Playing on easy

[Matcam89]

i remember the days of having no responsibility- sitting in front of our TV furniture set and or my windows 95 pc. Getting lost in virtual world for hours upon hours.

This Trend would continue up until the 360/ps3 days - until life got in the way. Work, family and ministry all competing for time and what’s left over goes to gaming.

so it’s easy to understand why I’ll play certain games on easy - I am really interested to see the games story while saving as much time as possible. Grinding in games just no longer appeal to me.

However in my recent play through of Tyranny I felt as though a large part of the game was missing on easy. Tactics was stripped away and characters controlled by AI made me feel I was missing a part of the game.

what other games can you think of totally changes the way it was meant to be played on easy?

i have edited my statement to reflect that only certain games I play on easy, the vast majority of games I play on normal. So the “your not a real gamer crowd can relax”

[isturbo1984]

Gotta love the opening line of "i remember the days of having no responsibility." I didnt have to read the rest of your post to know your stance on the subject, lol. Hey, speak for yourself. You do you, ya know? But real gamers don't buy the notion you have to choose between sucking at life or sucking at video games.

[isturbo1984]

So more ad hominem and quips. Nice. So I guess conversation over. Now excuse me while I climb back down the ladder to my parent's basement... I've had enough sunlight for the day, lol. Jesus.

[Matcam89]

Did you have something pertaining to the topic you wanted to talk about I would more than happily talk about it with you.

As far as you thinking I insulted gamers that was no where in my train of thought or what I meant when this topic came to mind and I will apologize for that if I truly made someone think that.

As far as living in a parents basement on a personal note I did live that lifestyle for awhile and didn’t move out until I was 26 it is what it is but eventually life style changes and events dictated that I needed to make changes. I will never look down on anyone least it’s to reach out a hand because I’ve been there

[Gluesponge]

Easy is fun and casual. It's not a contest for me.

[Tonic]

Cuphead, from what i recall, completely skips phases of various bosses when played on Easy. That's a pretty major change i'd say ^^

[TelperionST]

i remember the days of having no responsibility- sitting in front of our TV furniture set and or my windows 95 pc. Getting lost in virtual world for hours upon hours.

I feel you. Holidays are still nice, though.

what other games can you think of totally changes the way it was meant to be played on easy?

Darkest Dungeon has Radiant Mode and Stygian Mode, which make for different playing experiences.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other games. I usually play on a high difficulty, because I enjoy getting beaten to a bloody pulp in strategy games. It's really boring just doing my own thing while the AI is twiddling its thumbs and trying to look intimidating at the same time. Let's be honest. You are not fooling anyone: you need a whole bucket full of cheats and crutches to beat me, AI.

[Matias]

Not trying to be rude or anything but why not just play games at normal/medium difficulty ? i think i understand what you are saying and i personally don't like grindy gameplay either but i still play games or atleast start to play games at normal/medium difficulty. Maybe we play different types of games but i don't remember any games that i have played where normal was substantially grindier than easy.

[Matcam89]

Yes I would say the vast majority of games I play on Normal but there have been times I’ve started on easy or changed to easy to just get the story

[Matias]

okay that makes sense i thought you always just go with easy. Thanks for clarification

[Outrun]

I know the feeling of not having much time... I would still suggest setting playing on normal and just letting the game take however long it does, there's no rush and in the long run you will have enjoyed it more and not have the watered down 'granny' experience.

[Matcam89]

Yeah and I typically do my original statement was a gross overstatement and I’ve since corrected it, the vast majority I play on normal and will change it if I feel things are dragging

[Murray]

I'm not a fan of Easy difficulty. Some games simply cut out content on Easy.

For example in Valkyrie Profile you can't get the best ending on Easy. You should really play on Hard though because that's the only difficulty where you get to play all dungeons.

In Marvel Land for Sega Genesis, every other level is skipped on Easy. This includes boss levels. This means you'll only fight two out of four bosses on Easy.

And of course, some games just become too easy on lower difficulties. I want at least some challenge and Easy usually doesn't provide that for me.

[Matcam89]

Thank you the topic was really about games that cut too much out or completely change the game on easy difficulty and you provided that.

[Chompy Said]

I play on the hardest difficulty first, to unlock all difficulty based achievements in a single playthrough.

[Matcam89]

Hey if you have the skill and time for it more power to you! I have such a back log of games, some still not even opened that I just can’t.

What would you say was the most challenging game you’ve played?

[Chompy Said]

Mass Effect. You are so inaccurate and fragile playing on insanity without new game plus. The game is laughably simple with new game plus on insanity, as Colossus 10 armor makes a soldier invincible.

[Horna]

I usually play on Medium difficulty, sometimes on Easy. I like when you can change the difficulty while playing. I really don't have too much time to play, so I don't want to get stuck in one spot for too long. Also, I'm not that good but I still want to enjoy the game, haha.

Jagged Alliance 2, which is one of my favorite games of all time, gets pretty huge difficulty boost when you up the difficulty level. Easy on JA2 is like "you can't fail this if you try at all" level.

[Aidy]

I'm a default difficulty kinda guy. I don't enjoy failing at games and I rarely like a game enough to spend enough time to get gud. Also a lot of high difficulty is just cheap; so you get less ammo, take more damage, do less etc rather than making the enemy smarter (I know Halo tried to do this).

Personally I'd never switch a game to easy, I've given up on games completely when maybe switching to easy would have let me see them through. But to me it's like taking the low offer on The Chase, you just don't do it.

Anyway, I think your question extends a little to default difficulty too. When a game has complex "rock paper scissor" mechanics or similar, I often find that on default difficulty you tend to not have to exploit things much, and I often have the feeling that I'm ignoring mechanics that I would be forced to master if playing on a higher difficulty. One game that springs to mind recently is Divinity: Original Sin. It made a lot about combing spells, using the environment etc, so you could cast a rain spell, then electricity to shock, or ice to cause people to fall over, or oil and then fire to set the place alight and so on. I didn't do any of that stuff and I felt I was simply ignoring a large portion of the game's mechanics. I just went in sword swinging until people died.

[SnarkyJay]

I like to play on normal difficulty, because I feel that's what the developer intended. I do sometimes play on easy if I feel the enemies are too bullet spongy on higher difficulties. I do enjoy hard games like NES classics and the Souls series, but when it comes to games that I'm not very good at like first person shooters on console, I will sometimes dial it down if I get stuck in a particular area for a while. I play games to have fun, and if I find I'm not having fun, even after several hours of getting used to the mechanics, I feel no shame lowering the difficulty. A good example of this was Batman Arkham Origins. I was a big fan of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and I was good at the combat, able to get large combo multipliers and I had little trouble running through the game. When I played Arkham Origins, I found they changed the combat mechanics, and it was much more difficult to get combo multipliers. I spent maybe 7 hours on normal getting used to the mechanics, but it never clicked. I ended up starting a new play through on easy, and I didn't regret my decision.

[Dave666]

I always start my games on medium if it is too easy I up the difficulty or like you if the game is a drag and I just want to finish the story I will lower the difficulty

[Animusisters]

Mass Effect games.

[B V]

DS Era Fire Emblem games utilized this mechanic called Casual where defeated units become playable next map, or Phoenix Mode, where they become playable next turn. I actually liked the lethality of older Fire Emblem, after I'd dragged my ultimately diminished army through the final battle with a bitterness in my mind and a scratchpad with each unit that died under my command because of inexperience or carelessness. Then again, I'm sort of a simulationist, especially with games where each unit is unique or named, and I try not to be myopic about it since the enemy cannot save-scum.

"Individual lives taken before your eyes weigh more heavily than the many lives taken during the chaos of war. If that life is someone dear, the burden is even worse."