Playing Insanity mode (Or its equivalent)?

[manythings]

Games always seem to have an insanity mode (Mass effect), God of war difficulty (God of War *Shock*) or "ultra face-raping hardifaction" setting (I'm told this is Ninja Gaiden).

In some games you get a new character (God of war, you get to play as Hercules), in the origi-... first but certainly not original Halo you got an extended ending sequence I've been told. Back in the day on the sega there was Rocket Knight and the only thing I remember was the higher the difficulty the more ostentatious and manly the Rocket Knight's Moustache became.

I was just wondering is it ever worth playing? Is it purely for bragging rights or is the awesome stuff to get? What games have you played it on and what did you get? Or were you wholly disappointed?

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Purely for bragging rights!

I completed every Halo game on Legendary for bragging rights, personal glory, to watch every Legendary ending and enjoy the full Halo story.

And I had a great amount of fun doing it!

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

I just beat Mass Effect 2's insanity mode a few weeks ago. The achievement is very well work the bragging rights, and it wasn't as hard as everyone said it would be. But that may just be because I had beaten the game 5 times prior to that playthrough. And I had the firepower DLC. And I'm awesome.

Probably going to do Mass Effect 1's next, since my main character is very close to completely invincible after 8 playthroughs. And her assault rifle literally can never overheat no matter what.

But yeah, it was a very good feeling to beat Mass Effect 2 on insanity. It was even better to see the achievement pop up, and to see all the achievements completed for the game.

 

[dlawnro]

I've played a few games on the hardest difficulty, but I usually give up on it. For me, I get more of a feeling of accomplishment in just getting through the game and seeing how the story goes or killing the final baddie, rather than being raped 50 million times and then finally succeeding. And since most of the time I start games on the hardest difficulty after just having beaten it on a lower difficulty or during a new-gameless dry spell, I usually give up when a new game comes along. The only game that I do remember making it all the way through was Halo 3 on Legendary...which gave like 6 extra seconds of cutscene and was not in any way worth it.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Bragging rights for some, but for games like Touhou with Lunatic level, I just find it fun to do (plus the patterns look the best, and you get all of the boss spell cards used against you).

 

[manythings]

I just beat Mass Effect 2's insanity mode a few weeks ago. The achievement is very well work the bragging rights, and it wasn't as hard as everyone said it would be. But that may just be because I had beaten the game 5 times prior to that playthrough. And I had the firepower DLC. And I'm awesome.

Probably going to do Mass Effect 1's next, since my main character is very close to completely invincible after 8 playthroughs. And her assault rifle literally can never overheat no matter what.

But yeah, it was a very good feeling to beat Mass Effect 2 on insanity. It was even better to see the achievement pop up, and to see all the achievements completed for the game.

Do you get a bonus or something? Or just the achievement? On a side note I went back to Mass effect 1 to do a couple more playthroughs so I can pick up story elements I missed out on (in case you don't have it you can get the Bringing down the Sky DLC for free on PC) and playing it really shows you how hard they worked to improve the mechanics. Just change as many of the controls as you can to the ME2 ones it saves on problems.

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Its pretty much just the ability to say 'yeah I beat that.'

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

I just beat Mass Effect 2's insanity mode a few weeks ago. The achievement is very well work the bragging rights, and it wasn't as hard as everyone said it would be. But that may just be because I had beaten the game 5 times prior to that playthrough. And I had the firepower DLC. And I'm awesome.

Probably going to do Mass Effect 1's next, since my main character is very close to completely invincible after 8 playthroughs. And her assault rifle literally can never overheat no matter what.

But yeah, it was a very good feeling to beat Mass Effect 2 on insanity. It was even better to see the achievement pop up, and to see all the achievements completed for the game.

Do you get a bonus or something? Or just the achievement?

Well, if you play on Hardcore or Insanity, you get a geth pulse rifle at the end of Tali's mission. It pretty much chews through shields, but does almost no damage against anything else. And you do get a bonus for completing the game once, but nothing for insanity, sadly.

 

[Mr Montmorency]

I always play the hardest difficulty in every game I play so that I get used to it as soon as possible. It works really damned well.

 

[silver wolf009]

For the ability to say, "heh, you dont have this and I do, Im better than you." Its worth beating any game to get that feeling.

 

[Harlemura]

I don't usually try the hardest difficulty anymore, unless there's only one more after normal's equivalent.
If I lose at a game too much, I just get bored. I don't have the will to hang in there and see it through, especially if all I get for it is a measly achievement or maybe a few extra seconds of cutscene I could go and look up on YouTube.

Besides, if everyone went for the hardest difficulty, there'd be no one to brag to.

 

[Kialee]

I play games to have fun, not punish myself with what's probably already a decently challenging game (going by normal difficulty, assuming there are two options beyond such.)
If you like to beat that sort of mode, more power to you. Unless I'm just really, really good at the game in question, I won't even touch it.