I think this has been asked by now, but I'm wondering now, how many of you have gone through Hardcore mode? More specifically, though still not exclusively, how many of you have gone through it on PS3? What did you think?

All you get is this stupid finger gun. That kills things in one hit.

No, I haven't, and no, I don't plan to. Making myself play on hard is already a rarity these days, why would I want to play through something so punishing?

@believer258: You also get a suit. Not that that's more of an incentive to do it, just saying though.

Haven't played Dead Space 2 yet but everyone says its BRUTAL. I don't think you should do it. You might end up breaking things if you're a rager. Plus, you only get 3 saves when you play on hardcore.

Yeah, I've already beaten it. It's not all that difficult if you've already played through the game once and know how to get through everything. Just use the 'pick up and through guys' arms' thing to save ammo, and be smart with upgrades and such, and you'll be fine. I got the Platinum on PS3, and I'm about to get it on 360 to do it all again. (I love me some Dead Space 2 :P)

@awesomeusername: I've beaten the game nine times now. I've done everything in it early on, just not the Hardcore mode. It's not so much that it's hard from a game play standpoint if you're being careful, but since there is only three saves, and if you mess up once, you have to go back so far. I don't rage in games, well, in the sense of blaming a game or an opponent when it comes to multiplayer. Even aside from that, I don't often get mad.

I beat Dead Space 2 in one sitting the day it came out, but even though I did that, I don't think I could do that again, or even come close. The biggest problem is being able to sit there for hours until I get to a save point, and there's no guarantee I'll survive the first long hours of playing so I haven't taken a chance. I want to do it, but I don't want to do it. Know what I mean? By the way, you should play Dead Space 2. Buy it! You'd love it. Well, if you haven't played the first, then do that first.

Wait, why haven't you played it?

@NTM: I did it. Twas a motherfucker.

I didn't think it was too bad. There is that ever present stress that comes from knowing you can totally fuck yourself over, but if you've played through it recently and know what's coming, you'll do fine. Only part I had any trouble with was the ending gauntlet run.

@NTM said:

I don't rage in games, well, in the sense of blaming a game or an opponent when it comes to multiplayer.

I scream at my t.v.

@NTM said:

The biggest problem is being able to sit there for hours until I get to a save point, and there's no guarantee I'll survive the first long hours of playing so I haven't taken a chance. I want to do it, but I don't want to do it. Know what I mean? By the way, you should play Dead Space 2. Buy it! You'd love it. Well, if you haven't played the first, then do that first.

I can do this but knowing if I die I'm fucked, I don't even want to think about it. I got the platinum trophy for the first Dead Space and impossible mode was easy as pie but from what I heard, this game is brutal so I don't want to try. I only need the insanity trophy for the Mass Effect 2 platinum and I've already given up. That game is ridiculous.

@NTM said:

Wait, why haven't you played it?

I could borrow it from my friend but I want to buy my own copy yet I'm poor. :D

Hardcore mode AKA child mode. Too easy.

I did, because I'm hard as fuck, S ranked that bitch.

I did it on my second play through, I was obsessed with S ranking the game, just like Deadspace 1, I had to do it.

I died twice in chapter one, then never again.

It was stressful as hell I almost died three or four times I'd guess, just about shit myself, but I just played smart, came out on top.

@NTM: If you have beaten the game nine times, it will be easy, trust me.

I've done it three times (I have all version, love me some Dead Space) and I don't think it's that bad at all. Mainly because it's just survivalist difficulty with 3 saves, if it was Zealot it would have been considerably harder as one hit kills can come out of nowhere playing on that mode. That being said, I think they made the right choice with it, as long you played smart you were fine.

I'm still too scared. I really want to but that save limitation thing really creeps me out. Knowing that I get one save less by playing on PS3 makes it also kinda unfair. But whining is no use, I also have yet to finish Dead Space 1 on professional (the hardest difficulty) which is a bitch ... but it's the one thing keeping me from earning a platinum trophy for my first PS3 game ever so I kinda need to get this over with someday. And maybe Dead Space 2 as well ...

Graaaargh! It's just so intimidating!

@believer258: You have to admit, that gun is pretty funny.

I'm about to do it today. I just finished up the DLC (it was alright) and I'm looking for some tips and tricks. I'm thinking about going through with the plasma cutter and either the pulse rifle or the seeker rifle. I'll of course dump points into health and a few into TK damage. Otherwise, I'm open to suggestion. My most important question: should I save only after the disc swap?

I've done it on PS3. I usually try to save before any instant death moments. For example, the part where you have to navigate through spinning saw blades and zero g parts. I think the first time I ever saved was the chapter before the Ishimura part, when you go to the CEC mining place and have to go through that zero g spinning blade instant death part. The last save was a little bit before the eye needle part. I only needed to start from the beginning once because I was stupid and impatient and got sliced by spinning blades in the Church of Unitology zero-g morgue part.

So I think you'll be fine saving only after the disc swap as long as you're careful during any insta death parts. Also the force gun is a must, at least for me. It's great for close encounters and knocking back multiple enemies to give you space. Either way, I think you ought to stick with at most two weapons and maximize the use of those power nodes. And put the first one you find into health.

What I'd finally love to know is: is the hardcore mode basically "normal" mode with 3 saves or are the enemies actually harder to kill and/or you get hurt more? Because I think that's what Zealot mode is for, the super hard one. In hardcore you have to start clean but you can take the stuff unlocked in hardcore into your Zealot playthrough so you should do that before. Can someone finally confirm that hardcore mode is not actually "harder" but simply limiting saves?

@DeF said:

What I'd finally love to know is: is the hardcore mode basically "normal" mode with 3 saves or are the enemies actually harder to kill and/or you get hurt more? Because I think that's what Zealot mode is for, the super hard one. In hardcore you have to start clean but you can take the stuff unlocked in hardcore into your Zealot playthrough so you should do that before. Can someone finally confirm that hardcore mode is not actually "harder" but simply limiting saves?

It's harder than normal I think. But not harder than zealot. I think the enemies do as much damage as in hard mode, but you get the same amount of ammo as you would in zealot mode. Or something like that.

@MiniPato said:

@DeF said:

What I'd finally love to know is: is the hardcore mode basically "normal" mode with 3 saves or are the enemies actually harder to kill and/or you get hurt more? Because I think that's what Zealot mode is for, the super hard one. In hardcore you have to start clean but you can take the stuff unlocked in hardcore into your Zealot playthrough so you should do that before. Can someone finally confirm that hardcore mode is not actually "harder" but simply limiting saves?

It's harder than normal I think. But not harder than zealot. I think the enemies do as much damage as in hard mode, but you get the same amount of ammo as you would in zealot mode. Or something like that.

Nah I'm pretty sure it's the hardest.

Also I gave up on that stuff (on PC) at some point. Though I've seen a video walkthrough on YouTube where one guy just goes through as if it's the biggest cakewalk. Perhaps it was console gameplay and aim assistant is just that good - or he's just that good :<

@NaDannMaGoGo said:

@MiniPato said:

@DeF said:

What I'd finally love to know is: is the hardcore mode basically "normal" mode with 3 saves or are the enemies actually harder to kill and/or you get hurt more? Because I think that's what Zealot mode is for, the super hard one. In hardcore you have to start clean but you can take the stuff unlocked in hardcore into your Zealot playthrough so you should do that before. Can someone finally confirm that hardcore mode is not actually "harder" but simply limiting saves?

It's harder than normal I think. But not harder than zealot. I think the enemies do as much damage as in hard mode, but you get the same amount of ammo as you would in zealot mode. Or something like that.

Nah I'm pretty sure it's the hardest.

Also I gave up on that stuff (on PC) at some point. Though I've seen a video walkthrough on YouTube where one guy just goes through as if it's the biggest cakewalk. Perhaps it was console gameplay and aim assistant is just that good - or he's just that good :<

I highly doubt that it's the hardest in terms of enemy damage intake and output 'cause otherwise it would be pointless for that mode to unlock the best weapon.

@DeF said:

@NaDannMaGoGo said:

@MiniPato said:

@DeF said:

What I'd finally love to know is: is the hardcore mode basically "normal" mode with 3 saves or are the enemies actually harder to kill and/or you get hurt more? Because I think that's what Zealot mode is for, the super hard one. In hardcore you have to start clean but you can take the stuff unlocked in hardcore into your Zealot playthrough so you should do that before. Can someone finally confirm that hardcore mode is not actually "harder" but simply limiting saves?

It's harder than normal I think. But not harder than zealot. I think the enemies do as much damage as in hard mode, but you get the same amount of ammo as you would in zealot mode. Or something like that.

Nah I'm pretty sure it's the hardest.

Also I gave up on that stuff (on PC) at some point. Though I've seen a video walkthrough on YouTube where one guy just goes through as if it's the biggest cakewalk. Perhaps it was console gameplay and aim assistant is just that good - or he's just that good :<

I highly doubt that it's the hardest in terms of enemy damage intake and output 'cause otherwise it would be pointless for that mode to unlock the best weapon.

Yeah, it's Survivalist mode, the one between Normal and Zealot. It's the difficulty I started on with Dead Space 2 to begin with, so heading back in I figured it would be relatively easy. The pressure of always knowing that I have just 3 saves really got to me, though... made so many careless mistakes. I even died against the end boss... and I had never died against the end boss! Not even on Zealot. But the psychological effect wore me down. That's where the true difficulty lay for me.