I don’t generally enjoy hardcore “death penalties” in my games, I am more of a casual type of player. But I thought I’d try something fresh and started an HC character. Maybe it’s because I’m starting with no inventory, but I find I’m really enjoying and appreciating all of the systems (loot and crafting) more. In general the entire gameplay (at least for me in this first go around) has slowed down, and that’s actually a good thing. I suspect the PoE and D3 style of “rush rush rush through everything as fast as possible to get to the endgame so you can speed through more content” has kind of dominated the ARPG scene these days. I started replaying TQ on iOS the other day and I realized a slowed down environment definitely has its advantages.
Playing hardcore kind of brings this back, every decision I make feels a bit weightier. I find myself exploring more of each map to get more xp (which makes me miss finding some hidden cave in the middle of nowhere as in TQ/GD). Fights are more nerve-wracking even in the early chapters as I try to avoid death as my primary goal. I actually stop to look at items and affixes - and I’m upgrading/crafting even at the very beginning because I figure it’s more of a “use it or lose it” situation. But I also keep an eye out even more so for starter gear for other classes, as I presume I’m gonna die soon and want better starter gear the next go around. When I level or get a skill point I spend a lot more thought making sure it’s going to help my survival. LE does a good job making points feel important but in HC they feel even more special as you know it might be the difference between a one hit death or living to fight on.
I don’t have much of a point for this, other than to say I wish some of this “feel” could get baked into the core game without compromising other things. I’m not advocating for more death penalty or anything like that, but maybe just something to slow things down a bit to make people “stop and smell the roses.”
Agreed, both harccore AND solo game mode bring alot mroe “excitment” out of a game IMO.
Even just playing solo does make good gear drops early and especially crafting shards/runes of shattering drops more meaningfull.
Hardcore just brings alot more impact to the actul gameplay/combat.
LE is already a fairly slow-paced game, which i like and i agree that especially HC makes this even more prominent.
I do enjoy hardcore every now and then, but most o the time i playing some weird-ass hipster build, just for fun, so i usually don’t play HC on every char.
But solo is my choice for almost all chars, except when i want to build a char around a very specific unqiue/set, that is hard to come by, than i usually play normal.
Even a game like PoE, which is insanely “gotta-go-fast” slowly down considerably, when you play hardcore, especially early on.
I did not try yet, but I saw that if a hardcore character dies, they become a softcore character. This sounds very good to me, because it brings the challenge of hardcore but the penalty is not too hard if we die and we can chose to continue. If you die you can decide to stop, or you can continue to explore the build you were leveling.
I guess “real hardcore” fans may not like this, but I do.
I’ve found the same thing, which is why I pretty much play exclusively solo self-found now. When I had hundreds or thousands of crafting shards banked on a new character, with a pre-made starter gear set and a ton of uniques to pick from, it just made it feel like a formality to get to MoF, where it’s then a rush to lvl as fast as possible.
Playing SSF, my first pair of boots that roll with “of Celerity” I get SO excited because movement speed makes such a difference. First thing I always do is gamble some silver rings too. It just makes you really enjoy the whole process of “building up your arsenal”, whereas I’ve found that if I’m playing regularly, the whole arsenal is already there and the leveling just feels like, as I said, a formality.
I used to do the same thing in D2, playing purely “no trade, SSF and HC” just to create more flavor for myself. If you find yourself getting bored or not enjoying things as much, I strongly suggest trying out SSF or HC, it really lets you enjoy the little things again. Essentially every character is the “first time playing”, just with a bit more knowledge and understanding.
I am glad you are enjoying hardcore! I started to play SSF Hardcore in LE and I have been having such an enjoyable experience; definitely never had a good experience with it in PoE.
I been playing softcore for such a long time I forgot what it felt like to actually need to pay attention to what craft drops (verse having thousands in your stockpiles) and min/maxing crafting to make sure you have enough resists for the next zone or boss. Actually thinking about the passive points when putting them in the trees because you shouldn’t just go balls to the wall damage… it makes for really enjoyable experience. Switching from playing softcore to SSF HC really boosted my LE experience, I would recommend more players try it!
So I was cruising along after I posted, around lvl 21 (primalist) - and then BOOM I got killed by some stray void damage. I kind of cried for a second lol. I should have paid more attention to what killed me for future reference, sigh. I’m still not sure how it took me out so easily, I had chosen all sorts of defensive extras (less damage at low health, dodge, +health/vitality, block chance) to prevent something like this so early in the game.
When I exited, it listed my character as a “ghost” - I don’t know what that means but I just deleted it as I don’t need another SC character (I have at least one of every class sitting around already).
I was really tempted to go the SSF route, but that kind of defeats the fun for me of trying to save items for future characters, so I’m sticking with the shared stash. This makes it feel a little more “rogue-like” when I die, like I still am contributing to some form of “meta” game to give me a better chance the next time around.
SSF definitely is more fun after you got your fill of saving stuff for other toons in SC. The upside to SSF is it helps you focus your attention on one toon at a time to actually finish the game verse keep switching around because of cool item drops that are perfectly for another build :P.
