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[SimpleCRIPPLE]

Full disclosure, I play most games on easy now. Especially with longer open world games, I dont have the time to replay sections or get stuck lie I used to. I mainly play games now to enjoy the story, which is why I prefer focused, linear games like Uncharted, compared to something open world like Assassin's Creed.

That being said, I think something like Horizon does a good job of giving you an open world that doesn't feel overwhelming. My lack of time nowadays has me hesitant to start Persona 5. I've had it for months, but seeing that the average completion time is around 100 hours keeps preventing me from starting. I can finish 5-8 other games in the same about of time. Sure, P5 may be amazing, but by holding off, I've been able to finish Uncharted 4, Horizon, Last Guardian, and Breath of the Wild.

 

[eshwaaz]

I played through all of the main game of Witcher 3 on normal with no issues, but I absolutely hate how they cranked up the difficulty for Hearts of Stone. They made the enemies far more resilient and made their attacks more powerful, but didn't change anything else about the combat to compensate. When I got to the first boss, I was convinced that I must be doing something wrong, as my attacks were barely having any effect. I was well above the recommended level with good gear as well.

I finally bumped it down to Easy, and still found the battle a tedious slog. Witcher 3 is a fantastic game, but at no point was I ever playing it for the combat. I really hope this approach to "more challenging combat" doesn't carry over to Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[Bedameister]

Uncharted series most definitely

 

[Superkewl]

Ryse: Son of Rome

Just started this today. The game is gorgeous but, boring and repetitive.

 

[GreatestHits]

I played through all of the main game of Witcher 3 on normal with no issues, but I absolutely hate how they cranked up the difficulty for Hearts of Stone. They made the enemies far more resilient and made their attacks more powerful, but didn't change anything else about the combat to compensate. When I got to the first boss, I was convinced that I must be doing something wrong, as my attacks were barely having any effect. I was well above the recommended level with good gear as well.

I finally bumped it down to Easy, and still found the battle a tedious slog. Witcher 3 is a fantastic game, but at no point was I ever playing it for the combat. I really hope this approach to "more challenging combat" doesn't carry over to Cyberpunk 2077.

I've had the exact same complaints. And that's a great addition to this thread, I don't feel any more accomplished by successfully overcoming the battle system on the harder difficulties. The combat works best if you're constantly dodging withe the 'B' button (invincible) while you plan or wait for the right time to bust a sign or an attack. It is what it is. Extremely demanding, near-mindless, and then they give bosses like 1000000000 hp. Gee thanks design team. This game should definitely be played on easy.

 

[NeonBlack]

Nier Automata.

But normal poses no challenge to begin with.

 

[Gastone]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Agree. One of the few games i forced myself to finish.

 

[Zophar]

My enjoyment of Oblivion/Skyrim and Fallout 3/NV/4 jumped tenfold by dropping to the easiest difficulty setting.

 

[jptuo]

Company of Heroes 2

 

[KillLaCam]

NONE

 

[capitalCORN]

Red Faction: Guerrilla. I think the devs even said they made Normal too hard and suggested most people play it on Easy to enjoy the physics and destruction rather than constantly get mowed down by NPC aimbots.

Agreed.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

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.

Heh. I beat it on safety.

 

[Dremorak]

Uncharted 1-3 (havent played 4 yet) because the combat was boring and full of bullet sponges.

TLOU I played on hard because the combat was a bit better. I did switch to easy for one section that was pissing me off

Spoiler

The pushing the car while zombies run at you part

. I still couldnt do it. Switch back to hard. Did it first time (of course lol) and then didnt get the hard mode achievement at the end

 

[singhr1]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Considering there is a competitive community around the gameplay, there are enough people who disagree with this

 

[SirNinja]

The Casual setting for the recent Fire Emblem games. The director of Awakening famously cried foul against it until he tried it, and now it's the only way he plays.

 

[King Gilga]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

This, played it once on normal, really want to replay it to see the other routes but cba with that climbing shit.

 

[Disgraced]

Definitely Skyrim if you don't plan on installing a combat overhaul like Ultimate or Action Combat. Melee combat feels like dookie and all difficulty really does is bump enemy health and damage.

 

[KainXVIII]

Dante's Inferno (especially on final boss)

 

[xKilltheMx]

Definitely gonna say God Hand. Learn the game on easy first then test yourself with normal.

Fuck beating Hard.

 

[Azriell]

XCOM 2. I recently started playing it on PS4, and I'm ashamed to say that the game destroyed me on normal. When I restarted, I decided to go at it on Easy Ironman, and I'm finding it much more enjoyable. Maybe it diminishes the spirit of fighting a hopeless war, but I'm still looking to have fun here.

 

[Timu]

TMNT Turtles in Time Arcade.

 

[mrmickfran]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

nah

 

[Chasetopher]

Mario

 

[aaaaaa]

I play the Metal Gear games on easy the first time so I can focus on comprehending the twisty stories.

 

[Timu]

Uncharted series most definitely

Really?=O

 

[WilyRook]

The Star Wars trilogy games on snes. I feel like a human pinball when I play those

 

[a Master Ninja]

Difficult combat encounters are not what I come to Elder Scrolls/Fallout games to experience. As soon as they start to harm my enjoyment of exploring, I crank that slider down.

 

[Orb]

Spoiler

all of them

 

[ULTROS!]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

I finished the game on normal mode, which I found doable enough (not very easy but completely doable). Am I the only one who thinks it's not hard?

I also got the platinum though (so that means I finished it also on hard!)

 

[NaviLink]

I would say Spec Ops The...

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.

DAMN IT.

So yeah, Spec Ops the Line, definitely. Hard is punishing and not very fun since the gameplay is decent but not the main thing about the game. Play it in easy for sure.

But more importantly : play it in one uninterrupted sitting. Seriously. The impact of the game is much greater that way. I would give the same advice about Portal 1 as well.

 

[Lynx_7]

None that I can remember. Normal is the lowest I ever choose nowadays, and only if the game's hardest setting is notoriously hard (like Catherine, which I found appropriately challenging on Normal) or unbalanced.

 

[LowParry]

I think the only game I played on easy mode was Persona 4 Golden. God those dungeons were a snore.

 

[Pennywise]

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

Yup.
Not the entire games, but there are certain missions that puts you under so much pressure.

Uncharted series most definitely

You should drink so much and use your glasses Beda.

 

[Unaha-Closp]

I've no problem with this. Any game that you want to get through, especially for the story, but the gameplay is not doing it for you is fair game. I have done it but the name of the game escapes me.

 

[Mr E.]

I only just started playing cave story so I thought I'd chuck it on easy. Damn the end Boss(es) are killing me.

 

[daninthemix]

All of them.

Life's too short for dying ™

 

[Estoc]

Spec Ops: The Line. The story is fantastic, but the gameplay is nothing special, so you might as well play it on easy.

 

[coamithra]

Kane & Lynch II is actually loads of fun on easy mode!

 

[Duffk1ng]

Red Faction Guerilla

I never had a problem with RFG, actually. Then again I realised quite early on that your bullets originated from the middle of the screen and not your character's gun so you could just stand behind a wall completely in cover and shoot everyone round corners. Worked in MP too.

Uncharted 1

Speaking of which, this worked in Uncharted as well. I think the AI behaves differently when you're in cover too, they take cover more as well, unless I imagined it. If you just find a handy pillar somewhere and stand behind it rather than taking cover properly you can just blow them away without exposing yourself at all.

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

Redux makes it play like Last Light, basically. It's a lot better.

 

[Joey Jo-Jo Jr]

Most "AAA" games where gameplay is just a boring interlude between cutscenes.

 

[Ravek]

Catherine. Story's great, gameplay is unfun bullshit

Wow...no...

Mega Man 9 (until I got good)

 

[Little Old Man]

Red Faction Guerilla. On normal you are swarmed by fairly powerful grunts which limits you attempting to cause chaos and ridiculous demolitions.

But on easy the stupidity and insanity begins.

 

[KidB]

Elder Scrolls games. The combat is so unsatisfying that I prefer not to bother with it.

 

[Elephant]

Anything over 20 hours gets the easy button pressed. These kids with their free time and their fidget spinners.

 

[CecilRousso]

XCOM 2. I recently started playing it on PS4, and I'm ashamed to say that the game destroyed me on normal. When I restarted, I decided to go at it on Easy Ironman, and I'm finding it much more enjoyable. Maybe it diminishes the spirit of fighting a hopeless war, but I'm still looking to have fun here.

XCOM2's game designer have acknowledged that they should have included more difficulty options. I found the game well balanced and that difficult in general on normal, but the games has a weird difficulty spike in the beginning, and really should have eased players into it a bit more.

XCOM2 is also one of those cases where the idea is that you should loose some battles and some characters, since you get to continue, and get a chance to repair the damage, but it's an idea that not easy to sell to players

 

[Sephimoth]

I play most games on easy so I can steam through the story and add it to my embarrassing 'completed it' list

 

[Strings]

SMTIV I think.

Difficulty falls off a cliff after the first dungeon.

I literally can't think of any game I'd prefer to play on easy.

 

[xrnzaaas]

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

I don't know about easy, but I didn't notice a huge difference between normal and nightmare difficulties in Alan Wake. Sure, you have to be more careful on nightmare, but it's not like you're forced to learn some new tricks. You don't even have to be super cautious about spending ammo, I remember I finished a lot of the episodes having plenty of ammo for good weapons left that I didn't get a chance to use.

XCOM 2. I recently started playing it on PS4, and I'm ashamed to say that the game destroyed me on normal. When I restarted, I decided to go at it on Easy Ironman, and I'm finding it much more enjoyable. Maybe it diminishes the spirit of fighting a hopeless war, but I'm still looking to have fun here.

This is a good example. I think that the easy mode is the best (only?) way to go for the first playthrough. Maybe it gets a little too easy when your characters improve, but the beginning of the game is way too difficult on normal even if you've played the last game (especially if you're in the majority that treats a failed mission as a game over). I hope they'll add more difficulty options when the new expansion is released.

 

[Mista Koo]

Just wanna say how much I love the modern design of allowing changing difficulty mid-game. I really hope most games with difficulty settings adopt it.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Uncharted 4.

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

Thats not how games work