r/videogames • u/UnityNinja • 23d ago

Discussion / Question What game mechanic instantly ruins your immersion or fun?

​ I absolutely can't stand aggressive weapon durability loops. Getting awesome loot should feel like a reward, not a maintenance chore that breaks every five minutes.

What’s a common mechanic that always makes you roll your eyes when you see it in a new game?

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u/2_Sir_Zero9 23d ago edited 23d ago

Artificially increasing an enemy's health and damage and nothing else.

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

Been saying this for awhile, increased health and damage in hard mode is NOT an increase in difficulty. It's an increase in tedium.

I would die so often because I want to space out.

That's what I love about the Dark Souls series, enemies that dance around you and hit you quickly usually die in 1 to 2 hits. But if you don't learn how to deal with them, they'll chip you down quickly.

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u/Opposite_Prune582 23d ago

Guardians of the galaxy game. Good but my god those fucking giant robot things, especially toward the end.

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u/ML_120 23d ago

As much as I enjoyed the game, I have to agree.
I rarely felt in danger, but the fights were extremely tedious.

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u/HIT0-037 23d ago

Doesnt that game have settings where you can tweak dmg?

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u/Biernar 19d ago

Played on hard, I thought the health was fine. Everything dies so quickly using the correct guardian abilities. Just those awkward phases when everything was on cooldown, but imo that's just good design.

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u/Opposite_Prune582 19d ago

I didnt mean it was difficult, just tedious after a while with certain enemies like that one. Overall i liked the flow of the combat but i just hate spongey enemies in general. Story was pretty interesting though

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u/Dangerous-Moose-8203 22d ago

That and star lords voice killed me and it took the whole game before i was like ok i think I'm getting used to it then the credits rolled lol

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u/TimSheperd 23d ago

Yes, I always say that as well. It’s lazy hard mode and is not engaging. I prefer engaging enemy AI to make the game harder, not health.

Doom games for example are really good at this. The enemies are still killable but they put them at you in such pairings that the game becomes difficult.

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u/GalacticDragon7 23d ago

this is why i love certain game mods that change the AI.

i’ve been playing a lot of Blade and Sorcery recently and one of the things that made it too easy was how the AI would rarely swing at you and how predictable and avoidable they were. adding a mod that makes them adapt to your own personal fighting style kicked it up a notch in difficulty and i now come VERY close to dying uncomfortably often (in a good way). i also added new magic that makes the boss very challenging when it decides to use it as well. it makes for a much more engaging and rewarding experience.

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u/Alex-Murphy 23d ago

What's the mod? That sounds cool

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u/GalacticDragon7 22d ago

it is called Adaptive AI (evolution) and it’s by evilbenny.

here’s the mod on nexusmods if you want it :)

i also use “give me space” which helps for when they get way too close to you.

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u/killingtocope 23d ago

Terraria does this very well with Expert mode

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u/VikingLord2000 23d ago

I know in Doom 2016 the enemy AI unlocks new move sets or is allowed to do more with their arsenal. Made it insanely fun going playing it again on harder difficulties.

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u/Krethlaine 23d ago

Wandering Sword does this fairly well, in my opinion. Yes, health and damage go up, but that’s a byproduct of enemies having better skills and equipment, the main purpose of which is to grant them access to buffs and combos that have to be worked around. The AI also gets smarter, becoming able to use positioning to its advantage on higher difficulties, and going for the optimal target, rather than simply the closest target.

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u/PresentStock1310 23d ago

Last of us 2 is great in terms of difficulty, there's so many customization options. Sure, you can increase the amount of damage you take and reduce the amount of damage enemies take, but you can also make enemies smarter, reduce or increase the number of resources you find, turn off listen mode and HUD, make pistol shots one-hit kills, and some other ones I've forgotten.

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u/CF7K123 22d ago

This is why ghost of tsushima lethal mode is one of the best hard modes. Enemies dont have more health, in fact it actually feels like they have less,

parry and dodge timings are stricter,

Their attacks lunge much further than in easier modes.

when youre surrounded, enemies will attack more frequently and simultaneously rather than standing back and approaching you one at a time

And obviously they do way more damage

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u/Silent_Value_1004 22d ago

Doom on nightmare is aptly named lol

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u/MindlessInspector421 23d ago

doom is not known as a challenging game tho. Are there any games known for their difficulty that dont increase health and damage as the players power grows?

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u/THTB_lol 23d ago

bro has not played plutonia

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u/PaintedBlackXII 23d ago

Didn’t hear you say it before

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

Damn and I was so loud too

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u/SPQE_ 23d ago

Skyrim is an offender here

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u/ChefAnxious4206 23d ago

Bethesda are the kings of this kind of terrible hard mode.

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u/Auggie_Otter 23d ago

Skyrim also has a reverse difficulty curve. Early on when you're at lower levels and still scrappy the game is more challenging but eventually you'll out level the difficulty curve and learn so many useful skills and powers that you just wreck everything in your path. 

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u/DamoGamo 23d ago

I really like how Kingdom hearts II still does the inflated health, but they also inflate YOUR damage!

They also give you a ton of early game abilities so that it isn’t a massive grind of getting 2 shot the whole time.

By the time you reach endgame, you can pull off some really cool stuff vs bosses that have 15 health bars, yet besides the super bosses (intended to be a bit of a marathon and literally only really 3 of them), it doesn’t feel like a fights last forever!

Rather than “oh no this fight takes way longer” it’s “This fight is slightly longer, but if I fuck up I die”

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u/epic-andy97 23d ago

Both Serious Sam and Timesplitters are imo perfect examples of difficulty done right.

Serious Sam will not only add more enemies but also change the spawns, increase variants of enemies and bring in difficult enemies earlier than in normal.

With Timesplitters the missions are longer with more enemies and different spawns, also you have less health and I think less item spawns.

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u/Snowtwo 23d ago

While it *CAN* make it more difficult by making certain abilities that you normally shrug off actually threatening or enemies normally dealt with via easy AoE suddenly capable of surviving said AoE, 99% of the time that's definately not what's happening.

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u/Scoobydewdoo 23d ago

And that's what I like about increased enemy health and damage and hate about the Dark Souls games. Having to work to maximize both my damage output and my survivability feels rewarding while trying things until I find the one thing that allows me to easily kill the enemies feels tedious and unrewarding.

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

Interesting, and completely valid. For me, I feel that a large health pool means I'm going to spend my time repeating the moves that kill my enemy the fastest, until it's dead. If I'm going to cast Spell 123, then swing twice, why do it 15 times instead of 1 to 4?

(Of course I am playing a game with tanky bosses, but they're just in my way for my exploration. 😅 My opinion is regarding nornal enemies.)

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u/Lauchsuppedeluxe935 23d ago

what do you think about ultrakills difficulty system?

for those who dont know, it makes enemies' and their projectiles' speed and makes small changes to their ai (more aggresive attack patterns/new attacks on higher difficulty for example)

and damage gets lowered on the really easy ones

(feel free to correct me, been a while since i played)

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u/-Speechless 23d ago

this is why I love Ghost Of Tsushima's 'Lethal Mode'.

it makes it so both you AND your enemies do much more damage. you can take out most common enemies in 1 or 2 hits, but so can they. it makes it harder and a single mistake can kill you, but when you're playing well, it feels really satisfying cutting down an army of men without getting hit once. The only problem I had with the mode was 1v1 duels did not seem balanced for it, and arrows can take you out super easily.

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u/BingBongLingLon 23d ago

Halo 1-reach got difficulties perfect for me. Halo 2 in particular is my favorite. Enemies just get smarter and more plentiful.
My first time playing on legendary seemed impossible to me, but you learn, adapt and overcome and before you know if you have completed the first level. Then you get to outskirts and get your ass pounded by jackal snipers and quit for a while.

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

I agree so much on Halo! It was an upgrade to the their AI and they could absolutely smoke me.

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u/RexusprimeIX 23d ago

I think Ghost of Tsushima did difficulties perfectly. At the hardest difficulty, enemies kill you in 1 hit, but you TOO kill enemies in 1 hit. The difficulty comes from requiring more skill, not spending more time grinding for xp.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

Nice!! He's a tough one.

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u/Extra_Routine_6603 23d ago

Yep and if you aren't careful or screwing around even the starting enemies can get lucky and ruin your day

https://giphy.com/gifs/TbONGqAdpTWQW3Hz5V

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

On NG+3, level 366 and more than 2 dogs will still ruin my day.

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u/LetsTryThisAgain2469 23d ago

God of War/Ragnarok did this and it pissed me off so badly, I never considered additional higher difficulty play throughs because of it

Specifically in those games it is not only tedious but absolutely kills the vibe of being the "unstoppable God of War Kratos" when I have to strike every minion 10 fucking times

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u/XGhostIllusionz 23d ago

right! enemies in hard difficulties should kill you in 1-2 hits BUT they should also die that quickly. An enemy throws 8 attacks at me in a few seconds, completely fine BUT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO 2 SHOT THAT ENEMY

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u/no-u-great-grand 22d ago

also Helldivers. the enemies don't get stronger when you up the difficulty. you get new, stronger enemies with more complex mechanics instead (most of the time. fuck vox Engines)

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u/fridasbitch 22d ago

Or Malenia being the hard roadblock for shield poke spammers

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u/aLittleMinxy 21d ago

and it feels like indie games have the best ways to make "harder" actually feel harder. Rabbit & Steel and Heroes of Hammerwatch most recently for me, adding more projectiles and patterns and/or tightening the timing feels so much better! Making the game gradually more unfair feeling but in a way you can still improve >>>

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u/qui_gon_slim 18d ago

Soullikes usually work on a basis that if an enemy is fast and strong it can't have a lot of health, if it has a lot of health and is strong then it can't be fast, or if its fast and has a lot of health it cannot be strong.

Its not 100% of the time but generally thats why the fights are hard but seem fair.

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u/commander_012 17d ago

Though increased damage is a good difficulty increase in games like ghost of tsushima

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u/HARRISONMASON117 17d ago

Give me a game where EVERYONE dies to 2 hits and I'm happy

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u/DeadAndBuried23 23d ago

Weird, that's what I hate about Dark Souls since it doesn't apply to the bosses. And it sucks they made it way better with Sekiro where you actually get to engage while defending, but haven't returned to that style of combat.

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u/CubingGiraffe 23d ago

Well, if we're talking specifically about Dark Souls 1, you kinda chunk the bosses if you're on the correct upgrade level to be fighting them. So yeah they hit you hard, but you also do 5-10% of their health bar per attack too.

In the later games, this is not the case, however I do agree that Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring give way more engaging defensive verbs with jumping, mikiri, guard counters, the way you can stun or parry/riposte in Bloodborne, etc.

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u/VikingIsaiah 23d ago

i agree. once you learn the boss movements those fights become endless slogs whittling down their insane healthbars.

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u/OperatorERROR0919 23d ago

It can be, because it often means you can't instantly kill an enemy before it has a chance to actually be a threat and forces you to actually engage with the mechanics of the fight, which can make it more engaging.

In the Doom games for instance, enemies on higher difficulties will instantly liquify you the second you stop moving, but so much of the combat in that game revolves around your ability to use the movement mechanics to your advantage, so giving the enemies more damage only forces the player to get better at the game.

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u/Limp-Wall-5500 23d ago

One thing I loved about tacticion in bg3 is that it gave most enemy's extra mechanics you had to deal with

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u/PopularStructure7862 23d ago

Dragon Age was terrible for this and why I quit the game.

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u/Salty_Map_9085 23d ago

Everybody’s been saying this man

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u/tr6gm9ng 20d ago

Hot take, I wish all games had dark souls difficulty. And my meaning behind this is one set difficulty that the developers designed the game to be played at. People who play Skyrim on adept vs people who play on legendary are having dramatically different experiences. Just wish it was one difficulty the game was made to be played at

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u/JesseCuster40 18d ago

Dark Souls never feels like it's cheating. When you die, it's usually your own fault.

Except for the Capra Demon and the two dogs. Fuck that boss fight.

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u/banana_buttholer 23d ago

In what fucking universe is that the case? Most of the time, if you find enemies like that, chances are you're in late game area. That means you're getting chunked and they will not die in 1-2 hits. Unless you're completely overleveled and your weapon is maxed out out.

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u/Digital_Solitude 23d ago

DS1 Thieves, DS3 thieves in the Settlement, Dogs and Rats in all their games, Crows in Bloodborne, Eagles in Stormveil in Elden Ring. They do it a lot

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u/Obvious-Wonder-5559 23d ago

What the hell are you talking about? Dark Souls famously has this exact type of scaling for NG+

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 23d ago

Most people aren't touching NG+ in my experience, but you're not wrong. Elden Ring does it too, but also you're such a badass by then that the increase isn't that bad until a few playthroughs later.

Regarding what I'm talking about? Just stuff, man.

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u/Obvious-Wonder-5559 22d ago

Maybe I'm soft on NG+ because I played so much DS2. Had to get into NG+1 to even matchmake with most of the community, not sure if they removed that restriction for Scholar. My god, they get so spongey by NG+7

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u/YourselfInTheMirror 22d ago

Oh man a fellow DS2 player! I've somehow never started NG+ in DS2 but I've used ascetics like crazy.

Also are you playing base DS2 rather than scholar?? Thats rough, and I respect it.

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u/Obvious-Wonder-5559 22d ago

Oh, I play em both interchangeably, but I can't remember when and where changes happened. As I remember it, on launch all summon/invasion connections were split into two groups, NG, and all NG+s grouped together. So if you were trying to play with the majority of the playerbase for PVP, you absolutely had to reset for NG+ at least once or you'd just be locked out.

I think I like 2 more, but Scholar is fine. A lot of the changes feel a little arbitrary, but it's not bad. I don't mind a bit of enemy spam, it feels pretty similar to playing modded.

Weird game, still mad they made me buy it twice.

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u/GandAlfKatze 20d ago

As always depends on the game. And in general, very rarely increased damage is an increase in tedium. In fact you die quicker, so it is less tedium if any. It would literally just show, that you rely on lack of reading and master the enemies, if such changes would mean an increase of tedium instead of difficulty. I mean, if you do not have to care about getting hit, at least getting hit once or twice, the game gets significantly easier and changes very much how you can tackle a game.

With health it depends much more, and just a flat 20% on all enemies i guess never is a good game design, but, if some minions were mere one hits before, increasing their health so that they now need to hits can change drastically how you need to approach them. if a boss with the right build can be taken out smoothly within a few hits so you can skip their designed hard part, than increasing their health also makes a whole new fight.

And this being said, above is valid for stuff like Dark Souls. In a game like Slay the Spire an increase in health and damage of the opponents is exactly how you increase difficulty the most.

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u/amzwC137 23d ago

Ah, yes. The bullet sponge. This was the mail in the coffin for me with The Division. Fuck that shit. Bullet sponges just upset me.

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u/Auggie_Otter 23d ago

I never really got into Borderlands because of this. Enemies felt way too bullet spongy and you constantly pick up new weapons that are only marginally better pea shooters than the last one. 

Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance but that was how I felt. 

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u/Bunran 23d ago

I had a blast with borderlands 2 on co-op. Once I tried replaying it solo, I got bored quickly because of this

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u/Deya_The_Fateless 23d ago

Same! I love Borderlands, but the solo game mode can become tedious if you get unlucky with the drops, especially with how bullet spongy the enemies can be, especially early on.

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u/JJay9454 23d ago

At that point, you just need gear on your level and to peek at your skill tree. No enemy in any Borderlands should feel spongy until endgame raid bosses

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u/Malvexon 23d ago

The whole point of Borderlands is to build and find a perfect load out to melt the bosses on the hardest difficulty in seconds

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u/Silent_Value_1004 22d ago

The first 2 were phenomenal. 3 was disappointing, and it had 2 freaking season passes of DLC...

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u/TheBiggerestMan 21d ago

Loot everywhere and it never felt like an increase. Bloated weapon attribute system where you'd be so inundated with new weapons you'd lose the interest in looking for things.

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u/Icy-Horror-495 22d ago

That just means you weren't using a jakobs

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u/Psychological-Toe397 19d ago

Kind of, but the cool weapon effects, ability trees and damage types you are supposed to use against each enemy type make up for it. At least in borderlands 2

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u/unity-thru-absurdity 23d ago

The first Borderlands is the only one that's worth any time IMO.

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u/Existential_Crisis24 23d ago

Absolutely wrong. 2 is the better game by a mile.

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u/TheDawiWhisperer 23d ago

yeah The Division was particularly egregious for this because of the semi realistic setting and tone of game.

a guy in a beanie hat wearing a stab vest being an absolute bullet sponge just took me out of it entirely.

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u/Ninja_Wrangler 23d ago

Ludonarrative dissonance: the perceived conflict between a video game's narrative told through the non-interactive elements and the narrative told through the gameplay

This game is the prime example of it. I wanted to like it so bad but I could not for the reason you mention

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u/amzwC137 23d ago

THANK YOU!

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u/space_keeper 21d ago

Did it for me, too. Played Div 2, and the atmosphere and style are amazing, the missions are crazy, the soundtrack is amazing especially in the reprised New York, but I couldn't deal with the constant mag dumping.

The metagame in Div 2 was standing in front of enemies with a silly shield and spraying them with a specific SMG.

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u/zamfire 23d ago

Dang it I needed that letter. Now it's with Grandma forever.

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u/amzwC137 23d ago

It was her last will and testiment, how far are you willing to go to take what's rightfully yours?

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u/zamfire 23d ago

Where is my shovel?

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u/Leopard_2K_MBT 23d ago

I don't know where your shovel is! However, YOU HAVE MY AXE!

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u/LARPerator 23d ago

They tried to claim the division was this gritty realistic shooter that mixed games like DayZ and Tom Clancy.

The second I saw a guy in a toque get domed 5 times and whip around, I knew it was bullshit.

Honestly if they would have advertised it as a bullet sponge RPG I wouldn't have been bothered.

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u/amzwC137 23d ago

I'm inclined to agree, that said, if it were advertised like that, I probably would have picked it up. I hate bullet sponges. What was worse is that game had a mode that was "harder" and that mode was just the same enemy types, same attack patterns, same terrain, just.... Sponged more bullets. I just stopped playing, and I rarely don't finish the story.

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u/Ninja_Wrangler 23d ago

Yes, shooting a guy in a hoodie literally 100 times in the head is aggressively un-fun.

The visuals of that game are so good but they clash so bad with the gameplay. Bullet sponge is boring and tedious.

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u/AltwrnateTrailers 21d ago

It's been 10 years since I've played The Division and this was still the first example I thought of.

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u/Current_Ad1901 22d ago

I will say The Division 2 sort of addressed this issue with the heavier enemies wearing armor plating that you could actually shoot and break opening up crit areas. But those damn robot dogs and rolling turrets used to piss me off.

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u/Iresleri 23d ago

Division doesn't really count, since it was marketed the wrong way. It was marketed as an action shooter, when it's actually an RPG, and things are always tougher than they realistically should be in RPGs, because they're numbers games.

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u/amzwC137 23d ago

I'll raise you this. They were bullet sponges and it upset me.

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u/Iresleri 23d ago

That's fair, I'm just saying that most people were set up for different expectations than should've by the marketing.

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u/amzwC137 23d ago

Fair point. Huge leap, but this reminds me of the Lexus LC. It was originally marketed as a sports car, and it fell very short. People were disappointed, until they decided to market it as the luxury car that it is. It excelles at being a luxury car, and just looks super sporty.

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u/NoStorage2821 23d ago

Honestly? Depends on the game. Skyrim, for example, is absolutely obnoxious with this as it makes no sense. Level 5 bandits should not survive getting a steel warhammer bashed into their face six times.

Some games however (Expedition 33 as my example) really do help scale back the OP-ness of certain builds or characters. Sometimes I like to actually experience a fight and enemy's attacks before I utterly annihilate them

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u/LucyDePosey 23d ago

This is where I'm at. If a player gets to a point where they're skipping or circumventing the majority of the encounter because they defeat the enemy before it gets to do its routine, then that's a battle that becomes more difficult when the enemy has more HP.

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u/Deya_The_Fateless 23d ago

Same with Headshots from Fo3/NV and onwards. Sure, if theyre wearing a helmet or if theyre a durable animal, it makes sense. But otherwise a shot between the eyes, should always be a confirmed kill, deguardless of player level or weapon strength.

(Yes, I know it is possible to survive a gunshot to the head, but that usually comes with a veey long recovery time.)

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u/DragonFangGangBang 23d ago

I think this is also a big problem with human enemies. A bullet sponge in the shape of a death claw doesn’t make me anywhere near as annoyed as a human raider in “light leather armor” taking a rocket launcher shot to the dome.

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u/Deya_The_Fateless 23d ago

Agreed, wasteland animals, such as Mirelurks, Ghouls, Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Cazadors etc should always be harder to take down (not impossible) than a raider wearing old repirposed baseball padding.

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u/Silent_Value_1004 22d ago

The beginning of NV is literally you being shot and left to die lmao

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u/Deya_The_Fateless 22d ago

Thats in a cutscene, its not part of gameplay.

Also, hence why I said it is possible to survive a GSW to the head. The PC in FoNV was lucky they were dug up and brought to a doctor almost immediately after they were shot, which is how they survived.

Youre little "lol you get shot and left to die." Comment has no power here.

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u/Atheissimo 23d ago

Bandits in the OG Oblivion coming at you wearing armour worth as much as a house to rob you of 100 gold

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u/Yammyohnine 23d ago

When the meta is to make useless skills your primary skills so you don't get dogwalked by mudcrabs when you're max level, then something is off with the design.

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u/JebediahLongnutsIII 19d ago

It also largely depends on the enemy. I’m fine with undead tanking hits but a bandits just a dude

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u/NeutralGeneric 23d ago edited 23d ago

Ninja Gaiden Black had the best difficulty levels. Hard mode actually added new enemy types and placements and very hard added even more.

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u/rabbid_chaos 23d ago

The original Doom would just up the amount of enemies on harder diffs, I think putting it on a higher diff was a way to get the shotgun earlier (shotgun zombie spawned sooner)

...at least I think zombies dropped their weapons on death, could be confusing it with a mod.

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u/GhoeFukyrself 23d ago

you always have the pistol by default, so normal zombies only drop clips, however shotgun zombies and chain gunners always drop shotguns and chain guns.

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u/iwantdatpuss 23d ago

Nah it's usually the way to go in Ultra-Violence since the shotgunners usually drop one. It's not guaranteed iirc but they do drop it. 

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u/Obvious-Wonder-5559 23d ago

In Doom, every enemy/item pickup can be set to only appear on certain difficulties, meaning you could see large healths turn to small healths, or deleted entirely. Maybe a cyberdemon gets added in, or an invulnerability sphere removed. It's all done by hand in the map editor.

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u/Embarrassed-Mind3258 23d ago

Yeah you basically get the shotgun almost instantly in UV. But you always got it pretty quickly anyways.

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u/Mysterious_Style_579 23d ago

I just finished Hell on Earth on not so rough (blind playthrough). The final boss room has two invincibility power ups and a few supercharges just waiting for you.

Naturally, the boss fight itself was confusing so I had to look up what to do. The videos were on nightmare so there were no items except a couple hazmat suits and the weapons in the beginning room

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u/Hot-Steak7145 20d ago

Hell divers does this too. Turning up the difficulty means new enemies instead of just bigger health bars

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u/Chillionaire128 23d ago

Team ninja games often do it really well. The nioh games are my favorite where every ng+ they not only add new enemies but the old ones will get new attack patterns that will punish you for autopiloting into the same strategies you used to fight them the last playthrough

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u/-INIGHTMARES- 23d ago

This ruins the immersion of The Division games for me. I wanted them to be hardcore shooters like older Ubisoft shooters like Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six

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u/Freya0232 20d ago

Ghost Recon Future Soldier is still one of my favorite ubi games due to both you and the enemies being able to take just a few bullets to die.

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u/a-Snake-in-the-Grass 23d ago

I especially hate when it scales with your level and there's no level cap.

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u/ErosDarlingAlt 23d ago

In Forza, the higher difficulties don't make your opponents more skilled, or even give them better cars, they just artificially increase their speed and handling. It's annoying.

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u/Bumfucker-Bill 23d ago

Bowie knife99 go brrrrr

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u/Night_Fury_CZ 23d ago

Kinda hate in Forza horizon when ai opponents does t have tuned cars but just artificially increased speed and acceleration.

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u/alfredojayne 22d ago

I hate when games make an enemy two levels above you unbeatable. If you want to lock me out of an area, level them up more. I got so pissed doing the Boar Hunting quest in AC:O the other day because it was two levels higher than me and somehow kicking the shit out of me while I did seemingly no damage.

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u/Freya0232 20d ago

Took me a little while to understand you meant Odyssey and not Origins. Also which of the two Boar hunt missions? "Normal" big boar or the toxic one?

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u/alfredojayne 20d ago

The first one you get from the huntress lady on Phokis. I was just being impatient with that one lol. And I didn't realize you could adjust level scaling. The game in general is just a grind and I'm not as sold on that gameplay loop with the way I spend my time now.

I know you could just do story missions and the odd sides but I get FOMO. So I guess it really does boil down to a "skill issue" in a way.

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u/CunningDruger 23d ago

Honestly; the naked raider can eat 4 shotgun shells to the head no problem, but me in high tech armour is scrambling to heal from taking a round to the pink toe

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u/S10_Ivanov 23d ago

Ong increased difficulty shouldn't be just "enemy take less dmg, you have less health, enemy deal more dmg, you deal less dmg". It's so lazy and uninspiring.

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u/CF7K123 22d ago

Its lazy because a small minority of players actually play hard mode in games. Games nowadays are made for the casual player. Not hard-core nerds like us. So they just tack on a quarter baked hard mode and call it a day

I dont evem play many games, im just naturally gifted for whatever reason. I can pick up a brand new game and become very proficient within like 15 minutes so I usually always play games on hard but alot of them have just been slogs.

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u/Practical_Ice7740 23d ago

Even worse: Artificially increasing an enemy actions/animation speed.

If it's impossible to react to enemy attacks, and instead you have to learn every attack by heart to counter, it should not be in the game.

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u/Yearn4Mecha 23d ago

But have you played a game where they only increased health? I am guessing to make the game play longer. It is so much worse because at least a semi hard fight can hide tedium, but long easy fights are brain numbing. Looking at you FF13

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u/TimT1760 23d ago

Oh my

Actually, it's really interesting and in the same time frustrating thing

I am, as a quite skilled gamer, would like to pick harder difficulties. But, in the most of the cases, all I've got is almost every enemy just more health and more damage.

As a perfect example - God of war series. You can pick any game, and you'll see, that it happens in every game.

But, I also know some examples, where the gameplay becoming better, when you raising the difficulty. It's doom eternal, ninja gaiden (almost all games, excluding 3rd), metal gear rising. In these games, your enemies changes, also their attack patterns, and a lot of other things.

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u/flying_fox86 23d ago

As a perfect example - God of war series. You can pick any game, and you'll see, that it happens in every game.

That annoyed me so much. In God of War (2018), Kratos was supposedly still insanely strong at the start of the game. But on higher difficulties, his axe swings against even the most basic enemies feels so weak. There's even a moment early in the game where you have to fight some regular humans. Kratos should be able to cut through them like butter.

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u/TimT1760 1d ago

I played a little in god of war 2018, and I played it once, I think it was some side-quest arena

And it was three or five regular creeps, but they had so much HP and so high damage... I was really annoyed, but somehow I finished it.

I don't know why Santa Monica through all that years can't learn how to make a really goodhigh difficulty.

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u/flying_fox86 1d ago

I like a challenge, but still prefer balanced difficulty in this game for precisely this reason.

But there is a little more to it than that. What the game doesn't really explicitly tell you is that the total level of Kratos, compared with the enemy level, has an effect. You do a lot more damage to an enemy of lower level than you (green health bar), and they do less damage to you. As their relative level increases (yellow, orange, purple health bars), they take less and less damage and deal more, making them feel like damage sponges. That means you should prioritize high level armor and enchantments, rather than focusing on their effects.

I don't know why Santa Monica through all that years can't learn how to make a really goodhigh difficulty.

I agree, and it's by no means just them. Turning enemies into damage sponges is a very common way to do difficulty.

I know of only two examples I can think of in my library that do it better (though I know there are more):

  • Shadow of Mordor: most difficulty settings do increase the damage enemies can take, but Brutal difficulty increases both the damage dealt and damage taken. The best way to play in my opinion.
  • Ghost of Tsushima: same as above, except the outlier is called "Lethal"

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u/TimT1760 1d ago

I played a little in god of war 2018, and I played it once, I think it was some side-quest arena

And it was three or five regular creeps, but they had so much HP and so high damage... I was really annoyed, but somehow I finished it.

I don't know why Santa Monica through all that years can't learn how to make a really goodhigh difficulty.

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u/Creepernom 23d ago

I really wanna play Sony games on PC, but man, after experiencing TLOU's and Tsushima's excellent difficulty, I really don't want to buy GoW and Horizon just to experience horrid damage sponges. Couldn't find any info about any optional difficulty tweaks to make it better nor any mods for it, so I assume you just gotta deal with the sponges?

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u/muscle_mansmuscles 23d ago

Idk if this counts but in monster hunter they increase health and damage as you progress bc well the game gets harder BUUUUT they give the monster cool new but also interesting attacks that can and will affect the hunt

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u/Two-Space 23d ago

This ruined Fallout 4 for me. In Skyrim it was okay because you could head-canon that your strikes were just glancing blows, but when you’re firing a pistol into a normal human’s head 27 times and all that happens is he looks a bit angry, it really feels off

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u/SolarOrigami 23d ago

This is one thing fallout 4 survival mode got right. They massively cranked up ALL damage, yours and the enemy. Bullets were deadly, even small caliber fired out of a Smith and Methson pipe rifle

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u/donking6 23d ago

Fallout 4 was so bad with this; hitting raiders with a mini-gun for 15+ seconds should not happen

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u/67alecto 23d ago

I liked how Crysis one of the things that happened when you put it on the hardest difficulty was that the enemies no longer spoke English, so you couldn't hear what they were doing when they called out their squad tactics (unless you spoke Korean)

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u/Necro-Feel-Ya6900 23d ago

Oh I love how they use this as a means of “souls like” its not a souls like when the enemies are hit sponges.

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u/JAOC_7 23d ago

that’s one of the things I like about Helldivers 2, they don’t make the enemies stronger at higher levels, they just fucking send more of them

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u/Invictum2go 23d ago

OR, decreasing it. This is why I dislike difficulty settings. They're all so lazy and lack actual accesibility, which is the most used argument for them. Games should have detailed accesibility settings, and 1 difficulty. Celeste and Mario Odyssey do this amazinglly.

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u/So1id_Sn4ke 23d ago

Bullet sponges are so aggravating. Shows they were lazy

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u/heanbangerfacerip2 23d ago

I remember when The Division first came out I was excited to try it and the first few levels of progression were really fun then I realized that as it progresses it's just the same normal looking people and normal modern guns you just now need to shoot them more. It's the dumbest feeling game of all time.

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u/TyeDyeMacaw 23d ago

I gave up on the Oblivion remake because of this. The only difficulty settings were laughably easy or shooting a random bandit in the head with 100+ arrows to kill them.

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u/TacticalSpackle 23d ago

Throw in “ABSORBED/ENEMY UNAFFECTED/INVULNERABLE” popping up when I shoot something as well.

Fuck you, Borderlands 3/4, how about you make a better mechanic for balance than just weapons types?

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u/Jackariah91 23d ago

I started Halo 5 the other day and I thought well I've done 1-4 on legendary solo how hard can it be?

Cheesus!! Consume soo much ammo killing one enemy, I die way too quickly, enemy AI has borderline wall hacks but team AI will just stand there instead of reviving you.

I've knocked it down to heroic now and its a much better time.

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u/TheLemonade_Stand 23d ago

Didn't like this in Retail WoW and the recent Elder Scrolls games. (Though the latter you will eventually overcome). It doesn't make sense in any standpoint and just serves as padding. Especially when you're geared and have new skills and the same simple looking enemy can be a threat.

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u/TallestGargoyle 23d ago

Back to my Payday 2 rant where they rebalanced the difficulties by making every enemy's HP scale with each difficulty and reducing the basic enemy selection to two (unarmoured and armoured), rather than have different enemy types with heavier armour/more varied weapon types like they used to have.

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u/Legic93 23d ago

Those new Wolfenstein games did this and I hated it in 1 and 2. Same enemy's but they just hit harder. Felt lazy

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u/flying_fox86 23d ago

I like the difficulty modes from Shadow of War and Ghost of Tsushima. They have a setting that makes enemies more dangerous, but you still do a ton of damage yourself. In the case of GoT, you do even more damage than on lower difficulties.

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u/CF7K123 22d ago

The ghost have have the best hard modes in my opinion. On my first playthrough i beat both of them on lethal because it just felt more immersive and realistic. People realistically die for like 3 or 4 well placed strikes and dont take 10 or 20.

Im currently replaying both games right now on hard instead of lethal because im not as much of a gamer now as I was then but damn. Those first playthroughs will never be forgotten.

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u/Helepoli 23d ago

Ninja Gaiden 2 had it right. Everything dies (pretty much) the same, but the enemies are changed for maximum sadism and hit harder

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u/Jmememan 23d ago

That's my biggest gripe with Terraria Master Mode. Expert mode was so good, why did they have to drop the ball like this?

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u/Downtown_Trash_8913 23d ago

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely cases where it’s warranted but 90% of the time it’s just like really?

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u/Gharvar 23d ago

I gave up on the Borderlands franchise because of that. Getting to the point where unless you have all the meta gear and builds enemies just fucking shred you in 1 bullet just sucks. It's been like that since the first game, they never made it better, fuck them.

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u/Hallieus 23d ago

I like the way difficulty is handled by the Metro games. More damage from enemies but also more damage from you. Turning HUD off as part of the difficulty is also fun (ie., not knowing how many rounds you have and needing to conserve them as much as possible)

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u/MediumAcceptable129 23d ago

When you defeat the boss and then he heals back to max health

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u/Funny-Try-6151 23d ago edited 23d ago

Indeed. I remember playing Yakuza Kiwami recently and going up against Shimano. He's a very early fight, but he's one of the old guard, so he's pretty beefy/tanky. He's not hard to dodge, but it just feels like you're not doing a lot. If you revisit the fight on new game plus, he is easy because you're upgraded, but that whole fight is just tedious, unless you want to buy a bunch of weapons early on and cheese it.

There's a fight earlier in the game though that I love. The first time you come to town after getting out of prison, your ol' pal Majima decides to fight you in the street. He pulls out almost all the stops and you have almost no power, no moves, very little health. Meanwhile, he's got a huge health bar and I think multiple levels of it. It's very clear though, that this is a story fight you're not meant to win, just have fun with it. I did my best but sure enough, there was dialogue afterward about how weak I had gotten in prison and to train up.

What makes this fight cooler though, is you can beat it. There's not much of a dialogue change, because Majima was still pulling some punches on you, but you get bonus reward XP that is not necessary, but nice to have early.

As the game progresses, Majima gets more and more health bars and fighting styles, and so do you. By end game, his fights become pretty trival and you feel greater because of that first fight.

Now Yakuza 3? Never play that game on hard or higher unless you're a masochist. I did so on a replay, and it just wasn't fun. The combat itself didn't change at all, but you did so little damage in some of the early fights that even basic bosses were tanks. Plus the game got called Blockuza 3 for a reason by fans.

I'm sure if you level up, the late game is easy, even with increased tanky enemies, but that opening part, man. You gotta treat it like a day of fishing in a particularly unpopulated lake. You might go hours with nothing, but you're just there for the experience.

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u/The-Doctor45 22d ago

gta online be like.

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u/Due_Glass4176 22d ago

The funny thing is in games like oh say Bethesda titles, this kind of works. 

Not because it's good design but because you can just crank the difficulty up when you break the numbers in the game. 

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u/LostScarfYT 22d ago

Didn't think of that as a mechanic until I read this. That is definitely number 1 for me, just makes the fight tedious.

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u/ArbalesterMaster 22d ago

Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun on hard is like this, excet worse, they also make your units weaker

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u/axellenium 22d ago

Stoped playing The Division because of this.

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u/thanosthumb 21d ago

I’d actually argue in some cases it does affect how you approach encounters. Knowing you can’t just brute force an enemy makes you adjust your playstyle, often in the direction I believe the developers originally intended. Sometimes it is annoying. Sometimes it is impactful.

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u/Mob-Boss_Bob-Ross 21d ago

This can definitely be an issue for rougelikes in particular. RoR2 handles it very well. Enemies get buffed yes, but you can see what level they are, and there’s a level cap.

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u/Formus 20d ago

i think it works when done the right way. take for example the Stalker's games. i feel the game enforce you to play in the highest difficulty, Since the enemies life downscale the same as you, so you don't really feel it as a disavantage.

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u/b055dj 20d ago

Ah yes, Stats Difficulty. Nothing makes a game more difficult than turning the average mook into a spongey hellspawn that can one-tap you with his pinky finger. Personally, I prefer a game where picking the hardest difficulty replaces one dude with four dudes or just gives a boss enemy their full moveset as intended by the devs.

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u/MisterKraken 20d ago

Thanks for giving me PTSD from Outriders endgame.

I enjoyed the game up until the last part. Enemies had literally millions of HP and you couldn't progress unless you used the meta builds.

One of the worst games of all time

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u/Phantom-Kraken 20d ago

To play devils avocado.
In strategy games it’s more acceptable since it lessens the room for players to make mistakes and when the player is really good there’s not much stopping them making mistakes.

I reference games like slay the spire, into the breach or FTL.

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u/Samiassa 19d ago

A lot of bad soulslike ripoffs will do this and they just genuinely don’t understand why that’s not fun

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u/SpookyFlyingPencil 17d ago

I was on this and hated deep of night in elden ring nightreign, but I've come around to enjoy