Making your game harder for yourself

[Kadoodle]

So I'm playing AC: Brotherhood, and I realized, "This is too easy. It needs to be harder."

Problem is, there are no difficulty settings. So I set a goal for my next play-through: I won't buy any armor. I'll use only the weakest weapons. I'll disable HUD. Whatever armor I do have, will be intentionally broken (You can't really unequip armor) and be left as such.


So, Escapists, have YOU ever done something like this on a game without a difficulty setting?

 

[b3nn3tt]

I have been playing games before (the Assassin's Creed series is a good example) and thought that things were a bit too easy, but I never thought to do anything to actually make things harder for myself.

Now that you've put the idea in my mind, I may have to seek out challenges like this in future.

 

[Dr. Feelgood]

The closest thing I've done to that would either activating skulls in Halo, or adjusting difficulty settings.

 

[terraswrath]

Two words: Nuzlocke. Challenge.

Why did they have to make me feel!?

 

[Sp3ratus]

I used to play Killzone 2 without any HUD in preparation of my Elite playthrough(which subsequently never happened). It was great fun though, made for a much "cleaner" playthrough as you just had a big screen, consisting of my gun and the level I was currently in. It didn't cut it for multiplayer though, when I got hooked on that. I went in and was very, very confused the first couple of days as to how people knew where to go and such. I then remember that I had manually turned off the HUD and when I reversed that, it all went much better.

As for other games, I do marathon runs of Lode Runner 2 from time to time. And when I say marathon, I mean starting the game and then playing until you die or have completed the game, all the while still trying to set a best times, else it would just be too easy. When I do this, I don't use the save feature at all, which is what makes this particular style of play so difficult.

 

[Grufflenark]

I suggest you use your fists only.
I did that in AC1 and AC2.
I don't have Brotherhood but I am guessing the weapon system is pretty much the same.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Two words: Nuzlocke. Challenge.

Why did they have to make me feel!?

Heh. Did you ever complete ther game on Nuzlocke challenge mode? I always lost my starter half way through and gave up. I love how you have to make yourself walk to a pokemon centre and release it...

 

[Skoldpadda]

I constantly make things harder for myself, constantly.

I mean, I'm even doing it right now.

 

[badgersprite]

I frequently switch to much weaker weapons in Final Fantasy games to make it more challenging, or try to play through areas with only one character, etc. There's all kinds of self-imposed challenges I do in games, but those are the ones that I've been doing lately.

 

[Randomologist]

Funny this thread came up. I've not long finished replaying Half-Life 2, using only the pistol for the Gordon Vs. Combine troops battles. Only exception was the forced Antlion help in Nova prospekt, but otherwise fairly done.

Its easily scaled in FPS games, but in RTS games a bad strategy will obviously involve large quantities of fecal matter hurtling towards a fan in a very short space of time. I once tried spamming conscripts in RA3, which didn't work at all as they're under-powered. Peacekeepers on the other hand seemed to work. It all depends on the balance.

 

[Electric Alpaca]

As far as artificial difficulty goes, I've performed a no sphere grid run through of FFX (my most played FF) and a no junction run of FFVIII (my second most played).

As far as true difficulty, MGS2 European Extreme in under 2 hours, no alerts etc.

Beyond that, nothing past standard difficulties and challenges set in the game. I don't have the time I used to.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

As Spy in TF2, the norm is a bit boring. So, I equip the Conniver's Kunai -- which lowers your max health by 65 HP, and I equip the default Invis Watch instead of the Cloak & Dagger.

I will never go back to what I was using before. It's challenging, but it's so rewarding and makes me a fast (and effective) Spy.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I got bored of playing Black Ops a little while ago, but I still play with my friends sometimes, so when I do I always go pistol only. CZ75 FTW! It's incredible how bad the majority of black ops players are, because I almost always manage to pull out a positive k/d ratio every game.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I suggest you use your fists only.
I did that in AC1 and AC2.
I don't have Brotherhood but I am guessing the weapon system is pretty much the same.

Fists make everything way too easy. It's your fastest weapon, and you can disarm your opponents. I always used my fists whenever I went up against one of the heavy enemies in AC2 (haven't played Brotherhood yet).

 

[DasDestroyer]

Ratchet: Deadlocked for the PS2 didn't take too long to beat, although it did take quite a while to unlock everything, and at one point I found myself playing the game on max difficulty using only the wrench. The only thing I couldn't do was beat the final boss, because he flies around.

 

[Vonnis]

I played a lot of Quake when I was younger. One day I decided to spice things up a bit, so I played the entire game on nightmare mode using nothing but the axe, while still getting 100% kills on each level. Good times were had.

 

[ManInRed]

It really makes you appreciate the depth of an RPG when try to handicap yourself and find dozens of tricks in the small area of the game you limit yourself too. Final Fantasy VII is too easily, let's try it with initial equipment and no materia. Or how about equipping all party members with Fury Rings to have auto-berserk? The other classic RPG challenges included solo party, no items, no magic, no healing, no leveling/learning abilities. And naturally, all of these contests assuming your going to try to speed run it with absolutely no level griding.

Though I got to be honest, handicaps I give myself never feel that worth wild, as I'm cautious and able to prepare and plan how to get around whatever obstacle I gave myself.

. . .Give me an RPG where a reckless player has put himself into a virtually unwinable situation, for a game I have never played up to that point, and give me just one shot at getting that player's save file out of that situation.

Ah yes, those are the moments that thrill me. It's a damn shame I can't ever seem to get myself into situations that bad; even when purposely trying to. I really miss living in a neighborhood of reckless gamers who would come knocking at my door to do just that every couple of weeks.

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

I have a Minecraft world where if I die, I delete it. I also can't stay in the same place for more than one night. It's really fun though because it promotes exploration since you can't stay somewhere for more than a day.

 

[p3t3r]

only when i am playing against other people for example i am really good at this medal of honor game for Gamecube. 1v3 and i only have half health. i can still win. also whenever me and my friends play brawl we always choose random all the time