all the pictures included in this post were taken directly from the game by me
On several occasions I have mentioned Batman Arkham City within this community as one of my favorite games of all time, beyond all the memes that arose as a result of the typical comment that it made you "feel like Batman" we all must admit that It was one of the most complete beat em ups of the entire generation, intermingling elements of the open world, exploration, stealth, etc.
Its virtues, of course, did not end here, Arkham City was a visually attractive video game with very well thought-out gameplay, apart from this, it knew how to synthesize all the lore of DC's greatest character very well, simultaneously paying tribute to his darkest adventures and Also the funniest ones.
However, I am sorry to say that the reason for this post is far from being as positive as all the things I have mentioned, since Batman Arkham City has a huge flaw that reflects very well one of the most recurring sins of modern gaming: Its shape. to address the highest difficulties.
As is customary in many video games of this style, Arkham City has the possibility of altering the difficulty, bringing the "normal" mode as default but offering the "easy" and "difficult" mode as alternatives that we can access at all times, We could also mention Game Mode Plus, but unlike the higher difficulty I don't feel that this alternative incurs the problem that brought me to talk to you about this topic.
After years without dedicating a couple of hours to start a new game, but considering that I had already completed the game in its normal mode (as well as its respective Plus game mode) it seemed an interesting idea to set it to "Hard" this time, what? The result? A bit more disappointing than expected.
Although Arkham City's controls are delightful in every way (both in direct action and stealth moments), advancing through the story in the highest mode does not represent a significant change to the structure of the game, but rather rather it is dedicated to artificially inflating the number of hits that thugs can take, as well as increasing the number of thugs found in each area of the map, sounds logical right? In principle, yes, but it turns what was decided before into a very well-measured experience and with a pleasant timing into a series of tedious challenges where our greatest enemy will not be the criminals we find on the map but our own boredom as a product of monotony. .
The solution to this problem, although it would require extra work on the part of the development team, is quite simple: instead of inflating the statistics of our enemies, it would be more interesting to adapt their abilities in artificial intelligence, create incentives for the player to change the way to approach each challenge, and rewards creativity above all else.
This issue doesn't exist to the detriment of the overall experience, but it tells us a lot about the state of difficulty in games and how we can improve industry-wide standards, Batman Arkham City is still a wonderful game, but , if you analyze it for a long time, it may not be worth changing its difficulty level.
Todas las imágenes incluidas en este post fueron sacadas directamente desde el juego por mi
En varias ocasiones he mencionado dentro de esta comunidad a Batman Arkham City como uno de mis juegos favoritos de toda la vida, más allá de todos los memes que surgieron a raíz del típico comentario de que te hacía "sentir como Batman" todos debemos admitir que se trataba de uno de los beat em ups más completos de toda la generación, entremezclando consigo elementos de mundo abierto, exploración, sigilo, etc.
Sus virtudes, por supuesto, no terminaban aquí, Arkham City era un videojuego visualmente atractivo con un gameplay muy bien pensado, aparte de esto sabía sintetizar muy bien todo el lore del personaje más grande de DC, rindiendo tributo simultáneamente a sus aventuras más sombrías y también a aquellas más divertidas.
No obstante, lamento decir que la razón de este post dista de ser tan positiva como todas las cosas que he mencionado, puesto que Batman Arkham City cuenta con un defecto grandísimo que refleja muy bien uno de los pecados más recurrentes del gaming moderno: Su forma de abordar las dificultades más elevadas.
Cómo es costumbre en muchos videojuegos de este estilo Arkham City cuenta con la posibilidad de alterar la dificultad, trayendo como defecto el modo "normal" pero brindando el modo "fácil" y "difícil" como alternativas a las que podemos acceder en todo momento, también podríamos mencionar el Modo de juego Plus, pero a diferencia de la dificultad más elevada no siento que está alternativa incurra en el problema que me trajo a hablarles sobre este tema.
Luego de años sin dedicarle un par de horas empezar ununa nueva partida, pero considerando que ya había completado el juego en su modalidad normal (Así cómo su respectivo modo de juego Plus) me pareció una idea interesante configurarlo en "Hard" está vez, ¿El resultado? Un poco más decepcionante de lo esperado.
Aunque los controles de Arkham City son una delicia en todo aspecto (Tanto en la acción directa como en los momentos de sigilo), avanzar a través de la historia en la modalidad más elevada no representa un cambio considerable a la estructura del juego, sino que más bien se dedica a inflar artificialmente la cantidad de golpes que los matones pueden soportar, así como aumentar la cantidad de los mismos que se encuentran en cada área del mapa, ¿Suena lógico, verdad? En principio si, pero convierte lo qudecidíse antes era una experiencia muy bien medida y con un timing agradable en una serie de retos tediosos en dónde nuestro mayor enemigo no serán los criminales que nos encontramos en el mapa sino nuestra propio aburrimiento como producto de la monotonía.
La solución a este problema, aunque requeriría trabajo extra por parte del equipo desarrollador, es bastante simple: en vez de inflar las estadísticas de nuestros enemigos, sería más interesante adaptar las capacidades de los mismos en inteligencia artificial, crea incentivos para que el jugador cambie la forma de de abordar cada desafío, y recompensa la creatividad por encima de todas las cosas.
Este problema no existe en detrimento de la experiencia general, pero nos dice demasiadas cosas sobre el estado de la dificultad en los videojuegos y la forma en la que podemos mejorar los estándares de toda la industria, Batman Arkham City sigue siendo un videojuego maravilloso, pero, si te pones a analizarlo durante un largo rato, quizá no valga la pena cambiar su nivel de dificultad.
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If its a good game and you like the time spending in the exploration or in the plot, then the small problems can't be deal with you. I understand what you're talking about the difficulty problem but you liked the game it seemed. And I'd not thinking about changing the difficulty level if there's a chance of spoiling the game.
And I always prefer the difficulty that offers a good experience of the plot with an easy action features.
Yes! Is a good game, I still like it! I just wish that the difficulty were handled a little bit better
Difficulty scales have always been a crux that the players have had to deal with. In FPS games the NPCs instantly know where you are and their bullets one shot, in RPG games usually the players output damage is reduced, in RTS games the enemy faction has split second reactions to anything that happens on the battlefield even in the fog of war.
Usually developers just make the harder difficulties impossible to have fun playing and say 'Well it's difficult isn't it?'. But there are some games that tweak the scales just right and those are the games that should be applauded.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it was fun reading!