Easy, Medium, or Hard. That's what most video game players grew up with and what they usually keep witnessing in today's games. They don't get another choice but to take the developers' words for what a difficulty level entails. However, it almost always boils down to more enemy HP or more enemy damage. This artificial way of increasing the challenge is a hot topic for debate.
That's why some developers stick to one difficulty for a vision of how their game is meant to be played. While others go the opposite direction and shower players with tons of options. Either way, everybody wins, but the latter option gives more freedom and can be preferable for other players. Also, games with customizable difficulty like these ten examples mean players only have themselves to blame if they can't "git gud."
10 Sniper Elite 4
- Release year: 2017
- Genre: Action, shooter
- Platforms: Google Stadia, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
One can consider any Sniper Elite game here but it seems the general consensus is that Sniper Elite 4, is the best among them overall. All of them thus far have been WW2 games where players are put into the shoes of an elite and covert sniper operative.
Their task is to go commando behind enemy lines, taking out priority targets, and sabotaging enemy camps. There is a standard difficulty slider that players can change anytime but they can also highly customize them. Even something as mundane as gravity effects, wind direction, or elevation can be taken into account making it partly a sniping simulator if players want.
9 Pillars Of Eternity
- Release year: 2015
- Genre: CRPG
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, Deadfire, is a callback from the good old days of CRPGs pioneered by Baldur's Gate. In a way, it's also one of the purest forms of gaming as it takes after something similar to a D&D ruleset. That tabletop game has a customizable difficulty depending on the Dungeon Master.
This extends into Pillars of Eternity as well. Players can customize friendly fire and even make things easier or more convenient for their party without detracting too much from the hardcore CRPG experience. Being able to adjust this mid-gameplay is also a great added bonus.
8 Solasta: Crown of the Magister
- Release year: 2020
- Genre: CRPG
- Platforms: PC
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is another game based on D&D except it's a faithful adaptation of the current ruleset or 5th Edition. Hence, its gameplay mostly relies on dice rolls of varying kinds. This can be rather brutal since it's the most random way of determining damage or hit chances.
That's why Solasta allows players to opt for something less traditional and more modern. It has a different difficulty mode wherein D&D dice isn't used, but something more forgiving. At the same time, players also get to customize the level of difficulty regardless of what RNG mode they pick.
7 Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
- Release year: 2018
- Genre: Action, adventure
- Platforms: Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes things more varied for its players and fans as it introduced a different approach to difficulty. Instead of going with the simple options that its predecessors offered, it lets players adjust the difficulty of each aspect of gameplay.
These are divided into three: Combat, Exploration, and Puzzle, apart from the overall difficulty. This way, it can appease all players as those who only want to see Lara slit some throats or go Gung-ho can opt for easier exploration or puzzles.
6 Thief (2014)
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- Release year: 2014
- Genre: Action, adventure, stealth
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Thief (2014) might not have had the same cultural impact as its distant predecessors but it did plenty of things right, particularly in the difficulty segment. There isn't really much to do in this game other than sneak around and steal stuff so the developers added options to spice things up.
These come in the form of custom difficulty metrics such as toggling food regeneration, killing/knockouts, limiting saves or arrows, etc. The best part about this implementation is that there's a point system where players earn more achievement points by making things harder on top of the usual easy, normal, or hard difficulties.
5 Forza Horizon 5
- Release year: 2021
- Genre: Racing
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Forza Horizon 5 is the latest entry in the veteran racing franchise that's giving Need for Speed a run for its money. While both franchises allow players to adjust how they drive their car as if in a real-world scenario, Forza Horizon 5 has a plethora of options that make racing less stressful.
Apart from being able to adjust enemy racer A.I., the game also allows players to tweak how much their car will assist them. There's even an ABS or a non-ABS toggle for the brakes as well as a driving assist, seemingly keeping in line with the current modern car computer tech. Some purists will prefer these off, however, so it's up top personal taste.
4 Persona 4
- Release year: 2008
- Genre: RPG, turn-based, simulation
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
It might not be the best nor the latest Persona title right now but Persona 4 was quite famous and well-received for how it presented its gameplay difficulty to its diehard fans. That's because Persona 4 adds in a custom or "Current" segment in its difficult selection.
This tab contains several toggles that can modify individual gameplay mechanics damage taken/given, monetary and experience rewards, and even the number of dungeon retries. That's on top of the artificial enemy buffs common among other games with simpler difficulty sliders.
3 Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Release year: 2017
- Genre: RPG
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a Nintendo Switch exclusive, sadly, because other platforms could use a game like it. It handles its difficulty sliders in a more sensible way compared to other RPGs or even other JRPGs. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gives players a decent number of ways to make things easier or harder, or just right.
They treat players like Goldilocks here where they get to test everything and the whole game is the three bears' house. A large range of gameplay modifiers is available for the players to customize here from enemy stats, their stats, and even some combo modifiers.
2 System Shock
- Release year: 1994
- Genre: FPS, RPG
- Platforms: PC
A game that's so phenomenal, it's getting a good remake that might actually get released in 2022. In any case, System Shock (the first one) did the bold move of separating difficulty sliders or toggles for each individual aspect of gameplay.
Those aspects would be Combat, Mission, Puzzle, and Cyber. It's similar to how Shadow of the Tomb Raider made its difficulty modular except System Shock did it more than two decades ago. As a testament to System Shock's craft, none of those difficulty sliders affect the story (save for the Mission aspect). Hence, players can enjoy the game guilt-free even if they put on the baby training wheels.
1 Hades
- Release year: 2020
- Genre: Roguelike, action, adventure, RPG
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Developer Supergiant Games have always pushed the bastion of game design with their tried and true titles. Hades is the best culmination of their experience over the years and it does everything perfectly— even the difficulty. Its primary genre is roguelike but even that won't put off players who hate punishing difficulties since Hades has a God-Mode toggle which is essentially the "Story Mode" difficulty.
Beyond that, players who have finished the game will find plenty more to do as a new mechanic called "Heat" will be introduced at that point. This lets players modify their escape runes in the Underworld to give enemies added moves, quirks, and stats as well as personal debuffs and environmental hazards. This endgame difficulty mechanic alone will make players feel like they're playing a different game. Hence, Hades can often feel like multiple games for the price of one. Best deal ever.