Easy, Normal or Hard?

[QuixoticNeutral]

It depends on the genre, obviously, but if we're talking about anything with a cerebral element of planning, customization, strategy, or decision-making, the answer is like this: hard enough that decisions and personal resourcefulness still matter, and multiple approaches or solutions exist; not so hard that you're funnelled into a narrow band of optimality. Usually, this is on the harder end of the provided scale, but not cranked all the way to the top.

Essentially, the perfect difficulty is one that makes me feel like I'm scraping by thanks to my agency as a player: something I'm doing or teaching myself to do. Too easy, and your decisions don't matter. Punishing to the point that you can only do things one way, or that success and failure are at the mercy of RNG, and you don't even have decisions.

This carries over somewhat into action games or platformers, where your decisions (mechanical, perceptual, exploratory) are made in the spur of the moment. But again, it depends on the genre. I've dialled down shooters to Easy if I just didn't find their kind of challenge fun to test myself against repeatedly. And not all kinds of difficulty are the same. I prefer to be rewarded for mastering something consistently than for narrowly clearing the bar by accident once.

 

[Jobbs]

Hard because it's really normal in 99% of games. Everything got skewed at some point, where "normal" is always easy. I guess developers collectively decided at some point that people wanted an easy experience but they didn't want the game to make them admit it.

 

[Strike]

Normal. Get a feel for the game first.

 

[TheForgotten]

Most of the time normal.

 

[Chance Hale]

Outside of crpgs that just inflate damage values I always play on hard or above. I've played so many games at this point that I need some degree of challenge or easy death to not feel like I'm sleep walking through the thing.

 

[Chaosblade]

Normal unless I have reason to believe another difficulty is better suited. Like modern Fire Emblem games essentially stepping every difficulty down one, so normal is what used to be easy, hard is what used to be normal, etc.

 

[DoubleTake]

Normal because too often higher difficulties just turn enemies into damage sponges without any real change to mechanics. I dont got time for that on a first playthrough.

If I find the gameplay engaging enough I'll bump it up for a replay.

 

[Deleted member 42686]

Insane~Hard. Depends how the game deals with the difficulty.

For instance when I tried Skyrim legendary level I feel like it was too cheesy because even lower level naked enemies take way too low damage. Battles took way too long (even with high end smithed equips and enchants) and often I felt snoozing because of the time spent.

 

[Jhey Cyphre]

Always the hardest mode no matter what. It's the only time a games mechanic ever truly shine.

 

[rumplestilts]

Normal or easy - depending on how fast I need to get through something.

 

[Deleted member 2620]

I start as high as the game offers and work my way down if I'm not liking it. That usually means staying on Hard if there are three difficulties or if there are more sometimes I settle on the second to hardest.

 

[RNG]

Normal. I just want to kick back and relax. Too lazy to git gud.

 

[Deleted member 9714]

Usually Normal. I'll play Hard for a select few games like Fire Emblem.

If the game sucks but I still want to beat it, I'll play it on Easy.

 

[JCal]

Hard, no matter what. I want to dissect the games I play. Learn everything they have to offer.

 

[Branson]

Normal.

But some games are awesome on easy like Wolfenstein 2.

 

[names2hard4you]

I see myself playing more and more games on easy these days. Just don't have the time really

 

[Deleted member 48434]

Normally normal, unless it's a game I'm particularly skilled at (Not that many of those tbh) or a game that is way too easy on normal (Lookin at you Zelda games)

 

[GoldStarz]

Normal unless the game is known to be especially hard or it's outside my usual genres.

 

[ConfusedOwl]

Almost always normal difficulty for a first playthrough. There are some occasions I'll start with hard but it's usually for games where normal is basically easy mode.

 

[BouncyFrag]

I usually go normal. I'll check online to see if normal is on the easy side and if so, bump it up a notch.

 

[Kapryov]

Normal.

Unfortunately I think it's fair to say most games are balanced around a "Normal" setting, with easy and hard being slapped together with less thought to balance, such as creating spongey enemies with too much health.
It makes that AC7 situation worse, because if I didn't know any better I would definitely pick "Normal" over any other setting on a first playthrough should I try it out.

 

[Total Cereal]

Lately, I've been playing on whatever the hardest difficulty is (other than a permadeath difficulty). I blame achievements. "Well if I play on hard I'll get the achievement for beating it on hard on my first playthrough, so why not?"

 

[TaterTots]

Depends on the game. If it's a "cinematic" experience I'll drop it down to easy to go through the story. I don't have the time or anything to prove to anyone.

 

[TheMango55]

I generally play on Normal. I want to feel like I'm being challenged, but I also want to win.

Some games I'll play again on a harder difficulty after that. Fallout 4 in Survival was a fun experience even though I lost over an hour of progress multiple times.

 

[TheMink]

I voted for Hard, but really whatever difficulty is the pinacle intened design experience. For instance LH 2 FM Critical is THE essential experience. Conversely Uncharted 4 Crushing takes away from the core Normal free combat experience.

 

[Rob2K19]

Normal on the first playthrough.

For Kingdom Hearts, Standard on the 1st playthrough. Proud on the 2nd playthrough. Critical on the 3rd.

For KH3, I will go Proud first since I want to see the secret ending.

 

[WarAdept]

I voted for Hard, but really whatever difficulty is the pinacle intened design experience. For instance LH 2 FM Critical is THE essential experience. Conversely Uncharted 4 Crushing takes away from the core Normal free combat experience.

Click to shrink...

Game difficulties where you deal mega damage to the enemy, far more than playing on normal, but conversely, take way more damage are the way to go (as well as mixing up enemy placements and attack patterns).

This is why KH2FM Critical Mode is the best.

Adding 50 billion HP/Def to an enemy is not the way to go about making a "Hard/Insane" difficulty.

 

[shaneo632]

Normal for most games. If it's horror I tend to do easy because it makes me uncomfortably anxious otherwise.

I played Ace Combat 7 on easy because it was my first game in the series and I still found it hard as nails.

 

[Chopchop]

Normal is usually the intended difficulty for the developers, so I go with that.

I usually go one above Normal for FPSes though, since I'm familiar enough with them.

 

[Why would you do that?]

With a series I know well enough, I'll bump up the difficulty a little bit. For example, in Tales games I usually play at Moderate (between Normal and Hard). And in Mario Kart I always play at hardest difficulty / highest CC, especially since beating a cup at 150CC counts as beating it at 50CC and 100CC.

On replays I bump up the difficulty if I think it'll be fun. I recently replayed Duke Nukem 3D and for the first time I played at the second hardest difficulty level (which is the same as the hardest, except enemies don't respawn). Was very fun.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

It depends. If the game has a lot of grinding like JRPGs easy always

I had a rough time with Vampyr until I turned on story mode and plowed thru it. One of my fav games this gen setting and atmosphere wise. Wouldn't have done that without easier setting

 

[KingBae]

I feel like for most games hard = normal these days and normal is the new easy.

 

[shark97]

I typically, essentially always, go normal on 1st play.

I dont want it easy spoiling the ride, I want a bit of challenge. And I dont want too much difficulty spoiling the fun. Yep, normal. It's there for a reason. I figure it's the Devs way of saying "this is the correct way to play the game".

Most games I kinda wanna ride through in my bubble of fun. I want a few difficulty spikes, I dont want to coast, but I dont want to bust my testicles either. Normal.

Those VERY few times I do a hard/insane playthrough, it will be after and in addition to a normal one. Really only ever did this for a couple Gears of War games.

 

[Waffle]

I've felt like Hard seems to be the Normal these days and Normal is the casual experience. Just how it felt especially from the PS3/Xbox 360 era onwards. People should play whatever they enjoy though.

 

[Falconbox]

Normal has gotten boring for me. It seems games, in an effort to cater to larger audiences, have made "Normal" actually easier and easier over the years.

I go for Hard on a 1st playthrough now.

 

[Z-Beat]

depends on the game but these days I'll go for hard if I think I can handle it. I tried that in Nier Automata though and that was a mistake

 

[big_z]

Normal or whatever the game was designed around unless playing game I've played previous entries in the series and can handle the extra challenge.
With co-op well sometimes max the difficulty for fun right from the start as having a backup buddy makes games a ton easier.

 

[Crash331]

Normal and I want the option of changing difficulty without restarting a campaign in case I hit a roadblock. I have 2 kids and other hobbies so I can't spend 40 hours on every game I get.


Hard almost ALWAYS means bullet sponge enemies and a PC that dies in 1-2 hits and not improved AI, and that's just frustrating as hell.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

I almost always play Normal first and then ramp up later.

I enjoy Hard modes if I come to enjoy the gameplay during the course of Normal, but I'm not necessarily set to try a game on Hard+ right off the bat.

 

[ChrisD]

Pretty much always Normal, since thats what the game is designed around. Unless the game tells me otherwise, like Halo.

Click to shrink...

Normal, or whatever the default difficulty is.

Click to shrink...

.
Etrian Odyssey V I played on "Hard" (Veteran) because it's either that or Easy.

Played Persona 5 on Normal, though, and I here it was designed more for Hard, so idk.

 

[sxiebonjour]

Whatever the platinum takes..

 

[Benzychenz]

Usually normal, but I'll play on a higher difficulty if it's balanced well and makes the game more fun.

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix for instance is such a lesser game on anything other than Critical.

 

[Fushichou187]

For me, if there are trophies associated with difficulty (and they stack), I'll start out on hard and just deal with the steeper learning curve.

If no such trophies exist, I'll play on normal.

 

[Deleted member 864]

Usually normal, at least on the first playthrough. I might do a harder difficulty when playing the game again.

 

[chirt]

Almost always normal, unless explicitly advised otherwise (easy for Wolfenstein 2, critical for KH2). I'll probably play REmake 2 on the easiest difficulty because the scariest game I've ever played is the Last of Us and I'll need my hand held.

 

[Notaskwid]

Usually normal, some games like Kingdom Hearts I'll go for hard.

 

[Officer Beefsteak]

First playthrough is always normal, even when there's trophies behind hard I tend to replay the game. It's the reason I don't have the Witcher 3 platinum lol.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Normal, unless it's one of those weird games that was balanced for another difficulty but then had its default changed for whatever reason.

Basically whatever difficulty the game was designed to be balanced for.

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

Pretty much always Normal, since thats what the game is designed around. Unless the game tells me otherwise, like Halo.

Click to shrink...

Is the Halo example because Master Chief is a walking battle tank and should destroy most covenants easily so the lore matches the Easy difficulty setting?

 

[Prophane33]

95% of the time I go with Easy. If I replay a game then I'll play on other difficulties, especially in games where you're expected to play on easier difficulties and use items/experience to tackle harder difficulties (e.g. Dynasty Warriors, Earth Defense Force, etc.). The other 5% would be Normal. I have no desire to play difficult games, I only have so much time to play games and I usually buy a lot which means that more often than not I'll only be playing something once, so I don't want to get stuck or frustrated with something.