Current Events > I get stressed out when games ask me to select a difficulty

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's one thing where there's a clear intended difficulty like "Give Me Deus Ex" but whenever they just give you options like "easy medium hard" I have no idea what to expect. Which one was the game designed around? I don't have to select the difficulty of Super Mario or Dark Souls, the game is just designed for you to learn and play there.
---

Usually easy is way easy and hard is just spongey. Like you take more damage and deal less. Things are rarely changed up.
---

I hate difficulties that just change damage values.

I want smarter enemies, in greater numbers that employ tactics a dumber(easier) enemy wouldn't do.
---

Most games are balanced around normal or medium mode.
---

Some of the Resident Evils have only Easy and Hard. Hard is pretty much normal mode though.
---

Hardest whenever I can. I want to take the fastest path to mastery.
---

Resident Evil works out because by the point a survival horror game is no longer "hard" the game falls apart so a medium mode is superfluous

Metal Gear also got away with difficulty settings, in fact, I think The Phantom Pain could've used a Hard or Extreme setting. You get so many tools to have fun in that game but enemy camps don't scale at the same pace.

But sometimes difficulty settings are just dumb, like Bethesda games or The Witcher 3
---

I usually go for hard but do a quick google search. Pretty easy to tell when "hard" just means "ridiculously spongey"

I don't mind enemies on Hard having more health or hitting harder, but they should also require more wit to take down
---

I think it depends on the genre. I'd be far more comfortable selecting one of the harder difficulties for a FPS, but if I was playing a strategy game I'd select Normal for sure.
---