Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

BioShock Infinite to get delightfully hardcore 1999 Mode -Destructoid

Do you miss the good old days, when a videogame wasn't a videogame unless you were forced to plan your life around it? When you couldn't just kick open a door and shoot everything inside, but instead had to peek through the keyhole, hack into the security cameras, set up fifteen ammo drones, and then wire the door to kick itself in? Well, BioShock Infinite has what you want.

Irrational Games has announced "1999 Mode" after overwhelming fan demand. This new gameplay setting will bring back the glory days of titles such as System Shock and Deus Ex -- where planning, awareness and pragmatism are essential.

"It’s not simply a matter of adjusting the difficulty sliders in the game -- the team went much further than that," said the studio blog. "Resource planning? If you’re to survive this mode, proper planning will be crucial. Combat specializations? You’ll need to develop them efficiently and effectively throughout the story; any weapon will be useless to you unless you have that specialization. Combat? You will need to carefully target every shot, and your health will be set to an entirely different baseline.

"Game saves? Well, yes, there will be those, but according to Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine 'there are game saves, and you’re gonna f***ing need them.'"

1999 mode will feature irreversible decisions that will make you "suffer" if you choose incorrectly. According to Levine, this is for "the oldest and most committed fans," so you old school nutjobs out there are in for a real treat.

Sounds seriously tantalizing, right?

That just took the game from "Want" to "DO WANT" for me.

[Malacite]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

That's pretty bitching.

One of Yahtzee's main gripes with Deus Ex: HR was that Jensen could simply pick up any weapon and used it as he pleased, which I have to admit was rather silly even if he was Ex-SWAT. He would clearly be familiar with a number of weapons, but in no way should he be able to just pick up any old gun and shoot like a pro - particularly the Rocket Launcher or Energy Weapons.

I'll probably give the game's default mode a run first and then jump into 1999 mode, just to get a proper feel of the game first. I know some people who prefer to go right for the hard mode 1st and then back to easy and I just don't understand that mentality lol.

[Icemage]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

I definitely like. And I LOVE this trend toward more cerebral higher-difficulty modes that has been slowly creeping across the new video game landscape the past few years.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

Actually, while I can appreciate skilling up different weapons, it was something DX was pretty stupid about in the original. you could upgrade a weapon, apply skill points to the use of the weapon and then biomods to also enhance the properties of particular weapons. They could have just left it one or two kinds of upgrades, having a biomod for it was taking players into overpowered territory.

Adam being proficient with whatever he got his hands on pretty much made sense to me. His high compatibility with augmentations paved the way for biomods if the story is anything to go by, so he gets all the special exceptions here

[Malacite]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

It brings me back to a topic i wanted to discuss in our podcast - artificial vs legitimate difficulty.

Example of legit difficulty:

Metal Gear Solid 4: The AI gets much more intelligent and uses a greater variety of tactics, forcing the player to adapt.

Dead Space 2: Hardcore mode reduces supplies to be on par with the highest difficulty mode and enemy strength to about midrange so enemies aren't stupidly hard like on Zealot mode, but you really have to make your shots count. To add further tension, you only have 3 saves and can't play it from a newgame plus save file (unless you've already beaten hardcore and are continuing that file). Visceral understood that simply raising the enemy's strength even further would only feel cheap and frustrate rather than challenge players.


Contrast this to a favorite game of mine with serious issues - Civilzation Revolution. On Deity mode, rather than making more intelligent decisions, they simply cranked up the AI's production. So much so that the only viable strategy I've found is to play on "It's the Money that Matters" where everyone has a bonus 1000 starting gold, and to tech up to Writing ASAP in order to rush spies to steal the extra money from as many of the enemy Civs as possible. Any of the other specialty modes will just kill you as the AI already cheats with greatly ramped up production (producing entire armies every turn instead of a single unit) on top of whatever bonuses the chosen scenario may give.

Heroes of Might & Magic is another series that I love that has the AI blatantly cheat. How else do you explain an AI constantly matching my main hero's army when I have 3 or more extra towns to the AI's single town? That doesn't even make any sense.

And let's not forget what I deem the cardinal sin of gaming - infinitely respawning enemies! I wanted to brake my TV at times when I was playing Black Ops on Veteran difficulty as there were numerous segments where you had to gradually progress toward the objective, all the while dealing with infinite spawns of enemies that can kill you in 2 seconds or less. That's not a challenge, that's an exercise in masochism.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

A Message from Ken Levine | Irrational Games

Due to the reaction of the cover art being so horrifically bland, they're now putting in the option for a reversible cover.

So far, people are voting for the bland one, #4. I think #6 feels more appropriate and #5 should have just been the main cover.

[Malacite]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

Tough call between 3 and 5 for me...

EDIT: Actually, no 5. Reason being 3 reminds me too much of Uncharted 3's cover, and while it was awesome - variety is good.

[Firewind]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

As long as the hard mode is actually hard and and developers don't take the lazy way and just do the whole "You take more damage and enemies take less damage" that is rampant in poorly designed difficulty systems (Like just about every game Bethesda and Bioware have made) then it could be interesting. I rarely see the point in playing in the highest difficulty setting for games where the AI is no better, but you seem to magically take more and all of your weapons are about as lethal as a box of newborn puppies wrapped in bubble wrap.

As for the box art, I actually like the picture in the opening post of this thread XD. That said, #6 is the only one that "feels" Bioshock, but I do actually like #1 for how simple it is. #3 and #5 I dislike due to them feeling more "Farcry" than "Bioshock" so IMO they feel very out of place.

[Balfree]

Re: Bioshock Infinite to get a "1999 Mode"

many wants

also i just got the sudden urge to play system shock

for like

the millionth time