I want to have a natter about difficulty levels, because there was a time I didn’t care for them – I was happy to play on the most mediocre (read, median) difficulty level available. Though in more recent times I’ve found myself experimenting or altering the difficulty. Sometimes its not to make a game harder though, but I do think its something often overlooked…

When things are, too easy…

Take an action RPG (aRPG), stick it in normal or easy and chances are the game is a bit boring – foes aren’t challenging, and deaths are minimal, almost accidental. I found this most recently with both Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3*, both of which find their early difficulty levels too easy! Except D3 doesn’t allow you to go any higher than normal, but apparently makes up for it if you play co-operatively. Torchlight 2 on the otherhand makes everything available (and an optional perma-death/hardcore mode).

* I’m not here to talk about the two games, only their similarities, and differences, in regards to difficulty levels.

The failing of Diablo 3 then, is that these difficulty levels are locked out until you complete normal; which could prove rather dull for the gamer who wants a challenge – never-mind a cheap way of attempting to generate replayability. Though Diablo 3 is by far not the only game guilty of this, I’ve seen a few; but usually only in a form of Hardmode+.

When things are, too hard…

Then there is the other end of the spectrum, whereby normal difficulty actually proves a bit challenging. Some people might praise this, sure enough I acknowledge that choice… but there is something wrong when a group of foes, who have magical blocking powers, can outmatch you. Yet drop it into easy mode and they hardly put up a defence. Yes, I’m looking at you The Witcher 2, and your elves.

The problem I find with TW2 simply, is that the difficulty levels are too far apart. What is normal mode feels like it should be hard mode (note they go higher), and what is easy feels like it should really be a no-challenge mode. I spent some time fighting elves who seemed to block everything I threw at them – and died plenty of time. The grand strategy was to keep dodging and hope to get some lucky hits.

Drop it into easy, and its just too easy. I still believe there should be a middle difficulty, where they block some of the time, but not always.

When there is no choice…

Of course, not every game even has the choice of easy, normal and hard. The most obvious would be Mega Multiplayer Online (MMO) game, which may remedy this with instanced areas. Yet the larger open bits in my (limited) experience often prove to have very little real challenge; and what little there is often gets neutered by a large quantity of players in the vicinity. Often leaving a slightly flat taste for those who want a tussle rather than a stroll.

Wrapping it up

Simply, I do think developers need to be careful with difficulties, their idea of normal may differ greatly from someone elses’ idea – especially when it proves too challenging even for average gamers on the normal difficulty. A gamer knows what to expect if they change it to hard, a bit of swearing, some competition from the AI, a few extra deaths to go along with it. Normal is often seen as the mode where you should maybe die a couple of times, easy the stroll-through mode. Yet, when you know the game mechanics and foe behaviour, its likely you lose sight on what a normal player would experience.