Poll: Does difficulty turn you off from a game?

[Bostur]

First I'd like to say to the OP that XCOM has several difficulty levels. 'Normal' is supposedly quite easy, though I haven't played it myself - and there is an even easier setting. The infamous hardcore mode is also an optional setting not suggested for new players. So the difficulty in itself shouldn't be a reason to skip XCOM.

Firaxis and Microprose have a tradition of including diffulty settings that are supposed to be almost impossible to beat, but they put in a lot of easier settings to.

I get bored by games that don't challenge me in some way. Difficulty isn't the only way to make a good challenge, but an otherwise good game can be completely ruined if it is too easy. Poorly designed difficulty can be just as bad and unchallenging though.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Generally speaking, challenge turns me on.

But, 'challenge' is a funny thing. It's something that has to be done right. As there is such thing as, badly designed difficulties. I made a post about such a thing a little while back.

Examples of doing difficulty wrong - Resident Evil 5, Gears of War.

Almost nothing changes in these games as you bump the difficulty up. No remixed enemies, almost no noticable change in enemy behavior. All that changes, is you take more damage, and deal less damage. Bam, the game is now 'Hard'. Aren't you feeling challenged????
To me, this is one of the most disappointing things a game can do. That is, cop-out on it's advanced difficulties. I like to find replayability in games that might not be inherently replayable, and I find a lot of replay value in harder difficulties. If the harder difficulty is the exact same thing as the normal difficulty... then that sucks.

In Gears of War, harder difficulties aren't about how GOOD you got at the game and how GOOD you handle weapons. It's about not getting shot. Which means spending even MORE time in cover, and spending even LESS time shooting enemies. Man, I sure feel like my skills are being both tested and proven.

RE5 probably has the worst case of artificial Hard-ness. As there seems to be literally no differences between Veteran and Pro at all. My friend and I actually had to handicap ourselves during our Pro playthrough just to actually feel a difference in challenge.
To make things worse, you cannot access Pro difficulty until you complete the game. If we went through Pro difficulty with our upgraded weapons from the get-go as the game implied it wanted us to do, then it actually would've been EASIER than it was in Veteran. Which is the exact opposite of what's SUPPOSED to happen.

Since I love to be challenged, I naturally veer towards harder difficulties (Especially during replays. Unless the games Normal difficulty is challenging enough. a la XCOM) And when a game lazily feigns 'Hard mode' by making enemies into bullet sponges and increasing the damage you take, then that's not hard. There are no new challenges here. It's the same crap I already played through, except again; and more tedious, and not any more fun at all.

I can't figure out what's worse. A game that's TOO easy, or game that's TOO tedious.

 

[Magicman10893]

I don't care for difficulty in games. I tend to get frustrated rather easily and in games where difficulty is poorly implemented (Call of Duty's enemies with their Telescopic-Xray vision and perfect accuracy with a never ending supply of grenades and a throwing arm that would make Payton Manning jealous come to mind) I just end up throwing a controller and not having any fun with it at all. I played through Call of Duty 4 on Veteran (with the exception of "No Fighting In The War Room") and surpassing the difficulty of that was no where near offsetting the frustration of dealing with those enemies. The only part of it I enjoyed was the bragging rights (that I continue to redeem even today) for getting the Mile High Club achievement. At no point during that run on Veteran did I have an ounce of fun, only being able to tell my friend to go fuck himself because I had the achievement and he didn't.

The only time I am willing to play a game above Easy/Normal is when there is a reward for it. Preferably I want a tangible reward like bonus XP (Fallout 3) or bonus items (multiplayer armor in Halo 3/4), but if it's a game and/or I feel that I'm capable of beating it, I will go for achievements (Mass Effect, Spec Ops: The Line). If it is just for the sake of being difficult, I won't bother.

TL;DR Dying/failing repeatedly isn't fun and the "fuzzy, feel-good feeling" from surpassing a challenge isn't worth the frustration. Unless there's a good reason/reward for playing a difficult game/setting, I won't do it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Once it gets to stupid levels then yes, especially when they add checkpoint nonsense so you are doomed to keep grinding the last 10-15 minutes till you get that one move right... then we are just done.

 

[King of Asgaard]

The games I've played most recently are Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Devil May Cry 1 & 3, God Hand and XCOM.
What do you think?
captcha: full tilt

 

[thejackyl]

As long as the failure/deaths are fair than I'm all for it. The game does still have to be balanced, but difficulty doesn't really bug me too much.

Dark Souls and Demon' Souls, I do like, because most of the deaths are from not knowing the level (pits, and traps) or not knowing the enemies, or not timing things correctly. However, shooters, I don't play on Expert/Insane/Veteran, since you can't always see what's attacking you and you die in 2-3 hits...

I like challenge, not frustration.