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[SunBroDave]

...or in other words, games where the gameplay is so boring, frustrating, or otherwise just gets in the way of enjoying the rest of the game.

Inspired by the Raycevick thread about Spec Ops, where several posters recommended newcomers to the game play it on easy so that they wouldn't get bogged down by the extremely monotonous, bog standard third person cover shooter gameplay, with the main draw for the game being the narrative.

What other games would fall into this category?

 

[Blobbers]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

 

[Mediking]

Any huge story driven game. My 1st playthru may be my only playthru.

I wanna actually finish it in a timely manner so Easy it is.

I beat Persona 5 on Easy and that still was a challenge at times.

 

[Acquiescence]

Not that I'd recommend it, but if you insist on playing Deadly Premonition then put it on easy if you want to make the slog that is the second half more bearable.

 

[Blackquill]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

no

 

[Haly]

 

[RPGam3r]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Wow nailed it, came in to post this.

 

[III-V]

I don't do this OP.

 

[BigBeauford]

FTL.

 

[higgsboson1997]

SMTIV I think.

 

[joe2187]

Nier Automata.

 

[DKehoe]

Deadly Premonition

 

[Blackquill]

But anyway, my third time I played Nier was on easy because I know that was a game that I don't enjoy for a lot of things so I made sure I will be able to finish it without being completely bored.

 

[Menitta]

Trauma Center Second Opinion and New Blood. Holy goddamn shit that triangle strain of Guilt. That one's brutal on easy!

 

[TylerStar]

Any game where you want the story but don't like the gameplay. I always tried getting through them on higher difficulties but the gameplay isn't my thing so I turned it down for Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

 

[thekonamicode]

Uncharted and Infamous

 

[Haly]

FTL.

Oh yes this is a very good example, mostly because normal will wreck your shit until you learn all the games' subsystems.

 

[bobawesome]

Nier Automata.

I died maybe a handful of times before upgrading chips. You become an unstoppable killing machine at a point.

 

[Electret]

Bioshock Infinite, at least for the final fight. And probably the fights against Elizabeth's ghost mother. That's what I did - played the entire preceding portion of the game on hard and then I said "fuck this."

BI enemies are the definition of bullet sponges, and the shooting doesn't feel great. The ghost fight is particularly problematic what with the regenerating health, temporary invincibility, and respawning waves of enemies.

The entire game is a mess of half-baked ideas and poorly executed mechanics, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

 

[LordGorchnik]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

What? I loved this game on hard.

 

[zeemumu]

Uncharted 1

FTL.

This too

 

[The Thnikkaman]

For me, Wonderful 101. Game takes some time to wrap your head around how you should be playing it and to get decent at drawing the different shapes, for me at least.

I had something similar with MGSR where I couldn't for the life of me get a hang of the parrying mechanic and it wrecked my shit. That said once I got the hang of it I immediately beat it again on Normal/Hard and had a blast. Sometimes it takes a little easing in to Git Gud.

 

[timetokill]

I don't know if I'd play it on Easy for my first time, but every time I go back to play Silent Hill 2 I put the enemy difficulty on easy and the puzzles on hard.

 

[nicoga3000]

Here's a weird one.

HunniePop.

Each time you do the " match-3 puzzle game", it gets progressively harder. The threshold is significantly lower on Easy than Notmal, and it's even more ridiculous on Hard.

 

[True Fire]

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

Hard mode was tacked on for the western release, and it's horribly unbalanced to the point where it's (probably) impossible to beat certain bosses.

 

[The Thnikkaman]

I don't know if I'd play it on Easy for my first time, but every time I go back to play Silent Hill 2 I put the enemy difficulty on easy and the puzzles on hard.

Is SH2 the one with the crazy puzzle on Hard that nobody would ever get without a deep knowledge of Shakespeare?

 

[Mathieran]

Uncharted series for me was 10x more fun on easy. It fits the "turn your brain off" summer blockbuster theme much better.

 

[Godcannon]

I'm kinda bad at some FP shooters, unlike hack n slash, RPGs, Arcade-styles, etc, but when they have a good story I will turn down to easy if need be or just to hurry through it. Really only ever had to do this with Deus Ex Human Revolution, and so glad I did because I really enjoyed the world and story. I rarely do it though because the challenge can be half the fun sometimes. I finished DOOM on hard for example, and I feel that having it on hard enhanced the overall experience of chaos and brutality.

 

[Spukc]

all the souls games

 

[Theslammer]

Mortal Kombat 2 because Very Easy plays like Hard. It's the only game (besides 3 to a lesser extent) where I get my ass kicked routinely on the easiest difficulty. Mortal Kombat 1 on Normal and Hard was easier than MK2 on Very Easy.

 

[-MD-]

FTL.

Yep.

 

[Crankshaft]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Catherine is a puzzle game. Puzzles aren't everyone's cup of tea. Catherine's game play is on point if you understand the mechanics.

 

[michaelius]

Orginal Nier - gameplay mechanics are so unpolished by current standards that you just wish to skip gameplay sequences as soon as possible without doing gazilion of side quests or stupid fishing to upgrade your stuff.

 

[rtcn63]

no

I'm shit at puzzle games but I didn't find anything particularly difficult or overbearing in the game either. Actually grew to like it after a bit.

 

[purseowner]

Uncharted 4.

The combat was a tedious interlude in what was otherwise a masterpiece.

 

[finley83]

Alan Wake, the combat is very repetitive but at least enemies die much faster on Easy. The story and atmosphere is the main draw anyway.

 

[Tiger Mask]

No, OP.

 

[Shin-Ra]

Things like i defeated a RB SB TJaw in 1 second combine on UH
UH wasn't so hard it was easy
Why you still playing on Normal

 

[IISANDERII]

Witcher 3. Would've given up after 4hrs but turned it to easy and made it another 20hrs

 

[nbnt]

Nier Automata.

This one right here. One of the few games where I said fuck it I'm switching to easy, not because it was hard, but because the fights were so repetitive and boring.

 

[Labombadog]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Only game where I had to drop the difficulty to easy. Was insanely frustrating at times.

 

[Teeth]

Alan Wake, the combat is very repetitive but at least enemies die much faster on Easy. The story and atmosphere is the main draw anyway.

That's interesting, many people say that you can't understand the scope and depth of AW's mechanics unless you play on Hard.

Things like i defeated a RB SB TJaw in 1 second combine on UH
UH wasn't so hard it was easy
Why you still playing on Normal

I understood this reference.

 

[Alienous]

Uncharted 4 works for this. You can just let loose with the movement mechanics and ignore cover altogether.

 

[The Thnikkaman]

Orginal Nier - gameplay mechanics are so unpolished by current standards that you just wish to skip gameplay sequences as soon as possible without doing gazilion of side quests or stupid fishing to upgrade your stuff.

God this is so true. The combat isn't outright BAD, there's some stuff there but none of it is really polished or really balanced so it gets tedious. The "juice" so to speak isn't bad though, it feels decent to hit things for the most part at least.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Bullshit of the highest order. Your post, not the game. The gameplay of Catherine was expertly crafted puzzle gameplay. It was fantastic and anyone who is a fan of puzzle games should not be playing below the normal difficulty.

 

[Shane86]

Metro 2033 (don't know if redux made the shooting less terrible)

Shadow of Mordor (maybe just me but I die very easily in this)

 

[Deleted member 57681]

1st time playing Rock Band or Guitar Hero. But the faster you change to a higher difficulty the better.

 

[Justinh]

Kind of a different kind of answer here, but Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.

After applying the Redaction hack to the game, add the hacks that double the amount of hearts you get and makes all the fall-through blocks invisible. Makes the game soooo much more enjoyable to play.

 

[Humdinger]

Uncharted 4.

The combat was a tedious interlude in what was otherwise a masterpiece.

Same here, although I didn't find it tedious. I just couldn't get the shooting to feel right, despite trying a lot of different tweaks of the settings. The shooting felt more frustrating than fun, so I switched to Easy, and that made the game more enjoyable to me. I played the whole Uncharted collection on normal , so I'm not sure what it was about 4's shooting that felt different to me, but it did.

 

[beastlove]

I play most games on easy these days. Having a job and kids means my game time is limited and therefore I normally just play for the experience.