When you play a good non-live serviceorMMO game, you usually go through the campaign or story, see the credits, and move on. Truly exceptional games beg another playthrough, and likely, you’ll comply because you’re not quite ready to let go.
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It could be argued then, that the best games are ready for you to come back, giving you the same experience, but tweaked just enough to still challenge you and keep things fresh. This goes beyond a simple difficulty increase, changing things up in such a way that things might look familiar, but provide a new enough experience to be exciting. These are Challenge Modes, and these games have some of the best.
8Heaven Or Hell - Devil May Cry Series
TheDevil May Cryseries is known for its off-the-wall stylish sensibilities and for being both difficult and fair. To exceed most DMC games, you have to be able to think on your feet and come up with some creative combo strings to get the most out of your weaponry. If you feel like you’ve mastered the game normally, then consider playing Heaven or Hell mode, introduced in Devil May Cry 3.
It flips the script, making all enemies, and you, a one-shot kill. As the name implies, it could be easy or difficult, depending on how good you are at not getting hit. Of course, if you’re a masochist or a master, you could play Hell and Hell, which increases the difficulty and makes only you a one-shot kill.
7Ironman Mode - XCom Series
So, you’ve saved the Earth from an alien invasion, led squads of elite soldiers to victory as one of the most brilliant military and logistical minds humanity has ever produced. What’s left to do after that?
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Well, do it again, but in Ironman mode. Ironman mode restricts you to one save file, so every decision you make, every win you get, and every loss you suffer are that much more meaningful, since there are no do-overs. While this option is available right off the bat, you should probably do a regular run first, so you’re at least a little prepared for what’s to come. Also, you can confidently skip tutorials after your second (or more) go around for a more cinematic experience.
6Time Trials - Mirror’s Edge
Time Trials bringsMirror’s Edgedown to its purest essence, essentially making it a cross between a platformer and a racing game. While the story is fine, there’s something liberating about focusing only on speed and movement.
The beauty of Time Trials is that in addition to rewarding speedy and efficient play, it also rewards creativity. If you take the same telegraphed routes you took in the story mode, even without any hesitation or stalling, your time might only warrant a one out of three star rating. If you want all three of those stars, you’ll have to forge your own routes and use your abilities to surmount obstacles in ways you haven’t before to shave seconds or even minutes from your time.
5FPS Update - Maid Of Sker
Maid of Sker is ahorror gamein the vein of theAmnesiaseries, where you avoid enemies because if they find you, your only options are to run, hide, or get mauled to death. It’s a tense, atmospheric experience. Sometime after its launch, the game received a free update that added the FPS Challenge Modes.
These modes transform the game from survival horror to action horror. Depending on the mode you play, you’re given certain weapons like a felling axe, shotgun, or bolt-action rifle. To balance things out, new and tougher enemies are introduced, as well as limits to how many times you can die.
4Hell Mode - Hades
Hadesis an award-winning video game for, among other reasons, how well it balances difficulty and progression. You fight tooth and nail to get out of the titular realm, but losing never really feels too bad because of what waits for you at home– more story, character interactions, and powerups.
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However, if you find traipsing through the Underworld to be a bit underwhelming, consider playing on Hell Mode. In addition to starting you off with the Pact of Punishment immediately, it gives you one rank each of five nasty modifiers that you can’t change out. One of them, Personal Liability, is exclusive to Hell Mode and removes the grace period of invincibility after you get hit.
3Survivors Modes - Resident Evil 2 Remake
Once you’ve beatenResident Evil 2 Remake, you might even figure yourself a master at the game. Well, you may put that to the test by playing the various Survivors modes. These modes take the story away from Leon and Claire, putting you in the shoes of characters you only see briefly or were only mentioned. You have to run a gauntlet with limited resources, testing how well you know the mechanics of the game and utilize them to their fullest to stay alive.
4th Survivor casts you as the legendary mercenary HUNK, while Ghost Survivors has you controlling characters who died in the main story in What-If scenarios. For even more difficulty and a surreal twist, there’s Tofu Survivors, which is the same map as 4th Survivor, but you’re man-sized blocks of Tofu.
2Challenge Dungeons - Dungeons Of Aether
Challenge Dungeons are separate from Story Mode for a very good reason: they’re a different enough experience that they’re essentially two different games. You’lldefinitely want to beat Story Mode firstbecause the Challenge Dungeons will throw you into the thick of it without so much as a tutorial.
However, if you’ve gotten your bearings in Story Mode, the Challenge Dungeons are a worthy adversary, giving the game a roguelike quality that will test your knowledge of your characters’ mechanics as well as your luck. Even if you think you’re ready for it, you can get murked pretty early in a run, but patience and mastery are well worth it. If you get good enough at the game, you might even end up high on the leaderboard!
1Hardcore Mode - Fallout New Vegas
If you want arguably the most authentic tour of the Mojave Wastes, you have to playFallout New Vegaswith Hardcore Mode enabled. With this, the game becomes something else entirely, adding survival and sim elements into the mix. To stay alive, you need to eat, sleep, and drink water. Ammo has weight, and medicines work at a more realistic pace, gradually healing you or removing rads rather than instantly.
You need specialist equipment to restore broken limbs. Companions can die permanently. With these factors in mind, you’ll need to pick and choose what you take with you, and as such, you won’t be able to be the one-man army that you would be in a normal playthrough. But if you can give up that power fantasy, you get the satisfaction of conquering the Mojave as a (relatively) normal human being.
