8 Video Game Moments You Didn't Realise Were Tricking You
4. The Scaling Difficulty - Resident Evil 4
When it first launched, Resident Evil 4 only had one difficulty available to players who hadn't yet beaten it: normal. Consequently, a lot of fans naturally assumed that they were getting the same experience as their friends, each encountering the same ebbs and flows in difficulty.
That, however, couldn't be further from the truth.
Resident Evil 4 features a system called Game Rank, which is essentially a hidden programme that's constantly scaling the game's difficulty depending on what exactly the player is doing. If you're doing too well and blasting your way through with ammo to spare, the game will notice and make enemies tougher, and ammo more sparse. If you're restarting from the same checkpoint over and over, it'll recognise that too, and make enemies easier to handle and ease off the pressure.
It's a testament to just how well this system works that players didn't even realise it existed for years. If you don't know it's there, you probably won't notice that elements are being altered in real-time depending on your skill.
So, while Resident Evil 4 is a great survival horror title all around, it's this system that keeps it paced so tightly, dishing out defeats and rewards when they'll be the most satisfying.