Despite their success, a lot of games fail to reach their full potential through poor difficulty balance. Whilesome games are much too difficult, others remain far too easy. A lot of this comes down to lack of (or poor balancing of) difficulty options, but on the other hand the lack of difficulty in some games brings down the mechanics and moment-to-moment gameplay that are otherwise fantastic.
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Difficulty in gaming is an immensely subjective topic, and what makes it even more so is that it varies from game to game, and from player to player. Many of the games on this list are beloved by many, both critically and/or commercially, and this list by no means aims to disparage them; rather, these are games that arguably would have been elevated had they been more difficult.
9Halo 3
Before any pitchforks are raised, yes, just like other games in the franchise,Halo 3has not one, not two, but four difficulty options. Whether forcing a player to balance the game for themselves is indicative of good design is another topic in of itself, butHalo 3has been noted among fans as one of the easiergames in the franchise.
The game’s “Normal” difficulty, which many players will gravitate towards, turnsHalo’snotoriouslygreat enemy AIinto empty-headed targets. Furthermore, whileHalo 3introduced many to the franchise, fans of the previous games were also part of its key demographic, and would naturally be better at the game.
Halo 3’s"Heroic" and “Legendary” options definitely help balance out its lackluster difficulty, but “Heroic” can still be too easy for many, while “Legendary” swings the other way, making the game much more difficult for all except eliteHaloplayers. This lack of a good, balanced difficulty detracts from what makesHaloso great, and weighs down an otherwise brilliant modern classic.
8Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Midnight Sunstakes direct inspiration from anXCOM-liketurn-basd tactics game. However, this turn-based game features a roster of iconic Marvel heroes and villains that join forces to battle the magical evils that threaten the Earth. InMidnight Suns, players can expect a fairly easy difficulty, and that’s not just because the game features a Hulk, and an Iron Man suit.
That said, the game has its issues. The most notable complaint is the amount of time it takes to get back into the tactical, action-packed missions after each one is completed, but this is only made worse at the front-end of the game by an unfortunate lack of difficulty. Furthermore, the difficulties inMidnight Sunshave to be unlocked, which forces players to slog through the first act’s too-easy missions.
This is a particularly glaring flaw considering the game hasa hefty amount of deck-buildingand is based around tactical decisions; decisions that don’t matter nearly as much when the gameplay is too forgiving.
7Deathloop
Although its difficulty definitely made the game more accessible than Arkane Studios' previous titles,Deathloop’slack of difficulty underminesits immersive sim natureand brings down its original game concept. The game, which is very familiar to the Arkane StudiosPreyDLC,Prey:Mooncrash, has players cycling through a loop over and over to assassinate key targets.
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Deathloopprovides players, like any good immersive sim, with plenty of tools to utilize and experiment with. However, the issue is that the game’s combat is too easy, mainly due to the fact that enemies are much too easy to juke and take down. While Julianna does add a layer of intensity, the lack of threat from the enemy design and efficiency in simply gunning everyone down takes away from the creative options that Arkane Studios gives to players, especially when in stealth, enemies rarely react unless the player is staring them down, and even once alerted, they are easily manageable.
6Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu/Eevee!
Pokemon games are notoriously easy, especially for experienced players, largely due to the fact that the games are aimed primarily at a younger audience. This lack of difficulty has been a thorn in the side of Pokemon fans to such an extent that the Nuzlocke challenge was created, essentially a set of self-imposed rules designed to make the game more challenging and bring out the tactical potential in Pokemon’s design.
However,Pokemon: Let’s Gois arguably one of the worst when it comes to its difficulty. The game provides players with an extremely strong starter Pokemon from the get-go, and that Pokemon can carry players through most, if not all, of the game. To make matters worse, most of the time combats are resolved with a single move, the player often one-shotting their opponents, or rarely the other way around. Being able to rely heavily on the starter Pokemon takes away the need to find better, stronger Pokemon, and the fact that other Pokemon can level up without being in the fight discourages experimentation and variety in a player’s team.
5Resident Evil 3 (Remake)
The massive success and critical acclaim of theResident Evil 2remake would have been hard for anyone to follow, and while it certainly had its moments, the remake ofResident Evil 3was largely disappointing for many fans of the series due to its short play-time, partly accredited to its lack of difficulty.
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Resident Evil 3is much more linear thanResident Evil 2, and features a lot more gunplay and action than the previous installment. Both Jill and Carlos have very early access to high-powered weapons such as the assault rifle, and much of the game revolves aroundmowing down zombiesrather than the moment to moment survival horror ofResident Evil 2. Furthermore, the game lacks the density of puzzles featured in the first and second games, and the puzzles that are present are too easy for their own good, failing to add the variety and much-needed reprieve they previously offered.
4The Escapists
This prison break game, published by Team17, has a great and simple concept: figure out how to break out, and enact your plan successfully. While this sounds at first like an immersive and varied experience,The Escapistssoon becomes stale due to its lack of difficulty.
Once players have formed a plan, the game becomes a largely monotonous task of increasing stats and searching for the right items. There are some interesting decisions to be made, intense moments, and creative ideas, all of which helped make the game the success that it is, but there aren’t really that many ways to break out, meaning that after a player has broken out of one prison, they pretty much know how to break out of the rest. It’s just more annoying to do.
3Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan
This game, which today would likely be tagged as a rogue-like due to its arcade life system (with each Turtle representing a life), was released at the height of the “Turtle-Mania” caused by the 1987 TV series. WhileTMNT: Fall Of The Foot Clanfit the Game Boy console perfectly with its small but various levels and side-scrolling action, the game unfortunately provided little challenge.
This is a shame, especially because the game is great otherwise, featuring simple but polished gameplay and graphics that matched the aesthetic of the show as best they could with pixel art. A hard mode would have been the icing on the cake, but self-imposed challenges such as attempting a no-death run of the game can help make it more challenging.
2Dishonored
One of Arkane Studios' most iconic games,Dishonoredprovides an immersive sim experience in a dreary, imaginatively designed world, layered with a moral system that has players thinking before they act. Except for the fact that many of the moral decisions players make won’t have much impact at all until the final cutscene.
Because of this, players that engage inDishonored’scombat even for a moment will soon discover that provided enemies are taken on in small numbers, killing enemies is a lot easier than avoiding them, especially for those that come prepared. While for some the looming threat of a “bad” ending is enough to deter them from killing enemies, for others the game is likely to prove much easier, and therefore shorter.
While it isn’t the focus of the game, the combat could definitely have done with some extra balancing and difficulty to prevent savvy players uninterested in being the good guy from blitzing through the game at a breakneck speed.
1Payday 2
With the upcoming release ofPayday 3, many fans reminisce over the success and love they have forPayday 2. The game itself features many different difficulties, which notably scale for better or worse. The hardest difficulty, being that of Death Wish, will see players almost instantly killed no matter their build, whilst enemies can seemingly survive every bullet on the Earth.
However, what makesPayday 2one of theeasiest games out thereis its default Normal difficulty. With Normal difficulty as the standard, some Special enemies will never spawn, and players won’t have to worry about the threat of Bulldozers and Cloakers.Payday 2also has an AI that is considered outdated, and many cannot wait to see the improvements made withPayday 3in their own hands.
The AI on Normal difficulty especially, is very easy to best. The AI of these enemies will be killed in what seems like one shot, whilst it takes them a whole magazine to even chip away at the health of a player.
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