floating facebook button arrow left side
Share

Uneducated Opinion

What Happened to Hard Mode

 By Alan - March 9, 2010

nakedrobber lightsocket1 What Happened to Hard Mode

There’s a big trend in video games these days: easily getting the perfect ending. In an age where we pander to the lowest common denominator, turning down the difficulty in video games seems par for the proverbial pitch and putt course that has become modern life.

You can no longer fail kids at school, they just didn’t exceed expectations. You can’t lose in sports because everyone is a participant. So why should anyone not get the perfect ending in their games? I miss the old days where you died and the screen flashed something like “Game Over” or “Try Again” or “Suck it, retard”

More complex games and story lines have propelled us past the days of set numbers of lives. However, as gamers we still consider it a bad thing to not get a perfect ending and so people bitch and moan when a game is actually hard. Luckily for all you manic depressives on the verge of suicide, most games these days are designed to be easier to beat than a ginger kid on the playground.

The difficulty is dumbed down by allowing multiple save game states, unlimited continues, regenerating health and a plethora of tips at every loading screen. What happened to punishing a person for losing by taking away their lives, gold, XP or the items they’re wearing?

Sadly, instead we give them an option to instantly continue from the last auto-save point (usually 30 seconds ago) shortly before the screen flashes self-esteem boosting compliments like “People admire you” and “Your penis is above average size.”

I get it; no one wants to play for 70 hours to be forced into a bad ending. Well no one wants to live for 70 years just to die alone and unloved only to be discovered a month later after being half-eaten by their 13 cats. Life is tough. Deal with it.

What happened to the frustratingly difficult classics like Contra? “Oh, I wasted my three continues and now I have to start over? Wahh!” Too fucking bad. If all you care about is winning then go back to playing monopoly with the down-syndrome kid on your block.

Did losing to the final boss in Contra 3 fill me with so much rage that I wanted to lift my neighbors cat above my head and rip it in two as I screamed obscenities? Of course it did! But I sat down until I beat that mother fucker. Besides, the neighbors would always get a new cat. Life went on.

Today however, even before people have begun to play games I hear about how they’re checking FAQs and scouring the internet for hints. How about you play the damn game and see where it takes you. Sure, I may inadvertently have had the peaceful people of Gecko enslaved by Vault City in Fallout 2. But it was my decisions that brought me to those endings.

We still have memories of beating Dr Wiley or seeing Samus’ ship blast off the planet because we took the time to beat those games. Not because we sifted through FAQs and easily button mashed our way towards happy endings.

Stop catering to video game wimps and crank that difficulty up. Will I curse at the screen and throw some temper tantrums? Hell yeah I will. And then I’ll sit my ass back down and enjoy the thrill of a good challenge, accepting the ending I got.

Let’s all take a lesson from drunken step dads across the country and learn to beat something just for the hell of it.

avatar alan article What Happened to Hard Mode

Share this: Twitter | StumbleUpon | Facebook | Delicious | digg

You may also hate:

Does Pirating Games Affect You?
Effed in the Eight
Black Mesa, The Only HL2 Mod I Want
Is Chrono Trigger Worth the Celebration?
Game Music Cover Bands That Rock

• Tags: easy games, hard mode
  • GymStar

    There’s no denying that Demon’s Souls is one of the hardest games to come out in a while. There’s no hand holding in this game, the player is responsible for everyone of their actions. One small mistake and it could be game over, back to the start of the level sans all your cash.
    I never claimed it was impossible, and never made a judgment call on how good of a game it is. I was simply saying that it is a throwback to the hardcore games of old. It’s not for me, and it’s not for most people. It’s a game targeted at a small segment of gamers, to whom it fills a huge chasm in their hardcore game library.

  • Mike

    I think Demon’s Souls is being judged unfairly. It’s not that hard. It really isn’t. It requires a lot of concentration and granted there have been a few occasions which have nearly given me an aneurysm but once you learn the flow of the game and adapt to the combat, it’s like any other RPG for the most part.

    Like most games every level has a few way points to unlock which partially minimizes the repetition of dieing.

    It’s certainly not an easy game but its also not impossible like you make it sound.

    Demon’s Souls, 4.5 stars out of 5. One of the most refreshing games to hit the market in years.

  • GymStar

    Your comments about MW2 are irrelevant. Do you honestly think it was the “veteran” mode that drove the sales of MW2? I’d argue it was the stunning visuals, tight gameplay, and refined multi-player experience that incorporated addictive RPG elements. But who knows, maybe it was the difficulty setting.
    Demons Souls and Etrian Odyssey are proof that they won’t always come simply by making a difficult game. In fact, Nintendo is proof that they most likely WILL come if you make a shit grinning easy, family approved, shovel-ware title. That’s where the money is.
    From peddling crack at the retirement homes to poisoning neighborhood cats, I already have enough challenges in my life. So say what you will, put when I finally come home at the end of a long day, Barbie Horse Adventures provides me exactly what I need.

  • Naked Robber

    Okay, let’s use your example of Modern Warfare 2. It has an extremely hard difficulty mode and as such appeals to real gamers and casual gamers.

    It also had the biggest entertainment launch in HISTORY. Sold over 4 million copies the first day and has had over 25 million players online.

    So why don’t all games provide a really hard difficulty mode? Make it difficult and they will come. Maybe people afraid of a challenge would have more fun playing games that they can beat easily, like Barbie Horse Adventures.

  • GymStar

    The average gamer is over 30, and doesn’t have the time or patience to replay a level 50 times. The poor sales of the hardcore games and overall trend to reduce difficulty is proof. You’re in the minority. Talk to me after beating Demon’s Souls.

  • GymStar

    I should add that in my opinion, the game that got the “difficulty” setting just right was Super Mario Galaxy. It was challenging enough that you could die at any moment if you weren’t careful, but not so hard that you couldn’t realistically pass a level with only one life. A lot of people may claim that it was too easy, but what i found it to be was enjoyable. It presented to the player an incredibly fun journey, through some amazingly fun game design. It’s one of the only games I can remember in recent history that actually made me smile, which is exactly what I want when I come home from a hard day at work. For me, I’d take that any day over repeatedly playing the first level of Demon’s Souls until I commit child homicide. But to each their own.

  • GymStar

    While I agree mostly with what you say, it should be noted that extreme difficulty settings do have their place. Take Demon’s Souls for example. It’s a throwback to the truest of true, unforgiving, hardcore games. Now, I want to be challenged in my games, but this is taking it too far. I play games to relax, not to get the violent urge to strangle my neighbor’s 5 year old cause he just won’t stop crying while I’m repeating this goddamn level for the 30th time and just need a single fucking moment of silence to concentrate on the game. I regret nothing.
    Anyways, like I was saying, games these days are more about the story and presentation, and moving fluidly through them is the only way to enjoy these more refined aspects of a modern game. So while hardcore games may have their place, it wouldn’t be right for every game do be that difficult. If you want hard games, why not increase the difficulty setting on Modern Warfare 2 to Veteran, or play Demon’s Souls on Easy, or blindfold yourself next time you hunt hobos. Difficulty definitely has it’s place, and while it’s true that it’s harder to find these days, that’s only because games have become so much more than the twitch based linear progression games of old.

    • Naked Robber

      If every game were impossibly hard it wouldn’t benefit the industry. However, just because games are more expansive doesn’t mean they have to be easier to beat than a foster child. I want to play games, not sit in front of a screen being dictated a series of uninteresting tasks.

      Sure, the lack of any real challenge may benefit the game’s ability to tell an uninterrupted story, but that doesn’t benefit the reader if they’re looking for something to actually play. MW2 understand people sometimes don’t want to be spoon fed. Include a super hard difficulty mode in every game!

      That being said, people who want a story without any challenging game play should stick to Choose Your Own Adventure books. I suggest Bully on the Bus, as they obviously need to learn how to deal with the real world’s lack of constant parental supervision.

      The average gamer is over 30 and has been playing games for a decade; we’re up for a challenge.

  • Scoots McBoots

    I think developers have taken the easy way out and just gone with trying to pump out as many online games as possible. This way they don’t really have to put any effort into making any single player journey to long and arduous. Also, on a side note, whatever happened to the two player games of yesterday? How hard is it to find a good two player game that you can sit down with a buddy and hammer out some good old fashion fun?

    • http://www.nakedrobber.com Naked Robber

      The good coop game category is dying faster than a homeless guy in a blizzard. Even first gen consoles had some great games like Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. Have you ever played that on Extreme? It would easier to gouge your eyes out with a rusty spoon.

      I smell a new article coming up…

  • Swank McDiggler

    Fucking rights doggy! This society is full of pussy whipped chumps that need to be breast fed through life! Amp that shit up!! I want to play Mike Tyson over and over as he beats the hell out of me and has the audacity to laugh at me, and the ridiculousness of Shredder on the first TMNT for the NES and god knows how long it took me to finish off Ninja Gaiden…just saying.