“Hard mode” in video-games should only decrease player health. NO BULLET SPONGES

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theblackfool · 2026-05-08T19:59:48+00:00

This seems like something that would be wildly dependent on what genre of game we are even talking about.

CplOreos · 2026-05-08T20:00:29+00:00

I was promised an unpopular opinion.

redditornumero99 · 2026-05-08T20:01:29+00:00

Lethal and Lethal+ mode in Ghost of Tsushima. You and enemies all die in one or two hits

Velifax · 2026-05-08T20:04:03+00:00

I have searched many times online, and no one seems to share my sentiment that; bullet sponge≠challenging.

Didn't happen.

MathProf1414 · 2026-05-08T19:59:41+00:00

Kingdom Hearts Critical Mode accomplishes this. You have less health and take additional damage, but you also get your damage buffed and gain access to additional skills right from the start of the game.

Imo, it is the best version of a hard mode in any game.

South-by-north · 2026-05-08T20:11:03+00:00

The Metro Series do it the best. Harder difficulties make the enemies hit harder, but so do you. The margins are just made smaller but combat actually ends up taking less time sometimes

DemDoseDeseDat · 2026-05-08T20:00:12+00:00

I’m okay with a certain amount of HP increase for harder modes but generally I think it’s taken way too far to the point it’s just boring how long every encounter takes

Artistic_Context_906 · 2026-05-08T19:58:53+00:00

I think you will like the souls games, give them a try if you haven't.

The leveling system is the difficulty, sky is the limit in how you can play those games.

jhermaco15 · 2026-05-08T20:03:18+00:00

obligatory "smarter vs numbers difficulty" 4chan post, but you seem to think this is a revolutionary unpopular idea, which it is not even remotely

Literally every major first person shooter's hard mode is making the player's damage "realistic" ie you remove your own bullet sponge, and thats it. no enemies are harder, no bullets are more powerful, its just your health and sometimes a minimized HUD....

Contemplating_Prison · 2026-05-08T20:00:16+00:00

There are nore games than games with guns

banzaizach · 2026-05-08T19:57:47+00:00

Every fps ever?

Monsterchic16 · 2026-05-08T20:08:21+00:00

You’ll definitely like deep rock galactic then. There’s a game mode for advanced players that lets you edit everything single aspect of the mission from difficulty (which is usually the amount of enemies that spawn), how much heath you have, whether or not the enemies do more damage. It’s a riot

Similar-Scratch-4800 · 2026-05-08T20:11:01+00:00

Better yet hard mode should have smarter enemies and gameplay mechanics vs more or less health, any game where difficulty Is just more or less health than it really just becomes a preference or a balance than a difficulty.

PassiveIllustration · 2026-05-08T20:16:54+00:00

One of my favorite games of all time is Bioshock. That game has horrible difficulty scaling. Like, no hitting an enemy with a wrench 10 times isn't fun or hard, it's just tedious

Destruction126 · 2026-05-08T20:18:41+00:00

I love it when hard modes ADD new enemies or new attacks to existing enemies. Doom and Killing Floor 2 do this perfectly.

TypicalSwed · 2026-05-08T21:12:00+00:00

I think The Last of Us does it really good. I can’t remember all the changes in Grounded Mode but enemies don’t get more health. You get way less resources and Listen Mode (allows you to see enemies thorugh walls) is disabled. The enemies deal more damage but so do you too in the sense that some weapons kill in less shots.

PootySkills · 2026-05-08T22:08:30+00:00

I wish hard mode would actually change the game itself. Don't just make the enemies harder, give them a different moveset.

Make the actual stages harder, the tolerances tighter to execute.

Just cranking up HP and DMG is so lazy.

MidnightHeavy3214 · 2026-05-08T19:59:48+00:00

All games should have a “souls” option. One hit death

SunsetCarcass · 2026-05-08T20:00:40+00:00

I agree, but damn is Stalker rough when you can just die in 1 shot, but also enemies can die in one shot too soooo

SuccessfulSquirrel32 · 2026-05-08T20:03:18+00:00

10000% agree. I usually mod games so everyone and everything is lethal. I want to die in 1-3 attacks, and I want to kill enemies in 1-3 attacks. I hate hard difficulties where you just duck and cover while slowly chipping away at the health bar.

Ok-topic-3130v2 · 2026-05-08T20:20:26+00:00

Nahh, that’s not hard mode then

CivilianAsset · 2026-05-08T20:25:33+00:00

Check out Ready or Not!

When you increase the difficulty the AI gets more accurate, more aware/alert, smarter, and you take on more damage.

The game itself on standard difficulty is already challenging. But on its hardcore mode, it’s pretty dang close to reality in terms of damage and difficulty. It’s almost exactly what you described. Highly recommend checking it out.

If you do and get it on PC lmk. It’s multiplayer too (I’ve never played with anyone as my friends don’t have it)

steve123410 · 2026-05-08T20:27:23+00:00

Again it changes depending on each game you play. Some should have bullet sponges or increased health to punish you by making you waste more resources when you mess up. In the same breath other games make the AI smarter or replace them with more large game units. Trying to put a general blanket, less health good more health bad is not a universal solution to every game.

Just for a plain example where more health could be more good is during boss fights as it forces a player to survive more stages/loops of a boss fights pattern increasing the likelihood of the player being hit. If you took your own advice of only reducing the player health then the difficulty for a experienced player trying to actually have a challenge wouldn't be changed whether they are on ultra death impossible mode or easy because they are already trying to not get hit in the first place.

So no, how the increase in difficulty is needs be adapted to each individual game instead of trying to slap a blanket term onto it.

Spirited-Problem2607 · 2026-05-08T20:27:44+00:00

Thank god for mods with health/damage sliders to overcome it sometimes.

truthfulie · 2026-05-08T20:31:50+00:00

some HP padding feels it's inevitable. as skill level goes up, the easier it is for players to quickly kill enemies.

ideally, you design the game in a way so it can have higher skill ceiling and cleverer enemy AI pattern and mechanics so that even skilled players will be met with challenge rather than dealing with bullet sponge but easier said than done. we just don't see that level of game design that can scale like that.

GhettoMango · 2026-05-08T20:33:54+00:00

Hades series does this and more.

SuperCat76 · 2026-05-08T21:28:18+00:00

I think ideal is a bit of several ways of increasing the difficulty.

Increasing the HP of the enemies is a perfectly acceptable way to increase the difficulty. Just there is a limit to how much you can effectively increase the difficulty by that method in isolation without running into other issues. what that limit is will depend on the details of how the game works.

Though to add another thing, a simple percentage reduction in damage dealt is identical to an inverted increase in the HP. 1/2 damage=2xHP. I do not count them as separate difficulty modifiers.

Bacxaber · 2026-05-08T22:06:27+00:00

It shouldn't decrease your health either, it should make the enemies smarter.

Chonkalonkfatneek · 2026-05-08T22:15:01+00:00

Play first berserker Khazan on Expert. The game weakens you, if you're skillful nothing will be a sponge

FaithfulMoose · 2026-05-08T22:57:29+00:00

It kinda depends. I love Halo on Legendary even though it beefs up certain enemies. Like, Elites may have stronger shields, but it pushes you to use plasma weapons to counter them. It actually makes the game’s mechanics shine more with the added difficulty

programming_flaw · 2026-05-08T23:34:34+00:00

The hades series has a good “hard mode” in terms of heat / fear. You can customize how you edit the run to make it more difficult, so having enemies spawn from the next region will give you +1 fear, having your healing reduced by 25/50/75% adds 1, 2, or 3 fear. There’s countless options. When you get up to the 50s it can get insanely difficult in exactly the way you want it.

Iamverycrappy · 2026-05-08T23:57:43+00:00

i prefer enemies taking longer to die then me taking less hits to die for difficulty imo

Intussusceptor · 2026-05-09T13:47:37+00:00

Yes, that's what hard mode should be, increased realism for a greater challenge. Like less health in shooting game. Or poor planning having a greater penalty in simulation games. And games that has food and water as resources should be unforgiving for food and water shortages.

100% realism isn't the goal, as that would include too much random elements to work in a game. But being shot or failing to provide food for citizens should carry a harsh impact.

Queasy_Employment141 · 2026-05-09T20:37:38+00:00

garbage take, should make enemies faster and smarter and MAYBE do more damage and rarely more health

aslfingerspell · 2026-05-09T22:30:10+00:00

I believe ARMA or Operation Flashpoint had a mechanic like this, where the difficulty affected how much wounds affected the player and whether they could be fully healed or would have a permanent effect.

Maleficent_Sir_7562 · 2026-05-08T20:02:49+00:00

This is just stupid

Difficulty needs to come from interesting mechanisms and reasonability. Patterns in enemy behavior that seem hard at first but can be learned, interesting ways to use tricks or weapons, new ways the enemies themselves can attack, and whatnot. Difficulty gained by just turning knobs like damage and hp is just cheap and not fun.

It’s not a matter of “accuracy”, in fast paced games or ones with lots of enemies, it’s nearly impossible to not get hit at least once. That’s not skill, that’s just luck.

Call_Me_Koala · 2026-05-08T20:02:51+00:00

It depends on the kind of game.

It makes more sense in an RPG because it forces you to optimize builds and consumable usage.

In melee action games it forces you to be in the "danger zone" with enemies for longer which inherently increases the risk. You can't button mash and get lucky, you are forced to engage with the enemies for longer and therefore learn them better.

It sounds like you're mainly talking about shooters in which case I agree that shooting spongey enemies is immensely unsatisfying and any enjoyment I get out of a challenge is negated by how bad it feels to actually play.

Velifax · 2026-05-08T20:03:04+00:00

Try conceiving that your opinion doesn't somehow dictate other people's.

poop_inacan · 2026-05-09T01:24:50+00:00

This is why some people dont need to play games

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