How Hard Is Too Hard?

[excessum ado]

Finish giggling at the title and then consider what Im about to ask you. There are many things that make a game ennjoyable. A riveting story. Sympathetic characters. Shiny graphics. Pulse pounding gameplay. But one thats often overlooked or scarcely noticed is challenge. There are many things that motivate you to complete a game, but one of the most significant is difficulty. Knowing that you overcame everything a game through at you and that you have bettered the game completely and entirely. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing am I right? If A game becomes controller snappingly difficult you just think to yourself "Fuck this" and go and do something else. So I am asking you what makes a game too difficult?, Why does this make it too difficult? And give me an example.

 

[shatnershaman]

There isn't such thing. No matter how hard it is you can always cheat/mod/hack.

EDIT: I ignored the pun because its in gaming discussion not off topic.

 

[excessum ado]

It wasnt a deliberate pun.

 

[shatnershaman]

It wasn't a deliberate pun.

Really? Wow.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

There really is no too hard so far. If there is, you can always train to get better... The only thing that does happen is some games become a nuiisance to play and are dull at a harder setting, though I've heard that Ninja Gaiden 2 is pretty hardcore, but I haven't tried it as of yet, adn the more I play games the more I play on toughest difficulty and wish it was harder...

 

[excessum ado]

I wouldnt even call it a pun actually.

 

[nightfish]

There isn't such thing. No matter how hard it is you can always cheat/mod/hack.
.

i wouldn't cheat if it was too hard.

 

[shatnershaman]

There isn't such thing. No matter how hard it is you can always cheat/mod/hack.
.

i wouldn't cheat if it was too hard.

So you would just lose and lose? I don't mean NG2 Hard I mean RTS hard because the computer cheats hard.

 

[nightfish]

There isn't such thing. No matter how hard it is you can always cheat/mod/hack.
.

i wouldn't cheat if it was too hard.

So you would just lose and lose? I don't mean NG2 Hard I mean RTS hard because the computer cheats hard.

Theres always a way to do things without cheating. Once you cheat whats the point, you've just ruined your experience of a game.

 

[shatnershaman]

Theres always a way to do things without cheating. Once you cheat whats the point, you've just ruined your experience of a game.

Says who? COD4 is much more fun on easy with slow mo and cluster bombs or GRAW with infinite health, or Dark Crusade with extra resources to swarm with IG.

 

[tooktook]

Theres always a way to do things without cheating. Once you cheat whats the point, you've just ruined your experience of a game.

Says who? COD4 is much more fun on easy with slow mo and cluster bombs or GRAW with infinite health, or Dark Crusade with extra resources to swarm with IG.

In COD 4 the cheats are part of the game and don't actually ruin the game. In an RTS however if you cheat for unlimited resources it will completely ruin the experience. Part of the RTS experience is gathering/managing your resources

 

[shatnershaman]

In COD 4 the cheats are part of the game and don't actually ruin the game. In an RTS however if you cheat for unlimited resources it will completely ruin the experience. Part of the RTS experience is gathering/managing your resources

To each their own.

EDIT: Wow I'm stupid.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

In COD 4 the cheats are part of the game and don't actually ruin the game. In an RTS however if you cheat for unlimited resources it will completely ruin the experience. Part of the RTS experience is gathering/managing your resources

To each there own.

"Their" own. I suck at RTS' and I cheat sometimes but the more games I play, the less I have to cheat, and it varies from game to game... some games ghost mode can skip a boring load of things, but in a puzzle game or a really well constructed fun game with a story, it just spoils the game.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Depends on why it's had. Devil May Cry, for example, is rock hard, especially the third one, but it's hard for the right reasons. It's always your own fault.

CoD4, on the other hand, is just frustrating. At all times you are constantly aware that there infinite enemies being re spawned at you, and the game becomes you just legging it through fields of gunfire, dying, retrying, dying...(this is on Veteran, anyway). And that Ferris wheel level is just a joke, as is the Mile High Club.

That's too hard.

 

[death13245]

Hard: A level where you are ten of the weakest units fighting in a large map full of the enemy's strongest units while the money you have only gives you one extra man and everywhere can kill half your squad...that was hard.

Very hard: An old game called 11th Hour. A puzzle game...try to beat the computer on three puzzles: Connect 4, a puzzle where you have to have more colour on the picture than the computer and a puzzle where you have to five in any row or taking 5 sets of two from the computer while he kicks your arse every time leaving you angry and wanting to throw the computer screen out of the window or the puzzle where you have to move one object to the other side while moving others so it can move...harder than it looks. ((unless your my mother who was the first to ever complete those puzzles at all))

Extreme: Gouls and Goblins orginal...I heard not even the game designers could complete or anyone on the planet.

 

[Asehujiko]

And that Ferris wheel level is just a joke, as is the Mile High Club.

That's too hard.

By ferris wheel level you mean One Shot, One Kill? Or does that bloody place return a second time in the game even more annoying then the first?

 

[Dody16]

When your as good a gamer as me, as long as it is physically possible, there is no such thing as too hard.

But if you want your game to sell good, than I would advise developers to make their games between cakewalk easy and maybe-die-once-or-twice normal.

But I'll be honest and say this. It does depend on how they make the game difficult. If the game is challenging in a reasonable way it's ok. Like if the enemies are simply strong, or if the environment put's you in a disadvantage in a way that isn't ralted to the camera, than that's all good becaus it's part of the challenge. But when it feels like the computer is simply cheating, it's not a challenge it's just being difficult for difficulties sake. This tends to be one reason why I get angry when I play games with an obviouse random component that's important to the game. If the computer get's lucky or when something bad happens to me because of the random component, it feels like it's cheating.

But I'm willing to take a video game "challenge" any day.

 

[shatnershaman]

But I'm willing to take a video game "challenge" any day.

Yea its not meant to be taken literally but you want challenge try Halo 3 legendary all skulls on. If you can beat the campaign you'll be one of three.

 

[PsychoBunny]

There's no absolute "too hard" unless the difficulty is related to a game interface problem and not a player problem. Examples would include bad camera angles, bad/unresponsive controls or just the computer cheating to an extent that it is beyond player ability.

There is a point where a game is too hard to difficult for most players to bother playing, and for that level it's entirely dependent on the player. Some people can play CoD4 on the hardest setting without a problem while others will struggle with easy mode.