While most games let you choose the difficulty of the main campaign, some games opt for an entirely unique approach. The concept of adaptive difficulty is an interesting one — how hard a game is, changing with how well you play, is something that many prefer over traditional settings.
There have been quite a few games that have implemented adaptive difficulty over the years, in different ways, and you may not have even known that some of your favorite titles have used it in some form. That kind of organic difficulty allows some of you to have a more fulfilling experience, as it feels like you are truly progressing and growing with your favorite characters.
10 Resident Evil 4
It’s worth mentioning Resident Evil 4 first, because it might actually be the most famous instance of adaptive or dynamic difficulty in a game. Yes, there is an option to select the difficulty of the game in it's many iterations, but there is also a dynamic difficulty constantly working in the background.
One of the most famous and noticeable instances of this is the game's water room. Many of you have got stuck there, until eventually certain groups of enemies despawned. Other things that are affected include overall enemy aggression and various item pickups.
9 Left 4 Dead 2
A lot of you might be a bit confused here, considering there is a very clear difficulty selection before starting each campaign in Left 4 Dead 2. The thing is, there is a famous bit of tech working against you the entire time, often known as The Director.
In the background of Left 4 Dead and its sequel, The Director is constantly making subtle changes to your gameplay experience. Blocking routes, spawning swarms, providing more opportunities to set off alarm, and more challenging tank and witch spawns all come depending on how you’re doing in the game.
8 Oblivion
It’s possible that a lot of you never clued into the fact that Oblivion has a fairly significant type of active difficulty adjustment. The unlucky among you, who don’t take on specific sections of the game, may actually have difficulty completing certain quests.
A big reason is that the game's enemies, and the various items that are found, scale with your character. The stronger you get, the more likely you will be to come across greater threats and better loot — something that can make completing early game missions a lot more difficult the later you do them.
7 Mario Kart 64
You really could put a majority of racing games in this spot, but Mario Kart 64 is generally regarded as a rather infamous example of adaptive difficulty in gaming. That dynamic switch is often referred to as rubber-banding.
If you are doing particularly well in a race on your favorite track, the computer racers behind you will often speed up in order to provide you with a more serious challenge. When you’re behind, they will slow down somewhat. Unfortunately, that rubber-banding can cause frustration when a computer seemingly rockets right to the finish line just before you can.
6 Half-Life 2
Since Half-Life 2 is often regarded as one of the most legendary video games of all time, it probably isn’t a shock to learn that it does in fact implement some subtle adaptive difficulty. The game is often regarded as near-perfect, and the unique things going on in the background likely contribute to that.
A lot of you have memories of tense sections of the game, where you're seriously hurting for ammo and health, despite playing really well beforehand. That struggle is an intended part of the game, as it may be spacing out health and ammo drops to up your overall anxiety.
5 Metal Gear Solid 5
A modern example of adaptive difficulty comes from Metal Gear Solid 5. It's another instance of relatively well-known difficulty changes, because the various enemies in the game actually begin to learn your tactics if you do the same thing too often.
One of the easiest ways to see this is if you spend a lot of time going for headshots. Eventually, enemies will employ the use of helmets. The same is true of various other strategies in the game, making for a fun and dynamic stealth experience.
4 Mega Man Zero
Most who played the Mega Man Zero series are probably aware of the fact that the games are pretty tough, without the need for any kind of dynamic difficulty. The thing is, that grading system that follows each mission is something that can cause a lot of extra trouble.
The better you play the games, the better your rank will be — something that not only leads to better item options, but also leads to slightly more difficult bosses. The higher the grade, the more likely you are to feature unique boss attacks.
3 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Most people probably don’t ever think about the adaptive difficulty in Breath Of The Wild, because it just feels so natural with how it is implemented. Sure, you can head right to Hyrule Castle and get some of the best items in the game really early if you’re good enough, but there’s an entire hidden system working in the background.
As you battle enemies, Link earns a hidden experience value that eventually leads to more difficult enemies of the defeated variety. Basically, the better you get at fighting an enemy type, the tougher the version of that enemy you’ll be likely to encounter.
2 Mortal Kombat
The arcade versions of Mortal Kombat are infamous for being brutal experiences. While the games have included dynamic difficulty over the years, the most famously talked about instances come from the coin-stealing arcade cabinets.
Your difficulty choice often just decided how quickly or slowly the actual aggression of your opponent climbed. Winning a match would increase the aggression until it maxed out, and the higher difficulty would ensure that happened faster. This meant that even in the easier modes in the game, you could face expert-level CPU opponents.
1 Pokemon Yellow
Yes, even a Pokemon game somehow managed to sneak in adaptive difficulty without the wider public seemingly haven never taken that much notice of it. The difficulty change is specific to Pokemon Yellow.
In that game, you were forced to use Pikachu, while your rival had a wonderful Eevee. It's likely many of you didn’t know that the way that particular Eevee evolved was based on how you performed in the rival fights. Lose too many and it would become a Vaporeon; win too many and it would become a Jolteon.