Action games are broken, let's fix them!

by John Bardinelli { May 1st 2007 at 2:22PM }

While playing Halo 2, how would you feel if you were suddenly forced to play chess against a tough computer opponent? That kind of interruption wouldn't fly in an action game, yet every day we play non-action titles that inject twitch gameplay at every turn. Gamasutra takes a look at the whole "action" game thing and discusses toning down the difficulty to make games more accessible.

The trouble with putting tough action sequences in RPGs, sims, and puzzle games is that not every gamer has spaz-like thumb reflexes. It's the nature of action games to try to defeat the player and force him/her to start over, a throwback to the days of quarter-munching arcade machines. The problem is that these action sequences are distracting gamers and do little more than pile on the frustration and force us to throw a controller through the wall.

Should action games stick to their own genre and leave brainy games alone? And if not, do you think action games as a whole are too difficult?

Tags: action, difficulty

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

chenry @ May 1st 2007 2:25PM

I have no problem with it, but I was raised on a steady diet of milk, cookies, and action.

Stabface Pro @ May 1st 2007 2:27PM

Personally I never really cared for Rastan, the parts with the vines were way too hard to time.

T @ May 1st 2007 2:29PM

I want to know what ever happened to adjustable difficulty settings. I read about Umbrella Chronicles on Wii possibly having a toned down difficulty and i want to know what the heck happened!

Guitar Hero, God of War, Halo...they have their easy/novice modes for people just getting into games, and you can enjoy the game at that level if you aren't a hardcore finger-flying maniac. But then they've got the various levels of difficulty that you're more than welcome to try out should you want to go ahead and be challenged a bit.

Because as a long time gamer, there's nothing more insulting than having a game I'm looking forward too end up coming out and being ridiculously easy because they wanted it to be more accessible.

Ryan P. @ May 1st 2007 2:34PM

It's all about balance:

An action game needs to get your blood pumping, there needs to be enough danger to give you an adrenaline rush and feeling of acomplishement. But just enough and not much more. If the balance is off the game will loose you.

God of War had just the right balance.

Zelda has become way too easy, going through TP felt like touring the pretty environments with ZERO fear of enemies. Just like Wind Waker.

Then you have the Metroid bosses, many of wich are too hard. Boost guardian? WTF!! After twenty years of gaming I shouldn't be giving up on a game I paid $60 dollars for. ( I beat it eventually just recently, but it felt purley by chance)

Ryan.

beans @ May 1st 2007 2:35PM

"do you think action games as a whole are too difficult?"

are you f***ing kidding me?

samfish @ May 1st 2007 2:36PM

"Should action games stick to their own genre and leave brainy games alone? And if not, do you think action games as a whole are too difficult?"

HAHAHA! Games too difficult? Please. Video games have been dumbed down so much these days, I'm not sure how you could make them much easier. If you want hard, go dig up an NES!

But yeah...I don't think action games and 'brainy' games should be separate, and THAT'S THAT. If you can add the more involving action game features to an RPG or something and the game is stronger for it, than by all means put it in.
But if it's hurting the game, then remove it.

Ditto the other way around.

Jack of No Trades @ May 1st 2007 2:36PM

NINJA GAIDEN BLACK was perfect.

Quakeulf @ May 1st 2007 2:38PM

For FPSes, I personally love it when something completely breaks the monotonous progression of a game. Let's say in one moment you are hacking down soldiers with your labrys, and in the next you have to play Texas Hold'em "Casino Royale"-style with your villains trying to get some informations for your next mission, and then finish the mission by either using persuasion or force.

Adding vehicles and stealth missions is a stupid way of thinking "change" though, as they should both only be complementary, not mandatory to use to succeed a mission in a given FPS. I hate it when a game requires me to sneak past a billion guards in a very awkward fashion because I know it'll instantly be "MISSION FAILED" if one sees me. I also hate linearity, as seen in Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. The openness of Far Cry just made my day, to give a little comparison.

Sara @ May 1st 2007 2:40PM

I agree with the sentiment, at least to a certain extent. I enjoy action games, rpgs, strategy(rarely, but occasionally), fps, etc, etc, but it's nice to keep the genres somewhat segregated. For instance, I rented Chocobo Tales. Uggh. Little did I know, I was getting a kiddy rpg, lumped with a button masher, and then flambeed with a side of card games. *sigh*

The problem, is that most of the good games out there, to date, have done this. A good example of this takes place in the game "Beyond Good & Evil". The game is an action RPG, that is absolutely great. However, one of the worst features (which is due, to a good part, from the fact that it clashes with the rest of the atmosphere) to a mini game you are required to beat. Well, at least if you want 100% completion.

Quakeulf @ May 1st 2007 2:40PM

Ok I must admit I hate a lot of things related to gaming. So much infact I find it strange I'm still a gamer. Could be the Wii, could be the graphics.

Farseer @ May 1st 2007 2:41PM

I agree with Ryan on the level of difficulty in recent Zelda games. Wind Waker and TP were extremely forgiving when it came to battle. Sure I could pull off some fun moves, but if I didn't time it right, I didn't suffer. Plus, there was always a heart or two or three nearby afterward.

I downloaded LttP on the VC and went into it right after beating TP. I got chewed up quickly, the low energy beeper was sounding, and I realized, that's right! This is how I remembered Zelda!

Action games have been cushioned lately IMHO.

Antonio @ May 1st 2007 2:44PM

Except for the original version of Devil May Cry 3, action games get the difficulty balance just right. I agree that Zelda:TP was way too easy, except for the wolf parts when you didn't have many hearts. The sad part is LttP, OoT, and MM aren't even that hard to begin with. Damn Nintendo if you're gonna water things down that much give us a 'hard' mode.

Farseer @ May 1st 2007 2:44PM

Jack, you're right - Ninja Gaiden (Black) was perfect. Here's to a sequel.

Stabface Pro @ May 1st 2007 2:45PM

I always wished they made a game where it was an rpg but the fights were real punchy kicky like street figther. None of this hitting A over and over to choose attack on the menu. Phantasy Star

teitoku @ May 1st 2007 2:50PM

I think the writer of this news item simply has poor taste in games. Play some good, well-made action games cap'n.

hegemonyhog @ May 1st 2007 2:53PM

A lot of older games were hard, but a lot of older games were also hard because they sucked royally.

Case in point: TMNT for the NES (the original version without the theme song). Everyone I know remembers that game as awesome but hard. I went back and played it recently, and it was hard...mainly because the design made no sense. A bunch of doors, enemies that existed for no reason but to create a pattern to memorize, hits you couldn't avoid and objectives that were obtuse at best.

Going down the list of old-school (and even new-school) releases, it's much the same - it's incredibly hard to design challenge competently, incredibly easy to hide things from the player.

It's something I've noticed quite a bit in the 3D era: games that becomes drastically more difficult because the designers were either too clever or too lazy to make the point of the exercise clear, or even discoverable. I wonder if we'll fetishize them ten years down the line, too.

NintendoFanbot @ May 1st 2007 2:54PM

Action games have been "getting easier" because your control over what your characters can do has always been evolving. Now not only can Link stab with his sword, he can do 30 other types of sword attacks and has 100 each of bombs and arrows and the 20 other weapons he has. But usually for every item that Link has there's an enemy that's only vulnerable in 1 or 2 ways.

Though the Cave of Ordeals was hella fun to go through. I ran out of all my potions AND my rupees (Magic Armor) and barely beat the 3rd Iron Knuckle with a quarter of a heart (I had all 20) left.

RE4 isn't as scary because of the variety of weapons and methods you can defeat enemies but your degree of control is much more than what the original RE had.

But as the player gets more capable of doing things, the enemies should be able to as well. I really loved that in TP there were 'Bulblins?' riding giant hogs trying to take me down. The Iron Knuckles in the game were like 5x harder than the Darknuts from WW, especially in numbers.

Otherwise, it just feels 'dumbed down'. I guess one of the most pressing concerns is how versatile the enemy characters of the game are.

Raikage @ May 1st 2007 3:01PM

Thats why I stop playing games right in the middle of them. They throw something in that doesn't belong. At least when I played Prince of Persia I knew what I was getting into but with some games it throws in filler and I can't stand it. When I want to play an action game I don't want to do a bunch of nearly impossible puzzles, I'd rather watch a stupid 1 minute action sequence that do a lame puzzle.

Jack, your right Ninja Gaiden was just about perfect, I can't wait for NG on the DS...

Saneless @ May 1st 2007 3:04PM

Depends on how good they are at it.

God of War is a great action/fighting game, but the platforming is crap. I've not played a worse controlling game than when Kratos was walking on the beams. Just utter garbage gameplay, especially after playing Prince of Persia.

Square seems to be big into the "Hey we don't know how to do controls, but we're going to throw this game at you" kind of gameplay. Stick to letting me constantly hit x for 3 straight hours, thanks.

Jack of No Trades @ May 1st 2007 3:10PM

This is the future of video games. Interactive gameplay.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bhlq_GhYGsM&mode=related&search=

Aberu @ May 1st 2007 3:13PM

I agree with the article on the whole action elements invading the more relaxing slow-paced games. My grandma has played RPG's since I was 4, starting with Ultima for the C64, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest(Warrior) for the NES. She is getting frustrated with all the newer RPGs for PS2 incorporating to much dextrous gameplay versus the pleasing strategy of before. I don't like having to do certain parts of the game for her either, like in FF12 recently.

This whole infatuation with reinventing gaming has one victim. The consumers. I used to be able to play Shining Force for 8 hours on end, and I still can. But I can't sit for more than 2 hours on FF12. What's the deal here?

Cee @ May 1st 2007 3:18PM

Stabface Pro just described the game of my dreams.

Plaid Ninja @ May 1st 2007 3:18PM

The first thing to do is establish a pact to ban escort missions from now to the end of time.

I have to admit, I get somewhat annoyed when my games are interrupted by useless crap. For example, I stopped playing FF8 & FF10 because of the stupid things like the card game and the water soccer matches. Mostly because they had some ridiculous rule scheme that was next to impossible to figure out. (Well next to impossible to get my interest level up enough to spend time to learn) I just felt forced to play through these crappy parts that I had no interest in, so I put the games down. 've not picked up FF12 for fear of there being some other bizzarro sports/math/card/marble thing to figure out.

As for difficulty, games shouldn't be so easy that all you need to do is press the A button repeatedly (Kirby's Air Ride) but they shouldn't feel like work either. Games are meant to be entertaining and possibly thought provoking, not rage inducing. Maybe some people like fighting the vertical uphill battles but I'm not a masochist, nor do I have all the time in the world to perfect my m4d l33t sk1llz.

Jack @ May 1st 2007 3:25PM

Leave games hard for the experienced. If game developers weren't so lazy they could all incorporate a system that adjusts to your awesomeness or crappiness.

Ex: Devil May Cry and Ultimate Spiderman

Squeek @ May 1st 2007 3:25PM

Wait, what? Make them... EASIER?!

God of War is no more than a button-masher! The game literally requires no skill at all! At least, when compared to Ninja Gaiden Black and Devil May Cry 3.

All genres of games are too easy now. I want a game where I fail. Often. And I don't want that game to have cheats to make it easier, because the temptation to use them will always be there.

If there's a timer, I want that timer to be unforgiving. None of this "You only have 8 minutes to escape!" only to have you leave within the first minute.

If the reason they're toning them down is to market them to younger audiences, then why are they ending up as M-rated games?

LongshotX @ May 1st 2007 3:26PM

Thank you Wii for making games so easy...everything is dumbed down now for the casual gamer. Its wonderful! Oh, we are so blessed now that the Mighty Wii has arrived. The Savior of Video Games. Hail Wii! Hail Wii!.....

Jack of No Trades @ May 1st 2007 3:33PM

LongshotX

lol yes indeed.

ZenGaijin @ May 1st 2007 3:34PM

I'm tired of people having to dumb games down because people whine and complain about the difficulty. I play games because I like to be entertained and challenged and most of the time only part of this formula is working.

DMC3/NinjaGaiden was the last time I got both doses from a game with first having to complete it on an easier setting. This is my problem with God of War the combat is to easy the combo system is great and the feel of the action as well. This is were my praise ends because for an action game to be successful the people you go up against have to be able to put up a fight. This doesn't happen in God of War a Minotaur that slashes me with an axe twice the size of me should drop me in one to two swipes. GoW nails presentation but falls short on replayvalue for this same reason. Once you've seen the highs and loves of its rollercoaster ride experience you're left with shallow combat.

NinjaGaiden blended the enemies and combat well, almost to well at times (leaving some enemies feeling cheap i.e unblockable throws). DevilMayCry I enjoyed more because of its flash and wow factor. Playing the game rewarded me learning the system and taking risks to try and look cool (example: I could slash enemies with the same combo over and over OR I could switch weapons in mid combo juggle the enemy in the air jump on his back and spin around the room shooting at other enemies).

On the suject of the post I think that complete mindless action would be bad you need something to break it up once in awhile to keep the game from getting stale.

Alex @ May 1st 2007 3:36PM

27, the Wii has made games more compelling, the level of skill it takes to play any game is in the hands of the developer.

Zelda is too easy, and Metroid should stop being called a FPS when its strictly has been a FPA with barely any action in it (hope that changes for MP3). But you can't expect action games to keep your adrinaline(sp?) up every second, some slow paced moments are essential, for storytelling for example

MadCow @ May 1st 2007 3:38PM

It's important to try and keep things fresh in any genre, and in that light developers should keep an open mind.

But i'll tell you what i know: keep square/enix the hell away from action games (drakengaurd) and keep capcom the hell away from rpg hybrids (chaos legion)

those are specific examples, but the moral here is a little goes a long way.

The puzzle boxes in Onimusha are a nice (optional) breaks from action that add a little depth, and the jazzed up ATB in X-2 kept things just spicy enough to seem fresh.

As for difficulty, games are dumb enough, don't cheapen things for the sake of audiences that don't know better.

p.s. good to see so much NG love!!

Matthew @ May 1st 2007 3:44PM

Eh? The only game I've found difficult in recent years is Devil May Cry 3, and it wasn't so difficult as it simply lacked checkpoints prior to boss fights and I lacked patience to play through the same level repeatedly.

Other than that I can't remember a difficult action game (note: I've yet to play Ninja Gaiden). God of War was easy, so were the Onimusha games.

The only genre I find difficult as a whole would have to be scrolling shooters, but that's a given.

jonathan @ May 1st 2007 3:45PM

Why try to fit action games in a box? If it's a good game, and people like it, who cares what mix of elements are used? Different elements help change the pace of the game. If done well, it enhances the experience. But that's the real point of "good" games: they have to be good. No matter what the element involved.

heretrix @ May 1st 2007 3:50PM

"The first thing to do is establish a pact to ban escort missions from now to the end of time."
@ #23

How about lets figure out how to do them correctly instead of banning them? I don't really have a problem with the concept of an escort mission, But I do have a problem with the escort being programmed with moronic AI that makes them run into the line a fire like a fucking retard.

LongshotX @ May 1st 2007 3:52PM

Hail the Almighty Wii! Who is like the Wii? God of all consoles past, present, and yet to come. With your Wiimote of Justice and Nunchuk of Truth, and VC of Respect you, and only you can challenge the blasphemy it is to utilize next generation equipement. Only you God Wii, can brazenly make games with their overly simplistic premise, unispiring gameplay, and overly easy difficulty under the guise of hype and make it appeal to the casual crowd; even normally hardcore gamers. I applaud your mediocrity and I pray you forgive those who indulge in heresy; those who have fornicate with Blu-Ray, Hard drives, Media Playback, Online integration, Cells, Xenons, Guide Buttons, Live Arcade games, and Sixaxis. May their souls burn in an eternal Hell. I cannot wait to join you my lord, in the neverending Kingdom of Wii. To all those that hear my call, fight back the Demons that are the Playstation and Xbox Fanboys. May they all suffer eternal punishment and feel the deathly wrath of God Wii. AHAHAHAHA!!!

James @ May 1st 2007 3:55PM

I hate that crap too. FF7's little action sequences were just frustrating. I think I hate that sorta thing most because it's unexpected. I play a certain genre for the genre not for other genre's needlessly inserted in. The worst part is it's half assed.

Jack of No Trades @ May 1st 2007 3:56PM

LongshotX

Looks like the both of us are going to hell with the rest of the hardcore market.

NintendoFanbot @ May 1st 2007 4:01PM

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA the hardcore market

the most overrated of markets

"I don't wear a helmet when I ride my Bike... OF WAR!!!"

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[/trolling]

Vegan @ May 1st 2007 4:01PM

#25

I think it boils down to how you have fun. Some people have fun leisurely strolling through a game, other people get enjoyment from the payoff of finally beating that hard game after months of grueling training. Feeling like a rock star after weeks of practice.

Me, personally, I stop having fun when it starts to feel like work instead of a game; when it feels like the game is playing me instead of me playing the game. There's A LOT of games that I want to play, I missed out on entire generations. I don't really have time to let a game make me suffer. A hard game may be good, yeah... but in the time I spend practicing it, I could've played 5 other more accessible games that are just as good. I have to weigh my choices and figure out what's best for me.

Now, if you've played everything and you want a game that'll LAST until the next big game comes along, that's a different situation. I'm not in those shoes, though.

Different strokes, but that just emphasizes the need for adjustable difficulty levels on all games.

Jack of No Trades @ May 1st 2007 4:04PM

NintendoFanbot

Change your name to CasualFanbot.

NintendoFanbot @ May 1st 2007 4:11PM

Jack:

Haha that's a cool name! But the trick is that instead of worrying what kind of gamer I am I just play the games I want to play. I can powergame with the best of them. :P

Most of the 'hardcore' games that I enjoy are long dead with the Arcades so neither or very rarely can I enjoy them in their original form.

And the Nintendo games today where fans study them to an extraordinarilly deep level (like Pokemon, F-Zero, or Smash Bros., etc.), I tend not to sweat the technical aspects and instead focus on the game and having fun.

Dalrint @ May 1st 2007 4:14PM

I'm kinda tired of action popping up in games. Or replacing games. Don't get me wrong, I love a good action game, but I was thinking last night that I really, really want a new, quality old-school style turn-based Rpg. But...all the rpgs are action-rpgs now.

It's annoying.

Jake @ May 1st 2007 4:15PM

Having multiple difficulty levels can fix this. It works nicely in FPS games. It isn't that easy in an action game, though. It is difficult to tone down the jumping with insta-death falls sequences. But, I would be willing to bet that a dev could figure out some tricks to make the game accessible for n00bs and challenging for L33T5.

Back in the day, you basically could only get throught he first couple of levels if you sucked.

Rubang B @ May 1st 2007 4:17PM

@4, hey Ryan P., what Metroid game did you pay $60 for?

@14, StabFace Pro, the character Sabin in Final Fantasy 6 uses Hadokens and other specials in battle, and you actually have to enter the motions or button combos to perform them. It's only one character, but it was a breath of fresh air in an already awesome RPG. But a full fighter RPG could be the next Puzzle Quest! Fighter Quest!

Or hell, they could just make a new River City Ransom. That let you level up your stats and learn special moves and get stronger and collect items. The sequel took place in feudal Japan, but was only released in Japan. It had even more RPG elements. If you find a translated ROM of that online, it's the best RPG/beat'em up ever. A new version of that with more RPG elements would be the best thing in life.

@Jack of No Trades, what hardcore market are you talking about? The best selling games are Guitar Hero and Wii Play and Generic Shooter 3819047 and Generic GTA Clone 819057. Those are games that babies could play.

Jack of No Trades @ May 1st 2007 4:19PM

Hardcore as in challenging.

hegemonyhog @ May 1st 2007 4:26PM

Not the dumbass "hardcore" gamers again.

"I only play M-rated games! That makes me HARDCORE!"

"I only play things that take advantage of my 1080p 52" TV! If you don't have one, you're not HARDCORE!"

"That character has big eyes! That's not HARDCORE!"

Hardcore can go choke on its own rocklike feces.

Almack64 @ May 1st 2007 4:27PM

@ Jake

"Back in the day, you basically could only get throught he first couple of levels if you sucked."

You're so right. You knew you had accomplished something when you could at least get to the last level let alone beat the game. There are actually a lot of games of years past that I've never beaten but had a blast playing. Zelda II, Battletoids, Plok to name a few off my head. Theses days I can sit down beat the game and all the side things with little difficulty, that said I still have fun.

I guess the truth of the matter is as long as I'm still having fun gaming is accomplishing its purpose. Hard, easy, long, short, hardcore, causual, HD, 2D whatever as long as they are fun. And what is fun for you may not be fun for me and vise-versa. You know when I think about it we gamers do a lot of complaining about how we think other people should feel, over nothing.

The truth is maybe the most reasonable people on this site are the trolls who are at least having fun stirring the rest of us up. It's almost like they're playing a game...

/end rant

Mr Khan @ May 1st 2007 4:32PM

I'd say its the best kind of games that mix up the challenges. Super Paper Mario is really an excellent example of this, as is the Metroid series

A wide variety of action is what makes the perfect single player experience

The problem is that sometimes games that focus on puzzles and other "wtf do i do next" challenges (like Zelda) become astronomically easier in this age of prolific game guides and gamefaqs, and the balance needs to be readjusted

They should totally bring back random dungeons and random levels, especially for PS3, the cell would really help make a game's worlds different every time

wackychan @ May 1st 2007 4:32PM

Wanna talk about hard games that are fun as hell? Play GUNVALKYRIE for xbox. Its my favorite one player game. And I still haven't beat it yet. But one of these days I will.

Its like i get really frustrated and scream and cry and fail attempts at killing myself. Then i say fuck it and put the game down swearing never to play again.

And before I know it about a month later im going at it again. Its a love/hate relationship i have with this game. I dont want the game to beat me! I want to beat the damn game!

Its awesome.