10 Video Games You Should Play On Hard Mode

As horror games go, Alien: Isolation is seriously terrifying. For years, fans of the film franchise had hoped to live out Ripley’s badass journey against the Xenomorph in video game form, and then Alien: Isolation made many of us instantly take it back, because hiding in a space-station vent while the perfect killing machine stalks you is really, really stressful, actually.

Of course, this anxiety-inducing horror is exactly the thrill many players love, so why not increase the stakes and make the experience as realistic as possible? Isolation’s ‘Nightmare’ mode increases the fear factor by sending you out into the game world minus the HUD, the map, and providing both far fewer supplies and significantly less health.

It also turns the already-intelligent enemy AI up to eleven, and provides you with a broken tracker for good measure. Good luck keeping an eye on that alien now!

While not a specific mode, per se, the console versions of the game also pack an extra feature that will have you quite literally holding your breath. With Xbox Kinect or Playstation Camera features enabled, the Xenomorph can literally hear the sounds you, the player, make in real life through your mic. And use them to find you. Now that’s realism.