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[JOEVIAL]

Discussion topic related to this post:
Do you switch difficulties mid-game? Or do you just power through on the difficulty you chose?
How much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of a game? Do you prefer it more difficult or less difficult?

I started a play-through of God of War 2018 on the Give Me No Mercy difficulty, I usually play on the 2nd hardest difficulty for most games. With that said... something about this difficulty felt off. I was making it through just fine I suppose, once I figured out the mechanics (i.e, spamming dodge and roll/block).

But honestly, the combat felt like an absolute choir. Enemies just take so long to kill. Even the grunt Draugr take 10-14 strong hits before they die. And adding to that, they can kill "the God of War" in 4 or so hits. It honestly makes Kratos feel like a powerless weakling.

For a game that tries to embody the player as the God of War, this just doesn't feel good at all. I was starting to dread enemy encounters, knowing that I would just be spamming the dodge and roll, blocking, get a couple of hits in, dodge and roll, block, get a couple of hits in, rinse and repeat.

Right when the world opened up around the lake, I switched the difficulty to Balanced to see if that would help, and boy did it ever! I am having an absolute blast with this game now. The hits are much more powerful... enemies stagger more often, and your health also doesn't dwindle as quickly after getting hit.

Honestly, when you get to the lake is when your skills and abilities start opening up. Before this point, the combat felt so limiting... but I now realize you have to earn those skills throughout the game. There may be a point where I bump the difficulty back up to Give Me No Mercy, only time will tell.

Anyone else feel the same with this game? More discussion topics above also.

 

[Neff]

Give Me No Mercy was perfectly balanced.

 

[kyliethicc]

nah

 

[The Cockatrice]

In the first God of War besides the Valkyrie Queen fight, even on the hardest difficulty, the game was easy. In Ragnarok, I will agree that you are pretty much wasting your time on Give me God of War. HP sponges and enemies just randomly 2 shot you is kinda dumb af. Its doable, its not very hard but it is very tedious as opposed to say a challenging Sekiro boss where you actually feel like you accomplished something.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Do you switch difficulties mid-game?

I think I've never done that. A game should have a real bad balancing for me to consider that.

How much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of a game? Do you prefer it more difficult or less difficult?

It affects a lot, and I like hard difficulties. A game without any kind challenge (be it of intelectual or skill) will most probably bore me to tears, unless the game is really fun in other aspects.

But honestly, the combat felt like an absolute choir. Enemies just take so long to kill. Even the grunt Draugr take 10-14 strong hits before they die.

That's just bad design. Most games design their difficulty levels just by pumping up damage and health numbers, which imo is the laziest and worst way of doing that.

Take a look at DOOM from 1993. In that game, difficulty affected which enemies you'll be facing, so the first room (for example) on normal mode would have 0 enemies, while on hard mode it would have 4 dudes with shotguns.
But those enemies would have the same damage and health numbers, making it a balanced experience.

 

[AlexxKidd]

I thought this was about Ragnarok, which I agree is great on Balanced. Not too easy, not too annoying. It's harder in the beginning and a bit easier the further you progress because No. 1 you get more familiar with the gameplay and No. 2 you start to be able to gear up your character to take advantage of your preferred playstyle.

 

[DelireMan7]

Discussion topic related to this post:
Do you switch difficulties mid-game? Or do you just power through on the difficulty you chose?
How much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of a game? Do you prefer it more difficult or less difficult?

I started a play-through of God of War 2018 on the Give Me No Mercy difficulty, I usually play on the 2nd hardest difficulty for most games. With that said... something about this difficulty felt off. I was making it through just fine I suppose, once I figured out the mechanics (i.e, spamming dodge and roll/block).

But honestly, the combat felt like an absolute choir. Enemies just take so long to kill. Even the grunt Draugr take 10-14 strong hits before they die. And adding to that, they can kill "the God of War" in 4 or so hits. It honestly makes Kratos feel like a powerless weakling.

For a game that tries to embody the player as the God of War, this just doesn't feel good at all. I was starting to dread enemy encounters, knowing that I would just be spamming the dodge and roll, blocking, get a couple of hits in, dodge and roll, block, get a couple of hits in, rinse and repeat.

Right when the world opened up around the lake, I switched the difficulty to Balanced to see if that would help, and boy did it ever! I am having an absolute blast with this game now. The hits are much more powerful... enemies stagger more often, and your health also doesn't dwindle as quickly after getting hit.

Honestly, when you get to the lake is when your skills and abilities start opening up. Before this point, the combat felt so limiting... but I now realize you have to earn those skills throughout the game. There may be a point where I bump the difficulty back up to Give Me No Mercy, only time will tell.

Anyone else feel the same with this game? More discussion topics above also.

I played the game in October for the first time and I understand what you feel.

I played in Give me no Mercy and like I very stubborn I stick to it. But I almost dropped the game early because I found enemies to be too much resistant. Each combat was taking too long and I was dying in few hits. Really frustrating.

After you unlock some combat options, it gets better but yes the beginning in "Give me no mercy" was annoying for me too.

 

[Punished Miku]

Difficulty is pretty subjective sometimes, which is why I'm a fan of options.

If all you're doing is padding HP and damage numbers it can often just make it worse. Ninja Gaiden back in the day adjusted enemy attacks, enemy AI and had whole new enemies on different difficulties, but they never tweaked HP or damage numbers (except in the shitty Sigma versions). It slows the pacing down to a crawl.

Elden Ring has way too many shit tier 1 hit kills even when pumping up HP. Tweaking damage numbers there would likely improve the game for me.

Gungrave GORE is better on hard difficulty for me as the base level HP and shields are so strong you aren't incentivized to dodge and utilize all your moves.

Every game will vary and it will also vary per player.

 

[brian0057]

Do you switch difficulties mid-game? Or do you just power through on the difficulty you chose?

No.
Yes.

How much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of a game? Do you prefer it more difficult or less difficult?

Harder is usually more enjoyable for me. For example, Alien: Isolation is meant to be played on Nightmare. Also, don't touch anything below Hard.
More.

 

[Lunarorbit]

I changed the difficulty of jedi fallen order cause I went back after half a year of not playing it. I was on dagamor and kept dying even after lowering it so I just stopped playing cause it was frustrating and I had clearly lost my momentum with the game

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

I feel like most games are best balanced on their normal difficulties so...yeah.

 

[JOEVIAL]

I played the game in October for the first time and I understand what you feel.

I played in Give me no Mercy and like I very stubborn I stick to it. But I almost dropped the game early because I found enemies to be too much resistant. Each combat was taking too long and I was dying in few hits. Really frustrating.

After you unlock some combat options, it gets better but yes the beginning in "Give me no mercy" was annoying for me too.

The difficulty and the way enemy buffs are handled in Give Me No Mercy are borderline for sure... but I did power through to the lake (which I've now realized is when the abilities and upgrades start also).

I might switch back to this difficulty later, but for now I'm enjoying feeling more powerful in Balanced difficulty.

 

[JOEVIAL]

I feel like most games are best balanced on their normal difficulties so...yeah.

Very true.

The normal difficulty in God of War is aptly named Balanced after-all.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I hate the way they screwed up parrying. The yellow indicator just throws me off.

 

[Beer Baelly]

Always play on normal or standard difficulty

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

I'd argue due to the ridiculous bulk of the average enemy give me grace is the best mode. Because the enemies aren't hard just take forever to kill...I dropped down to it after one of the final boss fights because the ridiculous amount of encounters was slowing down the experience, not bettering it. The problem with these light rpg's...you never ironically feel like a "god" because random Asgard trainee taking 20 hits from Kratos before dying.

 

[lh032]

i finished GOWR on GMGOW except Gna and Berserker King.

Im on my way to be a pro GOW gamer.

 

[Thirty7ven]

I think this is objectively about you, not the game.

 

[GymWolf]

i love how personal opinions are objective now...

Yeah not for me.

Majority of AAA big games get super easy when you get a couple of power ups or op moves, ragnarock is one of the few where you have a real challenge from hour 1 to hour 100 on the 2 hardest mode.

Does it make the game less of a power fantasy? Sure, some people like that some people don't.

In the past game hard was a cakewalk except for the valkirye, i can't even imagine how much of a cakewalk must be on normal...


Also, the less challenge you have, the less rewarding exploration\upgrades feel.

 

[Gaiff]

GOW 2018 is fine on Give Me A Challenge. It kinda goes out of whack on Give Me God of War, especially in early game where you got nothing and enemies are damage sponges.

I was starting to dread enemy encounters

 

[Represent.]

I agree. Im the fucking God of War, I should be ripping little draugers in half with ease. Crushing the skulls of those lizard things that come up from the ground with a single blow. Not using multiple huge Heavy Runic attacks, 15+ regular attacks to kill one Drauger. Makes Kratos feel... Weak.

When I dropped to standard difficulty, I felt like I was as strong as he should be. Felt more "realistic". Then I upped the difficulty for bosses, Berserkers, etc. Because those should be hard. Kratos should not spend more than a few seconds on a Drauger lmao.

Easy concept to grasp, but people will never agree with you OP. Such is the mindset of the "only gameplay matters" gamer.

I also maxed the difficulty for the entire story. Side missions I dropped that shit for a more "Im the goddamn God of War" like experience.

 

[SafeOrAlone]

nah

Yah.

Or y'know, mah-bye.

 

[GymWolf]

I feel like most games are best balanced on their normal difficulties so...yeah.

Disagree, especially for games with a rich combat, many mechanics, builds etc.

Devs create a lot of intricate game mechanics, builds, equips etc.

In the majority of games, normal means that you can button mash, you don't need builds, you don't need to use the intricacy of the combat system, the synergies between different systems etc.

Do you think that the devs waste their time putting mechanics and shit just to see the average players using like 20% of them??

They put normal as a default mode because they know how fucking shit modern players are when souls games are considered the pinnacle of hard games...

 

[JOEVIAL]

I think this is objectively about you, not the game.

I've used objectively for effect. Yes I know this is my opinion, but please argue your point

I would say it is about the game though, for the first 2-3 hours at-least (more abilities, power ups opened up around the lake). In the No Mercy difficulty, it seems enemies just have more HP and deal more damage. They also seem to stagger less. Even the "easiest" enemies take a long time to dispatch, making Kratos own attacks feel weak and powerless. The enemies just soak up so many hits. This makes the combat feel squishy and unsatisfying to me.

This creates an off putting juxtaposition regarding the story and Kratos character arc. Kratos should not feel powerless and weak.

 

[Punished Miku]

I agree. Im the fucking God of War, I should be ripping little draugers in half with ease. Crushing the skulls of those lizard things that come up from the ground with a single blow. Not using multiple huge Heavy Runic attacks, 15+ regular attacks to kill one Drauger. Makes Kratos feel... Weak.

When I dropped to standard difficulty, I felt like I was as strong as he should be. Felt more "realistic". Then I upped the difficulty for bosses, Berserkers, etc. Because those should be hard. Kratos should not spend more than a few seconds on a Drauger lmao.

Easy concept to grasp, but people will never agree with you OP. Such is the mindset of the "only gameplay matters" gamer.

I also maxed the difficulty for the entire story. Side missions I dropped that shit for a more "Im the goddamn God of War" like experience.

Ninja Gaiden 2, enemies lose limbs sometimes with 1 cut. Sometimes multiple. Then you can do obliteration finishers quickly. Keeps the pace up like crazy. Does not make the game easy.

It has nothing to do with skill level. It's about good combat design. Most people have no clue about this distinction.

 

[The Skull]

Yeah the difficulty scaling on 2018 was stupid. It wasn't even challenging, just boring.

 

[Kvally]

The one that is most balanced for me is the one I pick. So no, it's subjective not objective.

 

[R6Rider]

Always play on normal or standard difficulty

This. With few exceptions like Sniper Elite (Custom is best).

I found Ghost of Tsushima to be best on Hard as well.

 

[Puscifer]

Give Me No Mercy was perfectly balanced.

It was better on GoW 18 because the weapon switching was nearly instant but in Ragnarok there's noticeable lag and I feel like I have to account for something I shouldn't.

Even in DmC 5 where it was slowed down SLIGHTLY from 4 it was largely to let you plot your next stack to reduce button mashing but it never felt like it was a hindrance.

Ragnarok has all these changes to the combat to keep combos and momentum going, especially being able to cancel EVERY move but I can't tell you how many times I died because what wanted to do just wouldn't happen. It's a 2 steps forward 1 step back situation

 

[R6Rider]

I'd argue due to the ridiculous bulk of the average enemy give me grace is the best mode. Because the enemies aren't hard just take forever to kill...I dropped down to it after one of the final boss fights because the ridiculous amount of encounters was slowing down the experience, not bettering it. The problem with these light rpg's...you never ironically feel like a "god" because random Asgard trainee taking 20 hits from Kratos before dying.

Despite beating the game on Balance, I did drop it down to Grace for the final optional bosses. They weren't fun, but instead just fast, high health, high damaging annoyances. I could have beaten them given enough retries, but I don't have time for that.

Very annoying when you consider that with a FULL rage bar, you can just maybe get half your health bar back from Fury punching enemies. Meanwhile the main story bosses were actually fun, but maybe too easy.

 

[buenoblue]

Just play on whatever difficulty you want mate. We don't need to know lol.

 

[Maitre_Piccolo]

I disagree, especially if you take into account that the game gets easier and easier as you progress (no matter which mode you are in).

Balanced difficulty was a bit boring to me, not enough tension and too much freedom. By too much freedom I mean that I felt that I could do whatever I wanted and still would win. Thus I was playing mindlessly.
Challenge/no mercy difficulty was about the right degree of tension and freedom for me. I could still play somewhat loosely, doing what I wanted to do and not only what work best, doing the things that I found fun and not limiting myself only to things that are efficient.

 

[Spukc]

Easy / story mode all the way.
Gameplay is rather meh i’m in for the story

 

[Punished Miku]

I'd argue due to the ridiculous bulk of the average enemy give me grace is the best mode. Because the enemies aren't hard just take forever to kill...I dropped down to it after one of the final boss fights because the ridiculous amount of encounters was slowing down the experience, not bettering it. The problem with these light rpg's...you never ironically feel like a "god" because random Asgard trainee taking 20 hits from Kratos before dying.

Makes me wonder if everyone's focus on the bad pacing in the story is secretely exacerbated by poor combat pacing as well and people just weren't correctly identifying it.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

As all things should be.

 

[Thirty7ven]

I've used objectively for effect. Yes I know this is my opinion, but please argue your point

I would say it is about the game though, for the first 2-3 hours at-least (more abilities, power ups opened up around the lake). In the No Mercy difficulty, it seems enemies just have more HP and deal more damage. They also seem to stagger less. Even the "easiest" enemies take a long time to dispatch, making Kratos own attacks feel weak and powerless. The enemies just soak up so many hits. This makes the combat feel squishy and unsatisfying to me.

This creates an off putting juxtaposition regarding the story and Kratos character arc. Kratos should not feel powerless and weak.

I don’t think tying type of difficulty to lore makes any sense otherwise Kratos wouldn’t be able to die, or at least not against almost any character only another god could kill him.

 

[adamsapple]

Easy / story mode all the way.
Gameplay is rather meh i’m in for the story

 

[SlimySnake]

Yes. In the beginning when you dont have any runic attacks, skills and your axe does shit damage, yes. Lake of Nine is when the game really starts so you were still in the prologue.

I increased the difficulty to Give me no mercy around the time i hit level 4. It had gotten too easy thanks to all the runic attacks. It was far more balanced from that point onwards.

NG+ should be GMGOW because you should be OP by then.

 

[Raven117]

I thought the combat overall felt clunky (and liked playing as Atreus more).

So yeah. All of it felt so tedious, even on Balanced to me.

 

[Bragr]

I don't like the tank nature of some of the enemies in God of War, Soulsborne has elevated this to a new art, how to build difficulty without just increasing health on everything, and this game is lagging a bit behind in this department.

 

[JOEVIAL]

Yes. In the beginning when you dont have any runic attacks, skills and your axe does shit damage, yes. Lake of Nine is when the game really starts so you were still in the prologue.

I increased the difficulty to Give me no mercy around the time i hit level 4. It had gotten too easy thanks to all the runic attacks. It was far more balanced from that point onwards.

NG+ should be GMGOW because you should be OP by then.

Good to know, yeah I might bump the difficulty back up to No Mercy... time will tell.

 

[EverydayBeast]

I look at video games for fun not difficult when I read elden ring articles I sit back and question gamers motives I read quotes saying the biggest reason to play a game is for difficulty that’s the worst reason ever.

 

[SolidQ]

Finished GoW2018 on max difficult 3 weeks ago, as any game which have rpg elements, on max difficult, at start a bit hard, at the end super easy.
Normal difficult in today games, extremely super easy, you lost alot mechanics on normal, because most games can easily finished with one button. That's why I'm not enjoyed on normal difficult.
Example can't imagine Halo without legendary difficult, because I'm tested on Normal, you just literally faceroll enemies which can't even kill you.
One is hardest game I'm played it's was Vampyr on Hard if you choose good side. Some bosses much harder, than any dark souls/elden bosses

 

[R6Rider]

liked playing as Atreus more).

I did too. It wasn't as in depth, but it just felt better to play.

 

[Raven117]

I did too. It wasn't as in depth, but it just felt better to play.

Yup. Nimble, quick the flow of combat was just better in my view.

 

[Umbasaborne]

I preffered when god of war wasn’t an rpg with power levels and gear scores tbh. It just makes any difficulty spike artificial.

 

[Kindela]

I played gow in 2018 on the second to last difficulty and found it tough (but manageable) in the start, and getting easier with time.
I then started a second run this month after beating Ragnarok, but on the last difficulty this time.
There was a fight relatively near the begining of the game that starts with a revenant, and then two brute draugrs join in, and then later two casters. I couldn't beat it after probably 50 tries and gave up. Restarted the game on normal, and it's been much better experience.

I've beaten Ragnarok on gmgow but tbh it was annoying most of the time. It didn't get easier at all as the story progressed. I kept dieing on hour 50 the same way I did on hour 5.

 

[Raonak]

I played through Ragnarok in balanced mode. Felt like a good difficulty, but I'm at the end game now and dinner of the final boss feel a bit too easy now.
Might switch it upwards.

The fact difficulty does not effect trophies is excellent

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

I played through Ragnarok in balanced mode. Felt like a good difficulty, but I'm at the end game now and dinner of the final boss feel a bit too easy now.
Might switch it upwards.

The fact difficulty does not effect trophies is excellent

This!! I wish all games did this.

 

[Chronicle]

'The opinion is objective'