I despise difficulty spikes, they' re like a sudden obstacle thrown out in front of you that hits you like a Ivan Drago punch. If a game is easy to begin with, and remains like that throughout, then surely a sudden increase in difficulty is unnecessary and - not forgetting to mention - rather cruel.

Japanese RPG' s are a good personal example, one minute I' m leisurely exploring without feeling too threatened by the inhabiting goblins, wizards and other nasty monsters wandering around. But once I approach the end of the game and the difficulty rises like a hot air balloon, it makes me mad!!

At least there’s some games that remain challenging throughout, and even those with a difficulty level that stays neither easy or hard are more acceptable than what I’ve mentioned above.

Don’t get me wrong, challenge is good, difficulty levels are good, what isn’t so good at least for me is having to suffer the consequences of a difficulty spike, especially if it comes near the dying moments in my quest for completion. If I sail through a game with a nice breeze behind me, and then realise that I' m not going to be able to witness the ending because of a nasty difficulty leap, I become rightfully angry at the development team for trying to deny me of some deserved closure for both me and the game.

GRRRRR

Do you share this view or have a different one entirely?