Worst "artificial difficulty increase"

[The Steel Ninja]

I think it's such a cop-out when rather than introducing new enemies or upgrading older enemies with new or more interesting attack patterns, they simply raise the damage the enemies do to you in later levels. As much as I enjoyed the original Castlevania, for example, I feel it's such a cheap and lazy way out of coming up with a genuine challenge, instead just giving the enemies more attack power.

 

[The DSM]

Devil my cry 4s replay it backwards with Dante and taking away the throw that destroyed bosses and the guns sucked.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Earth Defense Force 2017, its a fantastic game, but only has a few enemies to choose from, and the tougher ones are usually just bigger or with a different color. Or they use giant groups to increase difficulty, too.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

It's on rails sections that annoy me. Gears 2 on insane and Dead Space had some pretty awful spikes.

Oh, and Bioshock did the thing with the more powerful enemies in later levels even though you had no visual or audio indication of thier superiority.

 

[xenus87]

One of the reasons I stopped playing Wheelman after about half an hour, was the stupid way that no matter how fast you drive, it's impossible to catch a car your chasing unless you complete the chase in a specific way.
Unlike chases in games like GTA where it was actually possible to catch other cars if you knew out of the way short-cuts.

 

[wgreer25]

Too Human... That game just got so many things wrong. The enemies always leveled with you, so no matter how high a level you were, the enemies always matched. You could go back an play the very first level and it would be as hard as the last (sorta, the last level did have more enemies). You could buff yourself with the best armor and weapons and it has very little effect on your combat effectiveness.

Got that game pissed me off.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

It's on rails sections that annoy me. Gears 2 on insane and Dead Space had some pretty awful spikes.

Oh, and Bioshock did the thing with the more powerful enemies in later levels even though you had no visual or audio indication of thier superiority.

oh yeah...the asteroid segments of Dead Space. Terrible break of difficulty and pacing.

 

[xenxander]

Super Ghouls and Ghosts.

they make you play the entire game twice and the game once through is hard enough.

 

[xLANKYx]

Too Human... That game just got so many things wrong. The enemies always leveled with you, so no matter how high a level you were, the enemies always matched. You could go back an play the very first level and it would be as hard as the last (sorta, the last level did have more enemies). You could buff yourself with the best armor and weapons and it has very little effect on your combat effectiveness.

Got that game pissed me off.

ive never understood this, people wud complain like hell about TOO HUMAN being too hard ect but i never had that problem. i exspected to die 3 times (5 times at most) playing all the way through the game. like you mentioned the 1st level, that level was easy to get through without dieing while i was low level & was even easier as i leveled up (dispite the enemies leveling up with me).

PS: im not trying to be an arse, i realy dont get why people found TOO HUMAN even remotely difficult.

 

[TheTygerfire]

Eat Lead easily. No, don't have them use cover better, just make them cheaper!

 

[Abedeus]

I know I'll be torn to pieces, but Diablo 2.

Hell difficulty. Boss monster in Pandemonium. Probably it's Lord de Seis. What do we have here?

Enchanted Lightning. Enhanced Strength. Immunity to Magic. Immunity to Physical Damage. Enchanced Ice.


....Wait, what? WHAT? Not only the fucker deals tons of damage (Enchants), he can also be damaged by either ripping his immunities (I don't know if Physical can be reduced...), using Blessed Hammer (Paladin-only) or throwing an Iron Maiden and hoping he kills himself on minions. Which is very unlikely.

And what happens if this is your last boss? Sorceresses are screwed. So are Amazons, Druids, Assassins... And pretty much everything except for Necromancers and Paladins. I dunno if he'd also be immune to poison, but not everyone is carrying Poison Nova, the only spell with poison damage it's worth using.

 

[VoltySquirrel]

It's on rails sections that annoy me. Gears 2 on insane and Dead Space had some pretty awful spikes.

Oh, and Bioshock did the thing with the more powerful enemies in later levels even though you had no visual or audio indication of thier superiority.

That BioShock enemy efficiancy upgrade starts to happen once you meet your first Elite Big Daddy. That's when I knew it was happening. I think that kicked in at Fort Frolic.

 

[Fraught]

Devil my cry 4s replay it backwards with Dante and taking away the throw that destroyed bosses and the guns sucked.

Was that really an artificial difficulty increase?
To me, it seemed as easy as with Nero.