My first arena topic in ... a year and a half? Something like that.
Today I overheard a conversation panning a game which I have played, and it started me thinking. I played that particular game twice, once on normal and once on the hardest level. The experience was very different, with me disliking the first playthrough so much that I honestly have no idea why I allowed it back in my xbox. More on this game later.
For years it has been a generally accepted fact in the gaming world that increasing the difficulty level above normal does little to change the experience, aside from making the AI cheat and the enemies into bullet sponges. Most people find this tedious. Occasionally there's a game which takes on a whole new life when you raise the difficulty. Currently I can only think of a few.
Batman: Arkham Asylum. On hard you no longer get a lightning flash above enemies' heads indicating that they are about to attack. This means you need to pay close attention to what is going on - and that increases your situation awareness to the point where your combo counts spiral and you glide through entire large fights without getting hit. Enemies do cause more damage, yet somehow it feels right instead of cheap, raising the stakes and reinforcing the message that the combat system is all about avoiding getting hit.
Bioshock 1. My hard/no vita chambers playthrough was tense, exciting and atmospheric. Best of all, it forced me to improvise, to scramble, to scrounge, to wring every last advantage out of stealth, and - finally - become an unstoppable dealer of death. On lower difficulties you can simply walk through shooting everything, barely exploring the systems the game has to offer.
Galactic Civilisations II. There's a range between normal and the very highest difficulties where the AI gets smarter and does not yet begin to cheat. I suppose you could say the 'hard' range instead of the 'very hard'.
Mass Effect 1. On normal and lower combat is quite dull. You don't need to do much more than point and shoot. On hardcore it's gone a bit too far the other way, and it takes forever to kill anything. Insane, now insane is just right. You have to use your team's abilities, customise your weapons, play smart, and maintain situational awareness. Shame ME2 didn't learn anything from this.
And now the game which prompted this thread. On normal mode the combat system was broken and lousy, the targeting crap, the camera useless, the gameplay dull, and the experience completely at odds with what your character was meant to be. The upgrade system felt pointless. I have no idea why, over a year later, I felt compelled to try the game again on the highest difficulty. Shortly after beginning this second playthrough I was starting to realise that everything had changed and that the new way worked a far sight better. If you attempted to play as you were meant to, you died. In the first room. Repeatedly. The group of basic enemies shot you down before you could blink. Playing in the opposite way to the developer's intention eventually saw survival of that first room, after half an hour of experimenting and refining my approaches. And from there the game flowered. When a single attack will get you killed, stay unseen. When closing to range gets you smushed, attack from a distance. When your primary weapons are ineffective examine every last alternative in your tool box. Utilise patience. Observe your enemies, watch for their patrol patterns and identify the moments when they are separated into more vulnerable groups. Find the limits of their awareness, their range, their attacks. Progress inch by inch, enemy by enemy. Anticipate each upgrade, value them, choose them wisely, because now the tiny little increases are the difference between life and death. Suddenly most of the flaws become irrelevant. The camera is not battling to keep up with the action. The targeting is under control. You aren't using the broken attacks. The game?
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
What games do you think belong in this category?
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