Dear Videogame Industry,
Harder does not necessarily equal better.
No, I’m not referring Demon’s Souls, the difficulty is inherent in the gameplay. Instead, this is a long-standing complaint that I have, and many others do as well, they just don’t say anything. I’m saying something.
There are a number of ways which difficulty is poorly used. One of the most blatant and pervasive is the varying degree of difficulty within a game, as well as within a level. When a certain section simply increases the difficulty to prolong the gameplay time, it comes across as lazy development. Spending two hours trying to figure out how to defeat an early boss in a game only to have the next two fall in less than 5 minutes is wrong.
Of course some games ramp up the difficulty level of the game steadily, which is appropriate, especially when the player’s in-game character gains skills and abilities to overcome these enemies.
Sometimes a whole level will abruptly become more difficult. This is especially irritating because these types of levels stick out distinctly from the rest of the game, especially when the game afterwards turns back to its regular difficulty.
I have no problem with difficult bosses at the end of levels, but not being able to save the game before these battles is a crime. Especially offensive is when the boss suddenly and inexplicably has their health bar refilled while the player doesn’t. It is again, a cheap tactic that smacks of lazy programming.
None of this is to say that hard games don’t have a place on shelves. There’s nothing wrong with having a good challenge, but when it’s poorly implemented, it’s just… wrong.