Summary
Rockstar Games is a company with some incredible storytelling and action behind them. Having created some of the biggest franchises of all time, and with a very bright past and future, this company is not slowing down anytime soon. However, one thing that has drastically changed over time is the difficulty of the games that Rockstar has released.
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The video game industry has changed, with a lot of games attempting to make themselves more accessible by easing up on the difficultyor by getting more experimental. Rockstar and their games haven’t been immune to this, and while players can still find real challenges in them, a lot of more recent games have proven to be easier to complete.
6Grand Theft Auto 4
The more recentGTAgames are some of the most infamous in the history of Rockstar, and possibly the history of the entire gaming industry as well.Following the incredible Niko Bellicand his path of vengeance after arriving in Liberty City, this entry feels like it was quickly forgotten in the wake of the more popularGTA 5. However, the fourth main entry game was a massive and underrated release.
However, it marked a change from previous entries in theGrand Theft Autofranchise. While there was still an “old-school” level of difficulty to games likeSan AndreasandVice City,GTA 4led to the general difficulty of theGrand Theft Autofranchise being watered down to make the already widely beloved games more accessible.
Many tried to say thatRed Dead Redemptionwould only be a “WesternGTAClone” when the first game was released, but after only one sequel, the franchise has already evolved into something far more for Rockstar Games. It has become a second tent pole behindGTAto hold the company up consistently, and the franchise has already produced some of the most memorable characters and stories in Rockstar history.
However,Red Dead Redemptionfrom the beginning wasn’t intended to provide gamers with the kind of difficulty that many of Rockstar’s older games did. The open-world setting and many side quests make it easy for players to get the hang of things. The main missions aren’t overly challenging, and even without a lot of side material being completed, gamers probably still won’t find themselves struggling all that much with most of the missions throughout this first adventure in the franchise,which could be getting a remaster soon.
4Max Payne 2
There are a number of strange things about theMax Paynefranchise, which has never been at the level ofGTAorRed Dead Redemptionfor Rockstar but still manages to provide a healthy level of franchise durability for the company. The thing aboutMax Payneis that the games feature an adaptive difficulty, which changes for each player based on how easily they progress through the game.
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However, in spite of this adaptation,Max Payne 2was found by most players to be fairly easy to complete, compared to other games in the franchise or even just other games in general. The adaptive difficulty was perhaps set a little low for this one, but fortunately, gamers can still find challenge in going all the way withMax Payne 2, because there is a secret ending that can only be unlocked by completing the entire game on the hardest difficulty setting available, “Dead on Arrival.” This was a fun idea but didn’t helpMax Payne 2become one of Rockstar’s best stories.
The second entry in theRed Dead Redemptionfranchise provided gamers with one of the most memorable and beloved games of the last decade. The story of the Van der Linde Gang falling apart in this prequel to the first game was an absolutely amazing narrative journey, jam-packed with emotional punches and memorable characters in one of thebest North American open-world games.
However, there was a definite lack of difficulty. The point ofRed Dead Redemption 2was to create an even bigger open world that would give players a volume of playtime comparable to massive games such asSkyrimorThe Witcher 3. Games with that amount of leveling and side quests made available to players are often going to be much easier to complete than other games, and that was the curse ofRed Dead Redemption 2.
2Bully
Another game that many accused of attempting to cloneGTAin a different setting,Bullywas a violent, unusual game set in a high school. Players took control of Jimmy Hopkins as he attempted to rise through the ranks of the cliques which controlled the private school where he finds himself, facing off againstlegendary adversary Gary Smith. Throughout the game, there is a great narrative and more memorable characters, the trademarks of what generally makes a Rockstar game so fascinating and infamous.
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However,Bullywas an early example of a game that provided the lower difficulty that gamers would soon become accustomed to in Rockstar Games and plenty of other AAA games across the industry. Whether gamers were fans of this somewhat simplified style or not, it was what they would continue to experience in many other games going forward.
1Grand Theft Auto 5
Perhaps the pinnacle of Rockstar Games' entire history,Grand Theft Auto 5has remained one of the top games being played across the world for over a decade now, proving that the franchise has hit a new height and Rockstar Games with a mega-hit, the level of which is almost unheard of in the history of video games.
Grand Theft Auto 5tells the stories of Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips, and Franklin Clinton as they become embroiled with government agents, insane billionaires, and a huge world of crime in the city of Los Santos. The massive, sprawling open-world nature of the game once again gives players a world of options for leveling their characters up, and in particular, collecting huge arsenals of weapons to play with that are incredibly useful duringthe various amazing story missions. However,GTA 5is made for accessibility and not to provide gamers with a major challenge. The enjoyment of the game and its missions are plenty to get gamers excited without the need for a huge amount of struggle throughout.
