BioShock Infinite's "1999 Mode" Promises to Bring the Pain

[WMDogma]

BioShock Infinite's "1999 Mode" Promises to Bring the Pain

BioShock Infinite promises to give players a harsher, more demanding gameplay experience with a new difficult mode.

Born out of community feedback, Irrational Games has decided to introduce a special difficulty mode for its upcoming FPS/RPG BioShock Infinite. Titled "1999 Mode", this setting will offer players a much more demanding experience than the usual "hard mode" found in the series' previous titles. The choices players make will have "irreversible implications," requiring careful planning and resource management.

"If your choices guide you down a path not suited to your play style, you will suffer for it," Irrational's Community Manager Eduardo Vasconcellos explained. The idea for the feature came from a recent survey, in which roughly 57% of participants said that being forced to make permanent decisions would be a significant improvement to the game.

"In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions," Irrational's Creative Director Ken Levine added. "In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specialisations, and focus on them.

"There are game saves, and you're gonna f***ing need them."

Levine didn't offer any explanation as to why the new setting is called "1999 Mode", though if I were to hazard a guess, it may be a reference to an earlier Irrational Games title, System Shock 2. Creative Director Ken Levine served as lead writer and designer for the sci-fi action RPG, which was lauded for its story, sound design, and most importantly its challenging gameplay, which often required players to make tough choices in the development of their character.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-19-fan-feedback-prompts-bioshock-infinite-1999-mode]


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[ShaneGunWolf]

BioShock was great. BioShock 2 was great. BioShock Infinite is going to blow our minds (hopefully).

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

OMG! YOU CAN ACTUALLY FAIL IN A GAME! HOW REVOLOUTIONARY!

It frightens me that this is worthy of a press announcement given that Diablo and others have been doing this for decades. What next? The Little Sister is in another Castle?

 

[VladG]

Sweet. I loved the hardcore mode in New Vegas. I'm probably going to start the game like this.

 

[VladG]

OMG! YOU CAN ACTUALLY FAIL IN A GAME! HOW REVOLOUTIONARY!

It frightens me that this is worthy of a press announcement given that Diablo and others have been doing this for decades. What next? The Little Sister is in another Castle?

Be sarcastic all you like, but given the current gaming trend, it's a nice move on their part.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

OMG! YOU CAN ACTUALLY FAIL IN A GAME! HOW REVOLOUTIONARY!

It frightens me that this is worthy of a press announcement given that Diablo and others have been doing this for decades. What next? The Little Sister is in another Castle?

Be sarcastic all you like, but given the current gaming trend, it's a nice move on their part.

Nice, I'll agree with. Pressworthy? No more so than the terrible debacle of "DON'T LOOK AT HER BREASTS!" from last week.

 

[Callate]

"The sky was all purple, there were people runnin' everywhere
Try to run from my destruction? You know I didn't even care..."

 

[Ragsnstitches]

OMG! YOU CAN ACTUALLY FAIL IN A GAME! HOW REVOLUTIONARY!

I think it's more like:
OMG! YOU CAN PERMANENTLY FUCK YOURSELF OVER IN A GAME! HOW REVOLUTIONARY!

Unless they learned nothing from System Shock 2's lacklustre PSI tiers and abilites, then I doubt you can screw yourself over too much. Pick a power you don't like? Maybe, but back yourself into a corner? Not likely.

This kind of article demonstrates how much pandering towards the casual market has affected the industry, where a gameover screen makes headlines.

At least its something. As much as I enjoy the latest games, I've always felt I wasn't the demographic meant for them. Though this addition to infinite likely won't be the glorious return to form that some us would like, at least it's start. FPSs thus far are most guilty of this degradation in difficulty.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Hmm, this sounds intriguing. I can't wait for the game to come out.

And be out long enough for the price to drop. *points at self* Poor college student here, just saying.

 

[Beautiful End]

I was just thinking of something like that when I was playing Uncharted yesterday.

As I was strolling down the empty isles of Best Buy, I noticed an Uncharted 3 demo. Now, I haven't played that game, so I hesitatingly approached it. I observed as Drake got the living heck punched out of him (Apparently whoever was playing before me left in the middle of a brawl) and Drake died an infinite amount of times. Then the game would nicely plot Drake back where he died, only for the same thug to come back and tenderize him silly over and over again.
And it made me realize something!

There is no game over!

And that's something that we got used to it nowadays. No game over screen, just a respawn from a previous location or restart of a mission or something like that. The few games that do punish you and psuh you back to the main screen (If there are still any) are described as "OMFG SO HARD! RAGE QUIT!".

It would be nice to see Bioshock Infinite pull this trick from the books of old school games like Mega Man and even Mario, where if you died, you have to start from the beginning. You can always jump forward, yes (Passwords, cheats. In Bioshock's case, save files), but you'll pop back in with less ammo or something. I dunno, that's just me.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Ok, this is now firmly in the pre-order zone.

Wow my first game purchase for 2012. (Steam sales don't count)

 

[Electric Alpaca]

BioShock: Infinite is becoming a purchase for me.

BioShock was a great game, BioShock 2 I skipped completely, with it from the outside reeking of a story stretch and a general hamfisted play when multiplayer was announced.

My only crticism so far of Infinite is Levine's self importance taking over and complaining too much focus being paid to Elizabeth's Magna Cum Laudes. Any attention, no matter how received, is a good thing when building interest in a product.

 

[Von Dean]

This is great news,games are far better when you are tied in to the decisions you make plus it adds to the replayability

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I definitely want this game. I'll probably get my ass kicked by 1999 Mode, but my ass has been numbed to any kind of pain by gravity-defying giant cherries. And I know it's not the same thing - but I'm ready to finally play something that's hard...

And then I'll probably give up and play through it on "coward" mode instead. ...Now if only the original Bioshock actually worked on my computer and I might be able to turn the difficulty back up.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

Hells yeah I love my games ridiculously hard (except super meat boy.....fuck super meat boy)This is now a must for my 2012.

 

[JohnDoey]

How is this going to work with the bioshock games sub-par gameplay.