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[Dr_Salt]

So after starting a classic ironman run in Xcom Enemy Within I started reading on the differences between the difficulty levels and I was pretty shocked. Seems the AI is unshackled at higher difficulties and at lower difficulties the game cheats in your favor creating artificial percentages depending on how you are doing. It feels like a totally different game compared to the lower difficulties. While I always start my first runs at normal difficulty in games I think higher difficulties in Xcom(and maybe other games) make the game better for me because it makes you think harder about your tactics, punishes you for your dumb mistakes and makes everything more tense. At the very least ironman mode is needed to get the full Xcom experience IMO.

Also for the record I don´t have anything against people who like to play their games at lower difficulties but I believe there are some games out there that really shine when played at a higher level.

 

[Soltype]

Quantum Break, the games a joke at lower difficulties.On hard you're forced to keep cycling your powers and the game becomes pretty engaging.

 

[Hoya Destroyer]

I have played some open world RPG's on higher difficulties, with level scaling when possible (Wither 3, Fallout 4 and Skyrim) and really found them to be much more enjoyable that way.
Wandering around in a world where nothing threatens me, is boring. I want to feel a little fear when I see a monster in the distance and know that I have to be careful when fighting them.
If Nier: Automata had level scaling, I'd have invested waaaay more time into it.
2B looked great, the combat system had some real depth and the environments were fun to explore. At higher levels though, if you breathe on the giant robots, they just fall to pieces. Boring! I want a challenge.

 

[Walter Matthau]

 

[Nymphae]

Tetris is whole different game at Tetris: The Grandmaster speeds, you have to approach stack building completely differently and there's a huge focus on getting consecutive Tetrises.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Halo shines at Heroic

Uncharted 2 at Hard

MLB The Show at All Star

 

[CitizenX]

Quantum Break, the games a joke at lower difficulties.On hard you're forced to keep cycling your powers and the game becomes pretty engaging.

I just recently played the game a few months back its graphically pretty sweet but its just Ok. The World is completely empty(love those long runs through empty buildings, offices, corridors) and that end boss fight on hard is a just POS. One of my favorites is this part where the snipers KNEW where you were even before you got there.

 

[Codes 208]

Souls games difficulty shines so well they only need the one difficulty.

alternatively nuzlocke has made me improvise a lot more in pokemon and I felt more emotionally attached to me team for it

 

[CitizenX]

Metro series excels no hud, limited resources, high damage comes to mind right off the bat but playing Ubsioft games like the Division and Wildlands, no hud hardest difficulty gets those games where they should be. A game i know few have played is The Golf Club series where they stripped away a lot of the casualness of the TW series. There are no swing meters or % cues just your swing and feel and its pretty awesome. they have included a swing bar back for the new one releasing in a few weeks, but ill never go back.

 

[Grinchy]

The Last of Us comes to mind. Having no xray vision and actually having to worry about your inventory makes it a way better game.

 

[Abear21]

Uncharted is a good one, way better on at least hard. COD campaigns on Veteran only too as they are much better when you can’t just constantly rush enemies.

I normally play on hard, however, I do not recommend God of War PS4 on hard...that shit was insane at certain parts and took me forever to beat. I finally did it but that last Valkyrie can suck it!

Currently enjoying Ghost of Tsushima on hard I heard it was easy and hard is not too hard so I believe it. Also Beat the TLOU2 on hard and I thought it was very well balanced.

 

[CitizenX]

Souls games difficulty shines so well they only need the one difficulty.

alternatively nuzlocke has made me improvise a lot more in pokemon and I felt more emotionally attached to me team for it

Its debatable since you can run past most mobs to get to a boss.

 

[Hawk269]

Quantum Break, any Halo game on Heroic, Ryse Son of Rome, Uncharted Series all are games that are so much better at higher difficulties. Ryse felt like a button masher at lower levels, but on the higher ones you had to plan out the attacks....Halo series on Heroic is just perfect. On normal it is more of walk through which is fun if you want to run through the games for the story and cut scenes and some of the amazing set pieces...but to me whenever I play a new Halo game for the first time it has to be on Heroic.

 

[GooseMan69]

The Last of Us (especially part II) is straight up a way better game on higher difficulties.

 

[Woggleman]

Both TLOU 1 and 2.

Horizon Zero Dawn

 

[Rock And Roll]

How about Guitar Hero/Rock Band? Lower levels are simple with few notes but when you play on expert you are actually playing along with the correct rhythm of the song.

Also I taught drums at the height of these games and I had quite a few students who learned the basics of drumming from playing Rock Band on expert. Sure their technique wasn't great and the feel/groove was stiff/mechanical, but it was still a game that could prep you for playing an instrument.

 

[supernova8]

Tetris is really hard at level 10

 

[Magic Carpet]

Defense Grid. At higher difficulty I was at first no F’n way this can be done, to eventually the Aha moment of figuring it out. Fun little game.

 

[Walter Matthau]

 

[gamerguywashere]

super monkey ball

/thread

 

[IoCaster]

The Last Remnant X360 New Game+ hardmode with the Samurai190 static scaling mod on highest (255 Linear Static (10/10) ) settings. It's pretty fucking challenging and it'll make you rage, but it's my all time favorite battle system.

 

[Codes 208]

Its debatable since you can run past most mobs to get to a boss.

If you’re going for a speed run, sure. But running through bosses without any kind of grinding is asking for trouble towards mid-game. Plus many weapons can only be grabbed from mobs.

 

[Neff]

There's lots. The one that really jumps out at me is RE6. So many of that game's systems and mechanics are straight up redundant on the default difficulty, it's baffling. You simply won't ever need to use a lot of the tools it gives you. But on veteran or pro settings, they're life savers.

The Arkham series must be played on hard, particularly during combat. Hard feels like it demands you pay attention and react, but normal simply lets you do whatever you like with little consequence, and enemies will take forever to fight back.

The Last of Us comes to mind. Having no xray vision and actually having to worry about your inventory makes it a way better game.

Definitely.

 

[jigglet]

Mario Run. Collecting all the black coins made me realise it's up there as one of the top tier Mario games. It's fucking brilliant.

 

[ZZZZ]

You nailed with Xcom.
Darkest Dungeon is better played in Bloodmoon difficulty in my opinion.
I can't say the same about Total war, even though i only ever play it on Legendary difficulty, the game kinda forces you play meta especially early and mid game to survive the campaign.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Diablo 3 (after the rework, obviously). The lower difficulties are worthless even for new characters. Higher difficulties turn it into a faster and more satisfying game.

Far Cry Primal. Turn off most of the HUD, don't unlock the overpowered upgrades and never use the drone owl - it's an amazing experience.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Halo, at least the ones with good gameplay. None of 343's games shine at higher difficulties, 4 had horrible AI and 5...well 5 has a shit ton of gameplay problems.

 

[bender]

Halo on Legendary is such a satisfying experience. I've probably completed it 10+ times on that difficulty setting.

 

[Pejo]

I really like games where the hardest difficulty is 1 shot 1 kill for both you and enemies. Bullet sponge enemies or bloated HP bars are my biggest deterrents in games, period. It single-handedly ruined The Division for me.

I used to play a ton of "License to Kill" Goldeneye back in the day, it was super fun.

 

[Tschumi]

Deus Ex HR, I've never played it any less, i can't imagine it any other way.

I'm playing Death Stranding on max difficulty because i figure it would be a waste to spend hours on a game about how difficult life in that world would be without having real trouble.

 

[skneogaf]

Every game is better on the hardest difficulty with the exception of games with AI that cheats to win.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Fantastic thread so far, I wish I can tell you which game excels on hard but I've been told BioShock Infinite excels on harder difficulties.

 

[Rentahamster]

Read the thread title and thought "XCOM". Clicked thread and read "XCOM".

Good work.

 

[Soodanim]

Metal Gear Solid 5

I turned off all the assistive stuff very early on, because a bullet time opportunity to avoid alert status is silly in this series. The only thing I leave on (IIRC) is grenade arcs because it’s still a game and it’s not reasonable to know where it’s going, especially when it switches from overarm to underarm.

Part of the reason this shines is the game is built with some great mechanics in mind. There’s a echolocation pulse you can use with the robot arm, but it makes noise so there's a risk to using it. You’d never even have reason to use that with the assistive features turned on though, because you can (again, IIRC) tag enemies and they appear in the UI forever. Any risk in the stealth is gone, and with it any challenge.

The same goes for a lot of stuff. There’s so many ways to do things in this game, but when you have the default/easy approach it’s all lost behind the geared up approach. That’s why I valued the few Subsistence missions.

There’s a mod that adds a lot more Subsistence missions (maybe all missions) and generally leans into opening up the gameplay for more of a challenge. Hopefully it also counters all the stupid stuff they patched in after I stopped playing it, too.

Edit: From what I’ve seen of The Last Of Us 1/2, the abilities have similarities to MGS5 and I imagine turning them off changes the game in a similar way.

 

[Orta]

Doom of course.

 

[lame gag1990]

Metal Gear Rising. It's intense.

 

[CrysisFreak]

Ghost of Tsushima I think.
Well I played on normal after beating Sekiro and I was an untouchable god.
Lethal is much more exciting lmao.

 

[Loke]

Blood really shines on the harder difficulties. On lower difficulties enemies could barely hit the broadside of a barn but on medium and above they become aggressive as all hell, can easily snipe you from a mile away, gain new abilities and in general are just huge pain in your ass. You really have to adapt to the new playstyle; on easier you can just go in guns blazing Duke Nukem-style but on harder difficulties you have to go in slow and sneak around corners, it's great. It's basically the Dark Souls of first person shooters.

 

[xrnzaaas]

The first Last of Us game, you really shouldn't play it on a lower difficulty than hard, because it's not as immersive and you don't have to approach the encounters with the infected with some respect.

XCOM is a good example, but I think it's still a good idea to finish it on a lower difficulty first (and in non-ironman mode) to learn the mechanics.

 

[Soodanim]

Every game is better on the hardest difficulty with the exception of games with AI that cheats to win.

I can think of a few that don’t.

Red Faction: Guerrilla commonly comes with the recommendation to play on Easy. I’ve never bothered with higher but it doesn’t feel like an easy mode - you can easily still die.

Elex has terrible combat. In combat you don’t do full damage with an attack until the later hits of a combo, but enemies and NPCs hit full strength every time. I nearly dropped it until I stopped being stubborn and used the customisable difficulty to scaled few things in my favour.

Fallout/Elder Scrolls (Bethesda) all have damage given and received multipliers that are simply scaled in inverse proportions. Higher difficulties don’t change anything except how much of a bullet sponge enemies are and how quickly you die. It’s not very fun.

I think a game has to have systems that were restrained by lower difficulties for them to open up later, and a lot of games just don’t do that.

 

[GymWolf]

Almost every game with a good combat system is far better on high difficulty, no need to list all of them.

 

[Tesseract]

doom isn't doom without ultra violence

ninja gaiden master ninja

quake nightmare or hell

 

[DonF]

Every PlatinumGames game, the thread. Bayo, Vanquish in particular. Soo good.

 

[cireza]

Halo
Bayonetta

 

[Life]

imagine making a game that excels in the hard difficulty - and then not letting the player choose it unless they finish the normal difficulty which mostly sucks. I know this isn't practised as much nowadays - but all those years devs thought it's OK?

 

[Bankai]

Deus EX and Bioshock. Awesome on higher difficulties, you really gotta be creative to survive and succeed.

 

[MrA]

Earth defense force, easy is just fun making stuff go BOOM! Inferno carefully choosing equipment, then who takes out which target, then skillfully executing said plan.

 

[rofif]

fear

 

[Mister Wolf]

God Of War franchise.

 

[Manji Uzuki]

Of the recent ones, FFVII Remake. The combat system in hard mode is really great and it actually pushed me to understand and use all the game mechanics. It motivated me to do a second run after beating it for the first time.

In general I would say all music games improve a lot on high levels of difficulty. Halo games were a lot of fun on Legendary as well, forcing you to use a much wider range of the weapons.