Words to Know - What is Level Scaling?

Level scaling is a gameplay mechanic in RPG's designed to keep the player challenged throughout the game by increasing the difficulty of enemy encounters in conjunction with the players own progress, as opposed to having enemy levels locked from the beginning of the game.

The idea is to prevent the player from out-levelling all of their opponents and becoming overpowered, making enemy encounters less challenging and fun. This can be achieved by increasing enemy health and attack values as the player levels up, giving enemies higher tier weapons and armour, replacing enemies encountered in areas at lower levels with more powerful ones, or any combination of the three.

Level scaling is somewhat controversial due to what some players see as a removal of any true feeling of progress. When all areas of the game present roughly the same level of challenge the sense of achievement in conquering them can feel hollow. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion faced criticism over it's method of level scaling which produced scenarios like common low-tier enemies being encountered at higher levels suddenly using rare and powerful gear. Oblivion's follow-up The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim alleviated some of these issues by introducing segmented level scaling, where enemies in different areas of the map were locked to a certain level range but would still scale with the player until they entered that area for the first time.

Games that feature level scaling include Dragon Age: Origins, Final Fantasy VIII, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (as an optional mode following a patch.)

Thanks for reading Words to Know. No links relevant to the post this week but if you're a fan of Player Unknown's Battlegrounds I've been getting a kick out of Eurogamer's Livestreams of the game, which they do weekly. WARNING: They're not especially good at it.