Fake Difficulty
- Thread starter Netrigan
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These sorts of things:
Knock down spamming- Especially with less than lethal rocket launchers
Forcing me to play as a character I hate- Especially in RPGs. This means I either have to reload and grind until they're properly leveled up, or if they are I have to completely change my strategy
QTE- especially in cutscenes. Some games make it so I can reasonably get through them, others just pop them up randomly.
Uninformed choice- Unless it's part of the fun, tell me the consequences to my actions when they are of critical importance. Don't make it so a party member just randomly disagrees to the point they leave, or that I can't get an item
"Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards"- I love melee classes in games, but developers love magic. Don't punish me for deciding not to spend early levels having monsters make me their ***** with later levels having tougher enemies do this. This is why I don't play MMOs anymore.
Get a key to open this thin wooden door- I can shoot fire from my hands, summon minions of hell, have weapons that cut through dragons, have solved countless puzzles, and have killed more people than anyone in history. A thin wooden door shouldn't be able to fuck with me like this.
To proceed, you need a randomly dropped item- if the game isn't kind, this means I have to battle damn near a million of these creatures to get it
One hit kills- at the very least, warn me of these.
No seperation of platforming and fighting- sometimes, this can be badass. More often than not, a bat will knock me off a platform into oblivion.
Knock down spamming- Especially with less than lethal rocket launchers
Forcing me to play as a character I hate- Especially in RPGs. This means I either have to reload and grind until they're properly leveled up, or if they are I have to completely change my strategy
QTE- especially in cutscenes. Some games make it so I can reasonably get through them, others just pop them up randomly.
Uninformed choice- Unless it's part of the fun, tell me the consequences to my actions when they are of critical importance. Don't make it so a party member just randomly disagrees to the point they leave, or that I can't get an item
"Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards"- I love melee classes in games, but developers love magic. Don't punish me for deciding not to spend early levels having monsters make me their ***** with later levels having tougher enemies do this. This is why I don't play MMOs anymore.
Get a key to open this thin wooden door- I can shoot fire from my hands, summon minions of hell, have weapons that cut through dragons, have solved countless puzzles, and have killed more people than anyone in history. A thin wooden door shouldn't be able to fuck with me like this.
To proceed, you need a randomly dropped item- if the game isn't kind, this means I have to battle damn near a million of these creatures to get it
One hit kills- at the very least, warn me of these.
No seperation of platforming and fighting- sometimes, this can be badass. More often than not, a bat will knock me off a platform into oblivion.
Lets list the most obvious:
-enemies get more HP/Damage modifiers
-Enemies break games own logic to beat you
-infinite throw weapons like grenades (on enemies of course)
-inifinite respawning enemies
(don't you just love this lack of thought towards enemy changes?)
-decreasing drop rates or ammo pick ups
-removing menu items such as radar or health bar
-making you even more pathetic whether its your weapons or you as a character
-making it so that there is ONLY ONE WAY to win a battle
When I look at this list, three games come to mind:
Gears of War
Halo
Call of Duty
these reasons are why I wont touch these games, and many other games as well
-enemies get more HP/Damage modifiers
-Enemies break games own logic to beat you
-infinite throw weapons like grenades (on enemies of course)
-inifinite respawning enemies
(don't you just love this lack of thought towards enemy changes?)
-decreasing drop rates or ammo pick ups
-removing menu items such as radar or health bar
-making you even more pathetic whether its your weapons or you as a character
-making it so that there is ONLY ONE WAY to win a battle
When I look at this list, three games come to mind:
Gears of War
Halo
Call of Duty
these reasons are why I wont touch these games, and many other games as well
Pretty much every kind of fake difficulty bothers me to some extent, but I think when a game betrays the player somehow is what ruins it the most. Usually this is by denying me information (this item is critical to progress, but you missed it and now you're in a zombie situation) but sometimes a badly designed game can do it just by virtue (such as having controls so bad that you can't escape, say, a chainsaw attack, because the controls didn't register or your character turns too slowly or whatever.
Now, it's perfectly fine to betray the player if you have a good reason for it, like BioShock did. If not knowing some item is critical to progress and going on without it into the aforementioned zombie situation IS a pivotal aspect of the game's story or experience, good. If not knowing some item is critical just because the developers forgot to put in a fail-safe or a warning or just decided to be assholes, then not good. (Kind of like in Star Control 2 on the 3DO where some very important dialogue concerning the game's TIME LIMIT just got left the hell out)
I tend to rail on horror games a lot because they tend to have bad controls or some other stupid-ass or broken game mechanic, which is then defended as "making the game scarier". Dead Rising didn't let you save anywhere because it "added to the tension". As far as I'm concerned, bad game mechanics should NEVER be defended in such a way. Bad design is bad design, pure and simple. There are ways to make games scarier without saying "You don't get a quick-turn-around button, assholes". Silent Hill has a bad combat system, and people just say "Oh, well, your character's a regular joe so he's not good at fighting." Then, I don't know, don't let me fight at all like Shattered Memories. You don't have to give me a flail-around-and-cry button to prove the point that the character's not a fighter.
This is an ancient example, but Jet Set Willy had an absolutely awful bug where entering one room would, through some bizarre turn of events, completely and totally corrupt the game. And the developers said oh, well that room's full of poison gas. Poison gas that makes the game not only unplayable, but unplayable forever? Please.
One last thing, since I'm on a roll, is enemies with unnatural resources, like said above. In Champions Online, there's no difference between a level 1 grunt and a level 40 grunt other than the level 40 one has more health. I gotta say, this game doesn't make me feel like a superhero when it takes me ten minutes to slowly pound on a HENCHMAN just because he has an unnatural amount of HP. Here's what designers should do: introduce NEW enemies, instead of just strengthening old ones. Maybe it starts with a Rifleman, who has a rifle. Then comes a Stormtrooper who has a machine gun, and a Rocketeer who has a rocket launcher. Then comes a Gatling Gunner. They all have the same amount of HP, but they all have different tactics and ways to kill you. Difficulty by strategy, not attrition.
Now, it's perfectly fine to betray the player if you have a good reason for it, like BioShock did. If not knowing some item is critical to progress and going on without it into the aforementioned zombie situation IS a pivotal aspect of the game's story or experience, good. If not knowing some item is critical just because the developers forgot to put in a fail-safe or a warning or just decided to be assholes, then not good. (Kind of like in Star Control 2 on the 3DO where some very important dialogue concerning the game's TIME LIMIT just got left the hell out)
I tend to rail on horror games a lot because they tend to have bad controls or some other stupid-ass or broken game mechanic, which is then defended as "making the game scarier". Dead Rising didn't let you save anywhere because it "added to the tension". As far as I'm concerned, bad game mechanics should NEVER be defended in such a way. Bad design is bad design, pure and simple. There are ways to make games scarier without saying "You don't get a quick-turn-around button, assholes". Silent Hill has a bad combat system, and people just say "Oh, well, your character's a regular joe so he's not good at fighting." Then, I don't know, don't let me fight at all like Shattered Memories. You don't have to give me a flail-around-and-cry button to prove the point that the character's not a fighter.
This is an ancient example, but Jet Set Willy had an absolutely awful bug where entering one room would, through some bizarre turn of events, completely and totally corrupt the game. And the developers said oh, well that room's full of poison gas. Poison gas that makes the game not only unplayable, but unplayable forever? Please.
One last thing, since I'm on a roll, is enemies with unnatural resources, like said above. In Champions Online, there's no difference between a level 1 grunt and a level 40 grunt other than the level 40 one has more health. I gotta say, this game doesn't make me feel like a superhero when it takes me ten minutes to slowly pound on a HENCHMAN just because he has an unnatural amount of HP. Here's what designers should do: introduce NEW enemies, instead of just strengthening old ones. Maybe it starts with a Rifleman, who has a rifle. Then comes a Stormtrooper who has a machine gun, and a Rocketeer who has a rocket launcher. Then comes a Gatling Gunner. They all have the same amount of HP, but they all have different tactics and ways to kill you. Difficulty by strategy, not attrition.
I assume it's terribly inaccurate to run and shoot, and a fancy-pants STARS/Secret Service/BSAA agent probably knows that. But the game should still allow you to do it, for those times when you absolutely need to do it. Your aim should be far less accurate when you do, but I'd much rather miss a lot than be chopped up because my feet were nailed to the ground.Nick Angelici said:
And really, considering all the crazy stunts that Leon and Chris pull in the quick-time events and cutscenes, running and shooting really isn't that big a stretch.
Every other video game hero or heroin blessed with guns is able to run and shoot perfectly well. And don't say 'it's to make the combat more realistic'. Resident Evil games packed in realism when they decided to make the enemies the shambling undead.Nick Angelici said:
Bad technical aspects make it difficult. Making a difficult jump is a real difficulty. Making a same difficult jump with overly complex controls, bad jumping physics, or an abrupt mid-air change of camera angle - and therefore the orientation of your controls - is not.
Getting blown away by off camera projectiles, cameras stuck in the corner of the room or up your ass as you are platforming... etc...
Getting blown away by off camera projectiles, cameras stuck in the corner of the room or up your ass as you are platforming... etc...
Cheating bots in stratedy games, notably Red Alert 2. You can't build Kirov Airships that quickly, dammit!
The bastards. It's a cover up for poor AI.
The bastards. It's a cover up for poor AI.
One thing that always makes me chuckle is how in order for RTS games to be difficult if you're playing against AI, they have to cheat. That's fake difficulty, kind of.
Gothic 4 on gothic difficulty. Gothic 2:TNOR had perfect high difficulty but in 4th game enemies spam cheap attacks that will kill you on 2-3 hits and you have no other option to dodge them then keep rolling on ground and even then you have to reaload 10 time during every battle.
Bad controls are the biggest sinner in this department. No matter how skilled the player is, if the camera, physics system and controls are poorly done, a section may be completely unplayable. It's not seen as much now-a-days, but before the PS2 games could be incredibly frustrating.
RTS's with the enemies with automatic quick-build enabled (Yes, I'm looking at YOU Starcraft)...
luckily I haven't noticed it in Sins of a Solar Empire
Then like in Monster Hunter, where after you down a potion you stand around for like 3 SECONDS flexing your muscles as a giant monster charges you like a freakin' train!
luckily I haven't noticed it in Sins of a Solar Empire
Then like in Monster Hunter, where after you down a potion you stand around for like 3 SECONDS flexing your muscles as a giant monster charges you like a freakin' train!
FPS and RPG wise, giving opponent NPC's a lot more life (No-one should suvive 3-4 headshots!), unlimited ammo/grenades (especially whilst dropping a hand full) is fake difficulty.
RTS and TBS games, computer players just get extra resources or seemingly unlimited resources, that is fake difficult!
RTS and TBS games, computer players just get extra resources or seemingly unlimited resources, that is fake difficult!
So why can't I at least walk backwards and shoot while my useless partner guides me across the map. They sould at least make you blind fire or use the iron sights if you are moving. Having to stand completely still to shoot was annoying.Nick Angelici said: