Is it just me but games are much easier these days?

I remember playing old Resident evil games and I love the challenge of playing them because of tank controls, scarcity of ammunition and very challenging puzzles. I just played Resident evil 6 and that game is damn easy and it has a freaking guiding arrow telling you where to go and puzzles are replaced by quick time events. Also the characters are less human now; they don’t get scared at all. Mortal Kombat X added micro transactions and one of them are easy fatalities. Originally you have to press a lot of buttons to successfully perform a fatality and now with a payment of few dollars you can do them with few buttons. Also on a certain shooter game I play, People can now pay real money so they can get extra bullets and healing items. I notice as years go by games are getting easier than ever. I miss playing games that challenges me.

I notice that Game developers are afraid to alienate players who are not that skilled that they were being the main target audience.

 

Yes I noticed games are very much simpler then the ones from the 8 bit and 16 bit era. Its due to having better control functionality in the game. Plus more realistic settings help very much as well. You said you miss games that challenge you? Then why don't you download the Nintendo emulators and play them?

 

Yep! I also noticed how games are becoming easier and easier. I believe games (developers) don't have the courage anymore to build a hard game, a game that defies the gamer to think harder, to be better.

I used to play Monkey Island as a kid and I had a hard time playing that game... And I LOVED it! Not only this, but it's one of the games that stuck with me because of it's story and difficulty. I also believe hard games made me developed my thinking process, my capacity of logic thinking.

Of course there are games which are harder just because you need to become better at it, have better reflex or press a button quicker. These games can be very rewarding too once you get trough them.

All in all, games are going a path where they aren't hard anymore, they may be time consuming, but they also will have a lot of thing to buy and make the time spent shorter. I really don't know what's up with games anymore.

 

I don't think it's about the courage of the developers as much as it is about gaming evolving and audiences expecting different things from the games they play. Back in the day games were shorter and had less content, the stories told through video games were very simple and not at all in the center of the gaming experience. For that reason they needed something to keep people invested in the game for at least a little while, and making the games so hard that beating them was rare did just that.

These days games try to tell a story and making them too hard for players to beat would keep a part of their audience from seeing how they end. Games have become more like interactive movies, they aren't just about the gameplay but the plot is also a central part of the experience. Combining fun gameplay with good story guarantees people will be coming back for sequels.

That's not to say hard games with less plot would be obsolete, there's an obvious modern fan base for that type of games. Just look at Dark Souls or pretty much the entire retro indie genre.

 

I think they are because back in the 80's and early 90's you couldn't save the game, so you needed to play the game almost flawlessly and keep the lives for the very hard bossbattle. Now most of the games are multi-player based and most developers don't aim for a great single-player experience, but there are still exceptions.

 

I remember playing, the Zelda game for the Nintendo and it was hard at times and also you had to think what you did as jumping was a pain at times and also sometimes my brain would feel like throwing the controller as it would make me sweat. The recent games I played, like Batman Origins is not hard just the puzzles are frustrating and also much better graphics are shown in the games made now and also controls are easier and saving is much easier than the older generation games. I reckon some games made now are a bit easier like Tomb Raider is much more easier due to graphics and the controls are improved and in the original ones it was difficult doing combat and moving also.

 

Changes over time have a special type of impact on my emotional attachments. I'm very much attached to my original warlock. But encounters in battlegrounds don't leave me feeling the way it used to. Every battle used to be a meaningful encounter and now with so many 3 second burst kill classes it's just me weaving through a crowd hurting who I can until someone decides I should die. The back and forth of combat utilizing what survival spells I have to overcome a warrior or rogue on top of me flat out doesn't exist anymore. The same logic applies to what previously made dungeons fun for me with seducing npc mobs or controlling a demon for a difficult pull just made me more immersed and feeling that I mattered. feel like we are one expansion out from being able to throw care packages and call in air strikes.