thingsiplay , 7 hours ago

I think easy game modes take away what a great game makes a great game. I’m not sure if I can explain this with words, but if you are going to play on easy, then it means you don’t want to play. At that point, its probably not a game for you. I’m talking across all kind of genres and type of games. However, if a game is unfair or badly designed, that is the moment when I would recommend using easy mode. And it depends on how the difficulty scaling is implemented. Some easy modes are really dumb and take away the core principles of the game, while others are very intelligently realized.

Your example is a great example of what I meant by that. You are not interested into the combat, therefore made it easy so it does not get in your way. You didn’t turn it down because its unfair. What happens is, you are actively playing a game, which you don’t want to. I don’t know what exactly scales in that game, so maybe its not a bad easy mode at all, but can’t judge the game.

I’m currently playing Metal Gear Solid 5 for the first time (just played a few hours on launch and now I’m back to it) on normal difficulty. The game can be brutal at times and there were multiple moments when I almost quit the game. Yet I did not turn easy mode, and now I’m happy that I overcome the challenge naturally. And that’s what I mean. I you turn the game to easy mode, then you get into these habits of not solving the challenges.