Frictional Games Adds Hard Mode to Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Did you know that Amnesia: The Dark Descent is still getting updates?

That’s right, the eight-year-old game with the five-year-old sequel that went on to completely reimagine and re-inspire horror gaming for an entire decade, is still getting updates. Specifically, this eight-year-old game is getting a brand new game inspired by SOMA’s easy mode, called Hard Mode, which, as you could probably guess, does not actually make the game easier.

When you activate Hard Mode at the start of a game, the game changes in a few profound ways. You get less oil and tinderboxes in each level, and if your sanity drops to zero, you just straight-up die. Speaking of dying, you’ll be doing a lot of it thanks to the fact that Monsters are faster, spot the players more easily, do more damage, stick around longer, and are no longer given musical cues to warn you when they’re nearby.

But toughest of all: there’s no autosaving. Instead, you have to rely on manual saving, which costs 4 tinderboxes. If you don’t have, or want to give up, your tinderboxes, one life could be all you have to lose.

And no, you can’t turn it off halfway through the game when you realize you’re not as masochistic as you first thought.

If you’re surprised by this sudden update, you’ll be happy to hear it doesn't come out of nowhere, as it’s being released with the Amnesia: Collection that’s coming out to the Xbox One. And no, despite being part of the collection, A Machine for Pigs does not have this optional mode, so you’ll have to make that game harder the normal way, by hitting your forehead with a hammer until you can’t see straight.

Oh, and one final thing: if you beat the game with this mode you’ll unlock a special achievement. So good luck, achievement hunters.