What's your stand on 'easy' modes in lore heavy games?

[dragoonwys]

I have been replaying the Shadowrun trilogy recently. And in Shadowrun HK, under the difficulty settings they described the easy option as 'for new players or players who are here for the story.' Now I never touched this mode before, being one who enjoys the game's tactical combat system a lot along with it's story campaigns. But then I remembered about a discussion I followed a long time ago, about how Dark Souls' single player could perhaps benefit from having an Easy mode as well. I admit I am not good at action games like DS (got wrecked every time I played it at a friend's home) but I am quite interested about lore, and from what I have read about it around the net, there's a lot of it. If there was an 'easy' mode in it, I would have been much more interested in picking up a copy of the game myself. Same for some of my friends with Shadowrun, who I knew liked the lore, but couldn't even get past the game's normal mode combat to progress with the story even though I could go through it with ease. If Easy mode wasn't there for them, they wouldn't have bought the game.


It's almost guaranteed that when you make a lore/story heavy game, you'll attract players who would love to be a fan of it but just don't have the skills to push through that 'one boss that apparently is about average for the normal gamer'. Hard modes will still be there, even could include some benefits such as rare item drops when playing on hard. But at least people who has a lower level of gaming skill can still finish the story they came here for.


So when it comes to making your game, especially with the type of games mentioned here, would you implement some sort of easy option for that range of players? Do you think it's a good thing or not to include it if you could?

 

[_Shadow_]

Well... it depends how you will really make that Easy - Medium - Hard system.


If you just a multiplier variable everywhere, that will work positive on buffs and negative on enemy damage and HP, then it could be as simple as setting formulas for everything, including such an impact and just change difficulty at any time, cause that effects to happen.


That way, a player seeking a challenge would love it, a player that wants to just read the lore will love it and as for Normal, well that is where the variable will actually not affect the values at all. THAT is the case you have to balance your game!


So yeah why not?

 

[Kes]

All my games have 4 difficulty modes that the player can choose from - Easy, Normal, Hard, Legendary.  I do it so that players who want a combat challenge can have it, to the level they prefer, but that those who don't, or are not good at combat, can still enjoy my story.  And I think my stories are good enough to stand up on their own without much combat   Note, for me 'Easy' is not the same as 'Story Mode'.  The way I have set it up, in Easy, all enemy stats - not just HP and ATK - are at 50%.  Typically 'Story Mode' means that there is no combat at all.  I know from player feedback that Easy is a popular option.

 

[LightningLord2]

Kid Icarus Uprising and Smash 4 have an interesting take on this. The difficulty setting is called Intensity and goes from 0.0 to 9.0 (in .1 increments), being 2.0 by default. You can wager coins to raise the intensity and get more rewards out of it, or you simply pay a bit for an easier game (and 2.0 is already quite easy to begin with). If you game over, you can drop some of your money to lower the intensity for a continue (which also means worse rewards). This goes beyond having more and stronger enemies - Uprising has a number of side paths you can only take if your intensity is at least of a certain value and Smash 4 allows you to fight Master Core, who has more forms the higher the intensity is.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I have played quite a number of games that have that kind of "Easy - for players who just want to know the story", but I never really used that difficulty. I play mostly for story but I like the bit of challenge that the "normal" difficulty provides. I'd rather have a Visual Novel than that kind of "easy" mode, that way I can really focus on the story without any hassle. 

 

[The Stranger]

If it is lore heavy then I want one difficulty setting. I'd hope the developer doesn't focus on making every combat encounter a frustrating mess, but rather have them make sense in the context of the lore and setting. Perhaps with alternate routes through the stages so as to deal with combat in different ways, or avoid it entirely.

 

[Anthony Xue]

  Typically 'Story Mode' means that there is no combat at all.

Is that so? Maybe it's a question of the genre, but I recently played Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which explicitly named its lowest difficulty level "Tell me a story", and boy, was there combat!


I second the Dark Souls example. The lore seems interesting indeed, but there's no way I'll spend hours to imprint the necessary acts of manual dexterity onto my nervous system like I did in high school. Which brings up another point - a large part of the customer base for RPGs with a nostalgic touch will, like me, be at a point in life where they just don't have the time anymore to approach numerous challenges repeatedly. These people (... I could say "we") are playing computer games for the relaxation that a journey to another world brings rather than for the satisfaction of a mastered challenge (which still counts, but really not as much).


So, easy mode welcome. Of course, this supposes that the game has something else going for. Main story, lore, interesting characters come to mind, but don't underestimate the value of beautifully crafted landscapes or a multitude of tiny, charming stories in the side quests. Escapism, you know.

 

[Caitlin]

I like where you can change the challenge level and even give you the ability to change it, quickly through a menu setting.  I don't change my settings, once, I start playing, but if I put it on too hard, too easy, I like to be able to change it.  I agree with the settings, because there are new players who might not be too  comfortable playing those types of games and it is a way to get new players to play.  On the other hand, if a game is way too easy it could affect your old players and that's why those modes are a really good idea.  If you've played a bit of those games, you can challenge yourself, or play through again, on a more challenging level.  I do hope that more developers start putting that back in, because they seemingly forgot that not everyone is at the same level and four levels is a good thing to have.  It's a win-win, I think.

 

[BrandedTales]

I definitely support a story mode... this is made more pronounced as I continue to get older and my free time shrinks more and more each year.  With only the barest time I can spare to play games, I can't afford to have a lot of fails, reboots, and difficult puzzlings to get past a boss (or even just a modeling tough encounter).


I suppose I could watch a "let's play" to get the story without any challenge, but I still want to play a game for my recreation.


My only issue is when the only way to get the best (read lore heavy) ending, you have to win on ultimate crazy awesome mode while hitting all major checkpoints.  For those, I guess I'll just watch the video.  (;