I always considered myself a good Warzone 2100 player. I’m playing this game since PSX era. Even today I occasionally participate in online battles on high oil maps. And I was very pleased when years ago, when the game went open source the developers upped the difficulty of the hard mode.
In the initial release by Pumpkin Studios high difficulty didn’t feel difficult at all. We have an article about this version.
Insane difficulty appeared in Warzone 2100 around 2017 but got heavily re-balanced around 2021. That’s when I finally tried it and found out that now this is the real hardcore. That’s probably how game should have felt if developers didn’t care about casual players. Or any other new players.
Can any player beat it? I doubt. I personally can’t beat it.
I can beat AI on skirmish maps. When it’s a fair play. But the point is – insane difficulty is completely unfair.
Take for example mission 8 from the first campaign. That’s where I stuck this time during my preparation for this article.
Enemy’s transport arrives at the same frequency as yours with mini-pod rockets that annihilate your units from the distance. You’re forced to use heavy tanks but that’s barely enough to survive, because enemy’s tanks are heavier with heavier bodies.
In addition enemy has two factories and ultimately just much larger army than yours. Even rushing from the high ground on the right side of the mountain doesn’t work because enemy has a lot of trucks to fix buildings you’re trying to destroy. And you have not enough time out there to destroy both trucks and factories.
Overall you need to have higher level of control over your units than in the hard mode. In hard mode it’s usually enough to have just one army. But here you’re forced to split them.
Because insane difficulty introduces new spawn points and enemies now will occasionally attack you from the sides and your back.
Since artillery is mandatory in insane mode – you’re forced to save/load a lot just to predict enemy moves.
Beating insane difficulty is already true mastery. But what would even more insane is to beat the game without saves during missions.