Video game difficulty can sometimes be a controversial subject. There are those that feel playing a game on anything less than the hardest setting isn’t worth it. Additionally, some even feel that if you complete a game on easy then you haven’t really ‘completed’ it. The reality is, is that people can play games however they want.
Personally, I enjoy a challenge when playing certain video games. That being said, some games frustrate me hugely with their difficulty spikes. Or just in the way that they handle making a game more difficult.
Re-tracing your steps
I find games become frustrating when there’s backtracking or retracing of steps included as part of the experience. Take Hollow Knight for example. It’s undoubtedly an excellent game dripping with atmosphere and adventure that provides a tough challenge to those who venture into the depths. However, I haven’t completed it. The main reason for that is because of the way in which the system handles re-spawning. When you die in Hollow Knight you’re teleported back to the last bench you rested on. This bench could be some way away from where you just died.

I found that there was one particular boss that I struggled with, and upon death, it meant I had to spend around 10 minutes just getting back to the fight – that’s if things went smoothly on that journey. This death mechanic features very heavily in many souls-like games and is deemed to be part of the experience. To me, it isn’t a challenge, it’s a rigmarole that you just have to go through in order to get to the challenge. It sits in the same space as unskippable cutscenes before a Boss fight. I don’t want to have to constantly re-tread the same steps in order to progress. It’s partly the same reason why I didn’t get on well with Sekiro Shadows Die Twice.
In comparison, I look at both the Ori games – which have similarities to Hollow Knight. When you die in Ori, you are rarely put too far away from where you just died. Especially in a boss fight. You just start the fight again. The boss fight is still a challenge but I don’t have to waste time making my way back to it. I can die, then jump straight back in. That frustration of having to re-trace my steps doesn’t creep in.
Bullet hell
There are some games that I will steer clear of because I know that the challenge they represent won’t be one I’ll enjoy. Those games sit in the bullet hell genre. Screens that are filled to the brim with streams of projectiles that you have to carefully navigate through are just not for me.

Conversely, and although not bullet hell at all in the genre, I don’t actually mind FPS games that throw lots of bullets at me. Take Destiny as an example. A lot of the time you’re very outnumbered and being fired at from multiple directions by all manner of enemies. The bosses are total bullet sponges. Even on the highest difficulties, the low-level enemies can take a beating. The action can get very hectic. These types of games, I actually enjoy. I used to spend hours upon hours running nightfall strikes in Destiny 1 and I loved them.
It’s a bit odd when you think of it because Nightfall Strikes used to completely reset your progress and you’d have to start the entire level again – which could be 40 minutes of fighting or more. For some reason, that challenge and that difficulty never phased me as it does in games like Hollow Knight or Sekiro. In fact, I revelled in it.
Multiplayer
The world of multiplayer offers a completely different difficulty. Usually, when people discuss the difficulty of video games, I never hear people talking about multiplayer. That being said, other people represent the toughest and most enjoyable challenges to me. Escape from Tarkov is an extremely tough game to get in to simply because there’s so much to learn. Everything from guns and ammo, to the maps, to tactically out-thinking other players, is hard. But when it pays off, the satisfaction is immeasurable.

Then you have competitive games like Overwatch, Rocket League, CSGO. All of these games have presented tough challenges to me over the years. Climbing the ladders in ranked matches can be mentally draining. It can be frustrating when others don’t want to work with you. Additionally, sometimes you’re just outclassed and have to go back to the drawing board. To me, putting myself against other people is the ultimate test. Because people are an ever-changing landscape. There is always something to work on improving. There’s always a better player out there. It keeps the challenge fresh and interesting for hundreds of hours.
It’s our choice
Whether you love the punishing challenge of Dark Souls or cranking up Doom to the highest difficulty. Or, whether it’s going 1 vs 1 in a headshot only game mode. What video game difficulty we as choose or deem as tough to us and most importantly what challenges we enjoy, is up to us.

Ultimately we play video games to have fun. Therefore, we shouldn’t let anyone tell us what we should be playing and how we should be playing it. We’re all individuals who’s tastes are unique. Some people will hate the idea of playing Tarkov and getting shot by someone from 500 metres away without even knowing it. However, for me that’s the kick, knowing that at any moment I could lose. I want to think and play in a way that can overcome that.
Just because you might have completed X,Y and Z game on the highest difficulty, doesn’t mean that’s how others must play to validate their accomplishments. What we find difficult in video games is unique to us all and that’s just fine.
-Will
Interesting piece. Broadly I agree with the spirit of the article, and I certainly have reached the point with gaming where I’m playing them largely for the experience over a personal challenge. Judgement and value of worth as a gamer are perplexing as everyone games for individual reasons, applying a broad judgement against one particular type breaks down under scrutiny. I do find the notion that we play for fun narrows the discussion down somewhat as you would imagine there are a range of reasons, educational, the experience, the challenge and upskilling to name a few beyond escapism.
Nice post and delivers a balanced approach to the conversation which as noted can be contentious to tackle.
This topic can’t be covered enough, it flares up all the time. Anyone gatekeeping video games because if difficulty is just an elitist. They should be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of the difficulty level. Well, that is my belief anyway.
These days I start a new game somewhere in the middle, until I understand it, then I dial it up. Prefer games where you can change the difficulty at any point. Sometimes I just want to trounce stuff, other times I want to be challenged.
I’d like to throw in my two cents about the backtracking element, as it is a super-delicate balance, and it depends on so many things. In the end, all death mechanics are basically a checkpoint system. No matter if you have fixed respawn locations, get transported to the start of the stage/fight, have to reload a save or even restart the entire game. It all boils down to how much progress you lose.
In games focused on the narrative, it makes sense not to lose a lot of progress. You’re here for the story and ambience, not the shabby combat system. Ori would be a great example. Sure, gameplay is an important part, but it’s more means to an end, to progress. That’s why these games allow for (semi-)free saving. Of you’ve been through the fight or platforming section once, you can do it again.
Plus, by tieing saving to a somewhat “limited” resource, not only does it give the player more control, but it instantly becomes a player choice. You can choose how much progress you’re willing to sacrifice, in order to save your resources. I think that’s a big part in why the no-death approach in Prince of Persia (2008) did not sit well with audiences. There’s no choice to be made. The game tells you “Nah, you won’t lose any progress”, instead of “Huh, you died. Aren’t you glad you saved a minute ago?” One approach feels almost patronising, while the other makes you feel proud and like you did something great, even if you don’t realise it.
It gets harder when challenge and/or helplessness are an important part of the game. In Dark Souls, feeling small and like everything is against you, is a huge part of the experience. If you’d just respawn outside the boss arena with full health and Estus, the stakes would be dramatically lower! Now, I do not agree with all the bonfire placement and consequent backtracking, but I simply want to point out that it’s super-tricky to get right.
Another good example are horror games. If there’s nothing to lose, then why not try to ram your head through the metaphorical wall until you manage to break through? When you lose the sense of danger, a big part of your fear is instantly gone.
I’m not offering any solutions here (I could probably get very rich, if I had one), but I want to point out that there is no one-fits-all-solution out there. Different types of games need different approaches to their difficulty, including checkpoint/death mechanics.
The one thing that always gets me when someone brings up this topic is why it should even matter to them what other people do. If a game has multiple levels of difficulty and game developers continue to bring out games with them then it’s really no one elses business if Joe Bloggs plays it on easy mode or hard mode.
I love when gamers decide to make up their own challenge modes. I’ve seen World of Warcraft players do a no-die challenge when levelling a character. If they die then that’s it; they delete the character and start again. They don’t have to, they just do it because they enjoy it. Likewise, I’ve seen pokemon players who have played the entire game with the same team.
As a disabled player I have a completely different perspective of game difficulties. Personally my life is hard enough and I just want to play a game to enjoy it. Being able to beat the hardest mode has never been possible for me due to my disabilities. Other disabled players may see things differently and find that hard modes offer them a challenge they can master. I find that most people who generallyadvocate for hard modes always forget that life is subjective. They never ask ‘why don’t you play hard mode’ they just look to embarass people about it.
As you said in your conclusion; games are there for fun. It’s just sad that people can’t understand that we all enjoy things in different ways. There’s so many different games out there now that we don’t need to fight over things. Can’t we all just enjoy what we like?