When I wrote Pt.1 to this series, I was talking about how games have evolved from small skill-based games with high scores to more story-driven games with lush worlds and believable characters. Today I will be discussing the difference between the difficulty of a game and the difficulty to complete a game.

What makes a game difficult?
In the early days, sometimes it was actually just bad programming or design that made games difficult. I'm sorry, but I honestly can't think of any examples. I will instead refer to Game Design Essentials: 20 Difficult Games. Here is an example of how bad game design can make a game difficult (not to mention frustrating). In The Adventures of Lolo, a puzzle game, a gameplay mechanic is never introduced to the player before it is needed. The move allowed a player to respawn an enemy to a new location, which would allow the player to continue to the next level.

"It's another example of a puzzle game cheating, when theoretically they should play fair and introduce all the essential elements before they become important. To perform the trick: use two shots to destroy a Snakey, or other shootable monster, then push a block over its original space. Most levels this causes the monster to die permanently when it regenerates, but on a few boards it will instead appear elsewhere, usually in a place it would be impossible to put it otherwise."

Not every hard game was a victim of poor design, however. So I go back to some of my favorite challenging games; when I think of what made Contra a difficult game, there are two things that stand out in my mind: reflexes and chaos. Enemies constantly spawned and charged across the screen, sometimes shooting at you along the way. You couldn't just jump a bullet without first checking your jumps trajectory, as well as your landing area. You couldn't just duck under the bullet either; you might get trampled by a newly spawned enemy right behind you. Then again, get the spread gun and you're golden. Probably a better example of this is the notoriously difficult Ikaruga. The amount of onscreen action that you have to pay attention to is enormous. There are hundreds of bullets flying across the screen (half of which can be absorbed, half of which will kill you. You can change your polarity at any point), and it is really distracting from the rest of the level. You need to be able to focus not only on the bullet placement and colour, but while you do this, you also have to watch out for the environment. Lose track of one or the other and you're toast. Oh, and don't forget to shoot ;)



Another thing that will affect the difficulty of a game is limiting the player's resources. Items, weapons, and time are a few things that come immediately to mind. The fewer resources a player has, the more trouble they will have. A situation where a player has an easy time sitting back and waiting for the right time to strike, picking off enemies one by one can be made much more difficult by simply adding (for example) a time constraint, or by limiting the weapons that can be used. While we're on the topic of limited resources, I feel like I need to say something about regenerating health in games. The mechanic that Halo introduced has invaded the FPS genre to the point that it has almost become standard. I personally love this mechanic and I don't think it makes a game easy by default. Just because you can regenerate health in Gears of War, it does not make you invincible. Rush an enemy on Insane difficulty and watch how fast you die.

My last point about what makes a game difficult, and somewhat of a sidenote, is probably the thing I've missed most in the current age of gaming. A well-designed boss battle. You don't seem to see too many of these around any more, but a good boss battle should contain multiple stages, and each stage should have a different 'trick' to figure out. It seems more and more that we are getting boss fights that are just suped-up enemies. (ps, please post your favorite boss battle in the comments if you have one)

What makes a game difficult to complete?

I'm going to use Adventure Island as my example here. It is a fairly basic platform game. You face very static enemies (always in the same location, generally stationary), and on a per-level basis it isn't overly complex, or even difficult. Add a bit of a twist to the game, and it's a bit harder: stay fed. In Adventure Island, as time goes by, your life slowly depletes. You need to collect fruit to stay healthy. This means that you are now racing through the levels to finish before you die.



Now, a couple very common elements that the game included, that make the game insanely difficult to beat:
No saves. Well, to be honest, this was fairly commonplace at the time. You have to play through the entire game to beat it. Once the power is off, you lose all progress, along with all high scores.

Limited Lives. Once again, fairly commonplace at the time, specifically for games with no saves. In Adventure Island, you start the game with 3 lives. Every 50,000 points will net you another life. This comes out to a little less than one extra life per world.

Limited Continues. Now, most games at least have one to three continues. Adventure Island, however, doesn't allow a single continue. You get your 3 lives at the start of the game, and when you have none left, the game is over. Better luck next time, friend.

So, once again we can see that video games have evolved quite a bit. Games were very short, and relied on the difficulty of the game to keep you playing. Modern games aren't all particularly easy, but overall they are much more easy to complete.

This article isn't intended as a comprehensive resource. The comments are there for a reason, if I missed something, or if you disagree with anything I've said (or if you agree), or even if you want to elaborate, feel free! I'm always open to civil discussion.