This Game’s Hardest Difficulty Takes Away Your Playstyle
Grimcader
83,523 views
I picked the hardest difficulty in Gloomwood, and the sky turned red. Then the enemies started breaking down the doors I was hiding behind, and I found out I no longer had a playstyle at all.
Gloomwood looks like a stealth game and it isn't one. It is an immersive sim that has been in Early Access for four years, and on its hardest setting it refuses to let you commit to anything. Stealth runs out, ammunition runs out, assassination stops working on armoured enemies, and saving the game costs a wax cylinder you might not be carrying. What is left is a bag with 24 squares in it, and a constant decision about which version of yourself you can afford to be right now.
Strange games. Bad decisions. Stories worth surviving.
00:00 The sky is red
00:20 What Gloomwood actually is
01:18 Stealth, then no ammo, then armour
02:18 A door is not cover
02:57 The barbershop I never had to sneak into
04:39 Options instead of ammunition
06:51 The doctor
08:29 One save, one cylinder
09:39 The tower, and the cheese behind a waterfall
11:07 It wasn't luck
12:04 You don't have a playstyle
Gloomwood on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/11...
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#gloomwood #immersivesim #indiehorror #stealthgame #hardestdifficulty
20 Comments
I shot one with the flare gun's fire dart to kill him because I was well hidden and it being on the lookout pissed me off.
He goes up in flames, and the other hunters rush to see what's the noise about.
I DID NOT KNOW enemies on fire could set other enemies on fire through proximity.
I just stared in silence, mouth open, as five or six hunters resembling human torches ran around screaming as they burned, bumping into each other, setting things and other foes aflame.
It lasted for a few minutes total until everything was dead, and it took me a few seconds longer for me to recover from the DEVASTATION a single fire shell brough.
Amazing.
This Game’s Hardest Difficulty Takes Away Your Playstyle
Grimcader
83,523 views
I picked the hardest difficulty in Gloomwood, and the sky turned red. Then the enemies started breaking down the doors I was hiding behind, and I found out I no longer had a playstyle at all.
Gloomwood looks like a stealth game and it isn't one. It is an immersive sim that has been in Early Access for four years, and on its hardest setting it refuses to let you commit to anything. Stealth runs out, ammunition runs out, assassination stops working on armoured enemies, and saving the game costs a wax cylinder you might not be carrying. What is left is a bag with 24 squares in it, and a constant decision about which version of yourself you can afford to be right now.
Strange games. Bad decisions. Stories worth surviving.
00:00 The sky is red
00:20 What Gloomwood actually is
01:18 Stealth, then no ammo, then armour
02:18 A door is not cover
02:57 The barbershop I never had to sneak into
04:39 Options instead of ammunition
06:51 The doctor
08:29 One save, one cylinder
09:39 The tower, and the cheese behind a waterfall
11:07 It wasn't luck
12:04 You don't have a playstyle
Gloomwood on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/11...
More essays like this: Game Essays
#gloomwood #immersivesim #indiehorror #stealthgame #hardestdifficulty
We do plan to add a custom difficulty menu for people who wish to have wax cylinders on lower difficulties (or harder enemies without the saving mechanics), but the Blood Moon preset is my personal favorite way to play for the reasons you outlined.