10 Games With UNIQUE Difficulty Settings

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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we're looking at games that go beyond choosing easy, normal,

00:13and hard, presenting players with original takes on difficulty.

00:17I would prefer not to do battle against one who's ill-equipped.

00:20Before we begin, we publish new content all week long,

00:23so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.

00:30Baldur's Gate 3

00:40Larian did a lot of things right with Baldur's Gate 3, including its difficulty settings.

00:45Explorer is its easy mode, balanced is normal, and tactician is hard.

00:50But what really spices things up is honor mode.

00:52Now it isn't the first game to have an honor mode, but in a world so richly steeped in D&D,

00:58it becomes all the more remarkable.

01:07Here you get a single save file, and it only saves when you exit to the main menu,

01:12which means no savescumming.

01:13Also, everything is a hell of a lot harder, including bosses having legendary actions,

01:19and if your party is killed, that's that.

01:21You can either choose to continue on custom mode, which nullifies honor mode, or delete your save.

01:27It's as close to a digital high-level D&D campaign as you can get.

01:46From the outside, it may seem like a linear action-adventure game like System Shock

01:50would have your standard difficulty options, but it was groundbreaking in many ways.

01:55Before you start, you can adjust four levels across four categories of gameplay.

02:00Those categories are combat, puzzles, mission, so story objectives, and cyber,

02:05referring to when the player enters cyberspace, which has its own enemies and objectives.

02:17So, for instance, if you liked combat but weren't into puzzles,

02:21you could come across them completely solved and go about your day.

02:25We've seen many games since give players the ability to adjust multiple aspects of a game,

02:30but not many of them were available as early as 1994.

02:49When Capcom remade the original Resident Evil, it gave players a lot of new content,

02:54including some harder modes that were uniquely challenging.

02:57By beating, once again, essentially this game's New Game+, you'd unlock real survival.

03:02In addition to hard-level enemies, it came with limitations like no auto-aiming and no linked item boxes.

03:16Even more of a challenge was invisible enemy mode, which had enemies visible only when they attacked,

03:22forcing players to rely on other visual cues like reflections in order to survive.

03:32Then there's One Dangerous Zombie, a feature unlocked after beating once again with both Jill and Chris.

03:38Here, a zombie with grenades strapped to its chest would spawn in certain rooms

03:42and chase you. If you shot it, the blast would automatically kill you.

03:52The Legend of Zelda

04:00Normally, changing the difficulty in a game makes enemies stronger and appear in larger numbers.

04:06Not only did The Legend of Zelda's second quest do that before difficulty settings were in most games,

04:11but it also changed its layout. As most fans know, you unlock the second quest

04:16after beating the game once, or entering Zelda as your name when creating a new file.

04:22You'll have a tougher time with the stronger enemy forces, but the locations of dungeons,

04:32as well as certain shops and heart containers, will be different. The layout of those dungeons

04:37are also completely changed, making them feel fresh for a second run.

04:46South Park, the Fractured But Whole

04:52Along with its predecessor, the Fractured But Whole is a solid RPG that naturally received

04:59praise for how it perfectly translated the show's humor into a video game format.

05:03This is obvious from the get-go as soon as you select your difficulty settings.

05:08It's part of the character creator. The darker you make their skin tone,

05:12the higher the difficulty gets.

05:14Admittedly, this doesn't alter combat, but it does influence other things like how certain

05:18characters treat you and how much money you can earn. South Park is known for, among other things,

05:24its social commentary, and having its game begin with a humorous statement on race was a strong start.

05:39God Hand

05:44Humility, thy name, is God Hand.

05:51Clover Studios' last game before closing was an interesting spin on the beat-em-up,

05:55with a heavy emphasis on combos. You had no option to choose the level of difficulty,

06:00with the game instead adapting to how well you were doing.

06:04During every fight, your opponents would grow more aggressive, the more damage you dealt.

06:09It was meant to keep fights from getting too stale, though if things were too hard for you,

06:13the game gave you an out. Your character's grovel mechanic could lower a fight's difficulty level by

06:18one, but they'd have to get on their hands and knees and beg for it. Oof, that's rough, buddy.

06:24Pathfinder Kingmaker

06:32When it comes to Pathfinder Kingmaker, the difficulty settings are nothing if not impressive.

06:37There are six general levels, ranging from story to unfair, or just a few of them.

06:43The first level is a bit of a pain in the arse, as you have to deal with a bunch of

06:47the difficulty settings are nothing if not impressive. There are six general levels,

06:51ranging from story to unfair, or there are a ton of specific settings you can customize

06:57to tailor the game to what you want. Some of these are what you might expect,

07:07like enemy strength, encumbrance, and permadeath. Others are a bit more specific,

07:11like the option to auto-level up or to have only active party members receive experience.

07:17Then you have more interesting ones like Immersive Mode, which removes most of your

07:21interface during combat, and Last Azlanti Mode, which is similar to Honor Mode in Baldur's Gate 3.

07:34Max Payne Series

07:42There are a variety of difficulty modes to be found in the Max Payne series,

07:48most of which limit your resources and saves the higher you climb.

07:52However, also in each of them is New York Minute, an especially tough challenge.

08:06In the first game, it gave you a specific amount of time for each level in which to

08:10complete your objectives, otherwise Max would die. In the second, you were just given a score

08:15based on how fast you completed levels. However, in the third, each mission starts you with a

08:20single minute counting down, with every kill giving you a little bit more time.

08:25Needless to say, it's pretty tense.

08:35Hades

08:41Hades kept the roguelike formula fresh with a story that adapted with every death.

08:46Even still, Supergiant gave us a lot of ways to customize that experience.

08:50Eventually, Zagreus will get the Pact of Punishment,

08:53which allows you to add or remove certain features for your next run.

08:57There are 15 categories, most of which are on a scale,

09:00and all of which make Zagreus' next life harder.

09:11You can choose to increase enemy numbers or shop prices, give the bosses new attacks,

09:17sacrifice a boon upon leaving every region, and many, many others.

09:21But you'll get rare rewards for your effort. Outside of that, God Mode starts with 20%

09:26reduction for enemy damage, increasing by 2% with every death, and capping at 80%.

09:31Or you can go in the opposite direction with Hell Mode, which has 6 mandatory Pact of Punishment

09:37conditions for every run, one of which is exclusive.

09:49Undertale

09:57There are multiple ways in which Indy Darling Undertale reacts to the player.

10:01The game attempts to teach you that you don't have to fight every monster you come across.

10:06If you play neutrally, killing enemies, leveling up, then your difficulty will be akin to normal.

10:11Things get more interesting on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

10:14If you play the pacifist, sparing and finding peace with all enemies and bosses,

10:19you'll actually have made things a tad harder since you won't level up,

10:23and therefore increase your health.

10:31However, if you play the genocidal maniac,

10:33going out of your way to kill every enemy until they all stop spawning,

10:37bosses will come down on you with the strength of a thousand suns.

10:41Undertale's meta approach to difficulty is certainly distinctive.

10:53Know any other games with unique difficulty settings? Share them with us in the comments,

10:57and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great gaming videos every day.

11:03Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed the video, there's more where that came from.

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