What difficulty do you prefer to play on your first play through of a game?

Hard.

Um... Normal. If it's a brand new experience then normal. If I'm making a second pass I will sometimes up the difficulty.

Whatever the default setting is (normal).

These dayzzz for me it's...

lol :P

@ghosts4ever: Lol, is that why you had like 200 saves in RE?

Hardest, might turn it down if the devs confuse tedium with difficulty, such as making every enemy a bullet sponge.

Most modern games aren't designed to challenge you so "hard" tends to be the baseline.

Valve is especially guilty of this.

Maxed out. Your first playthrough is the most memorable one. If you're able to faceroll through it, it simply cannot be memorable in any way.

Depends on the game. Racing sims, highest possible difficulty. Shooters, normal to difficult. RPGs, hack n' slash, usually on easy. I will then ramp it up to high if the game was any good and I want to play through it again.

Before playing my first Fromsoftware title in 2021: Easy. I played video games to relax. feet on the table, reclined way back in the sofa. Hated dying and doing something twice. The only exceptions were my favourite games (Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, DMC1, TLOU etc) I beat those games on every difficulty from Very Easy to Extreme /Survivor/DMD

But after about 1000 hours across all Fromsoftware games I LOVE a challenge.

I went from quiting DMC5 after Son of Spard to beating it on DMD and H&H. I went from playing GOW on "Give me Story" to "Give me God of War".

beat both TLOU and TLOU2 on Grounded and Grounded+

Currently playing God of War Ragnarok on "Give me No Mercy". I don't want to torture myself through GMGOW, so I will enjoy the ride at this difficulty then do GMGOW for NG+

Medium/normal. I want to enjoy the game, not destroy my controller. My gaming time is limited.

Now, if this were my younger, less responsibilities self -- then hard.

Generally most games I’ll go with Normal on my first playthrough of a game. Occasionally I’ll start off on the hardest available difficulty of a game like I did with Resident Evil Village. Sometimes I’ll go with the easiest setting but that’s kind of rare.

First playthrough, I start on hard typically, and the second playthrough I do a max difficulty run.

@SolidGame_basic: I leave it on whatever the default is for the first playthrough.

Mostly easy to normal (and i generally only play through a game once). I play games for an adventure, not a challenge.

Either normal or hard. Depends on the game.

Depends on the game as others have said. usually start on normal since thats the one that got the most testing/is the intended experience.

Will then adjust up/down as necessary.

Some genres where I feel more confident or thing higher difficulty will add to the experience I'll start on hard or one above normal

Always normal, if the game calls for it I will crank up difficulty on repeated playthroughs. Only game in a while I did my first playthrough above normal was Halo Infinite.

i hate strolling through a game. most games on normal these days is a stroll

In games I randomly play, normal. In games I'm interested in or are sequels of franchises I have already played hard, unless I know the game is hard by default in which case I will go with normal, or if I know the game is easy I will go the hardest.

I am a *very* dedicated Medium person.

Very, very dedicated.

Are games getting easier or are gamers just so used to today’s games that it’s not a challenge?

good question, hard to answer. when i look at the last year or two there's only demon's souls, elden ring and returnal that i can think of that haven't been a stroll. but they also dont have a difficulty setting.

beyond those, the more mainstream aaa sp games are generally very forgiving on normal. but there's also that most of us will have been playing games for a very long time. decades. and it's not that we're great at gaming or anything, just there's a competence that comes with that experience.

if im waltzing through a game that im enjoying ill always change it up if i can. difficulty can make such a difference to the experience if done right (i.e. not just take more damage, dish out less damage etc). tlou2 on normal is all well and good, but crank the difficulty up and it's a different game. every encounter becomes a nailbiter. the whole survival stealth atmosphere is amplified x10. you experience the thought and detail that's gone into the mechanics, environments and ai on a level you never really got to appreciate on normal

Usually hard because the hardest difficulties are locked behind beating the game on hard first.

Depends. If I'm familiar with a developers work and know they handle difficulty increases well, go for the max available at start. Platinum Stuff, DMCs, Team Ninja games, Kojima games, RE games, DOOM, SoR, etc. All have earned my trust. In some cases, it's like you're playing a different (and significantly better) game.

Otherwise start on normal, see how that goes, dial up if it's a pushover. Unfortunately a lot of devs design for normal and treat higher difficulties as an afterthought. Adjust some values with little regard to the play experience, and done. Rather than an interesting and rewarding challenge, just get an annoying version of whatever you're playing.

Hard or normal. The more familiar and the more I like a franchise and its mechanics , the more likely I'm playing on hard.

Some examples

• The Last of Us Part II = hard
• Spider-Man Miles Morales = hard
• Horizon Forbidden West = hard
• God of War Ragnarok = hard
• Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart = hard when I get to it
• Death Stranding = normal
• Days Gone = normal

It's a little more rare for me to play a new IP on hard , but I did Hard for Ghost of Tsushima and it was fun / fine. I considered Days Gone on hard , but I heard that the game had fuel manangement so I went with normal.

Normal I don't care about difficulty in single player games TBH if I want a real challenge I'll play a old MP game.

even uncharted 4 is hard on crushing. of course bad design but still when in combat on crushing difficulty. its hard. you die one bullet.

I feel like normal difficulty is a breeze for most games. I enjoy games more if there are abit of challenge. Normally il start the game second to the hardest or hardest if any.

Hard. Normal usually has little challenge in most games

@ghosts4ever: Certainly a sect of more difficult games in existence, and as Conan points out, a lot of them lazy and just not fun, but just from my experience most modern games (at least AAA) tend to be specifically designed to be a gliding experience with no ups or downs.

My biggest gripe with Alyx. Valve, instead of adding an NG+ focus on "designer commentary" which seems more indulgent on their part to project their thought process than something that enhanced the game for the average player.

Lucky if die twice on the entire play through.

In my younger years, around 17 to 20, I would always play games on hard because at that time I was a trophy hunter with no life, and most games I played had those trophy's that stacked with difficulty. But now that I'm older -29 - I couldn't care less about difficulty or trophy's in the same way that I did back then. I typically now play all of my games on easy because I'm just there to enjoy the game. However, with that said, if I'm wanting to platinum the game, I will eventually replay on harder difficulties. Right now I'm going for RE2MAKE platinum, and still working on KH1.

Somewhere between normal and hard, just started GOW2 in hard and it kicks my ass quite a bit, as I am terrible with a controller! But hopefully I can work through, Played Gow1 on normal and got way to easy towards the end!

I had a tough time when I played Animal Crossing on hard mode, and I had to switch it to normal mode to finish the game.

Most games I play on normal mode there's always portions that I can get stuck on, and that can be the quitting point usually for me and why I don't finish games.

Most games I start on easy mode, and I also appreciate the games that ask me if I want to skip the level after I die a few times.

Like most it various from game to game and what the overall focus is.

Something more skill based like says Spider-Man or Resident Evil or something like that I'm mostly likely gonna kick it up to hard for the added challenge and getting all the achievements done in a single run.

If it's something much more complicated like Total War: Warhammer III where I'm learning multiple systems, planning ahead, and the game takes a long time to play through then I'll likely kick it down to easy just to make it easier to learn the in's and out's of everything without having the AI crush my ass before I've even got my bearings straight.

And if at any point I find myself not having fun because of the difficulty level I kick it in the appropriate direction to get things to be fun again.

Always Normal on the first run of the game and once I beat it and replay it, I'll be hard mode as I already experience the gameplay and the enemies I'll be dealing with.

Always “normal.” I don’t have time to sink into a game due to it raising the difficulty.

Normal default setting.

Back in the NES-PS2 era, I played Sports/Wrestling games on the highest difficulty.

Normal or Hard. If normal is baby easy and boring, i do Hard.

I only play on hard if it's my 2nd playthrough

Hard if the game is really good and normal otherwise though I wince everytime a game has difficulty options. It's never as good as a single balanced mode. You always have odd difficutly spikes on hard mode and unbalanced poorly paced sections and normal is always too easy.

Sekiro or Returnal are basically the platonic perfect difficulty. You expereince real challenge but yet it is finely tuned for every encounter. If those games had difficulty levels, normal would be trivial and hard would have uneven spikes and worse pacing which is something neither of those games.

I'm not in to frustration anymore. I play on the easiest setting. I want to have fun, not get aggrevated.

I always start on hard but not the hardest if there's one. I like to explore and take my time, so in enemy and boss encounters i usually have way more resources and power than i'm supposed to at that moment.

I like starting on normal.

normal, although if it is a real cakewalk I will go bump it up a notch. But tbh, as I get older punishing difficulty is nothing but a turn off. So a balanced experience is my happy spot

I usually play on normal the first time, and if there’s an achievement for completing it at a higher difficulty then I will go harder.

Normal for me.

Depends on game. Typically normal or hard. for example I recently played A Plague Tale: Requiem on normal, because I don’t care about its gameplay and just want a smooth experience.

I’m now playing CP2077 on hard. I find that RPGs get better on higher difficulties because then you have to think a bit about your build. Also if you die regulary, finding new items/level up feels more rewarding.

Always hard or very hard. Since that difficulty most games are designed for in mind.