why are add-ons always so difficult?

J

Jochen

Rear Admiral
Especially in the add-ons for WC1 and WC2 I finally had spent SO MUCH TIME to succeed in some missions while still failing some others even after dozens of tries so that it always took me to the "bad outcome" in the end :mad: ...

finally I was so frustated that I just wanted to see the "good outcome", even if just by cheating...
I know, I know, most of you perhaps don't like people who cheat, but as said before, I just did not see another way to see the "good outcome"...

just why have add-ons always to be so much more difficult then the original games... another example is (in my opinion) the add-on for strike commander (for those of you who know it)...

Do you agree with me?
 
I don't think add-ons are always harder, but I think there is a trend in that direction. I like them harder. Partly because add-ons tend to have slightly fewer missions. If they are harder the game lasts longer. Also, just as the first missions in the original game were easy, but the later missions were usually harder, the trend continues. I've noticed that usually the first couple mission are easy to moderate difficuty, mainly to get you reacquainted to the game if you have been away from it for a while, and then the learning curve gets much steeper. That's been my observation, anyway.
 
Back before it was 'cool' to play computer games, the enjoyment came from accomplishing difficult tasks: figuring out a hard puzzle, playing a hard mission, etc. (Now, of course, the purpose seems to be winning as easily and quickly as possible...). With this in mind, companies targeted addon packages towards original players who wanted even more of a challenge.
 
I'll agree with LOAF, I remember back when being on a computer all day made you a dork. :) But ya know what? The games back then were a lot more challenging, as well as a lot more satisfying when you won.
 
I know, huh!? All games today suffer from the "PS2 Disease."

Not saying the PS2 is bad (I own one and love it) but all the games can be beat in two hours.

The only WC game I had a problem with as far as length goes is WC4. For 6 CDs, it sure was short....
 
Originally posted by Supdon3
Id like to see you beat Final Fantasy X in 2 hours:)
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Well... okay. I'll give you that (and GTA3). Can't think of any others.

A friend of mine actually beat FF10 in ten hours after a non-stop, no sleep gaming marathon. I was amazed. How??
 
Apparently the standard formula for add-ons is to "jack up the AI so any enemy can shoot the ass off a gnat at four hundred paces", and then set "insanely restrictive mission parameters so that bumping into a shrub on the way to the extraction point forces you to replay the entire mission over"...hope I got that right...

That was for Rogue Spear by the way :)
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Back before it was 'cool' to play computer games, the enjoyment came from accomplishing difficult tasks: figuring out a hard puzzle, playing a hard mission, etc. (Now, of course, the purpose seems to be winning as easily and quickly as possible...). With this in mind, companies targeted addon packages towards original players who wanted even more of a challenge.
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Mmmhh... sadly, this seems to be the case today. :(
I can think of a couple exceptions though...

Take the Tomb Raider series... they get harder and harder at each episode, maybe to try to give the "difficult task enjoyment" LOAF's talking about...
Then again a lot of people complain they're too hard...

(Now, of course, the purpose seems to be winning as easily and quickly as possible...).
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Add to that the availabilty in 2-3 clicks of full walkthroughs to practically every game on the market, and you got the average time it takes to finish a game even lower.

You're gonna say you could just ignore the walkthroughs on the net... Well yeah, but it's simply too tempting for me and a lot of other people... When I play an adventure game, it's sometimes really frustrating to get stuck somewhere for 3 hours, what's more sometimes the frustration is triggered after a mere 10 minutes (yeah, that's sad)...
Originally posted by Col.Dom

Well... okay. I'll give you that (and GTA3). Can't think of any others.
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Try the Fallout series, or basically any RPG on the market (except the windows desktop adventures Yoda Stories, Indiana Jones and the like... :))
 
I never played any Tomb Raider game but maybe each time the series seemed harder it was due to graphical improvement and the thus resulting distraction by our heroine. ;)
 
Well, after letting WC rest for a while to do exams, I'm now continuing where I left off in SM2. My next stop is protecting Ralgha's ship (5th mission). So I'll be in for some tough fights...
For the record, this is my first time playing SM2. And I found SM1 hard as hell. How does SM2 compare? Easier, harder, the same?
 
Originally posted by Mekt-Hakkikt
I never played any Tomb Raider game but maybe each time the series seemed harder it was due to graphical improvement and the thus resulting distraction by our heroine. ;)
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Right... as in "on your knees, Lara, now!" <g>
 
Originally posted by Unforgiven
For the record, this is my first time playing SM2. And I found SM1 hard as hell. How does SM2 compare? Easier, harder, the same?
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I agree with you on SM1... I'm not sure about SM2: "a little easier" at best, perhaps even harder :(

Anyway... good hunting!!! :)
 
IIRC, I found SM2 a bit harder than SM1 (which doesn't mean that I found SM1 easy).

mpanty, Saturnyne: I am shocked! ;)
 
Originally posted by mpanty
Try the Fallout series, or basically any RPG on the market (except the windows desktop adventures Yoda Stories, Indiana Jones and the like... :))
Click to expand...


But we were talking about PS2 games
 
Mmmhh... in that case I should add "I'd like to see you beat Metal Gear Solid in 2 hrs..." :)
(you can even stick a "2" after "Solid", it's probably gonna be even harder...)
 
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