Poll: Hard Difficulty as an unlock?

[ph0b0s123]

So from the poll, in response to my question, this is pretty unpopular. I don't see developers getting this message communicated clearly. Also it does not seem to show up in game reviews generally.

Also this question is a different one to whether the different difficulties, (hard, extra hard, etc) have been set well by devs. There is always an issue that devs could even set normal difficulty as too hard.

I really this the buyer should get full options for the start as certainly for me, I won't generally re-play games after beating them on there highest difficulty. This means that because the game is therefore easy and quicker to beat there is less value to it's purchase from my point of view.

 

[Akytalusia]

hm. i just shared similar sentiments in another thread, and don't feel like typing it all out again. but yeah, basically, i don't like it, and i'll modify cfg files to unlock higher difficulties before i'll play the same game more than once if the overall experience would be exactly the same.

i don't mind so much it if the experience would be different though, like if new game+ was a harder mode, or you get some kind of limit. then i'll just bear with it.

 

[Easton Dark]

I would've loved to play Spec Ops: The Line on FUBAR difficulty to start. Didn't let me.

No, I'm not a fan of that. Let me decide how much difficulty is too much, don't waste my time.

 

[loa]

The new pokemon games finally have difficulty settings and then lock them away in the most retarded way possible; one version has the easy mode, the other the hard mode and you can only get them after beating the game and then trade between games.

This is stupid on so many levels, it's unbelievable.
If I already beat the game, why should I play it again, why can't I play hard mode from the get go so I don't fall asleep and what's the point of easy mode you have to obtain by first beating the whole game.
The best part is that you still only have 1 save file you would have to overwrite to restart the game.

Way to utterly ruin everything of a potentially nice feature people have been waiting for for years with that tradition of making things as awkward as possible.

 

[kasperbbs]

I normally play on medium so it hasn't bothered me, but it did make me wonder why the hell is it locked?

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

I prefer the hardest difficulty right off, but that's mostly my achievement monger at work.

I would've loved to play Spec Ops: The Line on FUBAR difficulty to start. Didn't let me.

No, I'm not a fan of that. Let me decide how much difficulty is too much, don't waste my time.

^QFT. I don't really get why you can't decide go with Demonic Nightmare Flaming Unicycle mode right off the bat if you prefer it. Comes off as restrictive.

 

[hazabaza1]

It annoys me too.
If you're going to give me a choice then let me fucking choose. Don't give me some partial choice bullshit.

 

[rwllay]

as a general rule, Normal is my first playthrough difficulty, sometimes hard or easy depending on the game. as long as those three settings are available from the get-go Im happy. However i like the idea of having to earn a 'Very Hard' or 'Insane' difficulty to add a little replay value or whatever down the line

 

[Fijiman]

Where's the "indifferent/I don't care" option?

I generally play a game on one of the lower difficulties when going through it the first time and then I might go back and play it on a harder difficulty if I feel like it so it doesn't really affect me if I can't access the hardest difficulty right off the bat.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

When a game locks normal hard mode, I do get annoyed. But I don't mind Extra Hard having to be unlocked. I mean, if I jumped in and saw this, I'd probably ragequit.

 

[scorptatious]

Eh. I tend to play on the default difficulty on my first playthrough, so that doesn't really bother me.

 

[Slenn]

Difficulties should be available to anyone.

The other standpoint kinda makes sense if you were new to a game and you wanted to try out a harder difficulty after you finished a game on normal difficulty. But not everyone has that kind of mentality. If I want to take on a harder mode of the game, then let me make that decision on my own. Touhou games exemplify this attitude to the nth degree by being some of the nut-hardest games, even on Normal difficulty, and yet they have Hard and Lunatic difficulties. Lunatic even says for its tooltip: "For Crazy People Only". If you're a crazy person and want to take this game on from the hardest difficulty on an already hard-as-balls game, then that's right up your alley!

The acceptions to that argument are games like Ratchet and Clank 1,2, and 3 and Diablo 2 and 3. Those are games which have unlockable difficulties but the developers scale it so that they're only available to characters that have leveled up by a large margin since they work on a leveling system with experience points.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

It's a lot more bothersome if Hard Mode is the locked difficulty. I don't mind so much if the locked difficulty is Ultra Hard or Mega Badass or something way about Hard Mode. When the game is too easy, it's boring. I don't want to simply "get used to the mechanics and play through the whole story" before they finally give me something fun.

You want to lock Ultra Hard? Go for it. Make us prove we're badass enough for the extra punishment if you want.

Want to lock Mega Badass Balls Nailed to the Wall? Go for it, let people prove they're crazy enough for the masochistic parameters.

Want to lock Easy Mode? Go for it, give aid to those that need it.

Normal and Hard Mode should always be left alone. The problem here is that the Developer's Rule of Thumb typically includes making everything as inconvenient as possible.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

In games like Bayonetta having the option to start on Hard would be nigh on insane. The way it's set up is that the enemy encounters are just all round more bullshit. I don't think they have more health or anything but when an encounter on Normal is a few bog standard Angels and maybe one giant Angel then on Hard that same encounter is three giant Angels and the EVIL Grace & Glory duo I think you would agree that the guy on his first run through the game would be destroyed for no reason.

Basically, it depends on how the game sets it up. Bayonetta takes the old DMC Dante Must Die-esque difficulty and ramps it up to stupid levels. I believe the highest difficulty is complete the game on max difficulty with zero Witch Time in one single sitting with no save points. Not even sure if there are any checkpoints either.

Remember when DMC3 was first released, and the only difficulty level available to play WAS hard? The game was basically deemed impossible and they actually had to re-release it as the special edition. This wasn't a case of scrubs whining that the game was too hard for them. The game WAS impossible.

I think Bayonetta and DMC are one of the few games that pull off this hard-difficulty-as-an-unlock phenom well. You go through the same levels, but every encounter is remixed with more powerful enemies that force you to use every skill, powerup, and weapon you've unlocked in order to succeed.
In the OP's point of view, he'd want to go through these hardest difficulties from the get-go... which really would be insane.

Not many other games pull off this sort of thing well. Gears of War for example always locks the Insanity difficulty, even though picking it literally changes nothing with the game.

Resident Evil 4 and 5. Same thing. Professional difficulty is locked.
4's case is worse because it doesn't let you carry over your completed game on Normal over to Professional. Meaning that Professional always starts off in the same condition as normal. So why not let us pick it from the getgo?

So in closing, only a few games pull off this locked-difficulty thing well. Many others do not.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Normal and Hard should be available from the get-go, with Hard being the highest difficulty required for related trophies/achievements.

Hell, most games with the moniker aren't even deserving of it.

 

[xshadowscreamx]

it does help me to have hard locked out so i dont have decide what difficulty to play on, it decides for me. frees up my decisions.
unless i have hired the game and likely only to play it once so i maswell play it on hard.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Not a new trend by any stretch of the imagination, but okay...
Personally I usually play on Normal first time around, then play again on hard, but I like the option to be there. AAlso, with some games, like First Person Shooters, I play on the hardest difficulty straight up.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I don't have an issue with it. If there's going to be a harder-than-hard difficulty, though, then normal hard should be unlocked at the start.

And while it's kind of off-topic, I also don't have an issue with having an unlockable easy mode, as long as it's not mocking the player for having trouble. It just kind of says "we intended for you to play on normal or higher, but it seems that you're having issues, so here, have an easy mode so that you can still enjoy the game." This should only really be in a game that lets you switch difficulty at any time, though.

 

[Yopaz]

It's silly to lock the hard difficultly, because there are many people who like to use the hard difficulty as their default. Why should a person have to play through the game on a lesser difficulty just to play it on their preferred?

Locking easy I can see a little better, because it's the game's way of providing assistance to those who need help, and you have to prove you need help before you get it (by dying a lot) because the developers want you to at least try normal mode first.

First I want to say I agree and I want to mention Ninja Gaiden as an example. The normal and hard difficulty were there from the start, but if you died (I don't remember if it was after a set number of times or every time) you were offered an easier mode. It did emphasize the easy mode as "less honorary" since you would abandon the way of the ninja.

Now I think this is perfect. The game is too hard and you get the easy mode. The game is too easy (yeah right) Pick hard mode.

I have played a few games where normal mode bored me and I had to change the difficulty, I never even played Arkham City on normal to find out if it was too easy or not. When it comes to the Tales series I know the combat system well enough to want the challenge in the harder difficulty and I don't want to play through the game once just to get my fix.

 

[Altorin]

if the higher difficulties are tuned around higher level characters, it makes sense. Diablo for instance went that route - nightmare difficulty in D2 requires level 20ish characters to be successful. Starting it at level 1, you'd get destroyed by the first zombie you see.

If it's not though, then it really doesn't make much sense to keep Hard locked, unless it's basically just a tougher normal. Like a game where "Hard" isn't even halfway up the scale. That's kinda silly.