Easy Mode Is Actually for Adults : games

[–] [email protected] 82 points 10 months ago (3 children)

For most games, the real consequence of failure in a game is being forced to repeat what just happened. And getting caught in a Groundhog Day-esque situation that repeats once every few minutes suuuuucks.

It’s even worse when a failure causes your character to lose stuff. That’s even more time wasted, in that the time and effort taken to get the thing is gone.

Paint the rainbow on my proud carebear chest if you must. I just want a place to escape to for a little while, a place that doesn’t frustrate the shit out of me.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Exactly how I feel about the Souls games. How the fuck am I supposed to make any real progress when the only resource I have to do so is lost each time I die?

I have a full time job and a kid, I don't have time to grind out a boss for hours. Can't I just enjoy the world with an easy mode?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I agree with the person you were replying to, and I am glad that the Souls formula isn't the norm (I've played all of them, and haven't finished a one)...

But the Soulses get a pass from me personally, because their whole thing is about being present in the moment and overcoming what appear to be unbeatable odds. It's the closest thing in modern gaming that gave me the feeling of being crushed by, and overcoming, the first Airship level in Mario 3.

That said, I'm not against accessibility option in a Souls game, so long as they're optional.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Yup. Sometimes I like the Souls experience, and sometimes I just want a decent story and fun gameplay (e.g. Yakuza games). Give me all the options and I'll decide based on the game.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Thats what the soul items are for. You eat those while standing in front of a bonfire about to level up. Because they are an item, you dont lose them when you die, so they are safe exp.

Especially boss souls. If you dont want the specific weapon that boss makes, you eat that shit when you need the level boost.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You can't play Dark Souls without it being hard. There is no gameplay loop if you can just squash everyone in your path. I went out of my way to beat Souls 3 and Elden Ring without upgrading my character to make it more fun. If you want to just walk around then play something else.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I agree that the game falls apart without challenge, but the challenge will vary by player, especially those of different abilities. So while I wouldn't use them (until I get older and slower maybe), I support the addition of optional accessibility options in Souls games. They aren't a fun little experiment anymore - they're a proven formula, and I believe it can survive tweaking.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Exactly. I cannot stand how interested I am in soulsborne storylines because I'm simply not willing to put myself through playing that shit any longer.

The only soulsborne I've beaten is an "easy mode" modded Elden Ring. Nothing worse than watching a game LP on youtube because I really want to play it but don't enjoy it. (Bloodborne, lookin at you)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Except for Fallout 4. That survival mode turns it into a completely different fucking game.

Running around cause you need to get to a sleeping bag or dirty mattress after walking half a map, words can’t describe the feeling adequately.

Voluntarily drinking dirty water.

Actually using the cooking system.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Local man discovers difficulty settings.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Pretty accurate to the story, now that I actually read it.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Easy Mode is for adults that just want to see the story.

I'm an adult and I like Hard Mode (or higher) because I play for the challenge. What could be more challenging than juggling a demanding work/home life and also trying to progress in a long game with only 2 hours a week to play on the hardest possible difficulty? At any moment a kid or pet could unplug the system and corrupt my save. It's like everything has a hardcore mode.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Yeah, the last of us is an example of a game with a moderately compelling story.

But it's also a game that does a really good job of offering brutal difficulty in a way that's fair, engaging, and makes success all (OK, mostly) about you. There aren't really cheap fails. If you approach encounters intelligently and execute your actions, you will succeed. If you don't, you get punished. The mostly is because resources are scarce and there's some RNG to drops, so if you're too low, some harder encounters can vary in difficulty based on the ammo that you get.

If that's not what you want, that's fine. But I read books and watch TV for stories. I play games for mechanics. Is it nice when a game like Horizon makes a character like Aloy really compelling by having her have to present advanced tech to primitive tribalist cultures? Sure. But if the mechanics weren't good, writing couldn't even sort of mitigate that for me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Have kids, can relate. There are plenty of games I just don't play because I don't have the time, so I totally understand easy mode. That being said, if I literally just want the story, there are plenty of let's plays I can watch and skip around in, so I generally play on normal and sometimes hard and just get through fewer games.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Flashbacks to when my daughter had just started walking and pressed the button on my Xbox while I was playing Assassin’s Creed 2, corrupting my save file at 90% completion.

I was like “no no no no!!! Ahhh…awwwwwww….”

Poor thing got so confused, I had to tell her it was alright but explain to her not to do that.

Couldn’t really get mad at them, they literally didn’t know they shouldn’t do that thing yet, lol, but damn did I have to start all over!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

"At any moment, I could be shot in the face! I LIVE HARDCORRRRRRE!"

[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is one of those threads where if you agree with the author, you're a filthy casual, but if you actually want your hard game to be hard, you're a sweaty loser than needs to touch grass.

Have your easy mode. Some of my favorite games even have a "Very Easy" mode. Just don't corrupt games that are designed with a specific challenge in mind with nerfed nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I absolutely agree. Give the player the option between "story mode," "normal" (intended experience), and "hard", perhaps with an additional mode or two as well. I have never been mad at having too many difficulty settings.

I personally almost always play on the default difficulty since that's probably what got the most testing, and play on a harder difficulty if I really like the game and want a challenge.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The issue is that mechanics for scaling difficulty need to designed into the game from the start, not tacked on at the end of a feature backlog. Making an easy game harder by upping enemy health and damage or nerfing RNGs is lame and often unbalanced. It should be the opposite - the game balance should be designed around the hard mode and than pared back for the easy mode.

The thing that really drives me nuts more than anything is nerfing complex control schemes to target console controls. The best example of this is Witcher 2 having an amazing and complex combat system which lent itself to a huge variety of play styles, enabled by complex controls with a high skill floor. And then Witcher 3 turned it into "spam dodge and counter" because all the richness of the control scheme was dumbed down to target consoles.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Exactly.

For example, shortening delays in boss movements is a fantastic way to distinguish "easy" from "hard." That doesn't feel as cheap as increasing health and damage output, but as you said, it needs to be considered from the start.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

"story", "intended balance", "hard", "no reloading hard", "custom because you like hard except for that one bit of bullshit"

To me that's the perfect balance of settings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

custom

Oh, I absolutely love how Mount and Blade: Warband does it, though the "AI smart" setting doesn't work properly.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

I don't have time to play on the hardest settings anymore. Plus I'm old and I'm just not as good as I was 20+ years ago. My son laughed at me once when he saw I was on easy, that was 10 years ago, he's still grounded. 😂

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Eh, easy mode is for those who need or want to use it. Ditto for hard or impossible modes. Adult, teenager, troglodyte, don't really matter what ya are

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah, I felt the same way reading this. It frames the easy mode option as this revelation that everyone should try because they are too proud not to. In reality, it's the tale of one person's experience who found a way to make their hobby more enjoyable for them

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I'm 38 and easy modes are made for people like me. I usually dont have the time, attention or patience required by some games to even have a fighting chance in game progression (looking at you FromSoft) I don't regularly use easy mode as it does make many games trivially easy but sometimes it's just enough where I can enjoy the story, explore a beautiful and imaginative world and see it through to the end without the bullshit. I usually have no desire to be a hard-core veteran of a game's mechanics but I still want to play the game. If people don't like it, we'll, I'm still 38 and dont give a shit what others think anymore. Just take my $60 and entertain me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Easy mode is for younger adults and kids too. Age isn't really relevant tbh. I never played games on hard or even normal when I was a kid. Like you said it's more about how much time do you have to invest

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I haven't read the article yet, but easy mode is actually for me.

I like gaming, but almost all my gaming time is compressed into a few months of the year. Even then, it's not uncommon to have to have a week or longer hiatus between sessions. And when I do sit down to play, I'm lucky if I get the time to have a 1 - 2 hour session. With my situation, games that are long or difficult or that have overly complicated control/button schemes are not a good fit for me.

One game that really stood out for me in terms of being really well designed in this respect was Hades. I thought it did an excellent job of making itself accessible to more casual audiences, while still providing lots of options for dialing up the punishment if that's your cup of tea. I definitely wish more development teams would put as much effort into making other genres and franchises friendly to more casual players, and I think it's definitely an achievable goal to do without compromising the experience for more dedicated/advanced players -- at least for certain types of games.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I really wish there were an "adult difficulty" setting to pick instead of 'easy'. I don't have hours to waste on hordes of "difficult" enemies that just slows progress and pads the playtime. Nor do I want a walking simulator where the boss just falls over with no need for anything beyond the most basic game mechanics. Give me an option to experience the story with an interesting challenge without wasting my time, dammit!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I've been playing god of war Ragnarok on the second lowest difficulty setting. If it was any more difficult, I'd be frustrated and not having fun. Sometimes I want to enjoy the story and not die a dozen times in the same spot

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I got tired of playing the first game. I didn’t go back until I learned I could cheat. I just wanted to rush through the combat and get the story.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Bought GTA V 10 years ago with a newborn on the way. Two more kids later and I've still never finished it because I've hit my video game skill cap. I just want to finish the story.

Please bring back cheat codes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Please bring back cheat codes.

They exist behind paywalls nowadays.

Perhaps the real irony is that only PC still lets you cheat for free in single player games nowadays, but you have to download a trainer (which might have dubious origin), or just learn how to use CheatEngine and look up for ready tables for games

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Like this?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have two kids and I only play on easy mode when I'm playing with them. Otherwise I prefer to be challenged.

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[+] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Sometimes the difficulty will improve enemy tactics, boost numbers or make the player less of a tank, and genuinely add challenge.

But, if the game has a good storyline I like to play on "normal" for the first playthrough as I feel higher difficulty ruins the pacing. Then if I enjoy the game I'll go back and replay on higher difficulty for the challenge.

This was always the way when a new Halo game came out, they have long stated that they are "meant to be played on Heroic" but me and a buddy would rip through in coop on Normal and then bump up the difficulty.

I finally got around to Titanfall 2 and Normal feels a bit easy, but it also feels like I'm playing a robot mecha movie instead of grinding through tactical battles, which is awesome. Definitely going to revisit this one on Hard though.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Relevant video from Razbuten about difficulty settings on games.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's weird because I wish people were more clear about difficulty because it clears up contradictions. At the same time, it gives me an easy reason to dismiss an opinion if it doesn't house my perspective on the best way to appreciate the game.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Cmon you gotta play F.E.A.R. on hard. That's when it really pops off.

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