Disco Elysium Adds Punishing Hardcore Mode, Ultrawide Support

The text-heavy RPG sleeper hit of 2019 is back with a brand new — and much harder — game mode. Disco Elysium just saw a major update featuring ultrawide support and a hardcore option for those who just didn’t fail enough skill checks the first time around.

This new level of punishing difficulty forces players to plan out their Thought Cabinet path more carefully, use drugs more extensively, and be nice to a certain mailbox for healing. Here’s what’s changed in the hardcore option:

• Increased difficulty on all skill checks
• Less money to be found, and less money given for selling at the pawn shop
• Increased pharmaceutical prices
• Decreased pharmaceutical effectiveness
• Gain extra XP when finishing tasks

The Disco Elysium developers had this to say about adding even more insanity to your poor hungover detective’s very bad day:

Hardcore Mode isn’t for everyone. But if you’ve loved this strange story in this forgotten city, it’s a way to experience it from a new perspective — a Martinaise perspective.

For those of us here at ZA/UM, who’ve already spent hundreds of hours playing, this new mode been a wonderful chance to revisit the game in a fresh way. Good luck, detective.

Have you played through Disco Elysium’s normal difficulty level yet? Let us know what you thought of this bizarre existential RPG and then be sure to check out the trailer for hardcore mode!

In our official review of the game, we said, “Comparisons to Planescape: Torment (minus the combat) are an obvious starting point. But frankly, Disco Elysium is somehow even weirder. It really plays with the whole “updated my journal” mechanic in ways even Torment didn’t think to, creating a consistently surprising and humorous experience.”

Disco Elysium is out now on PC. It is slated to release on PS4 and Xbox One sometime in 2020. Keep it tuned to GameSkinny for more on Disco Elysium as it breaks.