Difficulty in games can be a real killer. Done right and a game starts out challenging you and continues to do so as your skills/weaponry/character level increases, and perhaps throws in an extra difficulty bump for the occasional boss. Done badly, and you either sail through the game like a hot knife through butter, or end up being repeatedly flattened by a billion enemies/difficult platform jumps/puzzles that even Einstein couldn’t solve.
It’s difficulty done wrong I want to talk about today, but done wrong in one particular way. Easy games are OK. As Ready Up’s Editor Kirsten once said to me, “I like easy games. If I wanted to know I was shit I’d play online.” And hard games at least tend to be hard from the start, so you can quickly make up your mind whether or not to even bother. (Hellooo, Ninja Gaiden 2)
What really gets me, though, is when the games designers and developers lead you by the hand, right to the very end of the story. Then it’s as if they’ve suddenly said “Oh crap, is this the end already? Hmmm. Better make the boss a tough one, that’ll pad the game out a bit.”
Enter the boss. Bang, you’re dead. Bang, you’re dead, Bang, you’re dead. Bosses like this make me want to throw my controller. Not across the room, but at the games developers. Often this happens in games that I was really enjoying right up until the final boss, and instead of a triumphant victory over a tough foe, I’m left with the bitter taste of failure as my final recollection of the game. Not being too much into Achievements or Trophies, I don’t care too much about not being able to unlock the “You completed the game” worthless trinket. What I do HATE is the fact that I never got to see the endings of a lot of games I had a great time playing, simply because of a boss that was harder than diamond tipped nails.
The roll of shame includes:
- Lost Planet
- Prototype
- Heavenly Sword
- Damnation
- Black
- God of War (although I did manage to win once the game offered me Easy mode, so I’ll let it off a bit, but it was very very frustrating)
Thing is, I’m playing these games on Normal difficulty, I’m a fairly experienced player – so why do the people that make these games insist on getting me so close, then crushing my hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it purely to stretch out the game or is there something else at work here? Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.
Either way, once I’ve hit that wall several times and I’ve pulled out all the hair I can get hold of, then I quit. I give up. Not fun, not playing. It’s sad, and it’s almost enough for me to wish for more games to have “pin the tail on the donkey” style end bosses like the hilariously easy one from Gears of War 2.
Almost.
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