Hey everybody welcome back to LegalSpeak a ColdNorth joint. I'm TheLawMorris and this is the video essay series in which I get to talk about the games I've been playing and my thoughts on the medium as a whole. You can find everything we do all in one spot over at ColdNorthPro.com. This week we're going to be talking about difficulty in video games so lets get to it.
So that everyone is aware the video accompanying today's essay is what I consider to be a very difficult game and it is actually the level that stumped me. I wasn’t trying to phone it in, I was putting difficulty on display.
Difficulty settings have been a huge part of how we approach playing games for decades. The way we want to play a game and the way we approach a game can vary wildly based on which difficulty is selected at the outset and in the case of many games which difficulty is chosen throughout the game when given the option to change difficulty part of the way through. Difficulty settings can completely transform an experience in any myriad of ways. Difficulty can change the length of a game, change the focus of a game, and in many cases force a player to think more creatively and approach an experience they may have already had before in a different way. Difficulty has the potential to take something we love and make it new again.
Everyone plays games for different reasons, the easiest blanket term to throw over all the different reasons people play games is that they are a form of escapism. There is no doubt that games can function as a way of temporarily escaping the pressures and imperfections of real life but they can also be so much more than that. To me games are a means of connecting with the people around me and building relationships based on common interests. And the fact that a difficulty setting can turn that one experience into four is a magical thing.
And speaking of multiplayer a multiplayer game can change the difficulty variables in completely unpredictable ways. The introduction of the human element can lead to the adaptive strategies that come with different difficulty settings becoming a two way street as each player tries to adapt to the other. If the opponent is more capable in close range you force some distance between you, and if they're faster than you, you had better make sure you hit a lot harder than they do. Honestly with respect to difficulty the multiplayer element has far to much to unpack so that’s a can of worms that I wont be opening right now.
But everyone likes to play games differently and gets enjoyment out of different things that games have to offer. Some people play games for an enthralling narrative, others play for characters they can become invested in and fall in love with, some people play games for the sole purpose of unwinding at the end of the day, while others play to truly test themselves, and some play for the power fantasy of being untouchable. There is a difficulty setting for all of these play styles and a well crafted game can adapt to each play style to offer every individual what they want from the experience.
Bioshock Infinite is one of my favorite games of all time. The gameplay, the characters, the story, almost all of it is nearly flawless. Now I know that will rile some people up but hey we all have opinions. Bioshock infinite has the capability to satiate the desires of everyone I mentioned before by providing radically different experiences within the same game. Bioshock Infinite contains what I consider to be one of the best stories ever told in a video game and it truly did make me contemplate some pretty serious stuff. When I played Bioshock I knew I was there for the story so I played that game on normal difficulty, I wanted to feel like I had earned each new story element as it unfolded but for the most part I wanted to move through it fairly quickly. Those that play games to unwind at the end of a long day don’t want to rush through the experience as quickly as the story driven player so they might play on hard mode for the simple purpose of stretching out what the game has to offer over longer and more numerous play sessions. Players that are in it for the power fantasy are going to play on easy mode and consume all the vigor's they can so they can fulfill that dream sequence of being an action hero. And the player that's looking to push themselves to their own limits will play the 1999 difficulty.
Now not only are difficulty settings good to accommodate different people the whole different strokes for different folks type mentality but they can also completely change the experience for more seasoned players. I've played through Resident Evil 7 on both the easy and normal difficulties and the way that I approached or in many cases didn’t approach each situation changed because of this. When playing on easy I was significantly more bold and felt more in line with the power of the Baker family. My first two or three encounters with Jack were nerve racking but after that I felt confident that with every meeting I would be able to down him faster and more efficiently. After my first few random encounters with Jack playing on the normal difficulty I found that approaching him in the same way I had on my previous play through resulted in such an incredible strain on my resources that I would avoid him if at all possible moving forward. Not only did the difficulty change my play style making me significantly slower and more methodical but it also tapped into and amplified what made Resident Evil 7 so great which was the horror element. Knowing that I was so severely outmatched by Jack made his foot steps and heavy breathing that much scarier. What was a survival horror game with action elements peppered in had suddenly become a survival horror game with stealth elements peppered throughout. Difficulty options changed the entire game for me while I have trouble deciding which play through I preferred both were unique and valuable experiences.
While many games offer explicitly engineered difficulty settings that the player can select in a menu there are some games that don’t. The games that don’t have difficulty options can sometimes be the most fun and interesting to turn the difficulty up on because it forces the player to make cause and effect choices as they progress. Pokémon is a wildly popular franchise that is played by millions but to this day has no difficulty settings. The lack of this feature hasn’t stopped players from taking it upon themselves to play by their own manufactured set of rules that lead to a more intense and difficult experience. Now if you're this deep into YouTube that you found this channel with about 30 subscribers I think it's safe to assume that you're at least familiar with what a nuzlocke run of a Pokémon game is, but for the uninitiated: A nuzlocke run is playing through a Pokémon game and treating each Pokémon that faints as though they have died then releasing them or putting them in the Pokémon storage system forever. And the player is only allowed to catch the first Pokémon they run into in each new area, if the Pokémon blacks out or flees the player does not get a second chance.
I don’t know about you guys but I used to think I was a hot shit Pokémon trainer back when I was playing Soul Silver. When I first heard of the nuzlocke rules I thought for sure I was a bad enough dude to beat the elite four and become the champion. Now I'm being honest with you here so don’t judge me, I'm not even a bad enough dude to get past the second gym. Nuzlocke is a self inflicted set of rules that bring an extreme level of difficulty to a game that otherwise lacks that feature. Another excellent example of the self inflicted difficulty is the three heart run of any Zelda game. I have played Ocarina of Time literally dozens of times but when I finally did my first three heart run I felt like I was a kid setting out on a daunting adventure for the first time all over again.
Where difficulty can go very very wrong though is in spikes. Difficulty is something that should grow with the players abilities and when difficulty spikes it has the potential to completely ruin a game. Kingdom Hearts has a difficulty spike in the late game as the player approaches Chernabog. After what is an extremely difficult boss fight the player then has to move through a gauntlet room of heartless and onto what is arguably the most drawn out convoluted final boss fight in all of video games. I initially had little to no interest in the Kingdom Hearts series and was only playing the first game because I was contractually obligated to by a friend of mine. Had I not had this agreement a difficulty spike like Chernabog would have made me stop playing the game altogether. The difficulty spike in the last three encounters of the game left such a sour taste in my mouth that it nearly ruined what was otherwise a somewhat fun light hearted adventure.
Overall games are made with different priorities in mind. Stories are told, challenges are extended, and connections are formed. Some games like Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy are designed to be difficult, a badge of honor to be worn with pride but while not all games carry that level of prestige with respect to their difficulty a challenge can be found in everything. Some people say that easy mode is for people that cant play the game correctly but what those people might not understand is that its simply a different interpretation and experience from the same game. Play games on the right difficulty setting for you and don’t let anyone talk down to you for playing differently than they do; get your own experience from a game and keep an open mind.
What difficulty do you naturally gravitate towards? Let me know in the comments down below.
If you like what you heard don’t forget to subscribe for a new video every week. Also don’t forget to check out our gaming podcast HardReset for more free form video game discussion and our movies podcast NoRefunds the podcast that watches bad movies so you don’t have to! Both of those can be found on most major podcast services and right here on YouTube. You can find everything we do all in one spot over at ColdNorthPro.com. I will be back next week talking about Resident Evil 2 so until then just go play some games.
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