Understanding My Preference: Why I Refrain From Modifying Game Difficulty Prior to Play

Key Takeaways

• Normal difficulty is usually the intended experience designed by developers for balanced gameplay.
• Difficulty curves in games can surprise you - starting on hard may lead to an overly tough challenge later.
• Developers often struggle to properly increase difficulty, making harder levels less enjoyable than normal.

The challenge of video games is a huge part of the appeal, but there are some players who only consider the hardest difficulty level even worth their time. That’s definitely not me, and in fact, I’d go as far as saying that starting your games on “hard” might make gaming less enjoyable overall. Here’s why I play on the default difficulty setting when starting a new game.

Normal Is (Normally) the Intended Experience

Games are built around a specific balanced difficulty level. In other words, most of the time, the “normal” difficulty level is what the whole game is designed around . Often, in the difficulty settings, the game will outright say something like “the intended experience” or something to that effect. Perhaps the most notable exception are some games such as Halo 4, where the “Heroic” difficulty level is how the game was intended. By not experiencing the game on normal difficulty, I feel like I’m not really in a position to judge the game and whether it’s well-balanced or fun.

You Can’t Predict the Difficulty Curve

All games have a difficulty curve, which teaches you the game, and then ramps up the difficulty as you progress. So, if you’re a veteran gamer , chances are “normal” will feel far too easy at the outset. However, you don’t know how hard the game will be at the end. If the game is initially at a challenging level for you on hard mode, then it’s likely to become too hard as you progress along the curve. So you shouldn’t judge the challenge of a game too soon, or assume you have to start on a hard mode to get the right level of challenge for you.

Modern Games Let You Change Difficulty on the Fly

While many classic games don’t let you fiddle with the difficulty level once the game has started, it’s been the norm for years to let players change the difficulty level if they change their mind partway through a game. Since you can change the difficulty level whenever you want, it makes sense to start off on normal and give the game a chance at its intended difficulty level, before you decide that you deserve more punishment.

Of course, you could make the same argument about starting on hard and then toning it down later, which is fair, but I think psychologically it feels better to turn things up later, rather than hit a brick wall and have to move things back down to normal again with your tail between your legs.

Plenty of Developers Don’t Know How to Increase Difficulty

One of the biggest reasons by far I rarely start games on higher difficulty levels, is that few developers seem to know how to scale difficulty properly. For many games, increased difficulty levels simply mean that enemies become bullet sponges, or there are just more of them, or your character is nerfed in some way. That’s not a true increase in difficulty. Games that introduce new varieties of enemies, make enemies smarter, or introduce new mechanics that increase the challenge are worth exploring harder levels for, but those that just give you a sort of “normal+” mode are rarely more fun to play.

Harder Difficulties Are More Fun in Future Playthroughs

I rarely play a game more than once. There are so many, and goodness knows my backlog seems infinite. So if I enjoyed a game so much that I want to play it again, then and only then do I consider turning the difficulty up a notch. After all, I’ve got all the skills and experience of playing it on normal, now I’m looking for something different. I’ve always considered higher difficulty levels as something to progress towards after finishing a game on normal difficulty, and if you start off on the hardest levels, that doesn’t leave much space for new experiences.

How do you handle difficulty settings in games? Do you always crank it up to eleven or are you a story mode fan?

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