Difficulty Levels in Halo 4 - A Rant by CruelLEGACEY

Games Other Halo
1

I wanted to talk a bit about how the Halo series has traditionally handled difficulty levels, and what I wish to see change in the future of the series.

I am not a fan of how bungie implemented the different difficulty levels in Halo CE through to Halo Reach. Here’s why:

Bungie (like many developers) would design their campaigns around the higher difficulty levels (Heroic and Legendary). Playing on these settings, you see the full range and complexity of the Halo sandbox in effect. The way different weapons are effective against different enemies, the way different combinations of enemy classes mix to create unique combat experiences. You see the games at their finest, and appreciate the level of complexity within their design.

But when you play on “easy” or “normal”, this is not always the case.

The problem is that playing on the easier settings actually removes the necessity to learn about the different weapon combinations and strategies that I mentioned above. These settings don’t just make Halo easier… they make it a completely different game.

For example:

A good friend of mine bought an old Xbox and a copy of Halo CE a few years ago. He’s by no means a ‘hardcore’ gamer, so he played through Halo CE on Normal. A few weeks later, I asked him how he like the game. He said “it’s ok. Kinda boring”. Refusing to accept this, I went over to play some co-op with him. Watching his actions as I played split-screen with him was actually quite shocking.

He was completely un-aware of how the weapons in the game worked. He had no idea that you could overcharge a plasma pistol, and he didn’t know the needler fired in full automatic mode (he kept pulling the trigger to fire individual needles).

Remember, he had played through the entire campaign already, without ever needing to learn these basic gameplay mechanics. He’d never needed to learn them, because even on “Normal” he was able to blast his way through any enemy with whatever weapon happened to be in his hands.

So, I cranked the difficulty up to heroic, and continued playing with him. An hour later, he was saying Halo CE was the best game he’s ever played. After showing him how the different weapons worked, then putting him in a situation where he actually needed to use them properly to survive, it all clicked for him.

Here is my 2 cents for the hard working men and women at 343:

I think it is very important to find ways to make your game easier without nullifying the core gameplay mechanics. Make the AI react a little slower and fire with less accuracy, give the player more health and ammo, etc. But don’t remove all need to learn the basic mechanics of the combat system you’ve worked so hard to develop.

My friend played all the way through CE without learning the basics because the game allowed him to do so. Just my opinion here, but I don’t think a game needs to be “simple” in order to be easy. If that means forcing a player to learn how to shoot a plasma overcharge in order to beat a certain encounter, that’s ok.

I’ll end with this example:

I played through Arkham Asylum 3 times: once on each difficulty. No matter which setting I played on, the game mechanics remain unchanged. Even on “Easy”, I still needed to learn all the same moves, combos and counters. I could get by without mastering them, but I was still playing the same core game.

I would love to see a similar result from Halo 4. Halo has the most dynamic and strategic combat in gaming, and even beginners should get to experience it.

Thanks for reading!

2

yeah i know. Halo ce, every gun had its own special kick to it. Its own way to kill something.

3

Great points, and oh so true. I wish there was a way to also integrate basic strategies into that lower difficulty learning curve as well.

4

> Great points, and oh so true. I wish there was a way to also integrate basic strategies into that lower difficulty learning curve as well.

It is a really difficult problem. I sympathise with the developers, who are trying to make a game that is fun for Halo veterans as well as people who have never played a videogame before.

But I can’t help thinking about “the old days”. If I wasn’t good enough to pass the first mission of Sonic The Hedgehog, I kept re-playing it until I was good enough. Only then was I ready for the second mission.

The word “punishing” has a bad conetation when it comes to game design, but I think its ok for a game to require the player to learn about mechanics in order to progress. Otherwise the player can go all the way through a 10 hour campaign without feeling like they really progressed or improved.

5

This, this, and more this! My wife had a very similar experience with Reach on Normal (Side Note: we’re saving the original trilogy until Anniversary’s release to play through them in order). She played the first few levels on Normal and stopped playing. I asked her why, and was told that the story was neat but the gameplay was too repetitive. After going through the campaign with her again on Heroic and explaining what did what, she started having a blast.

Thank you for pointing this out the way you did CruelLEGACEY. Although I am in total agreement with you, I’d like to point out that Bungie did say Heroic was the way to play the game. Perhaps, 343i can leave that statement true but improve on the other two difficulty level’s balance or scaling.

-Always Hope

6

> This, this, and more this! My wife had a very similar experience with Reach on Normal (Side Note: we’re saving the original trilogy until Anniversary’s release to play through them in order). She played the first few levels on Normal and stopped playing. I asked her why, and was told that the story was neat but the gameplay was too repetitive. After going through the campaign with her again on Heroic and explaining what did what, she started having a blast.
>
> Thank you for pointing this out the way you did CruelLEGACEY. Although I am in total agreement with you, I’d like to point out that Bungie did say Heroic was the way to play the game. Perhaps, 343i can leave that statement true but improve on the other two difficulty level’s balance or scaling.
>
> -Always Hope

Yes, it is true that Bungie seemed to be fully aware that the games didn’t really come together below heroic.

Glad to hear you and your wife are having fun with Reach now! I think you’ll enjoy the rest of the series too :slight_smile:

7

> I wanted to talk a bit about how the Halo series has traditionally handled difficulty levels, and what I wish to see change in the future of the series.
>
> I am not a fan of how bungie implemented the different difficulty levels in Halo CE through to Halo Reach. Here’s why:
>
> Bungie (like many developers) would design their campaigns around the higher difficulty levels (Heroic and Legendary). Playing on these settings, you see the full range and complexity of the Halo sandbox in effect. The way different weapons are effective against different enemies, the way different combinations of enemy classes mix to create unique combat experiences. You see the games at their finest, and appreciate the level of complexity within their design.
>
> But when you play on “easy” or “normal”, this is not always the case.
>
> The problem is that playing on the easier settings actually removes the necessity to learn about the different weapon combinations and strategies that I mentioned above. These settings don’t just make Halo easier… they make it a completely different game.
>
> For example:
>
> A good friend of mine bought an old Xbox and a copy of Halo CE a few years ago. He’s by no means a ‘hardcore’ gamer, so he played through Halo CE on Normal. A few weeks later, I asked him how he like the game. He said “it’s ok. Kinda boring”. Refusing to accept this, I went over to play some co-op with him. Watching his actions as I played split-screen with him was actually quite shocking.
>
> He was completely un-aware of how the weapons in the game worked. He had no idea that you could overcharge a plasma pistol, and he didn’t know the needler fired in full automatic mode (he kept pulling the trigger to fire individual needles).
>
> Remember, he had played through the entire campaign already, without ever needing to learn these basic gameplay mechanics. He’d never needed to learn them, because even on “Normal” he was able to blast his way through any enemy with whatever weapon happened to be in his hands.
>
> So, I cranked the difficulty up to heroic, and continued playing with him. An hour later, he was saying Halo CE was the best game he’s ever played. After showing him how the different weapons worked, then putting him in a situation where he actually needed to use them properly to survive, it all clicked for him.
>
> Here is my 2 cents for the hard working men and women at 343:
>
> I think it is very important to find ways to make your game easier without nullifying the core gameplay mechanics. Make the AI react a little slower and fire with less accuracy, give the player more health and ammo, etc. But don’t remove all need to learn the basic mechanics of the combat system you’ve worked so hard to develop.
>
> My friend played all the way through CE without learning the basics because the game allowed him to do so. Just my opinion here, but I don’t think a game needs to be “simple” in order to be easy. If that means forcing a player to learn how to shoot a plasma overcharge in order to beat a certain encounter, that’s ok.
>
> I’ll end with this example:
>
> I played through Arkham Asylum 3 times: once on each difficulty. No matter which setting I played on, the game mechanics remain unchanged. Even on “Easy”, I still needed to learn all the same moves, combos and counters. I could get by without mastering them, but I was still playing the same core game.
>
> I would love to see a similar result from Halo 4. Halo has the most dynamic and strategic combat in gaming, and even beginners should get to experience it.
>
> Thanks for reading!

If I may, Quoted for Truth.

8

I like Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden difficulty settings (I beat the Immortal, NES, without a strategy guide when I was 12). So Halo on Legendary is about right for a “normal” setting for me. I love the feeling of fighting myself out of a hole. Though admittedly, I play Heroic more often than Legendary. Heroic is the “easy” to which to grind the challenges :wink:

The problem is, I am in an extremely small percentile of players who enjoy hardcore difficulty settings. I can’t fathom how to make things easier, yet more entertaining.

It’s the nature of the beast from my perspective. I really don’t know how to craft an easier yet more meaningful experience because in my experience, meanings are defined by their strife and conflict.

9

I completely agree. I’ve been playing Halo on Legendary since CE which is just crazy in a sense that when CE came out, I was only nine. It completely changes your perspective on how you get through the games. By the time Halo 3, Halo: ODST, and Halo: Reach came out, I have to agree with what someone else said that it was what I thought the ‘Normal’ difficulty should be. I was the first person out of all my friends to beat the campaign on Legendary which took roughly four days of on and off playing at about maybe three to five hours being played each day and being a girl on top of it all, it was a bit embarrassing for them. But as soon as they attempted it, they had no idea how I was able to do it. However, beating a game on ‘Normal’ or even ‘Heroic’ within five to seven hours is just ridiculous and shows how easy it is to play that game as well as how boring it can be. People aren’t going to replay campaigns on games if they’re that easy to beat.

On another note- really, to me, while Legendary is difficult, it’s not hard. I would give or take with that on CE because to me, personally, CE has had the most difficult levels of difficulty compared to the other games; it didn’t matter if you were playing with someone else or alone, Legendary on that game was tricky no matter what you did. However, I saw these difficulties go way downhill, especially once Halo 3 came out with the four-player co-op. It seemed like they were dialed down and players who came into the series with Halo 2, even, just seemed desensitized of what ‘hard’ actually is.

My biggest thing is that the ‘Heroic’ and ‘Legendary’ difficulties in the Halo franchise are just such a huge joke now. If you go into games such as Dead Space, the ‘Normal’ difficulty on that is frustrating to get through but the thing with that is that they balance out the difficulties. As you progress through the difficulties, the higher the difficulty, the more challenges you face. You don’t find as much ammo, enemies get stronger, you get injured faster, etc. etc. Single-player campaign or not, Dead Space has just been one example of how most games are as you progress through higher difficulties. I disliked the fact that after Halo 3, in order for a lot of those things to take effect as much as they should, you had to turn skulls on. Don’t get me wrong, you could still notice the increased damage enemies dealt and that you took, but other factors weren’t as present as they should be considering the difficulties.

I wish what a lot of the skulls trigger (higher ranking enemies, weapon/grenade damage, ammo, etc.) would be implemented more as the difficulties get higher and not as a player choice. I, personally, don’t think it’s really right that ones like what’s listed above, can be chosen to be added. I understand ones such as having no radar, aiming reticle, and things of those sort not being automatically included with higher difficulties but, excluding ones that should naturally be implemented for “harder” difficulties is a bit ridiculous and does take a lot from the game, especially when playing with more than one other person in the campaign. =/

I really hope that 343i fixes this, especially with the co-op. They can include easier difficulties still, but they don’t need to be that easy, and harder difficulties need to actually be hard.

10

> Yes, it is true that Bungie seemed to be fully aware that the games didn’t really come together below heroic.
>
> Glad to hear you and your wife are having fun with Reach now! I think you’ll enjoy the rest of the series too :slight_smile:

Thanks for the comments. I am pretty sure that she will enjoy the rest of the Halo series. She loves the novels. My only real concern is Halo 2’s Jackal snipers. I suppose I’ll just have to sprint ahead and take them out before she gets there. That said, I may have to do some jumping and grab the IWHBYD skull on Outskirts once again. That will be fun… :slight_smile:

-Always Hope

11

Not sure what you are trying to say, what you say “Make a.i slower, more ammo, etc” is already what usaully happens in Halo on the lower levels anyway. Core gameplay elements sometimes occur because the player HAS TO and there is no real way to keep Easy and Normal “easy” if you want to do this.

For example you use a charged plasma pistol to take out an Elites shields, ay? Well on Easy and Normal it’s not needed because the enemy is weaker. You could make some Elites really strong but then it becomes so inconsistent in’s not even funny. Why are these enemies really weak but this random Elite is stronger then an overshielded Spartan.

If you want to keep core elements it’s not the job of 343i to make Easy and Normal somehow the same as Heroic or Legendary. If a person can’t take the time to play on the higher two then I wouldn’t expect them to know much, some people are lazy.

Also Easy and Normal HAVE TO BE WEAK. The difficulty level in Halo is unique in that it spans such a huge range of it. Easy is so damn easy it’s perfect for messing around, glitching, and doing tricks. Normal can just be for practice or for new people, Heroic is just right usually and Legendary is very hard and challenging. And of course mythic etc…etc.

Saying that all these should be the same is not good. Call of Duty’s modes are all the same, all enemies die the same way, you take more damage, etc, it’s the same thing with more red jelly and even more B.S. Halo does not need to turn into that.

My 2 cents:
Easy-Should be EASY. Stupid easy. But really for tricks, glitching, getting out of maps. Etc
Normal-This is where gaming elements come into play. But on the lowest level. More of a light training mode
Heroic-What ever normal damage,HP,Shield settings would be on it’s default on heroic. Hard enough to challenge but not hard enough to be too “-Yoink- wtf is this b.s”
Legendary-Very hard. Give the players limits. It should be very hard, to the point it takes a lot of skill and talent to beat by yourself. Even on COOP legendary should be painfully hard

ETC

12

It would be much more fun to remove Easy and Normal difficulties completely.

13

I just wish they would go ahead and add Mythic as a default, canon difficulty setting. Yes. I’m that lazy. Instead of turning it to Legendary and turning all skulls on, why not have something that does it for me.

14

> > Great points, and oh so true. I wish there was a way to also integrate basic strategies into that lower difficulty learning curve as well.
>
> It is a really difficult problem. I sympathise with the developers, who are trying to make a game that is fun for Halo veterans as well as people who have never played a videogame before.
>
> But I can’t help thinking about “the old days”. If I wasn’t good enough to pass the first mission of Sonic The Hedgehog, I kept re-playing it until I was good enough. Only then was I ready for the second mission.
>
> The word “punishing” has a bad conetation when it comes to game design, but I think its ok for a game to require the player to learn about mechanics in order to progress. Otherwise the player can go all the way through a 10 hour campaign without feeling like they really progressed or improved.

Well, it’s not really “punishing”, it’s just “learning”. It was the same the first time I picked up super mario bros for the first time. Even before that, with Raiders Of The Lost Ark on my 2600. Try, fail… try something different, success!

15

> Although I am in total agreement with you, I’d like to point out that Bungie did say Heroic was the way to play the game.

This and this only. Honestly people want to take the easy route without looking at what it does or anything. My sister picked up Muramasa: The Demon Blade and went on the easiest mode and said it was boring. When I put it on Shura, well she started playing a bit more of the game. I think its best to notify the players that Heroic is the best way to play which Bungie has been doing.

Why should 343 change the easy mode when players just ignore the Difficulty description? It’s like playing God of War on easy and having it really difficult for the players that just want to go through it with ease.

16

> Not sure what you are trying to say, what you say “Make a.i slower, more ammo, etc” is already what usaully happens in Halo on the lower levels anyway. Core gameplay elements sometimes occur because the player HAS TO and there is no real way to keep Easy and Normal “easy” if you want to do this.
>
> For example you use a charged plasma pistol to take out an Elites shields, ay? Well on Easy and Normal it’s not needed because the enemy is weaker. You could make some Elites really strong but then it becomes so inconsistent in’s not even funny. Why are these enemies really weak but this random Elite is stronger then an overshielded Spartan.
>
> If you want to keep core elements it’s not the job of 343i to make Easy and Normal somehow the same as Heroic or Legendary. If a person can’t take the time to play on the higher two then I wouldn’t expect them to know much, some people are lazy.
>
> Also Easy and Normal HAVE TO BE WEAK. The difficulty level in Halo is unique in that it spans such a huge range of it. Easy is so damn easy it’s perfect for messing around, glitching, and doing tricks. Normal can just be for practice or for new people, Heroic is just right usually and Legendary is very hard and challenging. And of course mythic etc…etc.
>
> Saying that all these should be the same is not good. Call of Duty’s modes are all the same, all enemies die the same way, you take more damage, etc, it’s the same thing with more red jelly and even more B.S. Halo does not need to turn into that.
>
> My 2 cents:
> Easy-Should be EASY. Stupid easy. But really for tricks, glitching, getting out of maps. Etc
> Normal-This is where gaming elements come into play. But on the lowest level. More of a light training mode
> Heroic-What ever normal damage,HP,Shield settings would be on it’s default on heroic. Hard enough to challenge but not hard enough to be too “Yoink! Yoink! is this b.s”
> Legendary-Very hard. Give the players limits. It should be very hard, to the point it takes a lot of skill and talent to beat by yourself. Even on COOP legendary should be painfully hard
>
> ETC

You make a good point, but I don’t think the enemies have to be easier to kill. I would say this: On Easy and Normal, the enemies don’t need to be as weak as bungie made them. I would rather they approach it like this:

On easy and normal, take all the steps you need to take to make survival easier for the player. Make the enemies less aggressive, less accurate, and slower. Make them dodge less so they are easier to hit. Give the player more ammo and more health. Maybe give them a little extra aim assist. But don’t decrease the enemy’s health to such a degree.

I think you should need to apply the same strategies to defeat an enemy on Easy as you do on Legendary. I just think Legendary should require a mastery of those techniques.

17

Complete agree with you guys. I think that even on the easiest difficulty settings you should still be required to use the various weapons and strategies if you want to proceed, but not necessarily to survive.

What I mean is, for example, that even on easy it should take a lot of ammo to strip an Elite of his shield when using the AR, SMG, or any other human projectile weapon. Maybe it should still take less ammo than on heroic, but not much less. This at least motivates the player to use other weapons and (hopefully) he will eventually learn that plasma weapons are more effective against shields.

What should be nerfed on lower difficulty settings is not your opponents health or strength but their cleverness, their performance.Let them “forget” to dodge incoming grenades and overcharged plasma pistol shots, make them shoot only in short bursts with delays in between, and so on. Basically the opposite of legendary where your opponents fire weapons faster than actually possible without them ever overheating or having to be reloaded.