10 Video Games That Secretly Get Harder Without You Realising
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00:00Now video game difficulty can be a tricky thing. What's easy for one player can be soul-crushingly
00:04hard for another, and even when you pick your ideal difficulty at the start, that actually
00:09still might not be enough to save you. You see, a game can get harder for any number of reasons,
00:14which is exactly what we're here to talk about today as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:19and these are 10 Video Games That Secretly Get Harder Without You Realising.
00:2310. Not Going to the Church of Ella – Elden Ring
00:28Like any Souls game, how you start Elden Ring is vital to your chances of surviving to the end.
00:33But unlike previous Souls games, Elden Ring is a full card-carrying open-world title, and so
00:39it's very easy to miss a lot of very important things, and one of these things is visiting
00:43Merchant Kael at the Church of Ella. Almost every Tips for First-Time Players guide for this game
00:49will tell you to make this place one of your first stops upon starting the game. Not only
00:53does it have a site of grace to rest and save your progress, but Merchant Kael's inventory
00:57includes many items that are vital to any playthrough. This includes a crafting kit,
01:02a few recipes to get you started, and a torch. These three items are lifesavers for first-time
01:08players, and naturally, they're incredibly easy to miss. Like anywhere else in the game,
01:12there's nothing specific calling you to that church, you have to make the conscious decision
01:16to go there yourself. If you don't, then wherever you went instead just got a whole lot harder.
01:219. Not Playing the Previous Games – Mass Effect 3
01:25Mass Effect 3 is the culmination of an entire trilogy's worth of stories,
01:29so it's only natural that players who have been on the ride from minute one
01:32would have some distinct advantages. Like with Mass Effect 2, starting on a pre-made
01:37Shepard nets you extra points in either Paragon or Renegade, thus opening up more story options
01:42and giving you more opportunities to save everyone, especially when it comes to passing
01:46valuable reputation checks early on in the game. This is the only surefire way that you can stop
01:52the war between the Geth and the Quarians in a way that doesn't end with Tali or Legion dying.
01:57Depending on your choices in 1 and 2, this is also the only way to get the best ending to the
02:01Krogan storyline, as Rex, the hands-down best character in Mass Effect, and no I'm not taking
02:06questions, is dead in the default world state. The best version of Mass Effect 3 from a story
02:11perspective is the one you play after putting in your time with the previous two, and it's also
02:15the best one from a gameplay standpoint because that experience from your save file means more
02:19options to get the best ending. Not that it's impossible without doing the extra labour, but man,
02:24it's way harder.
02:258. Burning Money on Incremental Upgrades – Dragon's Dogma 2
02:30What makes Dragon's Dogma 2 so fun for a certain kind of gamer is just how it will sit back and
02:35watch as you absolutely destroy your playthrough. Go on, run through a village full of story
02:40important NPCs while suffering from a highly contagious deadly virus, I'm sure the neighbours
02:45won't mind. This mindset surfaces in super small ways as well, not just in accidentally
02:50genociding an entire village on your way to the doctor. For instance, early on in the game,
02:55you might feel tempted to spend your hard-earned money on as many incremental upgrades as you can
02:59get your hands on. I mean, it's the correct decision in other games such as Borderlands
03:03and Destiny, so why wouldn't it be the right move here? Well, unlike many other games,
03:08Dragon's Dogma 2 prioritises player skill over big numbers, so if you try to cheese your way
03:13to victory by making your numbers go big, instead of learning the game's mechanics inside out,
03:18you've just screwed yourself. Now you're getting your ass kicked, and you have no money. Nice going.
03:237. Killing Andre – Dark Souls
03:26While your decisions don't carry quite the same abysmal consequences as Dragon's Dogma 2,
03:31Dark Souls still gives you full reign to screw yourself over. Whether it's choosing a really
03:36crap starting item or killing somebody you shouldn't have, you can make your own Dark
03:40Souls playthrough as easy or as hard as you want. And on that note, killing blacksmith Andre is
03:45considered by much of the fandom to be an ill-advised move. Andre is a blacksmith that
03:50you meet in the Undead Parish, who can upgrade your weapons in exchange for titanite. These
03:54upgrades can be truly remarkable, so while it is completely doable to finish the game without them,
03:59getting them can make this game so much easier. Needless to say, killing him is not something
04:04that most players consider wise. For one thing, you really don't get much out of it compared to
04:08what you lose, and secondly, doing so makes the game so much harder than it otherwise could have
04:13been. Only the clumsy or trigger-happy player ends up putting down Andre, and they always regret it
04:19afterwards, as well they should. 6. Making CJ Fat – GTA San Andreas
04:25GTA San Andreas earned acclaim upon its release for how dynamic its world was,
04:30and the way the various activities you could do in the game had impact on the player character
04:34but there's one hilarious instance of this can all but bring your entire playthrough to a screeching
04:40halt. You see, you can eat in the restaurant in San Andreas, and if you eat enough food in one
04:44sitting, like around 10 or so pizzas at Well Stacked Pizza, you can actually make CJ gain
04:49weight. However, this introduces a new problem. Since this is the mid-2000s, where fat shaming
04:55was still seen as a prime example of comedy material, multiple missions become locked off
05:00when you're a huskier gentleman. Some even play unique cutscenes where everyone laughs CJ out of
05:05the room. Fortunately, the fix is simple. Just wait 48 in-game hours without eating, and CJ will
05:11slim back down. But that's quite a lot of out-of-game time to faff about waiting for your waistline
05:17to reset. 5. Shooting the Legion at Nipton – Fallout New Vegas
05:23While Fallout New Vegas retains Fallout 3's karma system, it's made rather redundant by the
05:28dynamic reputation system, where your actions affect how you're viewed by members of various
05:33communities throughout the wasteland, and this system can really screw you over if you're not
05:37careful. When you first meet the Legion in Nipton, having just wrapped up their magical murder tour
05:42of the city, your first instinct might very well be to just keep the party going. This is especially
05:47tempting if you're starting with all the DLC installed and thus have a handy grenade launcher
05:52to really clean house before they know what's hit them. However, get ready to have a bad time
05:57going forward because this is when the reputation system comes into play. Now the Legion knows
06:02about you, it knows that they have a psychotic mailman with a grenade launcher wandering around
06:06shooting at them, and they will respond in kind. Which would be fine if you were in any way leveled
06:12and equipped enough, which most likely you are not. So if you'd rather not be in constant danger
06:18of being jumped by random heavily armed cosplayers, best to just let this guy and his posse go on
06:23their merry way. Number four, trying to go for 104%. Crash Bandicoot 4, it's about time.
06:30On its own, Crash 4 is a fun but challenging platformer, giving the player hard but
06:34infectiously kinetic levels for them to traverse. The game's central gimmick when it comes to
06:39progression is acquiring specific gems, and also gaining gems for completing tasks in a level,
06:44like breaking all of the boxes or completing a level without dying. And you get a cool costume
06:48waiting for you as the prize. This system, however, makes trying to 100% Crash 4 an actual
06:54nightmare. Now most players accept that trying to 100% a game is going to be more challenging than
06:58the vanilla experience, but Crash 4's 100% run is an actual exercise in masochism. Getting 80%
07:05of the fruit in every level, an act that nets you three gems per level, isn't that hard. No no no,
07:10it's the other three gems that really test your patience. Boxes are hidden in obscure or ludicrous
07:16places, which are the same as hidden gems in later levels, and then there's the bane of the bunch,
07:21the lives gem. You have to complete each level without dying more than three times,
07:25which doesn't sound bad on paper, but these levels are long, and they are unrelenting.
07:30But even after doing all of that, you still have to complete the time trials. The platinum relics,
07:34once simply bragging rights with no impact on progression, are now mandatory for getting the
07:39best ending. Playing casually, Crash 4 is the most fun game in the franchise, but trying to play it
07:45to the coveted 104%, however, well, it is a real pain.
07:493. Not Using The Knife – Ghosts N' Goblins
07:53Now, there's a lot of advice that you can follow to make the original Ghosts N' Goblins on the
07:57May-ears a little bit easier on yourself, but chief amongst them is this. Get. The. Knife.
08:03The angry video game nerd does not lie. The knife is the only thing that deals out the right amount
08:07of damage at the right speed to get you through the challenges ahead with any kind of reliability.
08:12The other weapons technically work as well, but they just do not compare. The flame weapon's
08:16travel arc is just too high to reliably hit anything on the ground, the lance's fire rate
08:20doesn't compare to the knife's, the shield weapon, due to an infamous trick on the final level,
08:24is the only one you should ever even consider swapping the knife out for. The knife is one of
08:29the best weapons in gaming history, if only because it is the only weapon that truly measures up to
08:34the obstacles the game puts in front of you. Playing this game without it is like playing
08:38on default hard mode.
08:402. Not Recruiting Leliana and Sten
08:43Dragon Age Origins
08:45Dragon Age Origins, like all great RPGs, gives you the tools needed to make the best experience
08:50possible, then just sits back and lets you potentially screw it all up without stopping
08:54you. The way it's supposed to go when you first reach the opening area of the game is to go to
08:58the tavern, pick up Leliana, and she in turn manages to convince the lady in charge of the
09:02local Chantry chapter to let Sten go free. But if this is your first time and you're going completely
09:08blind like your humble scribe did way back when, you may not really know the steps to that process.
09:12You may only notice Sten and try to free him without Leliana, inevitably becoming frustrated.
09:17You may not go to the tavern at all, certainly nothing is pointing you in that direction,
09:21you might just grab your other supplies and be on your way. Thus, Leliana and Sten will die
09:26horrible, brutal deaths at the hands of the darkspawn as they move in to wipe this area off
09:31the map, costing you two pretty powerful party members. Dragon Age Origins will in no way stop
09:36you from doing this, or chide you afterward. It will however make the game much harder going
09:41forward, free of charge. Cheers.
09:441. Equipping the Skinsuit – Stellar Blade
09:48Stellar Blade knows why you're playing it. Honestly, one of the best things about this
09:51game is its all out honesty with its own sexuality. Like, if you're going to have fan service,
09:56don't be ashamed about it, because ironically, that actually makes it worse. With that said,
10:00it doesn't mean that you can't have some fun with your horny horny players.
10:04Stellar Blade very early on gives you the skinsuit, one of the most revealing suits in the
10:09game, and that is quite the statement. Obviously most pervy players will be quick to put the suit
10:14on, even if it is just out of sheer curiosity, and this is where the game plays its wonderfully
10:19cheeky hand. It won't take long to figure out the drawback of putting on this suit,
10:23as the skinsuit immediately disables your shield upon equipping it. How bad is that? Well,
10:28have you ever tried playing Borderlands 2 without your shield? Yeah, it's that bad.
10:33Stellar Blade hangs something obvious right in front of players' eyes, and then immediately,
10:37and hilariously, punishes them for taking it by making the game a million times harder. Amazing.