We wanted to go for something a bit different with Prison City’s difficulty settings! Take a look at what to expect when playing on each of the three preset difficulties:
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Easy[/h3]
Playing on “Easy” difficulty gives players a vastly toned down experience. “Infinite Lives” relieves any stress of thinking about how many Rests you have left. “Lenient Hazards” causes droppable platforms to take longer to fall, and it adds some platforms over pits in specific levels.
In addition, you’ll always have a ton of health to help you push through levels, ideally in one run, and Hal’s chakram will deal even more damage to enemies.
Starting Health and Weapon Energy on Easy difficulty:
Falling into pits won’t penalize you with a Rest, and you can respawn back to a point close to that pit! Enemies will behave less aggressively and make themselves all the more vulnerable to eliminate. And, finally, you’ll find even more power-ups (like health and extra lives) than you normally would to help you complete levels in a single run.
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Modern[/h3]
Replacing the typical “Normal” or “Medium” difficulties is the “Modern” selection. In this difficulty, you start off with a limit of 5 lives. Enemies will charge after you, shoot more projectiles, and they will be constantly alert to Hal’s presence when he’s up close. In addition, you’ll still be able to find health power-ups and extra lives throughout the levels, but at a more sporadic pace.
Also, you'll have noticeably less starting health and weapon energy:
On Modern and Easy difficulty, health and weapon upgrade power-ups are easily designated by red “H” (for health) or purple “U” (weapon upgrade) blocks accordingly. And you can also “automatically pick up” health and weapon upgrades by just throwing your chakram at those items after you break their respective boxes!
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Classic[/h3]
Classic difficulty is meant to serve as the ultimate homage to games from the early 90s. We wanted to give players something akin to that authentically retro gameplay style, where you must remain alert to everything (and everyone) around you at all times and pay attention to how you play.
To begin with, your base health and energy levels on "Classic" will remain unchanged from how they are on "Modern":
That said, you’ll start with 3 Rests, so dying will become very costly during playthroughs. You’ll deal even less damage overall to enemies, and your Weapon Energy will drain faster the more you spam the “Attack” button.
An example of this faster energy drain is depicted below:
If you choose to engage normal enemies scattered throughout each level, be prepared to face formidable resistance!
Also, remember that tip about paying attention to how you play? You’ll find even less health power-ups and extra lives during your runs, so do try to watch where you step, where you launch your chakram, and how you choose to fight!
While health and weapon upgrade items are clearly labeled on Modern and Easy difficulties as red “H” and purple “U” boxes, accordingly, there are no such labels present when playing on Classic. That means, for those who happen to finish the game on Modern or Easy, you’ll have to remember where those permanent health and weapon upgrade boxes were!
And for anyone wondering if helpful items like health and weapon upgrades will “magnetically” or “automatically” go to Hal after he throws his chakram at them, like in Easy or Modern, think again! You’ll have to pick up ALL upgrades the old-fashioned way: by walking up to them or making sure they land at the right angle, duh!
We commend anyone brave enough to take start their first Prison City playthrough on Classic difficulty! May you use your chakram well, and save as many Rests as you can!
That’s all for now! We’ll have more updates to share as we get closer to Prison City’s launch!
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