[Edited REUPLOAD] Bullet Sponges dont make a game harder - just more time consuming
Difficulty in video games: (kinda subjective)
Increasing damage input while decreasing damage output, doesnt make a game more "difficult". After years of playing almost everything on max-difficulty, i noticed that playing the game on lower difficulties is just so much more fun and enjoyable while not feeling "easier".
Every "modern" Assasins Creed game feels like such a pain if every single enemy takes 10-20 seconds to kill.. combat feels like its stalling the whole gameplay. Lower difficulties feel more dynamic, more enemy takedowns, more changes in playstyle and overall more rewarding.
The rewarding feeling i get after finishing a game (on max difficulty) comes more from pure "endurance" and not from completing a "challange."
The Witcher 3 (suprise) showed me how organic difficulty can completely change a game. I had quiet a hard time enjoying this game (starting on a low difficulty), while ignoring basically every single game-system and got kinda bored. After going to max (deathmarch?) i was basically "forced" to prepare for fights, check the bestiary for enemy weaknesses and the game took a 90 degree turn for the better.
What i would count as a "increase in difficulty" in a game (e.g. action rpg):
Enemies adapt more frequently to player behaviour, if he takes a step back to heal - the enemy tends to step up to interrupt. Attack combinations are more brutal and lethal, instead of a one-two combination its now a one-two-three-four combination.
The amount of enemies that attack the player simultaniously increases. Instead of only a single enemy at a time, now multiple can damage the player at once, while also decreasing the "forgiveness"-window for dodges / parries.
What is your take on artificiall vs organic difficulty? Does difficulty even matter to you guys?