Get Tough, Play Hard: Why Diablo III’s Hardcore mode is the best way to play the classic action RPG

In the first of our new PS Blog series looking at the best examples of harder difficulties in PlayStation games – and to celebrate the title’s The Rise of the Necromancer expansion release tomorrow – we talk to Blizzard about its superb PS4 dungeon crawler Diablo III.

Games in which players are rewarded for their time with incentives – be it in the form of skills, in-game currency, equipment or new areas to investigate – usually allow them to keep their loot and progression even in the event of their character meeting a sticky end.

Even those games that make players pay a cost for failure usually don’t strip them of everything; if you die you may pay a penalty, but your character doesn’t vanish altogether (see the Dark Souls games). Players may see XP, weapons and a certain amount of progression go up in smoke, but the avatar they’ve become invested in returns in some shape or form.

This isn’t the case with Diablo III’s Hardcore Mode, which features an aspect seldom seen anymore in modern gaming – perma-death. Players who attempt Diablo III on this difficulty setting do so in the knowledge that at some stage they may find themselves gazing in horror as demonic entities turn the character they’ve worked on for ages into paint, meaning it’s lost and gone forever.

The chances of this happening, incidentally, are pretty good. As one would expect, the enemies – and in particular the game’s bosses – are far more dangerous and deadly than they appear in easier modes. Then again, this is balanced out by the fact that loot drops are significantly more valuable.

Still, for those unfamiliar with Blizzard’s dungeon crawler, Hardcore Mode seems more than a little harsh. But for the Diablo faithful, this is the way the game is meant to be played.

“Hardcore Mode is a feature that has quite a significant legacy in the Diablo franchise,” says Senior Game Designer on Diablo III Joe Shely. “When we looked at things that fans enjoyed about Diablo II, we tried to translate that into Diablo III where it made sense.”

How Blizzard went about balancing the mode

Given the fact that up to four players can take part in a co-op game in Diablo III – using characters with vastly different and varied abilities and attacks – Hardcore Mode was an immense challenge for the developers to balance. Shely says, however, that while the process may have given the QA team nightmares, Hardcore Mode became something almost like a living breathing part of the game. Players, to an extent could set their own difficulty, and the mode continues to evolve to this day.

“There’s a fundamental push and pull between the elements of risk that come along with losing a character forever, and the strive to push your character as far as you can and engage in really challenging gameplay,” says Shely. “So because the player has a lot of control the game can be during any given session, it falls on us to integrate the mode by incentivizing the kind of play that makes Hardcore really fun.”

What Shely’s definition of ‘fun’ may not be the same as that held by many other players, but Diablo veterans know exactly what he means.

On Hardcore Mode, the tension in the game is ramped up considerably because players put their character’s neck on the line in nearly every single new encounter. Furthermore, the prospect of staring death in the face on a regular basis, plays up much more to the game’s gothic horror atmosphere – which on lesser difficulty settings seems almost quaint.

How Hardcore Mode’s risk versus reward gives players incentive to challenge themselves

“If the player wants to, they can play their character in an environment where they’re not in a whole lot of danger. That’s not really as exciting because yeah, in theory you could lose your character, but it doesn’t give the experience the sort of value you’d want,” says Shely.

In order to make the mode more fun, Shely says that the developers make every effort to tempt players into more and more risky situations. This goes beyond more valuable loot drops, to the introduction of a mechanic, which is much akin to throwing chum into the sea to tempt the sharks.

“We do things that ensure that players are taking risks that make the mode fun to play. On the surface, this may seem counter-intuitive, but we added a passive effect to each class that prevents you from dying for a few seconds if you drop to zero health,” says Shely.

“You’d think this would make the game easier – since you now have a safety net and that doesn’t seem to work with a perma-death mode – but what we found was that having something like that really increased the tension,” he says. “It really gives players incentive and opportunity to play Hardcore Mode in a really high risk/high reward environment, which is what it’s meant to do.”

The rise of the Necromancer

Diablo III’s Hardcore Mode is set to evolve even further tomorrow with the arrival of a brand new character class: the Necromancer.

The game has faced extensive internal testing across all of its difficulty modes; the balance needs to be addressed and evolved, not only due to the Necromancer’s new abilities and progression, but also due to how the character works as part of a group that can number up to four players across up to six other classes. And this is before developers start throwing new weapons and equipment into the mix.

“One of the strengths of Diablo III is how crazy we can get with the items that players can acquire,” says Shely. “We really push Legendary items and set bonuses to the most extreme, fantastical levels. We allow them to break a lot of rules.”

“So balancing that it is an immense challenge, which is why prior to release, we tested the Necromancer in a public environment where our players have opted in for this sort of test,” he says.

“That sort of broad spectrum testing allows us to iterate and refine and balance so that when the Necromancer is released, that he/she is as awesome as all the other classes, but isn’t basically a wrecking ball.”

Top tips for tackling Diablo III’s Hardcore Mode

Do:

• Always have an escape route – have a way out of danger. Don’t ever get boxed in.
• Focus on building your character in a way you’re comfortable playing it, but make sure you have defensive items and skills.
• Don’t be too afraid of jumping into dangerous situations.

Don’t:

• Jump into a game that is set for a higher level of character than one you currently have.
• Rush ahead. Proceed with caution especially in an area you’ve never been in before.
• Be a lone wolf. If you’re in a party keep your allies close, because becoming cut off from them could cost you dearly.

The post Get Tough, Play Hard: Why Diablo III’s Hardcore mode is the best way to play the classic action RPG appeared first on PlayStation.Blog.Europe.

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