Most video game developers can’t find the balance between being difficult for babies and making the player absolutely hate the game and everyone involved in making it. That’s why in almost every game we can see a list of three or even more difficulty levels. The basic gradation of levels looks something like this: easy, normal and hard difficulty level. However, many began to dilute the basic combination of levels, adding to the existing ones such variations as “extreme”, “madness”, “one life”, etc.d.
Of course, with this decision, the developers reach the largest possible audience for their game, and also avoid the reproaches that From Software could not avoid with Sekiro: shadows die twice. However, in trying to please everyone, you often fail to please anyone. Greetings StopGame.Ru! With you Animanser and today we will discuss the topic of difficulties in video games, whether hardcore fans should play at the maximum difficulty level in modern titles and how to avoid banal tweaking of opponents’ characteristics to complicate the game.
Complexity and models of manipulation
First, we need to understand what difficulty is in video games? Based on many sources, it can be assumed that “difficulty in video games is the obstacles created by the means of the game, namely through game design, location design, artificial intelligence and other game elements."And this is also one of the values of the graph with the “difficulty curve”. The X axis represents the time spent playing the game, and the Y axis represents the relative difficulty at certain moments. The bend of the curve depends on the approach of the game designer. So, for example, in the mobile game Flappy Bird there is a straight line: its difficulty constantly remains at the same fairly high level. This distinguishes Flappy Bird from most modern games with an upward curve – the further you go, the more difficult it is for the player.
At a time when old games, being in most cases hand-crafted, tested the player’s reaction and ingenuity. New games get by with a simpler method, just change its balance is not in favor of the player. It’s always easier to weaken the main character’s attacks or health, strengthen opponents or increase their number. This method is most often used in action games in which the forces of the parties are usually unequal. If the outcome of each fight is predetermined in favor of the player, then the intrigue is lost and the player becomes bored.
Sometimes game designers deliberately make their games uncomfortable. In Japanese horror games Fatal Frame, as well as the first Resident Evil and Silent Hill, clunky controls make the player feel more vulnerable than in other, more responsive action games. Inconveniences can also be part of the stylization of the world. Papers, Please admits it doesn’t have the most user-friendly interface. The creators of the game wanted you to feel how difficult life is for an employee in a totalitarian state.
Tricks today they are considered archaic, but in the 90s and 90s they were used almost everywhere. If now an irritated user would rather choose another game that would not mock him, then previously it was believed that tricks could only provoke. A typical example is the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, which became the most difficult game in the series. It contains poisonous mushrooms that disguise themselves as ordinary ones. It’s gotten to the point where the sequel to Super Mario Bros. was considered too difficult for foreigners, after which, under the guise of Super Mario Bros. 2 released a modified version of the game Doki Doki Panic abroad. Concerns concerned the American market: European games for early home computers were in no way inferior to Japanese games in complexity.
Doom 3 used another dishonest trick. At times, when a player found a first aid kit in a dark corner, a monster would immediately jump out at him and take away all the health he had received. Using such tricks, game designers force the player to be nervous: when you know that from around any corner in the same Dark Souls someone can jump out at you, there is no time to relax. Other games use endless waves: if you sit in cover and don’t progress through the level, new enemies will continue to appear. At the same time, the motivation of developers who resort to tricks is not always clear. Thus, Japanese game designer Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of one of the most hardcore game series Ninja Gaiden, told how complaints from players led him to want to make his games even more difficult.
Your face when gaijin suffer in your games.
Sometimes, the complexity of the game is the whole point of it. First of all, this applies to simulators. In Gran Turismo and Football Manager, the fun of the game is not just in the process itself, but in learning how everything works – it never stops. The fact that these games imitate the real world makes them more accessible – the difficulty lies in how to transfer existing skills to the virtual world.
But there are also plenty of games that don’t copy complex systems from life, but invent them themselves. Such games can only be mastered by trial and error – they usually do not offer training modes, leaving the player with all the difficulties alone. Popular online games and the notorious Dark Souls are notorious for this. In the case of online projects, in-game training can only familiarize the player with basic concepts and gameplay mechanics, but the difficulty lies in the fact that the player will have to adapt to team members, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and improve himself. In the souls series, the player is not given training or choice of any difficulty at all. In such games, the game designer thinks in advance about the moments when and where to let the player relax, and where to press harder. At the same time, the game does not punish for death.
In souls-likes, death is not failure, but growth. [. ] In games of this genre, there is a connection between defeat and learning – so the rules of gameplay are easily learned. And partly because of this, players welcome this approach, despite the "complexity" that arises. They think she’s honest.
From this follows an important principle of www.luckyvegascasino.uk game design for souls-likes – what the developers call “an agreement between the player and the creator”. When a player believes in the rules of game design, he is much more comfortable with failure. This gives him the motivation to be better.
The essence of souls-likes is this. First, you accept that death and repetition are part of the core gameplay. Secondly, you also accept that death is entirely your fault.
The game will show you how to become better, or how to correct your mistakes – so that over time you can begin to succeed.The essence of souls-likes is this. First, you accept that death and repetition are part of the core gameplay. Secondly, you also accept that death is entirely your fault.
The game will show you how to become better, or how to correct your mistakes – so that over time you can begin to succeed.
The model in which the game designer initially sets the same difficulty for all players is one of the most successful in the gaming industry, but more on that a little later.
But it’s true, no matter how much you burn, you still come back.
When the balance is not in the player’s favor
Often difficulty levels (conventional “low”, “medium” and “high”) differ only in emphasis in balance. The debate about whether difficulty levels are needed or not is still ongoing. Opponents believe that most games ask you to make choices too early, when the differences between levels are not obvious. In addition, not all games take into account that different things can be difficult for different people. Although these disadvantages are significant, they can be avoided with competent game design. Many come to half-hearted solutions, opening the highest difficulty level only for those who have completed the game at least once. There are plenty of examples – Max Payne 2, Diablo 3, some The Legend of Zelda and many others. Devil May Cry 3, on the other hand, offers a locked easy difficulty level for those who die early in the game. There are also those who hide more difficult sections so that only those who want a challenge can play them – this is what 3D platformers with Mario do.
In God Of War, when comparing “a worthy test” and “god of war”, the player feels a significant difference in the first battle. If in the first case the game allows Kratos to inflict visible damage on the enemy and productively manipulate combinations, while cutting the main character’s health so that he misses fewer hits, then in the case of the god of war, Kratos is cut off not only the amount of health, but also the damage. In this case, the main character’s attacks have no impact on the animation of opponents, and the use of Leviathan becomes useless at first, since it is much easier to beat opponents with fists until they are stunned than to use an ax at full power.
This is what a walkthrough looks like on God of War difficulty.
The differences between the difficulties in stealth games and in games where this mechanic is present are clearly visible.
In Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the "veteran" difficulty level actually gives a "fair test" at first. The game loses the ability to quickly eliminate, there are no containers with ammunition, and echolocators cannot see through walls. But all this “honesty” disappears when faced with a numerous enemy. As in most games that use a “balance not in favor of the player” model, the game assumes one, maximum two options for player behavior, conceived by the developers themselves. The game does not reward the player in any way for creative solutions to the problem or for a much more in-depth study of the game mechanics. On the contrary, it forces you to act according to a strict pattern. In addition to 100% of enemies hitting the main character, the detection radius of enemies is noticeably increased.
In The Last Of Us, the developers followed the same path, giving the clickers a huge detection radius of the main character, if he moves a little faster than the game intended. Or even completely, in some places depriving him of the opportunity for hidden passage, so that the player does not feel comfortable. However, there realism sometimes reaches the point of absurdity, leaving in a conventional chest of drawers one cartridge for a pistol or rifle. Yes, from a gameplay point of view, the game becomes very complicated, forcing the player to literally count every cartridge, but any authenticity is lost, because who would keep one cartridge in a box?
First playthrough on Grounded mod and conclusion: I hate this game.
In Uncharted 4, despite the presence of a fairly intelligent AI, at the maximum level “difficult”, the game did not allow you to complete the combat scene “in stealth”. The player could kill a certain number of opponents unnoticed, but at a certain moment the opponents activate an increased level of alarm and they meticulously begin to inspect every bush. Thus, the game does not allow the player to bypass the action scenes. In battle, the opponents, in addition to traditionally throwing grenades into the protagonist’s shelter, rushed straight towards him, ignoring the situation, which, as in the case of The Last Of Us, completely killed the authenticity, turning the opponents into kamikazes with shotguns at the advantage.
In Halo 1, the "legendary" difficulty level was challenging, but assault rifle-type weapons were rendered useless in favor of plasma pistols. On Heroic difficulty there is a lot more freedom in how you approach the game, but after Legendary difficulty the game becomes a walk in the park.
Did you think it would be Drake?? On… ahem… here in general Master Chief.
So what to do?
Lately, there have been more and more discussions on the Internet about what difficulty should be in video games. For example, in April 2019, controversy affected Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – they say that such releases should have a mode “for casuals”. In September, people discussed the “very easy” difficulty level in Death Stranding, which the developers left for those who are not at all familiar with the games.
Perhaps the best example in choosing difficulty are games such as: mario, mega man, shovel knights. These games have one fixed difficulty, so it’s clear that how the player experiences the game depends on what they’re playing. Without a doubt this is how the game was intended to be played. Of course, this doesn’t mean the game will be perfectly calibrated. But this is what in the case of Dark Souls is called a “contract between the player and the developer”. A good option are games that are easy to start playing, but difficult to become a master at.
For example, Devil May Cry can be easily completed at any difficulty level, but people are passionate about their skill level, wanting to get as many SSS as possible. And games need such depth of gameplay, it prolongs their life, making them fair to the player.
And you “pump up” the rank?
On the other hand, games have long become part of popular culture and limiting players with different experiences, leaving one intended complexity is also not an option. So what to do?
As for me, the logical solution would be to leave the basic gradation of difficulty levels, but increasing the difficulty should be “fair”. Instead of tweaking attributes, AI should become much more sophisticated. The game should require a deeper study of the mechanics and a more detailed exploration of its world. At the same time, developers have the right to reduce gameplay opportunities for fans of hardcore playthroughs, as is implemented in the same Splinter Cell, but at the same time, opponents should not detect the main character a kilometer away.
AI in any stealth game on maximum difficulty. Still from the film “I see you”
In fact, this topic is much more complete and richer than I allowed myself to reveal. I only talked about a few typical approaches that can be used to set the complexity. As part of this topic, you can talk about the influence of slot machines on the formation of difficulty, about games where the difficulty of opponents changes in the conditions “the better the player plays, the more difficult the opponents”, about the ranking system, etc.d.
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