A year ago we brought SOMA to the Xbox One, and along with it the Safe Mode. The optional mode removed the hostility of enemies and let players explore Pathos-II in relative peace. Most players were pleased with it, and at best it meant that players that hadn’t dared to traverse the Atlantic ocean floor before now had a chance to experience it.
Now finally releasing the Amnesia: Collection on Xbox One, and decided to also spice it up with a little treat. We bring you the polar opposite of the Safe Mode: the Hard Mode!
Amnesia: Collection will be released on Xbox One on the 28th of September, after which the mode will be available on Xbox and PC.
What is the Hard Mode?
It is really just as the title suggests: a mode that makes it harder to beat the game. You know, in case The Dark Descent wasn’t stressful enough for you.
The Hard Mode has the following features:
- Autosaves are disabled, and manual saving costs 4 tinderboxes
- Sanity dropping to zero results in death
- Less oil and tinderboxes throughout the levels
- Monsters are faster, spot the player more easily, deal more damage and stay around for longer
- There is no danger music when the monsters are near.
So in summary: the environments are harsher, the monsters more unforgiving, insanity is deadly, and death is final – unless you pay a toll.
You can pick between normal mode and Hard Mode when starting a new game of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The mode changes some fundamental elements of the game, and therefore can’t be changed halfway through.
A Machine for Pigs and Justine do not feature this mode.
How does this affect achievements/trophies?
Beating the game on Hard Mode will earn you a new trophy called Masochist. Because, you know, you pretty much have to be one to complete the mode.
The mode affects the Illuminatus achievement, which you can’t get during playing in Hard Mode as it reduces the amount of tinderboxes throughout the level.
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| The Masochist achievement. |
Will it be on all platforms?
Yes! The Hard Mode will launch on Xbox and PC versions (Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle) simultaneously. We have started working on the PS4 version with our porting partner, and hope to have it out soon.
Extra
Want a Hard Mode wallpaper? Download a 4K version with and without the logo on our public Drive folder.
Please do it for AMFP too - the game would profit a lot from a bit more of danger!
ReplyDeleteA Machine for Pigs was not developed by Frictional Games.
DeleteSo, if I wasn't interested in Hard Mode, do I need to grab that Platinum Trophy on PS4 before the new Troohy becomes available?
ReplyDeleteIt might be added in a separate tab, similar to how other games do DLC. I've Platinumed Bloodborne, but I still haven't gotten every weapon from the Old Hunters.
DeleteHopefully we don't get a new trophy on PS4 so i can keep my 100% :)
DeleteWould be possible to use Hard ode for custom stories?? Another or my own ?
ReplyDeleteWill this come to the GOG version? Will the GOG version ever get achievements?
ReplyDeleteThis will come to GOG, the patch should go live on Friday the 28th, or the week after.
DeleteWe are aware that GOG is missing the achievements, and hope that we will have time to patch them in at some point.
I don't want to have achievements. That is modern game design gimmick. How does they work? As a pop up message? This kills the immersion and feels like I'm playing a fun game where the goal is to win some challenges.
DeleteDon't make achievements! That's something for EA, but not for Frictional Games who stands for professional game design.
Amazing! Just what the game needed for a hardcore Amnesia fan like me to return!
ReplyDeleteThat's probably the dumbest question you could ask, but those who have the retail versions are screwed?... Need to buy another copy?
ReplyDeleteIf you have the retail version, please send us a message through the contact form and we'll see what we can do!
DeleteCan you please release a new retail version with all updates on disk?
DeleteAnd of course no DRM/copy protection.
This is definitely going to be something new! Finally has amnesia gotten an update after 9 years!
ReplyDeleteAmnesia was updated in 2015.
DeleteFrictional, please explain this to me:
ReplyDeleteSome years ago, you said a horror game should not let the player feel to be something you have to beat. This was as you criticized the gameplay reactions of "Alien: Isolation". And furthermore you also said that the worst and most immersion breaking thing is to die in a game, because a death stop the suspense and rip you out of the happenings, out of the world. So, what's the goal now to die when sanity is low? This will just end in a save game reload and reset you to a place where everything is at a good condition again. This also prevent to get the special scare effects the game adds at low sanity like for example the hanging pigs in the hidden library room. And that's just one effect you will now miss.
Another thing is how could saving costs tinderboxes, and why even 4? This is not organic game design! That feels very generic and not plausible. There is no logical reason for this. Don't start ruining your games with extra content that in truth don't fit into the whole experience, just to give us something NEW!
I thought you are were a developer who understand about professional game design.
Make VR support, that would be something that really would push the immersion to a next level.
The hard mode was created by ONE and a NEW recruit from the FG team. So the rest of the team still works on a NEW project. I would rather want new and innovative games (especially now that other horror games these days are really lame) than a VR port (which is a waste of development time anyways).
DeleteThe hard mode is for REPLAYBILITY(!), especially because of the new Xbox release. After all, you could always die in this game, otherwise it would've been worse, wouldn't you agree?
And you DON'T HAVE to choose the hard mode, just choose the NORMAL mode then. Simple.
So how does it ruin the original game then if they just add "OPTIONAL" things to it? Yea, not at all. You won't die at every effect by the way. I guess you haven't played Amnesia much, but your sanity had in- and decrease. The goal of the optional hard mode is to give the player a reason to calm down.
You're on a counter-course, but your arguments were obviously stupid. Think about it.
Haha, you are funny. I haven't played Amnesia much and my arguments are stupid? Hahaha, thanks for the laugh. I pre-ordered everything from Frictional Games since Penumbra and created mods for all these games. And believe me, I know about the ideology of game design. Optional things can ruin a game, or how would you think about optional HUD with life energy bars, compass and quest/puzzle hints as pop up messages? A good game doesn't even feature all these things!
DeleteAnd VR support is not a waste of development time. It's the next milestone of game development, the next level of immersion that you'll never experience on a normal monitor.
DeleteStill: You don't need to activate hard mode. Lol.
DeleteAnd VR is not as important as new projects/games imo.
So, the only argument left from you now is: "Oh, I made mods and played everything from FG". So? Still your argument "new stuff is bad" doesn't make sense, since it's optional. So HOW are they ruining it, if you DON'T choose the hard mode? Not at all. See? :)
You're just on a counter-course. Aww.
You must be hard of understanding. Where do I say VR is more important than new projects/games? I never said that. Stop lying! We are talking about the Hard Mode and not about their new projects!
DeleteI also never said "new stuff is bad". You must be ridiculous. We are talking about Hard Mode, not about new stuff in general. And even optional things can make a game bad as I mentioned.
Complaining about a free update for a game nearly a decade after release?
DeleteGet real dude, this has nothing to do with some devblog from years ago on their design philosophy or how optional features 'ruin' games.
You're just upset that one of the only things they've announced in awhile wasn't catered to your high standards that Frictional must deliver every time to please you.
"I thought you are were a developer who understand about professional game design."
"And believe me, I know about the ideology of game design"
lmao
Hey Frictional Games,
ReplyDeleteIts cool that you guys are looking to mods to inspire stuff in your own games. Thanks for being awesome :)
This is fab news :) Thank you Frictional Games!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I hope one day you'll update the graphics of the game. It's slowly aging, but that's my only issue with this game. Gameplay and mechanics are top notch. Amnesia eats most other horror games for breakfast!
It's a nice idea, though I admit reading through the changes it indeed very much seems like the masochist-option. I am wondering how much time went into balance-testing this? But I guess the way it's marketed should be a sufficient safeguard against too many complaints. And the harshness may very well end up supporting the atmosphere. It certainly worked for Pathologic.
ReplyDeleteI'm also wondering in what context this surprising news has to be seen. An experiment to gather some feedback for the new games Frictional is making?
I absoultely adore TDD. I know all the areas and objectives by heart as I've completed it many times. That said, I can't wait to try this challenge and try to complete it on Hard mode and see how well I do. Hopefully it'll bring back some of the horror and stress like in the old days, when everything was new and unknown.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm a tad bit disappointed there wasn't a blog post for AMFP's 5th anniversary on 10th of September. :( I remember that day like yesterday. I was in high school, my class went on a field trip, and I stayed home to play the new Amnesia title. Magnificent times.
DeleteAdd please Steam Trading Cards/Seam Cloud(A Machine for Pigs have steam cloud)?
ReplyDeleteI just have one question now Frictional. Is Amnesia: Collection gonna feature 60FPS on XBOX ONE? If so, please tell me!
ReplyDeleteVery exciting, but won't the absence of "danger music" when monsters are nearby hurt the atmosphere of the game a bit?
ReplyDeleteActually, it can be a lot scarier without the music, because the monsters can creep on you without you noticing. A few days ago, I was messing around with some mods for TDD which changed some of the game files, amongst which it disabled the chase theme. I then fired up vanilla TDD to complete it once again, not aware of this. While derping around down in the Storage, a servant Grunt came my way, so my ninja instincts kicked in, and I stayed in the dark and avoided it. Thinking I was slick and smart and all, I proceeded. Relaxed and thinking I wasn't in danger anymore, I started walking casually. My God, when I heard and saw the Grunt right behind me, I jumped so bad. I haven't got scared like that since like 2012. Holy guacamole, that was downright terrifying.
DeleteWhen you think of it, terror meter is your best friend in a hell hole like Brennenburg.
*deleted the previous comment because of a typo. No edit button :(
Will Hard Mode be available on the Mac version of Amnesia: A Dark Descent? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHard mode was removed from steam? WHY?
ReplyDeleteToday there was an update on steam that added Hard Mode to the game but now because of a very recent update hard mode is gone! Why? D:
ReplyDeleteWE DEMAND ANSWERS FRICTIONAL GAMES!
ReplyDeleteIf you used your eyes to look at their facebook page, you'd see that there was a bug with saves and so they've reverted the update.
DeleteIf you have the disk copy and not the Steam version, will there be a downloadable update of hard mode? :)
ReplyDeleteHey! Can you send us a message through the contact form, and we'll see what we can do? :)
Deletehttps://www.frictionalgames.com/site/contact
Hey Kira! I have the non-steam version of the game (not in disk). How will it be possible for me to play Hard Mode?
DeleteHey Kira! I have a pirated copy of the game. How will it be possible for me to play hard mode?
DeleteBuy the fucking game dude! Or are you really that stingy? And if youre just trolling grow up dude.
Deletedude dude chill out dude i was just kidding dude :p
Delete