Unlockable Difficulty Sucks

[tkioz]

So it's became a trend in games to have a half dozen difficulty settings, only to allow people access to maybe two or three at time of first sitting down, and I think that sucks.

I don't know about anyone else, but I usually start playing a game at the default level, and after a few levels when I've got the controls and nuances down I generally up the level a little bit so it's actually a challenge, a game is more fun for me when there is actually a risk I'll fail at a given task, if there is no risk of failure in a mission, it's not fun, it's the same reason you don't see Shane Warne playing in a local indoor cricket league (well apart from the fact it would be a dick move).

Take for example Mass Effect 2 (I know your all sick of hearing about it) but the combat was pretty ho hum for me around the third mission, until I upped it to veteran, and then later to hardcore, it suddenly became fun because I had to do more then pop off heads. It mattered where I put my squad mates, it mattered which target I went after first, it was well fun.

So when a game (e.g Bayonnetta) uses unlockable difficulty to "encourage" replays, I'm almost personally insulted, it's padding designed to make your game longer, pure and simple.

So am I alone?

 

[e2density]

No, you aren't. I hate when difficulties are locked. It's annoying that I don't want to go through the game on Easy mode because they don't feel I have earned the harder modes.

 

[Axeli]

Agreed.

Even though I don't usually go for the "Buttrape" difficulty on my first run, limiting the player from doing that seems like just a cheap and bad attempt to add replay value.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I disagree. Going through Devil May Cry 3 on Normal difficulty was absolutely necessary practice for Hard and Dante Must Die.

 

[Cabisco]

A stack of difficulties is always annoying, but i do like it when their is one added insane mode for when you complete on the hard setting. For me it gives me abit more replay value, as otherwise i normally just go straight to the hardest setting complete it, then never feel the need to play it again.

 

[MR T3D]

yeah, unlockable difficulty is like making one redo levels just to pad out the game.

 

[MR T3D]

yeah, unlockable difficulty is like making one redo levels just to pad out the game.

What about if it's one of the few games that actually add/remove and change it up based on difficulty rather then just giving enemies more health?

if its enough to change up the game experience, then cool, IF said enemy changes are enough to make it feel new.
but a couple different enemies each time or more, then its still too similar to easier levels and i believe my point still stands.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I more or less hate it when say beating "drinking the piss of Satan while Beelzebub rapes you" difficulty doesn't also unlock the bonuses of "an irate kitten" difficulty. I can understand keeping the hardest difficulty unlockable like God of War but non-stacking unlockables for beating that difficulty isn't fair.

Indeed, I hate when games do this. If I finish the game on Hard, why don't I get the Achievements/etc. for Easy and Medium too?

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

The last difficulty in Resident Evil 5 is defently the only one that does not suck. It's a helluva challenge, and you feel some proudness after you beat it.

 

[Nincompoop]

Difficulty isn't really an issue for me. I don't play games to get a challenge, but to mess around in an awesome universe, and enjoy the cosmetic delights in which it exists.

When upping the difficulty only adds less health, more enemy dmg, and so forth, I feel it to be absolutely redundant. Not unless upping the difficulty changes the gameplay a bit, and in some circumstances adds more enemies, it's worth it.

BUT! In any way, unlockable difficulties are stupid, since, as the author put it, it is a pathetic attempt to force the player to play the game more than once. You can't get all the achievements until you have won on the hardest.

 

[rokkolpo]

I disagree. Going through Devil May Cry 3 on Normal difficulty was absolutely necessary practice for Hard and Dante Must Die.

agreed. but depends on style, i always go for ''butrape'' difficulty because after that things will get easier.

but dmc 3 stomped that ideal. (i couldn't kill the first boss on normal difficulty)

 

[NeutralDrow]

I disagree. Going through Devil May Cry 3 on Normal difficulty was absolutely necessary practice for Hard and Dante Must Die.

agreed. but depends on style, i always go for ''butrape'' difficulty because after that things will get easier.

I have to admit, when I finally got the DMC3 special edition and went through normal and hard difficulties again, I breezed through them.

Luckily, with the way the game is designed, this just served to make me feel like a stone-cold badass. If something is really easy, the best way is to also make it complex and cool-looking.

 

[DanDeFool]

I disagree. Going through Devil May Cry 3 on Normal difficulty was absolutely necessary practice for Hard and Dante Must Die.

agreed. but depends on style, i always go for ''butrape'' difficulty because after that things will get easier.

I have to admit, when I finally got the DMC3 special edition and went through normal and hard difficulties again, I breezed through them.

Luckily, with the way the game is designed, this just served to make me feel like a stone-cold badass. If something is really easy, the best way is to also make it complex and cool-looking.

Gotta disagree with this one.

You have five difficulty settings with each character (Dante & Vergil) on the special edition. That means beating the game ten times (maybe twenty if you consider how difficult the hardest modes are), just to unlock everything.

Who has time for all that? I only ever had time to beat up to Hard mode with Dante. It'd be better if they didn't put the most interesting content so far out of reach for most people.

 

[Sentox6]

Uncharted 2 really hacked me off in this regard. In most games with an Easy/Normal/Hard/Very Hard selection, I generally play through on normal then very hard the second time. Oh, what's that, Uncharted? Only hard unlocks crushing? Screw you too.

Not something I mind in games like DMC4 though. That's a game where I care as much about how well I actually play as simply succeeding. Working through all the difficulties was fun.

 

[Maze1125]

I can see both sides to the argument.

On one side it does seem a bit cheep, but on the other your average shooter player is a teenage moron, who will go "I'm hard, I'll do the hardest difficultly right off." get pwnt, decide it's the game's fault and never play another game from that developer again.

 

[Fappy]

Dev's should allow us to play games at our own pace. I can understand having an unlockable HELL or INSANITY mode.

 

[Hollock]

It doesn't effect me because I usually just end up playing it on normal the whole way through.