're guaranteed to hit them, they just don't die. Its a shame because I loved F.E.A.R.

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

I have to respectfully disagree. You have any idea how much you have to go through to get that stupid thing? You have to work between missions to go to only one store on the second floor in the middle of fucking nowhere! And the sad part is, yeah the katana kills in one hit, but knives that kill in 2 or 3 last longer than it! And if it's sharp enough to actually cut through bone and sinew, than obviously it is a high quality katana, so I have to disagree with you on that point also.

Hmm. I meant it sort of tongue-in-cheek, but your point is well taken.

Okay, how about this: it's totally unrealistic and unexpected for a mall-bought katana to break after five uses... in the real world. But I'd say it's eminently realistic and totally predictable that it would break in five uses... in a zombie movie. Shit always breaks at exactly the wrong time in zombie movies. It's funnier that way.

Now it's a bit more open to debate whether what works in movies is all that successful when carried over to other media in translation, such as video games.

 

[ShyWinter]

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - No matter how much frigging body armor you have on a single shot on "realistic" difficulty makes you go down faster than YOUR MOM (sorry, that was uncalled for, but too good to pass up).

Kane & Lynch - Your NPC partners don't have a prayer of hitting whatever they aim at, even if the target is five yards away.

Full Spectrum Warrior - A bad guy that has one leg behind a create is "in cover" and thus immune to the fusillade of hot lead eight men fire at him.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Driver 1 and 2, the police had the divine dispatcher so they knew exactly where you were and had a knack of timing their run through the intersection so they'd T-bone you as soon as you came through their at 120mph! The same goes for the civilian cars that would pull out of streets right in front of you (despite having sat there for two minutes before you actually got to them) or merge on top of you. Wipeout!

Also, any of the Final Fantasy games that have the so called "random encounters". You can battle your way through and area and then realise you forgot something a while back, you only need to take two steps and FFS another battle with a similar enemy to the one you just beat. Rinse; repeat.

 

[Gitsnik]

What about the nuke-station run near the end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. just before you actually enter the plant itself. Helicopters come out of nowhere and a stack of guys just pour out of the walls. While you're irradiated and almost out of ammunition.

Yeah, took me about 20+ tries to get that one to work...

 

[CyberAkuma]

Ugh... Fightinggames fall to this category a lot.

Special moves that are required a specific input or pattern before executed, the computer laughs at it.

The AI is able to pull off any and all super moves with the execution time of superman without even breking a sweat using multiple supermoves in succesions that you just *KNOW* is impossible for any human player.

GENOCIDE CUTTER!

Oh, and don't get me even started on the earlier Mortal Kombat games...
The computer AI in those games are bullshit.

 

[Feragore]

I don't tend to have a big list of such cases, however, I was playing through System Shock 2 again recently and I must say the Annelid Swarms fit the bill pretty well. You find these in certain eggs dotted all over the game when you get too close to them.

However, you spend the next 10-15 seconds running around in an attempt to not take damage as you can't kill them (only one weapon can, but it's a massive waste to even learn to use let alone the ammo) before they naturally die. Of course, the areas are not exactly wide and open so you'll likely end up running so far back you've got lost or you run right into the face of another enemy unless you take at least some damage.

And a good few of these eggs are hidden in such places theres almost no avoiding it without save/load or going very slowly.

 

[Blayze]

Dawn of War: Soulstorm. More specifically, the campaign. Putting aside the fact that the computer knows where all your buildings and units are at *all* times, putting aside the fact that the computer gets Honour Guard units that it *shouldn't have* for free and can instantly refill them whenever it likes, putting aside the fact that it gets multiple bases (In other words, multiple *armies*) in almost all battles...

The game *then* decides to punish you in the name of "maintaining a challenge" by removing all of your buildings from a territory when you have to defend it. And what are you defending it against? Most likely a single attack with multiple enemy bases (armies), not to mention an inevitable rush from the enemy commander, *all* their free and illegal Honour Guard units *and* whatever units they've managed to cheat-build in the time it's taken you to build a couple of generators.

And you can be fighting up to *eight* of those battles a turn. Better not lose any of them! Then again, Iron Lore was a company that made its name from endless grindfests, so it's no stretch of the imagination to imagine them deciding to drag out the campaign as much as possible in the name of fake content.

 

[L4Y Duke]

Armoured Core: Last Raven.

Difficulty via controls that screw you over anytime you fight an AC that you are even remotely close to you, class-wise.

Especially bad considering they didn't need to adjust the controls at all, they worked fine in AC3!

 

[Ultrajoe]

It had to happen sooner or later so...
Halo 3.

Most of the levels are filled with spamming/regenerating one-hit-kills-you oponents. Fine until you realise there are more of them than you have amunition for and the best way to progress is simply to run past them and rely on luck.

Its not an issue with broken controls or gameplay, just lazy design.

this i disagree with, for one i don't know where in any part of the game you can run out of ammunition (pick up enemies guns, you cant have that sniper forever man, i share your pain) and even if it did it would become an issue of resource management, and a little thinking and a little finesse and your fine.

I can understand you on the legendary mode as its sometimes crazy (it is called 'legendary' for a reason, it takes more than what youve been flinging at it in Normal or Heroic) but if you are playing normal or heroic i cant see where you are finding legions of insta-kill enemies. If it is legendary you are playing, i dont want to come across as condescending, but perhaps you need to play a little on heroic and work your way up. When you have to resort to running past enemies it may be time to drop it down a gear.

The AI in Halo (3 especially) does get minor damage upgrades (if this is 'cheating' in an FPS then kill me now) but the main difficulty buffs come from increased use of grenades (and more accurate) more frequent high ranking enemies, more waves in encounters, and better tactics from the enemy (programmed maneuvers albeit, but no less effective)

Now the flood, yeah, here your right. The solution to "how can flood be more sheer buggery?" is "MOAR FLOOD!, BIGGER GUNZ", but i think thats part of their charm, they are a balls to the wall rollercoaster of shoot, cover, bash, run, duck, grenade, shoot, shoot, SHOOT!.... You cant rank them up and its that or truly stupid damage bonuses (like they needed more melee damage) and they are a force famous for being uncoordinated eating machines, so its really the only way to make it more difficult... and more crazy.

even to me thats an oversized response, but Halo 3 has faults much more juicy than its difficulty scaling, even to a fan.

 

[Ultrajoe]

double post, a cheating way of making the internet more difficult

Ha, the internet: an MMO where you never level up.

 

[BadSnack]

Interesting thread. I like the term "artificial difficulty". Even though all games are completely artificial by nature, I think it's pretty clear what you mean by it.

I take issue with a couple of things though.

Resident Evil 4: Shooting Ability and Decisions are important (though ammo scarcity fits into Artificial Difficulty territory, as do escort missions).

Ammo scarcity is another word for "resource management". Nothing artificial there. You have a limited amount of resources (bullets) and you have to make the best possible use of them. Strike a balance between careful aiming and quick shooting. Don't use shotguns on a lone enemy unless the situation is desperate. Manage your grenades judiciously.
Escorting Ashley isn't artificial either. She's a material target for the enemy and you need to balance the need to protect yourself with the need to protect her. Sometimes you can afford to let them carry her off for a little while (as you thin their numbers around yourself) but you can't let it go too long or it's all over.

Grand Theft Auto (1, 2, 3, Vice City and San Andreas): The controls suck, the cars are too weak and the autolock frequently targets the wrong foe.

Serves you right for playing it on a console instead of PC with mouse and keyboard.

You often end up dying four or five times on a mission because of something stupid, like a random car drives into the intersection during a crucial car chase and destroys you,

So. Annoying. The fact that you can't anticipate or deal with those problems except by repeating the missions until you get lucky is what really burns. Though somehow the phrase "artifical difficulty" doesn't seem to apply here. It seems like random screwage, rather than something the designers deliberately put in. I wonder, is it useful to make the distinction?

Anyway. My least favourite is AI cheating in RTS and TBS games. I remember playing the original Civilization on Emperor level, and I couldn't understand how my neighbours were managing to grow their cities so damned fast. Eventually I sent in a diplomat to spy on their production and realized that the food and production icons were oddly staggered in their respective boxes. The AI only needed 1/6th the food to grow its population and 1/6th the production to construct its buildings and military units. I turned the machine off and have never enjoyed the game quite as much since. THAT's artificial difficulty for you.

AIs who always antagonize the player and rarely antagonize each other are also irritating. Let 'em win or lose on their own merits, the lazy bastards.

I agree with you I am playing tiberium sun I set out a bike to scout and what do I find a cloaked base with an entire army (I saw them because they all shot at me)

 

[BadSnack]

Also IWTBTG was really annoying but then again it's meant to be annoying (It take two hours to get by two rooms.)

 

[Ultrajoe]

RTS has always been about superior strategy, the enemy can move as cheaty-fast as he likes in my mind, the greater will shall always win the day.

that said, i play DoW so much that 'That guy's' think i'm a little obsessed, undefeated at my local LAN network (over 50 people) for 2 years running, including several 2 on 1's and one 3 on 1, after that hellish panic-fest i refuse to try again, me record is shiny and unbreakable.

I rarely play online but there is rarely a foe that can match me... or out-gloat me, thats said though i cant play any multiplayer FPS for shit, i sometimes read while everyone plays UT, waiting for my chance to strike... any RTS will do... DOW for preference, no turtles


ONTOPIC: no matter how the game gets more difficult, provided its not a random factor, but a law put in place, then its just another challenge and perfectly legit.

 

[LisaB1138]

I've got two:

Changing the rules. I hate it when abilities are taken away just to make something "harder." A prime example is in POP:TTT. During the fight with the twin generals, suddenly the prince can no longer slow down time for attack. You finally bring one SOB to his knees and figure to do some slo-mo wailing on his annoying self, only to have time speed up the minute you attack. GOW2 does similar slow-time limitations.

Repetition does not equal difficulty. In Fatal Frame 1& 2, the last save point is six or seven battles *before* the final boss. So when you die at the final boss, you have to re-fight every ghost. Oh, and the final boss is a "one-touch, you're dead" sort. So all that glorious health you were saving for the final battle is useless. FF2 is slightly less annoying in that at least you can kill all the enemies and run all the way back to save. FF1 forces you to move forward.

 

[Kaos Incarnate]

Or in the same vein how any guard in Oblivion can magically sense you when you perform a criminal act. Or how Cops in previous GTA games can find you no matter where you hide? Sometimes even teleporting right behind you?

Heh just for fun I put on god-mode and kill till I get bored, in oblivion

 

[Melaisis]

Well then, how would you guys make games harder, then?