10 Games With UNIQUE Difficulty Settings

10 Games With Unique Difficulty Settings

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at games that go beyond choosing Easy, Normal, and Hard, presenting players with original takes on difficulty.

“Baldur’s Gate 3” (2023)

Larian did a lot of things right with “Baldur’s Gate 3,” including its difficulty settings. Explorer is its Easy Mode, Balanced is Normal, and Tactician is Hard. What really spices things up is Honor Mode. Now, it isn’t the first game to have an Honor Mode, but in a world so richly steeped in “D&D,” it becomes all the more remarkable. Here, you get a single save file, and it only saves when you exit to the main menu, which means no save scumming. Also, everything is a Hell of a lot harder, including bosses having Legendary Actions, and if your party is killed, that’s that. You can either choose to continue on Custom Mode, which nullifies Honor Mode, or delete your save. It’s as close to a digital high level “D&D” campaign as you can get.

“System Shock” (1994)

From the outside, it may seem like a linear action adventure game like “System Shock” would have your standard difficulty options. But it was groundbreaking in many ways. Before you start, you can adjust four levels across four categories of gameplay. Those categories are Combat, Puzzles, Mission, so story objectives, and Cyber, referring to when the player enters Cyberspace, which has its own enemies and objectives. So, for instance, if you liked combat but weren’t into puzzles, you could come across them completely solved and go about your day. We’ve seen many games since give players the ability to adjust multiple aspects of a game, but not many of them were available as early as 1994.

“Resident Evil” (2002)

When Capcom remade the original “Resident Evil,” it gave players a lot of new content, including some harder modes that were uniquely challenging. By beating ‘Once Again,’ essentially this game’s New Game Plus, you’d unlock Real Survival. In addition to Hard-level enemies, it came with limitations like no auto-aiming and no linked item boxes. Even more of a challenge was Invisible Enemy Mode, which had enemies visible only when they attacked, forcing players to rely on other visual cues like reflections in order to survive. Then there’s ‘One Dangerous Zombie,’ a feature unlocked after beating ‘Once Again’ with both Jill and Chris. Here, a zombie with grenades strapped to its chest would spawn in certain rooms and chase you. If you shot it, the blast would automatically kill you.

“The Legend of Zelda” (1987)

Normally, changing the difficulty in a game makes enemies stronger and appear in larger numbers. Not only did “The Legend of Zelda’s” second quest do that before difficulty settings were in most games, but it also changed its layout. As most fans know, you unlock the second quest after beating the game once, or entering ‘Zelda’ as your name when creating a new file. You’ll have a tougher time with the stronger enemy forces. But the locations of dungeons, as well as certain shops and Heart Containers, will be different. The layout of those dungeons are also completely changed, making them feel fresh for a second run.

“South Park: The Fractured But Whole” (2017)

Along with its predecessor, “The Fractured But Whole” is a solid RPG that naturally received praise for how it perfectly translated the show’s humor into a video game format. This is obvious from the get-go, as soon as you select your difficulty settings. It’s part of the character creator; the darker you make their skin tone, the higher the difficulty gets. Admittedly, this doesn’t alter combat, but it does influence other things like how certain characters treat you and how much money you can earn. “South Park” is known for, among other things, its social commentary. And having its game begin with a humorous statement on race was a strong start.

“God Hand” (2006)

Humility, thy name is “God Hand.” Clover Studio’s last game before closing was an interesting spin on the beat ‘em up, with a heavy emphasis on combos. You had no option to choose the level of difficulty, with the game instead adapting to how well you were doing. During every fight, your opponents would grow more aggressive the more damage you dealt. It was meant to keep fights from getting too stale, though if things were too hard for you, the game gave you an out. Your character’s Grovel mechanic could lower a fight’s difficulty level by 1, but they’d have to get on their hands and knees and beg for it. Oof, that’s rough buddy.

“Pathfinder: Kingmaker” (2018)

When it comes to “Pathfinder: Kingmaker,” the difficulty settings are nothing if not impressive. There are six general levels ranging from Story to Unfair. Or there are a ton of specific settings you can customize to tailor the game to what you want. Some of these are what you might expect, like enemy strength, encumbrance, and permadeath. Others are a bit more specific, like the option to auto level up or to have only active party members receive experience. Then you have more interesting ones like Immersive Mode, which removes most of your interface during combat, and Last Azlanti Mode, which is similar to “Baldur’s Gate 3’s” Honor Mode.

“Max Payne” Series (2001-12)

There are a variety of difficulty modes to be found in the “Max Payne” series, most of which limit your resources and saves the higher you climb. However, also in each of them is ‘New York Minute,’ an especially tough challenge. In the first game, it gave you a specific amount of time for each level in which to complete your objectives, otherwise Max would die. In the second, you were just given a score based on how fast you completed levels. However, in the third, each mission starts you with a single minute counting down, with every kill giving you a little bit more time. Needless to say, it’s pretty tense.

“Hades” (2020)

“Hades” kept the roguelike formula fresh with a story that adapted with every death. Even still, Supergiant gave us a lot of ways to customize that experience. Eventually, Zagreus will get the Pact of Punishment, which allows you to add or remove certain features for your next run. There are 15 categories, most of which are on a scale and all of which make Zagreus’ next life harder. You can choose to increase enemy numbers or shop prices, give the bosses new attacks, sacrifice a Boon upon leaving every region, and many, many others. But you’ll get rare rewards for your effort. Outside of that, God Mode starts with 20% reduction for enemy damage, increasing by 2% with every death and capping at 80%. Or you can go in the opposite direction with Hell Mode, which has six mandatory Pact of Punishment conditions for every run, one of which is exclusive.

“Undertale” (2015)

There are multiple ways in which indie darling “Undertale” reacts to the player. The game attempts to teach you that you don’t have to fight every monster you come across. If you play neutrally, killing enemies, leveling up, then your difficulty will be akin to Normal. Things get more interesting on the opposite ends of the spectrum. If you play the pacifist, sparing and finding peace with all enemies and bosses, you’ll actually have made things a tad harder since you won’t level up, and therefore increase your health. However, if you play like a genocidal maniac, going out of your way to kill every enemy until they all stop spawning, bosses will come down on you with the strength of a thousand suns. “Undertale’s” meta approach to difficulty is certainly distinctive.

Know any other games with unique difficulty settings? Share them with us in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great gaming videos every day!