Are modern video games too easy?

Key insights

• Games used to be mechanically difficult due to limitations such as the limited space for content in cartridges.
• Modern games offer more accessible difficulty levels that appeal to a wider audience.
• Higher difficulty levels in modern games often increase the challenge in unsatisfactory ways.

The thing about video games is that they are challenging. Sure, good music, books, and movies can be “challenging” in a sense to engage with, but games require a certain level of skill to even experience. However, there is a feeling that modern games are becoming too easy to be fun, which is somewhat true, but not in the way you think.

Games used to be really difficult

I’ll be honest, even though I started playing during the NES era, I don’t think I’ve ever actually finished a single game from that era. Sure, as a child I was able to master the first levels Super Mario Bros., or make it a bit of it Consbut inevitably there would be a vertical wall of difficulty and my little brain just didn’t have the energy or motivation to learn a dozen enemy patterns and try these levels over and over again until I could play them blind. I knew kids like that, but it wasn’t me. I had as much fun as possible and then moved on.

This era of gaming is known for being mechanically difficult, partly because many of the people working on these games came from the arcade era, where the goal was to get the player to fit as many coins into the machine as possible to pump. The other part of the “NES-heavy” equation is that the cartridges simply didn’t have much room for content. So one way to increase the number of hours of play was to make the game hard, so that you had to spend a lot of time to make small progress.

There’s a certain type of player who finds this very appealing, but that’s not me. This player base still exists today and is served by relatively niche titles like Cup head or one of the numerous “souls-like” games.

For me, games peaked in difficulty from the mid-90s to the early 2010s. That’s basically the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 generations. Games on these platforms might be difficult, but in most cases the difficulty spikes could be overcome with a good night’s sleep and a clear head rather than grinding on a wall for hours.

Since the modern “HD” era of gaming, where video games had to appeal to a huge mainstream audience, games certainly seem to offer more choice when it comes to difficulty. This simply makes it accessible to more people, but there are also modern design conventions where things are actually explained to players, which can feel like it’s being dumbed down.

Modern games tempt us to lower the difficulty level

I don’t have a problem with modern games offering more hints or cumbersome tutorials, especially since most of them let you easily turn these features off if you don’t like them. In fact, my only real “Old Man Yells at the Cloud” opinion on video game difficulty is that modern games generally allow you to change the difficulty at any time during gameplay.

The problem with this is that when you encounter a difficult part of a game, the path of least resistance is to lower the difficulty to get past those sections, and then (maybe) bring it back to where it was before . It’s certainly practical, but is it fun? At the very least, I would like to have an option where you can set the difficulty level for a particular playthrough, because when I get frustrated I’m tempted to just turn the difficulty down, which ends up affecting my enjoyment.

Higher difficulty levels are no longer fun

Designing a game with multiple difficulty levels is difficult, I can’t say it isn’t. Games are typically balanced around their “normal” difficulty level, and that is the intended experience. So if the normal setting in modern games is too easy for you, simply increase the difficulty. What’s the problem?

The fact is, with few exceptions, I’ve found that higher difficulty levels increase the challenge in the least satisfying way. Instead of making enemies smarter or offering new enemies and variants, we just get more of them, or they become bullet sponges.

Personally, I’m not looking to make a game more challenging when it comes to a more challenging game. I want something that feels qualitatively different, but since most players won’t touch these higher settings, I don’t think there’s much incentive to invest development time into it.

Accessible difficulty options make a game more inclusive

I love that modern video games let players decide how difficult the game should be. Even if it includes an essentially interactive movie mode where you don’t actually play, you’re just along for the ride. Hey, it’s your game. You paid for it and can play it however you want.

So it’s not that I think modern video games are too simple. I just think that the gaming challenge, which used to be the main appeal of playing a game compared to consuming other media, no longer receives the same care and attention as it once did. There are many exceptions. The modern DOOM Games, for example, are perfectly coordinated in this respect. I was also very impressed by the remake of System shockand its detailed difficulty selection system. The game is divided into different elements such as combat and puzzles. I hate messing around with puzzles unless I’m here to play a puzzle game. Therefore, the option to make the puzzles easier and keep the combat at standard levels is a welcome option.

Games are now more accessible, and that’s good for everyone, but developers please don’t forget what they enjoy in the first place!