Noticed a game writing trend
Discussion
I know this is a theme I have visited before
But I am playing Star Wars Outlaws and the stupid difficulty ramp up in certain things is the worst I have ever seen in a game.
You spend hours traversing the planet initially, very little combat, just working out how the game plays, then you go to a new location, lots of stealth, then you are dumped into a hangar in a massive laser fight (after having basically no need for combat in the game at all so far) and then into space into a huge fight with ships, after basically flying yours for about a minute. SO you go from crawling about for hours to a laser fight and then flying a ship you have no experience of in about 2 minutes, the ramp up in difficulty is pathetic, why is it that this aspect is ALL modern game developers seem to care about?
I detest modern game writing with a passion, huge upscales in difficulty are ALL they seem to care about or manage, or they make games that are stupidly difficult from the off where you die endlessly.
There is no rhythm, in fact the intention seems to be to have no style, rhythm or pace, it is about snapping you about, that is not good game writing to me,it is lazy, boring and dull.
But I am playing Star Wars Outlaws and the stupid difficulty ramp up in certain things is the worst I have ever seen in a game.
You spend hours traversing the planet initially, very little combat, just working out how the game plays, then you go to a new location, lots of stealth, then you are dumped into a hangar in a massive laser fight (after having basically no need for combat in the game at all so far) and then into space into a huge fight with ships, after basically flying yours for about a minute. SO you go from crawling about for hours to a laser fight and then flying a ship you have no experience of in about 2 minutes, the ramp up in difficulty is pathetic, why is it that this aspect is ALL modern game developers seem to care about?
I detest modern game writing with a passion, huge upscales in difficulty are ALL they seem to care about or manage, or they make games that are stupidly difficult from the off where you die endlessly.
There is no rhythm, in fact the intention seems to be to have no style, rhythm or pace, it is about snapping you about, that is not good game writing to me,it is lazy, boring and dull.
I guess trying to get the balance right is a tricky one.
Witcher 3 is a prime example - Jenny 'o the Woods mission put me off the game for about 6 months, but once I gave it another go and persevered the rest of the game was awesome and the difficulty ramp seemed more linear.
My pet hate is having to level up weapons. I don't mind character builds as it makes sense you learn skills, upgrade abilities, etc, but it's just a grind having to remember to trade in your level 5 shotgun for a level 6 shotgun or whatever. I much prefer being slowly granted access to a variety of different weapons as you progress and then basing your choice on what is more suitable for the task or your preferred playing style.
Witcher 3 is a prime example - Jenny 'o the Woods mission put me off the game for about 6 months, but once I gave it another go and persevered the rest of the game was awesome and the difficulty ramp seemed more linear.
My pet hate is having to level up weapons. I don't mind character builds as it makes sense you learn skills, upgrade abilities, etc, but it's just a grind having to remember to trade in your level 5 shotgun for a level 6 shotgun or whatever. I much prefer being slowly granted access to a variety of different weapons as you progress and then basing your choice on what is more suitable for the task or your preferred playing style.
bergclimber34 said:
I know this is a theme I have visited before
But I am playing Star Wars Outlaws and the stupid difficulty ramp up in certain things is the worst I have ever seen in a game.
You spend hours traversing the planet initially, very little combat, just working out how the game plays, then you go to a new location, lots of stealth, then you are dumped into a hangar in a massive laser fight (after having basically no need for combat in the game at all so far) and then into space into a huge fight with ships, after basically flying yours for about a minute. SO you go from crawling about for hours to a laser fight and then flying a ship you have no experience of in about 2 minutes, the ramp up in difficulty is pathetic, why is it that this aspect is ALL modern game developers seem to care about?
I detest modern game writing with a passion, huge upscales in difficulty are ALL they seem to care about or manage, or they make games that are stupidly difficult from the off where you die endlessly.
There is no rhythm, in fact the intention seems to be to have no style, rhythm or pace, it is about snapping you about, that is not good game writing to me,it is lazy, boring and dull.
How old are you OP? Modern games are a breeze compared to the late 80's and 90's era. 3 lives, no continues and no internet to get tips. I'd argue the complete opposite. I get bored of most games as there isn't much of a challenge. (Bar the odd few - Like Dark Souls, Elden Ring etc...).But I am playing Star Wars Outlaws and the stupid difficulty ramp up in certain things is the worst I have ever seen in a game.
You spend hours traversing the planet initially, very little combat, just working out how the game plays, then you go to a new location, lots of stealth, then you are dumped into a hangar in a massive laser fight (after having basically no need for combat in the game at all so far) and then into space into a huge fight with ships, after basically flying yours for about a minute. SO you go from crawling about for hours to a laser fight and then flying a ship you have no experience of in about 2 minutes, the ramp up in difficulty is pathetic, why is it that this aspect is ALL modern game developers seem to care about?
I detest modern game writing with a passion, huge upscales in difficulty are ALL they seem to care about or manage, or they make games that are stupidly difficult from the off where you die endlessly.
There is no rhythm, in fact the intention seems to be to have no style, rhythm or pace, it is about snapping you about, that is not good game writing to me,it is lazy, boring and dull.
I think it's the design by committee approach of So-called "AAA" So-called "gaming" these days (or is it AAAA now, f
k it, we're adding 5 As).
Basically the people who manage and sign off on the design are not people who play games, rather they look at previous successful games and demand the devs "add that into the game". All the while trying to do everything not to upset the most fragile group, young, white, American males. The end result is a mess that takes no risks and has no rewarding experience.
There's a reason the last "AAA" game I bought was Cyberpunk 2077 and spend most of my money on indie and small studio games. Much easier to do on PC than consoles though. Cant remember the last EA game I bought (last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I'm glad I didn't pay for it). I also wait for games to reduce in price significantly before buying, I consider myself to be a "last years gamer". I want to get Jurassic World Evolution 3 but refuse to pay any more than half price (£25) because it's got Denuvo (A.K.A. game cancer), I bought the previous 2 at less than £20 each.
k it, we're adding 5 As). Basically the people who manage and sign off on the design are not people who play games, rather they look at previous successful games and demand the devs "add that into the game". All the while trying to do everything not to upset the most fragile group, young, white, American males. The end result is a mess that takes no risks and has no rewarding experience.
There's a reason the last "AAA" game I bought was Cyberpunk 2077 and spend most of my money on indie and small studio games. Much easier to do on PC than consoles though. Cant remember the last EA game I bought (last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I'm glad I didn't pay for it). I also wait for games to reduce in price significantly before buying, I consider myself to be a "last years gamer". I want to get Jurassic World Evolution 3 but refuse to pay any more than half price (£25) because it's got Denuvo (A.K.A. game cancer), I bought the previous 2 at less than £20 each.
I finished Borderlands 4 recently. I was playing on the easiest setting, and at the first boss level I just kept getting killed over and over again. So I looked up how I was supposed to kill it, and found out what you needed was a certain type of gun, which I did not have. So I was stuffed.
Therefore a download a thing to set do damage to me etc, and finally killed it.
But once you have done that, there's no going back really, so I played the rest of the game in god mode as well.
In Stray, which wasn't meant to be that hard, there was one bit that I could not do, and I found that loads of other people could not do it either. It was completely out of keeping with the rest of the game. The writers actually issued a patch to make it simpler.
Therefore a download a thing to set do damage to me etc, and finally killed it.
But once you have done that, there's no going back really, so I played the rest of the game in god mode as well.
In Stray, which wasn't meant to be that hard, there was one bit that I could not do, and I found that loads of other people could not do it either. It was completely out of keeping with the rest of the game. The writers actually issued a patch to make it simpler.
bergclimber34 said:
I know this is a theme I have visited before
But I am playing Star Wars Outlaws and the stupid difficulty ramp up in certain things is the worst I have ever seen in a game.
You spend hours traversing the planet initially, very little combat, just working out how the game plays, then you go to a new location, lots of stealth, then you are dumped into a hangar in a massive laser fight (after having basically no need for combat in the game at all so far) and then into space into a huge fight with ships, after basically flying yours for about a minute. SO you go from crawling about for hours to a laser fight and then flying a ship you have no experience of in about 2 minutes, the ramp up in difficulty is pathetic, why is it that this aspect is ALL modern game developers seem to care about?
I detest modern game writing with a passion, huge upscales in difficulty are ALL they seem to care about or manage, or they make games that are stupidly difficult from the off where you die endlessly.
There is no rhythm, in fact the intention seems to be to have no style, rhythm or pace, it is about snapping you about, that is not good game writing to me,it is lazy, boring and dull.
Just poor design. And it's expensive and time-consuming to properly construct a well-paced, decently long, single player campaign when really they want you to be buying into a 'live service game' where they can milk you infinitely for cash - so they aren't going to put effort in. Also, they probably don't expect that a lot of people will play more than a few hours of a specific game before jumping to something else.But I am playing Star Wars Outlaws and the stupid difficulty ramp up in certain things is the worst I have ever seen in a game.
You spend hours traversing the planet initially, very little combat, just working out how the game plays, then you go to a new location, lots of stealth, then you are dumped into a hangar in a massive laser fight (after having basically no need for combat in the game at all so far) and then into space into a huge fight with ships, after basically flying yours for about a minute. SO you go from crawling about for hours to a laser fight and then flying a ship you have no experience of in about 2 minutes, the ramp up in difficulty is pathetic, why is it that this aspect is ALL modern game developers seem to care about?
I detest modern game writing with a passion, huge upscales in difficulty are ALL they seem to care about or manage, or they make games that are stupidly difficult from the off where you die endlessly.
There is no rhythm, in fact the intention seems to be to have no style, rhythm or pace, it is about snapping you about, that is not good game writing to me,it is lazy, boring and dull.
I wouldn't say that most (single player) mainstream games are overly difficult - quite the opposite in fact. They want to make something that is very easy to get into and will keep you going for a few hours until you get bored. The indies do tend to be more challenging though.
Griffith4ever said:
I'm with you on this one. Elden Ring... uninstalled twice, second time was the last
My pet peeve is levelling mobs - I mean, what's the point of levelling you and your gear if you are not imba aginst lower levels?
I would have thought Elden Ring was not an example of this.My pet peeve is levelling mobs - I mean, what's the point of levelling you and your gear if you are not imba aginst lower levels?
Sure, there are bits that are difficult - but it's sufficiently open world that if you find something that is very hard, you simply go in a different direction and will inevitably find something that is your "level".
When I started it, I got mashed by the bloke on the horse with the golden shield a few times. Then I went the other way, and found stuff that was more my level. After a lot of playing, I was back to horse / shield bloke and it was a level match.
I have no issue w th difficulty per se.
The point I was trying to make which seems to be continually missed is that you go from walk in the park easy to bloody tough in an instant.
the best example I can think of is the Robocop game, stupidly easy and nice to wander around, then you get to even the first boss level and it is just so much harder than ANY contact you have had up until then. The ramp up is ridiculous.
AS others say, it is lazy writing, and smacks of current game writing really. Apparently hard is good and that is the end of it.
The point I was trying to make which seems to be continually missed is that you go from walk in the park easy to bloody tough in an instant.
the best example I can think of is the Robocop game, stupidly easy and nice to wander around, then you get to even the first boss level and it is just so much harder than ANY contact you have had up until then. The ramp up is ridiculous.
AS others say, it is lazy writing, and smacks of current game writing really. Apparently hard is good and that is the end of it.
It's not really a writing problem - there's plenty wrong with a lot of game writing but it's not a massive determinator of difficulty. It's more around system design. I can't get on board with the narrative that all modern games are rubbish, super easy and it was so much better in the old days when a game only needed a 16k ram pack and a properly aligned tape recorder.
Difficulty, and more importantly, it's appeal is such a personal thing. I find tactical games difficult, I found the pacing of GoY on lethal perfect, I thought Clair Obscur was an incredible experience, well paced again. I hit a brick wall on Nioh 3 despite platinuming Khazan. I can pull the same boss 100 times but fail a Hades run once and delete it.
Difficulty, and more importantly, it's appeal is such a personal thing. I find tactical games difficult, I found the pacing of GoY on lethal perfect, I thought Clair Obscur was an incredible experience, well paced again. I hit a brick wall on Nioh 3 despite platinuming Khazan. I can pull the same boss 100 times but fail a Hades run once and delete it.
I like to play campaign games such as COD etc on harder difficulties and enjoy the experience, but in other games, if I get to a section that requires me to hit a monster exactly 150 times in a squinting eyeball whilst also being attacked by minions etc, and I die over and over and over, I'll now just cheat past that section and continue my enjoyment. I just don't care enough or want to dedicate the time any more.
I signed up for Plitch cheat services for a relatively small yearly cost and have used it dozens of times to do exactly that. Gaming is about fun and enjoyment for me, not stress and frustration.
Remnant 2 would be a good example. We played coop on a harder difficulty and it was great, but some of the boss fights just stopped us in our tracks. You could spend hours defeating them, or, as we did, just cheat past that section in a couple of minutes and continue having fun.
Probably worth mentioning most games won't allow cheating in online games, so with Remnant 2, as it's drop in drop out coop, we just quit, I continued in single player, cheated past the boss, saved and reinvited my friend.
I signed up for Plitch cheat services for a relatively small yearly cost and have used it dozens of times to do exactly that. Gaming is about fun and enjoyment for me, not stress and frustration.
Remnant 2 would be a good example. We played coop on a harder difficulty and it was great, but some of the boss fights just stopped us in our tracks. You could spend hours defeating them, or, as we did, just cheat past that section in a couple of minutes and continue having fun.
Probably worth mentioning most games won't allow cheating in online games, so with Remnant 2, as it's drop in drop out coop, we just quit, I continued in single player, cheated past the boss, saved and reinvited my friend.
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