Hello my fellow AGSers.
I'd like to ask everyone reading this post to take the time to tell me what your favourite difficulty setting is. Whether it be that you like a really hard challenge or that you want to be able to get past the game in no time at all, share your thoughts.
I'll also be noting your answers as I believe they will come in handy when creating future games.
Thanks all, Terrorcell.
In almost all those old console games, I used to go to the options in the startup menu and set it from difficult to easy (I never did figure out what that 'BGM Sound' or whatever option was for ;D ). No idea why, maybe because at that age I thought it was too difficult, but it made for enjoyable playthrough.
Nowadays, I just play at the default setting, and then if I find the game too hard, I push it down to easy. It is rare that I actually play at hard (unless it has some extras to be won at hard level, and sometimes I don't even bother with that).
Not sure if that is what you are asking for. As a kid, I played through Monkey Island 2 on the easy setting (while simultaneously watching my sister/father play it at Megamonkey), but when I played it again years later, I did it at megamonkey (and I did get stuck in a couple of places).
I play everything on the easiest setting unless I hear that putting it on the easiest setting reduces game content.
I'm more into computer games as an artform than an endurance test.
Thats perfect guys, keep them comming ;D
Personally I play the game on the easiest setting but if the game has good replay value and I actually enjoy playing the game then I tend to set the game on the hardest setting to see if I can finish it that way.
When I have a choice I usually pick the middle one to start with.
EDIT: The setting which is mostly called normal.
I like it hard.
Easy like Sunday morning. :)
Difficult games tick me off. I want to enjoy a game and not throw my controller through the wall, which I almost did in SH: Homecoming over the weekend. >:(
I like a challenge, though there's a fine line between challenging the player and punishing him for playing your game, and setting the difficulty is a great argument for having testers before releasing a game.
Normal. First playthrough of a game is always on the "Normal" setting. I don't know why, really, but I feel that, since the word "Normal" is used, this is how the developers intended the game to be first experienced. I rarely, if ever, set the difficulty to "Easy" or "Hard".
With other difficulty schemes (such as Rookie, Recruit, or Veteran), I usually set it to the one I feel equates to "Normal".
I also peel bananas from the stalk-end down. :-\
If this was a forum for any other type of game, people would be banging on about how quickly they got through 'legendary mode' right about now.
Usually, I play through at normal, unless there are absurdly hard or annoying action sequences or some other sort of puzzle(SQ4 Burger puzzle, for example) that seriously reduce the enjoyability of playing through a particular section. Personally, I like to be challenged, but without wanting to rip all of my hair out, and normal tends to work well for that balance. The option to go harder or easier is really nice to have, though.
I don't like difficulty settings in games. I prefer the developer to design the game and scale the difficulty accordingly so that all players can have the same experience (Zelda, Portal).
But if there are difficulty settings, I usually choose normal, and then hard only if I want to replay the game (Call of Duty... Half-Life).
I play on Normal difficulty level since the harder difficulty levels of many games are generally broken. If the higher difficulty levels aren't broken, I might give them a try if I truly care for the game, if the harder difficulty levels feature additional content (like in Thief), or if playing an harder difficulty level unlock a reward that I feel is worth the challenge.
normal.... and if it's getting too easy, then hard..
I agree almost entirely with LimpingFish. No matter what game it is, a first play-through is always on the setting that is intended to be played. I said, "almost entirely" because I don't think I've ever played a game on easy - all the way through, I mean (I'm sure I have for fun). But harder difficulties always get a playthrough as well. Especially the classic Resident Evils (1, 2 & 3). With Resident Evil, the enemies take more hits and you find less ammo... that alone leaves me to be a nervous wreck, therefore the atmosphere is automatically amplified.
Easy or normal on the first playthrough. I'm a wuss. :(
Also, I usually play through for the story first. I have no qualms about reaching for a walkthrough to make life easier too. :P Give me the challenge later when I'm not dying to know what happens next!
Wow, I'm actually impressed with all these responses here. Only one reply that I remember seeing had been 'hard' difficulty.
When I buy a game for my 360, I want every penny of that game to be worthwhile. I don't want to spend $60 plus tax on a game and breeze through it. I would just feel utterly robbed. I play on the Maximum hardest setting that is offered on console games.
I find even on the hardest settings, some games are dumbed out still. Especially with this new gaming craze with the reloading health bars. I personally don't like the reloading health bar unless it sorta fits in with the game.
Call of Duty for example, "dude.. he's got gun wounds" he's not gonna come back from this one, and it's freakin world war 2. Of course in reality even a health pack wouldn't help with a gunshot. But at least it offers some form of realism, not just reloading invincibility.
A game I really enjoyed that had the reloading health bar was Time Shift. It sorta fits with the game, he's in a futuristic suit, I'll pretend it heals him.
I love a nice challenge. I like being on edge. Conserving ammo or health in the games where you need to. Constantly loading the game if I died or if I wasted too much ammo or health.
I play normal or easy. In mohaa I never got past throught the first scene in days when I tried medium or hard, so I went with easy. Took me weeks.
Unless it is a very easy game, I don't go for difficult.
Depends. If it's an RPG-like game (as in, experience and equipment and stuff), I only play at Easy to Normal, so I can skip the grinding. If you're about ten levels lower than recommended for a certain quest, it makes for enough of a challenge, even at lower levels. I like to play at my own pace, I've killed enough plague rats, and I'm pretty sure I can kill that boss, thank you very much. That was what ruined Oblivion for me, actually - all the quest rewards were plain shit unless you spend several hours killing critters first, while avoiding to go even NEAR any treasure chest.
For anything else, Hard to Extreme. I like a good challenge.
Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Sat 18/10/2008 05:56:15
Constantly loading the game if I died or if I wasted too much ammo or health.
See, to me that's just tedious...
And frustrating if I forget to save my game, which I often do.
Quote from: Eggie on Sat 18/10/2008 15:31:07
Quote
Constantly loading the game if I died or if I wasted too much ammo or health.
See, to me that's just tedious...
And frustrating if I forget to save my game, which I often do.
I don't do it too often unless it's a game that really grinds the gears on conserving ammo/health. A game like F.E.A.R. that I recently played again. In that game certain guns will become more common to see on your enemy, so you'll have to drop one of your guns with low ammo so you can pick up theirs and collect all their ammo. Doing it several times throughout the game.
Quote from: Akatosh on Sat 18/10/2008 11:14:32
Depends. If it's an RPG-like game (as in, experience and equipment and stuff), I only play at Easy to Normal, so I can skip the grinding.
At this very moment I'm actually playing Mass Effect (RPG). It's on the hardest setting and I haven't noticed any extreme difficulties. I think there were only 3 areas (and I've almost completed the game) that were actually troublesome.
Oblivion also didn't bother me much--it's all in how attack. In Oblivion you jump back whenever they are about to attack you. Or launch fire balls from far distances. It's easy to dodge most of their attacks.
Easy.
If given many options, like 5 maybe (fps games like Doom or COD), second one.
I'm not the quickloading type (anymore) and don't think that I would go through long process of mastering a difficult game, like I did so often with NES, arcade, and other old games in the past. Modern games are rarely worth time and effort to really master...
This day, I like it easy and enjoyable, with all my hair intact after ending credits.
Then again, my favourite games are one of the most difficult games ever, like Jagged Alliance series, Stronghold Crusader, Samurai Shodown series...
The thing I've noticed about starting off on the hardest difficulty is that when I get up to a certain difficult spot or level, it just feels like its difficult and I dont really think about it being on the hardest difficulty. I just endevour to finish that part and when I do finish it I continue on my way.
After I've finished playing the game it's then I realise that I've just finished it on the hardest difficulty and in some cases, thats quite a challenge for some players. And I did it without even thinking about it.
Play Shadow of Rome on hard mode! (ps2) go on, I dare you! I got about 6 hours in before I just was incapable of getting any further. Started the game again on "Normal" mode, which was also very hard, but I managed to complete it.
(http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/584/584768/shadow-of-rome-20050202102101652.jpg)
oof.