Playing challenging games

Hi everyone! Newbie here!

Wanted your perspective on the topic of challenging games.

I recently picked up Dark Souls on PC but a bit scared to give it a go because I tend to give up easily when games get tough to play. Now the knew the reputation of the Souls games before making such an adventurous purchase but thought, might as well see how other gamers such as myself deal with games like the mentioned above.

Anyone who has played the souls games or similar rage catalysts, how do you maintain the mental fortitude while facing a tough boss or a game for that matter?

Much appreciated,

Themighty-but a bit of a pussy-Ace

I've been playing Dark Souls 1. I've found it way harder than 2, but others find 2 way harder than 1. In any case, as long as you're willing to learn from your mistakes and as long as you're patient, you can finish Dark Souls. As far as making it through tough games, I just don't think of death as a big deal. In a well-balanced game worth playing through on high difficulties, your dwath should always feel like your own fault and that usually makes it way easier to deal with hard parts. If I feel something is cheap, I either bump down the difficulty or stop playing.

I'll say that when I beat Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, it was mainly a game of patience and trial and error. If you are scrupulous in checking every nook and cranny, you will have a better time. Still, there is a hefty amount of using tactics that feel really cheap in a way that is not very fun. If you can get past the part where dying causes you to repeat the same fights against the weaker enemies along the way to your main objective, you're good to go. I couldn't, so I stopped playing Dark Souls 1.

So yeah, this is all coming from a guy who beat Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, but can't stand DS1. Good luck to you!

My opinion would be to just jump in and do your best. I play games for fun so my opinion might not matter in this case. But if I were to pick up a game like this I'd just try to have fun.

I'd say find a road map. In my first experience with DS1, I banged my head against the graveyard skeletons right up front. I knew the game was suppose to be hard so I just kept at it. After houuuurs of slowly advancing further down that path, I found the intended path and realized what I had been doing. The game became much more enjoyable at that point.

Freedom of exploration is nice in games unless the game doesn't at least hint to you that you shouldn't be somewhere at your level/(point in the game).

I did this with Divinity: OS where I found a map that labeled areas with the level range of enemies. Having this knowledge made the game a ton more enjoyable.

I remember I needed about ten hours to really start getting into DS1. I had a lot of trouble at the beggining and honestly I think I wouldn't have completed it without a guide. For some people this might take away the enjoyment, but I knew there were things I wouldn't find on my own. I replayed the game multiple times and mostly focused on practicing combat, even tried to speedrun it. O&S still annoy the hell out of me, but some of DS1's aspects aren't that overwhelming anymore.

As for other games, I'm having a lot of trouble with 1001 Spikes. Haven't played a challenging platformer in a while and I just can't get the timing right. No guide could help me here!

I don't know what it is but games like Dark Souls and Spelunky are much more fun to play than something like Volgarr because of the exploration. It feels dangerous and trilling to explore the world not knowing what's around the corner at any given moment which wouldn't work if the game wasn't also challenging. I feel like there are games that are hard for the sake of being hard but the Souls series never felt like that to me. It's more like you're a guy who starts off being shitty at killing guys in a world full of shitty guys to kill.

I'm not a very patient person but I've finished Demons Souls & am getting there with Dark Souls

While I really like the games I don't deal with difficulty very well tbh, when I hit a 'brick wall' I usually take a break from the game for awhile if I can't progress within a few days. Sometimes this means I'll not touch the game again for weeks or even months so I often end up restarting from the beginning when I get back into it.

Demons Souls was better for me in this regard since if you get stuck in an area you can just switch to another 'world' and work through that for a while so it doesn't feel as repetitive, Dark Souls is more of a problem since there is kinda an intended pathway in terms of difficulty.

I'd say just give them a go. I went into Demons Souls totally blind - I knew literally nothing about the game and didn't even look up any info on it until I was a few bosses in and I did alright. My advice would just be to take it slow&careful, even in areas you feel aren't much of a threat.

Patience and focus are skills you can both learn and polish. If you try to keep calm and concentrate as far as you can, and push it a little every time. You will get better at it.

Knowing when to take a break is important. Running into a wall until it breaks works for some, but many will just sour on the game instead.

Have fun with it man! See it like a learning experience or developing a skill. If you just suffer through a hard game just to say you beat it, then what was really the point all along?

They make me feel alive.

I dunno, the sense of accomplishment keeps me going. I understand that beating something exceedingly difficult will be very rewarding. Not even talking about Souls, which are challenging but not impossible.

I find that playing games on tough settings really makes you dig into the mechanics. F.3.A.R. became an incredibly tough and memorable experience that DEMANDED that I learn the well-done cover system. You tend to get more out of games.

Playing stuff on easier difficulties can be fun if it's full of set pieces, well-paced stories, and flashy special effects. But good combat systems can be overlooked like in the aformentioned F.3.A.R., which almost everyone seemed to dismiss. It would've been fairly bland if you just blasted through, but every encounter was tense as hell for me. It was awesome.

Grew up on tough games, then I started going normal, until Call of Duty 2's achievements forced me onto Veteran. And I loved that experience, even with those infinite enemies.

@csl316: Huh I've never consider simply starting all games on the hardest setting. Perhaps that's not your getting at and just revisit games you enjoy on the hardest setting but the idea of at least trying all games from the get go on the hardest setting actually sounds somewhat reward besides the obvious extra challenge.

@freezyfrog: I rarely replay games a second time these days, with so much good stuff out there.

So at release I'll check out forums and see what people are saying. "Game's so easy." I'll bump it up to the max. "It provides a good challenge." I'll bump it up but not to the toughest.

If I do wind up replaying a game, I'll usually go up if it's a skill-based game like Devil May Cry. But if it's something like Uncharted where I just want to see the story, I'll take it to Normal. Replaying Uncharted 3 for the first time since release, where I beat it in Hard. But this week I just want to blast through it, so I went to Normal instead of Crushing.

There was a time where I played every game on the roughest difficulty, mainly when I was way into achievements. But now I know enough about my gaming habits to understand how difficulty could ruin a game's flow, and when a game seems to have well-designed gameplay that could benefit from a difficulty boost.

Games are designed to be beaten. Even if nobody else seems to be able to beat it, the developers and bug testers have explored as many frustrating and difficult avenues as possible. And if someone else can do it, then you can do it. The worst that can happen is you'll just have to try again.

@mlarrabee: I mean, there are games that make you wonder if the developers even cared how the finished product looks like. My favourite examples are Drake of the 99 Dragons and Ride to Hell: Retribution. I watched Two Best Friends' videos of it and it was a glorious trainwreck. But if you're talking in terms of intended hard difficulty, I think MGR: Revengeance had the best one. It's one of those games I replayed several times just to have some more fun with the combat system.