Published , by Chris Jarrard
Published , by Chris Jarrard
Players who found the PvE modes in Insurgency: Sandstorm a bit too easy will have a lot to like from an upcoming title update in the works from developers World Interactive. Inspired by community-driven trends across the game’s player-operated servers, the development team is now preparing a new co-op mode known as Harcore Checkpoint.
In a new blog post on the game’s official site, Lead Designer Michael Tsarouhas explains the motivation behind the creation of this all-new co-op mode for Sandstorm fans that want to up the ante on difficulty. The new Harcore Checkpoint mode offers co-op teams a tougher challenge by enhancing enemy A.I., restricting equipment availability, and movement speed. The experience is designed to force players to proceed through the levels more carefully and to think about their actions before committing to them.
The development team noticed a trend among the most hardcore Insurgency: Sandstorm players. They were joining up on modified community servers that increased difficulty and tweaked parameters in a way that made the game more panic-inducing than it already was in its vanilla state. Following February’s release of the more arcade-like Team Deathmatch mode, the folks at New World Interactive wanted to have a mode catered to the audience who preferred the slower, more deliberate experiences offered in Arma or Escape From Tarkov.
Unlike the vanilla PvE modes, Hardcore Checkpoint has a limit of eight players per squad and only allows one player per class. Upon death, members of the squad respawn with only a basic Mosin rifle, low-powered Makarov pistol, and a smoke grenade. If they want their specialized loadout back, it must come from a supply cache. Supply caches have been reduced to only three per level and players may only replenish at each a single time, forcing choices to be made about when to re-equip. Information on the HUD will be reduced and the process of identifying teammates with hud elements will be tougher. The team wants to encourage stronger teamwork and communication from squadmates.
Ultimately, the tension will be ramped up to nearly unbearable levels, but the rewards for completion will be much sweeter. Insurgency: Sandstorm owners can get a taste for the new mode starting May 20 on the Community Test Environment. Owners of the game can check their Steam library for an entry named “Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment” and install it for access to the patch testing period. The test will run until May 27, so get the client downloaded ahead of time to make sure you maximize your available time to test Hardcore Checkpoint.