Are Video Games Becomming Too Easy?

[VA1N]

Typically, I present the news to the front page of GamersThrone.com. That’s what I do and I love it. But on some occasions, namely slow news days, I like to post other types of articles that are solely from my own mind. I don’t link to any other source or include any quotes that aren’t mine. This is one of those articles and it is meant to make you think and discuss. So, sit back, grab a drink, and hear my words. Then either agree or disagree in the comments section below.

A couple days ago I read about a new game that came out called Demon’s Souls. The game is for the PS3 and is developed by Atlus, one of my favorite RPG developers. The game is receiving amazing reviews with most being either a 90 or a 100, but some people are still complaining about it. Why are they complaining about it? Because it’s too hard. The game is making headlines throughout the internet because of it’s brutally hard difficulty. Before I get to that though, the premise of the game…Basically you play a guy who died and you’re trying to get back to the world of the living. It’s a hack and slash type game where you pick up loot, defeat monsters, level up, etc. Each level culminates into a big boss battle that is supposed to be pretty damn epic. Sounds awesome, right? Well, how do you feel about death traps? Traps set up to insta-kill you the moment you step near them like the spikes in old Mega Man games? What about no save points, save for one at the beginning of each level…no where else though? How about enemies that jump you at importune moments with a bunch of their buddies leaving you unable to do anything but die miserably? How about losing all your currency whenever you die, and then given the option to go back to you body to retrieve it, but if you die a second time, it’s gone forever. These are the things that Demon’s Souls is being applauded for and also chastised. In my opinion, I find it refreshing.

We, as a society of gamers, have sort of de-evolved. Games nowadays are just way too easy to beat. Recharging hitpoints, save sports around each corner, you name it, we got it nowadays. I’m going to go back to the Mega Man series of my childhood because that was a game that caused me to break a couple different sets of NES controllers. Mega Man was a badass, but he could only take one “bullet” and he was destroyed. Knowing this made you calculate each jump, each shot, and each forward motion with the utmost care to make sure you wouldn’t be replaying the exact same level 30 times. Sure, we had anger issues, but we were damn good at video games. Somewhere around the time when the PS1 came out, this all went away. We traded hard games with feelings of accomplishment for safe games that we could finish in a weekend. The RPG genre continued down the same path as games before instead removing the hard factor and replacing it with the time investment factor. Recently though, even RPGs can be beaten in a weekend or so.

So, who do we blame for this or do we blame anyone at all? I think it’s due to the general surge in video game popularity that games are becoming so “mild.” Developers know that if they make a game so hard, people won’t play it. Honestly, I’m probably guilty of that too. I work 50 hours a week and in my time off, I don’t want to spend it tirelessly chipping away at a game. I want something fun that I can jump into, get about 2 hours of playtime in, and then jump out. On the weekends, I might have a 5 hour gaming marathon from time to time, but not always. Home duties, family, and other things always seem to poke their nose in and remove any semblance of free time I may have. So, that’s me, what about others though? What’s their excuse? Kids nowadays think FPS games are hard. Honestly, FPS games like Call of Duty and Killzone are probably one of the easiest. Sure, they are amazing fun to play, but your health recharges and you get enough firepower to take out a third world country. That’s not hard. Jumping from ledges as a little blue man in a metal suit while dodging balls of light flying at your damn face is hard. Don’t believe me? Go download that new Mega Man demo on XBLA or PSN. You’ll see.

Going back to the Demon’s Souls game, I’m honestly thinking about picking it up when it drops in price. Why would I do that when I just said I don’t have time to spend on hard games? Call it nostalgia. I miss tough games. I miss spending time on games. Most of all though, I miss the feeling of accomplishment you get from finishing a really hard level. I don’t subscribe to the theory that achievements and trophies are hard. Sure, some of them are, but most require only time (multiple playthroughs) and luck (kill 5 enemies at the same time with this weapon, etc.). That’s not hard. Clearing a dungeon full of skeletons that block, dodge, and regroup all while avoiding insta-death pits with no save spots is hard.

So, what do you guys think? I think they should bring back more of these games. Maybe have a resurgence of hard games. As the scores on metacritic show, people (well, game reviewers at least) like the hard games. Put out a few more and see how the people react to them. If the game you make is well designed and flawlessly executed, you’ll sell a shit ton of games regardless of how hard it is.

[danimoose]

I completly agree when I first joined the gaming community (PS1) I remember games being hard and taking months to past of course I was young so I thought as I progressed and games were getting easier it was me getting better. Then I had my little brother how plays games like there going out of style play a few games I used to play he got frustrated and quit. Then I came to the conclusion that they were much easier.

[muldoonx9]

I agree that some games are too easy. But I like when there are checkpoints around every corner or games that let you save anywhere. Sometime I only have a half hour to play a game because of work or classes. I can't always dedicate hours to a game on the weekdays.

[VA1N]

Originally Posted by muldoonx9

I agree that some games are too easy. But I like when there are checkpoints around every corner or games that let you save anywhere. Sometime I only have a half hour to play a game because of work or classes. I can't always dedicate hours to a game on the weekdays.

I completely agree. Checkpoints, while they do make the game "Easier" in a way, are a necessary evil. I really want to pick up this demons souls game but the fact that it has next to no checkpoints (only at the beginning of the level), scares me. If you don't finish a level, you have to traverse all the way back to the beginning to save and once you do, all guys come back to life. This game doesn't have cakewalk guys, everyone is freakin' tough and apparently you can die easily in the tutorial. Yikes.

Welcome to the forums too! Make a post in the introduce yourself section and get everyone talking

[Unarmed_Mephisto]

I think that games are too easy. I remember playing the (fairly) recent Prince of Persia, and it annoyed me that I couldn't die. I picked up Demon's Souls, and I love the fact that it is kicking my butt.

[VA1N]

Originally Posted by Unarmed_Mephisto

I think that games are too easy. I remember playing the (fairly) recent Prince of Persia, and it annoyed me that I couldn't die. I picked up Demon's Souls, and I love the fact that it is kicking my butt.

Yeah, Demon's Souls is one tough game, but it's not unfair. If you die, it's because you screwed up...not because the game is cheap.

[88elliot88]

This also reffers to modern warfare 2 ( from what i played of it anyway ) when you kill someone in mp you get 100 points, which to me is ridiculous and unlike the last modern warfare. I havent played the campaign yet but it would be good to see / hear from other gamers about the difficulty.

[VA1N]

Originally Posted by 88elliot88

This also reffers to modern warfare 2 ( from what i played of it anyway ) when you kill someone in mp you get 100 points, which to me is ridiculous and unlike the last modern warfare. I havent played the campaign yet but it would be good to see / hear from other gamers about the difficulty.

MW2 is kind of misleading to talk about the difficulty. The game I reference in this article (Demon's Souls) only has one difficulty. You can't chose, you just do it and die, and die, and die, and then succeed. MW2, on the other hand, you can chose your difficulty. This means that Normal is what the developers made the game for. That's the default difficulty. Everything else is just the developers tweaking stuff to either give/take away health or increase/decrease enemies. Whenever a game gives you the choice in difficulty, you have to take the default (normal) as the "developer given" difficulty.

So, on normal, is MW2 too easy? I'd say it can be easy, but it's not always easy. Someone who is really good at FPS games can fly through it but newcomers might have an issue. I found nomal to be a good difficulty for me. It was enjoyable, I didn't die too much but if I didn't take my time I did. But, I'm more of a recreation FPS player. I play games for stories, so I'm immediately drawn to RPG games. JP, on the other hand, can light up a room in FPS games because MW is one of his favorites. So, it really boils down to the player. I guarantee normal difficulty would be a cakewalk for JP.

[danimoose]

Originally Posted by 88elliot88

This also reffers to modern warfare 2 ( from what i played of it anyway ) when you kill someone in mp you get 100 points, which to me is ridiculous and unlike the last modern warfare. I havent played the campaign yet but it would be good to see / hear from other gamers about the difficulty.

The 100 points is a little bit misleading too. You may think you are getting 10 X the points but really everything takes 10X the points the levels are in the 1000's when they used to be 100's. I think they did this to give out the payback bounuses, comeback bonuses, etc.

Originally Posted by VA1N

MW2 is kind of misleading to talk about the difficulty. The game I reference in this article (Demon's Souls) only has one difficulty. You can't chose, you just do it and die, and die, and die, and then succeed. MW2, on the other hand, you can chose your difficulty. This means that Normal is what the developers made the game for. That's the default difficulty. Everything else is just the developers tweaking stuff to either give/take away health or increase/decrease enemies. Whenever a game gives you the choice in difficulty, you have to take the default (normal) as the "developer given" difficulty.

So, on normal, is MW2 too easy? I'd say it can be easy, but it's not always easy. Someone who is really good at FPS games can fly through it but newcomers might have an issue. I found nomal to be a good difficulty for me. It was enjoyable, I didn't die too much but if I didn't take my time I did. But, I'm more of a recreation FPS player. I play games for stories, so I'm immediately drawn to RPG games. JP, on the other hand, can light up a room in FPS games because MW is one of his favorites. So, it really boils down to the player. I guarantee normal difficulty would be a cakewalk for JP.

Normally on a brand new game I will start off on normal for the first go around which is for the average recreational player. If it is way to easy I will start over on a harder level. For games like MW2 where is a sequal I expect it to have about the same level of play in it, so I was able to jump right to hardened I knew I could beat it on that level and it be a challenge but VET I would still be playing it. Even then though COD4 there where parts of the game where if you played on VET you could set back and let your teamates do most of the work for you. So I liked the touch where in MW2 if you didn't do enough your supporting charactors died.

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