Hardcore and Loving It

My brother-in-law is home on leave, so I've taken tonight to abduct him and play video games till the wee hours of the morning. Instead of our usual fare of Call of Duty and... more Call of Duty, we're switching it up and enjoying some more cooperative experiences.

He's really gotten in to Diablo 3 on Xbox, so we've been going through that. I had mentioned to him before that I want to try the hardcore mode, which would mean that if either of us died it would basically be game over. I recently tried hardcore mode in Minecraft, which was the first time I'd even played a game on hardcore mode.

Minecraft isn't really a game that's meant to be taken seriously, so I wanted to see what a true hardcore experience would be like. Diablo 3 is made for groups, and sitting next to my coop partner as we both sat on the edge of our seat wondering if our characters would die for good seemed to be a fun way to see how I really feel about hardcore.

I decided to play a barbarian so we would have a beefy character up in the front lines, while Brian chose a wizard who has a lot of ways to control enemies. We started the game and went through the small waves of enemies and things were going pretty well. Then we hit a point where several zombies attacked us at once, and that's when things got real.

Allow me to explain my playstyle. I tunnel vision when I play hectic games like Diablo, making me focus on one thing (say the creature I'm attacking) while ignoring everything else like acid being conjured beneath me or enemies shooting me from afar. For that reason I typically try to stay with ranged classes so that I don't have to pay attention to every single thing happening on screen in order to stay alive. Why I opted to be the barbarian and not the wizard is a mystery to both of us.

The zombies broke through a barricade and surrounded me. I was happily wailing on one at a time until I looked down at me health bar and saw that it was nearly depleted. Defeated enemies have a chance to drop health globes, but there were none on screen at the time. I forgot that I have health potions, so I just sat there helplessly as I realized that I wasn't going to make it out of the introductory town on hardcore.

Then suddenly my health bar leapt to full and a beam of light enveloped my character. We had killed one last zombie and that was enough for my character to level up. I couldn't believe how something so simple could have ended my session right there, and just like Minecraft it was totally exhilarating!

I don't think my heart is strong enough to handle hardcore for every game, but it is definitely a mode I enjoy. Me, the guy who doesn't play games on hard because I just want to enjoy the game, is coming around to the idea of a character being erased from my hard drive simply because I made a mistake against a boss or group of enemies.

One of these days I really want to try Fallout 3 on hardcore. Going through post-apocalyptic wasteland, scavenging for food and water, trying to find a safe place to sleep... all while knowing that a lone sniper or a surprise mutant could end my entire game is oddly appealing.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a world depending upon me and a wizard staying alive.


See you tomorrow!

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