What Makes a Game Difficult for You?

[NESpowerhouse]

As gamers, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, so in turn we all think different aspects about games make them difficult. As for me, the thing that can make games difficult is long levels with few checkpoints (i.e. Castlevania 3 and Battletoads), but what about you?

 

[Ventus]

What makes a game difficult for me is when the AI is on par with me or above me. When they take to skills/abilities that can simply be overbearing, for example No Heart in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, I usually spaz out which results in my death. :I

 

[Viral Maze]

Low resources/ammo, strong/numerous enemies, fast pace gameplay.
Those 3 together = tough time and definitely a couple of deaths.

 

[DarkestLink]

Dying.

 

[JuicieJ]

Don't be fooled by the title. Just watch.

[video=youtube;BWFzFsHc75U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWFzFsHc75U[/video]

 

[zack125]

For me, it depends on how much health the enemy takes from me. Having multiple enemies at once doesn't help either.

 

[onebizarrekai]

When a game is easily frustrating, I tend to give up on it. Or, if something is overly creepy or terrifying... A good example of that would probably be the silent realms.

 

[Snow Queen]

The thing that makes a game difficult for me is a plethora of enemies that take a lot of hits to kill and a small amount of health drops. Take Castlevania for instance. In the beginning you go through the game swinging your whip at everything in sight. Eventually, this becomes less and less of a plausible option. Soon you end up fighting knight while dodging Medusa heads and then you go on to fight the boss and it's just really frustrating and difficult. The health drops (which is mysterious hidden roasted dungeon wall chicken) is hidden in the walls, so you never know where they'll turn up.

 

[ThePurpleKnight]

Usually fish that knock you in the water and swim way too fast, good way to make a game difficult, at least more than it should be.

 

[Flinn Rai]

Two words: Crystal Chalice.

 

[OcarinaBoy]

A game can be made difficult for me by a number of circumstances. The genre of the game usually dictates what those circumstances are, so I will categorise my thoughts

FPS
Enemies have an unusually high amount of health and insanely good/powerful weapons while I get jack and squat.

Side-scrollers
An overabundance of enemies usually does the trick. In the case of shooters, such as Contra, the common case of "bullet hell" is always a pain.

Stealth
More often than not, I am my own worst enemy in stealth games. Whenever something happens to me in the game, it's almost always directly my fault. Not something that the programmers put in, but my own inability to be the ninja that I think I am when I play these games.

Adventure
Too little health, no recovery items, too many foes, the list goes on and on for these. However, much like the stealth games, it's usually just me overestimating my ability or my occasional incompetence.

Survival/Horror
Turning on the game is the most difficult part for me. I do not like horror games. I mean, movies are one thing, but having to be the person that gets mauled by zombies or attacked by demons is another. Even Metroid Prime scared the pants off of me when I was younger, and it still gives me the occasional scare. In any case, once I actually pick up the controller and, by extension, the cheap little pistol (and you know it's always a cheap little pistol), the only problem I have is ammunition (and trying not to accidentally throw my controller across the room when things jump out at me). I might as well be trying to fight everything off with a rock.

 

[Dan]

Side-scrollers
Spamming of enemies and those pixel perfect jumps some games require.

FPS
Most of the time it comes from online play, I suck at aiming most of the time. Apart from that on single players it's pretty much the 2-3 shots and you're dead that I find hard.

RTS
Micromanaging

Fighter
Learning those crazy combos

 

[DarkestLink]

Something else I should add--Damage means nothing to me. Whether an enemy hits 1% or 50% or your life doesn't matter to me. When judging difficulty, I only look at AI--not how badly I was hit, but how often I was hit. Damage is just faux difficulty to me.

 

[Spirit]

Generally games which require skill in heated situations, a good example of this is Resi4, its so fast paced and so keen on you being accurate and efficient that its easy for me to mess it up by being clumsy which often result in losing my head or a limb or most of my health. Games like Megaman battle command which are like the devil's work and Ikaruga are other games based on a godly level of gamer skill that i just don't posses.

 

[Moonstone]

I'm similar to Spirit. If I need to make a lot of quick decisions, I'll have a difficult time. More so if the game has a lot of variety to it- like DotA2, where the player needs to know all the different heroes, the things that can counter them, the things that hero typically does, and also consider what the other players might do. Every match is different- even if the player is up against the same hero lineup, the other players controlling them may act in unexpected ways. And, since its a team game, it also takes a lot of open communication- if you don't have that on your team, you can be the best player in the world and still lose to a less experienced team that has good communication.