Easy, Medium, or Hard. That’s what most video game players grew up with and what they usually keep witnessing in today’s games. They don’t get another choice but to take the developers' words for what a difficulty level entails. However, it almost always boils down to more enemy HP or more enemy damage. This artificial way of increasing the challenge is a hot topic for debate.
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That’s why some developers stick to one difficulty for a vision of how their game is meant to be played. While others go the opposite direction and shower players with tons of options. Either way, everybody wins, but the latter option gives more freedom and can be preferable for other players. Also, games with customizable difficulty like these ten examples mean players only have themselves to blame if they can’t “git gud.”
10Sniper Elite 4
One can consider anySniper Elitegame here but it seems the general consensus is thatSniper Elite 4, is the best among them overall. All of them thus far have been WW2 games where players are put into the shoes of anelite and covertsniper operative.
Their task is to go commando behind enemy lines, taking out priority targets, and sabotaging enemy camps. There is a standard difficulty slider that players can change anytime but they can also highly customize them. Even something as mundane as gravity effects, wind direction, or elevation can be taken into account making it partly a sniping simulator if players want.
9Pillars Of Eternity
Pillars of Eternityand its sequel,Deadfire, is a callback from the good old days of CRPGs pioneered byBaldur’s Gate. In a way, it’s also one of the purest forms of gaming as it takes after something similar to aD&Druleset. That tabletop game has a customizable difficulty depending on the Dungeon Master.
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This extends intoPillars of Eternityas well. Players can customize friendly fire and even make things easier or more convenient for their party without detracting too much from the hardcore CRPG experience. Being able to adjust this mid-gameplay is also a great added bonus.
8Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Solasta: Crown of the Magisteris another game based onD&Dexcept it’s a faithful adaptation of the current ruleset or 5th Edition. Hence, its gameplay mostly relies on dice rolls of varying kinds. This can be rather brutal since it’s the most random way of determining damage or hit chances.
That’s whySolastaallows players to opt for something less traditional and more modern. It has a different difficulty mode whereinD&Ddice isn’t used, but something more forgiving. At the same time, players also get to customize the level of difficulty regardless of whatRNG modethey pick.
7Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raidermakes things more varied for its players and fans as it introduced a different approach to difficulty. Instead of going with the simple options that its predecessors offered, it lets players adjust the difficulty of each aspect of gameplay.
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These are divided into three: Combat, Exploration, and Puzzle, apart from the overall difficulty. This way, it can appease all players as those who only want to see Lara slit some throats or go Gung-ho can opt for easier explorationor puzzles.
6Thief (2014)
Thief (2014)might not have had the same cultural impact as its distant predecessors but it did plenty of things right, particularly in the difficulty segment. There isn’t really much to do in this game other than sneak around and steal stuff so the developers added options to spice things up.
These come in the form of custom difficulty metrics such as toggling food regeneration, killing/knockouts, limiting saves or arrows, etc. The best part about this implementation is that there’s a point system where players earn more achievement points by making things harder on top of the usual easy, normal, or hard difficulties.
5Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5is the latest entry in the veteran racing franchise that’s givingNeed for Speeda run for its money. While both franchises allow players to adjust how they drive their car as if in a real-world scenario,Forza Horizon 5has a plethora of options that make racing less stressful.
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Apart from being able to adjust enemy racer A.I., the game also allows players to tweak how much their car will assist them. There’s even an ABS or a non-ABS toggle for the brakes as well as a driving assist, seemingly keeping in line with the current modern carcomputer tech. Some purists will prefer these off, however, so it’s up top personal taste.
4Persona 4
It might not be the best nor the latestPersonatitle right now butPersona 4was quite famous and well-received for how it presented its gameplay difficulty to its diehard fans. That’s becausePersona 4adds in a custom or “Current” segment in its difficult selection.
This tab contains several toggles that can modify individual gameplay mechanics damage taken/given, monetary and experience rewards, and even the number of dungeon retries. That’s on top of the artificial enemy buffs common among other games with simpler difficulty sliders.
3Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Xenoblade Chronicles 2isa Nintendo Switch exclusive, sadly, because other platforms could use a game like it. It handles its difficulty sliders in a more sensible way compared to other RPGs or even other JRPGs.Xenoblade Chronicles 2gives players a decent number of ways to make things easier or harder, or just right.
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They treat players like Goldilocks here where they get to test everything and the whole game is the three bears' house. A large range of gameplay modifiers is available for the players to customize here from enemy stats, their stats, and even some combo modifiers.
2System Shock
A game that’s so phenomenal, it’s getting a good remake that might actually get released in 2022. In any case,System Shock(the first one) did the bold move of separating difficulty sliders or toggles for each individual aspect of gameplay.
Those aspects would be Combat, Mission, Puzzle, and Cyber. It’s similar to howShadow of the Tomb Raidermade its difficulty modular exceptSystem Shockdid it more than two decades ago. As a testament toSystem Shock’scraft, none of those difficulty sliders affect the story (save for the Mission aspect). Hence, players can enjoy the game guilt-free even if they put on the baby training wheels.
1Hades
Developer Supergiant Games have always pushed the bastion of game design with their tried and true titles.Hadesis the best culmination of their experience over the years and it does everything perfectly— even the difficulty. Its primary genre is roguelike but even that won’t put off players who hate punishing difficulties sinceHadeshas a God-Mode toggle which is essentially the “Story Mode” difficulty.
Beyond that, players who have finished the game will find plenty more to do as a new mechanic called “Heat” will be introduced at that point. This lets players modify their escape runes in the Underworld to give enemies added moves, quirks, and stats as well as personal debuffs and environmental hazards. This endgame difficulty mechanic alone will make players feel like they’re playing a different game. Hence,Hadescan often feel like multiple games for the price of one. Best deal ever.
