RetroSpace Difficulty Levels and Save System Explained
The developers promised “4 different difficulty levels” in their Steam FAQ, and the full-game menu shows them. Descriptions below come from the difficulty screen as read out in launch-week recordings (DeepSpaceMatt and ProRogueBear) and from developer forum replies.
The four difficulties
| Difficulty | What the menu and developers say | Achievement |
|---|---|---|
| Story mode | The easiest. A developer: combat is more forgiving, but “the easy mode won’t give you extra quest markers”. | Out of madness (finish on any difficulty) |
| Classic Horror | ”Recommended by the developers. Tough but fair opponents. Quick save option available, but dying overrides it. Fair prices. A normal amount of resources.” | Out of madness |
| 1999 mode | Tough: no quicksave, you respawn in a Helo Dome on death, prices are high. | Gotcha, Boomer! (30G) |
| Russ Kurtell | The toughest, labelled masochists only. A developer: a limited number of respawns, then game over and a restart from the beginning, plus less currency and ammo. | I’m MacReady! (100G) |
The names are jokes: “Russ Kurtell” and the “I’m MacReady!” achievement point to Kurt Russell’s character in The Thing, one of the films the developers cite as an influence.
Protected quicksaves
Added in the July demo update and kept in the full game. A toggle on the difficulty screen (and in the menu) stops your quicksave from being overwritten or deleted when you die, allowing free saving and loading “at any difficulty level”. The menu warns this may differ from the intended design. Without it, the developers’ design is that a death replaces your quicksave so the cloning system has weight.
Can you change difficulty mid-game?
The demo warned that the difficulty could not be changed after you pick it. A developer said they were “in talks about changing the difficulty settings and the save system to make them a little more flexible”, but we have not seen confirmation that the full game lets you switch. Pick carefully, and use protected quicksaves if you are unsure.
Which one should you pick?
- New to immersive sims or here for the story: Story mode.
- Want the experience the team balanced around: Classic Horror. ProRogueBear found ammo plentiful and stealth optional on it, while the duuro.net review still found pistol ammo scarce early on.
- Want stealth to matter and every bullet to count: 1999 mode.
- Chasing the 100G achievement and enjoy restarting: Russ Kurtell, ideally on a second run once you know the station.
Achievement routing for difficulty runs is in the achievement planner.
Thanks, janitor. Logged for the next shift.