You fire up a new single player game. It's a game you've not played before. What difficulty do you select?
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I usually look up on the internet what the recommended difficulty is, but a lot of the time it ends up being whatever is one above the default difficulty. Normal is basically easy in a lot of games these days. However some games have a large jump from normal to hard, in which case I would go normal.
Normal. Because that's the difficulty the devs intended for the experience and mostly the best tuned one.
Usually I go normal unless it's a genre or game series I'm good at and I know won't change much in difficulty. Then I go hard.
Sometimes I'll go Easy if I just want to get through a game, like I did with Star Wars Squadrons.
Sometimes I'll go Easy if I just want to get through a game, like I did with Star Wars Squadrons.
Usually I go Normal difficulty. However in games like Crusader Kings, I do select Ironman no matter what my skill level is because to me it just enhances the game and failing isn't a pain in the ass.
So it kinda depends game by game, how I feel. In short & intense action games I might go for Hard, but for longer games like Yakuza or JRPGs, I just go Normal.
So it kinda depends game by game, how I feel. In short & intense action games I might go for Hard, but for longer games like Yakuza or JRPGs, I just go Normal.
Put it on Hard. Forget it was on Hard then when they patch in a new difficulty, get jumped to that and wonder why I'm getting oneshotted.
LOL this happened to me in GoT but I was still enjoying it.
LOL this happened to me in GoT but I was still enjoying it.
Normal for rpg's, and it's hard or very hard for everything else.I find myself getting disengaged with a video game rather quickly if I'm not challenged by it's gameplay.
Always hard, but not the extreme hard difficulties some games have. Games where there's no challenge don't interest me, unless it's a FMV game or whatever. Steamrolling enemies is boring to me, I hate being overpowered to the point where I will find ways of limiting that to keep it challenging. I'm one of those weirdos who likes enemy scaling.
Normal, supposing that's how the game has been balanced, and harder if I like it.
But sometimes I can lower the difficulty just to avoid a gameplay I am not enjoying but a game I want to explore.
But sometimes I can lower the difficulty just to avoid a gameplay I am not enjoying but a game I want to explore.
That might be the intention, but which difficulty had the most playtesting and development time attached to it? Probably normal if it's intended to be the difficulty most players will choose. Realistically, in many games not all difficulty levels are made equal.
The new God of War is a pretty recent example - that's a game that definitely felt tuned to normal difficulty, with hard suffering from huge difficulty spikes and a general unevenness to the difficulty curve that otherwise probably wouldn't exist if that was the only level available.
Whatever the game defaults to, which is typically "Normal", or the one in the middle. I look at that as the experience intended/recommended by the developer.
There should always be an easily identifiable default option/"Normal", or a minimum of three options.
Depending on your various preferences and thresholds, perhaps a different difficulty would be more suitable, but the default is basically a guarantee that most people will find that experience ok. And I'm usually most people.
I don't mind a challenge, but it is a tightrope walk between the rewarding sense of overcoming a challenge and the frustration of losing progress repeating it over and over.
I rarely enjoy harder difficulties as they often introduce more frustration and I don't play games to get frustrated.
There should always be an easily identifiable default option/"Normal", or a minimum of three options.
Depending on your various preferences and thresholds, perhaps a different difficulty would be more suitable, but the default is basically a guarantee that most people will find that experience ok. And I'm usually most people.
I don't mind a challenge, but it is a tightrope walk between the rewarding sense of overcoming a challenge and the frustration of losing progress repeating it over and over.
I rarely enjoy harder difficulties as they often introduce more frustration and I don't play games to get frustrated.
Just depends on the game.
- If they've got good descriptions on what each mode is I'll go by that.
- If there is a consensus that the normal mode lacks challenge I'll start with harder modes.
- If it's a game in a series I have experience with or a genre I have experience with I'll go with harder modes.
- If it's an arcade game with shorter playtimes I'll probably play all the difficulties then stick with what I can handle until I get more experience.
- If it's a rhythm game with a control scheme I'm not used to yet I'll start with easy and move up as my hands/feet adjust. Otherwise I'll jump to the harder stuff, unless accuracy is strict then I'll usually play every difficulty because I like working on accuracy.
- If they've got good descriptions on what each mode is I'll go by that.
- If there is a consensus that the normal mode lacks challenge I'll start with harder modes.
- If it's a game in a series I have experience with or a genre I have experience with I'll go with harder modes.
- If it's an arcade game with shorter playtimes I'll probably play all the difficulties then stick with what I can handle until I get more experience.
- If it's a rhythm game with a control scheme I'm not used to yet I'll start with easy and move up as my hands/feet adjust. Otherwise I'll jump to the harder stuff, unless accuracy is strict then I'll usually play every difficulty because I like working on accuracy.
Normal but with some exceptions, there's been a couple of dames recently where people have been advised to up the difficulty from the start (was Trials of Mana one?).
If a review or online discussion mentions this I'll normally give it a try.
If a review or online discussion mentions this I'll normally give it a try.
Always on the hardest difficulty, unless it's like an intentional torture mode (e.g. Halo Legendary) or has some very off-putting changes (Fallout 4's "can't quick save"-bs).
I also often google beforehand what the changes are to make an informed choice.
I don't think I've played a game on normal in the past 20+ years, if given the option. I made some exceptions for ND-games which I blasted through on Easy, just so the atrocious combat gameplay gets over with sooner and I can get back to the story / puzzles.
I also often google beforehand what the changes are to make an informed choice.
I don't think I've played a game on normal in the past 20+ years, if given the option. I made some exceptions for ND-games which I blasted through on Easy, just so the atrocious combat gameplay gets over with sooner and I can get back to the story / puzzles.
Between Normal and Hard. Depends if it's a kind of game or genre I might be familiar with. The last few games I played were all on Hard difficulty: Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales and the current one is Jedi Fallen Order. I don't recall if Tropical Freeze and Mario Galaxy had a difficulty setting, if they did then I played on the regular one.
Normal, occasionally hard depending on the type of game. Hard on any tactics games for instance. Challenge is what makes well playing games interesting. I wish more developers had variable difficulty sliders like fallen order so you can really customize the challenge.
I wonder how many people really got caught out by Viewtiful Joe's difficulty settings of "Kids" and "Adults"
Depends on the game but usually hard, unless normal is specifically highlighted as the "intended" experience. Otherwise I find with most games "normal" feels like easy mode tuned for general audiences, while "hard" feels like the way you were meant to engage with the mechanics.
Horror games, though, I pretty much exclusively play on hard. Without danger, tension, or stakes I don't see much point. It's what the genre is all about.
Horror games, though, I pretty much exclusively play on hard. Without danger, tension, or stakes I don't see much point. It's what the genre is all about.
Mostly normal, sometimes hard for rpgs. I need there to be some level of difficulty to feel like I've got some agency in the story. If I'm not struggling alongside the hero, it definitely breaks immersion and worsens the experience.
I would prefer to go with harder options all the time but difficulty balance is generally pretty poor across the industry.
I would prefer to go with harder options all the time but difficulty balance is generally pretty poor across the industry.
Very easy, I want to experience the story and be done with it so I can get back to my live service games.
Used to be Normal cause it was only 3 difficulties. Now I would sometimes go for hard as normal became easy and just not balanced or fun to play.
I usually select Normal, but I like those "guided" difficulty level selection screens that kind of prompt you to choose based on your familiarity with that genre. Those usually work out pretty well for me, as I feel that the developer has a pretty good idea as to how "hardcore" their game is relative to the expectations of the genre as a whole.
Generally hard, unless it's a genre I don't play much, like racing. I play games more than any other form of media so I figure if hard isn't meant for me then who is it meant for?
Lately I have been searching the same question on reddit before starting a game because sometimes normal is the most enjoyable.
Lately I have been searching the same question on reddit before starting a game because sometimes normal is the most enjoyable.
Yeah that's another one that annoyed me as a child, I think I went with adults and found it too hard and bailed
I think "kids" is actually meant to be normal and "adults" is hard, but either way I only think it's worth changing the names of the settings if it's clear what they relate to. So something like:
Story
Standard
Experienced
Is fine, because it's clear what they are, and which one is easy, normal and hard, but when games have 2 settings and they're not clear which is best for new players, it's bad design
Kids seems like it would be a baby mode with Adults being the standard mode, but kids could also be Normal and Adults Hard, so it's not clear, meaning at least some players will make the wrong choice for them because they don't have all the info
It's the same with Gears 1, Casual and Hardcore seem like Easy and Hard, so do I opt for a mode I think will be too easy for me, or a mode I think will be too frustrating?
If Causal is Normal then call them Normal and Hardcore, or Standard and Hardcore, if Hardcore is normal then call it Normal and call Casual Easy, If Hardcore is hard, then call them Hardcore and Normal
WoW definitely has difficulty settings when it comes to raiding and endgame content.
Long RPGs - Easy
Horror games - Easy
Shooters - Normal/hard depending on the franchise
Everything else - normal
Horror games - Easy
Shooters - Normal/hard depending on the franchise
Everything else - normal
I don't select a difficulty; I just go to turn on subtitles and press X until the game starts. Whatever it is set to must be what they intended you to play on, so I do that.
Partially why I like games without difficulty settings; I get tired of hearing people say "oh, but they INTENDED you to play on Hard!" or "it's MEANT to be played on EXTREME BRUTALITY DIFFICULTY"
Just make it the default then. And if it's too hard for me, I'll just... play something else.
Partially why I like games without difficulty settings; I get tired of hearing people say "oh, but they INTENDED you to play on Hard!" or "it's MEANT to be played on EXTREME BRUTALITY DIFFICULTY"
Just make it the default then. And if it's too hard for me, I'll just... play something else.